There’s a proverb that goes “beloved children have many names.” At least, that’s true when it comes to the names we give our pets. “Fluffy” becomes “Fluffers” becomes “FluffFace” becomes “FlufferNutter, Queen of the Universe.” Speaking of the celestial, how did the top politician in California come to be named Governor Moonbeam? Plus: still more names for slowpokes in the left-turn lane, munge and kludge, monkey blood and chopped liver, a German word for pout, the land of the living, a brain-teaser, and lots more.
This episode first aired June 9, 2018. It was rebroadcast the weekend of April 13, 2020.
We Have Many Names for Our Pets
There’s a proverb that goes, “Beloved children have many names.” That’s also true for pets, and listeners are discussing all the zillions of names they have for each animal on Facebook.
Schippen, the Pout Face
Gary in Denton, Texas, is looking for a word for the pout that precedes a baby’s wail. The Germans have a word for that: schippchen, which means “little shovel” and refers to the shape of that wet, protruding lower lip.
Land of the Living
The phrase the land of the living goes back to passages in the Bible like Psalm 52:5. Since at least the 1700s, this expression has been used to denote the realm of those still alive.
Munge and Kludge
In the 1940s, the noun munge was student slang for crud or filth, then later became a verb denoting the action of messing with data in a way that might produce the equivalent of trash or rubbish. Over time, munge, which was sometimes spelled mung, lost its negative connotation and simply meant to manipulate data, as in to munge the numbers. Another computing-related term is kludge, which means to come up with a jerry-rigged solution, and may derive from a German word meaning clever.
Longest Word Brain Stretcher
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a brain-stretching challenge to think of the longest word that begins and ends with a particular pair of letters. For example, what’s the longest word you can think of that starts with A and ends with A?
BP, Before Present, Dating
Jessica in Omaha, Nebraska, was excited to discover an arrowhead, then puzzled when archaeologists told her that its age was probably between 6000-3000 BP. Why do some scientists measure time with the designation BP, or Before Present, instead of BC or BCE? It has to do with the advent of carbon dating techniques.
Minip, Primip, Nullip
Obstetricians use the term multip as shorthand for multiparous, the adjective describing a woman who has given birth to more than one child. A woman who is nulliparous has not given birth at all, and a primipara has given birth only once.
Governor Moonbeam
Why is California governor Jerry Brown sometimes called Governor Moonbeam? This ethereal moniker was bestowed by the great Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko to suggest a kind of hippie-dippie, insubstatntial, lack of practicality.
Sarah Anderson’s Take on Cat Names
Cartoonist Sarah Anderson has a very funny take on the multiplicity of names we give our cats.
Run of the Mill Origins
Clementine, a young caller from Omaha, Nebraska, wonders why we use the term run-of-the-mill to describe something ordinary. The expression originates world of manufacturing, where a run of the mill is the entire run of things being produced, whether it’s lumber or bricks, including defective products. This sense of the word run as an overall production process also appears in the expression run of the mine and run of the kiln. (In the process of discussing this last one, we’re surprised to learn from each other that’s there’s more than one way to pronounce the word kiln!)
Poor Nameless Cat
During a discussion in our Facebook group, a listener shares that her cat’s name evolved from Poor Nameless Cat to PNC to Pansy.
Even More Names for People Who Don’t Turn When They Should
What shall we call those drivers who take so much time when the left-turn light changes to green that you miss your chance to go and sit through another red light? Our conversation about that prompted a whole slew of emails from listeners who’ve clearly had time in traffic to think about it. Their suggestions include lane loafer, lane lingerer, lazy lefty, left-turn loiterer, lane loiterer, left-lane loiterer, laneygaggers, light laggers, light lingerers, and light malingerers. There were also punny offerings, such as phonehead and light-wait. Another suggestion, playing on the term rubbernecker, was bottlenecker.
Monkey Blood
A Fort Worth, Texas, man remembers putting monkey blood on cuts and scrapes, and wonders about its name. It’s not really monkey’s blood; it’s a bright red substance more oftencalled Mercurochrome, a brand name of merbromim, or Merthiolate, a brand name of thiomersal. In parts of the Spanish speaking world, that substance is also called sangre de mono or sangre de chango, both of which literally mean monkey blood.
A Word for Dogs Rolling Around on Their Backs in the Grass
A San Diego, California, man tweets his request for a term for what a dog does when she’s happily writhing around on the grass. How about shnerking? Other terms people use for it are stink bathing, mole diving, itchy-scratchies, flea smothering, scruffling, or being a grass shark.
To Be Roped In
Does the expression to be roped in into doing something carry a negative connotation? It all depends on the context.
A Strange Exercise Regiment
Following up on our conversation about unconventional forms of diet and exercise, Martha shares an exercise regimen that turns into a paraprosdokian.
What am I, Chopped Liver?
A woman in Reno, Nevada, wonders about the expression, “What am I, chopped liver?” Chopped liver is a traditional Jewish dish that’s always a side item, never the main course. Speaking of traditional Jewish foods, the term schmaltzy, meaning overly sentimental, derives from the Yiddish term shmaltz, which means chicken or goose fat.
Lucy, Queen of the Universe
In our online discussion about the variety of things we call our pets, one woman shares how her pet’s name went from Lucy to Queen of the Universe. Sounds like a perfectly natural progression to us!
This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.
Photo by ray.k. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Music Used in the Episode
| Title | Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hunky Dory | The Rob Franken Organ-Ization | Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da | RCA Camden |
| El-Die-Bie! | The Dave Pike Set | Got the Feelin’ | Relax |
| The Crossing | Menahan Street Band | The Crossing | Daptone |
| Spooky | The Dave Pike Set | Got the Feelin’ | Relax |
| Bacon Fat | The Dave Pike Set | Got the Feelin’ | Relax |
| Snoopy | The Playboys | Snoopy 45rpm | Decca |
| Lights Out | Menahan Street Band | The Crossing | Daptone |
| But Anyway | The Dave Pike Set | Infra-Red | MPS Records |
| Volcano Vapes | Sure Fire Soul Ensemble | Out On The Coast | Colemine Records |
