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

Folding Money - 22 May 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

🗓️ 22 May 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Barbara Kingsolver’s book Demon Copperhead is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in today’s Appalachia. Martha shares memories of a long-ago visit to Kingsolver’s family farm in Virginia, where they discussed many of the same issues covered in this Pulitzer-winning novel. Plus, how could the Carp River in Michigan have that name long before carp existed in the area? The answer is in the history of immigration. And a high-schooler asks how throwing someone under the bus became a synonym for betrayal. Also: willipus-wallipus, lapslock, Fortune favors the audacious, del año del caldo, nonce words, a brain teaser with rhyming answers, a punning joke about Switzerland, clink, jing, jinglers, and janglers, drop a dime, and You shred it, wheat! 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 know it, and MODYBODY knows it, LEAKS SUCK!

0:05.7

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0:10.4

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0:11.7

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0:17.3

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0:20.4

So go on, swap your sports uniform for a period-proof one, explore the PUMA MODYBODY active

0:26.5

collection today.

0:29.9

You're listening to away with words, the show about language, and how we use it?

0:33.5

I'm Grant Barrett.

0:35.0

And I'm Martha Barnett.

0:36.6

Here's a word I just added to my vocabulary, and you might want to add it too if you don't

0:40.1

know it.

0:41.1

Willipus Wallipus.

0:42.1

A Willipus Wallipus, what did the doctors say cause that?

0:48.2

A Willipus Wallipus, which is W-I-L-L-L-I-P-U-S, hyphen, W-A-L-L-I-P-U-S.

0:56.5

In the late 19th century, a Willipus Wallipus was this vague legendary monster with lots of

1:02.5

legs that supposedly haunted the American South.

1:07.0

But soon after, it became a term that applied to esteem roller, or some similar large machine

1:13.5

that you'd use on the road, any large piece of road equipment.

1:17.8

And I was just looking at a 1932 newspaper that talked about the town's municipal Willipus

1:24.4

Wallipus.

1:25.4

I've been thinking about Willipus Wallipus for any large thing my dog bear is getting

...

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