Word Encounters of the First Kind

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

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Well, if you’re a word freak like us, you know there’s nothing, nothing like that moment when you meet a word for the very first time.

You know that little frisson when you first encounter a word?

Well, there was a word like that that caught me up short the other day.

And that word was eucaligon.

That’s U-C-A-L-E-G-O-N, eucaligon.

And, Grant, it means a neighbor whose house is on fire.

I know that. I learned that from Will Short.

Yes, and it’s a reference to a character in the Iliad,

And you won’t find it in many modern dictionaries today, or any modern dictionaries,

But it has been floating around in the past in at least a couple of them,

And Will told us that he encountered it in a crossword puzzle.

Yeah, those crossword people are about too clever for me.

I came across a word like that recently.

There was a discussion about what it takes to break through writer’s block.

You’re like me, right, Martha?

Sometimes you’ve got to do stuff on deadline, and the words won’t come.

Oh, yeah.

So one guy was claiming he’s like, you should just force yourself to write, and then the dam will break, and all this genius will come pouring out, right?

And then another guy was saying that you have to have cacowithis scribendi.

Right.

I know that word.

Of course you do.

Kakoethi Skribendi, C-A-C-O-E-T-H-E-S-S-C-R-I-B-E-N-D-I.

And it translates as the irresistible urge to write.

Yes.

Even to the point of evilness, even to the point of detriment, right?

Right.

So as you know, because you’re the Greek expert in here,

I’m actually nearly literally preaching to the choir, aren’t I?

I’m going to tell you, Martha, the Greek origins of the Kakoethis.

But I love the way you say it.

Is that okay?

It’s great, yeah.

Okay.

It comes from Greek words meaning bad disposition, kakos, and ethos, right?

And so what this fellow in this discussion forum was saying,

He said that you either had the drive to write or you didn’t.

And if you didn’t, you might as well go weed the garden instead.

So kakowethi skribendi, that’s the word that I found.

It’s a phrase, actually, so it’s not one word.

Yeah, two words.

Two words.

But, yeah, that irresistible urge, that itch, that burning itch.

And you know what, Grant? Actually, there’s cacoethes loquindi as well.

That’s right.

The irresistible urge to talk, right?

And if you have that, you know where to call, 1-877-929-9673.

We talk about words like that here.

That’s 1-877-929-WORD.

And we welcome your emails anytime, day or night, from anywhere in the world, words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Katie calling you from Portland, Oregon.

Well, hello, Katie in Portland, Oregon.

What’s cooking in Portland?

Hello.

Well, I have a question about a word.

I actually went to college here in Portland at a little liberal arts college.

And I have a question about a word that I had heard before I came to college here,

But that had never been so ubiquitous as it was at this place.

And so I wanted to ask you about it.

The word is sketchy.

And this word is used to describe generally either a person or a location that seems kind of off

Or kind of like maybe you don’t want to get involved or like they have, you know, bad intentions or something.

So an example would be, you know, you took the bus through the sketchy part of town and you got a bad vibe.

Or that guy, he looks kind of sketchy, like maybe he’s got a leer in his eye that you’re not really interested in.

And the other thing about this word is that in sort of traditional collegiate style, it’s very malleable.

So you can sort of turn it into lots of other words or adjectives.

Like, let’s see, if a skate place was particularly sketchy, you might refer to it as like sketchy town or sketchyville.

It would be that area of town.

Or the best one would be if someone was seriously sketchy, you would call them sketchy McSketcherson.

Right, right.

I like that.

So I guess I’m interested in where this word might have come from and how it came to mean what it means.

And also just, I don’t know, I just found it so interesting that it had so many forms that it could take on.

Yeah, that’s fabulous.

Katie, may we ask how long ago it was that you were in school?

Just a couple of years ago.

And I can guarantee that the word is still in heavy usage there.

Huh.

Yeah.

I’ve seen it as early as the 1980s with that kind of sense that Katie’s talking about.

Yeah, that’s about right.

That’s about right.

Definitely the 1980s.

It reminds me of, well, you mentioned how it can be transformed.

There’s also the verb, you know, you could sketch someone out.

Or the sketchy part of town sketches you out, right?

Exactly.

Which is kind of parallel to skeeve out.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, all right.

Yeah.

And I don’t, I’m not sure that we know the origin of it beyond just the idea that it’s kind of questionable.

Yeah, I mean, I guess that was my impression is that if something’s sketchy,

It means that its outlines aren’t clearly defined, you know, or its boundaries aren’t clearly defined.

So it would be something that, you know, you can’t quite get the whole picture of

And that that maybe freaks you out a little.

Mm-That makes sense to me.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that many of the uses of it over the years that I’ve seen really do demonstrate

That that’s what people had in mind,

Whether or not it was the original use of sketchy or the later use.

They really did think of it meaning things are unclear here.

It’s just a rough outline.

I don’t know what’s going to happen or I don’t know what’s going on there.

And, Katie, I would think that it might be reinforced, too,

By the fact that there are other words that sort of sound like that,

Like skeevy and skanky.

It’s interesting that all three of those start with that SK sound.

That’s true. That’s true.

Yeah, and I just found it so interesting because it really was, you know, I remember clearly in my freshman year just sort of noticing this particular word and finding that I began to use it constantly, not only on its own, but in these, you know, elaborate forms that it would take on.

Because it just was suddenly so descriptive of things that I guess you don’t really encounter as much sketchiness before you’re out on your own as a college student.

Right.

In a wild world, unprotected by your parents.

All right.

Is it all groovy, Katie?

Did we get to where you wanted to go?

There’s nothing sketchy.

My boundaries are feeling much clearer today.

Thank you, guys.

I love this show.

All right.

Take care of yourself, Katie.

Thanks, Katie.

All right.

I will.

Thanks very much.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Good word, though.

Let me tell you.

I like it.

You know, some new language you’re like, eh, but that one’s strong.

I think that’s here to stay for a long time.

Do you, Grant?

I do.

You think it’s here to think on tomorrow?

When I say that about the slang of young people, I also am aware that some of this stuff,

Some language was recorded in the early 1900s.

And if I go back and read those lists of language the college kids were using,

Like three-quarters of it just doesn’t exist now.

Nobody would know what you were saying if you used it.

So who knows? I could be wrong.

In 50 years, sketchy might just disappear.

Well, as you know, I’d love to take your slang questions.

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 929-WORD.

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

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Brian Taylor from San Diego.

Hello, Brian.

Hi, Brian.

How are you doing today, both of you?

Super duper.

We’re doing well, and yourself?

I’m doing really well.

It’s my birthday today, so I’m feeling great.

Brian, happy birthday.

How many are you?

Thank you.

Three-one, the big three-one.

Wow, that’s a lot of extra cake.

Yeah.

Well, last year was really the big year.

Thirty-one’s not so bad.

Actually, yeah, I think all the luster wears off after 30.

Right, and your hair starts growing.

Yeah.

So what are you going to do to celebrate?

I think maybe go out to a nice dinner.

You know, last year on my 30th birthday I went skydiving, so that was a big thing.

But today seems pretty low-key so far.

Skydiving, calling A Way with Words.

Your life is going downhill from here on out.

Hey, you know what?

Well, how can we make your day even better?

Well, I had a question I’ve been pondering, or a phrase, rather, that I’ve been wondering about.

And basically, I’m in a lot of conference calls and discussions and meetings

Where we’re talking a lot about upcoming projects or events and things like that.

And one of the phrases I’ve been hearing is coming down the pipe, as in something that’s forthcoming.

And recently, I’ve been hearing another, or basically the same variation of the same phrase,

But they say coming down the pike, as in P-I-K-E.

So I’ve heard pipe and pike, and to me, coming down the pipe sounds logical

Because maybe it suggests pipeline or something coming down the pipe,

But pike, I’ve heard that recently, and I don’t know if that’s the right terminology

Or the right word, and you look up pike in the dictionary,

And there’s like six different definitions, so I’m just wondering now where you two weigh in on that.

Okay, and it’s not as if you work in plumbing or anything.

No, yeah, more like sales business, and just to describe projects

And things that are forthcoming.

So we’ve got to get this in the calendar.

It’s coming down the pipe.

Would you be terribly surprised if we told you that coming down the pike

Is the older and more established form, the P-I-K-E version?

You know, I think I’ve been hearing that more recently,

So I guess that makes sense.

Yeah, it’s older by 100 years, 150 years, a long time.

Metaphorically, anyway, to talk about not literally coming down a pike

Existed for a long time before we find any record in print

Of coming down the pipe, P-I-P-E.

So coming down the highway, in other words.

Yeah, because turnpikes.

That’s right, right, because a pike is short for turnpike,

Which is short for turnpike road,

Which is a roadway protected by a turnpike,

Which is a spiked barrier of wood.

It kind of keeps the highwaymen and the robbers off.

I see.

So coming down the pipe, is that just more, I guess, recent or…

Yeah, but you know, I’m not terribly bothered by it.

No, I’m not either.

I think it’s very logical because if you have a product pipeline

And you have products moving through the process that they’re required, say,

To bring them to market or to get them approved,

Then they are actually coming down the pipe, so to speak.

Well, I may start using coming down the pike now that I know that’s the real way to say it, though.

Well, it’s got a nice historical resonance to it

Because when you tell people that coming down the pike is related to the turnpike,

Like they have in New Jersey, people are like,

Huh?

Right.

And it’s nice to have that kind of backstory that connects this metaphor to the actual highway.

Yeah.

And now that you’re in your 30s, now that you’re grown up, maybe it’s time to start.

Yeah.

You’ve got to start saying things like, yeah, you’ve got to start using old language.

Right.

When I was a kid.

Get off my lawn.

Exactly.

Now I can cite the real terminology that I’ve advanced.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, listen, happy birthday.

Thank you, Martha.

Thank you.

Happy, happy birthday.

Thank you, Brian.

Thanks for taking care.

Love your show.

As a present, we won’t sing to you.

Bye-bye.

Thanks again.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

We’ll unmix your metaphors.

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

Or if you prefer to write it out in text form, by all means, send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

We were talking earlier about weird words that had stumped us the first time we encountered them.

Here’s one for you, Grant. Spanghew. Do you know that word?

Spanghew? No, is that a kind of wrench?

No, good guess, but it’s S-P-A-N-G-H-E-W.

If you look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition is to cause a frog or toad to go flying into the air.

Isn’t that great?

Outside of the Calaveras County frog jumping contest, what use have you for that?

Well, if you’ve got crazy words like this, if you just want to share them and you don’t care about being on the air,

We’re the audience for your crazy, wacky words that you found and didn’t know.

Send us an email. It’s words@waywordradio.org.

We like hearing from everybody.

Or give us a call, 1-877-929-WORD.

Coming up on A Way with Words, something puzzling this way comes.

Stick around for a word quiz and more of your calls.

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

And joining us once again is that crazy, wacky guy, John Chaneski.

Hello, John.

Hello, Grant.

You’ve got quizzes for us?

Yes.

Do you guys remember cryptic crosswords?

We’ve talked about them before.

Oh, yeah.

Doesn’t that usually end badly?

Tears and the whole thing.

Remember that a cryptic clue has two parts.

One is similar to a standard crossword clue.

The other is a description of the answer via wordplay.

Now, we’ve covered anagram clues and homophone clues.

And now we’ll talk about charade clues.

Charades.

We’re going to do charades on the radio.

But this is the only fashion kind of charades, right?

This isn’t the stand-up-in-front-of-people charades, right?

This is the wordplay charades.

That’s exactly right.

Okay.

I was going to say, how will we know when you’re tugging on your ear?

Will you explain the wordplay charades for everyone?

Because I don’t think many…

I mean, I grew up only knowing the acting-it-out kind of charades

And only learned as an adult what the wordplay charades was.

Well, in a charade clue, the wordplay involves cluing individual words that are combined to make the answer.

For example, the clue burn slightly plus summertime juice drink equals cryptic clue type that we happen to be talking about.

So what is burn slightly?

Char.

Right.

And plus aid, which comes from lemonade or Kool-Aid.

Right.

So charade.

It looks like charade, but it’s pronounced charade.

It’s pronounced charade.

That’s right.

So that’s totally a visual.

It’s usually not phonetically a charade.

Oh, man.

So we need to pay some attention to the spelling, and pens and paper will help, right?

Yeah, pens and paper will help on this one.

Oh, holy cow.

Or pencils.

I thought the answer was toast.

I’m going to be bringing up the rear on this one.

I’m going to be toast on this one.

Settle in, guys.

Here we go.

Buckle up.

Let’s try a few more.

Ready?

Here we go.

Okay.

Okay, the first is do, re, mi, fa, follower, and sneaker feature equals comfort.

Okay, so solace.

So do, re, mi, fa, so, so, la, ti, do, so, so.

Yeah.

And sneaker feature.

What are rubber soles?

Comfort, known for comfort.

Martha’s already.

I said the answer about it a minute ago.

Oh, did you do it?

I wasn’t even.

Solace.

Solace.

So and lace, solace is comfort.

Very good.

Nice work, Martha.

And very good work, Grant, with your singing.

As usual.

I like that.

Fantastic.

Dope.

A deer, a female deer.

All right.

Moving on.

A felon plus portable campground shelter equals satisfied.

Got it.

Content.

Very good.

So a felon is a con, and a portable campground structure is a tent.

So content.

Content.

Very good.

Not content, but content.

Right.

Here’s the next.

Sunshine State, for short, and Mr. Barrett equals conspicuously bad as a crime.

Oh.

Oh, so FLA, which is the AP abbreviation of Florida, not the postal abbreviation.

Right.

And then Mr. Barrett is moi.

Yours truly is grand, J-A-R-A-N-T.

So it’s flagrant.

Very good.

Flagrant is right.

Flagrantly wonderful.

Nice work.

Yeah.

Okay, here’s the next.

Mischievous fairy plus leftover scraps equals goods brought in from overseas.

Leftover scraps.

That would be…

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, hello.

Yes.

Yeah, this is a little nod to my blog, isn’t it?

Oh, yeah.

Martha Barnette’s Orts.

Right.

So Imports.

Imp is a mischievous fairy.

That’s right.

And Orts is a little scrap or something.

Right.

Very often found in crosswords.

Very, very big crossword answer there, Ort.

And also found on Martha’s blog.

That’s right.

Yeah, my Orts.

All right, here’s another.

Meadow plus outbuilding equals kept on a tether.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Sounds like another crossword word.

L-E-A, like leet, right?

Right.

And then what was it?

Shed.

Shed.

So leashed.

Leashed.

But I didn’t know L-E-A was a synonym for meadow.

Well, that’s what I’m used to.

What do you think a lee is?

I’ve never heard of the word.

Oh, you’ve never heard of the word?

Oh, okay.

I’m not reading a lot of burns these days.

I thought you were saying it wasn’t precisely.

No, no.

It didn’t precisely mean a meadow.

No, no.

I just never heard the word before.

Oh, okay.

It strikes me as the kind of thing that you’re going to find in Scottish poetry, though.

No, no, no.

Yeah, it’s a meadow.

Oh, okay.

Here’s the last one.

Hopeless plus pilots with great skill equals disgusted faces.

So the second one is aces, probably.

Pilots with great skill is aces.

And the first clue is hopeless.

So that would be grim.

Right.

Grimaces.

Grimaces.

100% correct.

Wonderful.

Good job.

Super duper.

I am not making a disgusted face right now.

I’m making a happy face.

Because you guys were really, really good at that puzzle.

He’s making a happy meal face.

It’s got grimace on it.

Yum, yum.

Oh, don’t say that’s the last one.

Is that everything?

That’s the last one.

That’s it?

I said don’t say that’s the last one.

I’m sorry.

You know, they’ve been going easy on us, Martha.

I’ve been saying this, and I’ve got the proof now.

Yeah?

I saw Greg and John at the crossword puzzle tournament, like, stomp 700 people at once.

That’s true.

That’s right.

It was amazing.

700 people sat down because they didn’t know the answer.

That’s right.

It’s so much fun to make people sit down.

It was so great to see you guys in the audience having a good time at that puzzle.

Sitting down.

Sitting down, yeah.

It’s unusual.

Well, anyway, that was huge fun, John.

As always, I think I enjoy these more every time.

Thank you.

Me too.

I’m having a great time.

Well, if a question about language has you grimacing or scratching your head,

Give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

Or send us an email.

You know, we’ll take your puzzles too.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Lynn from Rushford, Minnesota.

Well, hello, Lynn.

What’s going on in Rushford, Minnesota?

Rushford.

Well, spring has finally sprung.

We’ve been waiting for it for a long time.

Yay, spring.

So what are you going to do to celebrate?

Well, I’m going back to work on the 13th of April.

And so that’s something to celebrate because I don’t go back until the weather gets nice enough to go back to work.

What’s your work?

I work as a naturalist for the state of Minnesota at a cave here in southeast Minnesota.

At a cave?

What cave?

Mystery Cave.

Why do they call it Mystery Cave?

Oh, dear. That’s a real long story.

Yay!

But to make it shorter, I guess I’d just say, well, there are a lot of wonderful mysteries in it.

And so if you’re ever out this way, please come visit.

Oh, yeah? You would take us on a tour?

Oh, I sure would.

Show us the stalactites and the stalagmites.

Now, how do you tell the difference between those? I always forget.

Well, the stalactites grow from the ceiling and the stalagmites grow from the ground up.

And we always say that the stalactites hold tight to the ceiling,

And the stalagmites might reach the ceiling.

Oh, good.

Yeah, you want those stalactites to hold tight, definitely.

Yeah, especially the bigger ones.

Well, interesting.

So do you have a question for us about language?

I do.

Every now and then when I am in the cave with a group of visitors,

I get asked the question, where did the word spelunker come from?

And every place I’ve looked to find an answer,

I have not found anything that makes an awful lot of sense to me.

So I thought, well, you guys would be the ones to ask.

What have you seen so far?

Well, I know the word spelion is the Greek word for cave,

And that’s about as far as I’ve gotten.

I don’t know where the lunker part comes from.

I thought it was perhaps German, but nothing I’ve come across says anything about German being involved.

No, no.

But you’re right about the Greek part, and speleologists are people who study caves professionally.

Are you familiar with that term, speleology?

Well, you say spelunker, right?

I do.

Yeah, that’s interesting because I see that that is an accepted pronunciation in the dictionary.

I’ve always said spelunker myself.

Spelunker goes back to a Latin word, spelunker, which goes back even further to a Greek word.

And, you know, a lot of those Greek words, it’s spelinks.

And there are a lot of weird Greek words that just sound really weird.

And that word eventually found its way into English as spelunker, or as you say, spelunker.

So it simply goes back to the Latin and Greek words for a hollow in the ground like that.

Lynn, have we answered your question satisfactorily?

You have, and I really appreciate that.

Thank you for helping me get to the bottom of it.

And do come visit us if you’re ever out this way.

All right, we sure will.

Thank you so much, Lynn.

Best of luck with the new season.

Thank you.

Okay, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you have a question about language, we’re happy to try to get to the bottom of it.

Give us a call at 1-877-929-9673, or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, Grant, this is Paul Ahi in Atlanta, Georgia.

Well, hello, Paul. How are you doing?

Hiya, Paul. What’s going on?

Well, I have a quick question, actually.

I have a friend who’s, I figure she’s from North Carolina, so that probably plays a part of it.

And she sent me an email recently where she said that she had to fess up.

And that’s really the question.

I think everyone knows that it means that you’re going to, you have to admit something.

But what is fessing and why up?

Can I fess to the left or can I fess down or anything like that?

Well, you know we have a question for you, Paul.

Oh, what’s that?

Tell us your darkest secrets.

My darkest secrets.

What was she fessing up to?

Oh, we were going to go on a trip, and at the last moment she had some other plans,

And so she just had to admit that she was going to do one of these other plans.

Oh, wow. And then you got into a discussion about grammar and vocabulary and linguistics?

Actually, that was last night at a dinner when we were all talking about it,

And one of my friends came up that the fess up part, at least the fess, might be to confess.

But as far as up, she also says gussied up, so I don’t know if that’s similar.

But I figure that it has to be a Southern thing.

It’s a chopped off form of confess.

Makes sense.

Yeah, and there’s a linguistic term for that, isn’t there, Grant?

A pharicist.

And this is when a syllable is dropped from the beginning of a word.

The key is your friend is right.

It’s confess with a con, the C-O-N, drops from the beginning.

So yes, fess was the shortened version of confess,

And for a while you just saw fess by itself.

Somebody might say, I’m going to fess to mother or fess clean about what you just did.

But over time, it acquired that extra up.

And I think that part of the reason might be that there was also another expression like that around for a long time, and that was own up.

So own up may have influenced fess up.

And this is an Americanism.

This is not something that’s widely known outside of North America at all.

I don’t know that it’s specific to the American South, but it’s certainly something that we are most known to use.

A lot of times when you see verbs like this that have up or on or down at the end of them,

There is no rhyme or reason that it’s up or on or down, like carry on.

Why don’t we say, you know, if you carry down something, you don’t carry it on, right, or carry it up.

It’s always carry.

If you carry on, we’re carrying on here on the radio.

You couldn’t really, right?

Right.

Right.

I mean, you chop down a tree and then you chop it up.

I mean, it’s wacky.

You know, it’s just crazy, Paul.

Right.

Well, great.

I’ll have a fun passing that on to my dinner group because that was kind of the consensus was that it came from Fess.

What’s your big secret that you want to Fess up to us?

Just tell the two of us.

We won’t tell anybody else.

Right.

We won’t.

Well, I’ll tell you what.

Since I’ve been listening to your show, I know that you also pass on people’s favorite slang term.

Oh, please.

And I had to think about this one for a while, and mine would be MIGO, which was from back in college when we’d all sit around and, you know how it is in college, you’re sitting around and you’re discussing very huge topics and politics and stuff like that, that for some reason you do that in college and you don’t do that a lot later in life.

But we used to say after one person would be talking just too long and you’re tired, we’d say MIGO, and that stands for My Eyes Glaze Over.

Yes, of course.

Great acronym.

Yeah.

I like that one.

I thought for a second you were going to say something that was associated with the IGO in volleyball,

Which is a really quick way of saying, I get it.

It’s my turn, right?

Oh, I didn’t know that.

IGO.

Yeah, it’s a really quick way of saying that I’m the one getting the ball.

Well, I hope that we didn’t cause YGO, or your eyes, to glaze over here.

Not in the least.

Doesn’t work as well, does it?

No, it doesn’t.

Oh, well.

Well, thanks for answering my question.

That’s fantastic, Paul.

Thank you for the question.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you want to find out about language, go to waywordradio.org.

We have a very active discussion forum there.

Some of the commenters in the forum, they’re on their game, aren’t they, Martha?

They pretty much know what they’re talking about,

And we’d like to have your voice and your questions and your answers there, too.

You can also send us email to words@waywordradio.org

Or give us a phone call, 1-877-929-9673.

Hello. You have A Way with Words.

Hi. This is Gary White. I’m calling from League City, Texas.

Hello, Gary. What’s going on?

Well, recently my wife and I were listening to an NPR newscast,

And the reporter was presenting the words of an Asian speaker through a translator.

The Asian speaker apparently had experienced some unanticipated event

Which prompted him to make a statement that the translator translated as,

That makes it a whole new ballgame.

And my wife and I, you know, we understood the phrase to mean,

You know, you say that when something’s happened and it causes the parties involved to rethink their strategy.

But we were thinking that the phrase, you know, when it refers to a ball game,

That it was referring to baseball and that it was a uniquely American phrase.

So when we heard this translation from an Asian speaker, it made us wonder about our assumptions.

We wondered whether the phrase did evolve in America and is baseball the ball game they’re talking about?

So your question is, is it possible that the expression a whole new ballgame actually comes to us from an Asian language?

Yes, from some other culture.

And if it did, what kind of ballgame were they talking about?

Right.

Gary, I’m not familiar with Asian languages.

I’m not sufficiently familiar with Asian languages to give you an answer about whether that was translated literally.

But I’m betting I would be willing to put money on the idea that that is simply a translation that’s translated into good idiomatic English, that it had nothing to do with a ball game.

Okay.

That’s my guess.

So whether they were speaking Chinese or Japanese, you’re saying that there was some other idiom that we don’t know in that other language.

And the translator, knowing that the American audiences would prefer to have it in their own kind of expression,

Chose to translate the whole expression as a whole new ballgame, right?

Yes, exactly.

So the phrase itself is uniquely American, but it does have counterparts in other cultures.

I know that there are equivalent expressions in other languages, like in Spanish, for example.

Instead of saying, oh, that’s a whole new ballgame, a whole other ballgame,

You might say, es otro cantar.

It’s an entirely different song, which I love.

It’s another singing.

And in French, I think there’s an expression that translates as, that’s another pair of sleeves.

Okay, well, that’s interesting.

Yeah.

Because that’s how translators work.

They don’t translate word for word.

They translate meaning for meaning.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I would love if we heard from speakers of Asian languages to know what that expression would literally translate as.

Yeah.

Okay, well, y’all have been a great help.

I sure appreciate it.

All right, Gary.

Thank you for your call, Gary.

Thank you for your time, sir.

All right, thanks.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, light the fire under us to solve your questions.

The number to call is 1-877-929-WORD, or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Earlier we were talking about words that caught us up short the first time we ran across them.

Here’s one, Martha, that I didn’t know.

Mofusil. M-O-F-U-S-S-I-L.

Mofusil. That’s not the name of some comedian or something?

No, no. It’s one word.

And it means remote, rural, or provincial.

It comes from Urdu, and it was brought back by the British from India in the 1700s.

It originally referred to the parts of India outside of what we now call Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai,

Or Bombay, Kolkata, and Madras.

So it’s just a really nice, interesting, kind of strange word that lurks back there in the back catalog of English and waits until called for.

Well, if you’d like to talk about mofussels or any other kind of word, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Stay tuned as we sling some slang, and we’ll take more of your calls.

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

And I’m Martha Barnette. And it’s time for Slang This, the puzzle where you guess the meaning of strange slang terms.

Today’s contestant is Jessica Stackler from Storrs, Connecticut. Jessica, welcome.

Hi, how are you?

Doing great.

Hello, Jessica. What’s going on?

Not much. I’m getting psyched up to play the slang quiz.

Do you have a favorite slang term for us?

Yes, I certainly do.

My favorite slang term is something that I’m pretty sure only my boyfriend and I use, at least in this context.

And the phrase is Barry Manilow concert.

There’s obviously a story to this.

So being sort of the cheap college students that we are, I get about three channels at my apartment.

So one day we were snowed in and we were looking for something to watch.

And you know the digital feature where you can scroll through the channels without actually changing the channel?

Right.

So it said that there was a documentary about ancient Egypt on.

So that was pretty good considering everything else was either in the church channel or in Spanish.

So when we changed the channel, it was actually a really cheesy, like straight out of 1983 Barry Manilow concert.

And we were really disappointed.

So now everything that is something that wasn’t expected or is disappointing, we call a Barry Manilow concert.

That is awesome.

How did you like the concert?

We changed it. I think we put in a DVD or something after that.

He’s not really our favorite. I mean, no offense to him.

It’s just, you know, how we’re looking for.

Well, I like that a lot. I may have to steal that.

Yep, anytime you want. I’d be honored to use it.

Well, we hope this won’t be a Barry Manilow concert for you, Jessica.

I hope so, too.

All right. Well, here’s how we play our game.

Grant’s going to give you a slang term,

And then he will give you three sentences suggesting what that term could mean.

Now, only one of those is real and the other two are fake,

So your job will be to guess which one of those sentences actually illustrates the way this slang term is used.

And you probably won’t have heard the word before,

But that means that the trick is going to be to puzzle out the word’s meaning,

And I’ll be standing by to help if you get stuck, okay?

All right.

All right, well, here we go.

We’ve got two words for you today, Jessica.

And the first word is gauge, G-A-U-G-E, gauge.

It’s probably not going to be the gauge that you know, but we’ll see, all right?

Okay.

And the first clue.

Bridie Mae gauged and curtsied before the mayor in an effort to sway him to label her cake of all the cakes in the contest as the county’s best.

And the second clue.

He wore 13-gauge blue jeans, with each of the 13 rivets holding down a corner or a seam.

And the third clue.

By the time he finished gauging his ears, the lobes hung in big rubbery loops almost to his shoulders.

So is gauging, is to gauge, is it to make exaggerated movements of deference towards an authority figure?

Is it the count of rivets on a pair of blue jeans?

Or is it to stretch new holes in one’s earlobes with ever larger rings or jewelry?

Well, luckily, I am part of this generation.

My ears are not gauged, but I have had some piercings in my day.

I’m going to go with C.

C is absolutely correct.

You’re a busted Barrett.

Yeah, busted.

Well, there you go.

It’s a real slang word.

I’ve been accused in the past of making this stuff up.

Oh, it’s real.

Yeah?

It’s real.

I see these guys.

You know, I live in New York City.

I see these guys here and there, subway, wherever, and it looks awful.

Oh, it’s ridiculous.

It doesn’t look appealing to me.

And I don’t know what their tribe is, but it’s not my tribe.

There’s a tribe of white Americans doing this, and it’s okay.

But whoo.

And are they called gauges or just the act of?

Well, the gauging, if you think about the gauge of a pipe or the gauge of wire,

It’s about the size of the pipe, right, or the size of the wire.

Making it bigger and bigger, yeah.

Right.

So using ever larger gauges of whatever it is you’re shoving in the holes in your lobes is why it’s called gauging.

So the next time I’m in Starbucks, I should say nice gauges or, I mean, is it a noun or a verb?

Jessica, what do you think? Have you heard it both ways?

Well, like I used to have my eyebrow appearance and I wore like a 14 gauge was the size.

So yeah, you could probably say nice gauges.

It’s more of the act or the description of the size.

Okay.

All right.

Well, maybe I would just sound awkward if I went into Starbucks and said that.

You know, I’ve got to say, Jessica, that’s the first time and I think ever that I’ve been giving the slang quiz that somebody actually knew the answer for certain and wasn’t just guessing.

So, bravo.

We’ve got another one here.

We’ll see how you do on this one.

Okay?

You ready?

Okay.

The next one is two words.

It’s head up.

H-E-A-D-U-P.

Head up. And the first clue. Cuban baseball features an innovation that goes by the English

Name head up. Borrowed from soccer, this is a move in which the batter is permitted to bunt with the

Head. The second clue. Two gangs of young men met in back of the superstore for a head up in which

The two leaders fought for control of the neighborhood. And then the third clue. People

Joke about making the wrong movement in an upscale auction house for fear of accidentally agreeing to

Buy expensive art, but the truth is an experienced auctioneer will never confuse such gestures

With a head-up from a real buyer. So, Jessica, is a head-up A, a bunt done with the head

In Cuban baseball, is it B, a gang term for a fist fight or brawl, or is it C, the nod

A buyer makes to tell an auctioneer that he is bidding?

Well, my dad is a baseball fanatic, and I’ve never heard anything about bunting with the head.

It seems kind of ridiculous.

As for the other two, kind of a toss-up.

I mean, it makes sense with the auction, but maybe a little too obvious.

All right, I’m going to go with B.

B, it is absolutely right, 100%.

A++, gold star, and the whole works.

Head up, just think about two guys going head-to-head.

They’re going head-to-head and they’re having a fight.

That’s all that it is.

So, hey, Jessica, do you already have the book Weird and Wonderful Words by Erin McKean?

I do not, but that sounds like something I would love.

That sounds like something that should be on your shelf.

And for playing our game today, we’re going to send you a copy.

Thank you so much.

All right, thanks for playing.

All right, thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

If you’ve got a question about language, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

Or email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Bob Coles from Carlsbad, California.

Hiya, Bob. Welcome.

Hello, Bob. What’s going on?

Well, not much. There’s always a lot of news about the Middle East going on,

And I keep hearing the words Shia and Shiite.

And I can’t find a pattern to them.

I’m not sure when one should be used and when the other should be used.

And I’ve looked it up in a couple of dictionaries,

And the only thing I can get from the dictionaries is that it’s probably

That the two words are interchangeable.

Right, almost, almost.

Did you find in there a definition of Shia?

Yes, in the OED it says,

A, properly, and then in parentheses, but in English somewhat rarely,

Used as a collaborative name for that one of the two sects, that’s a great Muslim sects.

And then it goes on to define the two sects.

Yeah, let’s just write that up to unhelpful dictionary definitions.

Right, and the second one, the B, says, commonly an adherent of this sect, a Shiite.

Right, so simply put…

So it’s saying Shia is a Shiite.

Right. So saying, simply put here, Shia is a branch of Islam, or the religion Islam, right?

Mm—

And it’s a noun.

Shiite is an adjective to refer to things that are associated with that branch of Islam, right?

And both Shia and Shiite are nouns that can refer to somebody who believes in the branch of Islam known as Shia.

So there’s a little bit of overlap there.

The thing is that Shia isn’t ever an adjective, and Shiite is.

Shia is a noun with multiple meanings.

So it’s a little complicated, and it’s not helped by the fact that they’re very similar

And they have similar etymological roots.

So they can pretty much be used as a noun interchangeably.

As a noun, yes.

Although usually you’re not going to call the branch of Islam Shiite.

You’re only going to call it Shia.

That’s the proper way to say it.

That’s S-H-I-A.

Sometimes there’s a diacritic mark in there to indicate that there’s a glottal stop,

But usually that’s left out in English.

So when Shiite functions as a noun, you’re talking about the person.

That’s right.

And when it’s functioning as an adjective, it describes that kind of person.

Right, it describes that person.

Or the sect, yeah.

We won’t go into the details of what that sect believes.

I mean, there’s tons of great stuff on the Internet about this.

And actually, most dictionaries, I think, define at least the two sects of the religion pretty well.

I think I’ve got it.

It doesn’t have anything to do with singular or plural either.

No, it doesn’t at all.

Okay.

Well, Bob, thanks.

I think a lot of people have that question.

So we appreciate your calling.

Good. Thank you, sir.

All right. Bye-bye.

Take care.

I got to tell you, Martha, you know, ever since the military actions after 2001,

This kind of question has come up repeatedly, hasn’t it?

People keep asking about this.

This is, to me, in my mind, it’s directly connected to the interest that we have

In learning about other people and other languages.

It’s directly a part of that.

Definitely.

So if you have a question about other languages or this sort of thing,

We’d love to hear about it.

We’ll help straighten it out.

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

That’s 1-877-929-WORD.

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

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Lynn calling from MidMichigan.

I do have a question for you.

Awesome.

It’s about the difference between immerse and submerge.

I work with study abroad programs, and students go overseas,

They go to other countries, and they take classes,

And then they use those courses towards their degree at home.

And right now we’re in the middle of scholarship essay review time,

And one thing we see from time to time in these essays is students say that they want to study abroad

In order to be submerged in the culture.

And I always get this image in my mind of the students sort of flailing their arms

And gasping for breath and saying, help, I’m submerged in the culture.

Of course, I think what they’re trying to say is that they want to be immersed in the culture.

Right.

And so I looked up both words just to see if I was right.

And both words do have this connotation of being in water or liquid, I guess.

But immerse does also, I read that it has this definition of being embedded

Or being deeply involved in something.

So I thought, you know, I think this is correct.

I think immerse is correct.

But I thought I would check in with the word experts and get your take on it.

Yeah.

Well, absolutely.

And actually, you’re an immersion expert, right?

Because you’re…

What I do for a living.

Right, right.

And, I mean, I did an immersion program in Costa Rica a few years ago,

And, you know, I wouldn’t have wanted to do a submersion program.

Unless you’re getting your scuba permit.

Exactly.

That’s right.

Some of my students who go to the Virgin Islands do submerge themselves.

I’ll bet.

But, I mean, can the words be used interchangeably, or, you know, am I wrong here?

You know, I think you’re on the right track.

I think immerse is the better word here.

Definitely.

Here’s why.

And, of course, I’m looking at data for this.

Okay.

Submerge, although it can kind of be used that way, kind of metaphorically, not to mean literally underwater, but to mean overwhelmed or overtaken by something, it’s more negative.

Okay.

It usually describes things like I’m submerged by work.

Right.

Or I am submerged by responsibilities or submerged in my problems.

Okay.

And so you really want to use immersed because immersed is either neutral or tends to be more positive.

More positive.

So immersed is, at least on that count, is the better word here.

Yeah.

Okay.

And Lynn, I think this is a wonderful example of two words that are so close,

But there is this nuance that those students probably aren’t going to get just from looking at dictionaries.

You know, it’s one of those things that they have to have either explained by a native speaker or…

Pick up from reading a lot of good writing.

A lot of good writing.

I mean, that’s a perfect example.

I’m always looking for examples like that.

So I appreciate your bringing that to our attention.

And when I’m advising my students on their writing,

I’ll make sure to point that out to them.

Very good.

You’re on the right track, Lynn.

Okay, well, great.

Well, I love your show, and thanks for having me on.

Oh, thank you.

Our pleasure.

Very interesting question.

Thank you for calling us today.

Okay, wonderful.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Lynn.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I did a study abroad program in Paris,

And I was definitely immersed and not submerged.

Are you sure?

I never fell into the sand.

Give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

Or send us an email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, this is Joel calling from El Cajon, California.

Well, hello, Joel.

What’s going on?

Not much.

I had a question for you.

Let’s hear it.

It’s the use of the word podium.

Oh, podium.

Yes.

And I had always thought that podium was a raised platform upon which you stand behind a lectern.

Yet many people use what I think of as a lectern and point to it and call it a podium.

And Joel, how does that make you feel?

I especially cringe when I’m at an airport at the check-in gate,

And they announce over the loudspeaker system,

Would passenger Smith please step up to the podium?

And I see no raised platform, and I’m confused.

And so did you call to rant about this?

It is, as another author has this windmill for apostrophes.

This has become my windmill, if you will.

Well, you know what, Joel?

If I could, I would give you a big, sloppy, wet kiss on the cheek.

On the cheek.

Thank you.

Because I feel your pain here, Joel.

Absolutely, podium comes from, ultimately, a Greek word meaning foot.

Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that it has to hold it.

Yeah, but hear me out.

Hear me out.

It’s like podiatrist.

The doctor who looks after your feet is like antipodes.

The people on the other side of the world from us, exactly.

There’s a big old foot in that word.

There sure is.

Having said that, though, having said that, though, Joel,

I’m sorry to say that for people like you and me,

I find this really disappointing,

But if you look it up in the dictionary these days,

So many people have started using podium to mean lectern,

That podium is slipping out from under us.

Yes, and that it is becoming misused so much that it’s becoming accepted.

Yes.

It’s becoming differently used.

Differently used.

Oh, misused.

Okay, differently used.

So if you and I for the next got a group of people together and started calling a table a chair because we sit on it occasionally,

After about 100 years it would eventually evolve that tables could be called chairs?

Could.

Yeah, and that’s kind of the way English works.

But, yeah.

Podium has been being used this way for more than 50 years,

And some of the dictionaries actually specifically point out

That the lectern-like desk at the airport is called that.

So the airport usage, it’s funny that you should notice that

Because they specifically say that’s a place where you’ll see it used that way.

I think you see this more on this side of the pond than in Britain.

Yeah, they don’t do that over there.

It’s mostly North America.

Yeah.

So I think, you know, Joel,

For those of us who like to see the history buried inside a word,

We’ll just have to, you know, have a secret handshake or something.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thanks for your call, Joel.

Well, thank you for taking my call.

All right.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Goodbye.

If there’s something that aggravates you about language,

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673,

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

The podium is open.

Things have come to a pretty pass

Our romance is growing flat

For you like this and the other

While I go for this and that

That’s our show, but if you’re pondering a point of grammar

Or you’re curious about a word, leave us a phone message anytime.

Numbers 1-877-929-9673

Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org

You can also share your thoughts on our discussion forum at waywordradio.org slash discussion.

Our senior producer is Stefanie Levine.

Tim Felten is our technical director and editor.

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

A Way with Words is produced at Studio West in San Diego.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette, inviting you to join us next time right here on A Way with Words.

You like potato, and I like patata.

You like tomato, and I like tomato.

Potato, patata, tomato, tomato.

Oh, let’s call the whole thing off.

But oh, if we call the whole thing off, then we must part.

And oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heart.