Tomboy

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, I’m sure my sister would disagree.

Who is this?

Get her on the line. I’ll straighten her out, buddy.

I have three sisters of my own. I know how to handle them.

This is Ari, and I’m calling from Austin, Texas.

Ari!

You sound very young. What are you, like 40 or 50?

Actually, I’m probably the youngest person that’s been on your show. I’m 13.

Oh, no. We’ve had some 9-year-olds and 11-year-olds, but I’ll tell you what, you’re one of a very elite group of young people.

Yay.

Congratulations.

So you’ve got a question about language, or was this just a prank call?

Well, certainly your refrigerator’s probably running, so I’m just going to skip that and ask the question.

And I let Prince Albert out of the can a long time ago.

So I was wondering, we were talking in the car and the term tomboy came up, and then I was just wondering, where did the tom come from?

Because I figured the boy came from the girl acting like a boy, but I didn’t know where the tom came from.

So that started bugging me, and then I knew who to call.

Well, there we go.

I’ve got a question for you, Ari, in return for your question.

Do you do spelling bees at all?

Not so much.

All right.

Well, let me give you then an SAT word that you’ll keep on hand until you start applying for colleges, all right?

Okay.

The word is pleonasm, P-L-E-O-N-A-S-M.

And what it means is a word that contains within itself the same meaning twice or more than once.

And that’s what tomboy is, because Tom actually also refers to a male human being.

So Tom and boy both refer to a male human being.

Now, Tom generally is a man.

It’s just kind of like the same way you might call somebody Joe, Mac, or Buddy, to refer to some random guy, like a typical fellow, right?

How did it get to a girl that acts like a guy being called a tomboy?

Somewhere in the 1500s.

You’re right.

It was originally referred to a boy who was rude or boisterous.

And somewhere in the 1500s, it just switched.

It became a term to mean a bold or immodest woman.

And then a little later, it became the meaning that we know today, which is a girl who behaves like a boisterous boy.

Yeah.

All right. Did I lose you there or did I help?

No, that helped.

Well, Ari, this has been fun.

Yeah. All right. See you later.

All right.

Talk to you later.

Well, if you’d like to take part in this tomfoolery, send us an email at words@waywordradio.org or give us a call at 1-877-929-9673.

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