Cool Beans (Rebroadcast) - 7 April 2025

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

A Way with Words

Education, Language Learning, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you speak a second or third language, you may remember the first time you dreamed in that new tongue. But does this milestone mean you’re actually fluent? And a couple’s dispute over the word regret: Say you wish you’d been able to meet Albert Einstein. Can you regret that the two of you never met, or is there a better word for a situation over which you have no control? Can the word regret include simply longing for something? Plus, a sixth-grader wonders about a weird word on her spelling bee study list. It’s spelled X-Y-L-Y-L — and it’s not just for Scrabble players. Plus, hot as flugens, to play Box and Cox, twack and twoc, a quiz for canine lovers, an eloquent appreciation of libraries, a widow’s moving thank-you note, a punny gardening joke, a funny newspaper correction, a trick with a hole in it, and lots more. Cool beans! 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 [email protected]. 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	You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language, and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett.
0:04.5	And I'm Martha Barnett. We asked our listeners to send us names that are anodromes.
0:09.7	Now, an anadrome you'll remember, is a word that when spelled backwards, forms a whole new word.
0:14.8	So, for example, maybe a little girl is named Noel because she has an older relative named Leon. And boy did our listeners
0:22.9	oblige. We heard from Debbie Trail in St. Charles, Illinois, who pointed out that Nomar Garcia
0:29.3	Parra, who played for the Boston Red Sox in the 1990s, he was a great shortstop, was named after
0:36.5	his father, Ramon. So Nomar is named after
0:40.0	Ramon. And we should point out, too, that he also has the good fortune to be married to the
0:45.8	soccer star, Mia Hamm. Whose first name backward is AIM, AIM. And if I remember correctly, she had
0:52.4	great aim on the soccer pitch. She had fantastic aim.
0:55.5	Good point.
0:57.3	And then we also heard from Karen Corley, who tweets at Logical Poet, and she said,
1:03.2	My Fave is the elderly L-D-D-D-E-N, who was named for her mother's great skill and love of sewing.
1:10.0	That's L-D-E-N-L-E-E-N. Oh, I like that. I had an
1:15.5	uncle bud, but his real name was Eldon, E-L-D-O-N. So El-D-O-N does sound like a real name, even though it's needle.
1:22.8	Yeah. Needle backward. How about that? I love it. I mean, sometimes anodromes work really nicely as names.
1:29.5	What name did you make? What did you put together to name a child or a pet or yourself? Tell us the story
1:35.8	about how your name was made. 877-929-9673 or explain it all in email to words at wayward radio.org.
1:45.0	Hi there.
1:45.6	You have a way with words.
1:47.0	Hi.
1:48.1	This is Martita calling from San Antonio, Texas.
	...

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