Mox Nix (episode #1662)

You might be surprised to learn that a “hoosier” isn’t necessarily from Indiana. Around the St. Louis, Missouri, area, the term hoosier has a whole other meaning. And: Scotland is the home of the Golden Spurtle world championship, but what exactly is a spurtle? Some of the finest kitchens are stocked with spurtles. Plus, a love poem from a now-extinct language still echoes through the centuries. Also, boire en wifi and other synonyms for airsipping, an anagrammatic word challenge, thivel, good times at the hosie, Proto-Indo-European, sprit, bully pulpit, the vocabulary of Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania, water sommelier, a punny riddle, and more.

This episode first aired August 2, 2025

A Tocharian Love Poem

 The now-extinct Tocharian languages were spoken in western China in the latter half of the first millennium CE. We have only fragments of written texts in these languages, but here’s part of a Tocharian love poem that conveys emotions that echo across the centuries. It appears in Laura Spinney’s new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (Bookshop|Amazon). Here’s the whole poem:

Earlier there was no person dearer to me than you,
and later too there was none dearer.
The love for you, delight in you is breath together with life.
This should not change for life.
Thus I thought: with the one beloved will I live well lifelong without deceit without pretense.
The god Karman alone knew this my thought.
Therefore, he caused dissension and tore from me the heart that belonged to you.
He led you away, separated me and had me partake of all sorrows.
The joy I had in you he took away from me.

And in Tocharian:

Ma ni cisa nos somo nem wnolme lare taka,
ma ra postam cisa lare mäsketär-n.
Cisse laraumne cisse artanye pelke kalttarr solämpa sse,
ma te stalle sol wärnai.
Taiysu pälskanoym: sanai saryompa sayau karttses saulu wärnai snai tserekwa snai nane.
Yamornikte se cau ni palskane sarsa, tusa ysaly ersate, cisy aras ni sälkate.
Waya ci lauke, tsyara nis wetke, lykautka-n pake po läklentas, cise tsarwo sampate-n.

When a Hoosier Isn’t From Indiana

 Mary-Clare recalls that when she was growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, everyone she knew used the term hoosier as a kind of teasing pejorative. If someone did something silly, others would say You’re such a hoosier, the adjective hoozh, or jokingly dismiss someone as a member of the hoosioisie. The term had circulated throughout the US Midwest long before Indiana residents adopted the word Hoosier to denote denizens of that state. But the other sense lived on in the St. Louis area, once a great crossroads and gateway to the West and thus something of a linguistic island all its own.

To Birdie, Baby Birding, Airsipping, and Other Water-Drinking Techniques

 As we’ve noted, in California’s Orange County, to birdie means “to drink from a bottle without touching it with one’s lips.” Elsewhere this germ-avoidant act is also called airsipping, airing, baby birding. In parts of the UK, you might sky a drink or air it. You can also bluetooth a beverage. The French equivalent is boire en wifi or “to drink in wifi mode,” that is, “drink without direct contact.”

Royal Riddle

 If a king sleeps on a king-size mattress and queen sleeps on a queen-sized mattress, what does a prince sleep on? This riddle—or its answer—may keep you up at night.

Mixed-Up Anagram Word Challenge

 Quiz Guy John Chaneski challenges you to unravel a mixed-up puzzle. Each clue contains an anagram of another word relevant to it. For example, in the sentence A rose garden grows deep in the heart of Texas, what word might be rearranged to form ar related word?

Spurtle, Couthie Spurtle, Thivel, and Other Utensils for Stirring Your Porridge

 Katie in Tallahassee, Florida, saw a friend cooking with what she called a Scottish spurtle, a kitchen utensil that looks like a wooden dowel with a knob on the end, used to stir hot cereals and rice. Soon after, her husband saw an infomercial on YouTube for an Amish spurtle, which was also made of wood, but was flatter and slightly curved. What’s the origin of spurtle, and why does the same word apply to different kinds of utensils? In Scotland, a dowel-shaped spurtle is also called a thivel, a flat one is called a couthie spurtle. The origin of spurtle is unclear. It may be related to other “flat”-related words spatula and spade, but it might be formed by metathesis from an Old Norse word that also gives us sprit, meaning “stick,” as in the bowsprit of a boat. Serious Scottish spurtle fans gather each year for the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship.

Good Enough Who It’s For

 The casual phrase good enough for who it’s for suggests that something wasn’t done perfectly, but was done well enough. This saying is not all that common, but it’s been around for at least a century. Similar expressions used in the construction industry include looks good from my house and good enough for government work. In Italian, one might describe something done in a slapdash manner as fatto con i pieri or “done with the feet.” A similarly reassuring phrase: It’ll never be seen from a galloping horse.

Mox Nix, Es Macht Nichts

 Tommy in Lexington, Kentucky, reports that when he was serving in the U.S. military in Vietnam he heard the expression Mox nix, meaning “I don’t care” or “It doesn’t matter.” It’s a version of a German es Macht nichts, or “It’s nothing.”

An Incredible Trunk of the Language Tree

 Science journalist Laura Spinney’s new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (Bookshop|Amazon) shows how lots of languages as diverse as Hindi, Italian, and English all stem from a single prehistoric ancestral tongue. A basic word for the number “three,” for example, is similar across several languages. For example, English three is cognate with Spanish tres, French trois, Russian tri, and Albanian tre, to name just a few. Similarly, the name Slav may have meant “the famous people.” In early Middle Ages, after the Franks took Slavs captive, the name Slav became sclavus in the language of the Holy Roman Empire, Latin. It went on to become esclave in French, and then when the Normans moved into Britain, it morphed into English slave. But that original idea of slav meaning “fame” or “glory” lives on today in the Polish name Stanislaw, “he who’s achieved fame,” and Slava Ukraini, “Glory to Ukraine.”

When “Bully” Was a Fine Fellow

 In the early 16th century, the word bully was a term of endearment, probably stemming from Dutch boel, meaning “lover.” Shakespeare used bully to mean “a fine fellow” or “good chap.” When President Theodore Roosevelt referred to the presidency as a bully pulpit, he meant that it was an excellent means for getting a message across. Over time, bully also went through a process of pejoration, developing the sense of a “blustering, swaggering fellow,” perhaps associated with bull the powerful animal, or bull as in “a man who protects a prostitute.”

I’ll Have the Koch 88

 A retronym is a word coined to distinguish something new from an older, more generic version, such as electric guitar or clock radio. A couple of new retronyms are fine water, or “unprocessed water that reflects a region’s terroir” and water sommelier, a professional who procures and dispenses such water to a growing number of fine water enthusiasts.

Party at the Hosie

 A listener who grew up in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, has fond memories of visits to the hosie, the local term for a firehouse that also functioned as a community center. Also spelled hozie, it’s defined in an online dictionary at the Coal Region website as “a place to drink beer and keep fire trucks.” Some folks in that region fondly refer to their dialect as the Skook.

Forestcombing

 Our conversation about using natural objects such as rocks, driftwood, or antlers, as decoration prompted a Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, beachcomber to suggest that like beachcombing, searching for such items in the woods might be described as forestcombing.

This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.

Book Mentioned in the Episode

Music Used in the Episode