How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A Massachusetts woman complains that a digital highway sign that says Use Ya Blinkah is well-intentioned, but goes too far in making fun of the local dialect. Plus, if you’re puzzling over something—no problem. Just use your Clyde! Also, squatcho and squatchee, wuzzle and fuzzle, juke and jook, gnurr and oosse, the millennial pause and the Gen Z shake, eye dialect, an adverbial brain teaser, the Coanda effect, how to ask for rooiboos tea, and a clever neologism that means “dread.”
This episode first aired September 13, 2025.
Gen Z Shake and Millennial Pause
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists call floor-holding. The term millennial pause has been used to describe the habit of older users of social media to check to make sure their camera is actually in place and rolling before they speak. In contrast, the Gen Z shake, or jittery movement at the start of a video, supposedly conveys authenticity and spontaneity, and also helps grab and keep a viewer’s attention.
Use Ya Blinkah
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s annoyed by the sign, contending that it makes fun of the way locals talk. Rendering speech this way is known as eye dialect, and in the case of these kinds of digital signs, they do get the point across.
Name for the Button on the Top of a Baseball Cap
That little button on top of a baseball cap? Some people call it a squatchee or a squatcho, the latter popularized by comedian Rich Hall’s book Sniglets (Amazon), which features apt but made-up words that aren’t in any dictionary.
Rooibos Pronunciation
How do you pronounce rooibos? The name of this tea comes from the Afrikaans words rooi bos, meaning “red bush.” Rooibos is pronounced ROY-boss, but it’s also called bush tea, red tea, or redbush tea.
Unticipation
A listener has a suggestion for a word “a state of dread” or “not wanting something to happen,” and that word is unticipation.
Seemingly Adverbs But Not
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has been pondering the -ly often found at the of adverbs, and that inspired him to craft a puzzle about words that seem to be adverbs, but aren’t. For example, what fake adverb is suggested by this clue: Like a sudden charge against an enemy, it does it like actor Mineo or baseballer Bando.
All in a Wuzzle
An engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, says he and his colleagues refer to tangled underwater cables as wuzzles. Does anyone else? At least as early as the mid-19th century, the verb wuzzle has meant “to jumble” or “to put in a state of confusion.” By extension, it also means “to intoxicate” or “muddle,” as does the obsolete word fuzzle.
When Does Late Night Become Early Morn?
When does late at night change to early in the morning? 2:30 a.m.? 3:00 a.m.? Another time?
Bristling in Surprise
Ophelia in Johnson City, Tennessee, wonders about the exclamation her great-grandmother often used when something surprised her: Cat bristle! That may be her own version of a minced oath, although it fits with the idea of how a cat’s tail might look when its surprised.
Use Your Clyde
In 1968, students at Cheyenne High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, compiled a collection of their own slang, including the word Clyde, used to refer to one’s head, as in Use your Clyde!
To Go Juking Around
Alan in Columbia, South Carolina, says his family used the terms go juking and juking around to refer to hanging out with family and friends, moving around aimlessly, with no particular goal in mind. It’s related to the term juke, also spelled jook. In 1935, writer Zora Neal Hurston defined a jook as “a place where they sing, dance, gamble, love and compose ‘blues’ songs incidentally”—in other words, a place where lots of fun things happen. In Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending (Bookshop|Amazon), a character says, “I want you to go juking with me…that’s riding and stopping to drink and dance, and riding some more and stopping to drink and dance again, and after awhile you just stop to drink…and sometimes you stop drinking and go to a tourist cabin [with your girl].” There are similar-sounding words in West African languages to mean “living wickedly” that may well be the source of jook and juking.
The Meaning Shift of “Preppy”
The word preppy has undergone a considerable evolution since Boomers first used it to describe attire that reflects a conservative, polished, East-coast prep school look. For middle-schoolers today, preppy connotes an entirely different aesthetic: girly clothing that’s frilly, often Barbie-pink or decorated with animal prints. In his new book, Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language (Bookshop|Amazon) linguist Adam Aleksic shows the role social media algorithms played in the development of an entirely new sense of the word.
Funsel and Gnurr
A Wisconsin wonders if anyone outside her family uses the word funsel, possibly spelled funcil, to denote “a single strand of leftover cobweb hanging from the ceiling.” That one may be all their own, but another word she asks about, gnurr, meaning “fuzzy lint in the corner of a pocket” is indeed used by others. Gnurr appears in the whimsical book Ounce, Dice, Trice (Bookshop|Amazon) by Scottish poet Alastair Reid. The 1958 volume says that gnurr is a smaller variety of oosse, “the airy furry stuff that ultimately gathers under beds,” also known as trilbies, kittens, or dust-bunnies.
Highway Punnery
Besides the Use Ya Blinkah roadside sign seen in Massachusetts, seasonal messages on digital highway signs have included the Halloween-themed Hocus Pocus—Drive with Focus and the Fourth of July admonition Don’t Drive Star-Spangled Hammered. The U.S. federal government now discourages the use of such highway punnery, declaring that they are too distracting and unclear.
Word for Rain Adhering Under the Eaves
Bonnie in Jacksonville, Florida, is in search of a term that has to do with rain adhering under the eaves. She’s sure she once heard such an expression. There’s water adhesion and surface tension, as well as the Coanda effect, but none of those seems to be what she recalls. Have another idea?
Want of Wonder
Words of wisdom from G.K. Chesterton: The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.
Away Your Bun
June in Miami, Florida, says every time she hears the name of this show, she’s reminded of a story that involves the tradition of fruit-filled Easter buns in her native Jamaica. She’d put hers on a windowsill at work, but at some point when she left the room, the delicious treat disappeared. When she returned, an exchange student from Scotland exclaimed, “Oh Miss June, somebody’s away with your bun!” rather than “Someone’s gone away with your bun.” This kind of verb deletion is common in Scotland, where Let’s go away can simply be Let’s away.
This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.
Books Mentioned in the Episode
| Sniglets by Rich Hall (Amazon) |
| Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams (Bookshop|Amazon) |
| Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic (Bookshop|Amazon) |
| Ounce, Dice, Trice by Alastair Reid (Bookshop|Amazon)) |
Music Used in the Episode
| Title | Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right On | Ray Barretto | Barretto Power | Fania |
| Indestructible | Ray Barretto | Indestructible | Fania |
| Deep In A Dream | Milt Jackson | The Ballad Artistry Of Milt Jackson | Atlantic |
| I Feel Fine | Harvey Averne | The Harvey Averne Dozen | Fania |
| Confessions | BADBADNOTGOOD | III | Innovative Leisure Records |
| Lullaby From Rosemary’s Baby | Harvey Averne | The Harvey Averne Dozen | Fania |
| The Midnight Sun Will Never Set | Milt Jackson | The Ballad Artistry Of Milt Jackson | Atlantic |
| Psalm | John Coltrane | A Love Supreme | Impulse! |
| Miss T | Stone Alliance | Con Amigos | PM |
| The Other Side | Sure Fire Soul Ensemble | Step Down | Colemine Records |
