The Other Shoe (episode #1658)

So you think you can spell? Youngsters in modern spelling bees are expected to memorize a wide range of words, from chemical processes to names of rare animals. Also: In many languages, the word for “mother” begins with the letter M — but not in all of them. And where are you from, eh? If you phrase a question that way, it’s pretty clear where you’re from. Plus, saltigrade and tardigrade, bite the dust and buy the farm, Hoofddorp, a family euphemism, pilkunviilaaja, a letter-lopping brain teaser, sacar la garra, and a whole lot more.

This episode first aired May 31, 2025.

Saltigrade and Avahi

 Two words from the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee prep materials: avahi, a term for a woolly lemur of Madagascar, and saltigrade, which describes spiders and other creatures that have feet and limbs adapted for leaping. Saltigrade is linguistically related to words in several Romance languages involving leaping, as well as the English word somersault. The -grade or “stepping” in saltigrade is related to tardigrade, which refers to hardy microscopic creatures so named because they move quite slowly.

Bite the Farm

 Louie from Black Hills, South Dakota, recalls the time his girlfriend fell off a paddleboard and into a lake, at which point his father declared She bit the farm! This peculiar locution is most likely his dad’s own combination of two expressions, bite the dust meaning “to crash” or “to take a hard tumble” and buy the farm, meaning “to die.”

Pilkunviilaaja, the Comma-Polisher

 In Finland, the term pilkunviilaaja applies to someone who given to hairsplitting. This word for someone who’s “persnickety” literally means “comma-polisher” or “comma-filer.” The Finnish word pilkun means “of a comma” and viilaaja means “someone who files.”

Why We Say “Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop”

 Waiting for the other shoe to drop means “anticipating something that has yet to happen.” An old story may explain the origin of this phrase: A man staying in a boarding house is getting ready for bed. He removes one shoe and lets it fall to the floor with a thud, followed by silence. The neighbor downstairs gets annoyed waiting for that second thud that doesn’t come.

Hoofddorp

 A geographical term from the 2025 Scripps Spelling Bee: Hoofddorp, a commune in the western part of the Netherlands.

Take-Off S Word Game

 Quiz Guy John Chaneski shares one of this take-off puzzles, where the object is to remove a letter from the beginning from one word to form another word. In this case, the letter is always S. For example, what two words are clued by “The Opportunity rover on Mars is telling lies about me”?

The Complicated Reasons So Many Languages Have Words for Mother That Start With “M”

 Words for “mother” begin with the letter M in many languages, but not all of them. The reason has to do with the physiology of infant vocalization. Among the first sounds babies make are bilabial sounds with an open vowel, the lips coming together to form a B or M sound. In some East Indian languages, for example, the word for “father” is Baba. The sounds of nursing involve a nasalized, or N sound. Then parents interpret these sounds and give them meaning, often deciding that these sounds designate adults involved. Beyond the physiological factors, that initial M also reflects the fact that Indo-European languages share common linguistic roots, as is the case with madre in Spanish and mère in French, both of which are cognate with English mother.

The Canadian “Eh?”

 In her book, Canadian English: A Linguistic Reader, University of Toronto professor Elaine Gold writes extensively about the common Canadian discourse tag eh? This word can serve as a confirmation marker, much like the discourse tag right? The word eh may also be used to soften an imperative. It’s possible this distinctive use of eh derives from, or at least has been influenced by, French-Canadian hein, which serves similar functions.

“What in the Sam Hill” is a Euphemism for “What in the Hell?”

 There’s no evidence that anyone named Sam Hill inspired the phrase What in the Sam Hill? It’s almost certainly just a euphemism for What in the hell?

Humbled as a Spelling Pronouncer

 When Martha agreed to serve as pronouncer for the San Diego County Scripps Regional Spelling Bee, she assumed her task would be easy. Instead, it was one of the most humbling experiences of her life.

Amount of vs. Number of Something

 Calling from the Greek island of Crete, a retired English teacher named Beth asks about using of amount of instead of number of when it comes to such phrases as the amount of people or the amount of eggs. The traditional distinction is that amount applies to mass nouns, or uncountable things, and number is used with count nouns, or things that can be counted. In everyday speech, however, it’s fine to relax about this rule.

Tuna Casserole? Let’s Roll

 For one family in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the expression tuna casserole serves as code for “Tonight’s dinner doesn’t sound so good, so let’s go out to eat.”

After the Fiesta, Saca Garra

 Ray, a teacher at a bilingual elementary school near Dallas, Texas, shares the Spanish term his family uses for gossiping after a party: saca garra. Spanish garra means “claw” or “talon,” and sacar la garra is used on either side of the Texas-Mexico border meaning “to gossip,” or literally, “to take out one’s claws.” In Mexican Spanish, garra can mean either “claw” or “old clothes,” so it’s possible there’s also a multilingual pun involving the idea of metaphorically “airing dirty laundry.”

This episode is hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, and produced by Stefanie Levine.

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