Nothing to Sneeze At - 15 October 2012

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A Way with Words

Society & Culture, Language Learning, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2012

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Forensic linguists use what they know about speech and writing to testify in courtrooms. And get out your hankies! Martha and Grant are talking about the language of ... sneezing. And what do you call it when you clean the house in a hurry because company's coming? How about making lasagna or shame cleaning? Plus who's a hoopie, down goes your shanty, hold on to your blueberry money, and gym slang fit for a cardio queen. Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: ⁠https://waywordradio.org⁠. Be a part of the show: call or text ⁠1 (877) 929-9673⁠ toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text ⁠+1 619 800 4443⁠. Send voice notes or messages via ⁠WhatsApp 16198004443.⁠ Email ⁠words@waywordradio.org⁠. 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.
0:03.3	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:04.1	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:05.5	You know that feeling when you're going to sneeze and you're going to sneeze and then you don't?
0:10.8	Yes, I do know that feeling.
0:13.0	Well, our listener, Carissa Bell, asked us that question on Twitter.
0:16.6	Is there a term for that?
0:18.7	And the best we could come up with, Grant, was arrested sternutation. Right, yeah. That works, right? I think it does. Sternutation in English means sneezing. It comes from a Latin word that also gives us the word in Spanish and French and Italian for sneeze. And I think it works. Yeah, that's a really good one. Yeah. There are a lot of terms for this on Urban Dictionary, for what that's worth, but the one I liked best was sneeze freeze. Sneeze freeze. It works, right? Sort of like brain freeze, sneeze freeze. I like that. But we've all had that feeling. The body wants to expel, but the body cannot expel. Well, I have many more words about sneezing that I want to discuss later in the show.
0:58.2	So stay tuned.
0:59.2	We're talking about language here, words and how we use them.
1:02.2	So call us 877-929-9673 or send an email to words at waywardradio.org.
1:09.8	Hello, you have a way with words. Hello, it's Vivian Llewyn.
1:14.0	Hi, Vivian. Where are you calling from? Montreal, Canada. Welcome to the program.
1:18.3	What can we do for you? I just found out that some of my friends have specific words for something
1:24.4	that, for me, was just a concept. And the concept is this.
1:28.6	Somebody's coming to the house and there's junk all over the place.
1:31.7	So you throw it in the closet or in the drawer or something.
1:36.5	And I was talking to my friend Donna and she said, oh yeah, I make a lot of lasagnas.
1:43.1	And I said, like, what? And she calls it making a lasagna. Oh, really? Because you end up with a bunch of unrelated things in layers. Right. And later on, you have to like, yeah. All piled up. That's good. Yeah. And then it turned out that I know at least two other people who have different words for this. Oh, good. Tell us.
2:09.3	Tanya, who's originally Ukrainian, in their family, she said, oh, we call it mummification because only mommy is allowed to do it.
2:12.7	Oh, I see.
2:12.8	But it also gets the idea of preserving something in layers.
	...

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