One-Armed Paper Hanger (Rebroadcast) - 30 October 2023

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

🗓️ 30 October 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The emotional appeal of handwriting and the emotional reveal of animal phrases. Should children be taught cursive writing in school, or is their time better spent studying other things? A handwritten note and a typed one may use the very same words, but handwritten version may seem much more intimate. Plus, English is full of grisly expressions about animals, such as there’s more than one way to skin a cat and until the last dog is hung. The attitudes these sayings reflect aren’t so prevalent today, but the phrases live on. Finally, the centuries-old story of the mall in shopping mall. Plus, agloo, dropmeal, tantony pig, insidious ruses, have a yen for something, a commode you wear on your head, a tantalizing word game everyone can play. 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/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. 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 that language and how we use it.
0:03.4	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:04.4	And I'm Martha Barnett. Grant, you know the term piecemeal, right?
0:08.0	Mm-hmm, yeah.
0:08.6	Means piece by piece, you do something piecemeal,
0:11.1	somebody pays you back piecemeal, it's piece by piece.
0:13.5	A little bit at a time.
0:14.4	Yeah, yeah.
0:15.6	Okay, so the piece is self-explanatory, but what about the meal?
0:20.5	I won't tell you because I just found out this week and it means so excited.
0:24.4	Meal is an old suffix that means buy a specified portion or a measure at a time.
0:31.6	And in middle English, there were lots of different versions of this.
0:35.2	Piecemeal is the one that survived, but there was also little meal,
0:40.0	which meant little by little.
0:41.4	I'm going to do something little meal or penny meal,
0:44.8	which is I'm going to pay you penny by penny.
0:47.3	Drop meal, I really love.
0:49.6	There was a reference in a 17th century text that goes
0:53.7	as the cloud dissolves drop meal upon the earth.
0:56.8	Isn't that beautiful?
0:57.6	So, drop meal means...
0:59.2	Drop by drop.
	...

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