Charlotte from Princeton, Kentucky, wonders: What’s the difference between a spider web and a cobweb? There’s a bit of semantic differentiation between the two: A cobweb is usually an old spider web, while a spider web that’s not old may still have a tenant. The cob- in cobweb comes from Old English coppe, which means “spider” and comes from an old root that means “head,” because a spider looks like little more than a head. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (Bookshop|Amazon) Bilbo Baggins tries to distract some spiders by singing a song with the lines “Attercop! Attercop! Down you drop!” The -cop in attercop comes from the same root as the cob- in cobweb. This is part of a complete episode.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
Subscribe to the fantastic A Way with Words newsletter!
Martha and Grant send occasional messages with language headlines, event announcements, linguistic tidbits, and episode reminders. It’s a great way to stay in touch with what’s happening with the show.
