Do you answer the phone with a word or phrase that’s a little out of the ordinary? Readers of our email newsletter had some surprising answers to that question. One says that just for fun, he likes to answer with a cheery Front desk! A reader in Ithaca, New York, reports her grandfather used to pick up a ringing phone and say Commence! And a Salisbury, North Carolina, woman was known for picking up the phone and saying All right! This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Ways of Answering the Phone”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. When you answer the phone, do you have a favorite word or phrase
That’s a little bit out of the ordinary, or maybe you know somebody who does that?
We asked readers of our email newsletter that question, and they had some surprising responses.
We heard from Matt on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts,
Who told us that when he picks up the phone, he says, front desk.
He says he does that in an attempt to stop the caller’s brain, if only for a nanosecond, and adds, it often works.
We heard from Anne Lynn in Ithaca, New York, who wrote that her grandfather, who was born in the late 1800s and lived in Ontario, Canada, used to pick up the phone and say, commence.
Just commence.
Yeah. And then for Marlene Dryden, this question brought back memories of her great aunt Eula McQuade of Salisbury, North Carolina.
She says, Miss Eula would hear her phone ring from a little alcove in the wall of her foyer, and she’d slowly walk over there, pick it up calmly and holler, all right, all right.
That’s fantastic.
Isn’t that great?
She says that beautiful nearly Tidewater accent and the smell of cornbread are the most vivid memories I have of her.
And, I mean, I wonder if that’s a vestige of, you know, when you had operators plugging in the cords.
Right, right, when you did need to make sure that the line was okay before you began your conversation.
We would love to hear more about how you answer the phone.
What do you say?
Is it funny?
Is it old-fashioned?
Is it something cool or weird?
Email words@waywordradio.org.
And the lines are open to talk about anything related to language.
You can talk to us on Twitter, too, @wayword.
