A sign-language interpreter found herself translating the word doldrums. She wonders if it has to do the area of the ocean known by that name. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Doldrums”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Alicia Morris calling from Rochester, New York.
Hi, Alicia. Welcome to the program.
Thank you.
Yay!
I have a question about the word, the duldrums, and its origin.
Okay.
Yeah. What got you thinking about that?
It actually happened at work.
I’m a sign language interpreter here at a local university in Rochester, and I was sent to a marine biology class, and I heard the professor use the word in a way that I had never heard before.
I’d always heard the doldrums being used as like a mood or a state of stagnation or nothing exciting is happening.
But we were talking about the earth and the winds and the tides, and she started explaining about an area in the equator where there’s very little wind and it’s very calm.
And she called it the doldrums.
Right.
As I’m sitting there working, of course, I’m thinking to myself, I can ask A Way with Words.
Where it came from, did the area around the equator actually influence our speech and how we use it now to explain our moods, or was it the other way around?
Well, that’s a great question.
Do you have a hunch about it?
I don’t.
I know that you guys have said a lot that there’s a lot of nautical terms that make their way into our speech.
So I was thinking that was a possibility, but then I thought maybe it’s even older than that, because it is such a strange word to me.
Right, right.
I wasn’t really sure what the origin was.
Right.
Well, you are on track.
There is a connection between the two, but the one that came first is the general state of dullness.
Yeah.
In fact, doldrums might be related to the word dull.
And it’s been used at least since the early 1800s that way.
And then the word was applied to that part of the sea where…
The person came first and the sea came later.
The word, yeah.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So how do you sign that?
Do you just look really dull?
Yeah, well, I look really dull anyway.
No, that’s not what I meant.
No, actually, since it is a university and its classroom level, they kind of need to know the exact word because it’s probably going to show up on a test.
So I actually spelled it out and then explained, well, actually the teacher was explaining anyway, that it’s just a very calm area.
I showed that there weren’t many waves, not a lot of wind, that kind of stuff.
That must be so interesting, signing for a marine biology class.
Absolutely.
It can be very challenging.
Yeah?
It’s not my normal gig.
No?
I was just actually sent there for a one-time thing.
I usually do all the computer stuff.
Oh, wow.
Now that would be really interesting, too, right?
Yeah, that is very interesting.
Wow, Alicia.
Well, I think we learned more from you than you learned from us.
We love these kinds of calls.
No, I don’t think that’s true.
I listen to you guys on podcasts all the time, so you’ve taught me much more than you’ve learned from me in just this short time.
Oh, shucks.
Well, I hope you’ll call with other questions in the future.
Yeah, thanks for the great story.
Oh, no problem.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate the help.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Did you have one of those moments at work when you were doing something and then you thought, oh, I’m going to ask A Way with Words?
The way you can do that is to email us, words@waywordradio.org.
Or call us at 1-877-929-9673.
