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Doorknob Hanging

Ever had a friend who never can quite say “goodbye”? Say you’re finishing up an email conversation, you both say like “so long,” but then up pops another email from him, asking just one more question or mentioning one more bit of news. A caller from Hillsboro, Oregon, wants to know if there’s a word for that kind of lingering, drawn-out goodbye. Martha calls it “doorknob hanging,” but Grant has a more technical term used by linguists. This is part of a complete episode.

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