Chutzpah and Daybreak on Slang This!

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

And I’m Martha Barnette.

It’s time for this week’s Slang Challenge, where we try to stump a member of the National Puzzlers League with some curious terminology.

Today’s contestant is Dunn Miller from Oakland, California.

Hello, Dunn.

Hi. How are you, Grant?

Super duper. What are you doing in Oakland?

Well, I’m laid off, so I am figuring out what this new phase of my life looks like. It’s called cable television all day long. And a little volunteer work, yep.

This is called an opportunity, right? This is when people get really creative and doors open that you would never imagine.

What’s your field, Dunn?

I’m a librarian and a researcher and a sort of computer person on the very soft side of, you know, using.

Oh, sure, yeah. Librarians have a high need for technology these days, don’t they?

Well, yeah, and I think that, you know, we’re pretty good about being leaders and breaking through a lot of stuff. You know, decades ago, we were some of the first ones to be doing it.

Oh, definitely.

Do you have a slang word for us you’d like to share?

I do. This comes from my daughter and her art partner. They are both comic book artists, and they have a show running on Market Street right now that is in the bus kiosks along Market Street in San Francisco. And the San Francisco Chronicle did an interview with them, and they called themselves Artners in Crime.

So Artner is your word?

Yeah.

I like that. That’s super.

So the art is inside the glass where the advertisements usually are?

Yeah, yes.

That’s pretty cool. And their project is a comic book that is done in panels. As you go up Market Street at each of the bus stops, it tells a story, but it’s a palindromic story. So it tells one story and then going up and using the same pictures, it tells a different story coming back.

That’s fantastic. I must have missed that. I was just in San Francisco. It sounds exciting, though.

It is. And clever. And palindromic.

Yeah, she’s a word girl, too.

Okay, done well. We’re going to play a slang quiz. We’ll see how you do with these words, okay?

Okay.

The rules are pretty simple. I’ll give you a clue that describes one of two possible slang words or phrases. Only one of them is correct. Of course, your job is to pick the right one. If you need some help, you can talk to our chatty Martha, and she’ll give you a hand, okay?

Okay.

All right. Let’s try the first one. If you’re a bold one, you said to have the stones, the backbone, the spine, the chutzpah, and a few other impolite things to do what you think needs to be done. Which of the following could you also be said to have? Is it the stitches to do what needs to be done or the brass to do what needs to be done?

B-R-A-S-S?

That’s right.

I’m going with brass.

I’ll back you up on that.

Oh, yeah. You like that one, Martha?

Yeah, yeah. What are you thinking?

Well, there’s a phrase that comes to mind when I used to work construction that was used frequently that involved spherical objects along with the word brass.

You’re right. It is brass. But interestingly enough, it doesn’t come from brass balls. It comes from having a brass face, which is far older. And to have a brass face means that your visage is fixed and your emotions are not clear. And this goes back hundreds of years. A brass face is inscrutable, right? And so the other more delicate parts of the body that are said to be brass when you’re very strong or brave or have lots of courage is a much later occurrence, at least in the printed record.

Wow.

Here we go. Number two. See how you do with this one. It’s a little harder. The moment of dawn’s early light has just one nickname that I can find. Which of these is another way of saying daybreak? Is it A, at Rancid Butters Melt? That’s R-A-N-C-I-D-B-U-T-T-E-R apostrophe S-M-E-L-T. Or is it at Sparrow’s Fart? S-P-A-R-R-O-W apostrophe S-F-A-R-T.

Sparrows fart. Which of these is another word or another phrase for daybreak?

Well, I just love the rancid butter’s melt. I love that. And I would think that might be it, because at daybreak, perhaps, rancid butter melts quicker than good butter. And I don’t, and the yellow, oh, God.

Martha, what do you think?

Well, then again, what do sparrows do?

Yeah, I mean, it beats fast. I mean, all the birds are up.

That’s true.

They wake up early in the morning, usually before.

Oh, that’s true.

That’s right at dawn.

I don’t know if they do that anymore at dawn than any other particular time of the day. But this is ringing a vague bell for me somehow.

Which one is?

The sparrow.

Really?

But I couldn’t tell you why. I mean, it almost sounds like a translation from another language or something. Or some, you know, military slang.

I don’t know.

Well, I really like that I’m a little funky, so I’m going with the rancid sputter.

Okay.

All right. Well, you know, the real one is sparrow’s fart. But I got to tell you, maybe we’re going to start something here. You gave him a whole backstory to Rancid Buttersmouth. I’m like, oh, I didn’t think of that when I wrote that.

No, here’s the thing. I mean, we can be a little gross or, you know, uncouth here and just say, what do humans do in the morning? Well, certain bodily functions take place and probably the same thing with animals. And you both touched upon something very true. In the morning at daybreak, if you’re in the country, and maybe you’ve forgotten this, Martha, you can actually hear the waves of the birds twittering as they pass from the east to the west.

Yeah, they’re really high tech. But in any case, I was hoping that you guys would follow that path and think of that.

Well, I want to thank you, Don, for playing with us today. This was great fun.

Thank you for having me. It was delightful. Nice to talk to you. Best of luck in your job hunt. I hope that there is a librarian in need of somebody clever.

Oh, boy, do I ever also.

Thanks a lot.

All right. Thank you. Take care of yourself.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

You can find out more about the National Puzzlers League at puzzlers.org. And you can call us anytime about any aspect of language. The number is 1-877-929-9673. That’s 1-877-W-A-Y-W-O-R-D. Or send email to words@waywordradio.org.