‘Friends with Words’ is a book about language, from word origins to regional dialects

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For Martha Barnette, griping about grammatical pet peeves is one of the least interesting ways to talk about language. Instead, the co-host of the radio show “A Way with Words” says she’d rather think about word origins, regional dialects, slang, or that phrase your grandma used to say. Her new book Friends with Words is full of surprising facts about language. In today’s episode, she talks with Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd about the “spark word” that launched her language journey, some of her favorite etymologies, and why people hate the word moist.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. If you are a language lover, a
0:07.2	words nerd, you will love today's episode. It's an interview with Martha Barnett about her book
0:12.8	Friends with Words, which is a deep and fun dive into the etymologies of different words,
0:18.3	the surprising histories of the phrases we use on a day-to-day
0:22.0	basis. And notice I said language lover and not language bully or someone who tut-tuts over
0:28.2	grammar, because in this interview with here and now's Peter O'Dowd, Barnett makes the argument
0:33.1	that that is actually the least interesting way to approach language. More after the break.
0:39.6	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:44.3	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:48.8	On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:58.5	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:03.8	Judging by the letters we get, I know many of you, are sticklers for grammar in properly pronounced words.
1:10.6	Consider this recent email read by our producer,
1:13.4	Emiko Tamagawa. Love your program, but derailed by shocking grammar. You can't be most unique,
1:20.1	more unique, increasingly unique. I've heard these and more on your program. Unique is a definitive.
1:26.6	You are or are not. Well, I can appreciate that,
1:30.8	and so can our next guest, Martha Barnett, is co-host of the radio show Away with Words,
1:36.1	and her new book is called Friends with Words. It's the kind of book you should read if you ever
1:41.3	want to know where the word boycott came from or why there's not a word for giving someone something to drink martha hi
1:49.1	hi it's great to be here good to have you i know you're the kind of radio host who's used to getting feedback uh from passionate
1:55.8	listeners so first of all what do you think about our transgression there with the word unique? Should we be hanging our heads and getting ready to issue a retraction?
2:04.6	No, Peter, I give you all a dispensation.
	...

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