Whistle Britches - 16 February 2015

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

🗓️ 16 February 2015

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Writers and where they do their best creative work. A new book on Geoffrey Chaucer describes the dark, cramped, smelly room where he wrote his early work. Which raises the question: What kind of space do you need to produce your best writing? Also, Texas football lingo, and the perfect smart-aleck remark for those times when you can't remember the answer to a question. Plus, how slang terms popular in African-American culture, like bling bling, bae, and on fleek find their way into the mainstream English. Also, salt and pepper cellars, itch a scratch vs. scratch an itch, "sick abed on two chairs," a new word for nieces and nephews, "the Jimmies and the Joes," aimless walks on Nantucket, and Dadisms. 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	This episode is brought to you by Vonage. With Vonage Video API, your developers can easily create custom video experiences tailored to your business.
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0:21.2	Unlock the true video potential of your business.
0:24.0	Discover How at Vonage.com.
0:29.0	You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
0:32.0	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:33.0	And I'm Martha Barnett. I was talking recently with my friend Cindy about some
0:37.1	expressions that her father used to use. He came from the Piney Woods of East Texas,
0:42.8	and whenever there was a lull in the conversation
0:45.2	or he wanted to tweak somebody,
0:47.0	he would use these little trademark phrases
0:49.4	that probably wouldn't mean that much to other people,
0:51.8	but to his family. just crack them up one of
0:54.6	them was do you live around here or do you ride a bicycle?
0:57.7	I don't know what what does that even mean?
1:03.3	And if they would say, come on dad, let's go, let's get ready.
1:08.6	He said, I stay ready so I don't have to get ready. And they call those expressions memisms because that was his name.
1:16.6	His grandson couldn't pronounce his name.
1:18.6	I was thinking that every family has memisms, right?
1:21.8	Didn't you have? Yeah, my father's got a thing that he says
1:24.7	he's 74 now and he's got this bunch of these dumb things that he says and some of
	...

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