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

Dear Grant and Martha,

Just listened to "X, Y, and Zed" and had to write. Re: "posh". Has anyone mentioned that the myth about "Port Out Starboard Home" may have come from the 60s kid's movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? In the film the grandfather (British) has a song called "P-O-S-H" in which he says exactly those words for "posh." Anyone else remember this? (I know it's true, just checked the DVD).

Also, a beef and a bone. The above (p-o-s-h) is (erroneously said to be) an acronym, right? Like AIDS or UNICEF. But, in a recent podcast, a listener called to ask about P-S-S something (as a medical term for intravenous intubation). She spoke each letter, calling it an acronym and you guys repeated it. But that wouldn't have been an "acronym" (letters representing a long term but pronounced as a word) but an "initialism" (letters spoken one by one as a short form of a long term). Am I wrong?

Love the show and love how much you guys know to share with us language lovers!

I hope the Texas listener gets into the habit of taking his blood pressure medicine when he goes grocery shopping. Not only do I see "15 items or less," but also "Ice tea" and "Can food." (I give up. Can it? Can it what?) {sigh} Thank goodness for Lotensin.

Spatulas...

In Mexico we call the rubber kitchen spatulas "miserables" because they get every last bit of food out of the bowl.

Grant Barrett said:

Some teachers are using a controversial tactic to get young students reading: They let their pupils choose which books to read for class. Does it work? Also, should that line at the grocery store checkout read 15 items or less or fewer? And is the expression these ones grammatically incorrect?

This episode first aired October 17, 2009. Listen here:

[audio:http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~5/PpeqPL_ZY84/100426-AWWW-x-y-and-zed.mp3%5D

Download the MP3 here (23.5 MB).

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The owner of a yarn store in Juneau says a customer corrected her when she pointed out a special collection of buttons and said, "You should check out these ones." Is it incorrect to say these ones instead of just these?

A Syracuse woman wonders how bread and butter pickles got their name.

What do you call that jarring sensation when you see a radio personality for the first time, and he looks nothing like what you expected? The hosts talked about it in a past episode. Listeners responded with more words for this phenomenon.

Quiz Guy John Chaneski was rummaging around the A Way with Words Lost and Found Department, and returned with a quiz based on lost items and their owners.

The sign over the checkout lane says 15 Items or Less. A listener is adamant that it should say 15 Items or Fewer.

A Texas listener recounts an ongoing debate in her family's kitchen over the exact definition of the word spatula. Is it the kitchen tool used to spread icing and level measuring cups? Something you use to flip a pancake? That item with the plastic handle and the rubber blade for scraping a bowl? When she gets together with the in-laws to cook, the caller says, the request "Hand me a spatula" leads to confusion.

In Philadelphia, the expression the big mahoff, means "a bigshot," as in "Who do you think you are, the big mahoff?" But just what is a mahoff?

A shivaree, also spelled charivari, is a raucous, good-natured hazing for newlyweds. A discussion here about that word prompted lots of listeners to write in with their own stories about shivarees. Martha shares some of them.

In Britain, Canada, and some other English-speaking countries, the last letter of the alphabet is not zee, but zed. A caller who grew up in Guyana wonders why.

Sure, the present tense of sneak is easy, but what about the past? Is it sneaked or snuck?

A law student wonders about the origin of the word widget.

Is the word financial pronounced with a long I in the first syllable?

There's a story going around that the word posh derives from "Port Out, Starboard Home." Don't fall for it.

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Could big Mahoff be a distortion of the yiddish term 'macher'– meaning– 'big shot'(See Every Goy's Guide to Common Jewish Expressions, by Arthur Naiman)– ?

Ron Draney said:

The full official name of Mexico translates as "United Mexican States" (Estados Unidos Mexicanos), so the only part we can use to distinguish the USA is the "America" part. Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of the term "Usonian", if that's of any help to you, and it seems HL Mencken collected a whole rack of suggestions (Columbard, Fredonian, Unitedstateser), none of which managed to catch on.
As to the absence of any other country with the word "America(n)" in its name, I'm somehow reminded of a scene early in the movie "To Sir With Love" where Thackeray (played by Sidney Poitier) meets the other teachers for the first time. As soon as he starts to speak, one of them blurts out "Oh, an American!" Thackeray corrects them by saying he's actually "British, from British Guiana", which because of its location in the New World would still make him an "American" to many people despite it being (at the time) part of the British empire.

I lived in Venezuela for about a year, and they were very patriotic and made sure to inform me that they were Americans too. They also pointed out that they were also United Statesians (estadounidenses), because they are the United States of Venezuela. But mostly they just called us Americanos -- I guess it was easier for them as well as for us.

In regard to the "Mahoff", I wonder if its related to Maha, which is a prefix in hindi which means big. Maha-raja for instance would be big-king = emperor. Mahatma (Gandhi) would be great-spirit.