Big Dog (episode #1610)

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. Here is a wonderful word that’s making the rounds in Japan.

It’s taipa, T-A-I-P-A.

And taipa refers to the level of satisfaction gained compared with the time spent.

And like many Japanese neologisms, it’s a shortening of other words.

Taipa comes from Taimu Parfumansu, which is borrowed from the English time performance.

And taipa is particularly popular among younger folks, especially those born between 1995 and 2010.

If you want optimum taipa or time performance, you might watch a film or listen to a podcast at twice the normal speed.

Or you might look for recut versions of a movie that just show the major plot points or skip to the songs that you like in a playlist.

And Grant, I certainly seek out typo when I’m listening to audiobooks.

I often turn them a little bit faster than what they should be.

Oh, really?

Yeah, I used to do that.

And I started realizing it was affecting my day-to-day conversation with people where I felt everyone was dragging around me.

I had to go back to normal speed.

Is that right?

Yeah, yeah.

But typo, what a word for the modern age where we’re just trying to cram more life into the time we’re given.

Right, right.

We’re being inundated with so much media, and so how do you speed things up so that you get through it all?

But we feel so obligated to consume the media that we’re presented with, whether it be in text or video or audio form.

We feel obligated.

I wonder why.

I wonder why we don’t just simply push it away and say, no, thank you.

It’s really like shoveling snow in a blizzard, isn’t it?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Draining the ocean with a teaspoon.

It’s just never going to end.

And I think this is why best of lists thrive.

The best of 2023 of this sort or of that sort, because you need filters.

You need people to curate quality for you so that you’re not having to sort it yourself and have to do things like watch a movie at twice the speed.

That sounds ridiculous.

Action movies are fast enough without seeing kick punches at a double speed.

I can’t imagine.

Well, we love talking about language on this show, and we often venture into things like, besides new words, we talk about slang that your kids bring home or slang you remember from your old childhood, the books that you read, the books that we read.

And we like to talk about those gentle disputes you have at work and at home about the right way to say things and the right way to write them.

Let us know what you’re thinking, 877-929-9673.

That’s toll free in the United States and Canada.

And if you’re somewhere else, you can send us an email, words@waywordradio.org, or find lots of other ways to reach us on our website at waywordradio.org slash contact.

Hey there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

How are you?

This is Carol from Iowa.

Hi, Carol. Welcome. What can we do for you?

Thank you. Well, I have a question about a saying that my dad used to use his entire life.

He was a really quiet guy, not a conversationalist in any way.

And his name was Don.

And so in conversation, he would use a lot of what I now call Don-isms,

Such as, I wish I was more rich instead of good-looking,

Or mother didn’t have all dumb kids.

But he used one the most, and it was really annoying.

And over the years, we would just groan.

But in response to us maybe trying to include him in a conversation,

We might say something like, well, Dad, what do you think about that?

And he would, honest to goodness, almost always say, well, I think it takes a big dog to weigh a ton.

And we would all just look at each other like, what the heck?

Or, you know, when we asked him, like, what does that mean?

He would just laugh.

Or, you know, it really did get annoying over the years.

It bless his heart.

But we’ve never known what it meant.

And I guess we never bothered to look it up.

But it didn’t make sense to us in any way, that thing.

So that’s what I’m asking is, do you know what that means?

And the phrase again?

It takes a big dog to weigh a ton.

It takes a big dog to weigh a ton.

And did you have any guesses as to what it meant?

None.

I have no inkling.

You know, Carol, he wasn’t the only one to say it.

And there are quite a few different versions of it.

It goes back at least 100 years.

And when people use it genuinely or have used it genuinely in the past,

They’ve used it to mean it takes a strong person to handle a problem,

Or it takes a strong person to do what they say they’ll do.

Or that problem is going to take a lot of figuring out.

It’s metaphorical.

But the dog changes in the saying, and the weight changes in the saying.

So sometimes you might say it takes a big woman, or it takes a big man,

Or a big pig, a big hog, a big steer.

Or you might say a mighty big one, or a pretty big one.

And then the ton could be 1,000 pounds, 500 pounds, 100 pounds, 50 pounds.

And so all these different variations have been used over the many years.

And all of these are just the kind of thing that they do appear in conversations and in writing as a non sequitur.

But they’re often a way to just say, I don’t know, but this sounds like a real problem and it kind of sucks for you.

Interesting. That makes total sense.

And now I’ll have to think back to the thousands of times we used it.

I also love that it’s just piping up and saying the obvious.

It does indeed take a big dog to weigh a ton.

Yeah, yeah.

And the funny part is I’ve never heard anybody else use that saying.

So I’m glad to know he didn’t just make it up.

Yeah, it used to be more common.

But I think this one is fading out.

I think this one will soon be just a memory and family lore just like yours.

Interesting.

Interesting.

Well, now I know.

Now we all know.

Now we all know.

And thank you for sharing your memories and your family lore, Carol.

Yeah, now we all know some Don-isms.

Oh, yes.

I’d share the rest of you.

Some are inappropriate, but.

I like the other one you shared about, I wish I was born rich instead of so good looking.

I wish I was more rich instead of good looking.

Yeah, he liked that one too.

Love it.

Take care now.

Oh, yeah.

Do well.

Okay.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Carol.

It’s always great to hear about those endearing family phrases.

Share yours with us, 877-929-9673, or send it an email.

That address is words@waywordradio.org.

Grant, you remember our phone call with Jacob from Kentucky,

Who was talking about that poetic expression from Appalachia,

The groundhogs are making coffee.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

It’s when there’s a mist in the trees and the low hills,

Just kind of you can’t really see.

It’s the early morning mist.

It’s so beautiful.

It’s just kind of lying in there heavy on the ground.

Yeah.

Well, it reminds me of a lovely Icelandic term that I just came across,

Dalalaitha, which literally translates as valley and sneak up.

The verb there, letha, means both to sneak up and it also means a female cat.

So I get this wonderful picture of a valley where the fog is creeping in on little cat feet.

Oh, I love it. That is gorgeous.

Yeah, I can imagine Iceland as a strange and mysterious place with the lore,

The, you know, a thousand years of lore and legend and the volcanoes

And the strange geography and the northern temperatures.

And it must be a crazy place with just the deep history that seems to permeate the whole place.

Right. And the Dalai Laita permeates in the mornings.

I really love that term.

We’ve got to put Iceland on our bucket list.

I’m imagining little trolls riding those cats down from the hills,

Creeping along the snow.

Share your language stories with us, 877-929-9673.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Olivia.

I’m calling from Pensacola, Florida.

What can we do for you, Olivia?

The other day, my husband and I were sitting on the couch at night.

We had the local news on in the background, but we weren’t really watching it.

But then the local weather person said, you know, it was just, it was a fair day, clear skies, 72 degrees.

It was just, it was a perfect day.

You know, it was a real Chamber of Commerce day.

And my husband paused and looked at me and said, what did she just say?

And I just, I kind of wrote him off and I said, oh, you know, she’s just, I think she was referencing a local event or something like that.

And he said, no, she wasn’t.

She was using that to describe the weather.

So we just found it so odd.

And kind of just one of those things we had never heard.

I looked it up on my phone.

I found a brief thing about maybe on an idiom website.

And not an idiom, I’ve heard.

And my husband was like, yes, you can call A Way with Words.

Your favorite show.

The perfect opportunity.

But before we did, before I called in, I used the opportunity the next day.

I had some family in town and we were celebrating my son’s birthday.

The weather was the same.

We were sitting outside.

And I said to my sister, wow, it’s a real Chamber of Commerce day.

And she was shaking her head yes.

And she turned to me and said, what did you just say?

And so we got our family the rest of the day.

Because, I mean, I would say that we’re pretty familiar with most sayings and phrases.

And it really threw us off for a loop.

It is about 100 years old.

And it’s got an interesting little history.

There was a time when the Chambers of Commerce around the United States would record the local weather

And report it back to the U.S. Weather Bureau.

They not only recorded it for the National Weather Bureau,

But for their own records,

Because the Chamber of Commerce, just like now,

Would put a lot of effort in bringing new people

And new businesses to the area.

And so to say that you had Chamber of Commerce weather

Meant that you had great weather.

But it’s curious that most often it refers to really, really great weather,

Like sunny and warm.

Like you almost always see it referring to Florida and Southern California, exactly where we are and you are.

Oh, excellent.

Yeah.

Good to be here.

So postcard perfect.

Postcard perfect.

Yeah.

Yes.

And it surely was.

But it just it seemed like such a clunky way to say it.

I can’t maybe deduce what it was, but at the same time we were thinking, why would you use that?

No, that’s it. Because the Chamber of Commerce really wants to prove to people from outside their area, we have great weather.

We have exactly the kind of weather that you want. If you want rain for your crops, we have that.

If you want sun for your kids to play outside, we have that too.

To you, it sounds like a better Business Bureau day or something like that, right? Like some kind of institution’s day.

Right, exactly. It was the kind of thing. And then we just thought our way of thinking about it was, okay, well, it was the day that you’d want to be out and shopping and commerce or doing that sort of thing. So, yeah.

Well, here we go. Thank you for bringing it to our attention, Olivia.

Thank you so much. We’ll be peppering it into our daily conversations, if nothing else, than to freak other people out who haven’t heard of it.

Yeah, what are a few weird looks?

Right?

Yes.

Makes it all worth it.

And an opportunity to tell them about your show.

Oh, I love it.

Hey, thanks.

Thanks for evangelizing it.

Take care, Olivia.

All right.

Be well.

You too.

Thank you so much.

Have a good day.

Bye-bye.

Okay.

Take care.

Well, we’d love to hear your weather terms, whether it’s old expressions or proverbs or

Just something the weird weather guy said.

877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org.

More about what you say and why you say it.

Stick around for more of A Way with Words.

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

And here he is, John Chaneski, our quizzicist.

Hello, John.

Hey, hi, Grant.

Hi, Martha.

Hello, Mr. Chaneski.

I don’t know if you guys heard this old joke that goes,

If Ella Fitzgerald married Darth Vader, she’d be Ella Vader.

Yeah.

-oh.

No, you know, I don’t know if that would be true.

I mean, she already is a leading figure in her field.

She’d most likely keep her name or perhaps in their private life out of a sense of togetherness.

She might be Ella Fitzgerald Vader.

He might become Darth Vader Fitzgerald.

I’m just saying.

Yeah.

Sure.

What’s the deal?

But I was wondering what other romantic blendings might be possible.

For example, if film actress Kendrick of Up in the Air married Texas Senator Phil and took his name, she would become the rearranging of one word’s letters to make another word.

Anna Graham.

Yeah, Anna Graham.

She would be Anna Graham.

Anna Kendrick and Phil Graham.

That’s very good.

Yeah, nicely done.

Here’s the first.

If TV comedian Newhart married TV comedian Betty and took her name, he would become a small bird.

Bob White?

Bob White?

That’s Bob White.

Very nice.

If singer Astley of Never Gonna Give You Up married playwright George Bernard and took his name, he would become a human-powered conveyance.

Rick Shaw.

Rick Shaw, yes.

If psychologist brothers married sci-fi icon Philip K. And took his name, she would become a video game controller.

Joystick! That’s very good! That’s very, very good!

That’s right.

Very good.

A little fun with phonetics there, yeah.

Nice.

If TV actress Stapleton of All in the Family married rock singer Vince of Motley Crue and took his name, she would become rather friendly and cheerful.

Gene Neal.

Gene Neal, yes.

Gene Neal.

If legendary actress Hayworth married Larry from the Three Stooges and took his name,

She would become a word meaning to change what a word means.

Redefine.

Yes.

Redefine.

Very good.

Redefine.

That’s awesome.

These are really good.

They should have gotten together.

They should get together.

Seriously.

If McDonald’s founder Kroc married historian Howard of a people’s history of the United States and took his name, he would become a dried grape.

Ray Zinn.

Ray Zinn.

Howard Zinn.

I think that’s one where you didn’t have to know either of the names to get the answer.

I was thinking John.

Ray Kroc.

Yeah.

Yeah, Ray Kroc and Howard Zinn.

Right.

Finally, if former U.S. Vice President Gore married silent film comic Harold and took his name, he would become like two metals that are blended to obtain a desired property.

Alloy.

Alloy.

Alloy, yes.

Very nice.

And I hope they are very happy Alloyed in their wedded bliss.

Al Gore and Harold Lloyd.

Thank you so much, John.

Thank you.

Nice work, guys.

And if you want to talk about any aspect of language with us, and that includes wordplay, call us 877-929-9673 or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Susan. I’m calling from the Seattle area.

Hey, Susan. Welcome.

Hi, Susan. What’s up?

Hi there. My question is about the phrase, -oh.

I have a granddaughter. She’s about one and a half. And recently I kind of heard her say, -oh, for the first time as she’s really learning a lot of language.

Something fell on the floor and she said, -oh. And it reminded me of how often my own two boys would say that when they were little, especially as toddlers.

And it made me curious if maybe -oh, as simple as it is, started simply as a baby mimicking adult saying oh no until adults started saying -oh themselves or if it was maybe kind of reversed and -oh was already its own little expression.

This is an interesting question because it plugs into some history of language and child development and language growth.

And 18 months is a great stage at which to witness so much happening in the language of children.

If she’s an average child, I’m sure she’s above average, but if she’s an average child, she has a large number of two-word expressions now.

At 18 months, -oh is perfect for her because it also comes at a time where she’s starting to learn about values between yes and no, values between safe and unsafe.

She’s starting to learn that there are gray areas between extremes, if you know what I mean.

And -oh lets her know that she can express dismay without adding worry.

It says something is wrong, but it’s not a big deal, or this isn’t quite right, but maybe we can fix it.

It has nuance.

And so that’s really important for a kid that age.

And so there’s a reason that O kind of hits at about that age, and kids pick it up.

They pick it up from their parents.

The history of it is that it started as an Americanism, strangely enough, where we modified O-O, like O-H, O-H,

Which is simply a doubled form of O, the O that you might say when you’re surprised or alarmed,

Which we got as English speakers from the French, and the French got it from Latin.

So it’s just like this really long history that leads us to this drawing attention to things

And then being modified once it reaches the United States at some point in the 1800s.

And we do this glottal stop.

We kind of restrict the airflow in the back of our throat.

Oh, oh, you can kind of hear that there’s something unusual happening there with that first sound.

Right. Oh, that it’s just such a simple expression, but it just kind of just, it’s more,

It’s almost less of a word and more of a instinctive reaction in a sound that isn’t necessarily

A word that means the same thing every single time. Like maybe like you’re saying,

Oh, oh could be surprise or oh, oh, disappointment or it represents like a feeling.

Yes, exactly. So it serves as an interjection, but it’s a linguistic feature known as a discourse marker.

And what discourse markers do is they change what we expect.

We interject it into the conversation to say, in this case, this is not so great.

So discourse markers might sound or at first look like they’re kind of irrelevant or useless because they’re often small and they often just sound not like words, just like you said.

They kind of sound like noises, but they so much have a purpose.

They so much do a job.

And -oh really does a job here.

It’s got value.

It’s doing a service to the conversation and to the discourse between the child and the adults around the child.

Well, Susan, it sounds like you’re going to continue to have a blast, and we hope you’ll keep us posted.

I will. It is going to keep being a blast.

All right. Take care.

Thanks for taking my call. Have a great day.

Sure. Bye-bye.

Take care, Susan.

877-929-9673.

Grant, you remember our conversation about gossip and people who spread gossip and terms for them?

I don’t think I was a part of that conversation, but my ears were burning.

Yes, I do remember that.

Yeah, it was all these like very kind of awkward and ugly terms for people who talk too much and say bad things about other people.

Well, here’s one that I really like.

It’s quidnunc, Q-U-I-D-N-U-N-C, quidnunc.

You like it because it’s Latin.

Yes, I do.

It literally means what now?

And it’s a term for somebody who’s always asking, what’s now?

What’s the news?

You know, an overly inquisitive person.

Yeah, they always want the latest thing.

Yeah.

Who doesn’t?

We all like novelty.

That’s true.

You know, I talked about people who spread gossip and everybody does it.

Yeah, we do.

Yeah.

Well, we’re done here.

I got something to tell you.

Oh, yeah?

In the meantime, everyone else can just call us with their gossip.

877-929-9673.

Hey there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Kelly Morse from Norfolk, Virginia.

Hi Kelly, what’s going on?

So I’m from the Pacific Northwest and have lived in several parts of the United States

And moved to Norfolk, which is in the Mid-Atlantic, a few years ago.

And there’s a really great restaurant here called Dumars, home of the original waffle cone maker.

And we started eating there when we moved here.

So they have a little paper menu.

And on the menu, when you have the option to order cheeseburgers or hamburgers or barbecue sandwiches, there’s a little list of all of the additional condiments you can get, like pickles, mayonnaise, onions, lettuce, ketchup.

It’s all listed out.

So when we first started going there, we would say, okay, we’d like a cheeseburger.

And can I please get everything on the condiments list, basically, or start listing off all the condiments.

And then the servers would say, oh, all the way deluxe.

So after a while, now when we go to Dumars, we say, can I have a cheeseburger all the way deluxe?

Or can I have a barbecue sandwich all the way deluxe?

And the server knows what we mean.

And I recently started realizing I went to another place to get a hot dog called P. Frank’s.

It’s also a local institution here in Norfolk.

You know, again, there was this big list of condiments.

And when I was like, okay, can I please get this?

And then the server said, oh, all the way to Deluxe.

And I said, yeah, all the way to Deluxe.

But I’ve never heard that anywhere else except for Norfolk.

And at first I thought it was just Dumars.

And then slowly I realized, oh, if I say this in Norfolk at different eateries, it seems like people know what I want.

But I’ve never heard this phrase before anywhere else in the U.S.

All right.

Martha, we have to send her the field reporter kit with the badge and the hat and the secret handshake and the booklet.

Because, like, this is the best field report I’ve heard in a really long time.

I mean, we get some fantastic field reports.

But, like, Kelly, this is perfect.

This is so good.

It is new to me.

Martha, is this new to you?

It’s completely new to me.

And what I’m envisioning is you have different family members who are control groups.

So some of you ask for halfway deluxe.

Some of you ask for a quarter way deluxe.

Some of you ask for just all the way.

And some of you ask just for deluxe.

Seriously.

I’m expecting spreadsheets, graph paper, the whole thing, photographs.

Well, it sounds like it’d be a fun assignment.

Just go everywhere.

There she is, doesn’t it?

Lots of cheeseburgers.

But I wonder.

So we’re going to get a lot of calls from Norfolk.

People are going to tell us.

But I wonder if other places say all the way Deluxe to mean the works or Loaded or Supreme or everything on it or all dressed, as they might say in Canada.

Yeah, and it feels very much like it’s centered around Dumars because Dumars has been in operation since like 1918.

Oh, yeah, that would have a lot of influence, wouldn’t it?

Yeah, it’s a really special local institution.

So, yeah, I was like, well, is it people who have worked at Dumars and then now they’re working in other places?

And that’s what’s happening?

Or is it regional?

Good theory.

Solid theory.

You know, Kelly, let me ask you, like, deluxe for you, does deluxe automatically mean everything on it if you ask for deluxe somewhere else in the country?

Yeah, I would think so.

It does.

Everything.

Because I think, you know, in other parts of the country, like I found in the Midwest, like they can be real stingy with the condiments and there’s like no mayo on their burgers.

And I’m like, I want my mayo.

And like you have to if you say I want everything, you still might have to say plus mayo.

And, you know, like I’m very firm pro mayo on my hamburger.

And so but this way, when you’re saying all the way deluxe, it means you really want like every single one of those line items.

You want the tomatoes.

You want the onions.

You want the mayo.

You want the mustard.

Like some places don’t put mustard on their burgers.

Like I want it all.

And I feel like in other places I’ve lived, you still have to have like a little caveat.

But be like, no, really.

I really do want that mustard.

I really do want that mayo.

You’re confirming that there is a reason to say all the way deluxe.

Like for you, deluxe doesn’t just mean a few more toppings.

You’re saying sweep the counter onto it.

Yes, exactly.

All right, Kelly, this is perfect.

We’re going to throw this out.

Does anyone else anywhere in the country say all the way deluxe to mean everything on it or the works or loaded?

Or is it only in Norfolk, Virginia or thereabouts?

Let us know, 877-929-9673 or email us, words@waywordradio.org.

And Kelly, this was a great call.

Martha and I are going to go have lunch now.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye.

Hello, you have Awe With Words.

Hi, I’m Allie, and I’m calling from Wisconsin, Waukesha.

I have a question since I was in, like, fourth grade.

Why is it island always spelled like island, and why do we always pronounce it like island?

Oh, what a good question.

Why does island have an S in it, and why is it pronounced with a long I?

And you said you’ve had this question since fourth grade?

How long has that been?

Well, about like four or five years now.

Oh, okay.

Okay, so you’re in eighth or ninth grade?

Eighth.

So why don’t we pronounce the yes then, you’re saying?

Yes.

Do you have any theories?

It’s because of our language.

Yeah, the language is all messed up.

Yeah, it’s true.

Or it’s something that has just appeared suddenly.

Yeah, that too.

It’s a little complicated, but I’m going to try to streamline this,

And we’ll get to the bottom of it. In Old English, the word was very similar. It was I-G-L-A-N-D.

And the first part meant either water or watery land, depending which reference word you check.

But that first part, that I-G, was later, by the time Old English turned into Middle English,

Was changed to be spelled as I-L-A-N-D or Y-L-A-N-D. For some reason, some people

Misunderstood, some scholars misunderstood, and thought that instead of being connected

To the other Germanic languages, which had very similar words that meant water or watery

Land, that first part, that I-G, decided that it was instead connected to I-S-L-E, the French

Word, which means island.

They were wrong, but it seemed logical to them that it was probably connected.

And so they started spelling it as Isleland, I-S-L-E-L-A-N-D, or later, I-S-L-A-N-D.

And so that’s how we got that spelling, which is fine.

So by the 17th century, that spelling had changed.

And so that’s the short version of the story.

But the strange thing about this is the French didn’t spell Isle with an S either originally,

But they spelled it I-L-E or Y-L-E.

So how did that S get there?

There was another whole batch, different batch of scholars who tried to improve French by making it more like Latin.

And they noted that I-L-E, meaning island, was derived from the Latin insula, which meant island.

And so they changed I-L-E to be spelled I-S-L-E.

And that’s what was borrowed into English to give us our word island today.

But that didn’t last.

And later the S, because it was no longer pronounced in French, they got rid of it.

And now they went back to spelling isle as I-L-E.

And they put a little circumflex, which is like a little upside down hat over the I, to indicate that the S was once there.

So we don’t pronounce the S in island because the French don’t pronounce the S in isle.

And that is the word that we borrowed from the French.

That’s interesting.

We have a lot of these kind of historical remnants in our language.

When you see something curious, like a letter not being pronounced,

It is a really strong clue, Allie, that there’s a story there.

And in this case, it tells us that the island came to us from French.

And so we have this little note that says there’s a word history here.

Island has a little bit of French history.

The S is not pronounced in French.

Therefore, we don’t pronounce it in this word island.

I’m going to recommend a book.

It’s by Erica Okrent, O-K-R-E-N-T.

It’s called Highly Irregular, Why Tough, Through, and Doe Don’t Rhyme,

And Other Oddities of the English Language.

It’s a very accessible book.

There are cute cartoons in it.

And it tells you a lot of these stories, like why there’s an H in the word ghost, for example.

So you might look for that book.

That actually sounds really interesting.

Well, Allie, good luck in school.

Thank you for your call.

We really appreciate it.

And keep your enthusiasm going.

It’ll get you far.

And thank you for allowing me to be on the show.

Oh, our pleasure, as always.

Glad to have you.

Yeah, take care now.

Bye-bye.

So pick up that phone and call us, 877-929-9673.

We’d love to talk with you about your language question.

Or send it to us in email, words@waywordradio.org.

A Way with Words is about language seen through family, history, and culture.

Stay tuned for more.

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.

In the early 1830s, Margaret Scott Gaddy took note of a sundial that was on the porch of the church

That her husband pastored in Yorkshire, England.

And inscribed on that sundial were the rhyming Latin words, Fugit hora ora.

And that translates as, The hour flies, pray.

And a cottage nearby also had a sundial, but it bore a Latin inscription that translates as,

There are no steps backward.

And another neighbor had a sundial with the Latin words that translate as, I wait for no one.

And Margaret Scott Gaddy was so intrigued by these inscriptions that she started collecting them.

And then, as often happens when you start collecting things, her friends started collecting them for her.

And she went on to become a popular writer of children’s books, and she kept collecting those inscriptions.

And in 1872, she published a beautiful, comprehensive book on the topic.

It’s called The Book of Sundials, and it was later revised with her daughter’s help.

And it’s just gorgeous. It’s full of fascinating information about sundials, and it includes 1,682

Examples of sundial mottos. And one of the things I love about these mottos, they’ve been described

As more touching than tombstones. There’s something kind of meditative about them, a little bit

Melancholy, and a good reminder to be mindful of making the most of the hours that we have on earth.

And I first became aware of them when I listened to the S-Town podcast,

Where journalist Brian Reed interviews a clockmaker in Woodstock, Alabama,

Who points out that when you see a sundial, you should always go look at it

Because there will always be some kind of inscription on it.

And so I was thrilled to pieces when I came across this book.

Yeah, the book is amazing.

By the fourth edition, I think which was published in 1900, it is a phenomenal work.

It’s beautiful to look at, amazing to read.

Many of them are religious because sundials tend to appear in churchyards.

And as you said, many of them talk about using your time wisely, but some of them don’t.

One of my favorite ones is in German, but it translates into somewhat archaic English as,

He hath made his choice aright, who counteth but the hours of light.

Basically saying, you can use your time well, but you should also make merry, which I think is important advice to all of us.

And there are the kind of mystical ones, like one written in Latin in a churchyard in southeastern France right on the border with Italy.

It translates as, the light makes shadow, but the truth makes mysteries,

Which makes you just want to turn right around and leave that churchyard pursued by who knows what.

I don’t know what’s happening there.

I just want to know what time it was.

I forgot my watch.

It’s just interesting, all these brief ruminations on time and how we spend our time and what will become of us when our time is done.

There are several beautiful copies of this book online.

We’ll link to them from our website and you can explore them and find your favorite Sundial mottos.

Or you can share little epigraphs or epigrams or little phrases or things that you found in your reading that you think are wonderful and that we should know about and that we can share with everyone else.

Let us know in email words@waywordradio.org or tell us on the telephone.

877-929-9673 is toll free in the United States and Canada.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Kayla Meyer calling from Omaha, Nebraska.

Hi, Kayla. Welcome.

Thank you.

Well, I’m calling in because recently our elderly dog has been having lots of accidents in the house.

He gets scared by weather changes and thunderstorms, all of the above.

And my husband keeps saying that our dog is pissing everywhere in the house.

And I told him, can you please not use the word piss to describe his accident?

There’s a whole bunch of different words I think you could use.

But then when I was telling him this, I realized I said, I’m so pissed that you keep using the word

Piss.

Yeah.

First of all, I’m sorry about your dog.

That’s really tough.

What word would you prefer he used?

I said, I prefer if he said our dog peed in the house or just like had an accident.

I don’t know why, but I just find the word piss to be really vulgar.

It’s crass, right?

Yes.

What did he say in response?

I think he understands and he’s been working on it.

Okay.

That’s a fair response.

I think of P as a much more comfortable word, I guess.

And I’m thinking it’s because it’s, you know, what you learn as a little kid.

It’s almost like baby talk, you know, like P or we.

I’m going to have a we.

But the other is a little bit more advanced.

You learn it a little later, I think.

I don’t want to say the word too often, but I think piss, P-I-S-S, has undergone this transformation over the last 700 years where it went from being just kind of ordinary word to having some stigma attached to it.

There were a number of different bodily function of words related to the excretory and reproductive functions of the body that used to be kind of ordinary everyday words, which we now consider coarse or uncouth or even offensive.

And this is one of those words where we now use other terms, or we either use medical terms or euphemistic terms.

We might say urinate or micturate instead of piss, which is a word we get from the French, by the way.

But you will find that word, a version of that word, in the 1611 King James Bible.

First book of Samuel, in the book of Isaiah, and you’ll find it in the 1388 Wycliffe version of the English Bible, and in several plays of Shakespeare.

Where the term isn’t really offensive at all.

It’s just kind of an everyday word.

So somewhere between the 1300s and now,

The word underwent this transformation and became vulgar.

Part of it was those words became associated with the lower classes.

The classes started dividing.

Those who wished to be seen as educated would begin to use more educated-sounding words.

Or euphemisms that would distance themselves from the functions of the body that were private.

It’s important to note that this change happened and largely still happens in those people who are

Rising or hoping to rise through society. A family looking to improve their child’s or children’s

Prospects might raise them to use this new language thinking that’s how the upper class speaks.

And it was really accelerated during the Victorian era.

But there were other linguistic trends already underway,

Including a movement toward settling on one preferred educated English dialect

As the prestige dialect.

And marking those old terms, those ordinary everyday terms,

As coarse and earthy and unacceptable fit neatly into excluding them

From this new prestige dialect.

They were not included as part of this accepted way of speaking.

And they became stigmatized and treated as vulgar.

What’s really curious about this is that in the United Kingdom and the United States,

Now, in present day, modern studies show that the upper and lower socioeconomic and educated classes swear and curse the most,

But it’s the middle classes that swear and curse the least.

So it’s the where the people are striving in this culture of upward mobility where people feel this pressure of not to use the vulgar and crass words the most.

That’s so interesting.

I’m also thinking about what you said about his use of that word pissing you off.

I feel like that verb there is at a remove from the more direct definition of urine.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

I’m wondering why I use that and feel like it’s okay and don’t feel offended per se.

Right.

But it’s also directly attached to your emotion.

So the emphatic component is still attached to the vulgar component in being pissed off.

Does that make sense?

So what’s left is this emphatic force.

Vulgar words and crass words have an emphatic force and kind of cringe a little bit.

And that cringiness that carries over to the anger component of a word like you pissed me off.

But we’re leaving behind any sense of the bodily functions.

So there’s still some emphatic force attached to it.

This is what happens when a word kind of leaves one realm of thought or one domain and moves into another one.

So it carries with it still some of the force.

It’s a strange thing we do with language.

And the emotion.

Yeah, we’re strange creatures, the things that we do with all of these symbols we call words.

Kayla, I’m wondering how you and your spouse are going to resolve this.

We’re doing fine over it, and actually our dog’s accidents have kind of stopped.

Okay, good.

Oh, good.

What’s your pup’s name?

Ichabod.

Ichabod.

Give Ichabod some pets and some treats from us, will you?

Yes, of course.

Okay.

All right.

Well, Kayla, thanks for sharing this with us.

This is a really good question.

It’s kind of, we’ve had to dance around it without being too crass ourselves.

And thank you for helping us do that.

No problem.

Thank you.

Take care.

Be well.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, what’s the word or phrase that you’re debating in your household?

Let us know.

We’d love to talk about it.

877-929-9673.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Michael McNeely calling from Aurora, Kentucky.

Hi, Michael. Welcome to the show.

Hey, Michael.

What’s on your mind?

A word that I grew up using and hearing used that I don’t know anything about.

I tried looking it up. I didn’t get any real results.

The word is peart.

I spell it P-E-E-R-T or it could be P-E-A-R-T.

It was used as a fact that you were feeling good, basically.

You might use it in a sentence as,

Yesterday I felt kindly puny, but today I’m right peart.

Today I’m right peart.

And this is something that you know from your life in Kentucky?

Yes.

Yeah, right peart.

Yes.

You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

Yeah, yeah.

I’m from Kentucky myself.

And Michael, are you feeling right peart today?

Yes, today I feel right, Peart.

Yeah, it’s usually spelled P-E-A-R-T, or as you suggested, P-E-E-R-T.

It’s related to the word pert in English, which means P-E-R-T, which means jaunty or cocky or perky.

In Appalachia, you hear people talking about, well, that’ll pertin’ you up.

Or, do you know what pertin’ juice is?

I’ve never heard that one.

Well, if you look in the dictionary of Southern Appalachian English, pertinent juice is whiskey, homemade whiskey.

Okay. I’ve heard pert, you know, I’m familiar with that one, but I didn’t know that’s where peert came from.

Yeah, yeah, they’re related. So you might describe somebody as being peert as a cricket or peert as a pup.

It’s lively and, you know, cocky and jaunty and just feeling great.

That’s the connotation that we would use it in.

That’s it.

It goes back to at least the mid-19th century.

It’s a lovely word, don’t you think?

I really think so.

It’s expressive.

Indeed.

Tears.

Well, Michael, we hope you keep feeling that way.

Well, I certainly do as well.

Thank you.

I appreciate you looking that up and letting me know where it came from.

We’re glad to help.

Thank you, Michael.

Take care.

Be well.

Thank you, folks.

Bye-bye.

877-929-9673.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Samantha from Cincinnati.

Hi, Samantha. Welcome to the show.

Hey, Samantha.

So my grandmother, she used to say a phrase that, you know, a lot of my peers have never heard of before.

And whenever we were walking down the sidewalk together, holding hands, we’d come to some obstacle.

We’d have to let go of each other’s hands.

And she’d say, bread and butter.

And then we’d link back up again.

And I didn’t realize until I went on a school trip later, you know, with my friends walking on the sidewalk, kind of the same deal.

And they all said, what are you saying?

Why are you saying that?

And it just always made me wonder where that came from.

I’ve never heard anyone else say it.

So I was just wondering, what’s the, what’s the root of that phrase?

So, so you’re holding hands with your grandmother and, so something comes between you like a mailbox or fire hydrant or a light pole.

Yeah.

Well, Samantha, you can, you can tell your kids that, you’re carrying on a very, very old tradition.

This, this goes back centuries.

It’s the idea that the two people who are going around that object should be inseparable.

They should stay inseparable.

You know, as inseparable as butter and bread.

If you butter a piece of toast, you can’t unbutter it, right?

Oh, that makes sense.

It goes back to a very old superstition that evil spirits or even the devil could take various forms and come between people physically.

You know, whether the devil takes the form of an animal or a pebble or a small child running between them.

And if you don’t do something to counteract that mishap, then the two of you may quarrel later or have bad luck.

And so there are a whole lot of phrases that you can use.

Bread and butter.

Some people, instead of saying bread and butter, they say needles and pins.

Or one person says needles and the other person says pins.

And then they hook pinkies and make a silent wish.

Milk and cheese, or a longer one, bread and butter, come to supper.

And also, particularly among black speakers of American English,

There’s a long tradition of warning against splitting the pole.

You’ll be told, don’t split the pole, which is that same idea,

That you don’t want to separate the two people who are walking together.

And if you want to show your friends who’ve never heard this expression a great example of this,

There’s a great episode of The Twilight Zone back in 1960 where a very young and very handsome William Shatner,

He and his wife are walking along and they’re separated by a lamppost and he says, bread and butter.

Oh, okay.

So the bread and butter saying is at least 100 years old.

But the superstition, Martha, am I remembering that this is, we’re talking back to the classical era as far as we know, right?

Right. All the way back at least to St. Augustine in the 4th century AD.

So, yeah, he has a passage about that, doesn’t he, Grant?

Yeah, he’s talking about exactly like you said, stones or dogs coming between friends walking arm in arm and how it’s bad luck.

And sometimes how the dogs would go after the boys in order to get justice.

Oh, my goodness. I’m a Latin teacher. I will have to look up that section.

Oh, you are.

The Doctrina Christina. I think the fourth chapter, if you want to find that in St. Augustine.

Oh, thank you so much. Oh, wow.

Well, thank you for teaching Latin. Good for you. I’m glad to hear that’s still being taught in the schools.

What grade do you teach?

Anywhere 6th grade through 12th grade.

Wonderful.

Doing the good work. Thank you for doing that, Samantha.

Thanks. Thanks. You have a great day.

Take care. Good luck. Bye-bye.

Bye.

877-929-9673 or email us words@waywordradio.org.

Our team includes senior producer Stefanie Levine, engineer and editor Tim Felten, and quiz guide John Chaneski.

We’d love to hear from you, no matter where you are in the world. Go to waywordradio.org slash contact.

Subscribe to the podcast, hear hundreds of past episodes, and get the newsletter at waywordradio.org.

Whenever you have a language story or question, our toll-free line is open in the U.S. And Canada.

1-877-929-9673.

Or send your thoughts to words@waywordradio.org.

A Way with Words is an independent production of Wayword, Inc.,

A nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language.

Special thanks to Michael Breslauer, Josh Eckels, Clare Grotting, Bruce Rogow, Rick Seidenwurm, and Betty Willis.

Thanks for listening. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett. Until next time, goodbye.

Bye.

Thank you.