Dirty Laundry - 11 March 2019

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

🗓️ 11 March 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When you had sleepovers as a child, what did you call the makeshift beds you made on the floor? In some places, you call those bedclothes and blankets a pallet. This word comes from an old term for “straw.” And: What’s the story behind the bedtime admonition “Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite”? Plus, when grownups are talking about sex or money, they may remind each other that “little pitchers have big ears.” It’s a reference to the ear-shaped handle on a jug, and the knack kids have for picking up on adult topics and then spilling that new knowledge elsewhere. Plus, a word game, lick the calf over, lady locks, when clothes become laundry, towhead, build a coffee, 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/. Email [email protected]. Twitter @wayword. Our listener phone line 1 (877) 929-9673 is toll-free in the United States and Canada. Elsewhere in the world, call +1 (619) 800-4443; charges may apply. From anywhere, text/SMS +1 (619) 567-9673. 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.
0:05.0	And I'm Martha Barnett. A few weeks ago we have that call from Deborah in Gates, North Carolina,
0:11.0	and she was asking about the phrase that her husband used I don't want to have to lick the cat over.
0:16.0	Oh yes.
0:17.0	Remember that?
0:18.0	And it means you didn't want to have to do something over.
0:20.0	Right.
0:21.0	And it was puzzling and we really puzzled over it and I don't think we gave her a good answer.
0:25.4	You don't? I don't. I think there's a second answer. There is a second answer.
0:29.2	But I don't know about a better answer. I think it's a better answer. Well for me it was this forehead-smacking moment
0:35.4	because we got a lot of emails like this one from Joy Beard who said my
0:39.6	husband's an old Tennessee country boy who says he knows the phrase is lick the calf over and that's
0:46.1	when I started pounding my head because of course lick the calf over you know a little
0:51.3	newborn calf comes over and gives it some love right and
0:55.7	she's licking the membrane off and it's and it's a long involved process
0:59.7	Zora Neil Hurston used it that way, lick the calf over.
1:04.0	And I found lots more references to that phrase
1:07.4	than lick the cat over, which I-
1:09.2	So it's C-A-L-F and not C-A-T.
1:11.5	What's interesting about this is that both forms exist simultaneously and
1:15.6	side by side and have abundant presence out there, right? Well I think the calf
1:20.5	one is much more abundant and it makes more sense.
	...

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