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salamander - word of the day
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From: Charles Hodgson
The story behind the word "salamander"
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Piece Description
Charles Hodgson's "Etymology Moment" is a series of two to three minute pieces exploring the history of common English words. Intended to be played as a series, either daily or less frequently, each episode talks about a single word, the different meanings it might have had through history and related trivia such as an interesting historical character who used the word early on. The series already has hundreds of episodes to choose from and more are being added each week. Listener endorsements for Charles Hodgson's work include: "A staple of my daily listening, always interesting, kind of relaxing and educational to boot! I love it." (Russell Jenkins) "Mr Hodgson's dry wit and gentle delivery entertain, inform, and calm me down a bit after a hard day's work. A treasure I found months ago and it keeps on giving." (Hamilton UCI) "This is a daily must-listen." (Laurence Simon) "We love this program. It is a great way of learning, one word at a time. Charles has a unique way of pronouncing and interpreting the words. And we love his soothing voice." (Roland Popp) In addition to his "Etymology Moment" Charles Hodgson has written a book (publication August 2007) entitled CARNAL KNOWLEDGE - A Navel Gazer's Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia. Richard Lederer, host of NPR's A Way With Words says of the book: "Master etymologist Charles Hodgson offers a passionate lesson...illuminates how just about every part of the amazing human chassis got its name." Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves says: "Delight your friends (or lose them rapidly) with this fabulous new knowledge presented with deftness and wit."
Broadcast History
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Transcript
This is the etymology moment, and I'm Charles Hodgson. Today we'll hear the story behind the word arcade.
There's a band that's quite popular these days called Arcade Fire. Supposedly there isn't much meaning to the name of the band except that one of the founders had heard a story about a fire in an arcade and it stuck with him. By this you'll understand me to mean arcade to mean a place where people go, or went, to play on arcade games. Most recently these would have been video games, but as Nintendo and Xbox filled that need I'd guess even these are closing up their doors. Before electronics invaded the arcade these places were sometimes known as pinball arcades; the first citation for this name being in 1951 in the Newport Daily News?although the word pinball itself, referring to a game using a marble and a sloping board, appeared in 1911 in a toy catalogue. But before arcades...
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