What’s Slang Jang? (minicast)
No, it’s not the neurological effect of spending too much time researching odd new terms. Slang jang is a tongue-tickling sauce found in East Texas. For more about slang jang, including recipes, check...
View ArticleWe Cook Off Our Potatoes (minicast)
If a restaurant menu states, “We cook off our potatoes,” what in the heck does that mean? A truck driver who encountered such an announcement at a roadside cafe is still puzzling over what it means to...
View ArticleRoy Blount Jr. Slings Southern Slang (minicast)
Humorist Roy Blount Jr. stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz specifically about Southernisms. Listen here: Download the MP3 here (3.97 MB). To be automatically notified when audio is available,...
View ArticleTilly Tickets (minicast)
Did you ever use a tilly ticket in the bathroom? Listen here: Download the MP3 here (1.5MB). To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another...
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Words of the Year
What’s your choice for 2010’s word of the year? Mama grizzly? Starwhacker? Who could forget vuvuzela? Martha and Grant discuss the five-oh in Hawaii 5-0, and whether the tagline “I approve this...
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Too Much Sugar for a Dime
Is the term “Oriental” offensive? Where do we get the phrase “not one iota”? Why do we tell someone to “take a gander”? And who coined the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? This episode first...
View ArticleOf Pupae and Pupils
A question from a listener on the A Way with Words Facebook page has Martha musing about the entomological and etymological connections between the word pupil and the pupal stage of an insect’s life....
View ArticleRed Light, Green Light
Hot traffic talk! A caller is looking for a word for the point at which you have to reach in order to make it through a stoplight before it turns red. Released August 17, 2011. Download the MP3. Photo...
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Eastern Seaboard, West Coast
Shadowdabbled. Moon-blanched. Augusttremulous. William Faulkner often used odd adjectives like these. But why? Grant and Martha discuss the poetic effects of compressed language. Also, African-American...
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See the Elephant
If you’ve “seen the elephant,” it means you’ve been in combat. But why an elephant? Martha and Grant also discuss some odd idioms in Spanish, including one that translates as “your bowtie is...
View ArticleBuffet Flats (minicast)
Do you know what a “buffet flat” is? Is it A) a type of shoe you wear to all-you-can-eat dinners, B) a lull in economic growth predicted by Warren Buffet, or C) a squalid apartment found in the Rocky...
View ArticleA Collection of Collective Nouns (minicast)
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The results of the “A Way with Words” Collective Noun Contest! What collective noun would you apply to groups of 1) tennis players, 2) aliens from outer...
View ArticleThe Love Dimple (minicast)
What’s the name for that little dent in your upper lip? It’s called a “philtrum.” Martha reveals the erotic origins of this word, and proves once again that etymology is nothing if not sexy. Listen...
View ArticleAppalachian Cackleberries (minicast)
Martha reminisces about her family’s mountain roots while dipping into the delicious vocabulary of Southernisms found in The Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English. When ya’ll listen to this one, you’ll...
View ArticleHey, That’s Mine! (minicast)
When you were a child and wanted to lay claim to something, what did you say? Did you call “dibs”? Or “hosey” it? A caller is curious about another verb used in such situations: “finnie.” Grant...
View ArticleDangerous Books You Should Read (minicast)
Discover the joys (and temptations!) of two new books of collected wisdom: “The Yale Book of Quotations” edited by Fred Shapiro, and James Geary’s “Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists.” Grant explains...
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Howdy, It’s a Wit’s War!
A Way with Words is starting a brand-new season! Find out what a motorcyclist wears to keep from getting sunburned– is it a do-rag or a dew-rag? A listener wonders “Why is an undesirable task called a...
View ArticleAn Estival Festival of Summer (minicasts)
This week we kick off our 2008 summer minicasts, offered only online, with two downloads. It’s what we’re calling an estival festival. We hear a lot about political candidates these days. But did you...
View ArticleMy Brilliant Careen (minicast)
A New York City listener says he’s reading lots of thrillers this summer. But a couple of words keep tripping him up. Does a speeding car careen or career? The hosts spell out the differences, and...
View ArticleDo Singers Have Accents? (minicast)
You’ve heard this happen: A singer belts out a song, and then afterward, she starts talking and you’re startled to hear what sounds like a completely different accent. What is it about singing that...
View ArticleDits and Dat (minicast)
What’s a dittler? What’s a dit? A traveling preacher named Fred says he’s heard these strange terms in parts of Appalachia used to refer to “baby chicks” and “little ducklings.” We share some of our...
View ArticleSmall Talk, the Word Game (minicast)
Puzzle Guys John Chaneski and Greg Pliska team up to make double trouble for Martha and Grant. The four divide into teams, and the object of the game is to make your partner guess words from a list....
View ArticleIndex v. Indice (minicast)
A caller has client who uses what sounds like a strange, three-syllable word: indice. The caller knows that the plural of index is indices. But, he wonders…indice? And should he talk about it with his...
View ArticleName That Accent (minicast)
For true word nerds, it’s a guilty pleasure. You meet a stranger, and you find yourself listening closely to that person’s way of speaking as you try to guess the accent. Martha and Grant confess they...
View ArticleWhen is a Bell Pepper a Mango? (minicast)
When is a mango not a mango? Why, when it’s a bell pepper, of course! An Indiana listener says she and her Kentucky in-laws have entirely different names for this vegetable. She wants to know why, so...
View ArticlePair o’ Docs Paradox (minicast)
A caller from Imperial Beach, California has a punctuation question: Dr. Tei Fu Chen and his wife, Dr. Oi Lin Chen own and operate a large, multinational herbal food company. In company literature, the...
View ArticleLackabookaphobia? (minicast)
Some people wouldn’t be caught without the season’s latest fashions, and others never leave home without their asthma inhaler. But for some of us, what strikes fear into our hearts is the thought of...
View ArticleDarwinism and the Dictionary (minicast)
The British publishers of the Collins dictionary have announced 24 words on their endangered species list. They’re words like “vilipend,” which means “to treat with contempt,” and “nitid,” that’s...
View ArticleNuke the Fridge (minicast)
“Nuke the fridge”? We kick off our series on contenders for 2008’s “Word of the Year” with a look at this new slang phrase. Listen here:...
View ArticleGround Game (minicast)
We heard a lot in 2008 about the Obama campaign’s ground game. What’s the story on that expression? Listen here:...
View ArticlePUMA (minicast)
The year 2008 produced a new acronym: PUMA. Grant explains how PUMAs began prowling the political landscape. Listen here:...
View ArticleAutomobile Words of the Year (minicast)
We’re continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008 with words related to automobiles. Listen here:...
View ArticleJust a Dite about Sculch and Dooryards (minicast)
Where in the world would you be likely to find sculch in your dooryard, or ask for just a dite of cream in your coffee? Martha has the answers in this minicast about some distinctive regional terms....
View ArticleLove Joe Floggers? So Don’t I! (minicast)
Time to solve another linguistic mystery. You’re in a restaurant. You overhear a conversation at the next table. The woman says to her friend, “You know, I just love the taste of joe floggers.” And her...
View ArticleHow About a Game of Meehonkey? (minicast)
In what part of the country would you be likely to hear momicking, meehonkey, and quamish? Listen here:...
View ArticleTwacking around Duckish (minicast)
Time for another linguistic mystery. Where would you be if you decided to go twacking around duckish, and then you came home and wrote about it in a scribbler? Listen here:...
View ArticleWhat’s a “Hobson’s Choice”? (minicast)
If you’re facing a Hobson’s choice, you don’t really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation in which your options are either to take what’s offered, or else take nothing at all....
View ArticleFalling off the Wagon (minicast)
Why do we say someone is on the wagon when they abstain from drinking alcohol? Listen here: http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~5/wpOI4cXwT5E/090603-AWWW-falling-off-the-wagon.mp3 Download...
View ArticleGreat Googly Moogly (minicast)
“Great Googly Moogly!” A caller wonders where that exclamation comes from. http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~5/-8Snnys2iK8/090617-AWWW-great-googly-moogly-minicast.mp3 Download the MP3 here...
View ArticleThat’s What “Friend” is For? (minicast)
How can the word friend possibly describe both the people you went to school with and the people to whom you are connected through Facebook and MySpace? Are friends on the social sites really friends?...
View ArticleA Snarl of Serial Commas (minicast)
Are serial commas always necessary? An English teacher says she was surprised to learn that she and her husband, who’s also an English teacher, are giving their students conflicting advice....
View ArticlePostal Abbreviations (minicast)
What’s the deal with using the two-letter postal code abbreviations for states, instead of the longer, more formal abbreviations? That is, why write IN for Indiana instead of good old Ind.? A caller is...
View ArticleTrespasses vs. Debts (minicast)
A caller wonders why some versions of the Lord’s Prayer include the phrase “forgive us our trespasses,” while others substitute the word “debt.”...
View ArticleMagnolia Mouth, Zero Plurals, and Cluster Simplification (minicast)
An Alabama high-school teacher observes that one of his fellow teachers tends to write words that should be plural as singular, such as “I graded all 50 test” instead of “I graded all 50 tests.” The...
View ArticleDon’t Give Me Any of That Flannel (minicast)
The English language has no shortage of words that mean nonsensical talk, including one that’s piqued a listener’s curiosity: How did flannel come to mean “empty chatter” or “hot air,” as in “Don’t...
View ArticleHow Do You Pronounce “Etiquette”? (minicast)
If a colleague repeatedly mispronounces a word, what’s the best way to handle it? Should you correct him? Ignore it? Is it possible to discuss the proper way to say something without being rude or...
View ArticleTalking in the Third Person (minicast)
Does it bug you when people talk about themselves in the third person? A caller finds herself mightily annoyed by this habit, which she observes especially among politicians and celebrities. There’s a...
View ArticleThe Prehistoric Mother Tongue (minicast)
Many of the world’s languages apparently derived from a prehistoric common ancestor known as Indo-European. But since no one ever wrote down a word of it, how do we know what it was like? Listen here:...
View Article“Oh-ah, Oh-ah”: That’s How We Roll (minicast)
Does your family have a word for the cardboard tube left over from a roll of toilet paper? A caller says his family refers to them Oh-ah, Oh-ahs. Turns out many families have their own terms for them,...
View ArticleNuclearly (minicast)
Is it acceptable to make a brand-new adverb simply by adding an -ly to an adjective? A scientist wants to know, and specifically a term she uses, nuclearly. Listen here:...
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