Wicked Good - 17 March 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

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

To grok something means “to understand it completely.” The word grok comes from a language spoken on the planet Mars—well, at least according to the science fiction writer who coined the term! Also, we know the meaning of the word trauma, but is there a word that denotes “the opposite of trauma”? Plus, if someone describes something as “wicked good,” they mean it’s extremely good, especially if they’re from New England. All that, plus cut to the chase, more super-short town names, a puzzle that involves lopping off letters, an Ethiopian proverb, hell strip vs. devil strip, words from the Norn language, corny, and more. This wicked good show’s as cool as 4-55 air conditioning! 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	You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
0:04.3	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:05.6	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:07.2	And Grant, you remember that conversation we had not too long ago about towns and cities that have very, very short names, like even one or two letters.
0:17.8	Right.
0:18.3	There was the town in France.
0:20.0	It was just the letter Y, or called E. Grech in
0:24.8	French. Just why? Right. And the reason was that there were roads that intersected in a Y. And what's
0:33.8	really interesting about that is that several of our listeners wrote to tell us that there is a Y, Arizona, that is named for the same reason.
0:43.2	It has two major highways, state routes 85 and 86, that originally intersected in a Y.
0:50.9	And they weren't allowed to just use one letter.
0:53.7	So they called the town, H. Y, W-H-Y.
0:57.1	Why, Arizona, because it has beautiful landscapes. That's why. That's right. And a dry heat.
1:05.1	We heard from lots of other listeners who told us about towns like Ely, Iowa, and Ely, Minnesota, and Ely, Nevada,
1:12.6	and also Rye, New York. We didn't think of that one, Grant.
1:15.8	Oh, of course. That makes perfect. Yeah. Right. And Zap, North Dakota, which I hadn't heard of,
1:20.9	and, man, West Virginia. But, Grant, there's one place that beats all of them. And it's called
1:26.7	I, Ohio, and that's spelled
1:29.0	AI. It has about 600 people there, and it's I. Ohio. Oh, they are so well positioned with this
1:37.5	big AI boom. They should have data centers. They should be logoed. They should be like really
1:43.9	profiting with what's happening in the
1:45.8	tech world right now. Yeah. Yeah. They've got a sign up already that says, hi.
	...

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