It's the Brian Lear show on WNYC.

Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Matt Katz, filling in for Brian today.

For the last few minutes of the show, we're diving into etymology.

Ever wonder where the words we use come from?

Why we call junk mail spam or how the word cocktail ended up in a bartender's vocabulary?

My next guest has spent years tracing the roots of language and talks about how words connect people.

Martha Barnett is the co-host of the public radio show Away with Words,

an author of the new book, Friends with Words, Adventures in Language Land.

Martha, welcome back to WNYC.

Hey, Matt.

Well, thank you.

I'm glad to be here.

Excellent.

We're glad to have you.

And since I mentioned spam a couple of times in the intro and cocktail, can you just start

us off by telling us where both of those words come from?

Yeah, they're really good stories behind both of those words.

Spam actually goes back to some of your listeners may remember the old

Monty Python's Flying Circus Show that aired back in the 70s.

And in 1970, there was this really goofy sketch where this couple goes out to breakfast

and they ask, you know, what's on offer that day. And the person behind the

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