A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over
Episodes
Pink Slip (Rebroadcast) - 16 January 2017
16 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Politicians have to repeat themselves so often that they naturally develop a repertoire of stock phrases to fall back on. But is there any special mea...
Criss-Cross Applesauce (Rebroadcast) - 9 January 2016
09 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How do languages change and grow? Does every language acquire new words in the same way? Martha and Grant focus on how that process happens in English...
Flee Fly Flo - 2016 December 31
02 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Wrapping up 2016 with words from the past year and some newsy limericks. Bigly and Brexit were on lots of lips this year, as well as an increasingly p...
We've come a long way!
30 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In 2007, the public media organization that created A Way with Words had a problem. They loved our show but a deep recessio...
Whistle Pig (Rebroadcast) - 26 December 2016
26 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The dated term “jingoism” denotes a kind of belligerent nationalism but the word’s roots lie in an old English drinking-house song that was popu...
Copacetic (Rebroadcast) - 19 December 2016
19 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but wher...
Whistle in the Dark - 12 December 2016
12 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The language and melodies of military marching songs connect grown children with their parents who served, as do parents’ love letters from World Wa...
Chocolate Gravy - 5 December 2016
05 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Say you have an acquaintance you always see at the dog park or the playground. But one night, you run into them at the movies, and for a moment, it’...
Mustard On It (Rebroadcast) - 28 November 2016
28 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When does a word’s past make it too sensitive to use in the present? In contra dancing, there’s a particular move that dancers traditionally call ...
Fickle Finger of Fate (#1459)
21 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A young woman wants a family-friendly way to describe a statement that’s fraudulent or bogus, but all the words she can think of sound old-fashioned...
Stars and Garters - 14 November2016
14 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Novelist Charles Dickens created many unforgettable characters, but he’s also responsible for coining or popularizing lots of words, like “flummox...
Proof in the Pudding (Rebroadcast) - 7 November 2016
07 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever offered to foster a dog or cat, but wound up adopting instead? There’s an alliterative term for that. And when you’re on the job, do...
Boss Of Me - 31 October 2016
31 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
If you want to be a better writer, try skipping today’s bestsellers, and read one from the 1930’s instead. Or read something besides fiction in or...
Sunny Side Up - 24 October 2016
24 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Baseball has a language all its own: On the diamond, a snow cone isn’t what you think it is, and three blind mice has nothing to do with nursery...
Spur of the Moment - 17 October 2016
17 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A caller with a 25-year-old parrot wonders: How much language do birds really understand? Plus, Knock-knock. Who's there? Boo. Well… you can guess t...
Hell For Leather - 10 October 2016
10 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Victorian slang and a modern controversy over language and gender. In the early 1900’s, a door-knocker wasn’t just what visitors used to announce ...
Busted Melon (Rebroadcast) - 3 October 2016
03 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When writing textbooks about slavery, which words best reflect its cold, hard reality? Some historians are dropping the word slave in favor of terms...
Jump Steady (Rebroadcast) - 26 September 2016
26 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
To transmit information during wartime, various industries used to encode their messages letter by letter with an elaborate system–a primitive versi...
Scat Cat (Rebroadcast) - 19 September 2016
19 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The dilemma continues over how to spell dilemma! Grant and Martha try to suss out the backstory of why some people spell that word with an “n.” A...
Listening Is Only Half Of It - 18 September 2016
19 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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There's Something About A Way with Words... - 14 September 2016
14 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Please donate to A Way With Words. Visit http://waywordradio.org for more info. Thanks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...
Tennessee Top Hat (Rebroadcast) - 12 September 2016
12 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It’s hard enough to get a new word into the dictionary. But what happens when lawmakers get involved? New Jersey legislators passed a resolution as ...
Beat The Band (Rebroadcast) - 5 September 2016
05 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Can language change bad behavior in crowded places? The Irish Railway system has launched an ad campaign to encourage passengers to be more generous a...
Fighting Artichokes (Rebroadcast) - 29 August 2016
29 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What’s in a mascot name? Maybe you’re a fan of the Banana Slugs, or you cheer for the Winged Beavers. Perhaps your loyalty lies with the Fighting ...
Burn Bag (Rebroadcast) - 22 August 2016
22 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The slang coming out of Victorian mouths was more colorful than you might think. A 1909 collection of contemporary slang records clever terms for ever...
Bingo Fuel (Rebroadcast) - 15 August 2016
15 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“If you come to a fork in the road… take it!” Baseball legend Yogi Berra was famous for such head-scratching observations. What most people don’...
Spit Game (Rebroadcast) - 8 August 2016
08 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
First-century graffiti. People in ancient times could be just as bawdy and colorful as we are today. To prove it, we found some graffiti written on th...
Pop Stand - 1 August 2016
01 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to learning new things, what’s on your bucket list? A retired book editor decided to try to learn Latin, and ended up learning a lot a...
Punch List - 25 July 2016
25 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Books for sale, books for free, and wisdom passed down through the ages. Libraries aren’t just repositories for books — they’re often a great pl...
Shakespeare's Insults (Rebroadcast) - 18 July 2016
18 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
If you don’t have anything nice to say, say it like Shakespeare: Thou unhandsome smush-mouthed mush-rump! Thou obscene rug-headed hornbeast! The Sh...
Pebble Picker (Rebroadcast) - 11 July 2016
11 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Right off the bat, it’s easy to think of several everyday expressions that derive from America’s pastime–including “right off the bat.” The...
There Once Was A Gal From (Rebroadcast) - 4 July 2016
04 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Ever try to write a well-known passage in limerick form? It’s harder than you think. How about this one: “There once was a lady who’s sure / All...
Shiver Me Timbers (Rebroadcast) - 27 June 2016
27 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Careful what you criticize! Not long ago, some words that sound perfectly normal today were considered gauche and grating on the ear. If the complaine...
Sweet Dreams - 20 June 2016
20 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In deafening workplaces, like sawmills and factories, workers develop their own elaborate sign language to discuss everything from how their weekend...
How We Roll - 13 June 2016
13 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re serious about writing a memoir, what topics should you include, and what can you leave out? And how honest can you really be about the oth...
Hector's Pup (Rebroadcast) - 6 June 2016
06 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Sharing a secret language. Did you ever speak in gibberish with a childhood pal, adding extra syllables to words so the adults couldn’t understand w...
Gangbusters - 30 May 2016
30 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Sensuous words and terms of endearment. Think of a beautiful word. Now, is it simply the word’s sound that makes it beautiful? Or does its appeal al...
XYZ PDQ - 23 May 2016
18 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How often do you hear the words campaign and political in the same breath? Oddly enough, 19th-century grammarians railed against using campaign ...
Hang a Ralph - 16 May 2016
16 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The names of professional sports teams often have surprising histories -- like the baseball team name inspired by, of all things, trolley-car accident...
You Bet Your Boots - 9 May 2016
09 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
You may have heard the advice that to build your vocabulary you should read, read, and then read some more – and make sure to include a wide variety...
Eat The Grindstone (Rebroadcast) - 2 May 2016
02 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The books we love as children may influence our careers more than we realize. As a child, Martha was fascinated with stories of cracking codes, and Gr...
Pickle Seeder (Rebroadcast) - 25 April 2016
25 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Would you rather live in a world with no adjectives … or no verbs — and why? Also, who in the world is that director Alan Smithee [SMITH-ee] who m...
Green Eyed Monster (Rebroadcast) - 18 April 2016
18 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We often hear that English is going to hell in a handbasket. Actually, though, linguistic handwringing about sinking standards and sloppy speech has b...
Pink Slip - 11 April 2016
11 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Politicians have to repeat themselves so often that they naturally develop a repertoire of stock phrases to fall back on. But is there any special mea...
Criss Cross Applesauce - 4 April 2016
04 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How do languages change and grow? Does every language acquire new words in the same way? Martha and Grant focus on how that process happens in English...
Whistle Pig - 28 March 2016
28 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The dated term “jingoism” denotes a kind of belligerent nationalism but the word’s roots lie in an old English drinking-house song that was popu...
Idiom's Delight (Rebroadcast) - 21 March 2016
21 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A recent study found that some names crop up more frequently than others in certain professions. The name William is especially common among attorneys...
Blind Tiger (Rebroadcast) - 14 March 2016
14 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When you pick up a book of poems, how many do you read in one sitting? Some people devour several in a row, while others savor them much more slowly. ...
Whistle Britches (Rebroadcast) - 7 March 2016
07 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Writers and where they do their best creative work. A new book on Geoffrey Chaucer describes the dark, cramped, smelly room where he wrote his early ...
Copacetic - 29 February 2016
29 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but wher...
Mustard on It - 22 February 2016
22 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When does a word’s past make it too sensitive to use in the present? In contra dancing, there’s a particular move that dancers traditionally call ...
Proof in the Pudding - 15 February 2016
15 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever offered to foster a dog or cat, but wound up adopting instead? There’s an alliterative term for that. And when you’re on the job, do...
Hot Mess - 8 February 2016
08 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Sneaky contract lingo, advice for writing well, and preserving a dying language. Say you’re scrolling through an online transaction where you’re a...
Noon Balloon to Rangoon (Rebroadcast) - 1 February 2016
01 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Is there a word you keep having to look up in the dictionary, no matter how many times you’ve looked it up before? Maybe it’s time for a mnemonic ...
Catch My Fade (Rebroadcast) - 25 January 2016
25 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re sending out party invitations, what’s a sure-fire way to get hold of everyone? Email? Snailmail? Facebook? Texting? Twitter? Or a plain ...
Buckle Down (Rebroadcast) - 18 January 2016
18 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It’s time for book recommendations! Martha’s enjoying an armchair tour of important places in the history of our language, and Grant recommends re...
Curse of Knowledge (Rebroadcast) - 11 January 2016
11 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It’s all about terms of endearment: If your loved one is far away for a long time, you’re probably tired of just saying “I miss you” over and ...
An Ear For Wine (Rebroadcast) - 4 January 2016
04 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Creative communication in a noisy world! Writing a clever 140-character tweet isn’t easy. But you know what’s even more impressive? Working all 26...
Electric Hootenanny (Rebroadcast) - 28 December 2015
28 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Bathroom walls, missing graffiti, and social media. Where have all the cute quips on bathroom stalls gone? We wonder about the apparent decline of re...
Do Me a Solid (Rebroadcast) - 21 December 2015
21 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What’s in YOUR spice rack? Say you’re cooking up a pot of chili, and you need to add more of that warm, earthy, powdered spice. Do you reach for a...
Wolf Whistle - 14 December 2015
14 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Gifts for book lovers: Martha recommends one for lovers of libraries and another for students of Spanish. Grant suggests some enchanting novels for yo...
Busted Melon - 7 December 2015
07 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When writing textbooks about slavery, which words best reflect its cold, hard reality? Some historians are dropping the word slave in favor of terms...
Hell's Bells (Rebroadcast) - 30 November 2015
30 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The language of restaurant menus. Need a dictionary to get through a dinner menu? Research shows the longer the description of a particular dish, the ...
Jump Steady - 23 November 2015
23 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
To transmit information during wartime, various industries used to encode their messages letter by letter with an elaborate system–a primitive versi...
I'll Be Sheep-Dipped (Rebroadcast) - 16 November 2015
16 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What a difference pronunciation makes! The United States has a Department of Defense, and an individual might take classes in self-defense. So why do ...
Fat Buttery Words (Rebroadcast) - 9 November 2015
09 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Teaching our children, and some advice for writers. Suppose your child is eager to tackle a difficult subject–ancient Greek, for example–but you k...
Month of Sundays (Rebroadcast) - 2 November 2015
02 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re on tenterhooks, it means you’re in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15t...
Scat Cat - 26 October 2015
26 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The dilemma continues over how to spell dilemma! Grant and Martha try to suss out the backstory of why some people spell that word with an “n.” A...
Tennessee Top Hat - 19 October 2015
19 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It’s hard enough to get a new word into the dictionary. But what happens when lawmakers get involved? New Jersey legislators passed a resolution as ...
Beat the Band - 12 October 2015
12 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Can language change bad behavior in crowded places? The Irish Railway system has launched an ad campaign to encourage passengers to be more generous a...
Fighting Artichokes - 5 October 2015
05 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What’s in a mascot name? Maybe you’re a fan of the Banana Slugs, or you cheer for the Winged Beavers. Perhaps your loyalty lies with the Fighting ...
Burn Bag - 28 September 2015
28 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The slang coming out of Victorian mouths was more colorful than you might think. A 1909 collection of contemporary slang records clever terms for ever...
Lord Love a Duck (Rebroadcast) - 21 September 2015
21 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Someone should write a love letter to a new book called Letters of Note. It’s a splendid collection of all kinds of correspondence through the ages...
Pumpkin Floater (Rebroadcast) - 14 September 2015
14 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Your telephone is for talking, right? Or is it? We’re guessing it’s been a while since you sat next to a telephone waiting for it to ring. In fact...
Upstairs Basement (Rebroadcast) - 7 September 2015
07 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Giving your baby an unusual moniker may seem like a great idea at the time. But what if you have second thoughts? One mother of a newborn had such bad...
Hang a Salami (Rebroadcast) - 31 August 2015
31 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What’s so special about the phrase Sit on a pan, Otis? It’s an example of a palindrome — a word or phrase that’s spelled the same backwards...
Hard Words Are Hard (Rebroadcast) - 24 August 2015
24 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The SAT is changing things up, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just because words like membranous are no longer in the verbal section does...
Brown as a Berry (Rebroadcast) - 17 August 2015
17 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It used to be that you called any mixed-breed dog a mutt. But at today's dog parks, you're just as likely to run into schnugs, bassadors, and dalmadoo...
Keep Your Pants On (Rebroadcast) - 10 August 2015
10 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If everyone on the planet spoke a single language, wouldn't that make life a whole lot easier? For that matter, is a common world language even possib...
Springtime Twitterpation (Rebroadcast) - 3 August 2015
03 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Springtime is the right time to feel twitterpated—you know, you’re smitten beyond a crush. Speaking of relationships, are dog owners really owne...
Dust Bunnies (Rebroadcast) - 27 July 2015
27 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Is it cheating to say you’ve read a book if you only listened to it on tape? Over the centuries, the way we think about reading has changed a lot. T...
Sound of a Kiss (Rebroadcast) - 20 July 2015
20 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
You’re at a social gathering and meet someone you’d like to know better. What do you ask to get a real conversation going? Some people lead with “...
Bingo Fuel - 13 July 2015
13 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“If you come to a fork in the road… take it!” Baseball legend Yogi Berra was famous for such head-scratching observations. What most people don’...
Feeling Gruntled (Rebroadcast) - 6 July 2015
06 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Hyperbolic Headlines Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity!!!! Or maybe not. You’ve seen those breathless headlines on the internet, like “You Won’...
Spit Game - 29 June 2015
29 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
First-century graffiti. People in ancient times could be just as bawdy and colorful as we are today. To prove it, we found some graffiti written on th...
By the Seat of Your Pants (Rebroadcast) - 22 June 2015
22 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Dude! We’re used to hearing the word “dude” applied to guys. But increasingly, young women use the word “dude” to address each other. Grant ...
How America Talks (Rebroadcast) - 15 June 2015
15 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
For language lovers, it’s like New Year’s, Fourth of July, and the Super Bowl all rolled into one: The brand-new online edition of the Dictionary...
Thrown for a Loop (Rebroadcast) - 8 June 2015
08 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We all lead busy lives—so are speed reading courses a good idea? Plus, if you hear someone speaking with a British accent, do you tend to assume the...
Shakespeare's Insults - 1 June 2015
01 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If you don’t have anything nice to say, say it like Shakespeare: Thou unhandsome smush-mouthed mush-rump! Thou obscene rug-headed hornbeast! The Sh...
Not Quite A Boyfriend (Rebroadcast) - 25 May 2015
25 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If an older man and woman spend lots of time together, going to family gatherings and the like, but they’re NOT dating, what do you call their relat...
Pebble Picker
18 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Right off the bat, it’s easy to think of several everyday expressions that derive from America’s pastime–including “right off the bat.” The...
There Once Was A Gal From - 11 May 2015
11 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Ever try to write a well-known passage in limerick form? It’s harder than you think. How about this one: “There once was a lady who’s sure / All...
Wet Brick (Rebroadcast) - 4 May 2015
04 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What the fox says may be a mystery, but we do know that dogs bark differently around the world. In China, for example, they say not bow-wow but wan...
Catbird Seat (Rebroadcast) - 27 April 2015
27 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Online recaps of Mad Men or Breaking Bad can be as much fun as the shows themselves. So why not recap classic literature — like, say, Dante’s...
Shiver Me Timbers - 20 April 2015
20 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Careful what you criticize! Not long ago, some words that sound perfectly normal today were considered gauche and grating on the ear. If the complaine...
Hector's Pup - 13 April 2015
13 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Sharing a secret language. Did you ever speak in gibberish with a childhood pal, adding extra syllables to words so the adults couldn’t understand w...
Jumped Up Bald-Headed (Rebroadcast) - 6 April 2015
06 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What do your pronouns say about your own psychological makeup? If you use the word I a lot, does it mean you’re a leader . . . or a follower? A su...
I'll Be Your Boo (Rebroadcast) - 30 March 2015
30 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re nibbling on slippery Jims or sipping sweet soup, chances are you’re in the Badger State. It’s the language of Wisconsin — explain...
Eat the Grindstone - 23 March 2015
23 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The books we love as children may influence our careers more than we realize. As a child, Martha was fascinated with stories of cracking codes, and Gr...
Pickle Seeder - 16 March 2015
16 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Would you rather live in a world with no adjectives … or no verbs — and why? Also, who in the world is that director Alan Smithee [SMITH-ee] who m...