No Cap, No Lie - 5 April 2021

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A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We take our voices for granted, but it’s truly miraculous that we communicate complex thoughts simply by moving our mouths while exhaling. A fascinating new book reveals the science, history, and linguistics involved in human speech. And although you might associate the term paraphernalia with drug use, the word goes all the way back to ancient Greece and the property of a new bride. Plus: you’re jogging through the woods and come up behind someone. What do you say to keep from startling them? Excuse me? On your left? What IS the opposite of startling someone with Boo!? Also, inoculate, no cap, it’s been a minute, doorwall vs. sliding door, ansible, a verbal escape-room puzzle, chimbly and chimley, intentional mispronunciations, and the handy German word Impfneid, which means “vaccine envy.” 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 out language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett.
0:05.2	And I'm Martha Barnett. Here's a handy German word, imp-night. Oh yeah, oh yeah, I'm going to
0:11.1	totally use that one. Well you might. It's IMPF, N-E-I-D, imp-night. And it means the envy of those
0:21.1	who have been vaccinated. Obviously it's a neologism, but it's making the rounds and I really like it.
0:26.7	But you know what, I had a really cool aha moment when I started digging into the etymology of
0:31.7	this word. The night means envy in German. And the imp has to do with the horticultural metaphor
0:39.5	of grafting, you know, grafting a vaccine onto somebody. And that's when I had the aha moment
0:45.3	because that's the same idea in our word inoculate. It is related to our word ocular having to do
0:53.6	with I because it comes from the Latin oculus, which means I, and was sometimes applied in Latin
1:00.4	to things that were small and round and look like eyes, like buds. And so inoculate in middle
1:07.3	English actually meant to insert a bud in a plant. And then later it was applied to other forms
1:13.6	of grafting or implanting, including grafting a vaccine into somebody to prevent disease. How
1:20.4	cool is that? That is cool. So you are literally putting one creature inside another. Yes, yes,
1:26.1	you're grafting. That's pretty cool. All of that wrapped up in this one little two syllable word.
1:31.6	Well, we love to talk about other languages on the show. And if you speak more than one language,
1:35.6	hey, bring us your favorite word and expression they say in your family or just something wonderful
1:40.4	that you think we ought to know 877 929 9673 or you can explain it in email to words at waywardreader.org
1:49.2	or share it on Twitter at w-a-y-w-o-r-d. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, it's Michelle,
1:56.8	and I'm calling from the Pokemon Mountains of Pennsylvania. The turn of phrase that I've most
2:02.6	recently been hearing and it's new to me and it just might mean that I don't talk to enough people
2:08.1	is it's been a minute when the reality is it's really not been a minute. So I kind of find it
2:14.0	funny and cute and whimsical and I'm not really sure where that comes from and kind of how it
	...

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