The Hawaiian word aloha is both a greeting and a goodbye, as well as a profound acknowledgement of the oneness with all living things. Plus, what’s a lemur ball? A new book will leave you marveling over the mysteries of lemurs, wombats, and other creatures. And: If you’re exhausted after a long day, and you get tired of saying you’re tired, you can always say you’re forswunk. Also, sweating buckets, sudar como un pollo, a game featuring imaginary national anthems, fair to middling, sirop de poteau, se cree la mamá de Tarzán, dilly-dally, cackermander, jassum, swink, skunked, and a five-year-old’s hilarious misunderstanding.
This episode first aired October 18, 2025.
Sweating Carrots Like an Otter
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 sinner in church. The Spanish idiom sudar como un pollo means “to sweat like a chicken,” a reference to juices exuding from a bird as it roasts. One Dutch idiom translates as “sweating like an otter,” and another as “sweating little carrots,” possibly because the Dutch word for “little carrots,” peentjes, sounds a lot like Dutch for “pints.”
Fair to Middling, Like Decent Livestock
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 expression fair to middling is among the categories used to grade agricultural products such as cotton, grain, and livestock depending on their quality. We also talked about this expression here and here.
Aloha and Aloha Spirit
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.
Anthems for Non-Existent Nations Word Game
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s latest side gig is writing anthems for nations that exist only in his imagi-Nation. For example, what “nation” might celebrate itself with the following stanza? In mathematics, it’s an arrangement of elements into various groups, without regard to their order within the group. Or in chess, it’s a relatively long sequence of moves. Any guesses?
Pole Syrup, Straight from Bell Canada
Dale from Huntsville, Alabama, recalls a colleague in Québec dissing imitation maple syrup as lamppost syrup. Indeed, the phrase sirop de poteau, or “pole syrup,” is a disdainful reference used by French-speaking Canadians referring to the weak, artificial version of the real thing, suggesting that the so-called syrup was obtained by tapping a telephone pole, not a living, growing tree.
You’re the Last Coke in the Desert
In Spanish, someone who’s conceited may be described as considering themselves la ultima Coca-Cola del desierto or “the last Coca-Cola in the desert.” Similar Spanish phrases are rendered in English as “the last beer in the stadium” or “the last suck of the mango.” And someone really egotistical can be described with se cree la mamá de Tarzán, or “she thinks she’s Tarzan’s mom.”
Dilly-Dally, Dalliance
Dilly-dally comes from Anglo-French dalier, which means “to chat” or “act playfully,” making it a linguistic relative of dally, “to trifle with” or “to spend time frivolously,” and dalliance, a “frivolous act.”
Is It Bigger Than a Breadbox?
Don from San Mateo, Florida, recalls that when he asked his mother what he was getting for Christmas, she’d reply with: I got you a fastareus. It’s bigger than a breadbox and smaller than an elephant. His father also used fastareus as a placeholder word like doohickey or thingamajig. The word may be related to the Irish words fooster, foostering, and foosterins, all of which have to do with idling about. The expression bigger than a breadbox has a much clearer origin. The idea first popped on national television on January 18, 1953, spoken by panelist Steve Allen on the game show “What’s My Line?”
The Republic of Unicornia
Martha shares a funny story about her five-year-old great-niece, who misunderstood the name of her adopted home state, California. Then again, Unicornia does have a nice ring to it.
Let’s Dress Up in Fur and Tails for the Lemur Ball
A lemur ball isn’t a formal affair for cute little primates. Lemurs often cuddle adorably in a furry, black and white pile by that name. Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures (Bookshop|Amazon) is a lyrical new collection of essays by Katherine Rundell. Each essay details what she finds fascinating about a particular species, including such animals as raccoons, pangolins, hedgehogs, wombats, narwhals, and yes, lemurs. The book is an invitation to both wonder at the beauty and complexity of the living world, as well as to recognize its fragility.
Jassum, that Vigor and Vital Force
A North Carolina listener is curious about his meemaw’s use of a term meaning “food” that he heard as either jasmine or jassum. A dialectal term with various spellings that include jassum, jasum, and jazm can mean “gravy,” “sauce,” or even “juice from a rotten apple.” It may stem from an older root that suggests energy, vigor, or vital force and may in fact be related to the word jazz.
Cackemander
In some British dialects, the word cackemander means “friend.”
Exhausted, Knackered, Forswunk, and Other Words for Plum Tuckered Out
Jeff in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is looking for a specific word for “exhaustion after extreme physical activity, such as running a marathon.” Synonyms for exhausted include knackered and forswunk, from swink, meaning “to toil” or “to work hard.” In extreme sports, people use the term bonking to mean “being depleted,” or metaphorically hitting the wall. There’s also dog-tired, plum tired, running on fumes, and out of gas. In French, the expression coup de pompe is aviators’ slang for “the sudden drop passengers feel during turbulence” and can refer to such sudden depletion.
Being Skunked in Cribbage Is Not Much Like Being Skunked by the Animal
Jiffy from Atlanta, Georgia, relates a story about a smelly road trip cooped up with her dog Moxie, who’s been sprayed the night before by a skunk. In recounting the story, she realized she hadn’t used the word skunked since she played cribbage with her dad years earlier. To be skunked or to get skunked in cribbage and other games and sports refers to “being defeated by a large margin,” and often ending the game prematurely because the victory is already decisive. Similarly, lexicographer Bryan Garner applies the participial adjective skunked to words such as hopefully and decimate, with meanings that are so unclear or controversial that they’re best avoided altogether.
This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.
Book Mentioned in the Episode
| Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures by Katherine Rundell (Bookshop|Amazon) |
Music Used in the Episode
| Title | Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubbing In The Front Yard | Bunny Lee | Dubbing In The Front Yard | Pressure Sounds |
| Easter Parade | Jimmy McGriff | Step 1 | Solid State Records |
| I Want’A Do Something Freaky To You | Leon Haywood | I Want’A Do Something Freaky To You 45 | 20th Century Records |
| Conspiracy On Neptune | Prince Jammy | Prince Jammy Destroys The Invaders… | Greensleeves Records |
| Step 1 | Jimmy McGriff | Step 1 | Solid State Records |
| Drum Song Dub | Scientist | Scientific Dub | Clocktower Records |
| The Other Side | Sure Fire Soul Ensemble | Step Down | Colemine Records |
