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A recent study found that some names crop up more frequently than others in certain professions. The name William is especially common among attorneys--and graphic designers include a higher-than-average number of Jessicas. Plus, picturesque idioms from around the world: What Russians mean when they say someone has "a burning hat," and what Swedes mean when they say someone "slid in on a shrimp sandwich." Speaking of food, where would you find a self-licking ice cream cone? A good place to look: Washington, D.C. Plus, bunking, "Carter's got pills," the Philly slang word jawn, Irish tough love, do-ocracy, the pulmonic ingressive, and the etymology of tip.
This episode first aired February 20, 2015.
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[Image Can Not Be Found] Slide in on a Shrimp Sandwich
In English, we might say that someone born to a life of luxury was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. In Swedish, though, the image is different. Someone similarly spoiled is said to "slide in on a shrimp sandwich." For more picturesque idioms from foreign languages, check out Suzanne Brock's beautifully illustrated Idiom's Delight.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Bunking
Students in New England might refer to playing hooky from school as bunking, or bunking off. Jonathon Green's Dictionary of Slang traces the term back to the 1840s in the British Isles.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Thief with a Burning Hat
In Russian, someone with an uneasy conscience is described by an idiom that translates as "The thief has a burning hat"--perhaps because he's suffering discomfort that no one else perceives.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Irish Expression for "Get Over It"
A Washington, D.C., caller says her dad would console her with the saying "Don't worry, it will be better before you're married." Which is really less a heartfelt consolation than it is a better way to say, get over it. The saying comes from Ireland.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Self-Licking Organizations
The terms self-licking ice cream cone, self-eating watermelon, and self-licking lollipop all refer to organizations, such as governmental bureaucracies, that appear to exist solely for the sake of perpetuating themselves.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Every Vowel Word Quiz
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game where the answer to each clue is a word or phrase includes the vowels a, e, i, o, and u exactly one time each. For example, what's a cute infant animal that's yet to get its spikes?
[Image Can Not Be Found] Origin of Gratuity "Tip"
Like many English words, tip — as in, the gratuity you leave to the waiter or the bellhop — doesn't originate with an acronym such as To Insure Promptness. This type of tip goes back to the mid-18th century, when thieves would tip, or tap, someone in the process of acquiring or handing off stolen goods. That false etymology really a backronym, formed after the invention of the word.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Portuguese Procrastination
If you keep postponing an important chore, you're said to be procrastinating. There's a more colorful idiom in Portuguese, however. It translates as "to push something with your belly."
[Image Can Not Be Found] Alternative for Anyways
Anyhow and anyways, said at the end of a sentence, are common placeholders that many find annoying. Instead, you might try finishing a thought with "What do you think?" That way, the conversation naturally flows back to the other person.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Thai Advice for Lovelorn
In Thailand, advice to the lovelorn can include a phrase that translates as "The land is not so small as a prune leaf." It's the same sentiment as "There are lots of fish in the sea."
[Image Can Not Be Found] Carter's Little Liver Pills
The saying, "you've got more excuses than Carter’s got pills," or "more money than Carter’s got pills," refers to the very successful product known as Carter's Little Liver Pills. They were heavily marketed beginning in the late 1880's, and as late as 1961 made for some amusing television commercials.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Twitter Pangrams
Pangrams, or statements that include every letter of the alphabet, are collected on Twitter at @PangramTweets, and include such colorful lines as, "I always feel like the clerk at the liquor store is judging me when she has to get a moving box to pack all my booze up."
[Image Can Not Be Found] Popular Names by Profession
The folks at the baby-name app Nametrix crunched some data and found that certain names are disproportionately represented in different professions. The name Leonard, for example, happens to be particularly common among geologists, and Marthas are overrepresented among interior designers.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Swedish Pulmonic Ingressives
In northern Sweden, the word yes is widely communicated by a sound that's reminiscent of someone sucking through a straw. It's called the pulmonic ingressive. Linguist Robert Eklund calls this a neglected universal, meaning that it's only recently been recognized as a sound that's part of many languages around the world, even though it's been around for a while. In one study, Swedes talking on the phone used ingressive speech when they thought they were speaking with a human, but not when they thought they were conveying the same information to a computer.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Thai Self-Reliance
The Thai have a wise saying about self-reliance that translates as "You must go to the restroom, the restroom won't come to find you." True that.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Just like New York
An Indianapolis listener is curious about a saying his dad used to describe anything that's excellent or the best of its kind: Just like New York.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Do-ocracy
The Occupy movement helped to popularize the term do-ocracy, a system of management or government where the people who actually roll up their sleeves and do things get to decide how those things are done.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Jawn
Jawn is a term common in Philadelphia and parts of New Jersey that refers to a thing, team, show, group, or pretty much any item. It's a variant of joint, as in, a Spike Lee joint.
[Image Can Not Be Found] Latvian Expressions
A Latvian expression that translates as "Did a bear stomp on your ear?" is a more colorful, though no more kind, way to tell someone they have no ear for music. Also heard in Latvia is an idiom that translates as "You're blowing little ducks," meaning, "You're talking nonsense."
This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.
Photo by Mike Russell. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Books Mentioned in the Broadcast
| Idiom's Delight by Suzanne Brock | Dictionary of Slang by Jonathon Green |
Music Used in the Broadcast
| Title | Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yo Todo Tu Yo | Rugged Nuggets | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Suction | On The Spot Trio | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Street Sweeper | The Grease Traps | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Scale It Back | DJ Shadow | Scale It Back | Island Records |
| You Make Loving' Real Easy | Dojo Cuts | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Jano's Revenge | Los Suspechos | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Don't Stop | Orgone | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Stay The Course | DJ Shadow | Scale It Back | Island Records |
| Hard Steppin' | Ikebe Shakedown | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Authoritay | Alan Evans Trio | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Don't Throw Your Love Away | Gene Washington & The Ironsides | Colemine Singles | Colemine |
| Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off | Ella Fitzgerald | Ella Fitzgerald Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George and Ira Gershwin Song Book | Verve |
Lordsburg, New Mexico has a population of 2700. Small towns have an "uptown" but "downtown" in the Great Lakes states is generally reserved for communities big enough to have a fairly large "shopping district" including at least one large department store. Fort Wayne, with two daily newspapers and five television stations, had a downtown in the 1950s, but you'd have a hard time shopping for fine china or a wedding dress today; I'm not sure you could even buy toner for a copier.
I more frequently heard "just like store-bought" as an expression of appreciation, but these days, if you can't do any better than that, ain't no sense in bothering. I haven't heard that or "just like uptown" in about 50 years or so. "Satisfactory" at the completion of a job of work is usually expressed as "good enough for government work", or "good enough for the kind of girl I would marry," and it's understood that the worksmanship is far better than that. It ain't fittin' to be braggin'.
deaconB said
Lordsburg, New Mexico has a population of 2700. Small towns have an "uptown" but "downtown" in the Great Lakes states is generally reserved for communities big enough to have a fairly large "shopping district" including at least one large department store. Fort Wayne, with two daily newspapers and five television stations, had a downtown in the 1950s, but you'd have a hard time shopping for fine china or a wedding dress today; I'm not sure you could even buy toner for a copier.I more frequently heard "just like store-bought" as an expression of appreciation, but these days, if you can't do any better than that, ain't no sense in bothering. I haven't heard that or "just like uptown" in about 50 years or so. "Satisfactory" at the completion of a job of work is usually expressed as "good enough for government work", or "good enough for the kind of girl I would marry," and it's understood that the worksmanship is far better than that. It ain't fittin' to be braggin'.
Maybe she was talking about Amarillo, or some mythical place of perfection.
For a number of years in the 1970s I was apprentice to a patternmaker (two bits to anybody who knows what that is without looking it up!) in a suburb of an Upstate New York city. The boss frequently said "Just like New York" to describe something going perfectly. Pity I never thought to ask him where he got it: thirty-five years too late, now.
EmmettRedd said
tromboniator said
... patternmaker (two bits to anybody who knows what that is without looking it up!)...
I think it is related to the tool and die trade for mass producing metal parts from a single pattern. (There may be a better definition out there.)
Coming from a family with a lot of automotive workers, that was my immediate response, too.
But NYC isn't automotive-oriented. I believe I've run across that in my reading, of a guy who works in a garment factory making knockoffs of competitors' designs. I presume there's the same function for the maker of original designs, but not so much fiction involves them.
I suspect Butterick and Simplicity have pattern-makers working with designers, but maybe the designer and pattern-maker is all one job.
If I were to make a shirt from scratch, no pattern, I'd end up with the decorations one one sleeve going north-south, and on the other one east-west. Maybe that's why Amish clothing is all solid colors; it means you don't have to waste money on tissue patterns.Do kids these days know what two bits is, or a ducat or finif? We used two bits when I was a kid, only read of ducats and finifs, but I don't even find those terms in murder mysteries any more. In another ten years, there will be people on here asking what a "dial tone" is, and why we speak of "dialing" a phone number.
Well, it wasn't NYC, it was "UNYc", and not generally automotive-related, and not remotely garment. Emmett, you're in the ballpark: it's foundries, rather than tool-and-die.
Patterns were (are?) invariably built of wood (we usually used gorgeous mahogany) from an engineering drawing, very often built split in two and mounted on both sides a plywood board. High-production patterns then would be cast in aluminum or steel. In the foundry this would be sandwiched between the halves of a flask, basically a rectangular metal or wooden box with no top or bottom. Molding sand, a very fine sand mixed with a liquid binder such as water or, more commonly in latter years, an oil, would then be packed into each half of the flask, tight against the pattern. Pull the flask apart, remove the board/pattern, put the flask back together, and you have a sand mold into which to pour molten metal.
The patternmaker would have to determine where the parting line is: how the shape needed to be oriented and split in half so that the pattern could be withdrawn from the mold without breaking the sand, and would often have to add the gating system, which would form channels though which metal would flow into the mold.
As you might expect, there's lots more to it, including how to get a properly-shaped hole or cavity in the casting, or what to do if there is no orientation that permits an unbroken mold, but that's the gist of it.
There you have it, just like New York!
Here is The Designer, a poem about machining and casting that the physics department machinist at my alma mater had a published (and properly spelled) version taped to his door.
(I should have done better on the question, but I am not close enough to the metal processing industry to readily make the distinction between tools for stamping and casting. My brother attempted to cast aluminum valve covers for a 392 Hemi engine.)
KseniaMultilingua said
Hello there, I'm Russian and we too use the idiom 'it will get well before you marry'. Although in the Russian version it is 'it will get well before your wedding'. Even my 5 year old daughter knows it and uses it.
We have exactly the same expression in Polish, which is not surprising, but I'm really surprised by the Irish-English connection.
hippogriff said
Just ike New York: I was wondering about a similar meaning with a geographic name, the maritime expression, "all Bristol fashion".
The old Pepsi-Cola scriptlike logo is very similar to a typeface known as "Bristol" There's also a typeface called Vristol that's similar to a cross between Cjeltenham and Park Avenue or Newe Yorker. Typesetters are cautious when a custromer specifies Bristol, not knowing which one is desired.
There's Bristol Board.
Doctors sometimes diagnose digestive disorders using the Bristol Stool Chart. Peter Rabbit has a type 1, amd a cow in the springtime has a type 7. You can google it, if you are curious as to YOUR score on the chart; I'm not sure what score is most fashionable.
I've been through Bristol, Tennessee. Not particularly fashionable, as far as I can tell. Maybe Bristol, Connecticut is more sp.
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