Keep Your Tail Over the Dashboard - 23 Nov. 2009
This week, 'McGimpers,' 'geetus,' and other underworld lingo from the 1930s. Crime novelist James Ellroy stops by to talk slang terms and reveals his own favorite. Also, is the expression 'Hear, hear!' or 'Here, here!'? Is it 'bran-new' or 'brand-new'? The spooky, creepy story behind the flat hat called a 'tam.' And what does it mean to 'keep your tail over the dashboard'?Grant talks about the lingo of criminals from 1930s. Here are more examples from police reporter Ben Kendall's 1931 Los Angeles Times article, 'Underworld 'Lingo' Brought Up-to-Date': Apple-knocker: A yokel; a blunderer. 'That big apple-knocker slipped on the top step with a five gallon can of alky.'

Word Encounters of the First Kind - 16 Nov. 2009
[This episode first aired April 12, 2008.]There's a frisson you get when you meet a word for the first time--feeling pleasantly stumped in between wondering, 'What the heck does that mean?' and hurrying off to find out. Martha and Grant talk about some terms that had just that effect on them: 'ucalegon' and 'cacoethes scribendi.'A recent college graduate from Portland, Oregon, calls to ask about a term popular on her campus. She and her classmates use 'sketchy' to mean 'creepy, shady, possibly dangerous,' as in 'a sketchy part of town' or 'that sketchy guy over there.' Grant and Martha discuss this term and how it lends itself to such variations as 'Sketchyville' and 'Sk

Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga! - 9 Nov. 2009
All aboard! This week, a bit about the musical language of railroad conductors' calls: 'Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!' Also, the origin of the military slang term 'cumshaw,' tips for learning Latin, the influence of Spanish immigrants on English, and the funny story behind why plain-talking Texans say, 'We're going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.'A trip to the California State Railroad Museum http://www.csrmf.org/ has Grant musing about the way language can change in the mouth of a single individual -- in this case, railroad conductors. He recommends a collection of sound files from metros and subways around the world http://mic-ro.com/metro/announcements.html. For differe

Shivaree - 4 Nov. 2009
Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. I'm Martha Barnette. You may remember the call we had from Tony in Encinitas, California. He was curious about the term for an unusual hazing ritual:My dad woke us up one night, about 8 o'clock. He said don't be alarmed. There's going to be gunfire and a lot of noise, and there's going to be a lot of people in the house and there's going to be a party. This is probably late spring. And lo and behold, next thing we knew there were trucks driving up and women coming in with food and we heard people shooting off guns and men doing what men do. It was a giant party. And I said, 'Daddy what is this?' He said, 'It's a shivaree

Bless Your Heart - 2 Nov. 2009
This week, it's backhanded phrases, those snarky remarks that come sugar-coated in politeness, like 'How nice for you,' 'Oh, interesting!' and the mother of all thinly veiled criticism, 'Bless her heart.' Also this week, free reign vs. free rein, the origin of the one-finger salute, and what it means if a Frenchman has big ankles. And 'Jeopardy!' champion Ken Jennings stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz.You've been on the receiving end of backhanded phrases, and admit it, you've used them, too. A discussion on Ask Metafilter http://ask.metafilter.com/133910/Bless-your-heart-and-other-backhanded-phrases prompts Grant and Martha to talk about the ways people use sugar-coated sn