Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Very interesting. Thank you, Grant.

Four seems to come up often in inflated language in my circle. I sometimes hear: “He looked at me as if I had four heads.” Working in New York City, I can certainly understand why having two heads hardly merits a second glance — soon to be a fourth glance, perhaps. A fourth of a glance?

One of my personal favorites (A-triple-plus for interest) is: “The mall was so crowded we had to park the car way out in Timbukfour.” I really, really like this one, and I hope it will not soon be Timbukeight, which is gilding four dozen lilies. Timbuksixteen lacks legs, arms, and all four heads.

What grnine routwenties! Thanks a million and one.

So what do I have to do to get you to add Timbukfour to your dictionary?

How about a case of linguistic deflation? The cliche about a picture being worth a thousand words is derived from the Chinese proverb about a picture being worth ten thousand words. Why did we edit out nine thousand words?

Then there is John McCarthy's version: "As the Chinese say, 1001 words is worth more than a picture."

Very interesting. So you are suggesting that Westerners rounded off the Chinese 10,000 to the nearest "group" number, 1,000? Maybe we need to update the cliche: one Youtube clip is worth a thousand tweets?

That makes even more sense now, at least for the Chinese proverb. I suppose that Westerners can also see "1,000" as a way to express "a lot." I knew that the number was never intended to be taken literally, in any language or culture. But still, it's interesting to consider why the Chinese used 10,000 while the West chose 1,000, and you've helped shed light on that. Thanks!

it bugs me that the smallest of three options at a fast-food shack is called “medium.” Likewise my wife thinks the smallest of three coffee cup sizes shouldn't be “tall.”

Yes, it bugs me, too. I don't mind marketing gimmicks if they make some sense (i.e. if they actually succeed at making some customers “feel better” about buying the product). But as far as I know, no one feels better about their “small” meal or coffee cup being called medium. In fact, it seems to create a degree of ironic resentment (e.g. "This is a medium? What a joke!"). Moreover, I have seen this distortion cause plenty of annoying and time-wasting confusion. Even I sometimes get flustered when I order a small cup of coffee and the cashier repeats back, “That's one medium coffee, right?” And I say, “No, I wanted a small cup of coffee.” Then the cashier has to explain that a medium (or a Tall) is the smallest size, and at that point I will say, “Please just give me your smallest cup of coffee.” Now, after all that, do I feel better that I'm drinking a medium rather than a small? No! Not only does the language confusion bother me, it bothers me that the medium cup of coffee is not even a small cup of coffee. It is typically a 12-ounce cup, which in my book is a medium size. A small size shouldn't be more than 8 ounces. But dagnabbit, they don't sell an 8-ounce cup! I suppose I should give them credit for truth in advertising! Maybe we should follow Goldilock's cue: a small size is called “too small,” a large size is called “too large,” and a medium size is called “just right.”