Navel Gazing - 29 June 2020

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

🗓️ 29 June 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city’s youngest readers, extolling the many benefits of libraries. One of the loveliest was from E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web. Plus, you may think navel-gazing is a relatively new idea — but it goes back at least to the 14th century, when meditating monks really did look like they were studying their bellies! Also, why don’t actors in movies say goodbye at the end of a phone conversation? For that matter, why don’t some people answer their smartphones with “Hello”? Plus, a poetic puzzle, duke’s mixture, small as the little end of nothing, Chesapeake Bay crabbing lingo, omphaloskepsis, nightingale, light a shuck, bumpity-scrapples, the big mahoff, and if a bullfrog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his butt. 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 a way with words to show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett and I'm Martha Barnett
0:06.1	The old English word Galan means to call or to sing enchantments and you don't see that root in very many English words. There's some really,
0:16.1	really old words like Galder, which is a charm or incantation. But there is a familiar word that you'll see it in and that word is nightingale
0:26.2	It's a bird noted for the melodious song which is heard at night as well as during the day.
0:31.6	It's literally a night singer from Old English
0:34.8	Galan meaning to call or sing enchantments and I was reminded of this in a tweet by
0:41.1	writer Robert McFarland who mentioned the etymology and described the nightingale as quote
0:46.4	a tiny bird of exquisite voice the sound of hope in the dark isn't that lovely? It is lovely and it's better than I usually
0:55.8	expect on Twitter. Right? Yeah. But I think Twitter gives you back what you
1:02.1	cultivate doesn't it?
1:03.4	Oh, it certainly does.
1:05.0	You follow the right people, you get beauty like that.
1:08.0	Yeah.
1:09.0	Give us that quote again.
1:10.0	A tiny bird of exquisite voice, The Sound of Hope in the Dark.
1:14.4	Oh, that is very good.
1:15.6	I like that.
1:16.6	And they are, the lovely little things.
1:18.2	If you've never seen a picture, look them up on the internet.
1:21.0	They're just gorgeous little things. Mm. Yeah, and I just love the internet. They're just gorgeous little things.
1:23.0	Mm, yeah, and I just love the idea of them singing through the night.
1:27.0	The show's about language and everything related to it.
	...

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