Noon of Night - 26 June 2017

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

🗓️ 26 June 2017

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As a kid, you may have played that game where you phone someone to say, “Is your refrigerator running? Then you better go catch it!” What’s the term for that kind of practical joke? Is it a crank call or a prank call? There’s a difference. • If someone has a chip on his shoulder, he’s spoiling for a fight — but what kind of chip are we talking about? Potato? Poker? Hint: the phrase arose at a time when working with wood was more likely. • A conversation with an expert on polar bears leads to a discussion of history and folklore around the world. • Plus noon of night, omadhaun, chicken lights, choke-and-slide, tragomaschalia, another think coming vs. another thing coming, and bada bing, bada boom. 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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0:27.8	You're listening to a way with words, the show about language and how we use it.
0:33.4	I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. A couple of weeks ago we had a caller from Mammoth Lakes, California who was telling us about her father giving her this advice to use small words,
0:44.0	but he gave the advice in the form of really big words.
0:48.0	It started with promulgating your esoteric
0:50.0	cogitations and went on from there.
0:52.0	Or articulating your superficial sentimentality,
0:55.0	blah, blah, blah, but it was, it basically boiled down to eschew obfuscation.
1:00.0	Don't use long words.
1:01.0	Don't use big words, yes, exactly. And that prompted a memory from Tommy
1:05.2	Cogswell who listens to us in Tallahassee, Florida and he recounted a story
1:09.6	where he was going to the store every day and he would run into this older bully who would give
1:16.4	him a hard time by using all these words that he didn't understand.
1:20.6	And so Tommy went back to his mom and dejectedly told her that there was this guy giving him a hard time with all these big words.
1:28.0	And so she gave him something to say back to this guy.
1:32.0	It goes, do you have the audacity to doubt my veracity or even to
	...

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