If someone is gobsmacked, they’re totally surprised. The term may come from the same Gaelic root that gave us the Everlasting Gobstopper. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Gobsmacked” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hello. Hi...
Shut your piehole! means “Shut your mouth!” Need more slang terms for the mouth? For starters, there’s potato trap, tater trap, tatty trap, bun trap, gingerbread trap, kissing trap, fly trap, rattle trap, baconhole, and cakehole. This is part of a...
All aboard! This week, a bit about the musical language of railroad conductors’ calls: “Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!” Also, the origin of the military slang term cumshaw, tips for learning Latin, the influence of Spanish immigrants on English...
What’s a synonym for “diarrhea of the mouth”? A caller swears she heard the word on an earlier episode, but can’t recall it. The hosts try to help. Tumidity? Multiloquence? Logorrhea? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Diarrhea of...
A trip to the California State Railroad Museum has Grant musing about the way language can change in the mouth of a single individual— in this case, railroad conductors. He recommends a collection of sound files from metros and subways around the...
Welcome to another newsletter from "A Way with Words"! Where the heck have we been? Working on a brand-new season, that's where. It starts this coming weekend. That's right--brand-new episodes, chock full of languagey goodness...