Ultimate Slang Dictionary

Even though you’re listening to this on podcast and not on the air, you can still call our toll-free

Number 877-929-9673. And you can still send us email to words@waywordradio.org.

And you can still find us online at waywordradio.org.

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. I was out shopping the other day and I saw a smiley.

A smiley.

Yes.

Now, Grant is not the kind of smiley that you’re probably thinking of.

George Smiley from the spy novels?

No, not George Smiley.

Not the little round face and not the little emoticon.

I was out shopping and I saw a smiley.

Do you know what that could be?

Okay.

We’re going into slang territory here.

We are.

Okay.

What is it?

I don’t know.

I have no idea.

We’re right smack dab in the middle of slang territory.

One definition of the word smile is bare flesh appearing between the top of a skirt or pair of trousers and the shirt or blouse.

And a smiley, according to this slang dictionary, is a man who’s showing a smile.

We’re not talking about the smile-shaped crevice when the rolls of fat are exposed?

Something like that. It’s like a muffin top.

And I know what book you were looking at, by the way.

I bet you do.

You were looking at Jonathan Green’s brand new three-volume historical dictionary of slang, right?

Yes, sir.

What a dictionary.

This is an amazing work, isn’t it?

Yes.

This is something that he’s been working on for nearly two decades.

It is tiny type, three massive volumes.

It is A to Z all the way through American English, British English, and all of the other Englishes in this work.

It’s amazing.

It has linguists all aflutter, doesn’t it?

It does because it’s complete.

You know, I used to work on a slang dictionary, a big one that was never completed because of various institutional reasons.

He found a way to do it.

Actually, part of it was he got a bequest from an uncle who passed away and it allowed him to work on this dictionary and finish it.

That is what it takes to do a work of great scholarship.

Dead uncles.

But I have to say a complete historical slang dictionary is an amazing thing.

And by historical we mean every entry includes uses of the word.

That solves a problem with slang dictionaries.

And that’s the one you were working on, right?

The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang.

Historical dictionaries allow you to see a word in context so that when you want to use the word yourself, you don’t make a lot of foolish mistakes.

You can use it as other people have used it.

And the examples are right there on the page, right?

Slang is not just a lot of rolling around in the gutter.

Oh, no, not at all.

It is an academic, it can be an academic pursuit.

He has identified and cataloged a substantial body of English that has been left out by traditional lexicographers who are either snotty or elitist or just refused because of time issues to include this stuff.

And what I love about it is it’s a taste of the living language.

I mean, I spent a couple of hours last night just flipping through the pages and found all these fantastic examples.

Tarantula juice.

What’s that?

That’s inferior whiskey.

Isn’t that great?

Tarantula juice.

Tiger juice, right?

Yeah, or a touch of the seconds.

Do you know what a touch of the seconds is?

Sounds very British, the way you said that.

It is.

And he’s British, right?

Yes, he is.

Yeah, a touch of the seconds is a last-minute hesitation.

So, like, you know, you get to the altar, and all of a sudden you have a touch of the seconds.

So 53,000 entries from all over the English-speaking world.

This is a dictionary that every library should have.

Well, this is the show about slang and grammar and words and how we use them.

If you want to talk about language, give us a call.

877-929-9673

Or send an email to

Words@waywordradio.org

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Patrick from Indianapolis.

Hello, Patrick. Welcome.

Hi, how’s it going?

Super. What can we do for you?

I just had a quick question about

A real interesting construction that I’ve been

Hearing a lot at work and

Around my friends and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense

To me and I didn’t know if there was a name for it

Or if this is a common

Thing for anybody else.

But I hear people say things like, I don’t want to be mean, but, and then it’s always followed by something really mean.

Or, I don’t want to be racist, but, and then it’s always like something really, really racist.

And it always just catches me off guard when people do that.

Are they saying it genuinely or ironically?

Do they know that they’re about to be racist or do they think that somehow that forgives them?

I think they know they’re about to be racist, which is why they try to justify it by saying, you know, I’m not a racist.

Then they are.

Negate that by saying something really true.

You know, nobody ever says,

I don’t mean to be nice,

But you look great today.

That’s true.

They should, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of people saying,

Oh, I’m just saying.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I’m just saying.

I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

You’re just saying, meaning…

I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

I’m just throwing it out there.

Yeah, yeah, right.

Yeah, I’m just throwing it out there.

It’s not coming from me.

It’s just like,

It exists without me being the agent of its existence.

Exactly.

So you’re on to something, Patrick.

Yes, but what is it?

An insult, really.

I think they’re insulting your intelligence.

Okay, understood.

I think more offensive when people do that personally.

I’m offended if people are racist and deny it.

I’m offended if they’re mean and deny it.

If you’re going to be mean, just say,

I’m about to be really mean.

You might want to leave.

Right?

Right.

I mean to be mean.

I don’t like you.

But why can’t we speak plainly is kind of at the bottom of what you’re asking.

Right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Well, because we’re human and we’re weak.

That’s the general answer for that.

I suppose that’s as good of an answer as I could expect.

Martha is inhaling.

She’s doing that kind of inhale that means I might have an answer.

No.

Oh.

I don’t want to be wrong, but no.

No, I’m just thinking, I mean, beyond the term disclaimer or something like that.

Well, it kind of serves as a warning.

Even if you don’t take the content of that first part of the phrase, right?

I don’t mean to be mean.

If you just accept that that’s not true, it is a warning for what falls.

Yeah.

Sure.

And it’s more, I think, direct than the ones that come at the end.

Like, I’m just saying, or bless her heart.

Oh, yeah.

You know?

I mean, it’s…

We called these roses with thorns at one point, didn’t we?

Oh, I like that.

Right?

But it’s kind of the thorn before the rose.

Or actually, no, it’s still the rose and the thorn.

But there’s something else here, right?

I like that.

I like that.

It’s a little bit of a gift horse.

Right, absolutely, yeah.

A gift horse.

A little.

I mean, what it is, it’s like there’s a discrepancy here between intention and delivery.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So, Patrick, do you do this yourself?

Are you a culprit?

You know, I mean, I’m sure I’ve done it before.

It’s one of those things that really annoys me when people do it.

Yeah.

And then I catch myself doing it later.

Oh, right.

Yeah.

Is there something about you that draws these kinds of statements?

I manage about 18 employees, and normally when they get into fights or something like that,

And I have to mediate between those arguments, that usually comes out.

So they’ll say, and my response is always, well, that is mean.

Yeah, exactly.

Right, right.

Exactly.

We don’t have a name for it.

Everyone does it.

It’s a little irritating.

It’s not completely honest, and maybe we should try to stop.

There you go.

I think it’s a lot irritating.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for the food for thought.

No problem.

Thanks for your answer.

If we come up with an overall term for this besides, you know, why.

Passive aggressive.

We’ll let you know, Patrick.

All right.

Well, thanks a lot.

I love your show.

All right.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Or, you know, another one that just occurs to me is why do people say, just out of curiosity?

I mean, why else would you ask a question?

Oh, your other question wasn’t out of curiosity.

My face just offended half of our listeners.

Nice job.

Thank you.

And if you’d like to give us a piece of your mind,

And then say, I’m just saying, feel free, 877-929-9673,

Or send your comments and email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Andrea. I’m calling from San Diego.

Hi, Andrea.

Well, my question has to do with anachronisms,

And I find, particularly in movies and TV, I find these little inconsistencies to be fascinating.

Like, for example, if you’re watching a movie about Julius Caesar and they show a group of senators

And one of the actors by mistake is wearing sneakers or a wristwatch or something like that,

Obviously they weren’t invented.

I’m talking on a cell phone.

Yeah.

Or something like a slang term maybe that wasn’t invented at the time.

Know give me a ring and telephone wasn’t invented oh yeah yeah yeah right but my question is well

It’s it’s a little different my question is is there a similar word that describes something

That’s out of place because of location or context rather than time like i was watching a movie

Recently that it took place in california but the character was drinking dunkin donuts coffee

Which we don’t have out here.

So I was just wondering, and I asked everyone I knew,

And I couldn’t come up with a word for it, and I thought you two might know.

There are no Dunkin’ Donuts anywhere in California?

Not as far as I know.

And you want a word for that.

So it’s not a problem of time like anachronism.

It’s a problem of place.

Right.

Is that right?

I just was remembering an episode of The Office, which is set in Scranton, Pennsylvania,

And yet there was an outdoor scene one season with palm trees.

What?

Yeah.

Kind of really obviously there at the top of the frame, some palm trees.

I’m like, well, the climate has changed.

It is getting warmer.

Oh, that’s funny.

Well, I think that the word that you’re looking for, Andrea, is anatopism.

Ooh.

That’s A-N-A-T-O-P-I-S-M.

The Greek word tapos means place.

And so, for example, an ectopic pregnancy is one that’s out of place.

And anatopism is defined as a putting of a thing out of its proper place.

And that includes geographical blunders.

So I would call it an anatopism.

Anatopism. Very good.

But in general, it’s a kind of continuity error in the business, right?

Yes.

Right.

Yes.

Those are great examples.

I’m trying to think of any others.

Well, there’s a website for that.

There’s a website for everything.

Yes.

Frankly, if humans have thought of it, there’s a website for it.

This one is moviemistakes.com.

Ooh.

It is a thorough cataloging of the errors of filmmakers, right?

If there was a radiomistakes.com, we’d be in big trouble.

There is.

It’s waywordradio.org.

But moviemistakes.com has even recent stuff, just a great cataloging.

Some of them you can kind of quibble with because maybe the movie makers wanted to kind of stir you up a little bit, but it’s some striking stuff on there.

Moviemistakes.com.

I bet they don’t know the word anatipism, but you do.

You do, Andrea.

Now I do.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Our pleasure.

Thanks for calling.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send your questions in email.

That address is words@waywordradio.org.

And you can find us on Facebook at Wayword Radio.

Grant, here’s another one I like from Green’s Dictionary of Slang.

Do you know the term understandings?

Do you know what that can mean?

I do not know.

Understandings.

In the 18th century, it meant boots or shoes.

Get it?

Understandings.

I’ve got to put on my understandings.

And by the 19th century, it also meant legs.

Oh, nice understandings.

Love that.

Share your slang with us, 877-929-9673, or send it an email to words@waywordradio.org.

A word puzzle and your language questions coming up.

Stick around.

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And joining us now is our quiz guy, Greg Pliska.

Greg, hi.

Hi, Martha.

Hi, Grant.

Hey, buddy.

How’s it going?

It’s going very well.

How’s things out there?

Sunny, warm, lovely.

Finers and frogs hair.

Do you have any puzzles there, any quizzes, or do you just call the chat?

Well, both, actually.

I have some limericks for you this week, actually.

Oh, okay.

Great.

These are just limericks about people or things that have been in the news lately.

And as usual, I’ll read you the first four lines, and then you fill in the end of the fifth line with the subject of the limerick.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Let’s see.

What’s been dominating the headlines now?

Okay, go ahead.

All right.

You ready?

Here we go.

Yeah.

Of songs, we now have a plethora from polka to tango to horror.

The digital solution to this sonic confusion is a free music site called Pandora.

Pandora, exactly.

Here’s another one for you.

A stalwart but tearful campaigner, this election he was a big gainer.

Like Bela Lugosi, his fangs bit Pelosi, and he’s now known as Speaker.

John Boehner.

John Boehner, indeed.

Nice.

Here’s another one.

Cross Elton John and Sonia Braga with some props from a Bollywood saga.

Add a dash of Elan and a dollop of flan, and you’ll end up with one…

Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga, exactly.

Here’s another one for you.

This platinum blonde in mascara made a Super Bowl star-spangled error.

Our Twilight’s last gleaming got a bit of a reaming from the lips of…

Christina Aguilera.

Poor thing.

Christina Aguilera, exactly.

It could happen to us all.

Of course.

When you do the anthem for the Padres games, you’ll be screwing up the lyrics too.

For sex symbols, male, the keys, muscle.

For women, it’s bodice and bustle.

How sad that she’s dead, of whom Bob Hope once said, here’s the two and only Jane Russell.

Jane Russell.

Indeed.

I liked it.

That was nice.

One of the people we’ve lost this year.

Hey, look, anytime you can quote Bob Hope, you’re guaranteed to be funny.

That’s right, especially on the Oscars, right?

And another one from the World of Entertainment.

American idlers cried foul when this Britisher threw in the towel.

His talent attractors now trained on X-Factor, so we’ll soon see much more.

Oh, Cowell.

Simon Cowell.

Simon Cowell, indeed.

Here’s a good one.

Keith Richards might stumble and stagger, but this bloke has not lost his swagger.

His turn on the Grammys was typically hammy.

Who’s more satisfied than?

That wrinkly rocker.

Mick Jagger.

Exactly.

And another person in the news lately.

With Vanity Fair came renown.

At the New Yorker, the talk of the town.

At Newsweek, she’ll feast like a big Daily Beast.

She’s the editor called?

Tina Brown.

Tina Brown.

Tina Brown, that’s right.

Big marriage with Newsweek and the Daily Beast.

And one more to polish our day off.

If you want a brief message transmitter and time is what you have to fritter, make your messages shorty, no more than 140, and tweet till you’re tired on Twitter.

That’s right.

And you can follow Grant Barrett on Twitter.

Username Grant Barrett.

And what’s your Twitter handle?

Greg Pliska.

Oh, very good.

Not very complicated, no.

Yes, you can follow us on Twitter at WayWord.

Greg, thank you so much for the puzzle.

That was tons of fun, as always.

It’s always a pleasure to be with you.

If you’ve got a question about wordplay, language, slang, grammar,

Anything having to do with the words that come out of your mouth or out of your keyboard,

Give us a call, 877-929-9673.

Martha says, what do you mean?

They’re prying up the keys?

877-929-9673.

Or send your questions and comments and stories to us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Good afternoon.

This is Catherine Parr.

Hi, Katherine. How are you doing? Where are you calling from?

I’m calling from Dallas, Texas.

Well, welcome to the program, Katherine. How can we help you?

Well, I had a question. I have been hearing for a number of years, especially from elderly relatives, the expression, I’m not cotton to.

I’m not cotton to.

And it’s referring, I guess, to something maybe that they’re not in favor of or they’re not really, you know, that’s not their choice.

And it’s obviously very Southern, but I’m just wondering where it came from.

So you might say, I’m not cotton to Justin Bieber.

Exactly.

You’re not?

So that’s Southern.

Martha, you’re Southern?

Yeah.

Oh, I heard my mother saw that.

Yeah, I heard my mother use cotton as a verb all the time.

She’d say, she doesn’t cotton to him.

Yes, yes, yes.

Mm—

Or I’m not cotton with so-and-so.

Yeah.

Right?

I see.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you know, it’s interesting.

It gets associated with Southern English all the time, but it goes way back.

It goes all the way back to England.

Isn’t that cool?

Yeah.

Oh.

Prior to Texas even being a state.

Oh, I see.

That long ago.

Okay.

Hundreds of years ago.

And apparently the word cotton, Catherine, was used as a verb.

And I’m not sure I completely understand this, but it had to do with working cotton the fabric or the thread.

And if you cottoned wool, for example, you rubbed it in order to sort of raise the surface and make it fit with other pieces of cloth.

Does that make sense?

Is this a way of making it stay together or a way of feeding it into machinery?

Or making it the same level?

So this is out of textiles in the textile industry or out of sewing in the home or maybe a little of both?

I think it’s from the industry for sure, but probably both.

And so if materials cottoned well, then they fit together well.

That’s my understanding of it.

Oh, okay.

So this was from a time and a place where we were much closer to fabrics because we probably made our own, right?

Right, right.

Bolts of cloth and the sewing kit in the house was probably an ordinary thing.

So it might be the kind of language that you would expect to hear from your mother or your family members, right?

Right, right.

Just trying to get all that material to fit together.

That’s interesting because I was putting it more with like cotton as far as like picking cotton.

I was thinking in terms of that as opposed to the actual textile or fabric.

Right, right.

That’s what I always thought growing up, and I just thought it was the weirdest thing that my mother would say.

But, you know, it became part of my vocabulary just because I heard it.

But you don’t hear it much anymore.

I don’t think I do.

It sounds a little dated and a little old-fashioned, but I think most folks who read have probably come across it enough that at least understand it, right?

Right.

You know, if you’re any kind of book reader at all, it shows up in a wide variety of classic fiction.

Well, it’s a lovely linguistic heirloom, so you hang on to it, okay?

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thanks so much for calling, Catherine.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, share your linguistic heirlooms with us.

The number is 877-929-9673, or you can send them an email.

That address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant, this is Lee Keely. I’m calling from Victoria, Texas.

Hi, Lee, how are you doing?

I’m fine, thank you. How are you all?

Great, great.

You’re doing well.

Welcome to the program.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Yeah, what can we help you with today?

Well, I had a question about a word that I just sort of seem to recall from childhood.

And years ago, I think my mother or my grandmother, one, was reading me a story about the emperor’s new clothes.

And it was an illustrated picture book, and it was done in such a way that the illustrations were clearly G-rated

When they could have been otherwise, but it was always a convenient limb or lamppost or something like that

To make the picture kid-friendly.

And I recall that whoever was reading it to me

Described that form of presentation using some word,

And I don’t know what the word was,

But does that make any sense?

Is there a word like that out there?

So you’re wondering if there is a word for the device

Or the trick of covering one’s naughty bits in depictions like that.

That’s right. I don’t know if it was a French term like trompe l’oeil for the ultra-realistic presentation or something like that,

But I just seem to recall that there was some word they used, and I may have completely remembered it wrong, but that was my question.

Well, now, Lee, you’re not talking just about fig leaf, right?

No, but that, you know, of course, that is a pretty good metaphor for it in general, I suppose.

Right, right.

Going back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Well, I do have one word for you.

I don’t know if this one’s going to ring a bell or not.

Well, it’s been a long time.

How about this word, Lee?

Antipudic.

Ooh.

Antipudic.

Antipudic.

How do you spell that?

How do you spell it?

You spell it A-N-T-I-P-U-D-I-C.

Antipudic.

Antipudic.

Okay.

That’s an adjective then.

Yes, an antipudic device.

Although, well, it comes from the Latin word pudor, which means shame.

If you’re impudent, you don’t have shame.

Pudenda is an old-fashioned word for literally the parts one ought to be a shame doll.

And antiputic is a word that is really, really, really rare.

In fact, Lee, I only see it in collections of really rare words.

Although I did see once in a book about Alfred Hitchcock that he used the term as a noun referring to the famous shower scene in Psycho.

Apparently he had to use a few antiputic devices.

I see.

That’s not a bad word.

That’s great, actually.

I just have a tremendous doubt that that was the word that my mother or grandmother used, you know, 45 years ago or whenever it was.

But it could have been.

I’m happy to know there at least is such a word.

Yeah.

And you know what, Lee?

There’s a whole generation out there of people whose mothers read them The Emperor’s New Clothes.

And I think I may even remember the edition of that book.

I loved looking at that book with the illustrations of the emperor walking around.

I’m not sure the question that I asked to elicit the response,

But I’m sure that must have been a little bit of a surprise to him, too.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so maybe we’ll throw this out to our listeners as well

And see if there’s a word for that strategic device other than antiputic.

Well, I like that’s a good word.

Okay, well, go forth and use it in good health.

Thanks for calling, Lee.

Well, I sure appreciate it.

Thank you all very much.

Bye-bye.

All right.

Appreciate it.

Bye-bye.

If you have your word for that device of covering up the naughty bits at just the last second,

Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Do you remember when we did the call about bow chicka wow wow?

How could I forget?

People were singing that to me all week.

So it’s this baseline rhythm that has become associated with cheesy porn, right?

So if someone says something that could have a sexual connotation, you kind of joke and you make that noise and it leads them to believe.

It’s just a way of saying, oh, did you mean that sexy?

Right?

Bow chicka wow wow.

Bow chicka wow wow.

Right?

Well, we got a few emails from people, including Sky Boyd, Yusuf Windham, and Wendy Sang, who told us that the kid-friendly version of this is brown chicken, brown cow.

So say it.

Brown chicken, brown cow.

And it turns out there’s a country song by Trace Adkins.

No.

It’s a funny video with puppets getting busy on the farm.

That’s all I’m going to say.

It’s family safe, but you can hunt it up.

It’s on the CMT site.

Trace Adkins, A-D-K-I-N-S.

And it’s called Brown Chicken, Brown Cow.

And it has in it brown chickens and brown cows.

Puppets.

Oh.

Yeah, smoking cigarettes after.

Yes, caught in flagrante smoking cigarettes after the fact.

Thanks for your calls and emails about Brown Chicken Pow Pow.

We welcome all your calls, 877-929-9673.

Or send your stuff in email.

Videos welcomed.

words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sherry Dunn calling from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Hi, Sherry. Welcome to the show.

Hello.

Well, I was calling because I thought you guys would find this pretty interesting.

There is a saying, African-American Jews, when someone thinks you’re stupid, you say, well, who do you think I am?

Boo-boo the fool.

And one day I was talking to my administrative assistant in New York.

She’s Puerto Rican.

And I said that phrase.

I said, well, you know, who do they think I am?

Boo Boo the Fool.

And she said, oh, that’s interesting.

She says, that sounds like Juan Bobo.

And I was like, who’s Juan Bobo?

And we Googled it, and I guess it turns out they’re the same fool.

So in African-American English, yes, they say Boo Boo the Fool, right?

-huh, Boo Boo.

Boo Boo the Fool.

Boo Boo the Fool.

And in Spanish, you said she’s Puerto Rican?

Yeah, she’s Puerto Rican.

And she said there’s a character called Juan Bobo.

That’s right, right.

I don’t know if they’re related, but what a remarkable coincidence, right?

Yeah, it’s totally strange, you know.

I tried to look it up, and from what I could tell, it may come from Africa.

It’s possible.

There’s a word in Spanish, which is, well, there are several words in Spanish, Martha, right?

Bobo, Bobon.

Bobo, yeah.

That means fool or clown.

Right, right.

They go back to the Latin balbus, meaning stammerer.

Very interesting.

Ba, ba, ba.

Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.

But also more interestingly, at least as far as the African-American term goes,

The Boo Boo the Fool, as far as I can find it, dates probably to the 1950s or earlier.

I find one mention of it in 1951 in a book by Lloyd Lewis Brown.

He was an African-American novelist.

I’m quite sure it’s older than that.

But one interesting thing is at the time, there was a children’s toy.

And you’ve seen this, the inflatable clown with the weighted bottom with the clown face.

And you could hit him and knock him down.

His name was Bobo the Clown.

Oh, yeah.

So it’s possible there’s a lot of, like, again, Boo Boo and Bobo, they’re not far enough apart for us to automatically insist that they’re different words.

They’re very close.

So it’s possible there’s some kind of conflation there or some kind of generation of alternate forms.

Definitely, Bobo the Clown is a constant name for clowns.

And clown and fool are traditionally seen to go back to the jester character in literature, right?

Even in Australia and the United States, for decades and decades, even back as far as we can find it,

Well, in the 1940s, some clowns were called Bobo in the English-speaking world.

Now, in Puerto Rico, it’s really interesting.

There was a novelist by the name of René Marques, who in 1955 published a book called

Juan Bobo y la Dama de Occidente, Juan Bobo the Fool and the Lady of the West.

And that was in 19—did you find that citation?

I did.

And, you know, just one thing I found, and I don’t know if—I can’t even remember where I found this,

But that there is apparently an African folktale about a fool whose name does begin with a B,

Who gets into all kinds of mischief.

Oh, really?

So we were wondering if he came to, you know, through the slaves to Puerto Rico and then to the Americas,

Because what I found was something about an African folktale, about a fool who’s always doing foolish things.

And what was his name?

It started with a B.

It was some derivative of Bobo.

It was some derivative of that.

I’m afraid I don’t have any information on that.

I’d love for the citation that you found or love to find more information or have you send it to us.

I’d love to look into this.

Certainly the fool character or the jester character, the clown character, is one of the classic characters in all human mythology.

He exists in every culture that’s been recorded.

And so I’m not surprised that he’s also in African cultures.

And I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find that the myths about this jokey character should make their way to the new world.

And then somehow still manifest themselves in the language of modern day African Americans.

This is fascinating.

I just thought it was kind of a fun thing, you know, because we were talking and it turned out we were both talking about a fool.

I love that.

What a great connection you made, right, to find that the two of you shared the same idea and very similar words.

Yeah.

If I find out more, Sherry, we’ll definitely share it with you and our other listeners.

And if you find out more, share it with us, will you?

Yeah, send us that African phone to.

Absolutely.

I definitely will email you guys.

And thanks so much.

I love your program.

I find words very interesting.

So it’s a lot of fun.

Thanks for listening.

Thank you, Sherry.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

We’ll take your questions about any aspect of English, Black English, White English, whatever kind of English you have to talk about.

Spanglish, for that matter.

We were talking about Puerto Rico.

What a great motherlode of talk that would be, right?

Si.

877-929-9673.

Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

It’s the bouncy house for language.

More of your calls as A Way with Words continues.

Support for A Way with Words comes from National University,

Where flexible online classes let you earn your degree or credential on your schedule.

Learn more at nu.edu.

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Grant, we got a letter from a listener in Dallas who wants to know who’s in charge,

Who decides when it comes to the English language, who decides official word spelling,

Who decides official word pronunciation, that a word belongs in English, and who decides punctuation rules?

Grant, who’s in charge?

You and I.

Okay.

All right.

There you have it.

I’ll solve.

Thanks, Lister.

Call us with your language questions, 877.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

There’s a little more to be said about that.

Okay.

All right.

I’m going to lay this out pretty simply.

These are all one question, who’s in charge, and the answer is nobody.

Oh, no.

But the answer is also everybody.

Nice.

Yeah, I need some explanation here.

In English, we tend to, and I say we meaning you and I, Martha, and people who are like us, educated to a degree, interested in learning more.

We are curious about the world.

We welcome new ideas.

We tend to look for authorities.

The same way you do for movies.

Sure.

You find a movie reviewer you like.

Sure.

You begin to trust them.

And so when they say a movie is good, you feel like you can go see it without worrying about wasting your money, right?

Right.

We do the same thing in language.

We count on our dictionary editors to take up some of the tasks.

We also count on our style guide editors.

Sometimes we count on our radio hosts or our language columnists.

So we have these reference works and we have these people that we look to to help us make these decisions.

And we begin to trust them.

We find maybe it’s Merriam-Webster that works for you as a dictionary or it’s American Heritage or Collins or Chambers, right?

There are a lot to choose from.

Right?

Maybe you prefer to read Ben Zimmer’s stuff in Language Log or in the New York Times or there’s somebody else that you’re interested in because they have a lot to say and it strikes you as true.

Because it confirms what you already think.

Right.

That’s the important fact, right?

So not just one source, for sure.

Right.

But to each authority, we leave a different task.

The dictionary editors, for example,

They’ll decide if a word is common enough,

Whether it’s useful enough,

And they’ll find out how it’s pronounced most of the time,

What it means most of the time.

And if they get sufficient evidence,

According to their own internal rules,

They’ll put it in a dictionary.

That is as close as we get to a word officially entering English.

There is no official body that decides these things for English.

French has a body, or at least French in France does.

Hebrew does in Israel.

The Russians have one.

There’s nothing like that in English, which is why we grow our own authorities.

We are allowed as thinking individuals to pick our own experts to advise us.

So what this means, if you turn that around, beyond the authorities, we are our own experts.

We learn to trust our own experience with language.

It is a self-correcting system.

If I’m speaking to you, Martha, and you make it plain that you misunderstand, I’m probably not going to make that mistake again.

I’m going to try something different.

And in this way, we improve.

And if we’re thinking about it, we’ll go to an outside resource, find out what their opinion is, and incorporate that into our speech.

And in that way, we develop a language expertise that is at one time independent of anyone else, but at the same time reliant upon everyone else.

All of that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in rules.

I believe in rules, but we’re all making them together.

I’m down with that.

All right.

Here we go.

I’m down with that.

And I’d just like to say for people who are just becoming familiar with our show that Grant has worked as a dictionary editor.

He’s been one of those people analyzing the evidence and deciding if words should be in the dictionary or not.

For better or worse.

Thanks for your email.

If you’ve got any questions about this or if you’ve got some comments about how we make stuff official, I’ll take your email.

Send them to words@waywordradio.org.

And Martha and I would love to answer your questions about any aspect of language, communication, linguistics, and so forth.

Give us a call, 877-929-9673.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Katie. I’m calling from Boston.

Hi, Katie.

Hello, Katie.

Hi.

What can we do for you?

So I have a question about a craft term that I, an activity that I used to do when I was little.

And I know that it’s still popular.

It’s done in a lot of summer camps, and I think that’s where I picked it up.

The word is boondoggle.

The word is boondoggle?

Boondoggle, yeah.

Boondoggle.

What kind of craft is that, Katie?

It’s these, like, plastic string sort of things that you weave together.

And I used to make little, I would make, like, keychains for my mom and myself.

People made, like, longer length ones.

And I was wondering because I always called it boondoggle.

But then when I moved, I heard a completely different word that I was really kind of surprised to hear about.

Was that lanyard?

That’s what I made.

Well, that’s what a couple of my friends have said.

They said, oh, I called that lanyard.

Yeah.

I actually posted a picture on my Facebook and I said, okay, what is this called?

Oh, really?

Yeah, and everybody that answered, almost everybody that answered, all said boondoggle.

Oh, really?

And the word that I heard…

These are all your friends from back home, right?

Yeah, they’re all people from… I’m originally from Buffalo, New York.

Okay.

And these were all people from the western New York area or Buffalo.

But the word that I heard when I moved to Boston, I heard it called GIMP.

G-I-M-P, GIMP?

Yes.

Yeah.

For the actual thing that you create?

Well, I think it’s for the material.

And that was another thing that came up.

Because I think some people use it interchangeably to describe both the material and the activity.

Right, right.

Not surprising, but yes, they do.

So you grew up near Buffalo.

You called it boondoggle.

In Boston, people seem to call it gimp.

And you’ve heard elsewhere that other people call it lanyard.

Yep.

There’s a lot to talk about here.

We’ll try to break this down, make it pretty concise, all right?

And you’ll feel better, I promise.

You promise.

Okay.

First, boondoggle.

Boondoggle, interestingly enough, appears to have its roots near Rochester, New York, not far from where you grew up.

Woo-hoo.

Yep, okay, that makes sense.

So 1920s, 1930s, it comes out of scouting there.

It’s the kind of thing that Boy Scouts might make.

And it’s really started to show up on the scene in the newspapers in the 1930s.

And there’s a lot more to be written about this, or to be said about this.

Will link to some really great histories of boondoggle.

But the word just kind of popped up out of nowhere,

And immediately, of course, the true and false etymology started popping up.

We don’t really know where the word, you know, how the parts boon and doggle got together,

But we do know that it originally meant the very thing you’re talking about,

These little twisty things that you might use for stuff tied around your neck or key fobs or, I don’t know.

Or to keep those little hands busy at camp, you know.

Exactly.

Bookmarks.

Yeah, no, it used to occupy me like all summer.

It’s all kinds of knotting and braiding of certain kinds of string or twine or fabric or what have you, right?

All right.

All right, so that’s boondoggle.

And because that word meant kind of busy work, it was borrowed very quickly into the political sphere to mean a government program,

Which apparently accomplished nothing, particularly if you weren’t for the program, that wasted a lot of public money.

So that’s how most people know and use boondoggle.

Now, gimp, on the other hand, is a kind of fabric, we’ll call it similar to yarn, right?

Not quite yarn.

You can find gimp used on some military uniforms.

It’s not the braiding exactly, but some British military uniforms in history have had gimp cord kind of on the shoulder.

Yeah, and it’s not covered in plastic like our lanyards were.

No, but it’s a long, twisted thing, right?

Okay, right.

Gimp is primarily used in the Northeast and in the UK, and it’s not widely known in the United States.

And it is completely unrelated to gimp, meaning somebody who’s been hobbled or somebody who doesn’t walk with a normal gait, right?

Oh, okay.

And actually, I know people in the disability rights movement who have adopted gimp in the way that a lot of minority groups have adopted other negative terms.

And they use it very proudly.

They call themselves gimps, and they’re very proud of it.

So, like, reclaiming that term?

Yes, exactly.

But you can only use it for people like that if you are one of those people.

Right, or affiliated with them or something.

And so that’s two.

Boondogling gimp.

Lanyard is a little more straightforward.

It comes from the ropes used in sailing.

Yeah.

Okay.

And there’s a fourth term that you haven’t mentioned that I feel compelled to mention.

Oh.

And this is the French term for these things.

It is the Scooby-Doo.

And I kid you not.

It’s spelled differently than the cartoon dog.

It’s S-C-O-U-B-I-D-O-U, the Scooby-Doo.

Scooby-Doo.

It’s something like that.

And it predates the dog.

It comes from the 1950s.

He didn’t show up until the late 1960s, right?

And it is named after scat music and jazz.

Really?

And it turns out that Scooby-Doo the dog got his name from the kind of scat that Frank Sinatra did in some of his songs, such as Strangers in the Night.

Wow, you opened a can of lanyards.

Or boondoggles.

You opened a can of boondoggles.

I did.

I think that was the most comments I’ve ever gotten on my Facebook wall when I posted that picture.

And everybody weighed in about what it was.

Is that right?

Fantastic.

Wonderful.

Yeah, it was really interesting.

Oh, memories of summer camp.

Katie, thank you so much for calling.

Thank you so much.

It was very interesting to find out.

I love your show.

Thank you.

We’ll post more links to more information on our website, all right?

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Bye, Katie.

That is terrific.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Good for keeping kids busy, that’s for sure.

What did you call it?

Boondoggle, lanyard, gimp, something else?

Give us a call, 877-929-9673,

Or send the stories and email to words@waywordradio.org.

Here’s a public service message to our listeners.

If you get an email that says life in the 1500s and seems to explain how certain things came to be in English,

Like reigning cats and dogs and a variety of other terms,

Just Google it because I guarantee you it’s filled with fraudulent lies

And you’re being misled.

This life in the 1500s email has been going around for years, 15 or 20 years.

And there are versions that are a little more correct

And there are versions that are a little less correct.

But frankly, if you’re getting your etymology in email, you’re doing it wrong.

Get it on the radio.

Get it on the radio.

877-929-9673 or words@waywordradio.org.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Oh, hi.

This is Wes.

I’m calling from Indianapolis.

What can we help you with?

Well, I’ve been looking for a word for quite a while that describes the anxiety that you feel when you haven’t done something yet.

Okay, why don’t you spin that out, Wes?

Well, you know, being that time of year, spring and all, lots of papers are getting in and stuff.

I’m a senior in college here, and, well, like, you know, you’ll have a deadline, and it’s like,

Oh, you know, I know this thing needs to be in, but I can’t really do it now because I’ve got to work,

And then, you know, got to talk to someone else after or something like that.

And, you know, it’s like procrastinating, but you know, well, you know you’re going to get to it,

But you can’t just get to it yet.

And it gives you sort of a not quite anxiety, mostly anxiety, I guess.

But yeah, yeah, something like that.

It’s the sense that something is unresolved.

There hasn’t been closure on a thing that you need to do, right?

Yes, yes, definitely.

And it’s a little different than dread.

Yes, a little different than dread and a little different than anxiety, too.

Well, Wes, what do you call it when you talk about it?

Do you have…

Actually, I did sort of make up a word for my friend.

Yeah, I called it Desgundus.

Desgundus?

Yes, yes.

Spell it for us, please.

It’s the first thing that came to mind because it sounds like a word,

And it’s also like an onomatopoeia, really,

Because it’s like two sighs when you say it.

Desgundus, D-E-S-what?

G-U something?

D-E-S-G-U-N-D-E-S.

Does this come from another language or was invented a whole cloth out of your brain?

When you should have been doing other things.

Definitely.

I did take a year or two of German.

You know, like Freud and psychology and stuff, he probably made up a lot of words and terms.

It sounded like that, like something you’d say on a chair, like, you know,

Tell me about Tildenatha, things like that.

So tell me about your desgundus?

All right, here we go.

We’re going to propagate this word.

We’re going to make it popular,

Unless people come up with another alternative.

D-E-S-G-U-N-D-E-S is now the word for the feeling you get,

The anxiety that you get when you have undone work.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah, that’s a lot of fun.

You can think of different kinds, too.

This may be nine-tenths of the feeling that I have all day long.

Oh, my gosh.

I know, right?

This is fantastic.

Descundous, the feeling that you get when you’re something undone.

Wonderful.

Birth of a word right here.

Well, I’ll tell you what.

We’re going to put this word out to our listeners, see how they like it.

If they come up with some others, we’ll share them on the air, okay?

Or we’ll do it later.

Thanks, Wes, for calling.

Oh, thank you guys so much.

Big fan.

See you later.

Get her done, all right?

We’ll talk to you later.

I think this Gundus has legs. What do you think? Call us, 877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Chris. I’m calling from Indianapolis.

Hello, Chris. Welcome to the program.

Hi, Chris.

How can we help you today?

Well, let me give you a little backstory. It starts a little sad. My father passed away just a few weeks ago.

I’m sorry to hear that.

Well, thank you very much.

And it got me to thinking about some of the things that he used to say.

He was a pretty sharp guy, graduated from the University of Chicago, got his master’s from Butler University.

Yay, go Dawgs, go Dawgs.

Sorry, I just had to say that.

Yeah, go Dawgs, thank you.

He was a band director for 30 years.

He used to like to work the New York Times crossword puzzle, as he would put it in pen.

Whoa.

But one of the phrases that he was fond of using, he used to describe his own eventual departure.

And that was a phrase he would say, when I leave this veil of tears.

And he would always roll his eyes in credulity.

So I got to thinking about that and did a little bit of web research.

And I saw it quoted a number of times but could never figure out its origin.

Okay. Okay. And Chris, how were you spelling veil?

Well, I guess I assumed V-E-I-L as in to cover one’s face, but I have no idea.

He was the smart one in the family. If he were here today, he’d tell me, just eschew obfuscation and ask the question.

I would look at him and go, huh?

Well, I tell you what, first of all, I just want to say your dad sounds like a really great guy,

And I’m really glad that you’re sharing some of his memory with us.

He sounds really cool.

If he were here, Chris, I’m betting that he would tell you that although Veil of Tears is sort of a beautiful, sort of poetic image,

I think of somebody weeping so much that they have a veil over their face of tears, it’s spelled differently.

It’s not that kind of veil.

Oh my goodness.

So V-A-L-E then.

Yes, veil, which is another word for valley.

And so the idea is this valley of tears, this sad, miserable, earthly existence when I leave this valley of tears.

So our life is seen as a metaphor for walking through a valley.

Yes, yes.

And it may be related to a passage in Psalm 84.

Some translations translate it as Valley of Tears.

Well, I had seen it quoted in a number of religious writings on the Internet,

But never credited to anyone.

Yeah, it’s several hundred years old.

There are similar expressions in the 1500s, this veil of misery and woe, which is similar.

So it’s got several hundred years on it.

Well, that would make a lot of sense.

Yeah, yeah.

Chris, thank you so much for calling.

Yeah, and thanks for sharing stories of your dad.

We loved it.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

You guys take care.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org

Or find us on Twitter at the username Wayword

And on Facebook at Wayword Radio.

Things have come to a pretty pass.

Our romances grow.

That is our show for this week.

Don’t forget, you can leave us a message

Even when we’re not on the air.

Call us at 877-929-9673 or send us email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Stay in touch with us all week on Facebook.

Look for us there under Wayword Radio.

Stefanie Levine is our senior producer.

Our technical director and editor is Tim Felten.

Tim also chooses our music.

Josette Herdell, Jennifer Powell, and James Ramsey helped with production.

A Way with Words is independently produced and distributed by Wayword, Inc., a nonprofit organization.

The show’s recorded at Studio West in San Diego, California.

Thanks for listening. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Ta-lu-ego.

Bye-bye.

I’ll say neither, either, either, neither, neither.

Let’s call the whole thing off.

You like potato and I like potato.

You like tomato and I like tomato.

Potato, potato, tomato.

Support for A Way with Words comes from National University, where flexible online classes let you earn your degree or credential on your schedule.

Learn more at nu.edu.

Hi, it’s Martha.

Did you know that A Way with Words is independently produced by a small nonprofit?

To keep bringing you the show, we need your help.

We welcome your contributions of any size.

Go to waywordradio.org, click on membership.

Your donations do add up, and they make this program possible.

Thanks!