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Proverbs pack great truths into a few well-chosen words, no matter which language you speak. Check out this one from Belize: "Don't call the alligator a big-mouth till you have crossed the river." And this truism from Zanzibar: "When two elephants tussle, it's the grass that suffers." Martha and Grant discuss a new paremiography — a collection of proverbs — from around the world.
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A woman from Cape Cod is looking for a polite word that means the current wife of my ex-husband. She's thinking about cur-wife, but somehow that doesn't quite work. Neither does the phrase "that poor woman." The hosts try to help her come up with other possibilities.
"It's raining, it's pouring." But what exactly is the "it" that's doing all that raining and pouring? This question from a caller prompts Grant to explain what linguists mean when they talk about the weather it. Hint: It depends on what the meaning of "it" is.
Your eyetooth is located directly beneath your eye. But is that why they're called eyeteeth? A Boston caller would give her eyeteeth to know. Okay, not really, but she did want an answer to this question.
Quiz Guy John Chaneski invites Grant and Martha to busta rhyme with a word puzzle called Rhyme Groups.
You've seen people indicate emphasis by putting a period after each of several words, and capitalizing the first letter of each word. A Michigan listener wonders how this stylistic trick arose. Her question was prompted by this description of French model-turned-presidential-spouse Carla Bruni: "She's got a cashmere voice and a killer body. Plays decent guitar and writes her own lyrics. Can hold her own with queens and statesmen. She. Must. Be. Stopped." Jealous much?
Do you want to get down? Ask that in parts of Louisiana, and people know you're not inquiring whether they care to dance, you're asking if they want to get out of a car. A former Louisianan who grew up using the expression that way wonders if it's French-inspired. The hosts proceed to use the phrase "get down" so much they end up with a dreadful K.C. and the Sunshine Band earworm.
Which is correct for describing a close family resemblance: spittin' image or spit and image? Grant and Martha discuss the possible origins of these expressions, including a recent hypothesis that's sure to surprise.
In this week's episode of Slang This!, Dave Dickerson from the National Puzzlers' League tries to guess the meaning of the terms cowboy up and money bomb.
If you've used the word sickly too many times in a paragraph and need a synonym, there's always dauncy, also spelled donsie and dauncy. Grant explains the origin of this queasy-sounding word.
A Navy man stationed in Hawaii phones to settle a dispute over the difference between acronyms and initialisms. Here's hoping he didn't go AWOL to make the call.
Is English is going to hell in the proverbial handbasket? A Wisconsin grandmother thinks so, particularly because of all the ums and you knows she hears in everyday speech. The hosts discuss these so-called disfluencies, including how to avoid them and how to keep other people's disfluencies from grating on your nerves.
We leave you with a couple other proverbs translated into English. They're from David Crystal's paremiography, As They Say in Zanzibar:
Proverbs are like butterflies; some are caught and some fly away. (Germany)
Teachers open the door; you enter by yourself. (China)
For the woman in Cape Cod, might I suggest the term, ex-in-law?
My logic is that an in-law is a relative that you are only related to by marriage. And as this is related to the marriage of your ex-husband, squish those two terms together!
Of course, this could create confusion if one wanted to extend the term to refer to your ex-husband's sister, with whom you perhaps still maintain a relationship. I suppose in that case you could just use the term ex-sister-in-law.
Hello Martha and Grant!
I'm a podcast listener from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK and I discovered your show on podcast within the last year or so (found you on the NPR podcast list). I quite enjoy listening to you guys, especially since I'm transplanted American. I tend to listen to most episodes, though not always immediately. Unfortunately, though I want to quite often, I never end up contacting you guys, because I'm always in the middle of an experiment when I'm listening. And I forget what it was I want to comment on or then I never have time when I'm actually at a computer. But this current experiment is taking place at a computer rather than in a sterile cell culture hood! With ten minute blocks of recording moving mitochondria under the microscope, I have some time to compose a message.
In this episode, Keith from San Diego talked about being in a Cajun area of South Louisiana where they said "get down from the car" instead of "get out of the car". You said that this is likely a calque from the French and they do something similar in Spanish.
I completely didn't realize that saying "get down" was anything at all out of the ordinary until Keith and you guys said it was strange. I had never thought about it before. When I was growing up, my parents said "get down" all the time. I'm not sure if I would say it, I think I'd say "get out", but I'm not sure.
In any case, I'm not from a French or Spanish speaking part of the US, actually, I mostly grew out outside of Pittsburgh, PA. My parents don't speak French or Spanish either. They/we are from India and speak Telegu and Tamil, among other languages. My Telegu transliteration is nonexistent, but the literal translations of the words used for getting in "eku" and out "dhigu" of a car would be to "get up" and "get down", same as you'd use for climbing up/down a tree or going up/down a ladder. I'm assuming that they directly translated that into English and that's why I'm so used to hearing it. My Tamil's not that great, but I think it may be the same there.
It makes me wonder if English is the only language in which you get in and out of a car! ;-p
Anyway, I really enjoy your show, and I'm glad I actually got a chance to comment on a show that I was listening to for once!
-Tora Kirthika Smulders-Srinivasan (any guess as to the origins of my many names? though, saying I'm of Indian origin probably makes it too easy)
Welcome, Tora! And thanks for this information:
>>> My Telegu transliteration is nonexistent, but the literal translations of the words used for getting in “eku†and out “dhigu†of a car would be to “get up†and “get downâ€, same as you'd use for climbing up/down a tree or going up/down a ladder. >>>
I hope you'll enlighten us about the origins of your names. I don't think I'm even going to try! 🙂
I completely didn't realize that saying “get down†was anything at all out of the ordinary until Keith and you guys said it was strange. I had never thought about it before. When I was growing up, my parents said “get down†all the time. I'm not sure if I would say it, I think I'd say “get outâ€, but I'm not sure.
When I read this post, it immediately made me wonder if this phrasing didn't evolve from horse & carriage days when one literally had to get up or down as needed from these lofty conveyances, or if in the wise opinions of the hosts that these constructions are gramatically necessary….
My recommendation for a term for an ex-spouse's new spouse is 'prime'. It has all the necessary criteria, including an apparent positive connotation with neutral to negative undertones. Obviously 'prime' can mean 'first in quality and excellence', but it can also refer to the following:
Though I am no mathematician, I seem to recall modified variables being referred to as 'prime', as in A becoming A1 or 'A prime' much the same way that the new modified spouse becomes spouse prime.
To trim or prune (as you were pruned from the relationship)
A time of maturity (a true backhanded complement)
A number with no factor but itself and one (your ex)
And lastly, and nastiest, is the mental image of old junker cars that have been wrecked and not yet cosmetically restored. The first ugly coat of paint, made to be covered by a subsequent attractive layer is sometimes referred to as prime or primer.
ShugarShocked said:
When I read this post, it immediately made me wonder if this phrasing didn't evolve from horse & carriage days when one literally had to get up or down as needed from these lofty conveyances
Which provides an irresistible opportunity to quote that old joke: "How do you get down from a horse?"
RE: wives of ex-husbands
On Polish messageboards for divorcees and stepparents two curious Polish-English neologisms are used: "eksia" for an ex-wife and "neksia" for the new wife (in Polish sound "x" is usually transliterated as "ks"). Back-tranlating this into English, I guess it could be something like "the exie" and "the nexie".
Following up on the "Worst. Episode. Evar (sic)" discussion...
our local paper, The Rocky Mountain News, had a huge top of the front page headline (in 1-1/4" high letters) the Saturday following last week's financial meltdown. It read:
Worst. Week. Ever.
I guess a little humor for those much in need of it!
Watchman, thanks for your post. And wow, that's one big bundle of reasons! Maybe too many, in fact --I have a hard time imagining that one catching on.And yeah, I associate "prime" first and foremost with the idea of "first" (as in Latin "primus") which would make it even more confusing. For me, anyway.:-)
On Polish messageboards for divorcees and stepparents two curious Polish-English neologisms are used: “eksia†for an ex-wife and “neksia†for the new wife (in Polish sound “x†is usually transliterated as “ksâ€). Back-tranlating this into English, I guess it could be something like “the exie†and “the nexieâ€.
Nika, I was not aware of this. Maybe someone will chime in and explain. It reminds me of Yiddish "nextdoorekeh" for a "neighbor."
Following up on the “Worst. Episode. Evar (sic)†discussion…
our local paper, The Rocky Mountain News, had a huge top of the front page headline (in 1-1/4″ high letters) the Saturday following last week's financial meltdown. It read:
Worst. Week. Ever.
Patti: Yes, a little humor, not to mention accuracy!
DancerInDC said:
For the woman in Cape Cod, might I suggest the term, ex-in-law?
My logic is that an in-law is a relative that you are only related to by marriage. And as this is related to the marriage of your ex-husband, squish those two terms together!
Of course, this could create confusion if one wanted to extend the term to refer to your ex-husband's sister, with whom you perhaps still maintain a relationship. I suppose in that case you could just use the term ex-sister-in-law.
This was the logic, I'm sure, behind the solution offered in the 1974 TV movie "Roll, Freddy, Roll!" In the movie, Tim Conway plays a man unsuccessful in almost every area of his life whose ex-wife (Ruta Lee) has remarried. The wife's current husband (Jan Murray) bears him no ill will, and at one point greets him with a breezy "hey, it's my husband-in-law!"
This, and the implied counterpart "wife-in-law", has the advantage (?) of being reciprocal; one's spouse-in-law may be the current spouse of one's ex, or the ex of one's current spouse (in which regard it is exactly analogous to many other "in-law" terms).
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