Mystery Drawer - 12 October 2020

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A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis. Plus, the story behind the slang interjection word!, meaning “believe me!” The original version involved the idea that a person’s word was their bond. And the expression empty wagons make the most noise suggests that the person who boasts the loudest may actually be the least knowledgeable. It’s a phrase that’s had many versions over the centuries — including one that goes all the way back to ancient Rome! All that, and nebby, beat-feeting, red-headed stepchild, corotole, undermine, fankle, a wacky puzzle about Greek names, and 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/. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. Our listener phone line 1 (877) 929-9673 is toll-free in the United States and Canada. Elsewhere in the world, call +1 (619) 800-4443; charges may apply. From anywhere, text/SMS +1 (619) 567-9673. 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.
0:03.7	I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:06.0	Grant, you'll remember our conversation with Dana in Reno, Nevada, who wanted a word for that moment
0:11.4	when you're playing cards or a board game and you draw what
0:14.4	would have been the perfect card or tile for the previous turn.
0:18.6	Oh yeah, a little too little too late but she wanted something she could just something she could shout in anger.
0:24.0	Yeah, yeah and so of course our listeners stepped up. We heard from Linda Gamble-Hoyer
0:31.4	from Nelliford, Virginia, who said,
0:33.8	my idea for that term is tardy tile.
0:37.2	In a card game, you'd call it a tardy card.
0:39.2	And she says it should be delivered explosively
0:41.6	to vent your frustration.
0:43.1	Tardy card!
0:44.5	I like that one.
0:46.5	I like that one.
0:47.1	Chris Moore in Cary, Illinois says, he calls it a squander.
0:51.2	His old family calls it a squander. Oh, it's a squander. That was a total squander. Yeah, I like that word, squander. And we also heard from Dan
0:58.8	Jail in San Diego who said, I was thinking a day late and a dollar short really describes that feeling perfectly
1:05.8	so why not shorten it to a single word that captures it all and sounds great through
1:09.9	clenched teeth day late dollar short becomes dalladosh.
1:14.3	I like that since they're like
1:18.1	dastardly.
	...

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