You might assume that the Welsh word plant means the same thing it does in English, but this word is a linguistic false friend. The Welsh word plentyn means "child," and the word plant means "children." Some false friends are etymologically unrelated, such as the Italian word burro, which means "butter," and the Spanish word burro, or "donkey." Others have a common root, but took divergent paths in different languages. The Latin word fastidium, for example, means "loathing" or "disgust," and gave rise to Spanish fastidioso, which means "annoying" or "tedious," but also English fastidious, which has the somewhat more positive meaning of "meticulous." Gift in German means "poison," but in Norwegian the same word means "married."
Stacy in Eureka, California, wonders: what's the proper way to pronounce the word bury? Should it rhyme with jury or cherry?
Mark from Newport News, Virginia, says his mother, who grew up in Fancy Farm, Kentucky, often used a puzzling phrase. To ask how close he was to completing a task, she'd say How much do you like? In parts of the Southern United States, this expression simply means How much do you lack?
The adjective skookum comes from Chinook jargon and is commonly used in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to describe something strong, good, muscular, or powerful, as in a skookum Malamute or a skookum drink.
Quiz Guy John Chaneski is pondering the term o'clock, which is a shortening of the phrase of the clock. What would our language be like if we used that construction all of the time, or as he puts it, all o'time? For example, what similarly constructed term would designate a reverend by the material used to make their clerical garb?
Now that he's reached mid-life, Jeff in San Diego, California, is eager to start writing fiction, but he worries that creative writing classes may be simply self-indulgent or otherwise unhelpful. He shouldn't be. Across the nation, older learners can take advantage of excellent and affordable classes in creative writing at places institutions such as the San Diego Community Colleges. Most cities have organizations like San Diego Writers Ink, which can provide wonderful support, encouragement, and instruction. Or to work completely on your own, try a book like The Lively Muse Daily Appointment Calendar for Writers by Judy Reeves. The key is to get started and then stick to it. Also, make sure to take advantage of all the learning opportunities afforded by special events for reading enthusiasts, such as The San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books.
Rae from Baltimore, Maryland, works in a cardiac intervention lab where surgeons refer to the esophagus as the goose. Is that bit of medical slang limited to her workplace?
Mary in Tulsa, Oklahoma, says that growing up, she and the kids in her neighborhood used the the verb pump to refer to giving someone a lift on a bicycle. This caused a bit of confusion when she went away to college and puzzled fellow students with requests like Will you pump me over to my dorm? or Just give me a little pumping.
Sister Patricia Marie in San Antonio, Texas, wonders why we use three sheets to the wind to describe someone who is inebriated. In nautical terminology, some of the ropes, or lines, attached to a sail are called sheets. If three of those sheets come loose, the boat is extremely difficult to control, much like a drunk person stumbling around.
In an earlier episode, Dennis from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, was having trouble recalling a word that denotes the interval between the end of an event or of someone's life and the death of the last person that has a meaningful memory of it. We had a couple of suggestions, but they weren't what he was searching for. Fortunately, a listener in Geneva, Switzerland, wrote in with the likely answer: saeculum. The ancient Etruscans and Romans would make a sacrifice to the gods on behalf of everyone alive at the time of a significant event, and when all of those people had died, the gods supposedly sent a sign that a new sacrifice was needed. That period was called a saeculum. The Latin word was adopted whole into English to mean "a long period of time." The genitive form, saecularis, meaning "of an age," also gave us secular, referring to worldly matters of a particular period. Secular can also refer to something that exists or occurs through several ages. For example, economists use the term secular inflation to refer to inflation that takes place over a long period of time. Similarly, in his poem "The Garden," Ralph Waldo Emerson refers to a slow-ripening, secular tree.
Growing up in Thibodeaux, Louisiana, Ashleigh was accustomed to using many Cajun terms, such as sha bebe for "poor baby," ya mom'n'em for "your family and circle of friends," and lagniappe, meaning "a little something extra thrown in." Another one is pelay, pronounced PEE-lay, which she uses to describe an action like stubbing her toe or bumping her knee. It's from piler, which according to the Dictionary of Louisiana French has a variety of meanings, including "to trample or crush," "to beat," or "to step on someone's foot."
John from Orlando, Florida, shares a story about a trip to Capetown, South Africa, where he discovered that the phrase I'll be with you now meant something more like "Wait a minute." The expression now now, deriving from an Afrikaans term, is widely used in South Africa to mean "right away."
The Mexican Spanish term tules means "bulrushes" or "marsh plants." In parts of California and along the Pacific coast, toolies or tulies refers to a place that's in a remote area, or in other words, out in the sticks.
This episode is hosted by Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette.
Sviatoslav Richter, born March 20 1915, was a pianistic phenomenon, whose broad musical range was backed up by dazzling technique. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, WNYC's Sara Fishko considers his musical gifts as well as his unconventional life. With guests Michael Kimmelman (NY Times critic, pianist and sometime music writer), pianist Vladimir Viardo, and the late pianist and music critic Harris Goldsmith.
A 1 hour radio show featuring the best in classic and contemporary Latin Jazz music hosted by 19 year veteran Tony Vasquez.