Cootie Shot (Rebroadcast) - 28 August 2023

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

A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Perfect sentences and slang that tickles your mind! A new book of writing advice says a good sentence “imposes a logic on the world’s weirdness” and pares away options for meaning, word by word. • Your musician friend may refer to his guitar as an ax, but this slang term was applied to other musical instruments before it was ever used for guitars. • We need a word for that puzzling moment when you’re wondering which recyclables go in which bin. Discomposted? Plus: tickle bump, dipsy doodle, dark as the inside of a goat, thickly settled, woodshedding, ish, a brain-teaser, and more. Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. 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 a way with words. The show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett.
0:04.5	And I'm Martha Barnett. I have a set of terms here from around the country for a particular thing,
0:10.7	and I would love it if you try to guess what it is. Okay. Okay. Belly tickler,
0:17.6	dipsy doodle, Johnny come lately, duck and dip. How do you do? Tickle bump. Yes, ma'am.
0:27.6	Cahoe. Cahoe. Or cahoe. Cahoe. Cahoe, spell that. Either way. C-A-H-O-T. Oh, that one's
0:37.1	a ring and it's umbells. Is it? I don't know. I want to say that it's um horse tailweeds or
0:42.1	Queen Anne's lace or something like that, right? That's the tickle part. I love your brain. You're
0:47.6	walking through it. But that's not right. No, but it's interesting that you got a jolt from the word
0:53.9	cahoe, which is French for jolt. Or cahoe. Oh, wait, is this all electric shock? No, this is,
1:02.4	according to the Dictionary of American Regional English, this is an abrupt dip or bump in a
1:07.5	rotor path, either naturally occurring, especially in ice or snow or deliberately made, especially
1:13.1	to divert runoff or more recently to slow automobile traffic. Oh, okay. Would you call them bump
1:19.2	ticklers, something like that? Belly ticklers. Belly ticklers. But the names that I like for it are
1:24.9	Diffsy Doodle, because if you're going over a bump and, and yes, ma'am, because you nod your head
1:31.6	as if you're saying yes, ma'am. A little minor act of whiplash and you bounce in the hole.
1:36.5	Okay. Isn't that cool? Yeah, or you can call it a thank you, ma'am? Right. I want to have heard,
1:40.7	actually. Why did I not connect that? Because I left it out. Okay. But sometimes they're called a
1:46.4	Kiss Me Quick, because you're riding in the, in the wagon with your sweetie in the olden days.
1:52.2	Also kind of bumps the two of you together in a real nice way. Yeah, it creates a little
1:56.4	opportunity. And it's also sometimes called, particularly in southwestern Pennsylvania,
2:02.0	it's called a Yankee Bump. Why is that? I don't know the reason for Yankee Bump, but people
2:08.6	talked about piling snow and packing it down on a route where you slay. So that, so that you get
	...

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