Cruciverbalists Play Across and Down

(upbeat music) You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett. And I’m Martha Barnette.

And Grant, I have a crossword puzzle clue for you. Shoot. I’m looking for a four letter word.

It ends with the letter D and the clue is, it moves tirelessly.

Any guesses? It moves tirelessly.

Does that mean without tires or it means without tiring? Oh gosh, you’ve already halfway figured it out. (laughing) I don’t know the answer though.

That’s the thing with crosswords, isn’t it?

They’re all these puns and near puns and the use of homographs and homonyms and boy, I don’t know. Yeah, exactly. Four letters ends with a D and means moves tirelessly. Tirelessly, without tires.

You’re right. What is something that moves without tires and ends in a D? And maybe it goes down a hill during the winter. Oh, a sled.

There we go. Isn’t that great?

Yeah. That’s a great one.

I’ve got one for you. Okay, bring it on. All right.

It is seven letters.

I don’t know what the last letter is, but well, I guess I can give you the last letter.

The last letter is a G and it means the close of a day. The close of a day is not evening? It is evening. Well, that was easy. Yeah, but you know where I got it from? Where? The world’s first crossword puzzle. Really? Yeah. You found the world’s first crossword puzzle? Yeah, it’s on the website of Will Shorts. NPR Puzzle Master Will Shorts, funny you should mention him, Grant, since you and I will be appearing at this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament with Will, and I should mention too that at this year’s tournament, you will be doing the play-by-play color commentary during the finals.

The pressure’s on, Grant. I tried a couple last week.

Oh no, I got like five of them. Five of the answers, or you did five puzzles? Five answers total.

Five answers total in one puzzle.

I worked on it for like a half an hour.

But you know what my big impediment is, right? No, what? My resistance to puns. You’re probably thinking about all this obscure technical jargon anyway, and it’s some simple answer like evening or something. I’m actually looking forward to the convention because I suspect that these are our people, Martha. Yes, they are our people, Grant, and I got that one clue about the word sled from the website Crossword Ease, that’s E-S-E dot com.

And I’m gonna toss you some more of those later on in the show, so don’t go to that website.

And in the meantime, if you have a question about language, give us a call, the number’s 1-877-9299673. Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hey, this is Gwen from San Diego. Hiya, Gwen! Well, hello, Gwen. Hey, how you doing?

My question has to do with the use or the origin of the word plum.

Not plum as in a fruit, but more as an exclamatory adjective.

And the only way I know how to sort of further clarify what my question relates to is to tell you a little story about when I was growing up in the South. Great, and where was this? Where in the South? Well, I am an Atlanta native, but lived in Georgia all my life, and my grandparents lived in a little tiny town in North Georgia.

We were visiting my grandparents, as we often did, when I was about four years old.

And at that time, my grandparents had a little dachshund named Brownie.

And we were up there, and I did not know, nor did I understand, that Brownie was with child and expecting a litter any day now.

And I picked the little dog up and turned him upside down and looked at his tummy and said, “Honey, you plummied up with chiggers.” (laughing) Chiggers, by the way, meaning mosquito bites.

Sure, sure.

Oh, not chiggers as in the little red bugs, the little tiny little ticks?

Well, at four years old, to me, chiggers were mosquito bites.

Oh, there we go.

And the little tummy looked like it was covered with mosquito bites, which they were not.

So what do you know about that term, plum?

Is that just an old Southern term?

It’s a wonderful Southern term.

You’re bringing back all kinds of memories for me, Gwen.

I can hear my Aunt Mazo saying something like, “Oh, I don’t know, them puppies been chasing each other ’round and round, and now they’re all plum-tuckered out.”

Exactly, yes.

Right?

I can hear it.

Right.

Well, let me ask you this, Gwen.

Do you know what a plum line is?

Is that something in construction?

Yeah, yeah, the kind of line that has a weight on it?

Yeah.

Right.

So you use a plum line to make sure something’s vertical because that plum line goes straight down to the ground and it’s perfectly perpendicular to a flat surface, right?

Yes.

Now, the plum weight on the end of that was traditionally made out of lead, and the Latin word plumbum means lead.

Oh, you’re kidding.

No.

And the symbol for lead on the elements chart is?

PB, is that right?

I don’t remember.

Yeah, I think it is, yeah.

And Gwen, who’s the person who comes to fix what at least used to be lead pipes in your house?

Oh gosh, a plumber.

A plumber.

Isn’t that amazing?

Yes, it’s amazing.

See the light bulb going on?

It is.

Yes, all right.

But wait a second.

What did you do with chiggers?

Well, we won’t get into that, but other than the fact that the little dog was expecting a litter any day now and it was a little female dog.

Huh.

So they were not chiggers.

Yeah, right.

Well, now, so I guess you’re headed here, Martha.

We’ve seen the transformation then, right?

Clearly we went from plum, meaning something vertical up and down to—

Right, absolutely completely straight as exactly as a plum line.

I never would have guessed that.

Well, thank you all so much for answering my questions.

You’re welcome.

You know, Gwen, it’s not just a southern phrase, although I think that’s one of the places where it’s kind of set up house in the United States.

It actually goes back several hundred years.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much.

You’ve been wanting to see and I love the show.

All right, thanks a lot for calling, Gwen.

Thank you, Grant and Martha.

Thank you, Gwen, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

We’d love to take your calls about southerners, regionalisms, dialect, colloquialisms, and what grandma used to say.

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Alex Ferguson from San Diego, California.

Well, hello, Alex, what’s going on?

Hi, Alex.

Hi, how are you, Martha Grant?

Doing wonderfully well.

I’m doing well as well.

My question has to do with the use of a driver’s license.

It’s in the news a lot lately with a lot of the immigration stuff going on.

Right, especially here.

And we have a big debate at work going on with it for a while, so just kind of would like to know the correct usage, actually.

We, I hear a lot in the news, you know, people saying driver’s license, but if you actually look at the document itself, it’s a driver’s license.

In California.

In California and in Texas.

So I had called my dad up and had him check his driver license.

Huh, and what does it say in Texas?

Driver’s license as well.

Driver’s license, interesting.

And so you’re having a dispute with your coworkers, I guess?

Kind of, it’s just an ongoing discussion.

Somebody will say driver’s license and another person will correct that person to be like driver’s license.

Oh, boy.

And if it, you know, the apostrophe S, if it’s possession, then you might be able to argue, well, what type of license is it?

It’s the driver’s driver’s license.

Okay.

So just like to hear your thoughts on that.

Well, you know, Martha, I just pulled mine out while you guys were talking and mine’s a New York State driver license, so there’s no possessive, there’s no apostrophe S there at all.

And what about yours?

Do you have a California one?

Do you still have a one from Louisville, from Kentucky?

Just because I’m nostalgic, I have my old Kentucky license, which is really pretty, actually.

It’s got this photo of horse farms and rolling fields and a beautiful white fence and it says driver’s license.

(Alex laughing) Alex, do you know what?

We don’t have a really good answer for this question because it’s not standardized yet.

Now, what do you think it, you think it should be just plain old driver license?

I think so, you know, like if you get pulled over for a speeding ticket or something and the cop says, “Let me see your,” I think he should say, “Let me see your driver license.”

Really?

I’m talking about the document itself, but I guess it could be driver’s license if it does say driver’s license.

Well, not much resolution there, Alex, but at least you know that if it really bothers you, you can just move to a different state.

Definitely.

(Alex laughing) Maybe I’ll go to Kentucky.

There you go.

(laughing) There we go, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Idaho.

(Alex laughing) Take your pick.

Thank you guys very much for your time.

Okay, sure thing.

You’re welcome, take care.

Have a great show, bye-bye.

Okay, bye-bye.

You know, Grant, I don’t know, I’ve been looking at my two licenses side by side, driver license and my old Kentucky driver’s license.

And I don’t know, to me, driver license looks so cold.

It looks like the difference between Arial and Times New Roman, you know, the fonts.

It just looks colder without those serifs or something, I don’t know.

The pastries is warm and homey.

Yeah, yeah, this is gonna keep me up tonight, I just know it.

Yeah, have you seen the doctor lately?

(laughing)

You can give us a call at 1-877-929-9673 or email us to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, I’m sure my sister would disagree.

(laughing)

Who is this?

Get her on the line, I’ll straighten her out, buddy.

I have three sisters on my own, I know how to handle them.

This is Ari and I’m calling from Austin, Texas.

Ari!

You sound very young, what are you, like 40 or 50?

Actually, I’m probably the youngest person that’s been on your show, I’m 13.

Oh no, we’ve had some nine year olds and 11 year olds, but I’ll tell you what, you’re one of a very elite group of young people.

Yay.

Congratulations.

So you’ve got a question about language or is this just a prank call?

(laughing)

Well, certainly your refrigerator’s probably running, so I’m just gonna skip that and ask the question.

And I let Prince Albert out of the can a long time ago.

(laughing)

I was wondering, we were talking in the car and the term tomboy came up and then I was just wondering, well, where did the tomb come from?

Because I figured the boy came from the girl acting like a boy, but I didn’t know where the tomb came from, so that started bugging me and then I knew who to call.

Well, there we go.

I’ve got a question for you, Ari, and return for your question.

Do you do spelling bees at all?

Not so much.

All right, well, let me give you then an SAT word that you’ll keep on hand until you start applying for colleges, all right?

Okay.

The word is pleonasm, P-L-E-O-N-A-S-M.

And what it means is a word that contains within itself the same meaning twice or more than once.

And that’s what tomboy is because tomb actually also refers to a male human being.

So tomb and boy both refer to a male human being.

Now tomb generally is a man.

It’s just kind of like the same way you might call somebody Joe, Mac, or Buddy to refer to like some random guy, like a typical fellow, right?

How did it get to a girl that acts like a guy being called a tomboy?

Somewhere in the 1500s, you’re right.

It was originally referred to a boy who was rude or boisterous and somewhere in the 1500s, it just switched.

It became a term to mean a bold or immodest woman.

And then a little later it became the meaning that we know today, which is a girl who behaves like a boisterous boy.

Yeah.

All right, did I lose you there or did I help?

No, that helped.

Well, Ari, this has been fun.

Yeah, all right, see you later.

All right.

See you later.

Well, if you’d like to take part of this Tomfoolery, send us an email at words@waywordradio.org or give us a call at 1-877-9299-673.

Don’t forget about our discussion forum.

There’s lots of activity there and plenty of things to read and plenty of places to leave your own comments.

(upbeat music)

Stay tuned for our slang quiz and we’ll take more of your calls right here on A Way with Words.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

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 have to guess the meaning of some strange slang terms.

Today’s contestant is Amber Wright from San Diego, California.

Amber, welcome.

Thank you.

Say hi to Grant.

Hi, Grant.

Hello, Amber, what’s going on?

Oh, just excited to play the game.

Awesome.

Got my game shoes on.

You got your game shoes on, what do they look like?

Oh, they’re actually embarrassingly purple slippers.

Awesome.

Oh, purple slippers.

Amber, do you there in your slippers have a favorite slang term for us?

Oh yes, well, I often use the term fubard to explain something that is all messed up, such as in the phrase, oh my gosh, this is such a fubard situation, or that guy is so fubard, or, and apparently it’s an acronym, is that how you say that?

That’s right.

Yes.

For—

Right.

(laughs)

Filed up.

F blank, blank, blank, up beyond all recognition.

Yep, filed up beyond all recognition words too.

And I grew up in a very conservative community, and so it was an appropriate way for me to be naughty and say things that are inappropriate.

(laughs)

That’s subversive, you’re subversive, aren’t you?

(laughs)

Well, you can ask my parents about that.

Okay, well Amber, how about if we move on to our game?

Sure.

Okay, Grant’s gonna give you a slang term, and then he’ll give you three sentences that suggest what that term might mean.

Only one of those will be real and the other two are fake, so your task will be to figure out which of those three sentences illustrates how this particular slang term is actually used.

All right.

Now Amber, chances are you haven’t heard the word before, so the trick will be to puzzle out its meaning, you got it?

Got it.

Okay, Grant, take it away.

All right, here we go, we’ve got two words today.

The first word is Beano, B-E-A-N-O.

And it’s not the trade name for the anti-gas food supplement that you take, all right?

And so the three clues.

First clue, the bloke slipped into the pub and had a roaring good Beano busting up tables and throwing their mates down the cellar stairs until the pub owner had to call in constables.

And the second clue, instead of caucuses or primaries, the citizens of colonial Rhode Island held Beano’s.

Each participant was given 20 dried beans to divide among canisters for each of the candidates.

More beans in the can meant more delegates.

And the third clue, new rules at Fenway Park outlawed the Beano, in which Red Sox fans cook up pots of beans behind the opponent’s dugout.

It is believed that the rich smell of mustard, cinnamon, and beans distracts players and throws them off their game.

So there are your three clues, Amber.

Is a Beano British slang for a party, a method of choosing political candidates in colonial Rhode Island, or cooking beans to distract visiting teams at Fenway Park?

Oh, Amber, what do you think?

Wow, I want it to be a British term for a party.

Why?

Just because I wanna use that.

Like, I’m gonna throw an amazing Beano this weekend.

We’re gonna—

Well, your wish is granted.

It is indeed a—

Yes!

Yes, a Beano is just British slang for a party.

We hate. (laughs)

Right, all right, here we go.

Here’s the second one.

The second word is mace, M-A-C-E, and it’s a verb, so to mace.

Okay.

A, the first clue.

Loss prevention managers in the retail business say that these days, most shoplifters mace.

They’re acronym for meat at counter empty-handed.

Shoplifters pick up merchandise and take it to another aisle to hide it before they reach the checkout.

B, the next clue.

To parents, macing looks like necking or making out, but to teens, macing is just the latest dance craze.

It’s the lombata of the millennial generation.

And then the third clue.

Our boss tried to force us to contribute to his political cronies, but macing is illegal.

He can’t make us give political donations at the workplace.

So which one is it?

Is to mace an acronym for meat at counter empty-handed, a form of shoplifting?

Is it a highly sexualized dance craze, or is it being forced in the workplace to give money to a political candidate?

Wow, I’m gonna go between the first one and the third one.

Why’s that?

I don’t know, because I’m not too far removed from the sexual dance craving of the youth of America, and that one hasn’t popped up in my repertoire yet.

So I’m not gonna go with that one.

Oh, so you don’t know about grinding and shaking and joning?

Or I’m just old in my purple slippers and don’t know what I’m talking about.

But I’m gonna go with the loss prevention term.

The acronym, M-A-C-E for meat at counter empty-handed.

It sounds very law enforcement-ish. (laughing)

Yeah, they’re overly fond of acronyms, right?

Yeah, I see.

All right, well, unfortunately, Amber, the correct answer was C.

Oh, I’m so old. (laughing)

No, no, no, to mace is not the dancing one.

But you know your sexy dances.

Yeah, you’re fine on the sexy dancing.

To mace is to force someone to give money.

Okay.

But it’s almost always these days heard in the workplace where some people still think it’s okay to try to force their employees to give money to the boss’s favorite political campaign.

Of course, it’s illegal in every state.

No, no, it’s not okay.

But you know, all kinds of jerks everywhere, right?

Yes.

So you’re one for two, 50%, but we did have a lot of fun and that’s actually all that matters. (laughing)

Of course.

The most fun you can have without, that’s right.

Without putting shoes on.

Well Amber, thanks so much for playing our game today.

Thank you, it was great.

I appreciate being honored with the privilege.

Well Amber, for playing our game today, we’re gonna send you a whole book of interesting terms.

It’s a wonderful book called Weird and Wonderful Words and it’s by our friend Erin McKean.

It’s a book that’s truly ostrabogulous.

Brilliant.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

Thank you Amber.

Okay, thank you Amber.

Have a great day, bye bye.

Bye bye.

We welcome your calls about anything.

If you’ve got a question about language though, we really would like to hear from you.

The number to call is 1-877-929-9673.

Or email us, the address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Kim Craigery and I’m calling from Menasha, Wisconsin.

Hiya Kim.

Hello Kim.

How are you?

What’s going on?

I have a question regarding the use of the word bad versus badly.

Okay, let’s hear it.

I teach fifth grade to a bright group of fifth graders at Clayton Elementary School and we’ve been working diligently on our reading response journals.

And in one of the journals I had corrected the word bad and made reference to that it should be used badly.

And the mom and the dad and the daughter were very good about going through the whole reading response journal.

And a week or so ago she wrote me a very well written letter explaining that my correction was incorrect.

And in addition to her note, she had included some grammarian blogging on the topic.

And her opinion is that when you use the word bad in reference to an emotion, that you shouldn’t say I feel badly, you should say I feel bad.

So it was just, it was kind of like an enlightening moment for me ’cause I guess I never made a distinction between the emotional part of I feel badly versus, and in the blogging they did it was, when you use the word badly it should be because your hands are tingling and you have kind of like a weird sensation in your hand.

The conclusion is you’ve presented it to us is correct.

Particularly when you’re talking about verbs followed by, verbs that relate to emotion or the senses followed by adverbs.

‘Cause exactly as they said, if you feel badly it means your hands aren’t working correctly.

If you feel bad, it means that you’re maybe sick to the stomach or that you’ve done something that you’re ashamed of.

There’s a difference there ’cause bad can be an adverb.

It’s an informal adverb but it does exist and most mainstream American and British dictionaries will tell you that.

So in her response journal when she had written regarding to a character in her book, I feel bad for this character’s dad because his dream of fruit lands did not come true.

So is it I feel bad for the dad or I feel badly?

I feel bad.

I feel bad because the key verb there has to do with emotion and feeling.

So then this was a good aha for me that when it refers to emotion I really do need to say I feel bad.

And that I was never taught, I never knew that.

You haven’t.

Good, well it’s exciting.

My kids were so excited to know, my students, I call them my kids, that I was presenting this to A Way with Words and they thought it was quite official that Martha and Grant were going to be my tell all on my question.

So I’m excited.

So thank you so much for answering my question.

You’re welcome.

We are happy for three reasons.

First that you clearly love your job and love teaching your kids.

Second that you’re doing it with vigor and enthusiasm.

And third we’re glad that you called us.

Well thank you.

Thank you so much for your call.

Okay take care, bye bye.

Take care, best of luck.

I feel sometimes that we have a classroom on the air, don’t you Martha?

I do, I do.

And I’m thinking of that Latin proverb that goes cuidosit discut, who teaches learns.

Isn’t that fabulous?

Yes, it’s absolutely true.

It’s 100% true.

Give us a call 1-877-929-9673 or email us words@waywordradio.org.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is David from Port Washington, Wisconsin.

Hiya David.

Where’s Port Washington?

It’s about 45 minutes North of Milwaukee on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Oh, very nice.

Well, what’s on your mind, David?

I have a question about personal pronouns, but it isn’t gonna be a rant about the misuse of myself.

Okay.

I’d like to know why other than biblically, I is the only pronoun we capitalize.

In English.

In English.

And what got you to thinking about that?

Well, I think it was because I noticed a lot of people online are not capitalizing the word I in forums and chatting and things.

And it got me thinking about why we do capitalize I, and we don’t capitalize me or us or we, anything else that’s self-reflective.

I thought discounted the idea of self-importance because we don’t capitalize me, but we capitalize I.

Mm-mm— I wondered if it was because it so commonly starts sentences and we just got in the habit of a capital, but the other subjective forms start sentences and the word the starts a lot of sentences, but we don’t capitalize any of those words.

Mm— So you’re speculating multiple theories here.

Which one do you like best?

The best one I have is that it came out of handwriting and that it was simpler to just do a slash for the letter I than it was to do a little line and a dot on top of it.

So out of handwriting came the capital I just because it was easier to write.

You know, you’re not far off from what the prevailing theory seems to be, and there’s no certainty on this answer, but the prevailing theory seems to be that the lowercase I is very easy to miss in a document, and it doesn’t stand out very well.

It’s just like one really thin letter hanging out.

The dot, actually, was added later.

Originally it was just a line.

A lot of the different ways that we write became more standard when you had to do that to make the printing job easier.

And David, I think that you’re also onto something when you mention the other pronouns like us and we and me.

They’re two letter, and I is the only one letter pronoun that we have, and I think that, again, as Grant was saying, just seeing it on the page, it’s a lot easier to read if it’s capital.

You know, the other words have a little bit more room, and so that’s my theory.

It’s legibility as opposed to anything self-important.

I think you’re right, David.

So I think it’s really a matter of legibility rather than psychology.

Okay.

That’s my hunch.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, take care of yourself, David.

All right, bye-bye.

Well, write us at words@waywordradio.org or give us a call.

The number’s 1-877-929-9673.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Martha McIlvain, and I’m calling from Waldeburgh, Maine.

Well, hello.

Martha, what a great name.

Isn’t it a fine name?

It’s a fine name.

What’s your middle name?

Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, okay, mine’s Anne.

What’s your language question, Martha?

You got one?

Yes, I do.

In our family, we have always said out loud on the first day of the month when you wake up, bunny, bunny, and if you remember to say it before you say anything else, you’re gonna have a good month.

And I had never met anyone else who did that, but many years ago, the first of the month when I went to college, October 1st rolled around and I woke up and I said, “Bunny, bunny.”

And my roommate, who was from an old money East Coast family, this was in California, looked at me, kind of arched in eyebrow, and said, “Do you mean rabbit, rabbit?”

(laughing) And I almost died, ’cause I’d never met anyone who knew anything about it, but clearly in her family, they had the same tradition, only they weren’t saying any bunny, bunny, they were saying the incredibly proper rabbit, rabbit.

Oh wow, and so did you two duke it out then?

No, no, we both just had a real good laugh, but I’ve always wondered where the expression comes from.

I mean, it’s clearly not just our family.

I’ve heard of this before.

When I was nine, there were two books that were constantly checked out of the student library at Claude Brown Elementary, and one of those books was Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends, and the one next to it, for some unknown reason, was a book of superstitions, and this was in there, and I don’t remember that book to save my life, I don’t remember the title of it or the author or anything, but I do remember going, “That’s pretty cool, that’s really interesting,” they had all the other stuff about stepping on cracks in mothers’ backs and that sort of thing.

So, you’re not alone, it’s not just the two of you.

(laughing)

But you don’t know where the expression came from or anything, huh?

Well, we’ve got a few ideas.

Rabbits have been associated with luck, both good and bad, for more than 2,000 years.

The oldest I’ve been able to take it back is just the early part of the 1900s.

I’m sure it’s older than that.

I suspect it comes from the United Kingdom.

Oh, I think it did, I think it hopped the pond.

I think it’s been around a long time.

I think it did hop the pond.

I do know that there are a lot of variations.

One of the older variations is white rabbit, white rabbit.

And not only that, but some of the variations insist that you say the word three times, not twice.

And still, other variations say that you pull a hair out of your head after you say it, and then you punch somebody nearby. (Laughing) Another one says, now these are all happening on the first day of the month as soon as you wake up.

You can’t say another word first or it’s all canceled out. Exactly. The other one says that when you do that, then you get out the end of the bed, not the side, or else you ruin it.

There’s tons of this, a thousand and one variations.

Also, this is widespread throughout the European cultures.

A lot of people believe that if you’re born on the first of the month, then you’re lucky for life.

So I don’t know the origin for rabbit rabbit, but it sure is fun to talk about it. Yes, yes, and that’s a lot of interesting variations that I had never heard of.

The only one I had ever heard of was the rabbit rabbit versus bunny bunny, and I just figured it was sort of a East Coast versus West Coast thing there. Well, Martha, I have to ask, did you manage to say it first on the first of this month? This month I did, yes. Yeah, and that’s why you’re having such a great month, right? That’s it. (Laughing) Well, good for you. Well, thank you very much. Thank you, Martha Paycall. All right, nice talking with you. Best of luck. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, hop on over to your phone and give us a call.

The number’s 1-877-929-9673, or you can email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hey, Grant, I have another clever crossword clue for you from crosswordese.com. Oh, very well. Very well? Since when do you say very well? I wanna know why I’m always the butt of the clues.

Why am I the one who has to solve this stuff? Because we love seeing your brain work. I’m gonna pull some out here.

I’m gonna get some revenge on you later. Oh, okay.

We’ll try this one.

The clue is pecking order, and it is six letters.

It’s two words, and the last letter is E.

Pecking order? Six letters? Mm—but it’s two words. I wanna see, I think it has something to do with a piano, but maybe you give somebody a peck, or something with kisses, I don’t know. Kiss me, kiss me, Grant! Oh, okay, kiss you, you’re Irish.

Oh, I see, pecking order, kiss me.

Oh, it’s a, oh, see, there’s the pun again, right? There’s the pun, no wonder you couldn’t get it. Yep, blind to puns. Or refuse to, refuse to. Some people can’t recognize faces, some people are colorblind, I am blind to puns. (laughing) And we have a calling order for you.

Get to the phone and call us at 1-877-9299-673, or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

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You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Martha Barnette. And I’m Grant Barrett, and joining us now is our quiz guide, John Chonesky.

Hello, John. Hello, Grant, hello, Martha.

It’s great to be here.

Where the hell have you been?

I’ve been in Brooklyn with the kids and the wife and having a great time.

Yeah, is that what they’re calling prison now, Brooklyn?

Brooklyn, no, if it is prison, I love it.

Shout out to cell box C.

I don’t wanna be out on parole at all if I can, so it’s really wonderful.

Well, John, don’t tell me, let me guess.

We’re doing crossword puzzles on the air today.

Well, close.

I’ve delivered crossword quizzes before here, but in honor of this great ACPT, A-W-W-W happening, I’ve created a special quiz based on something that I call single crossers.

These are words that share exactly one letter.

For example, Siamese and twin have just one letter in common.

That letter is?

I.

That’s right, so if those two words were to cross in a crossword, that would be the only place that could possibly cross at the I.

That’s a single crosser.

Now, I’ll give you clues to some related items.

For example, the current president and vice president, and they’ll give you a crossing letter, say H, and you’ll give me the two answers that share only that letter.

So for current president and vice president and H, you would say?

Bush and Cheney.

Bush and Cheney, those two only cross at the H, right.

That’s probably the easiest I could possibly get.

I’ll either give you a clue or a category, and some of these will actually have multiple correct answers, so any correct answer is fine.

You ready to go?

Yeah.

I think we can try this.

I’m ready, yeah.

Terrific, let’s give it a shot.

Okay, here we go.

The clue is, often found in a blue box marked craft, these two food items are a favorite of college students everywhere, and the crossing letter is C.

Oh my goodness, blue box, I was going to Tiffany’s, so I’m off.

I was too. (laughing)

Craft.

They’re marketing people going cha-ching.

Craft with a K.

Craft with a K.

Craft with a K.

Crossing letter is a C.

Can we have the clue again?

Sure.

Often found in a blue box marked craft, these two food items are a favorite of college students everywhere.

So mac and cheese?

Cream?

Macaroni and cheese.

Oh.

I was gonna say cream cheese, but that’s a silver box.

I was like, there’s no C in ramen. (laughing)

Macaroni and cheese cross only at a single C.

All right, the next one.

The clue is, they introduced us to Mrs. Robinson, and the crossing letter is N.

Simon and Garfunkel.

Funkel, right, very good.

They just cross at the N.

If they were in a crossword, they would only cross at the N.

Next one.

The category is, the classic colors of the rainbow, and the crossing letter is D.

The classic colors of the,

So, for example, indigo.

Right.

And, let’s see, Roy G. Biv, red.

Red, very simple, that’s what I was doing.

I was burning through a Roy G. Biv in my head.

Very good.

Let’s see.

Okay, this one is sort of wide open.

You could probably get a coupler for this if you’re lucky.

The category is trees, and the crossing letter is A.

Well, you could do maple and apple.

No, they should only have one letter in common.

Oh, you’re right.

No, oh, oh, oh.

That’s the other way we’re actually doing it.

Right, okay, there we go.

That was a good example of what is not a single crossword.

Grant, you lose it.

Trees, and they share a letter A, so let’s see here.

How about dogwood and sequoia spelled with a W, no.

Well, you could do ash and apple.

Ash and apple work just fine, that’s great.

Ash and apple, very good.

Let’s go on to another one.

The category is Disney’s seven dwarfs, and the crossing letter is U.

Okay, Snuffy, no.

Snuffy?

Is he?

Dummy, scuzzy, lumpy.

Goofy, no, okay.

Dopey, Dopey and?

Their crossing letter is U?

Crossing letter is U, yes, as in umbrella.

Should this be any dwarf, or what is this?

Any of Disney’s seven dwarfs, any two of Disney’s seven dwarfs who share but a single letter, and that letter is U.

Oh, U.

Right.

I can’t even name them all.

I know.

I have no idea.

Well, let’s try name as many as you can.

They’re not so sneezy.

Sneezy and Dopey, the only two I can think of.

Sneezy, Dopey.

Poppa, or Doc.

Well, there’s Doc, right?

Doc.

Should write these down, it’ll help you out if you write them down.

I’m writing them down.

You got four left.

Oh, for heaven’s sakes.

Is there, who’s the—

Unctuous?

No. (laughing)

Let’s see, one of them is very glad to see you.

Happy.

Right?

Grumpy.

One of them, what’s that?

Grumpy and happy, no, that won’t work.

Grumpy and, what’s the other one?

No, because they’re why, then and why?

Grumpy and—

I’ll say the one that this matches is the one that everybody always forgets.

Well, there we go.

Of course, you guys are forgetting sleepy, which is okay, ’cause you’re both a little sleepy today, that’s fine.

The answer is bashful.

Oh!

Oh!

Grumpy and bashful.

I’m sure a lot of you are listeners, especially the younger ones.

Hammering on the—

Yeah, hammering on the dashboard, hammering on the computer.

You’re right, dummies.

Well, Jon, thank you so much, this was fantastic, as always.

Hey, you guys did really well, and I’d like to invite our listeners to submit their own single crossers to quizguys@waywordradio.org.

They should be two words that share only a single letter.

The most elegant ones will be closely related words that are both nice and long.

For example, ab, A-B, and gluteus maximus are both muscles, and they share an A, but that’s hardly elegant.

I look forward to seeing what you can come up with, maybe I’ll use your submissions to create a quiz for Martha and Grant.

Wow, that sounds exciting, Jon, so the address is quizguys, Q-U-I-Z-G-U-Y-S, @waywordradio.org.

That’s us.

And if you’re puzzling over a language question, give us a call, the number’s 1-877-929-9673.

Or send us an email, the address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, hi, this is Hallie.

Hello, Hallie, what’s going on?

Not too much today.

Where are you calling from?

I’m in San Diego.

Oh, okay.

Awesome, so what’s up?

Well, my nine-year-old is curious about, I don’t know if you’d call the term or the phrase hush puppy.

We’ve eaten them before, and my mother grew up in the South, and when we would go back and visit family and friends, sometimes we would actually have hush puppies to eat.

And so the kids were wondering where the term actually came from.

And where in the South?

She was born in Macon, Georgia, and then grew up in Jacksonville, Florida.

Right, so tell us about hush puppies.

I mean, you make it sound like it’s sort of this exotic thing, I grew up eating them all the time.

Yeah, I think it’s a seasoned cornmeal made into a ball and then deep fried.

Exactly, exactly, and your nine-year-old is, is it a boy or a girl?

A boy.

A boy, okay.

And what’s his name?

David.

David.

So your nine-year-old David wants to know why they’re called hush puppies.

Yes, and the kids and I actually discussed that one day, and the only thing that I could think of is that maybe it goes way back to the slave days or maybe people who were kind of poor and all they had was cornmeal, and they might toss something out to the dog and say hush puppy or something, but that was all the kids and I could come up with.

Well, that’s pretty good.

I mean, that’s headed in the right direction.

As far as we can tell, it goes back quite a while to when people were just catching fish and frying them up.

And when you smell those kinds of things and your dog smells that stuff cooking, then your dog starts barking, and what do you do to hush the dog?

You fry up a little bit of that cornmeal batter and you toss it to them. Okay. Those dogs don’t talk when their mouths are full. (laughing) So that’s pretty much the idea, just something that you fry up and toss to the dogs to keep them quiet while you’re cooking your own meal. Okay, all right, well, thank you very much. Okay, thank you, Hallie. All right, thank you. Okay, bye-bye. Bye-bye.

So, Grant, we didn’t even talk about hush puppies, the shoes. Yeah, I don’t know anything about those. I believe that those were so named because it used to be that people would say, “My dogs are barking,” because dogs, seriously, no. Right, dogs just slang for feet. Right, and if your feet are tired or in pain, then your dogs are barking.

And so hush puppies were these nice, soft shoes that would make your feet feel more comfortable. How about that? How about them apples? If you got a question about food words, maybe we can help you.

If you got a recipe to send, we’d love it.

The address is— No, cook it first and then send it. (laughing) Overnight, nothing like three-week-old food, but. (laughing) The email address is words@waywordradio.org, and you can call us 1-877-929-9673.

Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Sean from San Diego. Well, hello, Sean, how are you? How are you, Sean, what’s up? Well, you know, I’m an English teacher to speakers of other languages. Great. And some time ago, I was doing a phonetic thing, and I was showing them on the board the word out, and then the word shout, and so forth, and then I got down to route, and then I added an E to route, just to tell them that now it’s root, and that means something quite different.

Guess what?

Over time here, I’ve noticed that root has been routed by route. (laughing) Well said, you have A Way with Words. And I was wondering, when did this happen, why did this happen, and is it just here in the US? And Sean, are you upset about it? Well, yes, I am.

I mean, I learned my English many years ago, perhaps decades ago, in various countries, and I do pronounce it root, so I hate to see root get routed, especially with students who are now looking at me with big question marks over their heads. (laughing) Well, you’ve probably talked to them before about dialects and variable pronunciation, the difference, for example, between British and American speech, right? True.

Yeah, this is one of those examples where within a country you have differences of speech.

Route and route are both very common pronunciations of the word, they battle it out.

You’ll find that root, as a pronunciation of R-O-U-T-E, is more common generally in the Northeast and the Atlantic seaboard, while route is more common in places like Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, but they are scattered across the country.

You’ll find little pockets, or individuals even, who say one or the other everywhere in the country. Is there a reason for that?

Because it does cause confusion if you say the enemy was routed. It sure does, I mean, both versions, both pronunciations of that word have double meanings, don’t they?

I mean, route, like the bottom of a plant, and route, routing the enemy, like you said.

I mean, either way you go.

I mean, we’re sort of at a fork in the root pronunciation, or fork in the route.

I mean, really, Grant, I mean, there’s— Should you accent? Well, there’s not that much room for confusion unless you wanna make confusion.

The context is almost always clear here. Yeah, but there’s really no one preferred pronunciation over the others. No, there isn’t, not in the United States.

Now, I understand in the UK, route is the standard pronunciation, and route only generally exists in military circles. Well, and I’m thinking about that state road number 66.

I mean, would anybody call that Route 66? No, they wouldn’t, wouldn’t they? That would destroy a bit of history, wouldn’t it? It would.

Well, Shawn, I guess you’ve got something you can tell your students now.

Just explain to them that, well, here’s, you know, English has some rules, but they’re inconsistent, and here’s another exception for you. Okay, well, I thank you very much. All right, Shawn. All right, take care, Shawn. Pleasure talking with you, bye-bye.

You’ve got a great show, and I follow it. Oh, wonderful, thanks. Take care. All right, bye-bye. Bye-bye.

If you’ve got a question about pronunciation, we’ll take a stab at it.

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

The address is words@waywordradio.org. Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hello. Hi, who is this? This is Peg, I’m from Indianapolis. Do you have a question for us today, or? I do.

When I was a little girl growing up in a family of four siblings, our dad certainly was a man who had many funny phrases and slang terms, some that he had picked up in World War II with his buddies, and others that he had picked up on the streets of St.

Louis, where he grew up.

His family moved there when he was about four.

And one of the phrases that he used frequently when we were kids was the term “giggleweeds.” Giggleweeds.

Yeah, the way he would use that, frequently it came up when we were in a car, all squashed in together in an old sedan or station wagon, one of those big boats, and we’d be hurtling through the countryside, and probably because of the way my dad drove, he would scare little animals along the side of these country roads, and they would run across the road in front of the car, and he might swerve, and as the animal would disappear into the growth along the side of the road, he’d say, “Look, kids, did you see that? The rabbit ran into the giggleweeds.”

And we’d all look, and those of us who had windows would lord it over those who didn’t, and talk about seeing that animal go into the giggleweeds.

And other times that we would use it would be if we were perhaps out shopping, or strolling, taking a walk somewhere, and if someone dropped a coin or keys, and they simply bounced off the sidewalk into long grass, he would then use the term again, and he’d say, “One of you need to get down on your hands and knees, and look through the giggleweeds for that coin.”

So I did ask my father what it meant.

I’ve asked him a couple of times, and as recently as this past weekend, when I went to visit him in a nursing home where he lives, and he said the same thing he told me a couple years ago, and that was that the term came from couples who, and I guess this would have been in the, my dad was born in 1923, so this must have been in the ’30s when he was a teenager, and he said couples would go holding hands, and they’d be walking along a country road, and then when they would get in an amorous mood, they would head off to one side of the road, and go back in the trees and bushes where nobody could see them, and if you happened to be in the area, you could hear them laughing and giggling.

Aha. And he said that where they were, that was the giggleweed. The giggleweeds. Yes, but I don’t believe him. You don’t, you— No.

Peg, I’ve been Googling it as we were talking, and you’re right, there’s just a handful of uses of it.

It doesn’t come up in books and newspapers that often.

It’s incredibly rare, even in the closed databases that you can’t search from the internet for free.

I don’t find that many uses of it, and when I do find it, they’re all exactly the same with no explanation.

They all basically just say something ended up, or someone ended up in the giggleweeds, and they just use it as if everyone’s going to know what they mean. And I think what you’ve hit upon here is a phrase that simply is not recorded anywhere.

Well, you need to record it, then.

You’re exactly right.

Well, you’re right, we do.

That would be so exciting.

Peg, you are one of us, because this is exactly the kind of thing that gets Grant and me very excited.

Oh, yeah, I’ve had fellow lexicographers, they’re like, well, why do you deal so much with those outliers and fringe words?

I’m like, ’cause that’s where the fun is.

Oh, my gosh, because that makes your blood boil.

It’s just as thrilling.

Yeah, it’s great.

Yes.

I don’t even think that this is in the dictionary of American regional English.

I don’t think it is.

Although, I will email the editors there and ask them if perhaps they have some files, perhaps they’ve collected data on this.

Well, please do, because it’s just such a great phrase.

It is, it is, it’s beautiful.

Well, let’s do this.

And as soon as you use it, and in the moment that something happens, people know exactly what it means.

Let’s put the call out to our listeners.

If you know this phrase, the giggleweeds, as she’s used it here, by all means, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, and tell us about it.

You can also email us, tell us where you’re from, how you use the expression, and anything else that you know about giggleweeds.

Peg, this is very exciting.

Thank you for bringing it up.

Well, thank you for taking the call, and I do hope you find out what it is, because my whole family’s dying to know.

Super duper.

Thank you.

All right, thanks.

Thank you, bye-bye.

Thank you, bye-bye.

Thank you, bye-bye.

Well, if a question has you wandering around in the giggleweeds, give us a call.

The number’s 1-877-929-9673, or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

That’s our show for this week, but if you have something you wanna get off your chest, leave us a phone message anytime.

The number is 1-877-929-9673, or stop by our discussion forum at waywordradio.org.

Or you can always email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Stefanie Levine is our senior producer.

Our technical director and editor is Tim Felten.

We’ve had production assistance from Michael Bagdasian and Dana Polakovsky.

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.

♪ Say tomato ♪

♪ I say creole, tomato ♪

♪ Oh, let’s call the whole thing off ♪

♪ Oh, if we call the whole thing off ♪

♪ Then we must part ♪

♪ And oh, if we ever part ♪

♪ That would break my heart ♪

♪ So I say oyster ♪

♪ You say oyster ♪

♪ I’m not gonna stop eating oysters ♪

♪ Just ’cause you say oysters ♪

♪ Let’s call the whole thing off ♪