See A Man About A Horse (Rebroadcast) - 28 Dec. 2009

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A Way with Words

Education, Language Learning, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2009

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

[This episode first aired January 12, 2008.] In this week's episode, Martha and Grant discuss not-to-be-believed articles about language from the satirical newspaper The Onion, including one headlined 'Underfunded Schools Forced to Cut Past Tense from Language Programs.' By the way, did you ever notice how ONION is ZO-ZO if you tilt your head to the right? A caller has a friendly disagreement with a pal: Is the expression 'tide me over' or 'tie me over'? Hint: The answer she gets should tide her over. If a dictator dictates, and an aviator aviates, then does a commentator 'commentate'? A caller complains that this last word gives him the willies. Does an alligator alligate? A middle-schooler who's reading 'Anne of Green Gables' is puzzled by a mention of 'breakfast, dinner, and supper.' She wants to know if the words 'dinner' and 'lunch' really interchangeable. The fur flies when Greg Pliska unleashes a word puzzle involving the names of animals. Also speaking of animals, an immigrant from India recounts his confusion the first time he heard the expression 'I'm going to go see a man about a horse.' How in did that become a euphemism for 'I'm going to go to the bathroom'? A former West Virginian reports that she grew up hearing a strange word: 'charny.' In her part of the country, she says, it means 'dirty' or 'filthy,' and she always heard it pronounced 'chee-YAR-nee.' This week's Slang This! contestant, a comic-book illustrator from Providence, R.I., tries to guess the meaning of the expressions 'hat-catcher' and 'to go shucks.' What IS the longest word in the English language? 'Antidisestablishmentarianism'? 'Floccinaucinihilipilification'? Or 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,' maybe? Martha and Grant discuss such sesquipedalian contenders for the title of Longest English Word. Where do you put those exclamation points and question marksâdo they go inside or outside the quotation marks? Can you say, 'We have the answer!'? Confused about whether 'biweekly' means 'twice a week' or 'twice a month'? Martha rants about why the using the words 'biweekly' and 'bimonthly' at all is a bad idea, period. Grant shares listener email about the origin and meaning of the term 'g-job.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: [email protected] Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You can cross your fingers and all your toes during a data center migration.
0:04.0	You can knock on wood, pluck a dozen four-leaf clovers, or look to your lucky stars for a successful office expansion.
0:10.0	You could hold your breath, shut your eyes, and say all the world wishes to help avoid cyber attacks.
0:15.0	But none of that truly helps you.
0:18.0	Because next level moments need the next level network,
0:21.0	with the security, reliability, and expertise to take your business
0:24.2	further, AT&T business, the network more businesses are choosing. You're listening to Away With Words, I'm Grant Barrett.
0:36.4	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:37.4	And Grant, I was looking at one of our favorite publications the other day,
0:41.2	The Onion, the satirical
0:43.0	newspaper and I love this headline did you see this underfunded schools forced to cut past
0:47.8	tense from language programs yes very funny yes I loved it the story started out with a date line of Washington.
0:54.8	Do-t-t-t-tut-tut-tut-tut-tut-tut.
0:56.2	Faced with ongoing budget crises, underfunded schools nationwide are increasingly left with no option but to cut the past
1:02.4	tense from their standard English and
1:04.6	language arts programs. You got to love that. The past tense as history.
1:08.0	One of my favorite all-time onion stories is a copy editor's revenge takes form of unhyphinated word and it goes
1:16.2	on to say Bruce Huntoon said the hyphenated compound modifier is the most extreme
1:20.9	step he has ever taken adding that he drafted a resignation notice
1:24.2	that he will hand in should his superiors notice the omission.
1:27.5	And I, of course, obviously, they're not going to notice the missing hyphen.
1:30.4	Ooh, sabotage.
	...

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