Primary Colors (Rebroadcast) - 8 December 2025

A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

A Way with Words

Education, Language Learning, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Centuries ago, monks who took a vow of silence developed their own hand signs, with hundreds of gestures, that are still in use today. Plus, how do speakers of different languages distinguish similar shades and tints of colors such as red, yellow, and blue? It’s complicated! And: you don’t really need those little rivets on your blue jeans, do you? There’s a word for decorative elements that no longer serve a practical purpose: skeuomorphs. All that, along with butter of antimony, vein vs. vain, sugar of lead, euchred figs, two bits, mess and gaum, an apt nickname for a garbage disposal, a quiz about family secrets, and lots more. 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 [email protected]. 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	This festive season of McDonald's get...
0:01.8	Grinched deals every day.
0:03.2	Okay, okay.
0:04.1	With a sausage sandwich for just... Let's see, 9-9-N-P? Six chigger macnuggets for just... 9-Nap! Fine. Get Grinch deals every day in the McDonald's app. 18 plus app only. Ends 24th of December. One use per offer. Fee's apply to delivery. Participation varies. Please and seize apply.
0:20.2	You're listening to Away with Words,
0:21.7	this show about language,
0:22.7	and how we use it.
0:23.6	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:25.0	And I'm Martha Barnett. Butter of antimony. Blue vitriol. Flowers of zinc. Aren't those gorgeous terms, Grant?
0:34.7	Yes. Are these crystals? You're close. These are terms that were used for centuries
0:40.4	by alchemists and scientists for various chemical compounds. So butter of antimony is now called
0:47.1	antimony trichloride. Blue vitriol is cupric sulfate and flowers of zinc refers to powdered zinc oxide and I learned all of this from a
0:57.6	wonderful book I just finished called Uncle tungsten memories of a chemical boyhood. It's by Oliver
1:03.7	Sacks who's the guy who's probably more famous for the man who mistook his wife for a hat. But this is
1:09.9	about his childhood when he was fascinated
1:12.2	by metals and chemical reactions in the periodic table, and it's also a really good introduction
1:17.8	to basic chemistry. But he writes in the book about how that brilliant 18th century chemist
1:23.7	Antoine Lavoisier had decided that every substance should have a name that denotes
1:29.1	its composition and chemical character. He's the guy who went in there and said, we've got to be
1:33.6	more systematic about this. We've got to have names that indicate how these substances would react
1:39.3	or behave in various circumstances. And Sachs writes about how he understood that, but he also missed the old
1:47.0	names because they had a poetry. Right. Yeah, they do have a poetry, but there's also a mystery
	...

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