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A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Moded, Corroded, Your Booty Exploded - 27 July 2009

A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

A Way with Words

Education, Language Learning, Society & Culture

4.62.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2009

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

[This episode originally aired March 28, 2009.] Why is it that what you say to your family and what they hear are different? If you say 'no,' your child hears 'maybe,' and if you say 'maybe,' she hears 'ask again and again, and yes is just around the corner.' Grant and Martha discuss ways that families communicate and miscommunicate. Also in this episode: the West Coast exclamation 'moded!,' the Navy expression 'turn to,' how to pronounce 'llama,' what it means if someone says your car is 'banjaxed,' and more. Grab some popcorn, slip into a folding seat, and you're ready to watch the coming attractions. But if they're shown before the main feature, why in the world are movie previews called 'trailers'? Enjoy old movie trailers at Turner Classic Movies. It's California in the 1980s, and--uh-oh!--you're outsmarted or caught doing something stupid and someone else says, 'Ooooooooooo, moded!' This Schadenfreudian slip of an expression was sometimes accompanied by a chin-stroking gesture, or elaborated still further as 'Moded, corroded, your booty exploded!' Grant has the goods on this expression's likely origin. Check out his entry for itâand the comments of people who know the termâat his dictionary site . In a previous episode, , a caller sought a classy term for a worker in the meat section of a cheese shop, something a little more sophisticated than, say, 'meatmonger.' The helpful suggestions from listeners keep rolling in, and Grant and Martha share a few. Wait, did they really suggest 'carncierge' and 'meatre d''? Quiz Guy Greg Pliska drops in with a word game called 'False Opposites.' They're pairs of words whose prefixes, suffixes, and other elements make them appear to be opposites, even though they're not. For example, what seeming opposites might be derived from the clues 'forward motion' and 'American legislative body'? Feel free to weigh the pros and cons of your answer. Navy veterans will recognize the two-fingered gesture that looks as if someone's turning an invisible doorknob. It accompanies the order 'turn to,' meaning 'get to work.' How did this handy expression get started? If you appropriate something that no one else seems to be using, you may be said to 'kipe' that object. A Wisconsin caller remembers 'kiping' things as a youngster, like a neighbor's leftover wood to build a fort. Grant discusses this regionalism and its possible origins. Is there a distinction to be made between 'envy' and 'jealousy'? The hosts try to parse out the difference. Grant gives a brief review of the new third edition of Paul Dickson's 'The Dickson Baseball Dictionary' , all 974 pages and 4.5 pounds of it. To some folks, they're 'thermals.' To others, they're 'long underwear.' And some folks call them 'long johns.' Are these warm undergarments named after some guy called John? If your car's broken down you might say it's 'banjaxed,' especially if you're in Ireland. A caller who grew up in Dublin is curious about the word. Martha and Grant revisit the 'apple core, Baltimore' game they discussed a few episodes ago . Many listeners learned it from this Donald Duck cartoon . How do you pronounce the word 'llama'? A caller who learned in school that Spanish 'll' is pronounced like English 'y' thinks it's a mistake to pronounce this animal's name as 'LAH-ma.' Is he correct? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: [email protected] Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you by Deliverer because anything goes this Christmas. Yes, even sprouts on a pizza or gravy on sushi.

0:10.0

The rules are, there are no rules. Have a Cantonese on Christmas Eve or a faulty on

0:15.7

Boxing Day and when you're so over the leftovers bring on the ramen from big brands to

0:21.9

local favorites this Christmas it's all on your doorstep with

0:25.0

Delivereroo Geographical restrictions Tees and C service and delivery fees apply

0:29.2

Support for Away with Words comes from MoZE online backup.

0:33.5

MoZE protects your valuable computer files against data loss from hard drive crashes, viruses,

0:38.4

theft, and other disasters.

0:40.0

Find out more at MOZY.com.

0:43.0

You're listening to Away with Words. I'm Martha Barnett.

0:51.0

And I'm Grant Barrett.

0:52.0

We often talk about the differences between what

0:55.2

people say and what they mean and what other people understand. So I was pleased to find a funny little

1:02.0

write-up on the blog of a woman calling herself

1:04.4

Mommy Nolan. Writing from Logan, Utah and using her experience with her own

1:09.3

children, she writes about the things that she says and what her granddaughter understands.

1:15.0

And they're not necessarily the same things.

1:17.0

For example, if Mommy Nolan says no, her granddaughter hears maybe. And if she says maybe, her granddaughter hears maybe and if she says maybe her granddaughter hears

1:25.6

ask again and again and yes is right around the corner oh yeah that's exactly

1:30.1

what happened in our house the phrase was can we see about it was, can we see about it?

1:34.2

And she would say, yes, we can see about it. And somehow that was satisfying for

1:37.6

everybody. I don't even know if we got what we were asking for, but the

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