Walkie Talkie - 27 January 2020

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

🗓️ 27 January 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the most powerful words you'll ever hear -- and one of the most poignant -- isn't in dictionaries yet. But it probably will be one day. The word is endling, and it means "the last surviving member of a species." The surprising story behind this word includes a doctor in a Georgia convalescent center, a museum exhibit in Australia, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and much more. Also: how important is linguistic accuracy when it comes to a movie? Does it detract from your enjoyment if a fictional character utters a word or phrase that you suspect was not in use at that point in history? Finally: what's the first big word you remember using -- the one you just couldn't wait to show off to your family and friends? Plus: a rhyming puzzle, Fulano, in the soup, bedroom suit vs. bedroom suite, swarf, boondocks, and good people. 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/. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. Our listener phone line 1 (877) 929-9673 is toll-free in the United States and Canada. Elsewhere in the world, call +1 (619) 800-4443; charges may apply. From anywhere, text/SMS +1 (619) 567-9673. 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.
0:03.5	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:04.5	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:06.0	Do you remember the first big word you learned, the one that you just couldn't stop saying
0:11.6	after you learned it.
0:13.0	Gerald Blundin asked that question on our Facebook group,
0:16.2	and he said that for him, he was about four or five years old,
0:19.0	and the word was conflagration,
0:21.6	meaning a big fire. His grandmother taught him that word.
0:25.7	And I was thinking about that grant, the first big word that I learned was logical.
0:32.4	Logical. To me, I was a tiny was logical. logical.
0:33.0	To me, I was a tiny kid and I think it was from Sylvester the cat, the cartoons where he would say,
0:40.5	that sounds logical.
0:43.0	And so I would walk around, you know,
0:44.8	I think in diapers, you know, saying that sounds logical.
0:49.1	And then my dad was a professor at a theological seminary so theological came very quickly after that so I would just you know walk around little
0:58.0	thing saying theological
0:59.6	little Martha saying theological yeah how about you Do you remember your first big word?
1:05.0	I don't. I remember my first four letter word.
1:08.0	Taut to me on the back of the school bus by another naughty child.
1:12.0	Oh, that's a whole other segment, isn't it?
1:15.0	Yeah.
	...

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