Sometimes the process of naming a pet takes a while. The hosts talk about how their dogs’ names evolved. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Pet Name Evolution” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett. And I’m Martha...
Beware of false friends, those words that don’t translate the way you’d expect. For example, the word “gift” in German means “poison,” and the Spanish word “tuna” means “the fruit of the prickly pear cactus.” These tricky lookalikes are also called...
Bavarian Chalet. Mushroom Basket. Moose Point. Who in the heck comes up with the names of paint, anyway? Must be the same people who get paid to give names like Love Child, Sellout, and Apocalypse to shades of lipstick. Martha and Grant discuss...
swish and spit n.— «It requires transoceanic vessels to dump ballast water at least 200 miles from shore. Those carrying no ballast must rinse their tanks with salt water, a process known as “swish and spit,” to kill organisms lurking in residual...
That stuff under your bed—what do you call it? Dust bunnies? House moss? Beggar’s velvet? Ghost turds? Those fluffy little puffballs go by lots of different names. But a caller is perplexed by his mother’s term for those ever-multiplying dustwads:...
cat-claw n.— «Part of our loot included a a short wrecking bar known to carpenters as a cat-claw. It’s pretty rusted after lying out in the weather all those months.» —“Curious trash along the highway” by Carl Welser Daily Press &...
