Stemwinder, an Excellent Speech

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Bill, and I’m calling from the Hudson Valley in New York.

Oh, beautiful country up there along the river.

Hi, Bill. Welcome to the show.

Hi.

What’s on your mind?

My question was about something that my grandma texted to my dad.

So she was watching a political rally, and she said that a politician gave a stem winder a speech, and I was wondering what a stem winder is.

A stem winder of a speech.

What was your impression that she meant?

Something good.

Back in the early 1800s, people would tell time using a pocket watch, you know, those old-fashioned ones with the numbers all around it.

And pocket watches were like an old-fashioned clock that you could just fit in your hand and then stick in your pocket and carry around.

Back in those days, the watches didn’t run on batteries, and so you had to wind it up to make it keep working after a few hours.

So this is where the word stem winder comes from.

Because back then you had to use like a tiny key to wind it up, like a key not any bigger than your thumbnail.

And you would stick it in the watch and you would turn it.

And that was a big hassle because, you know, it was a hassle to keep track of the key.

It was easy to lose.

But then in the 1840s, somebody invented a watch that had a little stem sticking out of it with a tiny knob on it, and you could wind that little knob on the stem.

And you didn’t have to use a key, so it was really convenient.

And this type of watch was called a stem winder.

And it was so convenient and so popular that people not only started referring to those clocks, those little watches, as a stem winder, they started referring to anything that was excellent or outstanding as a stem winder because they liked those watches so much.

Is that more than you thought you would ever learn about watches?

Yeah, probably.

Is this the kind of word that you think that you’ll use, Bill?

Maybe.

Yeah, okay.

Do you have a watch yourself, Bill?

No.

How do you tell time then?

With like an analog clock.

Got it, analog.

Yeah, that’s why I felt like I had to explain that there used to be clocks that were round with numbers.

Well, Bill, we appreciate you calling with the question.

I hope that was everything you needed to know.

Okay.

Yeah, and stick that word in a school paper and see what your teacher says.

Yeah.

All right, bye-bye.

Take care of yourself.

Bye.

Bye.

All right, bye-bye.

Well, you can spill your stem-winding question into our voicemail at 877-929-9673.