If Grandma Had Wheels - 14 November 2022

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A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be in the dictionary and why — including words that might offend Victorian sensibilities. Also why are some words more pleasurable to say than others? And: the German saying that means "If Grandma had wheels, she'd be a bus." Did something get lost in translation? Plus, an alliterative brain teaser, ovoviviparous, wasper, crack shot, the dessert called buckle, the best term for an adult child, disdainful words for weak coffee, the kind of hairpin I am, proctor vs. proctologist, the smoky jungle frog otherwise known as Leptodactylus pentadactylus, and lots more. 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're listening to Away With Words, the show about language and how we use it, I'm Grant
0:05.4	Barrett.
0:06.4	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:07.7	On our Facebook group, David Neal writes that he has a friend in his 80s from North Dakota
0:12.8	who loves coffee.
0:14.8	But the thing is that this friend keeps reusing the coffee grounds all day long, which means
0:20.4	that by sunset, the guy is pretty much drinking colored water.
0:25.1	And his friend likes that brew just fine.
0:27.2	He proudly calls it Wabash Coffee.
0:30.4	And Grant, I don't know, I have strong feelings about this Wabash Coffee.
0:34.5	Just sounds to me hideous.
0:37.1	It's thrifty.
0:38.1	It is indeed thrifty.
0:40.6	And we've talked about this term Wabash before, meaning to add just a little bit of water
0:45.7	to something, to get a little more out of it, to stretch it a little more.
0:49.1	Right.
0:50.1	We talked about adding water to catch up to Wabashing it, right?
0:53.9	To stretch your catch up, bottle a little bit further, like get the stuff that stuck
0:57.1	to the side.
0:58.1	Yeah, yeah.
0:59.1	Or watering down your shampoo.
1:01.4	And it may go back to an old slang use of the word Wabash, meaning to cheat.
	...

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