A Way with Words
| 
View site · 
| Last updated Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:02
A Way with Words is a lively hour-long public radio show about language, on the air since 1998. Co-hosts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett delve into word histories, solve grammar disputes, give and answer quizzes, and take calls from listeners around the world who vent their peeves. And, of course, they answer linguistic and lexical questions that that language-lovers have long wondered about.
No Comments
Language Headlines (minicast) - 6 Oct. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:02
The world of politics tops this week's language headlines, including an explanation of the Bradley effect, and the ongoing debate over bilingual education. Also, what does the word fubsy mean? Grant has the answer, and reports about a new favorite blog described as 'LOLcats for smart people.'Ever since it started looking like Barack Obama was more than a long shot for his party's nomination, pollsters, and pundits have been talking about the 'Bradley effect.' It's when polls show a black political candidate way out in front. And yet, when the votes are cast, the black candidate barely wins or doesn't...
Never Bolt Your Door with A Boiled Carrot - 6 Oct. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:01
Proverbs pack great truths into a few well-chosen words, no matter which language you speak. Check out this one from Belize: 'Don't call the alligator a big-mouth till you have crossed the river.' And this truism from Zanzibar: 'When two elephants tussle, it's the grass that suffers.' Martha and Grant discuss a new paremiography--a collection of proverbs--from around the world. A woman from Cape Cod is looking for a polite word that means the current wife of my ex-husband. She's thinking about 'cur-wife,' but somehow that doesn't quite work. Neither does the phrase 'that poor woman.' The hosts try...
Regional Food Names: When Is a Milkshake Not a Milkshake? Minicast - 29 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:02
Regional Food Names: When Is a Milkshake Not a Milkshake?We asked you to tell us about odd regional food names, and boy did you oblige! Martha reads some of your letters about whoopie pies, hot tamales, pretzel salad, and coolers, plus the frappe vs. milkshake controversy.Welcome to another minicast of A Way with Words. I'm Martha Barnette.A while back, we talked about how the name of a particular food that you grew up with might be utterly mystifying to someone from another part of the country. Grant described the pork steaks that he ate all the time in Missouri, and I talked about how my family...
The Txting Db8 - 29 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:01
OMG, text messaging! It's destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into a nation of illiterates. It's probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, 'Txting: The Gr8 Db8,' author David Crystal offers a different perspective. The book's surprising message is one which linguists have shared for years: Far from obliterating literacy, texting may actually improve it. So put that in your message header and send it!The French phrase 'au jus' means with sauce, which is why it drives some diners to distraction when a menu lists beef with 'au jus sauce.' A...
Antipodes and Grooks Minicast - 22 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:06
A listener in Brazil challenges Martha's pronunciation of the odd English word antipodes. Their email exchange leads Martha to muse about a favorite collection of poems, where she first encountered this word....Recently on our show, I made a linguistic boo-boo. Did you catch it?We were talking about the word 'podium.' A listener named Joel called to say that the word 'podium' originally denoted something you stand on. But more and more, people are using it to mean something you 'stand behind.' Joel was none too happy about that.I told him he was right about the roots of the word 'podium,' even though...
Moonbats and Wingnuts - 22 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:01
Here's a bit of political slang now making the rounds: sleepover. No, we're not talking about another pol caught with his pants down. We're talking about spending the night with, well, a voting machine. In this week's episode, we examine this and other examples of political language.You call the repairman to fix a balky garage door, but when he gets there, it inexplicably works. You summon a plumber, only to find that when he arrives, your toilet's no longer leaking--and you're out $150. Or you discover that somewhere between your home and the doctor's office, your kid's sore throat miraculously...
Maverick and Gobbledygook Minicast - 15 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:02
Mmmmmaverick. Maverick, Maverick, Maverick. Maverick, Maverick, Maverick, Maverick. Maverick.Is it just my imagination, or are we hearing this word a whole LOT more lately?You usually hear it applied a politician who's staunchly independent and stubbornly non-conformist. But where'd we get an odd word like this? The answer involves a Texas political dynasty that added not one, but two, familiar words to English.Samuel Augustus Maverick was 19th-century Texas lawyer who went into politics. He was elected mayor of San Antonio in 1839 and later served in the Texas State Legislature. He also speculated...
Pwned Prose, Stat! - 15 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:01
When you get to the end of a wonderful book, your first impulse is to tell someone else about it. In this week's episode, Martha and Grant discuss what they've been reading and the delights of great prose.An Illinois man recalls that as a kid, he used to mix fountain drinks of every flavor into a concoction he and his friends called a 'suicide.' He wonders if anyone else calls them that. Why a 'suicide'? Because it looks and tastes like poison?It started as a typo for 'own,' now it's entrenched in online slang. A Kentucky caller is curious about 'pwn.' It rhymes with 'own' and means 'to defeat'...
Lackabookaphobia? Minicast - 8 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:02
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 being caught without a book. Jeanie in Wisconsin has that kind of passion for audiobooks and calls to ask Martha and Grant to give her a name for her condition.If you have an idea for what this fear should be called, tell us about it!--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion...
The Secret Language of Families - 8 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:01
[This episode first aired January 19th, 2008.]Does your family use a special word you've never heard anywhere else? A funny name for 'the heel of a loaf of bread,' perhaps, or for 'visiting relatives who won't leave.' In this week's episode, Martha and Grant discuss 'family words,' and Martha reveals the story behind her own family's secret word, 'fubby.'Why do we say that someone who's pregnant is 'knocked up'? The hit movie starring Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen has a caller wondering about this term.A man whose last name is McCoy wants a definitive answer about the origin of the expression 'the...
Pair o' Docs Paradox Minicast - 1 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:02
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 two doctors are referred to in several ways. The caller wants to know which is the best choice. Which of the following would you pick, and why?1. The owners, Doctors Chens, are experts in the field.2. The owners, Doctor Chens, are experts in the field.3. The owners, Doctors Chen, are experts in the field.4. The owners, the Doctors Chen, are experts in the field.See if your answer...
See A Man About A Horse -1 Sept. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:01
[This episode first aired January 12th and 13th, 2008.]In this week's episode, Martha and Grant discuss not-to-be-believed articles about language from the satirical newspaper The Onion, including one headlined 'Underfunded Schools Forced to Cut Past Tense from Language Programs.'By the way, did you ever notice how ONION is ZO-ZO if you tilt your head to the right?A caller has a friendly disagreement with a pal: Is the expression 'tide me over' or 'tie me over'? Hint: The answer she gets should tide her over.If a dictator dictates, and an aviator aviates, then does a commentator 'commentate'? A...
Language Headlines Minicast- 25 August 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:02
Grant has the latest headlines from the world of language, including the debate over the name of the home of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Is 'Beijing' pronounced 'bay-JING' or 'bay-ZHING'? Also, a recent court decision concerning an offense that's coming to be known as 'Talking While Spanish.' And what's the origin of the phrase 'the skinny'?--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.
Insegrevious Paratereseomaniacs - 25 Aug. 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:01
[This episode first aired December 8th and 9th, 2007.]This week Martha and Grant honor winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes, those wacky awards for weird academic research and they help a caller decipher a puzzling word from a personals ad: what does 'paratereseomaniac' mean?A electronic teenager repellent? An alarm clock that runs away from you to make you'll wake up? Yep, it's the Ig Nobel Prizes, those awards for academic research that first makes you laugh and then makes you think. Martha and Grant honor this year's winners for linguistics and literature.A caller shares colorful expressions from her Texas-born...
When is a Bell Pepper a Mango? Minicast - 17 Aug. 2008
Download Now · | Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:02
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 we help her sort it out.--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.
Word Jocks, Lettered in Language - 17 Aug. 2008
Download Now · | Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:01
[This episode originally aired Dec. 1, 2007.]Pass the Gatorade! Martha and Grant work up a sweat this week as they tackle a sports quiz and lob vocabulary questions back and forth. They also settle a family dispute about the pronunciation of 'eco-friendly' and unlock the etymology of 'skeleton key.'Do you know what a 'rampike' is? Or a 'colobus'? Martha and Grant test each other's knowledge of ten-dollars words with the online quiz at FreeRice.com.A reader of Anthony Bourdain's 'Kitchen Confidential' thinks the book is snarky--but what does 'snarky' really mean?A husband and wife ask for wisdom...
Language Headlines - 11 August 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:31
Grant dishes up the latest language headlines from around the world.Oh, what a difference a letter can make! The Moscow Times reports this week that Tatyana Tetyorkina was stripped of her Russian citizenship because a government clerk's typewriter was missing a single letter. Instead, a different vowel was used, making her Teterkina rather than Tetyorkina--and making who she said she was and who her papers said she was disagree. Public outcry over the matter has since caused her citizenship to be reinstated, but Tatyana is still pursuing it in the Russian courts.In Slate magazine, Eugene Volokh...
Give It the Old College Slang - 11 August 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:08
[This episode originally aired May 17, 2008.]If someone calls you 'dibby,' should you be flattered or insulted? You'd know if you were in college a century ago--it's outdated college slang! Also, we are 'voluntold' to play a word puzzle about Unknown Superheroes! What do we call it when new inventions or ideas change the name of something old? It used to be that the word 'guitar' was sufficient, but now we regularly distinguish between an 'acoustic guitar' and an 'electric guitar.' Same for television, a word that sufficed until we started saying 'color television' to distinguish it from the...
Name That Accent Minicast - 3 August 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:02
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 play "Name That Accent" all the time in the privacy of their own heads. Recently though, a listener phoned to challenge them to guess where she'd grown up based on her accent. See if you can figure it out!--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org....
Coinkydinks and Big Boxes - 04 August 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:01
We all misspeak from time to time, but how about when we mangle words on purpose? Do you ever say 'fambly' instead of family, 'perazackly' for exactly, or 'coinkydink' for coincidence? When Grant recently wrote a newspaper column about saying things wrong on purpose, the response was enormous. Why is it that many people find such wordplay hard to resist? We consider this question and share their own favorite examples.A Pennsylvania minister is curious about a phrase her family uses: 'by way of Robin Hood's barn' or 'around Robin Hood's barn,' meaning a long, circuitous route. How do you pronounce...
Index v. Indice Minicast - 28 July 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:02
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 client? ...Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org/. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.
Put a Snap on the Grouch Bag - 28 July 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:01
This episode first aired May 5, 2008....Have you ever eaten a 'Benedictine sandwich'? Or savored a juicy 'pork steak'? What's a favorite dish you grew up with that may be mystifying to someone from another part of the country? Also, what does it mean to tell someone to 'put a snap on the grouch bag'?A rugby referee from Indiana calls to ask if his sport is the origin of the word 'touchdown' as it is used in American football.How do you pronounce the word 'patronize'? Is one pronunciation used if you say 'Don't patronize me!' and another one if you say 'We patronize local businesses'?Why do we say...
Small Talk, the Word Game Minicast - 21 July 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:02
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. The only catch? All of the clues have to be one syllable only. It's tougher than you think! ---Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.
Word Encounters of the First Kind - 21 July 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:01
[This episode first aired April 12, 2008.]There's a frisson you get when you meet a word for the first time--feeling pleasantly stumped in between wondering, 'What the heck does that mean?' and hurrying off to find out. Martha and Grant talk about some terms that had just that effect on them: 'ucalegon' and 'cacoethes scribendi.'A recent college graduate from Portland, Oregon, calls to ask about a term popular on her campus. She and her classmates use 'sketchy' to mean 'creepy, shady, possibly dangerous,' as in 'a sketchy part of town' or 'that sketchy guy over there.' Grant and Martha discuss this...
Emoticons Minicast - 14 July 2008
Download Now · | Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:02
A listener has a question about emoticons, those little sideways symbols you type to suggest emotions in informal electronic writing. You know, like using a colon, dash, and a capital P to stick out your tongue like this :-P or using a colon, dash, and small letter d to say 'Yum!' :-d But if you're going to toss emoticons into your prose, the caller asks, how in the world do you punctuate them?---Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org....
