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Ready to spark something? Download the Sims 4 and play for free. Welcome to another mini podcast of Away with Words. I'm Martha Barnett. My co-host Grant Barrett is away

getting ready for his high school reunion. He said something about going over to the

mental gym to do some linguistic lunches. I'm not sure I want to picture that. But anyway I'm digging

through the mailbag and I just found this thought-provoking question from a

listener named Joel. My word he writes is Philtrum. It's the slight depression on everyone's upper lip.

Is there a common word for it in any language?

Well, Joel, you're right. That word for that little dent in your upper lip is indeed

filtrum that's spelled p h i l t r u m filtram

filtram now the history of the word filtram goes all the way back to ancient grieze

where that part of the body was called the filtron from the

part of the body was called the Philtron. But the roots of this word go back even earlier,

because originally the word Philtron meant love potion.

And in fact, that's one of many descendants of a Greek word for love

Phyllos. So you get a philosopher who's a lover of wisdom, you get a philodendron that's a

tree-loving vine and philadelphia is the city of brotherly love.

But why, you might ask, would the Greeks apply a word that means love potion to that fleshy

dent in your upper lip.

There are a couple of theories.

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