If there’s a logophile on your gift list, you have lots of choices, including a new trivia game for language-lovers and a murder mystery for the word-obsessed. Plus, if someone calls you a schmoozer, should you be flattered or insulted? And if you’re on a road trip, there’s one place you definitely don’t want to get stuck, and that’s out where God lost his galoshes! Also, go around the Wrekin, kibitz, chemin des écoliers, grob, gundeck, a gift-giving game, allegro vs. lento in linguistics, bread and skip, send to Coventry, why a car might be called a whip, and lots more.
This episode first aired December 13, 2025.
Conjobble the Potboiler
Susie Dent’s murder mystery Guilty by Definition (Bookshop|Amazon) follows a lexicographer in Oxford who becomes a sleuth of a different kind, seeking the culprit in a long-unsolved killing. A lexicographer herself, Dent includes lots of obscure and obsolete words, such as conjobble, a verb that in the 17th century meant “to eat, drink, and talk.”
Is Schmoozer Derogatory?
Mona from Riverview, Florida, grew up understanding that the word schmooze, which comes from Yiddish, meant simply “to mingle and chat” at parties, but when she fondly referred to her friend as a schmoozer, the friend was insulted, assuming that a schmoozer was a smarmy flatterer. Schmooze has more than one meaning, much like the word kibitz, also derived from Yiddish, which can mean either “to offer unwanted advice, but also simply “to chat.”
Go Around Your Elbow To Get To Your…
A listener remembers her grandmother’s colorful comment when someone arrived late after getting lost: You went around your elbow to get to your thumb. Lots of similar sayings in English suggest roundabout routes or overcomplicated tasks, including going around your elbow to reach your nose or ear, and other body parts, and going all the way around Robin Hood’s barn. In the UK, you may hear the same idea expressed with going around the Wrekin, a large hill in Shropshire, or going around the houses. The French convey a similar idea with chemin des écoliers, or “the schoolchildren’s path.” A German expression translates as “go from behind through the chest into the eye,” and a similar phrase among Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians roughly translates as “go over a stream for water.”
Grobbing for Groats
Susie Dent’s murder mystery Guilty by Definition (Bookshop|Amazon) includes the word grob, an obsolete word meaning to search in the dark earch by the sense of touch, as when feeling around in one’s pocket for change. (A groat is a medieval British silver coin worth four pence.)
A Barn for Barnette, a Bar for Barrett, and Quiz for You
Quiz Guy John Chaneski is buying super-personalized presents for his friends and family, all based on each recipient’s first name. For example, John purchased an almanac for Al and some patchouli for his friend Pat. Your job is to guess what gifts he has in mind for the rest of the people on his list. For example, what person and gift fit the following observation? “My nephew fancies himself quite the pool shark, but the felt on the old thing he’s got is getting worn. I should shell out some big bucks for a new one.”
Gundecking, the Fabricating of Data and Paperwork
A Navy vet recalls learning the slang term gundeck, meaning “to sign off on checks or reports without fully completing them.” A possible origin involves a ship’s gun deck, either as a place where sailors hid to avoid duties or where navigational math was done later from memory instead of on the spot. Gundecking refers to rushed or fabricated paperwork when one’s workload exceeds the time available.
Allegro and Lento Forms of Language
C’mere—the quick, reduced version of Come here—is an example of what linguists call an allegro form, a sped-up, casual pronunciation or spelling created through phonetic reduction. The lento form, in contrast, is the longer version. In musical notation, allegro refers to “fast” and lento refers to “slow.”
Out Where God Lost His Galoshes
Sarah Jane in Tucson, Arizona, recalls hearing the phrase out where God lost his galoshes for any far-flung, hard-to-reach place. Similar phrases include where God left his overshoes, where Jesus lost his sandals, where Jesus lost his cap, where Moses left his sandals. Brazilians use a similar phrase that translates as “where Judas lost his boots.” Spaniards have a host of similar expressions, including donde Cristo perdió el mechero, or “where Christ lost his lighter,” and the picturesque phrase donde da la vuelta el aire, “where the air turns around.”
The League of the Lexicon: You’re a Member Whether You Know It or Not
League of the Lexicon is a wide-ranging trivia game for language lovers with thousands of questions on all matters linguistic. Creator Joshua Blackburn has also compiled a treasure trove of linguistic delights in a companion volume called The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia (Bookshop|Amazon).
Origin of Potatoes and Point, When You Fail to Afford the Food So You Fantasize the Flavor
The phrase potatoes and point involves a family tradition from times of scarcity when eaters would point to an imaginary food and ask for it to be passed when there was clearly no such food to be had. Irish sources trace potatoes and point to the late 18th and 19th centuries. Related forms include bread and point, bread and think, or bread and skip, all referring to meals where imagination supplied what was lacking on the plate.
Send to Coventry
The British expression send to Coventry means “to ostracize,” and likely derives from the time of the English Civil War, when the town of Coventry served as a holding site for captured Royalist soldiers. By the 18th century, the phrase also came to apply to informal military punishment in which an officer’s peers would be ordered to ignore him for a prescribed time.
Why is a Car Called a “Whip”?
Maria from Kingsland, Georgia, asks why a car is sometimes called a whip. The origin of this slang term isn’t clear, although it may have arisen from the notion of a steering wheel as a successor to the horse-driver’s whip or refer to a vehicle whipping around a corner at high speed.
This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.
Books Mentioned in the Episode
| Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent (Bookshop|Amazon) |
| The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia by Joshua Blackburn (Bookshop|Amazon) |
Music Used in the Episode
| Title | Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Out In The Country | The Meters | Fire On The Bayou | Reprise Records |
| I Can Dig It | Booker T and The MGs | Doin’ Our Thing | Stax |
| Expressway (To Your Heart) | Booker T and The MGs | Doin’ Our Thing | Stax |
| The Other Side | Sure Fire Soul Ensemble | Step Down | Colemine Records |
“going around …” My mother, a northern New Englander (gone these five years now, at age 96), often talked about “traipsing all over God’s kitchen.” I use this phrase often myself.