Jim, an engineer from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, relies on punch list for the final written rundown of unfinished and corrective items before a public works project wraps up. The term shows up in construction and engineering contexts at least as...
Kludge, also kluge, means an awkward but workable fix, the sort of thing held together with duct tape and wire. Jan in Arlington, Texas, remembers her mother stretching it to a snarled freeway, tangled paperwork, or any big mess. The term circulated...
In architecture and design, an affordance is a part of something that serves a function, like the handle on a cup or the notch in a dictionary where you put your thumb. In language we have affordances, too, such as words that indicate a place for...
In the movie Avatar, the characters battle over a rare and valuable mineral called unobtanium. A mechanical engineer says he had a hard time getting into the movie because in his world, the word unobtanium means something different. This is part of...
In an earlier episode, Martha explained the origin of the expression to boot, meaning “in addition” or “besides.” That prompted an email from a listener wanting to know why we speak of booting a computer. Grant has the answer...
Who put the piping in the expression “piping hot”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Piping Hot” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett...