Inside Out Word Puzzle

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

And on the line is our quiz guy, John Chaneski from New York City.

Hi, John.

Hi, Grant.

Hi, Martha.

I was going to do a quiz about how cold it’s getting here, but you know what? It’s not getting cold, so I’m going to do something completely different.

You guys are awfully smart. If I gave you a crossword clue like, I don’t know, fencing equipment, and told you the answer began with E, you would easily guess…

Epe.

Epe, right. It’s a classic.

So I figured let’s make it a little more challenging. Let’s work from the inside out.

If I gave you the clue a holiday and told you that the middle contained K-S-G-I, what might you guess?

Thanksgiving.

Yes, Thanksgiving. Very good.

So that’s how we’re going to work this. We’re going to work from the inside out. I’ll give you the middle two letters of a word. And if you don’t get it, I’ll give you two more working out. And we’ll go further and further out, see how fast you get it.

I can name that word in one letter.

Wow.

Oh, very nice. Here’s the first one. She checks figures.

K-E.

Bookkeeper?

Bookkeeper. Yeah, that’s all you needed. It’s right there in the middle.

Oh, these are all, by the way, these are all 10 letters long, all of them.

Okay.

Okay, here’s the next one. Hacker.

E-R.

E-R. Hacker.

How about B-E-R-J?

B-E-R-J. Lumberjack.

Yes, lumberjack. Got to remember, it’s the crossword style puns and clues and double meanings.

Here’s another one. Risk.

A-R.

Leopard.

If you stand in front of a leopard, that’s very risky.

It sure is a risk if you stand.

Jeopardy.

Oh, yeah, there we go. You’re close. Make it 10 letters long.

Jeopardize.

Jeopardize. Yes, very good.

How about zoo denizen? Speaking of animals, zoo denizen.

P-A.

Leopard.

Somebody’s on a leopard kick. That’s fine.

Camel leopard.

Yeah. From Twain, right? Camel leopard.

Right. How about M-P-A-N?

Hippopotam.

M-P-A-N?

M-P-A-N. Chimpanzee.

Yes, chimpanzee. Good.

How about subway shark?

P-O.

Is that like pizza rat?

This is not even close. I know this is close to pizza rat.

Subway shark? Is it somebody who eats a sandwich really, really fast?

No, we’ll see when we find the answer how it works out.

Okay, how about K-P-O-C?

Yeah.

Something, pickpocket?

Oh, there it is. Oh, hello, pickpocket. Very nice.

Subway shark.

Oh, that’s nice. Finally, A. Just A. That’s the clue.

And the letters are F-I.

They sure are.

F-I-A. Alphabetism.

Let’s try E-F-I-N.

Definite.

Indefinite?

Indefinite.

Indefinite is right. Congratulations. That’s great.

It’s hard.

That is.

Wow. Indefinite article.

Indeed. This, hey, the indefinite article. You guys are fantastic.

You worked your way from the inside to the outside and every way in between. Some were harder than others.

That was quite challenging.

Quite challenging. John, thanks, bud. We’ll talk to you again next week.

Thanks.

Talk to you then.

All right.

Cheers.

Bye.

The show tackles all aspects of language, whether it’s slang, new words, an argument you had about how to do something at work. Did you write the right thing? Did somebody make a mistake and then a customer saw it? We’d like to talk about it.

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