Hard Words Are Hard - 5 May 2014

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

🗓️ 4 May 2014

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The SAT is changing things up, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just because words like membranous are no longer in the verbal section doesn’t mean kids aren’t learning important vocabulary. And speaking of useful terms, shouldn’t we have an English word for “the parents of your child’s spouse”? Actually, there is one. And if your daughter gets divorced, should she call her former husband her…wasband? Plus, Sheboyganisms like fry out and hot tamales, please find attached and other e-mail language, the two meanings of inertia, Z-plurals, and mispronounced words. 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 [email protected]. 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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0:28.0	You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett.
0:34.3	And I'm Martha Barnett. On an earlier show we were talking about words that we mispronounced for years.
0:39.9	And Grant, you confessed to mispronouncing hyperbole.
0:43.0	Hmm, hyperbole.
0:44.0	Mm-hmm, and I admitted that for a long time I thought the woman's name was Penelope.
0:48.0	Oh, instead of Penelope.
0:50.0	Exactly.
0:51.0	Well, we heard from lots and lots of listeners about this.
0:53.6	Mike from San Francisco wrote about the word misled.
0:57.9	He writes, my friend had both seen the word in print
1:00.7	and heard the word pronounced, but never at the same time so when reading to herself she
1:04.9	pronounced it myzled myzled miseled miseled miseled miseled and his friend
1:11.2	found out only when she was in a classroom where they were all reading from the same book and somebody was reading it aloud and then she, you know, had this moment.
1:20.0	Yes. And I love this one, Anne Peter wrote from Wisconsin to say that someone she knows kept talking about a dewagger.
1:27.6	Oh, instead of a doubt with you.
1:29.8	Yeah, she was reading a lot of historical fiction and she picked up this term do wagger duchess.
	...

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