Listeners respond to our earlier conversation about ending a telephone call with mmm-bye. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Mmm-Bye” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it...
Chad in Omaha, Nebraska, noticed that his mother ended every phone call with mmm-bye, a form he never heard her use in person. The closing may be simply bye with the initial m sound held a little longer before the lips release for the b, not a...
It’s commonly heard these days that English is going to hell in a handbasket, but it’s worth remembering that we’ve always said things like this. A hundred years ago, as telephones became more and more common, sticklers railed against...
To dime someone out, just like to drop a dime (on someone), is to nark or tattle, common in the days when it cost ten cents to use a pay phone and snitch. Of course, that’s when pay phones were used at all. This is part of a complete episode...
If you had to say the word telephone in sign language, you’d probably do the thumb and pinky to the head. In the past, though, it was one fist to the ear, one fist to the mouth — just like the old fashioned candlestick phone! The current sign...