What Should We Call Chatty Phone Calls While Driving?

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. And Grant, we got an email the other day from a fellow named Greg Ferry from here in Carlsbad, California.

And Greg thinks there ought to be a word for talking while driving. I agree with him.

He says that a certain friend of his, quote, drives long distances. And during these long times, he pulls out his cell phone and calls people with whom he hasn’t spoken in some time.

Or, failing that, someone who will listen to him.

Now, Greg’s friend’s name is Harold, so he wants to propose the verb to herald, meaning to call someone using a mobile phone to chat in a very social way while traveling from one place to another.

And I don’t know, Grant, I agree that there should be a word for this. It happens all the time here in Southern California.

But I don’t know, heralding? I mean, that guy just cut me off in traffic, and look at that. He was heralding.

Boy, you know, they do that in New York, too. They do drive and they pull them over because talking on the cell phone while you’re driving here in the city is illegal.

Well, it should be. Actually, throughout the state.

But my question is, if you’re heralding, are we talking about being in the passenger seat or driving or both?

I think we’re talking about driving. I think this guy has lots of time to fill.

You know, he gets bored on the commute and he hasn’t managed to podcast our show.

Well, I can appreciate that. There’s a version of it we have here in New York City.

I take the Q train to the studio, and the Q train goes over the Manhattan Bridge, which crosses the East River.

And so there’s this few-minute span during which the train is above ground, actually above the water, looking across Manhattan.

And it’s a beautiful view. But what everyone does is they yank their cell phones out of their purse or their pockets, and they check their messages and make quick phone calls.

It’s like the whole car all together. The cell towers are probably jammed every time the train comes through.

Addicts, all of them. They’re like those people who get off the airplane and they’ve got the unlit cigarette hanging on their lip, just waiting until they get to the smoking place, right?

They can’t wait to light that sucker. That’s right.

So what’s the word for that? Addict. That’s all I can think of.

I don’t know. Do you like heralding? I don’t really, actually.

But, you know, I always say that most of the word, they need more time to grow on you. Maybe this one would after a while.

Well, we do need a word for it, don’t you think? All right.

Well, let’s put the word out for the word for it. All right.

And so you can call us, pull over first, please, just to make Martha happy, with your suggestion for a term that denotes talking on the phone while driving.

The number is 1-877-WAYWORD. That’s 1-877-929-9673.

Or email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.