Month of Sundays - 29 September 2014

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

A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2014

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’re on tenterhooks, it means you’re in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15th-century manufacturing process. Also, you probably have a term for those crumbs that collect in the corners of your eyes overnight. They go by lots of names, like “sleep” and “sand” and “eye boogers.” But there’s a medical term for them as well–one that goes back to ancient Greek. And where in tarnation did we get the word . . . tarnation? Plus, pie charts in other countries, “a month of Sundays,” euphemisms for vomiting, “at the coalface,” and the children’s game called hull gull. 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	Spark your creativity with the Sims. Sometimes you might feel like you're not creative
0:06.7	and you have to go in search of your creative spark again. Maybe this is catching up with
0:11.3	creative friends, experimenting with a new look or trying out a new recipe.
0:15.7	And thanks to The Sims, inspiration is just one game and one spark away.
0:21.1	Ready to spark something? Download the Sims 4 and play for free.
0:25.0	You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
0:31.0	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:32.0	And I'm Martha Barnett
0:33.4	Grant you know what a pie chart is yeah yeah it's one of those graphic
0:37.8	representations of data right round with the triangular wedges yeah little wedges that represent different parts of the whole.
0:45.0	Well, you know, the image of pie charts is so familiar that it's hard to imagine a time when we didn't
0:50.7	have them.
0:51.7	But of course there was such a time. And apparently the guy who invented
0:56.2	the pie chart was a Scottish engineer named William Playfair. This was back in 1801, but here's the thing.
1:03.0	He never bothered to name this type of graph.
1:06.0	We didn't see the word pie chart until the early 1920s.
1:10.0	Now, why am I so excited about pie charts?
1:13.0	Uh, I don't know.
1:15.0	Because do you know what they call a pie chart in French?
1:18.0	Plifer.
1:19.0	Le play fair.
1:22.0	Oh, after the guy?
	...

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