Instead of saying “Good-bye” or “So long,” a Hoosier says, his great-grandfather used to say, “Don’t leave your endgate up.” What’s up with that? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Don’t Leave Your Endgate Up” Hi, you have A Way with...
Pickle, baboon, cupcake, snorkel, pumpkin, Kalamazoo—let’s face it, some words are just plain funny. But what makes some words funnier than others? Martha and Grant consider this question with an assist from Neil Simon’s play (and movie) The...
One definition of a shivaree is “a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the night...
Have you ever done something you regretted, and instinctively reached for the “undo” function, despite being nowhere near a computer? Maybe a page in your book accidentally turns and you reach for the browser’s back button? A Hoosier seeks a term...
A Hoosier says her friends tease her about the way she says doofitty when she can’t think of the right word for something. Grant and Martha discuss the long list of linguistic placeholders, including whatchamacallit, doodad, deely-bobber, doowanger...
Fellow wordivas and wordudes, This week on A Way with Words we start a brand-new season! To celebrate, we noodled with anagrams, including the one in the title of this episode. Listen here. Also on the show: A New York City schoolteacher asks, “Why...
