After several weeks in Hawaii, a South Carolina listener returned curious about the terms aloha and aloha spirit. Founded on ideas of mutual respect among humans and in harmony with nature, the concept of the “Aloha spirit” is so fundamental to Hawaii that its definition is written into the state’s legal statutes. Although it’s often suggested that the word aloha combines the Hawaiian words for “face” and “breath,” that’s a case of folk etymology. Aloha shares a linguistic root with words in several other Polynesian languages, where the words mean love, affection, or pity. The Hebrew greeting shalom and Arabic salam convey some of the same notion of harmonious, mutual respect. This is part of a complete episode.
The English language has a variety of expressions referring to the excretion of moisture from the skin due to heat. There’s the verb perspire and the Yiddish borrowing schvitz. If you perspire profusely, you may sweat buckets, or be sweating like a...
A Havertown, Pennsylvania, listener wonders why her mother used to answer queries about how she was doing with phrase that sounded like either fair to midland or fair to middling. Middling has long meant “just OK” or “right in the middle,” and the...
Subscribe to the fantastic A Way with Words newsletter! Martha and Grant send occasional messages with language headlines, event announcements, linguistic tidbits, and episode reminders. It’s a great way to stay in touch with what’s happening with the show.
