Will The Rain Hurt The Rhubarb?

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

You know, Martha, ever since Barack Obama appeared on the national political scene as a candidate, people have been coining words off of his name.

We talked about this on a past show, if you remember.

Right.

And it doesn’t seem to have an end.

They keep going.

There are so many of these, in fact, that the online magazine Slate published a book called “Obama Mania, the English Language, Barackified.”

And there’s a ton of stuff in there.

It’s an outgrowth of an article that they ran on their website and a little web application that they built that featured some of this language.

And, you know, I’m involved with an organization called American Dialect Society.

And every year at about this time, we do our Word of the Year vote.

So I’ve been taking nominations from the general public for several months now of terms that people think are important to the year 2008.

What typifies 2008?

And it’s interesting to see that near the top of the list, one in five terms are forms of Barack Obama’s name.

One in five?

More than 20 percent.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

It’s a big amount.

I mean, more than half overall are related to the election.

So the election was very important.

Of course, the financial terms are also way up there near the top of the list.

But one little interesting fact that I’ll share with you before we go to calls is that there are two forms of Barack Obama’s name that are very similar, but they differ in their meaning and the people who nominate them.

And they are Obamanation and Obamination.

So O-B-A-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N and O-B-A-M-A-N-A-T-I-O-N.

The first one, in a play off of the word abomination, is negative and tends to be nominated by people who did not or do not support Barack Obama.

The second one, a play off of the two word Obamanation, is generally nominated by people who have supported Barack Obama and continue to support him.

And these two camps in pretty much equal numbers have nominated these two very similar forms of the word.

Don’t you think that’s interesting?

I think it’s hilarious.

It’s interesting to me, too, that the camp that nominates Obamanation is a positive term, you know, a nation of Obama supporters, I guess is how you might phrase it.

They don’t have a problem with the fact that it sounds like abomination.

And then the negative camp pretty much almost always says something in their emails like, “Of course, no explanation is required.”

You know, they’ll just list the word and say, “Need I say more?”

Or “Nuff said,” something like that.

Because they just automatically believe that I’m going to understand that it’s directly related to the word abomination, a negative term.

That’s great.

So maybe he really will bring people together.

They’ll all think they’re saying the same thing.

It’s possible.

Well, there’ll be no end to it.

I expect four more years of these kind of coinages at least.

And in the meantime, if you have a question about language, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-9299673.

That’s 1-877-W-A-Y-W-O-R-D.

Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Karen from Madison, Wisconsin.

Hi, Karen.

How are you?

Hi, Karen.

Pretty good.

What’s up?

Well, I looked up a word or an expression, and it sounds kind of maybe plausible but awfully precarious the way the expression is eavesdropping, and the explanation given on one side is that eaves were big enough to climb up on and find out what was going on inside.

It seems like an awfully precarious thing.

I can imagine a lot of people coming to unfortunate circumstances as a result of their curiosity.

Yeah.

Yeah, they’re making some assumptions about architecture, aren’t they?

Yes, they are.

Yeah.

So the site, you said that people actually climbed up on the eaves of the house, and that’s the slanted part of the roof, right?

Right.

Right.

And I don’t know if I buy that or not.

Don’t buy.

Don’t buy.

No.

No.

No.

Sell.

Sell.

Yes, your suspicions are well placed.

It doesn’t refer to climbing up on a roof, but it refers to that space underneath the roof.

You know how a roof projects out over the house?

Sure.

So that’s the eave, right?

Mm—

And the word eave comes from probably the same family of words as over.

So it’s this part that projects over the edge of the house, and within that space, Karen, there’s a place where you can stand.

On the ground though, might be, right?

Right.

On the ground, under the eave.

And the progression was that originally the word eavesdrop or eavesdrip meant the dripping of water off of the eave, and then it meant that area down under where the water dripped, and then it came to refer to standing there in that space to, as you said, listen to somebody.

Because the key here is to remember that this word dates to a period when multi-story buildings were not common.

Right.

So the eave wasn’t 20 or 30 feet up above your head.

You maybe even could jump up and hit it with your hand.

And so when you’re standing under the eave, your back is against the house, and anyone in the house can’t see you out the door, out the window, unless they step out of the house.

So you could be right by a window, you could be right by a door listening to what’s going on inside.

Aha.

So that’s a lot easier to picture, isn’t it, Karen?

Oh, yep.

Yep.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah, eavesdropping does not come from spies and ninjas falling from the fast roofs of old cottages or anything like that.

Wonderful images.

Yeah.

It’s a great picture.

But it’s pretty simple.

The simple explanation is the right one here.

All right.

Can I help?

Sure.

All right.

Super.

Glad to hear it.

Bye-bye.

Thank you, Karen.

Take care.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

If you’ve got some fun with language that you’d like to share with us, the number to call is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAYWARD.

We’d love to listen in, or you can always email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Brent from Indianapolis.

Hello, Brent.

How are you?

Hi, Brent.

I’m fine, how are you?

I’m fine.

How are you?

I’m fine.

Well, what’s up?

Well, before I tackle the problem of the National Football League and most of the sports commentators in the country misusing a little word, I wanted to be sure that I’ve got the correct understanding of that word, and the word is “by.”

And I think the evolution of its misuse began when the National Football League took their 16-game schedule into a 17-week time span so that every team had a week off.

But taking a week off, I don’t know, perhaps just didn’t have the sound too pedestrian or lacked a sort of formal description, so that week off pretty soon became an off week.

And then the off week perhaps begged the question of whether the team didn’t play or just didn’t play well, like they had an off week.

So eventually it became known as the “by week.”

But I think that the actual meaning of the word “by” in that context is the position of one who draws an opponent or no opponent for a round in a tournament, and so you advance to the next round.

Not simply that you don’t play, but that you’re not scheduled to play in a tournament.

So I just wondered if that is the correct meaning of “by” and if it is, how did that word ever originate?

Well, both are good, Brent, that’s the short story there.

Both uses of “by” fall very neatly under the larger meaning of “by,” which is something that is off of the main way or action or is secondary or unimportant.

You’ll find this “by” in expressions like “by election,” which is an election, say, in an off year when you ordinarily wouldn’t have one, so you have to fill a seat that’s suddenly been vacated.

Or you’ll find it in a lay-by.

Do you know what a lay-by is?

Yes.

-huh.

Sure.

What’s a lay-by?

It’s the place on the side of the road where you can pull off your car out of the main road or out of the main traffic.

Oh.

Railroads have them as well.

A “by the by” is the same story.

It means, incidentally, or by way of a digression, it’s about something that’s secondary or is supplemental to the main action.

And I think both of these “bys” that you’re talking about in the NFL, both “by week,” which is this is a week that you don’t have a game, right?

Right.

And the “by,” which is a noun form, which is the…

It’s kind of like you’re automatically granted a spot even though you didn’t earn it through winning a competition, right?

Yes.

Well, you’re actually scheduled not to have an opponent for that round.

That’s right.

Right.

You’re taking the secondary route.

Think of it that way.

You’re taking the alternate path.

And, again, “by” is a very all-encompassing word, B-Y or B-Y-E, as an adjective or a noun, serves a great number of purposes.

And I think both of these fall very neatly under there.

I wouldn’t blame the NFL for this either.

Similar terms exist in golf and cricket.

And I think you’ll find that this “by” term has existed long before the NFL came along.

Oh, yeah.

But also for the terms of not specifically within a tournament but just as off to the side or not being used at that point.

Yeah.

So, Brent, do you think you’re going to give the NFL a “by” on this one then?

I guess I will.

Yeah.

I’m somewhat corrected or at least more informed.

No, I think you were good, actually.

I don’t think there was a correction involved here.

I think you came to us with a question that needed to be asked in order for you to find clarity, which is what self-education is all about.

Awesome.

Okay.

Well, thank you very much.

All right.

Thank you so much, Brent.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

You know, I had a tennis player the other day tell me that her opponent rode away on a bicycle.

Speaking of “by,” rode away on a bicycle.

Do you know what that means?

That means basically they ran off with their victory, right?

Well, no.

That it was “six love, six love.”

You know, “6060” is a reference to the two bicycle wheels.

So it looks like a bicycle when you ride it out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Isn’t that great?

I love that.

That’s awesome.

I’d heard it bageled.

You know, I bageled my opponent 60, but I never heard of, “My opponent rode away on a bicycle.”

I love that.

Now, that’s pretty good.

I think so.

Martha and I will welcome your questions about everything sports-related, she’ll answer.

The number to call is 1-877-9299673 or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Martha, you’ll remember that earlier this year I used “simping” in the Slanquists.

Right.

Simping.

It means to actively pursue a woman online in a kind of fawning fashion.

Well, Matt Morgan wrote to ask if the word “simping,” that’s S-I-M-P-I-N-G, originated with the term “cyberpimping,” which means more or less to act like a Casanova or Mac Daddy online in a way that you might not offline.

And so, I think that’s actually a pretty good question because we don’t really know where simping came from.

I don’t think it is cyberpimping, but Matt, I offer you these ideas.

What about it being related to the more simple word “simple,” S-I-M-P-L-E.

A person who is simple, someone who acts like a simpleton, is someone who behaves in kind of a stupid or idiotic manner because simping is not really a term of approval.

You don’t want to be accused of simping online.

Even better, Martha, it might be related, maybe, to the word “simper,” meaning to smile coyly or effectively in a silly, self-conscious way.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

But you know what?

I’m just not sure that the kind of folks, mainly young men online who use the language “simping” would even know that the word “simper” exists.

Well, you may have a point there.

It’s the kind of word you would encounter in Edith Wharton novels that are not likely to see online.

Edith Wharton, not World of Warcraft, right?

Right, exactly, exactly.

Yeah, not in “wow” but in “EW.”

Well, if you’d like to talk about language, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-9299673.

Or you can always get a quick hit on our discussion forum.

That’s waywordradio.org/discussion, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Coming up on “A Way with Words,” it’s our weekly word quiz.

Stay with us.

You’re listening to “A Way with Words.”

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

And the cross for me is the remarkably handsome, that Don Juan at Casanova, that answer to a maiden’s prayer, Greg Pliska.

You know, I was kidding.

I was afraid to walk in the studio for what he was going to say about me.

Well, you know, that’s actually an intro that Don Wilson used once on “The Jack Benny Show” for Jack Benny.

So there you go.

Oh.

You have a quiz, something over there?

It’s fun?

Well, you know, I do.

I do this week’s puzzle, “Baby Talk,” because, well, as you know, I have this adorable six-month-old baby at home.

In any case, the answers to this week’s quiz are all words or phrases with the word “baby” in them.

Okay.

Okay.

So I’ll give you the definition.

You give me the word or phrase.

Baby on board.

Okay.

Check that one out.

For example, if the definition I gave you were the group of people about 10 or 15 years older than us, you would say that’s the baby boomers’ version.

That’s right.

I’m glad you included me in the “us.”

I was going to say, you know, 10 or 15.

The baby boomers.

Five.

The geezers.

So I tried to find some unusual or lesser known slang terms in addition to some of the more classic ones.

Oh, are they actual slang?

Oh, slang.

They’re not necessarily all slang.

I’d like to send this quiz out to Grant Barrett.

Some will be slang.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Are you ready?

Yes.

All right.

A vacation like the one my wife and I took just before Margot was born.

A baby moon.

Oh, right.

A baby moon.

Baby moon.

Absolutely.

It also refers to postpartum alone time and could be accompanied by a push present.

That’s right.

I have entries for both of those on my website.

Yeah.

See?

Wait.

A push present?

Is that to help in labor or what?

No.

That’s the present that the husband gives the wife after she has the baby.

Because she was pushing the baby out?

That’s right.

Yeah.

There you go.

And you get nothing.

No.

No.

All right.

Here’s another one for you.

The father of your child with whom you are not currently involved.

Like your baby daddy?

Yeah.

Your baby daddy.

That’s the one.

Nice.

Going on here.

The cut of pork you might have at a barbecue.

Baby back ribs.

Baby back ribs.

There you go.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

One, two, three.

Okay.

Here’s another one. 1996-97 video that was one of the first internet phenomena and which figured prominently in the Ally McBeal show.

Dancing baby.

Oh, yeah.

The dancing baby.

Remember that?

Oh, my gosh.

It was a 3D dancing baby.

And on the television show, she had daydreams or— That’s right.

Yeah.

Hallucinations, I think.

Hallucinations of this thing, which was one of the first things to circulate around the internet.

Yeah.

Boy, that brings back memories.

Maybe not that late, maybe.

Grant remembers the days of watching the coffee plot in Oxford.

There are pictures on Facebook of Grant in that day.

It’s shocking, actually.

I remember Yahoo when it was still at Stanford.

I remember Yahoo when it was just a cheer.

Speaking of computers, this is a term for the tendency of computer users to imprint on the first system they learn.

Is that true?

Judging all others against that standard, yeah.

Really?

You got this from the jargon file.

Let me call Eric S.

Raimond and find out what he can give me the answer.

I don’t know.

I know the phenomenon for sure.

Yeah.

It’s like why some people prefer Windows over math or vice versa.

I prefer Speak and Spell.

What would this be called?

I like abacuses.

Baby steps, baby imprint, baby duck?

I don’t know.

Oh, very good.

Is it baby duck?

Baby duck syndrome.

Wow.

I did not know that.

Absolutely.

That was a guess.

That was a total guess.

That’s good.

I like that term, though.

That’s a fun term.

I like the name on it.

That’s nice.

This will wake you up.

Sexy sleepwear consisting of a hip-length top of delicate fabric with a matching panty.

Baby doll.

Baby doll, yeah.

Yeah.

There you go.

I just wanted to say matching panty.

Singular.

Right.

How about one more, Greg?

One more.

A nickname for the resulting companies if Microsoft had been broken up due to antitrust legislation.

The baby sauce.

No.

The baby micros.

The baby Microsofts.

Yeah.

The baby IBMs.

The baby— The baby DOS.

Yeah.

Think about what we called the companies when the phone company was broken up.

Those were baby bells.

Those were baby bells.

So if we were going to be clever, what would we call Microsoft when it was broken up?

Baby bulls?

No.

Keep changing that vowel to another one.

Baby bill.

Baby bills?

The baby bills.

No.

Really?

I like that.

Yeah.

Really?

The LA Times article about the case that WordSpy cites as one of the sources for that term, the baby bills.

Oh, that explains it.

No kidding.

Baby bills.

That’s very nice.

That was a hard quiz, Greg.

We’re crying like babies over here.

Yeah, that’s right.

We’re just a whaling.

No, that was like taking candy from a baby.

Yeah.

Wow.

Anyway, it was great fun.

Thank you for teaching me a whole bunch of new slang.

It’s my pleasure.

Yeah.

You know that makes Grant happy.

If you’d like to talk about grammar, usage, slang, dialect, old sayings, or quizzes and puzzles, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAYWARD, or send us an email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

This is Kathy.

I’m calling from Imperial Beach with a question for you.

Hello, Kathy.

Hi, Kathy.

I think that we’re lacking a word in English.

I lived many years in Latin America, and I got used to, in Central and South America, a word for that for my child’s parents-in-law.

In other words, there’s a word called “consuego,” or “consuega,” or “consuegros” for both of them, that you can say instead of having to say my daughter’s mother-in-law or my son’s father-in-law or whatever.

And I think it exists.

I know in Italian, and I think a number of other languages, and we’re missing it in English.

So this is a word that relates between the two sets of parents, right?

It defines a relationship between those two sets of parents?

Yes, it’s a relationship that we have with the other couple for the mutual children who have married.

Right.

So let me just clarify.

I’ve got Jane and Joe, and they’ve married.

Jane’s parents and Joe’s parents are “consuegros.”

Exactly.

Okay.

But there’s nothing in English quite to indicate that.

Well, we do say “in-laws,” because technically, everyone on Joe’s side is an in-law with everyone on Jane’s side and vice versa.

No matter what, whether they’re cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, parents, or whatever, they’re in-laws.

Right.

That’s true.

It’s a special relationship between the parents of the two couples.

Right, right.

Because a lot of times, those sets of parents become bonded.

They find out that the same things that brought their children together make them appealing to each other as friends, right?

Right.

Yeah.

And Kathy, I hear in your voice a lot of affection when you say that word.

Yes, yes.

And so I miss being able to refer to them that way.

I have to go through this whole routine of if I want to refer to my son’s mother-in-law, I have to say all of that, instead of just saying my “consuego,” my co-parent.

So I don’t know how many other languages, so should we invent a word and start incorporating it into our language?

English has never been really good with the familiar terms.

I don’t know what that says about Anglo-Saxon culture, but they’re just not abundant.

And if they’re there, they’re not really clear or very precise.

We could, but English also, though, does borrow from other languages.

There’s no reason we couldn’t just take the Spanish term and run away with it.

Well, that’s true, especially here in San Diego area.

Well, certainly all around the country, the kind of white noise level of understanding of Spanish, that is to say, the Spanish that people know but don’t really quite know they know across the United States, is actually pretty good.

It’s about 50 to 100 words, depending on your age, your education background, and where you live.

So that’s pretty good.

It’s enough that people recognize the Spanish word when they hear it or see it, even if they don’t know what it means.

So I think you could get away with that.

I could get away with starting to use it.

I think this is a terrific idea.

I’ve been having word envy, just listening to you talk about this, just hearing the warmth in your voice when you talk about it.

I think it’s great.

I think we should start using “consuego.”

Okay.

We’ve decided.

We’ve started then incorporating.

All right.

Quarter to three.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, let us know what you think about “consuegros,” give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Joe Hunt in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Hi, Joe.

Hi, Joe.

What’s going on in Indy?

Well, I have a phrase that I’ve never understood that my mother used to say somewhat frequently, and the phrase is “odder than Dick’s hat band,” and that’s O-D-D-E-R.

“Odder,” “odder than Dick’s hat band,” and how would she use this?

As a general descriptive, she might use it to, oh, describe a situation that happened, and she would say, “Well, that was odder than Dick’s hat band.”

So something crazy and unbelievable would happen, right?

Yes, right.

And she’d say, or for behavior, if saw someone, you know, going down the street skipping, she might say, “Well, he’s odder than Dick’s hat band.”

Did you ever question your mother as to where she got it?

We ignored her most of the time.

Poor woman.

Aw.

I know.

And did she ever say any other form of that?

Because there are many other forms of this, contrary as Dick’s hat band, or twisted as Dick’s hat band, and I’ve also heard tight as Dick’s hat band, in that case meaning drunk.

And queer, as queer as Dick’s hat band.

Yes.

That’s the earliest, actually, Grant, the earliest instance I’ve seen of this Dick’s hat band idea is in a dictionary from 1796 where somebody talks about the expression, “I’m queer as Dick’s hat band,” and it means I’m kind of out of sorts.

I don’t know what ails me.

As you can hear here, Joe, the thing is your mother was not alone.

This is a widespread expression and it does date back several hundred years.

The book that Martha is talking about is probably Francis Gross’s “Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,” right?

Right.

Which is a well-known work of slang.

It’s one of the earliest works that we know of.

I see.

Yeah.

It’s also a book that sort of makes you want to take a shower after you read it.

There are a lot of really vulgar things in it.

You want to take a shower with a squeegee and lye soap, for sure.

But he mentions the phrase “queer as Dick’s hat band,” and the truth is nobody knows who Dick was.

And I don’t.

He didn’t live in our family.

So what we can tell you is this is a big origunk, Joe.

This is, as we call it, an origin unknown story.

We don’t know who Dick was.

We do know the expression is widespread both in the UK and in the United States.

It goes back several hundred years in both places, and there seems to be no regional component to it, meaning it’s not more common in one part of the country than another.

All right.

Well, Joe, I hope we’ve helped just a little bit.

Well, thanks a lot for calling, Joe.

Thank you so much.

Best of luck.

Thank you.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Grant, he didn’t seem sold on that expression.

I love it, “odder than Dick’s hat band.”

It might just be too odd, that expression.

It’s kind of opaque.

Yeah, but that’s what I like about it.

Oh, okay.

I’m going to start using it.

Well, if you’ve got a question that’s been bugging you about something that somebody used to say, well, that’s kind of vague, but you know what I mean.

The number to call is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAYWARD, and don’t forget you can always email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Oh, this is Holly Somrack, and I’m calling from Oregon.

Well, what are you calling us about?

Oh, well, because of the holidays, there’s a term I’ve heard the last 25 years, and I just got curious about it.

We were carving our Thanksgiving turkey, and I asked who would like the Pope’s nose, you know, the little tail end of the turkey body.

I guess it’s the tail, but the little rear end, and no one knows where that term came from, and I don’t either; it’s just kind of strange.

So I thought I wonder if you folks know.

The Pope’s nose.

The Pope’s nose.

Did everyone know what you meant when you said that?

Well, my husband knew what it was, because he’s Catholic, and I guess he’d heard it before, but we don’t know where it came from, and I heard it from a nun who first told me when I was up in Alaska, and I was kind of surprised that she used that term.

I didn’t know if it was disrespectful or what.

I was really curious.

Yeah, it’s a little bit irreverent, isn’t it?

Well, it sounded like it, so I wasn’t going to use it, but if the nun did, then I guess I can.

Yeah, if the nun called the turkey’s rump a Pope’s nose, why not?

Yeah.

So I didn’t do any research; I thought I’d just ask you folks first.

Well, it’s better than the scientific name for this part, which is “Europigeum.”

Ooh.

Good thing you didn’t ask anybody if they wanted a bite of Europigeum, but yes, I mean, that little thing does look like a nose, right?

Well, it’s just a fleshy, lobey thing.

But it’s a big kind of pimply nose.

Yes.

And it’s very succulent.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Succulent, yes.

Because it’s very fatty down there, right?

Yeah.

-huh, and I don’t know if anyone has actually eaten it.

We usually put it with the giblets and top it up for the dogs or something, but I don’t know if, you know…

Well, now, I don’t eat turkey, but I’ve heard it’s really delicious.

Actually, back in my turkey-eating days, I had some, and it was great.

But you’re right, it does sound a little irreverent, but there’s this strong tradition in Europe of naming foods in a kind of irreverent way that makes fun of the clergy.

I once wrote a book called “Lady Fingers and Nun’s Tummies,” because…

Really?

Yes, because in Portugal, there’s a sweet, eggy dessert that translates as “nun’s tummies,” and there’s some even naughtier nun names for French pastries, but I won’t go there.

Oh, how interesting.

Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, we like to play with our food, and Pope’s nose is just a funny name because of its resemblance to a nose.

Oh, okay.

So it was European-based.

Yes.

Yes, yes.

And in this country, often you’ll hear people refer to it as the Parson’s nose.

Oh, depending upon which religious affiliation you are.

Yeah, yeah, something like that.

Okay.

So it’s just a folk term, kind of a comical folk term that’s derived.

Yeah, yeah, it goes back to at least the late 18th century, and I believe James Joyce mentions it in one of his books.

We appreciate your calling and sending us down this path.

Oh, thank you, it’s been real enlightening.

So which term are you going to use?

The Uropiglium.

Pygium.

Uropigium.

Pygium, okay.

I have to write this phonetically.

Yeah, Uropigium.

Use that next Thanksgiving and see what everybody says.

I think I will.

That’s really fun.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot for calling.

All right.

Namaste.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. 1-877-9299673 is the number to call to talk about turkey butts or anything else.

Or you can email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

There was an essay in the New York Times recently that I loved.

It was by Laura Miller and it was called “The Well-Tended Bookshelf.”

Did you see this, Grant?

She was talking about culling books from her library.

Don’t get me started.

Oh, start.

Go ahead.

No, you go first.

Okay.

So she was talking about how she chooses books to take out of her library or not to make room.

But there was one part I really identified with and I want to share some of it.

It’s right at the very end.

She says, “As actuarial tables advance, the number of books you’ve got time to read diminishes.

Dr.

Johnson once said of second marriages that they represent the hope of triumph over experience.

So too do my bookshelves.

I’ve turned out to be less rational about this than I thought and have made my library into a charm against mortality.

As long as I have a few unread books beckoning to me from across the room, I tell myself I can always find a little more time.”

And Grant, I really identified with it.

That’s how I feel about so many of the books in my office.

I went in there and I took a look and I thought, “You know, there’s so many of these that I’m never going to read, but if I keep them on the shelves, maybe I’ll live long enough to.”

Did she expressly use the phrase “reading mortality”?

Because that’s the phrase that I use.

I think I picked it up from an article in the Boston Globe a few years ago.

Oh, really?

No.

I don’t think she did.

The idea that it’s the realization that comes upon you when you realize that you will never, you will never, absolutely, it’s impossible for you to finish all the books that you want to read.

Oh, that’s an actual term.

I didn’t know that.

Yeah, you’d have to be, I would have to be like 180 to finish all the books I want to read.

Yeah, with a MacArthur, right?

I mean.

Right, exactly.

Yeah, without a day job.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All the time in the world.

Sure.

You can call on the phone at 1-877-929-9673 or email us at words@waywordradio.org.

Next up, how good are you at guessing the meaning of terms you’ve never heard before?

Oh, yeah?

Find out when A Way with Words continues.

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You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

It’s time for our weekly slang challenge where we try to stump a member of the National Puzzlers League.

Today’s contestant is Brian Wecht from New York City.

Hello, Brian.

Hi, Grant.

Hi, I’m Arthur.

Hi, Brian.

How are you doing?

I’m great.

How are you doing?

Super duper.

Brian, you’re a co-resident with me in New York City.

Well, actually, I am in New Jersey.

Oh, New Jersey.

That’s so far away.

Never mind.

What do you do there?

I’m a postdoc right now at a research institution called the Institute for Advanced Study.

Oh, really?

Yes, in Princeton.

Can you sum up your dissertation in language I can understand?

Well, I work on string theory and supersymmetry.

String theory and supersymmetry?

Kind of mathematical particle physics sort of stuff.

Okay.

So you’re going to ace this slang quiz, right?

Well, let’s hope those two are correlated.

I’m sure there’s a correlation.

Do you have a favorite slang term you’d like to share with us?

Yeah, I do.

I love the word “piehole.”

As in shut your — Shut your piehole.

I like it, too.

Yeah, that’s a good one.

Shut your piehole.

It’s just very crass and rude.

Yeah, it’s no vulgar.

Yeah, it appeals to the 10-year-old in me.

I was going to say, you and Grant are going to get along great.

Piehole meaning mouth.

All right, Brian.

Well, let’s see how you do with the quiz, all right?

Okay, sure.

Here are the rules.

I’m going to give you a sentence with a blank in it, and your job is to fill that blank with one of the two answers, all right?

Only one of them is correct.

If you get stumped or stuck, ask Martha for help.

Okay, great.

All right.

Okay, here we go.

Sure.

No, it won’t be done on time.

Yes, I put that in my report.

The problem is that whenever I report problems to my boss and she reports them to her boss and he reports to the CEO, the information is blanked all the way down the line.

So Brian, what happens to the information?

Is it A, beagle-chased, B-E-A-G-L-E-C-H-A-S-E-D, beagle-chased, or green-shifted, G-R-E-E-N-S-H-I-F-T-E-D?

Well, I have to say, as a physicist, I love the term green-shifted because that reminds me of the Doppler effect, right, where as you move towards or away from a source, the frequency of a pitch or of a light or whatever it is changes.

The information is propagating away from the original source, it’s actually changing its color.

The red-shift.

Yeah, so traditionally, it’s a red-shift or a blue-shift kind of direction.

Right, yeah.

So I think purely to be true to my roots, I’m going to have to go with green-shifted.

It also has a nice technical feel to it.

Yes, and that is correct.

Oh, really?

So in explanation, your story about the red-shift and the Doppler effect, that is the origin of green-shifting.

The further information goes from the source, the more positive it becomes.

Brian, I am so impressed.

Cool.

Well, I think you picked the one slang term that actually coincides with what I know.

I did not know that you were a physicist, I did not know, but good.

I’m glad that you got it right.

Green-shifting is a business jargon.

It’s been around a couple of years.

I don’t know how popular it is, but I think it’s a good term because it’s so true.

How often have you found your boss’s boss in the hallway and your boss’s boss is like, “I hear everything is going great,” and you’re like, “no, we need more people.

We need more time.”

It just doesn’t make it quite up the chain because, you know.

Because it’s green-shifted.

Wow.

All right.

See how you do on this next one, Brian?

Okay, great.

This building project is blank.

We’ve got the blueprints, the contractors, and the land.

All we need now is approval to spend the money.

So is the building project A, shovel-ready, or B, kiln-fired?

K-I-L-N, fired.

K-I-L-N.

Shovel-ready or kiln-fired?

Well, shovel-ready, it’s like we’re almost there, right?

We’re just ready to dig the first, get the first shovel in and get it ready to go.

It’s nice and building-specific.

Yeah, I think I’m going to go with that one.

Mm—

I like it.

Two for two.

You’re rocking, Brian.

Man!

Shovel-ready came to my attention this year because Barack Obama is fond of using it.

Is he really?

Yeah, it’s a classic bit of jargon that kind of spans several industries.

Government people like to use it.

Governments are just filled with agencies that have plans that are only waiting for money or approval, and those plans are called shovel-ready.

They’re just, exactly as you said, they’re waiting for the first shovel of dirt to be used.

And they say it regardless of whether it’s for a building project or whatever.

This just means we’re almost ready.

I have actually seen shovel-ready used for something other than a building project, but in my sentence, I decided to keep it on the building so that there are clues embedded there.

Well, I always try to be shovel-ready around Grant, but it has a totally different meaning.

I’m like the horses that go around Central Park that they have the canvas bag behind them to catch the…

Never mind.

Just in case.

Just in case.

I think people have to wait about 40 more years for that, but…

Well, Brian, you’re so impressive.

All that post-graduate training has really paid off.

Thanks.

I’m glad it’s useful for something.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for playing.

Thank you, Brian.

I had a great time.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you have a question about words or language or grammar or slang, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAYWARD, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hi.

This is Amy calling from Powder Springs, Georgia.

Hi, Amy.

Powder Springs?

Where is Powder Springs?

It’s one of the western suburbs of Atlanta.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Well, what are you calling about?

I have a little anecdote to tell you, and I was hoping you two could tell me if you’ve ever heard anything like this before or if it’s just an odd family thing.

Oh, great.

Bring it on.

Okay.

Let’s do it.

So, we’re a large baby boomer family.

There’s 11 of us, and I’m number seven.

And as you can imagine, with that many kids, there were often times when there was a lot of arguing or even, God forbid, fighting.

When that kind of thing happened, either mom or dad would shout out, “Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?”

Then one of us would have to answer, “Not if it’s in cans.”

And that, of course, would throw us off the argument, and we wouldn’t be arguing anymore.

So, it would be a good way to derail all the kids from arguing.

I know that sounds really silly, but I’m wondering if that’s true.

I hear somebody laughing in the background.

Somebody’s really enjoying that.

That’s my husband in the background laughing, because he thinks the whole thing is ridiculous.

That’s okay.

That’s okay.

We all have our…

So, this is family trips ages ago.

Yes.

Yes.

A long time ago.

-huh.

You know, it’s funny that that is completely in line with the way that I’ve seen it used.

And it’s not only your family, I hope that’s a relief to you, or at least interesting.

And to your husband.

It is classically two things.

It’s a non-sequitur to use when you want to change the subject from something uncomfortable.

And it’s also used, you’ll find this in newspapers all the time, from the ’30s and ’40s, used as an example of kind of aimless, pointless speech, kind of like, “How about them yanks?”

Or “Hot enough for you?”

You know?

-huh.

Nice weather we’re having.

“Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?”

I found examples of this as far back as 1939.

Really?

Yes, absolutely.

And you’ll find again and again that when it’s mentioned, people will say, people will use it exactly kind of the context you’re talking about, to represent somebody who doesn’t have anything better to say or somebody who needs to change the subject fast.

That’s amazing to me.

I thought that was just totally a family thing.

No.

And Amy, I’ve heard other versions of it too, like, “Do you think the rain will hit the rhubarb?

I mean, if we don’t oil it,” which is sort of as ridiculous as, “Not if it’s in cans.”

I do have to say though, I do have to say that the “not if it’s in cans” part I’ve never seen before.

Oh.

Oh, really?

And that could be unique to your family.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen that anywhere else.

Oh, well, how about that?

We’re special.

Well, every family is special.

You are special.

Every family has its own house language, its own vocabulary.

That’s amazing because I had no idea that that would be anything anybody else in the universe would use.

Love it.

Love it.

Love it.

Well, it’s not that common if that’s any comfort to you.

But it should be.

We could have world peace if we just stopped conflicts by saying, “Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?”

It would work.

I’m telling you.

That’s what Hillary Clinton’s going to do.

That’s right.

It would work.

You can just picture Hillary.

Well, yeah, we could talk about that, but do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?

Well, I’m glad I gave you all a chuckle.

Yeah.

You did.

It’s good stuff.

It’s good stuff.

We’ll see you in the Spring.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

I wonder if other people have expressions that they use to intervene in arguments, too.

We’d love to hear them.

Call us at 1-877-929-9673, or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mike Ekanaka.

Where are you calling from?

Actually, I’m in Glendora, but I live down in Irvine, California.

Well, welcome to the show.

What can we do for you?

Well, I have an interesting thing I guess that came up a couple of weeks ago.

The local paper in Orange County is the Orange County Register, and there was an article in there about a company called Hurst who was going to manufacture some specialty cars, and they referred to them as being souped up, and it was spelled S-U-P-E-D up.

Now I grew up in L.A. In the ’60s, and when Hurst was just kind of getting started doing drag racing parts, and there were a lot of souped up cars in those days, and I always saw it spelled S-O-U-P-E-D, like the liquid condiment or whatever, and I had never thought about that spelling until I saw this article.

So for all this time, I’ve been either wrong or just assuming that I knew how it was supposed to be spelled.

-huh.

So that article rocked your world, and you had to call.

A little bit.

It gave me pause.

I’ve seen the S-U-P-E spelling, and I know that it’s fairly common out there, but it’s not the correct spelling.

The correct spelling is S-O-U-P, even if it’s in a newspaper.

I had done a little bit of digging around, and I found some things on the web about S-U-P-E-D perhaps have been referred to a supercharger as a shortened version of that, and I think most of the people participating in that particular site discounted that.

And they said it may have hearkened back to, I guess it was a common practice in the early days of horse racing to inject performance-enhancing drugs into animals instead of people, and that was called soup, and they think it may have sprung from that source.

Soup was and still is sometimes used to refer to any kind of liquid or even a paste, all right?

So people will refer to gasoline as soup, or they’ll refer to seawater as soup, they’ll refer to the chemicals for developing film as soup.

Anything can be a soup, okay?

But a lot of times the soup is more specifically used to mean a drug or a chemical or something that’s used to treat something else.

You can see that in the photography use of it and in the use you talked about where horses might have been doped with drugs in order to make them perform better.

And you can find very specific instances of this being mentioned in periodicals from the 1920s and 1930s.

It’s a really strong theory that that’s a place where the transfer of horse racing to car racing, you can see how the jargon might easily be borrowed from one sport into the other, right?

But there are some difficulties here.

You’ll also find soup being used to refer to nitroglycerin.

And you’ll actually find places where people are talking about people being souped up on nitroglycerin.

That is, they’d taken nitroglycerin as a drug.

It’s good for your heart, for example, under certain conditions and certain quantities.

And nitroglycerin was used to blow safes.

And safe crackers called it soup and they called blowing the safe souping the safe.

So we’ve also got this other use where we’re specifically talking about a chemical that is powerful and explosive.

And you could see how nitroglycerin, you might say, “Well, I’ve modded my car to such a degree that it’s like it’s running on nitroglycerin instead of gasoline.”

Right?

Right.

All right.

And then we go to the final part.

The one that you mentioned, and I think it might be incorrect, dismiss the supercharge theory out of hand.

You can find uses of it in the 1930s.

And we were talking about the beginning of the heyday of high performance automobiles and machinery, right?

Right.

And specifically people talking about a supercharger and saying that it’s a gadget that soups up a motor.

In those words.

With a U or not.

No.

That’s the very interesting thing.

The supercharger, S-U-P-E-R, soups up the motor, S-O-U-P.

So it’s really interesting.

Oh, really?

There might be some lending there.

But unequivocally, the spelling is S-O-U-P.

The origin, of course, is in doubt.

Anyway, so we’ve gone from our field here, Mike, but I hope we’ve offered you some information that you can take back to your pals.

Well, that is interesting.

And thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

You’re welcome.

I hope we didn’t give you soup in a basket.

No, it was very interesting, and I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

We didn’t give you soup in a bowl.

Okay.

Thank you, Mike.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you have a question about language, call us.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

Or you can always email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hello.

This is Mary from St.

Cloud, Minnesota.

Hi, Mary.

Hello, Mary.

What’s going on?

I have a problem here I’m hoping you can help me with.

I have a little disagreement with my significant other, who, by the way, is truly the smartest man I know.

Our problem is with the term “Indian summer.”

I thought Indian summer meant when in the fall, you know, we go through the summer and then it starts to cool off and then we have a spell and it probably freezes and then we have a warm spell.

And I thought the term “Indian summer” came from, oh, back in the old days when they — that that was at a time when Indians would have to do their last harvest before the winter.

Now, my significant other, who’s very smart, said that he thought it came from a sort of the same take as the term “Indian giver,” which, of course, is, you know, not appropriate anymore.

But in that, you know, we thought we were getting warm weather and then, you know, like we have the fall, we think then it goes to a nice patch and then boom, then we’re in the bad part of winter.

Fake out.

Right.

Yeah.

I see.

I was wondering how that could be related, but I see now.

Yeah.

Well, you’re right that Indian giver is considered offensive now.

And I don’t think it has anything to do with Indian summer, really, although the truth is, Mary, there are so many theories about the term “Indian summer.”

It’s amazing.

How many theories are there, Grant?

Forty-three.

A million.

There’s just so many.

And the one that keeps getting floated around that seems the most logical is probably something about the colonists coming from England where they used a different term for that period of time, either St.

Martin’s summer, sometimes they called it goose summer because that was the time of year when geese were eaten at feasts, that kind of thing.

But the one that makes the most sense is simply that they had different names there and then came to this country and associated that period of time with one of the most salient characteristics of the New World, that is, the presence of Indians there, but the truth is that we just don’t know.

Okay.

Well, I like that explanation.

Mary, I will give you one recommendation, which is a book called Beneath the Second Sun, S-U-N, it’s by Adam Sweeting, who I think is a professor of humanities at Boston University, and it’s just a whole book about Indian summer, and it’s a beautiful meditation on that period of the year, and it’s got all kinds of references to literature and history and science, and it’s just a gorgeous little book that makes you really appreciate that beautiful, beautiful time of year.

Oh, that sounds lovely because it is a beautiful time.

Yeah, it is.

It is.

And I’m sorry that it’s gotten associated with the term, with the offensive term, Indian giver.

I’m almost hesitant to say it, although I’m not sure that there’s a connection there.

Well, I’ve never heard anyone else make that connection.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don’t believe that there’s a connection there to Indian summer, the taking back of something once given.

I don’t believe it.

Yeah, I don’t either.

This is the first that I’ve ever heard of it.

It’s possible he was pulling my leg.

Oh, well.

Your significant other?

Only to get them even, I suppose, but he might have been.

Well, you did say he was the smartest guy in the world besides Grant.

That’s true.

Well, Mary, thanks for an interesting question.

Well, thank you so much for your help.

All right.

All right, thank you.

Take care.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

That’s our show for this week.

If you didn’t get on the air today, you can still leave us a message any time, the numbers 1-877-929-9673.

Or you can email your questions to words@waywordradio.org or join the conversation with fellow word lovers at our online forum.

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Tim also engineered our theme music.

Curt Conan produced it.

We’ve had production help this week from Michael Bagdasian.

From the Argo Network in New York City, I’m Grant Barrett.

And from Studio West in San Diego, I’m Martha Barnette.

Peace out.

Shalom.

And I say neither