Best Hosted by Martha Barnette Podcasts (2023)

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

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Highway Robbery - 4 December 2023 53:45

3d ago53:45

53:45

Secret signals on the job: Waitresses at some 19th-century restaurants ensured speedy drink service by communicating with a non-verbal code. One server took orders, then placed each customer's cup to indicate exactly what the customer wanted. A second server could then whisk right in and serve the right beverage without asking. Also, the term highw…

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

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Spill the Tea (Rebroadcast) - 27 November 2023 53:45

2d ago53:45

53:45

If someone urges you to spill the tea, they probably don’t want you tipping over a hot beverage. Originally, the tea here was the letter T, as in “truth.” To spill the T means to “pass along truthful information.” Plus, we’re serving up some delicious Italian idioms involving food. The Italian phrase that literally translates “eat the soup or jump …

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

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Dirty Laundry (Rebroadcast) - 20 November 2023 53:45

9d ago53:45

53:45

When you had sleepovers as a child, what did you call the makeshift beds you made on the floor? In some places, you call those bedclothes and blankets a pallet. This word comes from an old term for “straw.” And: What’s the story behind the bedtime admonition “Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite”? Plus, when grownups are talking about sex or…

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

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Strong Coffee - 13 November 2023 53:45

16d ago53:45

53:45

During the late 19th and early 20th century, thousands of volunteers helped crowdsource the Oxford English Dictionary. This venerable reference work includes citations sent in by inventors, eccentrics, scientists and educators, an Arctic explorer–even the owner of the world’s largest collection of pornography. A lively new book tells their stories.…

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

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Keep Your Powder Dry (Rebroadcast) - 6 November 2023 53:45

23d ago53:45

53:45

Jacuzzi and silhouette are eponyms — that is, they derive from the names of people. An Italian immigrant to California invented the bubbly hot tub called a jacuzzi. And the word silhouette commemorates a penny-pinching treasury secretary who lasted only a few months in office and was associated with these shadow portraits. Also, if the words strubb…

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

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One-Armed Paper Hanger (Rebroadcast) - 30 October 2023 53:45

1M ago53:45

53:45

The emotional appeal of handwriting and the emotional reveal of animal phrases. Should children be taught cursive writing in school, or is their time better spent studying other things? A handwritten note and a typed one may use the very same words, but handwritten version may seem much more intimate. Plus, English is full of grisly expressions abo…

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

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Hair on Your Tongue (Rebroadcast) - 23 October 2023 53:45

1M ago53:45

53:45

If you speak both German and Spanish, you may find yourself reaching for a German word instead of a Spanish one, and vice versa. This puzzling experience is so common among polyglots that linguists have a name for it. • The best writers create luscious, long sentences using the same principles that make for a musician’s melodious phrasing or a tigh…

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

151
Train of Thought (Rebroadcast) - 16 October 2023 53:45

2M ago53:45

53:45

Chances are you recognize the expressions Judgment Day and root of all evil as phrases from the Bible. There are many others, such as the powers that be and bottomless pit, which both first appeared in scripture. • There’s a term for when the language of a minority is adopted by the majority. When, for example, expressions from drag culture and hip…

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

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Space Cadet (Rebroadcast) - 9 October 2023 53:45

2M ago53:45

53:45

We have books for language-lovers and recommendations for history buffs. • How did the word boondoggle come to denote a wasteful project? The answer involves the Boy Scouts, a baby, a craft project, and a city council meeting. • Instead of reversing just individual letters, some palindromes are sentences with reversed word order. • Also squeaky cle…

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

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Howling Fantods (Rebroadcast) - 2 October 2023 53:45

2M ago53:45

53:45

Are there words and phrases that you misunderstood for an embarrassingly long time? Maybe you thought that money laundering literally meant washing drug-laced dollar bills, or that AM radio stations only broadcast in the morning? • A moving new memoir by Kansas writer Sarah Smarsh touches on the connection between vocabulary and class. • The invent…

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

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Pizza Bones - 25 September 2023 53:45

2M ago53:45

53:45

If your last name is Cook or Smith, your ancestors probably worked in those professions. But what if your last name is Pope? Or Abbott? And if you have enough food for Coxey’s army, you have more than enough to go around. The phrase refers to protesters marching on Washington more than a century ago. Plus, some people say pizza bones are the best p…

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

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Bottled Sunshine (Rebroadcast) - 18 September 2023 53:45

3M ago53:45

53:45

If you catch your blue jeans on a nail, you may find yourself with a winklehawk. This term, adapted into English from Dutch, means “an L-shaped tear in a piece of fabric.” And: What’s your relationship with the books on your shelves? Do the ones you haven’t read yet make you feel guilty — or inspired? Plus, we’re all used to fairy tales that start …

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

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Endless Summer - 11 September 2023 53:45

3M ago53:45

53:45

Surf’s up! When surfers describe the waves as going gangbusters, it’s a great time out on the water. But why that word? Plus, a thesaurus of flavors serves up delicious writing about the taste of foods and spices. And speaking of flavors, the history of vanilla is anything but bland. When the vanilla flavor was introduced to 16th-century Europeans,…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Hosted By Martha Barnette Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

1
A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett. Produced by Stefanie Levine.

1
Highway Robbery - 4 December 2023 53:45

1
Spill the Tea (Rebroadcast) - 27 November 2023 53:45

1
Dirty Laundry (Rebroadcast) - 20 November 2023 53:45

1
Strong Coffee - 13 November 2023 53:45

1
Keep Your Powder Dry (Rebroadcast) - 6 November 2023 53:45

1
One-Armed Paper Hanger (Rebroadcast) - 30 October 2023 53:45

1
Hair on Your Tongue (Rebroadcast) - 23 October 2023 53:45

151
Train of Thought (Rebroadcast) - 16 October 2023 53:45

1
Space Cadet (Rebroadcast) - 9 October 2023 53:45

1
Howling Fantods (Rebroadcast) - 2 October 2023 53:45

1
Pizza Bones - 25 September 2023 53:45

1
Bottled Sunshine (Rebroadcast) - 18 September 2023 53:45

1
Endless Summer - 11 September 2023 53:45

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