Season and Sea Change

Hi, you’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Martha Barnette.

Well, it’s summer, at least in our part of the world.

And if you’ve listened to our podcast for a while, you know what that means.

This is the time when Grant and I and our production team take a break from producing the hour-long version of our show.

It’s just a short break.

And folks who listen to A Way with Words on their public radio stations are going to hear some archives.

But if you listen by podcast, we’re not going to leave you hanging.

We’re putting together some online-only content just for you that broadcast listeners won’t hear.

Throughout the summer, we’ll be posting short conversations about language or answering some of your mail,

Or we’ll be talking about whatever’s caught our interest lately.

We hope these mini-podcasts will help make your commute a little more fun

Or help you last a little longer on the treadmill or maybe help you fall asleep at night.

Seriously, I’m not kidding.

You wouldn’t believe how many people say to us that they listen to A Way with Words while they’re falling asleep.

I’m not quite sure how to take that.

Anyway, I wanted to say that Grant and I are so glad to have you in our community of language lovers,

And we love hearing from you, whether you send us an email or a phone message,

Or you talk to us on Facebook or through Twitter, or you talk to us in our discussion forum on waywordradio.org.

We love the way that you challenge and enlighten us, and it really is a joy to hear from you.

And I do want to say one thing about that, too.

Every single month, Grant and I get more than 1,000 emails and phone calls from listeners.

Now, we read them all, and we answer as many as we can, but of course, we can’t answer every single one, even though we’d like to.

We adore hearing your personal stories about words and how we use them and your linguistic heirlooms in your family.

And please know that every question you ask and observation you share influences what we think about in terms of language and what ultimately ends up on the show.

So thanks for that.

And speaking of email, this week a listener named T. Ladd wrote to ask about the term sea change, meaning a radical change.

He’s a former sailor, and he says he knows firsthand the effects of changes in sea conditions,

But he still doesn’t get how changing sea conditions ever gave rise to the metaphorical sense.

He writes, if I were the first to write that expression, I would use sea change.

That’s capital letter C change.

His reasoning?

Well, if a sailor’s course follows roughly the shape of the letter C,

Then the direction changes about 180 degrees.

Hence, a sea change would be a reversal of direction.

Wow, that’s a pretty creative explanation.

But the truth is much simpler.

The expression sea change is indeed S-E-A.

And it simply has to do with the kind of transformation that occurs

When something spends a whole lot of time under the sea,

Whether it’s a shipwreck or a body.

And the reference is to Shakespeare.

In the tempest, Ariel sings, full fathom five thy father lies.

Of his bones are coral made.

Those are pearls that were his eyes.

Nothing of him that doth fade but doth suffer a sea change into something rich and strange.

Well, thanks for the question, T-Lad.

We’ll be answering more of those in these podcasts as the summer goes on.

In the meantime, Grant and I will be doing some public speaking and some research.

And we’ll also be doing some fundraising.

Which reminds me, you do know, don’t you, that A Way with Words is not produced by NPR.

It’s not even produced by a public radio station.

A Way with Words is an independent production.

It’s brought to you each week by a small nonprofit organization that was formed to encourage intelligent conversation about language.

If you’d like to help us out, drop by waywordradio.org and click on that white link at the top,

The one that says a contribution to A Way with Words is tax deductible.

So, you have two podcasts coming to you this week, so be sure you listen to the other one.

And in the meantime, you can call or write us anytime.

The phone number is 1-877-929-9673.

You can leave a message there or you can send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Thanks for listening.

For A Way with Words, I’m Martha Barnette.

Have a great summer and now on to the next podcast.