In honor of the old Dial-a-Joke phone line, Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game called “Blank-a-Blank,” with clues to different terms that have the letter a sandwiched between two dashes. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Blank-a-Blank Game”
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 hey, who is that handsome fellow?
It’s John Chaneski, our quiz guy.
Hi, John.
Hey, is there a handsome fellow standing behind me?
There’s a mirror in the studio.
Oh, wow.
I see myself.
Hold on a second.
Hi, Grant.
I’m still looking.
What’s up, John?
I’m back.
What’s up is I have a puzzle for you guys here.
Great.
Please.
Now, you know, the weather hasn’t been very accommodating lately.
It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to just lie back and relax, for example, in a hammock.
But the letter A gets to do that quite a lot.
For example, back in the day, if you were feeling down, for a small price, you could pick up the phone, call a number, and you’d hear a funny story.
Do you remember what that was called?
Dial of something.
Yeah, dial a joke.
Dial a joke, okay.
Dial a joke.
So you can see that the A is safely hammocked in between the two other words.
Okay.
It even has two little hyphens there holding it up, right?
Yeah.
So I’m going to give you a bunch of words that have an A in the middle of them, between two other words with little hyphens.
With hyphens.
I call this blank-a-blank.
Okay.
Blank-a-blank.
Okay.
Blank-a-blank.
Okay.
Here are some clues.
Maybe because I collect comics, I always thought that this blank-a-blank word was directly related to machine guns, but it just means any quick succession of knocking, tapping, or cracking sounds.
Rat-a-tat.
Rat-a-tat.
Yes, very good.
Now, a similarly imitative blank-a-blank means with a sound like quick light steps or taps.
Pit-a-pat.
Very good. Pit-a-pat.
Oh, really?
Pit-a-pat is it. Yeah.
It always reminds me of cat feet or rain on a roof.
Yeah. Pit-a-pat.
Okay.
This blank-a-blank word is mostly known as an adjective, but as a noun, it can mean escort or date or even counterpart.
Oh, vis-a-vis.
Vis-a-vis. Right.
I see this blank-a-blank word frequently at the thrift store.
It comes from a French nonsense phrase for at random or any old way.
Brick-a-brack.
Brick-a-brack, right.
Now, this blank-a-blank word has a distinct nautical source related to one of the five simple machines, the pulley.
The word means crammed with objects or people, and it references a situation when two or more pulleys are too close together.
Chaka-block.
Chaka-block.
Yes, chaka-block.
In nautical parlance, a pulley is known as a block.
Now, here are two that are asymmetrical, that they don’t have the same number of letters in the first and last words.
The name of this blank-a-blank soup pretty much describes its ingredients.
Cock-a-leaky.
Yes, cock-a-leaky.
Oh, okay, nice.
Cock and leeks. Chicken and leeks.
Finally, if I’m ever working very late here in the studio, you know, I don’t have to go all the way back to Brooklyn.
I can just stay here in Manhattan at my nearby second apartment.
I call it my blank a blank, which literally means foot to the ground.
Pied à terre.
My pied à terre, yes.
Anyway, thanks, guys.
Thanks, man.
That was the problem.
Nice work.
We’ve got a discussion forum on our website at waywordradio.org.
And, you know, we’re all over social media, and you can get the podcast for free just about anywhere.
I was very intrigued by this game. Many of the answers were French: vis à vis, bric à brac, and the cock a leeky (coq) pied à terre. I wondered if the others mentioned had French origin as well.