Listeners have been posting photos of themselves with their favorite words on our Word Wall, including some that are new to us. For example, epalpebrate might be a good one to drop when describing the Mona Lisa in art history class, since it means without eyebrows. And menehune is a term for the tiny, mischievous people in Hawaiian folklore. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “See the Word Wall”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
I thought I knew a lot of words, but I’ve been learning so many from our listeners lately. We asked you to write a favorite word in big letters on a piece of paper and send us a snapshot of yourself holding it up. And we’re posting those on our word wall at waywordradio.org.
And Grant, the fun part is once I start researching those words, I find so much great stuff. There was tons of stuff in there I didn’t know. For example, one guy on our word wall was holding up a sign that said, epalpebrite. Epalpebrite. I had to look that up.
I did, too. As in, the Mona Lisa is epalpebrite.
Right. No eyebrows.
Yeah. There’s a word for that. And how about menahune? I learned that from another fellow holding up a sign that said menahune. In Hawaii, those are little forest dwellers who come out at night and play tricks on people.
Oh, part of the Hawaiian culture.
Yes. Very good.
Yes. For me, the other fun thing about the word wall at waywordradio.org is the fact that you start looking at these folks and you just wonder the stories behind them. Why does this particular person choose that particular word? Why does that mean something to them?
So a story about a person choosing a word that itself has a story. And that in a nutshell is what we do here, right?
It totally is. And we’d love to talk with you about language, 877-929-9673.
Or you can send your questions and email to words@waywordradio.org.
