Mystery Drawer (Rebroadcast) - 21 October 2024

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

🗓️ 21 October 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis. Plus, the story behind the slang expression Word!, meaning "Believe me!" The original version involved the idea that a person's word was their bond. And the expression Empty wagons make the most noise suggests that the person who boasts the loudest may actually be the least knowledgeable. It's a phrase that's had many versions over the centuries -- including one that goes all the way back to ancient Rome! All that, and nebby, beat-feeting, red-headed stepchild, corotole, undermine, fankle, and a wacky puzzle about Greek names. 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 [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	On BBC I Player, we all know the familiar faces of our solar system, but our neighborhood is far stranger that we ever imagined.
0:10.0	We've glimpsed lightning storms that rage across Jupiter and giant dust devils on Mars.
0:18.0	Thanks for a fleece of spacecraft, these wonders are visible to us as never before.
0:24.0	Solar system with me Professor Brian Cox.
0:27.0	Watch on BBC I Player.
0:30.0	You're listening to Away with Words,
0:31.0	The show about language and how we use it.
0:33.7	I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:36.1	Grant, you'll remember our conversation with Dana in Reno, Nevada, who wanted a word for that moment
0:41.5	when you're playing cards or a board game and you draw what
0:44.4	would have been the perfect card or tile for the previous turn.
0:48.6	Oh yeah, a little too little too late but she wanted something she could just something she could shout in anger.
0:54.0	Yeah, yeah and so of course our listeners stepped up. We heard from Linda Gamble-Hoyer from
1:01.7	Nelliford, Virginia, who said,
1:03.9	my idea for that term is tardy tile.
1:07.2	In a card game, you'd call it a tardy card.
1:09.2	And she says it should be delivered explosively
1:11.6	to vent your frustration.
1:13.1	Tardy card!
1:14.6	I like that one.
1:16.4	I like that one.
1:17.2	Chris Moore in Cary, Illinois says,
	...

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