Coinkydinks and Big Boxes

You’re listening to “A Way with Words.”

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and Martha, did you see what happened with that column that I ran the other day?

The one in the Malaysia Star where I wrote about words that people mispronounce on purpose?

Oh my gosh, yes!

I’m not alone!

No, you’re not!

That was amazing!

I saw all these blog entries about it.

Let me catch everyone up here.

What I wrote about is words that I mispronounce on purpose, and one of the words is, for example, “muscles.”

I say it like Popeye sometimes.

Instead of saying “muscles,” I say “muscles,” or I say “computor” instead of “computer.”

I mimic Ned Beatty in the Superman movies when he says, “Lex Luthor,” I say “computor,” and there’s a ton— I say “toilet” instead of “toilet,” and there’s a ton of this stuff.

And judging by the conversations I’ve seen online, everyone does this.

On Jason Kotke’s blog at Kotke.org, there were something like 250-plus comments of people contributing words that they say wrong on purpose.

It was amazing!

People just picked that up and ran with it.

And you have good speech and good language, but I bet you mispronounce a few things on purpose, right?

Per-zak-tly!

Per-zak-tly, yeah.

I think I made a mistake with “per-zak-tly” in the column.

It’s a blend of “precisely” and “exactly,” right?

Mm—

At least that’s the way I use it.

Abstatively, pozzolutely.

There we go!

There we go.

And you know what?

I’d love to open up the email channel and the telephone to everyone else to contribute the words that they mispronounce on purpose.

This stuff is fun.

I want more of it.

The email address is words@waywordradio.org.

Or call us.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant.

This is Rev. Ruth from Shellsburg, Pennsylvania.

I came across a phrase that I have used all my life that some of my folks here at the church that I’m the pastor of weren’t familiar with when I used it.

And the phrase was “by way of Robin Hood’s barn.”

And you would use that how?

Well, I would use it to mean the long way, the scenic way, or by any way other than the most direct route, which comes from my family, which is from Texas and New York, and both sides use it approximately the same way.

Really?

Both sides?

Both sides.

And the first time I remember hearing the phrase, I was about six years old, and my grandmother and I had been at the store, and we went into their house in Texas, and my grandfather looked up and said, “What’d you do? Come home by way of Robin Hood’s barn?”

Love it!

And of course, I look and he goes, “What does that mean?”

And he said, “Well, that just means the long way.”

And of course, my grandmother said, “No, we just stopped to talk to everybody.”

And then later that same summer, my grandfather in Florida and I were going out, and we were going someplace that I knew how to get to on Route 1, which is the Dixie Highway, and we didn’t go to Route 1.

We went some other way.

And I said, “Gramps, why are we doing this?”

And he said, “Because this time of day, it’s easier to go by Robin Hood’s barn.”

Oh my gosh.

So you’ve had this all your life, and you used it with other people, and they just looked at you like…

Yeah.

And I’ve used it.

I’ve lived in Massachusetts.

I’ve lived in other parts of the country, and people never seem to blink an eye at it.

But I said this, and we were coming home, ironically enough, by way of country roads.

And we were just talking about how beautiful those roads were, and what a pleasurable thing it was to drive along.

And I said, “Yeah, I love these old roads where you can go by way of Robin Hood’s barn to get to places, and you’re not really going out of the way.”

And it was just these blank stairs.

Isn’t this a wonderful expression, Grant?

I just…

I love it.

When you say it, people sometimes don’t know what you’re talking about and say so, but sometimes they just don’t say anything.

Do you think they’re just letting you go by with that because they think it’s something you made up on the spot, or do you think that they’re understanding you?

I think they’re understanding me, but maybe they’re not.

It’s hard to tell because there is that propensity of people not to let on that they don’t know what you’re talking about.

Exactly.

When you’re calling for relief, you want to know that you’re not a crazy woman who says crazy things.

Well, yeah, especially since I got it from two different sides of the family.

Well, craziness is inherited, so…

Well, that is true.

I am in the ministry, and it sometimes goes hand in hand.

Oh, yeah?

The reason we know it’s interesting is because we can tell you a few things about it.

Well, that’s good.

Yeah.

I mean, it’s a pretty straightforward. If you think about it, Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor, and he lived out there in Sherwood Forest, and so he kept his stuff out there.

And so if you’re talking about Robin Hood’s barn, it’s sort of figurative. It’s all this big expanse. So if you’re going around Robin Hood’s barn or going all through Robin Hood’s barn, it’s a lot of ground to cover.

Well, exactly. I know that it doesn’t go all the way back to the time of Robin Hood, which I think was, what, the 12th, 13th century, something like that?

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s pretty. It’s like King Richard and King John, so.

Yeah, but it’s a pretty old expression.

Right. The first use that I can find of it is from a Philadelphia magazine called The Reflector in 1806, and I’m looking at the newspaper databases here, and it’s a fairly standard use, but they don’t give any clue as to when or where it originated, and, you know, obviously it’s older than that.

This is just the first printed use that we can find. So we’re talking about an expression that’s more than 200 years old.

So that’s another thing I like about this. It’s very interesting to me that you can know it and your family can know it, but so many people don’t, even though it’s that old.

It does appear pretty quickly by, I think, the 1850s in the United Kingdom. It’s possible that it originated there.

When we’re talking about stuff that’s more than 200 years old, the cultural meshing of the United Kingdom and the United States of America was much different then. We were more intermeshed, so it’s possible that it originated there.

Yeah, well, Ruth, I think we’ve kind of gone all around Robin Hood’s barn here, but we’ve given you some stuff to work with, huh?

So that’s very helpful. Now I don’t feel quite like, when I get funny looks, like, you know, I’m using something that’s unique to us.

That’s right. Just get a little funny like that. Walk tall, Robin. Walk tall.

Yes.

All right. Well, Ruth, thanks for calling.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you’d like to speak with us, give us a call. The number is 1-877-9299673, or you can email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello. You have A Way with Words.

Hi. This is Mary McCormick.

Well, hello, Mary. Where are you calling from?

New Jersey.

New Jersey. Where in New Jersey?

Livingston.

What exit?

What exit?

145.

Okay, great.

All right. I’ll be right over. You have the pie ready. What’s on your mind, Mary?

Well, I have a little curious thing with my nephew who we had a pronunciation dispute about the Beaux Arts style of architecture, E-A-U-X.

Is this what aunts and nephews usually talk about together?

Yeah. Isn’t it a little strange?

Well, he is a… Martha will love this. He’s a classics major at Fordham.

All right. So we were driving through D.C. And he happened to mention something about the Beaux Art architecture and I thought, “What?” And I said, “Do you mean Beaux Art?” And he said, “No, it’s pronounced Beaux Art.”

Wait a minute. Is he talking about little beaux on the building? Beaux on the building or maybe boyfriend art. I wasn’t sure.

So, of course, his mother agreed with him that it was indeed pronounced Beaux Art.

Oh. This is your sister?

This is my sister, yeah.

Okay.

Now, is she doing this because she was just sticking up for her son or because she actually thinks that’s how it’s pronounced?

I think a little of both.

So the word that we’re talking about here is, it’s a French term, right?

Yes.

And it’s B-E-A-U-X hyphen A-R-T.

That’s correct.

All right.

Right.

So now why in the world would your nephew say Beaux Art?

I don’t know.

That’s a great question.

Well, wait.

You asked us.

Well, because apparently he had a world history teacher that told him it was hyper foreignism to say Beaux Art.

Oh, now, wait a minute.

That’s interesting.

So you’re saying, Mary, that Beaux Art is the correct pronunciation?

Yes.

That’s what I’m saying.

And I’m agreeing with Mary.

Way to go.

With a T sound at the end.

Yes.

Beaux Art.

All right.

I’m going to argue with both of you then.

I should say Beaux Art.

It should be Beaux Art without the T at the end.

That’s hyper foreignism.

That’s actually correct French.

The hyper foreignism is to actually get the lesion between the X and the A correct, but actually leave the T on, which is an anglophone way of pronouncing the word.

Yeah, but we’ve adopted this into English.

I mean…

Well, then the question is, if you’re going to adopt it that far, why not take your nephew’s pronunciation, which would be adopted even further?

Well, see, that’s what I said to him.

Why not just say fine art, which is the translation?

Right.

Boy, that’s hyper borrowing.

But, okay, so he’s studying classics at Fordham University, which is a great school.

And I don’t know why he just couldn’t adopt the really fancy pants, pretentious pronunciation, because if he’s going to get away with it anywhere, it’s going to be there.

Right.

New York.

Well, you guys, I’m looking at a few English language dictionaries, and I’m seeing the pronunciations Beaux-Ar and Beaux-Art, and I see one with Beaux-Arts, but I don’t see any that drops that Z sound.

Very good.

I think that’s the problem.

That’s where I would disagree with him, is dropping that Z sound.

And I also don’t think that it’s really a hyper-foreignism either.

I think that’s when you mispronounce a foreign word, like a lot of people say coup de grace, when it’s actually coup de grace, which is, you know, the final stroke, the stroke of mercy.

And coup de grace is actually blow of fat, or stroke of fat.

So I get to gloat, is the bottom line.

I know, but this is why I was kind of saying that the teacher who said it was a hyper-foreignism had a point, because you are pronouncing the T on the end, which is incorrect.

So if you’re going to attempt the French pronunciation, you would leave that T sound off.

Right, but I don’t think that she’s attempting the French pronunciation, right?

You’re talking about what’s been adopted into English, right?

Correct.

That’s only one of the adopted pronunciations, right?

But in any case, your nephew’s wrong no matter which way you look at it.

Oh, very good.

And your sister, too.

It’s more so that my sister is…

She’s going to get her back for all those years of hogging the bathroom.

Absolutely.

No, that’s very interesting.

Yeah, I just don’t see any evidence at all that you would ever take out the Z sound, regardless of what you do at the end of that word.

Right, yeah.

The Z sound’s kind of important, and actually I think it makes the word really nice to hear.

And there’s clarity, because I didn’t know what “bouart” was.

Well, you know, it’s the picture of the mermaid on the front of the boat, right?

That’s the Z, yeah.

No, that’s “bouart.”

Oh, okay.

I’m thinking of the thing you bring home from kindergarten where you take the little bow-tie pasta and you glue it to the paper, and then mom puts it on the fridge.

Tell him that’s “bouart.”

Well, Mary, thank you for your call.

I hope this turns out well and doesn’t turn into, like, fisticuffs when you’re…

Oh, no, not at all.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks.

That’s a lie.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you’ve got a question about pronunciation, give us a call.

Martha and I are sure to argue about it.

1-877-929-9673.

Or you can email us at words@waywordradio.org.

You know, Grant, there’s a magazine called The Bookseller, and every year they run a contest for the most strangely named books of the year.

Have you seen this contest?

No, but this sounds exactly like my sort of thing.

What is it?

It’s a contest in which they counted up about 8,500 votes, and this is a contest that historically has called to our attention books like How to Avoid Huge Ships, High Performance Stiffened Structures, Living with Crazy Buttocks, and things like that.

But I thought you’d be interested in this year’s winners.

Third place went to Cheese Problems Solved.

I am getting that book immediately.

Too many holes!

Another entrant this year was I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen, but the winner overall was a self-help guide called If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs.

FYI.

What do they mean?

Will you explain that to me?

I’ll get you a book.

Well, if you’ve got a bad book title to suggest, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Up next on A Way with Words, it’s a word puzzle, and we’ll take more of your calls. On both sides of town.

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and in the studio with us today is the fabulous and wonderful John Chonesky, our quiz guy.

Hi, Grant.

Hi, Martha.

I am in the studio today.

I had no idea where I was for a little while.

Usually we make him stand on the street, but today we let him in.

But things are good.

I’m so glad.

Thank you.

You got a quiz?

Yes, I do.

Let’s do a quiz.

You know, a very common sort of word play that you often find in a crossword theme is when you remove the first letter of a word and you get another word.

For example, if you take the first letter off the word “bring,” you get “ring.”

Which sounds like a “brrring.”

“Brrring.”

Yeah.

Okay.

I’ll call this a takeoff since you take off the first letter.

Okay?

Okay.

So what we’ll do today is takeoffs of some common phrases or famous titles.

Now these will be two or three or four word phrases.

Remember, I need you to give me the phrase after the letter has been taken off the front of the phrase.

Okay?

Okay.

Let’s give it a shot.

Let’s start with an easy one.

One of the most famous phrase takeoffs of all time, I think, this was the title of a 1984 Weird Al Yankovic parody of a Michael Jackson hit.

Sure.

“Eat It.”

“Eat It.”

Right.

It was his parody of “Beat It.”

Right.

Appropriately, the song title is merely a takeoff of the Jackson song title, “Eat It to Beat It.”

Good.

Thank you.

So that was from album “Thriller,” was it?

That’s right.

It’s from Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller.”

Let’s move on.

This one shouldn’t be a problem.

Originally, it was the title of a boxing film starring Robert De Niro.

Now, it describes a head of cattle that’s perhaps getting on in years.

Aging bull.

Aging bull.

Right.

I was thinking, “Aki?

What?”

Well, I like my beef age but not in that way.

Not that old.

Let’s move on.

Originally, this was Margaret Mitchell’s most famous novel.

Now, it can describe a nirvana-like state that may be achieved by a Buddhist who likes to sail.

Margaret Mitchell.

Margaret Mitchell’s famous novel about the south.

One with the wind.

Oh, one with the wind.

One with the wind.

I was thinking, “Isn’t that called ‘Gome with the Wind?'”

It’s not phonetically a takeoff.

It’s just letter-wise.

Very good.

Originally, it was a tarot card or a very popular game show.

Now, this phrase can describe a physical feature of the Greek character Achilles, especially if it had been lucky instead of unlucky.

So, “Heal of Fortune.”

“Heal of Fortune” is correct.

Oh, very good.

And so, Anna White’s the one that turns the title.

Anna White.

Anna White.

Very good.

She’d like to buy a continent.

Moving on.

Originally, it’s a place where polite manners and etiquette are taught.

Now, it describes a dojo for ninjas.

I got that one.

Oh, you do?

I’m at a loss.

“Charm School” turning into “Harm School.”

“Harm School” is turning “Harm School” to “Charm School.”

Thank you.

More backwards.

Here’s the next.

Yes.

Originally, it’s the title of a James Taylor song.

Now, it describes the scene at Yankee Stadium last week.

Yankee fans were pretty angry that the season opener had been postponed due to inclement weather.

“I’ve seen iron, I’ve seen rain.”

That’s right.

I’ve seen some pretty iron Yankee fans.

Oh, man.

“I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.”

Grant, I’m eating your dust.

That was “Iron Rain” or “Fire and Rain”?

“Fire and Rain.”

I do like that song, even though it’s completely kind of overplayed, but still.

Yeah.

It’s a lovely song.

Okay.

Just a few more.

“It’s what you should drink when taking two aspirin.”

Now, this might be a way to describe a lovely Irish mermaid.

“Odka?”

No.

You take “Odka” with your aspirin?

That’s how they say it.

That’s a woman’s name in “mermish,” isn’t it?

“Hisky.”

What did you drink when you take two aspirin?

“Odder.”

“A gulp.”

“Aider?”

“You drink…”

“Glass?”

“Cup?”

“Sip?”

Probably water.

“Lass?”

“Lass!”

So…

And what do you get?

“Lass of water?”

I’m sorry.

What?

What’s the mermaid part again?

Now, this might be a way to describe a lovely Irish mermaid.

Oh.

And it’s not “Lass of Water”?

It is “Lass of Water.”

Oh, okay.

Oh, “Lass of Water.”

“Lass of Water,” “Glass of Water.”

Oh, okay.

“Lass of Water.”

Okay, I like this one.

Originally, this referred to meeting someone in person without an intermediary, remove a letter and let me tell you, if you play tennis against Roger Federer, you might get one of these right in the punum.

Oh, so face-to-face.

“Ace-to-face.”

“Ace-to-face.”

Very nice.

“Face-to-face.”

Okay.

Here’s the last one.

I think this one’s good for A Way with Words.

Here we go.

Originally, this meant adjectives, adverbs, prepositions.

With a letter removed, it means oratory, debate, projection, breath control.

“Arts of speech.”

“Arts of speech.”

And that was quite artfully done.

Very good.

It’s a bit of “parts of speech.”

“Parts of speech.”

Grant, you are amazing at taking off.

What are you—?

What?

What?

Oh, pun.

He just ate— Sorry, I had my pun glasses on.

I can’t see any pun—.

Did I hear what I think I heard?

What?

Oh, my gosh.

Poor devil is shivering.

I have no idea what you’re talking about there at all.

John, it’s been highly amusing.

I had a great time, too.

And Martha is cracking herself up, so we’re all having fun.

John, that’s amazing.

Do you know how hard it is to get a pun out of this guy?

You have really warmed him up.

That’s awesome.

I’ll put it on my resume.

You know what?

Yeah.

Anyway, thanks so much, John.

This was tremendous fun.

Thank you, Grant.

Thank you, Martha.

All right.

Thank you.

And the pipeline to send us email is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, there.

This is Amanda calling from La Farge, Wisconsin.

Amanda?

Yes.

How are you?

I’m well.

How are you guys doing?

Super.

Doing quite well.

What’s up?

I have two questions.

And the first one is I’ve been looking for a word that I once heard, and I don’t know if I’d be able to recognize it if I heard it.

But the meaning of it is the social path that gets created.

It’s a noun, and it’s a walking path that gets created from people, say, walking across the lawn on a college campus.

Not an actual paved path, but because it’s the best, most natural path from point A to point B.

Oh, wow.

Yes.

I do know the word for that.

You do know the word for it.

Well, it’s — I don’t.

What is it?

I’m waiting with bated breath because I’ve been looking for it for years.

Oh, me too.

In urban planning, they call that a desire path.

A desire path.

If you look it up, it’s in urban planning books right and left, up and down.

It’s the most standard term that I know of for that, because people walk where they desire.

Right.

Well, and my second question is about this, and I thought it was another word.

I thought it was a single word, but I could just be remembering it wrong, is that if you have a word that you’re looking for, how do you find a really sophisticated thesaurus to find such a word?

And I don’t know if desire path was what I was thinking or what I remember, but it could have been so long that I just don’t remember anymore.

What’s the best way to look up a unique word?

Well, in this particular case, I don’t think a thesaurus is the tool that you want.

And actually, I usually — and this is going to surprise a lot of people — I actively try to dissuade people from using them.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

Well, because people — and I know this from the work that I’ve done as a lexicographer, somebody who — you know, I’ve worked on a thesaurus before and I’ve worked on many dictionaries.

I’ve seen the studies that show how people use thesauruses and they tend to use them incorrectly.

What they tend to do is use them as a way to come up with a word to substitute for another word.

But the problem is they’ll grab any old word out of the thesaurus entry without really knowing what it means and just slot it into their sentence, and they tend to use words incorrectly when they do that.

They tend to have, certainly, sixth graders on up through — almost all the way through college.

That’s the big age where people are using these words.

And they come with these extraordinarily inappropriate phrases.

I guess the classic example — Martha, did you tell me this the other day of the kid who looked up — he said, “My family erodes every night.”

Erode.

Well, erode.

Yeah, E-R-O-D-E.

He looked up the word eat, and he found the eat away had a synonym of erode.

My family eats out every night is what he meant to say, but he thought he was talking fancy, so he used the word erode.

And that’s kind of an extreme case, but people do that all the time, especially when they’re learning a foreign language.

Yeah, that could be a real danger, right?

People do it in English, too.

So what I would persuade you to do is to go online.

There are a number of different places where you can find this, but the one that I use is onelook.com has a reverse dictionary.

You’ll find the link for it at the bottom of the page.

I’m not associated with them in any way.

I just like what they do there.

And you type in the concept, kind of keep it brief, and they’ll come up with a bunch of entries that might be related to the concept that you typed in, and it works pretty well.

Huh.

Well, that’s great.

I’m looking forward to using the reverse dictionary from now on.

Thanks so much.

I appreciate it.

Okay.

Thanks for calling.

Thanks for giving us a ring, Amanda.

Bye-bye.

You know, Grant, we should point out, too, the origin of the word thesaurus, which I just love.

In Latin, thesaurus means “treasury.”

Oh, I thought it was related to the verb for “beat about the head and neck with a book.”

It’s not?

No.

No, no.

Treasury.

So it’s like a treasury of language.

Yeah.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

It is nice.

If you’ve got a question about language, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

We have A Way with Words.

Hi, Martha and Grant.

My name is Zola.

Hello.

Zola.

Yes.

Fabulous name.

And I’m from San Diego.

And I had a question.

I’ve been a longtime listener and a fan of the show, love the show, love the show.

And I was wondering if you can help me with this term.

It’s a military slang term that I’ve heard.

It’s Jody, and I think it’s spelled J-O-D-Y.

And basically, I have a couple of friends in the army, and they’ve used this term to refer to guys back home who steal the soldier’s girlfriends or steal the soldier’s wives.

Whoa.

Yeah.

And for example, they would use it, “Yeah, Jody’s got a girl, and he’s gonna go take her out,” or something like that.

So I’m hoping you guys can help me find the origin of Jody and Y-A-Jody, and if it’s spelled J-O-D-Y-Y-J-O-D-Y.

Yeah.

And if it’s just one guy.

Yeah.

It is usually J-O-D-Y.

So military slang, there’s so much of it.

It comes across my plate every day.

It’s good stuff.

And this is a great, great, well-known piece of military slang that I so totally enjoy because it’s just an insight into the mind of the soldier, which here’s a man.

Let’s talk about the man.

We’ll leave the female soldiers out of it for a minute.

Here’s a man who’s halfway around the world.

He’s left his house, his wife, his kids, maybe his job, everything that he knows, his friends, where he grew up, his family, everything.

And he’s really worried about protecting all that, right?

So in his mind, you know, there’s a predator on the other side of the world who is like moving in with his wife, you know, and, you know, taking over his home.

And the name for this guy, as you say, is Jody.

It’s J-O-D-Y.

There’s a great description of Jody in an article from 1965 in the Journal of American Folklore.

And it’s that mythical figure who stays at home and, after the soldier has been inducted, steals his girl, his liquor, and runs off with his clothes and his Cadillac.

Oh, my gosh.

But David Moore is a name you probably don’t know, but he was a slang researcher.

He did some work on this expression in the 1980s, and he published a small article about it.

And he’s made some connections here to the Jody that our soldiers use today to an older form of it called Joe the Grinder or, get this, Joe D. Grinder.

Oh.

Right.

Exactly.

Oh, that’s when the first time I saw them, I was like, “Oh, that makes sense.”

So the older name was Joe the Grinder or Joe D. Grinder, and it was shortened later to Jody.

So grinding as in?

Well, yeah, grinding is slang for, you know, getting it on.

So Jody’s the guy who’s getting it on with your girl while you’re off fighting battles, right?

Exactly.

All right.

So he did a little bit of work, and he found that — here’s another name.

I think I mentioned him before on the show, Martha, but Alan Lomax, you remember him?

Mm—

The music guy.

Alan Lomax was the — that music guy, that’s right, the ethnomusicologist who traveled around the country recording the old folk tunes.

He recorded one from a black American man in Arkansas in the late 1930s that has this guy, Joe the Grinder, in it.

And this Joe the Grinder in these lyrics is the same Joe the Grinder or Jody that the American soldiers talk about.

It’s all a complicated story, but this character, this guy who’s preying on your wife and stealing your Cadillac while you’re away, shows up in the 1940s in prison lore, in military marching songs, and sometimes in prison — Right, cadences, yeah.

Yeah, and cadences, that’s right, prison work crews, and even in some of the songs of itinerant agricultural workers.

You know, if you can think of the men working in long rows out in the field singing, you know?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

And the cadences are where most soldiers know it today.

They still use these chants, and I found one here, and if you’ll stick with me, I’ll read a couple lines of it.

You interested in this?

Ain’t no use in calling home, Jody’s on your telephone.

Ain’t no use in looking back, Jody’s got your Cadillac.

Ain’t no use in going home, Jody’s got your girl and gone.

Ain’t no use in feeling blue, Jody’s got your sister too.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my gosh.

Wow.

Well, thank you so much.

I’ve always wondered what that was up about, but thank you, I appreciate it.

We’ll post some more information about Jody on the website.

I’m going to try to find that Alan Lomax song that he recorded, and I’m pretty sure I can at least find the text from some of the military cadences, and we’ll post those because they’re a lot of fun.

They’ve always got a dark humor that I appreciate.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Well, Zola, thanks for a really interesting question.

Thanks, Martha.

Thanks, Grant.

You’re welcome, and I hope I helped.

You did.

Thanks.

All right.

Super duper.

Take care.

Thanks.

Bye.

You know, Grant, you had me worried there because back when I was a cub reporter in Kentucky, I was sent to Fort Knox to follow a guy through basic training.

And boy, some of those military songs, some of those cadences, and they were cleaning them up because I was there.

Oh, right.

Right.

I mean, oh, my gosh, they’re filthy.

Oh, but, you know, and I’ve given the short version of this.

I bet you have.

I’ll try to find some longer information to post online about Jody and the things that Jody’s been up to.

Shame on Jody.

It’s a great — Jody is a great folk character that still shows up in military.

And in an era when we think that we’re beyond myth and we’re beyond superstition and we’re beyond folk legends, here he is.

He still exists, and he still talked about.

That’s right.

He’s like this mythical monster or something.

We do love questions about military language, and there’s tons of it.

So give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-929-WORD.

Or email us, words@waywordradio.org.

Martha, we were talking earlier about words that we mispronounce on purpose, and we agreed, right, that we both do it.

Right.

And we don’t do it because we’re stupid or we don’t want to irritate other people.

We do it because it’s fun.

Right.

It’s just a way of goofing off with language, which is one of the cool things.

Language can take it.

You know, language can take a lot of fooling around before it breaks.

And I also mentioned on Jason Kocchi’s blog, there was a long discussion where people used the short column that I wrote is a huge launching point to contribute their own words that they mispronounce.

I highly recommend you look it up.

One of my favorites, and it’s not a word that I mispronounce or at least I didn’t used to on purpose, but I think I will now, it’s “impossible” rendered as “impost-a-bowl.”

Impost-a-bowl?

Impost-a-bowl.

Like a pulse bowl of pasta, impost-a-bowl.

I like it.

There’s something cool about it.

It’s got a nice feel to it.

Impost-a-bowl.

I like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you have any that you mispronounce on purpose?

Oh, impost-a-bowl.

I mean, that makes me think of people talking about a pigment of their imagination, but that’s not…

Well, what about this?

Do you ever call the department chain Target, Tar-jay?

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

That’s a big one.

Lots of people do that one.

Yeah, Tar-jay and Cro-jay, at least in the Midwest, for Kroger.

Oh, right.

There’s a chain of stores in the Midwest called Kroger.

We have those in Missouri, but my brother and I, we called them K-Roger.

Nice.

Well, after Kmart, you know?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nice.

And also, you know, there are words that we mispronounce that kind of call back to the mispronunciations that other people make that they don’t know they’re making, like “ly-berry.”

Yep.

Right?

Or “chimbly” and “fam-bly.”

“Fam-bly” I use all the time.

There’s something really appealing and warm, actually, about the pronunciation “fam-bly,” at least to me.

You do, yeah.

Well, in any case, if you’ve got some of this stuff, we’d love to hear about the things that you say wrong on purpose.

The email address is words@waywordradio.org, and the phone number is 1-877-929-9673.

Get ready for our game about weird words from the edges of English.

That’s coming up next on “A Way with Words.”

Stay tuned.

You’re listening to “A Way with Words.”

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And it’s time for “Slang This,” the puzzle where you guess the meaning of strange slang terms.

Today’s contestant is Dorothea Gillum of Boston, Massachusetts.

Dorothea, welcome.

Thank you.

Say hello to Grant.

Hi, Grant.

Hello, Dorothea.

And, you know, I should point out, before we go any further, that Dorothea is not just any word nerd.

She’s the creator and executive producer of the PBS animated series “Word Girl.”

So Dorothea, tell us who Word Girl is and what she does.

Well, Word Girl is a 10-year-old superhero who can bend, steal, and fly at the speed of sound, and she knows every word in the dictionary and some hieroglyphics, too.

Oh, she would have been my role model when she was young.

Do you have a favorite slang term?

You know, I don’t know if I have a favorite slang term, but I have one that caught my ear recently.

In the boat.

I’d never heard that expression before, but one of our casting directors here, we were talking about an upcoming Word Girl record, and we were having trouble nailing down one of our actors, who will remain nameless, and the casting director said, “Well, you know, better to go with someone else who’s in the boat.”

In the boat?

And I had to ask him what that meant, and it meant, it’s, I guess, a fishing term, where instead of you’re reeling someone in, you’ve got, it’s like a sure thing.

It’s in the boat.

It’s the fish you’ve already landed.

Have you heard that before?

I haven’t, but explaining it with the fishing imagery really works, because it’s the fish you’ve already landed, rather than shooting for the fish that you haven’t caught yet, right?

Exactly.

Well, let’s move on to our game.

Dorothea Grant’s going to give you a slang term, and then he will give you three sentences that suggest what that term could mean.

Now, only one of those will be real, and the other two examples will be fake.

So your task will be to guess which sentence illustrates how this slang term is really used.

Now, chances are, you won’t have heard the word before, so the trick is going to be to puzzle out its meaning.

And since Word Girl can’t be here to be a lifeline, I’ll be standing by to help you if you get stuck.

Okay?

Great.

All right.

Here we go.

All right.

So we’re going to have two terms for you to guess today, and the first one is pelican crossing.

And the two words are pelican crossing, and the sample sentences are, “Nigel hammered on the button at the pelican crossing, but the traffic light didn’t change.”

And the second sample sentence, “On the day of this year’s pelican crossing, those gleaming white sails looked like flocks of seabirds headed for open water. It was the first day of great sailing this year.”

And the third one, “The ferry didn’t stop, but came just close enough so that we could make a pelican crossing by leaping across the dark water to the dock.”

So is a pelican crossing a pedestrian-controlled crosswalk?

Is it the first good sailing day of the year, or is it disembarking a ship by jumping across open water?

Wow.

That’s a tough one.

It is a tough one.

What would you say if I told you that this term is British?

Oh, well, that changes everything.

Because, let’s see, pelican crossing.

Well, I love the image of the last one.

I do, too.

That the idea that someone would leap like a pelican between the boat and the dock is very graceful and beautiful.

Yeah, and there should be a word for that, too.

There really should be a word for that, although my father’s a sailor, and I’ve been in that position before, and it’s not always done gracefully.

Yeah, it’s the “don’t get wet” crossing.

Yeah, usually, you’re more like a scared cat, duck running for the dock.

Which one are you keen on?

I’m keen on the middle one.

So you’re thinking of first good sailing day of the year.

Yeah.

It sounds British, and it sounds like it should have a name.

Well, the reason I offered you that second clue that it sounds British is because I included in my first sentence the name “Nigel,” because indeed, the pelican crossing is a pedestrian-controlled crosswalk.

That’s hilarious.

It is.

Now, I’ve heard them call the — well, I guess that’s just the crosswalk in Britain called a zebra.

Well, right.

A zebra crossing is — but that’s just about the paint on the road and whether or not it’s pedestrian-controlled or not.

It’s not quite an acronym.

The pelican comes from the words “pedestrian-like control.”

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Well, it’s the P-E from pedestrian, the L-I from light, and the C-O-N, although it’s the wrong spelling, from control.

Oh.

Dorothea, who knew?

You got me with the an acronym.

All right.

Well, let’s try another one and see how you do on this one, all right?

Okay.

So the second term is “zanjero.”

It’s a term used in the American Southwest in the dialect of Spanish that is spoken there.

And the first sample sentence is, “Sanjero, she cried, as the bus for Santa Fe left the station without her. Driver, wait!”

The second sentence, “With a deft movement, the sanjero swiveled the board that diverts the water to canals surrounding the orchard.”

And the third sentence, “Plucky young sanjeros from the suburbs often try their hand at hunting roadrunners, believing that the birds are as hard to catch in real life as they are in cartoons.”

So which of these meanings is the correct one used in the Spanish spoken in the American Southwest?

Is it a word for bus driver?

Is it someone who mechanically controls the flow of irrigation?

Or is it a man from the suburbs who foolishly chases roadrunners?

I really want it to be “C.”

I was imagining, like, guys in pink polo shirts and, like, you know, Kenny loafers.

Yeah.

I hope that there is a phenomenon like that happening in the American Southwest.

I mean, not for the sake of the roadrunners, of course, but…

Well, you know, because cow tippings all played out, you’ve got to have something new, right?

Right, right.

I have a feeling, though, it might be “B.”

Yeah?

Which one was that?

Yeah, I don’t know why, but I feel like it might be a firm term.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I’m going completely on gut here, Grant.

All right, this is your answer?

I have nothing to back me up.

So that’s right.

Yes.

As a matter of fact, it is.

A sanjero is someone who mechanically controls the flow of irrigation.

The word comes from the Spanish words “zanja,” meaning a deep ditch or irrigation ditch, and “zanjon,” which means a ditch rider or overseer.

A ditch rider is somebody who is responsible for making sure that the ditch isn’t dammed up or isn’t blocked and the water is flowing to the crops like it should.

So there you go.

Nice work there.

Well, thank you.

I, phew, redeemed myself.

That’s right.

You’re batting 500.

Well, Dorothea, thank you so much for playing our game today.

Oh, it was a pleasure.

Thank you so much for having me.

And hey, as a special thank you gift, we’re going to send you a brand new book.

It’s called “Sapphire’s Political Dictionary,” and get this, it’s signed by the author himself, William Sapphire.

Really?

Mm—

Wow, fantastic.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

And if folks want to find out more about Word Girl, they can go to pbskids.org/wordgirl, right?

That’s right.

All right.

If a question about language is puzzling you, give Word Woman and Word Man a call right here at 1-877-929-9673, or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Oh, hi.

This is Tom McClure from Pittsburgh.

Well, hello, Tom.

What’s going on?

Hi, Tom.

Hi, how are you guys?

I’m doing fine.

Super-duper.

I noticed some things in print, some newspapers, people writing an outraged letter as opposed to a letter of outrage, and I’ve noticed that this has gone into print a few times by respected newspapers, and it sounds a little off to me because I don’t see how a letter can be outraged itself.

You know what I mean?

Like the letters screaming and turning red in the face and waving its arms.

Yeah, but I imagine this, yes, this visual one, it just wasn’t working for me, except for an amusing way, but…

Yeah, well, Tom, you’ve zeroed in on something that people call hypology.

Okay.

Are you familiar with that word, hypology?

No, but I’m willing to learn.

All right.

All right.

Well, here’s how you spell it, it’s H-Y-P-A-L-L-A-G-E, hypology.

And in language, that’s when a modifier seems to be misplaced or misapplied, like for example, maybe you had a restless night last night.

Did you?

Fairly.

Fairly.

Yes, I did.

Right.

Well, actually…

You were born in the house, so…

Oh, my gosh.

At least it’s a little sketchy.

Oh, congratulations.

A little sketchy.

That’s great news, though.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Exactly.

So your baby might have been restless and you might have been restless, but actually the night wasn’t restless, but we still say it was a restless night, right?

Sure.

Yeah.

And I saw a great one recently because I was flying and I was in the airplane laboratory and I looked up and here’s this sign that says, “Air sick bags.”

And I thought, “Oh, no. I hope they’re not.”

We might need them, yeah.

Or what if these bags are air sick and puke on me?

You know, it’s one of those things if you look too hard at it, you can start getting these funny little images in your head, like bags that are about to barf and like you said, letters that are angry.

Right.

A red-faced letter.

Yeah, exactly.

Outraged letters.

Right.

Because if you’re taking it too literally, it can be problematic sometimes.

So it’s hypology then.

Hypology.

Yeah.

And it is a rhetorical device that is used sometimes to be poetic or to emphasize something.

You know, Thomas Gray in his beautiful elegy in a country churchyard says, “The plowman homeward plods his weary way.”

I mean, that’s just beautiful, but the way isn’t weary.

He’s weary.

Yeah, yeah.

It’s true.

I read it in print before I noticed it in this case and that I can understand the poetic laces and how it’s used now a little bit better.

Yeah.

What do you think, Grant?

Are you outraged by outraged letter?

No, no.

It doesn’t bother me in the laces.

And I appreciate it as a way of communicating an idea without taking a circuitous route to the letter written by the outraged person.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Well, Tom, thanks so much.

I hope you don’t have too many restless nights.

No, my anger level is definitely gone down a few notches thanks to your help.

Oh, good.

All right.

Thank you, Tom.

Good.

All right.

Bye-bye, Tom.

Thanks for calling.

Bye.

Bye.

Nice, great, simple question.

I like those.

If you’ve got one, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or pop us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how are you doing?

Hi, great.

Who’s this?

This is Daniel from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Daniel from Chattanooga.

Oh, Daniel.

What’s going on in Chattanooga?

Oh, it’s kind of the devil beating his wife.

Oh, it is?

Yeah.

It’s raining and sunshine at the same time?

Absolutely, and I happen to be standing in a good spot.

-huh.

The devil’s beating his wife, a monkey’s wedding, the jackals are getting married.

There are a lot of terms for when the sun is shining and it’s raining at the same time.

Interesting.

Is that what you called about?

No, actually.

I was calling in reference to the word “janky,” and if you’ve maybe ever heard that word before.

Janky.

Sure.

J-A-N-K-Y, right?

J-A-N-K-Y.

Mm—

And how would you use it, Daniel?

Well, normally, you know, I’d use it to signify like a low-quality workmanship or some sort of thing that was flipshod or barely usable.

But recently I asked someone else about it, and they seemed to consider it a trait of a person, like a state of being, like that’s a janky person and I wouldn’t hang out with them.

So, Daniel, how would you use “janky” to describe an object?

Say, for example, in the sentence like, “Let’s all go for a group bike ride. I don’t want to go. I’ve got this janky bicycle.”

One clatters down the road, you know.

Yeah, that’s exactly right.

That’s exactly how I would use it.

I would say, you know, I don’t want to use that hard drive to archive our data because it’s kind of janky and it might die at any moment, which means it’s kind of suspect and a little we’re not quite sure about how it’s gonna perform and how it’s gonna turn out.

I’ve done some digging on this term and there are a variety of different…

Well, bring it on.

Well, I don’t have much.

I can tell you that it goes back to the early 1990s.

It’s probably older than that, but that’s the first time that I could find it in print on exactly on the Internet.

And the only theory that I’ve seen that makes a little bit of sense or been able to put together that might be related to a dialect use of “jinky” that means having been jinxed or making people feel like they’ve been jinxed, somebody who acts as if they’re a little weird.

Oh, interesting.

Well, that kind of molds it away from what I would ever use it for, but now I can probably use it more effectively.

Well, what you might be finding here is that the word has two different uses, which English abounds with words that are “polysemous,” as they say, which is they have more than one meaning.

Well, sure.

Yeah, that word just sounds like what it is, “janky.”

It sounds like “junky” and “skanky” all mixed together.

It’s just really negative.

Well, I think you’ve helped me clarify what I want to do with it.

All right.

What are you gonna do with it?

Just use it.

Yeah, okay.

You know, I just want to make sure that I’m using my slang correctly.

Is that okay?

Sure, sure.

At some point, you’re gonna get too old for that, though, so just keep that in mind.

Yeah, I guess so.

Old people who use young slang are just no good.

They’re kind of janky.

Yeah, kind of creepy, or maybe janky, I don’t know.

It’s like being bald with a ponytail.

Well, thanks, guys.

All right.

Thank you, Daniel.

Thanks for giving us a ring.

All right, thanks, Daniel.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you’ve got a janky understanding of a word and you want us to straighten it out for you, give us a ring, 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAY-WORD.

Or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, hello.

This is Tom Gross from Cross Plains, Wisconsin.

Well, hello, Tom.

How are you?

Hi, Tom.

What’s up, buddy?

Well, I had a question regarding big box stores.

I have been seeing that term recently, I guess mostly in the newspaper, and initially I thought it referred to stores that sold things in big boxes, things like electronics and appliances and stuff like that.

Yeah, right.

For refrigerators and washers and the sort.

Right.

Right.

But no, it seems to be that the term is used to refer to stores that look like big boxes.

In other words, sort of standalone big stores like a Walmart or a Target or something like that.

Right, right.

Exactly.

So it does, but so the big box refers more to the appearance of the store rather than what they sell.

Mm—

And I just wondered if you had any insight into which is correct or which it should be or whether it matters or…

Well, it doesn’t matter, Tom, but it’s an interesting question because it’s one of those pieces of jargon that has left the, let’s say, the developer and architectural world and entered mainstream English.

And you’re right.

Journalists use it a lot.

It’s a great way to refer to these big, big stores that are really nothing but four walls and a ceiling and a bunch of cash registers, right?

Yeah.

And it’s always meant that.

It never really referred to like appliances you would buy in big boxes.

But I can see how you might interpret that because it’s kind of thrown around and they don’t always explain it, right?

Mm—

Yeah, it’s sort of which came first, the big box or the big box that the big boxes come out of.

Yeah, it goes back about 20 years or so.

You can see it come up in a variety of places.

Actually, at just about the same time, the term starts to be used in Canada, in the United States, in the United Kingdom.

So I suspect it was part of the vernacular of the world of building big chain stores, like I’m thinking of the Sam’s Wholesale Clubs, I’m thinking of Costco’s and really massive chain stores, right?

That’s what we’re talking about?

Yeah, and I guess they don’t seem to be the ones that are in malls, they’re sort of standalone.

That’s right.

Right.

So lots of square feet, lots of floor space, and kind of a warehouse with shopping carts, right?

Have either of you heard the term ghost box?

No, is this when you buy a VCR out of the back of someone’s station wagon and it actually turns out to be bricks?

No, you sound like you’ve had personal experience with that, Grant.

No, no, not me.

No, I was reading the other day that a ghost box is one of those big box stores that’s gone out of business and moved.

So all you have in your neighborhood is this giant box with nothing in it.

I could see how that could happen, definitely.

I know that in the town where my parents still live, Walmart has moved three or four times and every time they go, they leave a ghost box behind and they’re not always filled up right away.

Well, Tom, I want to thank you for calling us on this today.

It’s an interesting question.

Well, thank you for dealing with it.

All right, take care.

All right.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you’ve got questions about language, we’d love to tackle them.

Get to the bottom of some jargon or some slang or anything you’ve got to throw at us.

The number to call is 1-877-929-9673 or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Things have come to a pretty pass.

That’s our show, but you can leave us a message anytime.

Give us a piece of your mind by calling 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-929-W-O-R-D.

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Stefanie Levine is our senior producer.

Our technical director and editor is Tim Felten.

We’ve had production help this week from Dana Polakovsky and Michael Bagdasian.

A Way with Words is produced at Studio West in San Diego.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette, inviting you to join us next time right here on A Way with Words.

♪ And I say either, you say neither ♪ ♪ And I say neither, either, either, neither ♪