Month of Sundays (Rebroadcast) - 2 November 2015

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

🗓️ 2 November 2015

⏱️ 53 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	This episode is brought to you by Meta for Work.
0:02.6	It's not just sci-fi anymore.
0:04.4	Virtual and mixed reality are transforming how business works.
0:07.6	Architects can use mixed reality to walk through buildings that aren't even built yet.
0:11.4	People from around the world can meet up in more immersive ways,
0:14.1	working shoulder to shoulder in virtual spaces
0:16.2	to get real work done.
0:17.6	And all sorts of professionals are getting hands-on training
0:20.1	and safer, more cost-effective virtual environments.
0:23.0	Meta for work. Work smarter, closer, safer, together.
0:27.0	Visit forwork.metta.com to learn more.
0:30.0	You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett and I'm Martha Barnett
0:35.7	Grant you know what a pie chart is. Yeah sure. Yeah, it's one of those graphic representations of data right
0:41.5	You see all the time. the time yeah little wedges that
0:44.9	represent different parts of the whole well you know the image of pie
0:49.5	charts is so familiar that it's hard to imagine a time when we didn't have them, but of course there
0:54.7	was such a time.
0:56.3	And apparently the guy who invented the pie chart was a Scottish engineer named William
1:01.4	Playfair.
1:02.4	This was back in 1801. But here's the thing. He never
1:06.2	bothered to name this type of graph. We didn't see the word pie chart until the
1:11.1	early 1920s. Now why am I so excited about pie charts?
	...

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