Language connects us and away with words celebrates that connection every week.

But did you know the show is largely listener supported?

Your donations help us unravel the intricacies of language and culture.

Visit wayward radio dot O.org

donate and contribute what the show means to you.

Thank you for being a part of Away With Words.

You're listening to A Way With Words, a show about language and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett.

I'm having more fun lately with a

1909 volume called Passing English of the Victorian era by Jay Redding Ware.

Oh, intriguing.

The thing that caught my eye was there was a dictionary entry there that included musical notation.

Oh, interesting.

A treble cleft and a staff and notes.

It's this little time capsule of a particular expression that was used in those days and the expression is please mother open the door

why? Well the definition is expressed admiration of a passing girl, always said in a high monotone except

door, which is uttered in a minor falling third, and they actually write out the music

for it, which is why I can sing to you what

men would say when young women walked past. So we're talking about a fairly

sophisticated kind of cat calling right? A minor third, yes.

These are crude people, you know, on this corner.

...