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It's a brand-new season of A Way with Words! Grant has big news, too: He's used up his last Metrocard, packed up his belongings, and moved to the Left Coast. He reports on some features of California language there that are already catching his ear. Also in this episode, what's the real meaning of decimate? And what does it mean when someone says don't leave your endgate up?
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A Wisconsin community is about to open its first dog park. But what to name it? "Scentral Park"? "Unleashed"? Martha and Grant try to help.
Why do we call a run-down area skid row? Here's a picture of a skid road:
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Photo from Out West, vol. 19, ed. Charles F. Lummis, 1902, Out West Company, Los Angeles.
A Philadelphia listener has a Yiddish twist on an old palindrome: "Unable I was ere I saw Elba, nu?"
"If you're writing out the names of numbers, what three numbers require six e's and no other vowels?" Quiz Guy John Chaneski has the answer in his latest word puzzle.
Instead of saying "Good-bye" or "So long," a Hoosier says, his great-grandfather used to say, Don't leave your endgate up. What's up with that?
"Are you shining me on?" means "Are you trying to fool me?" But what does shining have to do with tricking someone?
Grant talks about the surprising beauty to be found in, of all things, the names of shantytowns.
Rock climbers use the term beta to refer to any information they receive about a route before climbing it. Is it related to beta as in "beta-testing software"?
The word decimate has a grisly etymology. It derives from a Latin military term meaning "to execute every tenth man in an army unit"—the penalty for a failed mutiny. As a result, some sticklers insist that the English word decimate should be used only to indicate "destroying a fraction of something" rather than "destroy completely" or "utterly wipe out." Who's right?
A Pittsburgh woman reports that when she went away to college, she was surprised to find people correcting her grammar when she'd say things like "the car needs washed" or "the kids need picked up." She wonders if she's been saying it wrong all these years.
There's a new Facebook group called People for a Library-Themed Ben & Jerry's Flavor. They say that libraries are awesome, B&J ice cream is tasty, so why not combine the two and convince Ben & Jerry's to produce a new flavor with a library theme? Candidates so far include "Gooey Decimal System" and "Rocky Read." Do you have others? Tell us about it in the forum.
A 14 yr-old teenager pronounces the word “bagel†as BEH-gul, rather than BAY-gul. Her family thinks she's crazy. Who's right?
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I think this needs a brief glossary.
MMOG- Massively multiplayer online gaming.
Guild- a group of players in an online game who organize for mutual protection and better loot items.
Uberguild- A guild that is known gamewide for its ability to take down new raid content.
Raid- Any group of players that exceeds 1 group (5-6 players, depending on the game) and is organized to take down a foe.
Live- Available to the entire playerbase
Expansion- an add-on to the base game that enables new content for those that have purchased it.
The term "beta" as a derisive might be even more specific than beta testing. In the MMOG community, the term "beta" is shortened from "beta infoz", and originally referred to a guild that is invited to beta test a new expansion for the game, and later uses that info once the expansion goes live to get far ahead of the competition. The origin is from the game Everquest, and referred to a specific guild ("beta infoz" was the term used to mock that guild by a rival), but I have seen it used in other games, both in long and short form, to refer to any foreknowledge of big fight before you do it. Using "beta" is often considered a crutch, and (depending on how seriously you take the game) can be quite an insult. 🙂
Just what I thought about when I heard that segment yesterday.
The use of "beta" in rockclimbing and in software development predates its use in games like Everquest by quite some time, but that is indeed an interesting semantic transition in that environment.
For what it's worth, here's a use of the software "beta" from 1981,though OED has a use from 1978. It is no doubt much older. It does predate the first use of rockclimbing "beta" in print that we know about, which was in the magazine Climbing, October-November 1985, issue 92, page 44 in an article called "Betamax" by Neil Cannon, which directly connects "beta" to "Betamax" and not the software-related beta. Betamax was shortened to "beta" as early as 1977, according to OED.
Regarding "decimate":
Your reference to the Roman army was accurate; however, decimation was done to the enemy, and only one of ten was left alive. Presumably they were left alive in order to tell what horrors would be visited upon them if they continued to do battle with the Romans. So it is accurate to use "decimate" when referring to almost total destruction.
Glenn said:
Welcome. The REAL question is HOW DID YOU GET THE PHONETICS TO DISPLAY? I have been frustrated by my inability to insert phonetic characters. Is there a trick?
Haha, I wish I could say there was some cool secret, but I just copied and pasted from a list of IPA characters. There are some IPA fonts you can use, but I've never done it and I've heard it can be somewhat painful. Apparently there are some sites where you just click the IPA characters you want and it will create a text output for you which you can simply copy and paste, but I have yet to find them.
Glenn said:
I stand with Grant on the Latin meaning of decimate.
Sorry, caller and Martha. I just listened to the poscast, and realized that I am actually standing with the three of you. Grant's face next to the post misled me. Besides, Grant disagrees with me so often, I need to take every opportunity to take his side. Still, I feel the need to correct my one-sided support.
On another topic, I think it is great that the dog's name is Semper Fidelis -- I presume there is a Marine in the household -- a great call back to the traditional Fido, with a personal twist. With such naming prowess, I'm sure the park name is in very good hands.
The puns in the dog park name are just too easy. Like the retirement village that is referred to as 'a view with a rheum' or the korean restaurant called 'wok the dog'. The modern tendency to let marketing take over in place of information makes a brand name more important than the product. Just call it the dog park, or use the slang name 'bark park'. It will lead to less confusion.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
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