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

Steamed Bun - 20 March 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

🗓️ 20 March 2017

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week: Do you ever find yourself less-than-specific about your age? Listeners share some of their favorite phrases for fudging that number, like: “Oh, I’m 29, plus shipping and handling.” Also in this episode: • Since ancient times, people have hidden messages in clever ways. Nowadays, coded messages are sometimes concealed in pixels. • Uber-silly German jokes: Did you hear the one about the two skyscrapers knitting in the basement? It’s silly, all right. • The origin of hello, the creative class, all wool and a yard wide, get some kip, a handful of minutes, and jeep.  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

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0:04.3

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0:08.0

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0:09.0

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0:14.6

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0:19.7

Lenovo.com slash Yoga. Limited time only terms and conditions apply.

0:23.8

Engineered to do it all. That's a laptop evolved with Intel Evo Platform.

0:27.8

You're listening to Away with Words, a show about language and how we use it.

0:33.0

I'm Grant Barrett.

0:34.0

And I'm Martha Barnett.

0:35.5

On our Facebook group, Fred Rosen of Boynton Beach, Florida,

0:39.5

raised an interesting question about the language that people use to talk about their age.

0:45.4

His cousin calls himself 50 plus.

0:48.5

He says, I was 50 years old for one day and now I'm 50 plus. Just one day I was 50. But he's going to think he's 59.

0:57.3

Really? If he's under 51 then he's cheating himself out of some really good years there.

1:02.3

When you're a kid, those individual numbers mean a whole lot, right?

1:07.0

Yeah, and even the numbers in between, you know, I'm four and a half, I'm five and a half.

1:10.0

Yeah, my son counts the months, partly because the birthday's at the end of it and he knows that gifts are coming. But yes.

1:16.0

Oh, does it? Okay. But then you know you get to a certain age and you just say your regular age or at least I have and then you get a little bit older and you

1:26.0

sometimes start to fudge it or you forget.

1:29.2

Do you literally forget your own birth?

1:30.7

I have to stop and think, well how old am I? And a lot of people chimed in on this

...

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