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A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

A Shoo-In (Rebroadcast) - 22 July 2019

A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.62.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2019

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week it’s butterflies, belly flowers, plot bunnies, foxes, and cuckoos. Also, writing advice from Mark Twain and a wonderful bit of prose from Sara Pennypacker’s book Pax. And are there word origins? Well, does a duck swim? We’ll hear the stories of polka, smarmy, bully pulpit, and the exes and ohs we use to show our affection. Plus! Sarcastic interrogatives, the echo questions we give as answers to other people’s no-duh queries. Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: ⁠https://waywordradio.org⁠. Be a part of the show: call or text ⁠1 (877) 929-9673⁠ toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text ⁠+1 619 800 4443⁠. Send voice notes or messages via ⁠WhatsApp 16198004443.⁠ Email ⁠words@waywordradio.org⁠. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

No one knows your Ix or top picks like your friends.

0:04.0

That's why Tinder has launched its new Tinder Matchmaker feature,

0:07.5

where you can invite friends to help find your next Tinder date.

0:11.0

Looks a little too much like your ex? Nope, profile full of fishing picks. Big no. Has good taste in podcasts?

0:20.0

Okay, this could work. The group chat just got a whole lot more interesting.

0:25.6

Get on tinder and find the new tinder matchmaker feature today.

0:29.2

You're listening to a way with words to show about language and how we use it.

0:33.2

I'm Grant Barrett.

0:34.4

And I'm Martha Barnett. As you know, I do a lot of hiking in the mountains around San Diego County.

0:40.0

And I find that often when I get up to around 4,000, 5,000 feet, I'll suddenly see butterflies.

0:48.3

And they're usually these beautiful black and yellow swallowtails.

0:51.9

They're kind of big, and they're right up there on

0:54.3

the mountain peaks and the first time I went up there and saw them I thought well

0:58.3

cool you know we're all celebrating I got up here the second time I thought well that's

1:02.3

weird it happened again and the third time I

1:04.8

thought what is going on here every time I go to a mountaintop there are butterflies and

1:10.0

sure enough I learned last week on a hike with some guides from the San Diego Natural History Museum that indeed there's a word for this.

1:18.0

It is a thing.

1:19.0

What is the hill topping?

1:21.0

Hill topping is what the butterflies are doing?

1:23.2

Yeah, yeah, it's called hill topping and it turns out that male butterflies of many species

1:29.3

they'll go and hang out on top of mountain tops waiting for the ladies and the ones that go to the highest point clearly have the best genes and it's sort of like

...

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