Diamond Dust (Rebroadcast) - 6 October 2025

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A Way with Words

Education, Language Learning, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Diamond dust, tapioca snow, and sugar icebergs -- a 1955 glossary of arctic and subarctic terms describes the environment in ways that sound poetic. And a mom says her son is dating someone who's non-binary. She supports their relationship, but still struggles to use their preferred pronouns in a way that feels natural to her. Plus, A Way with Words is a show about language, right? How the word "right" contains a multitude of meanings. And: echar un coyotito, voluntold, autological words, stay interview, eyesights and farsees, a brain-busting quiz about hidden words, nieve penitente, cutting cots, and rhyming ways to say a casual goodbye in other languages, like the Dutch one that translates as "Bye, umbrella!" 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.
0:03.7	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:05.0	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:06.5	In English, if we're saying a casual goodbye, we might say, see you later, alligator.
0:11.6	After a while, crocodile.
0:13.3	And it turns out that there are lovely rhyming goodbyes like that in several different languages.
0:20.4	For example, in Spanish, you might say
0:22.3	chao Pescal, which means buy fish. And in Dutch, you say, Ayu, paderplu, which means... Oh, I hear the French in that.
0:32.7	Yeah. Goodbye umbrella. Yes. That may have been popularized by a Dutch sportscaster.
0:39.4	Ayu, Paterplu.
0:40.8	And in French, there's one that goes,
0:42.5	A plus don't le bus.
0:44.8	See you later on the bus.
0:46.7	Yeah.
0:47.3	But one of my favorites is in Swedish.
0:49.8	It goes,
0:50.7	Taco Hay, labor paste.
0:52.8	Thank you.
0:53.4	Goodbye.
0:53.9	Liver patte. That's really good. You know,
0:58.9	there are more verses to the see-you-later alligator after a while crocodile, but they don't make
1:03.4	any sense either. There's one like, if you beg, said the egg. Oh, I didn't know that.
	...

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