A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over
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A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over
Fun conversation with callers from all over about new words, old sayings, slang, family expressions, word histories, linguistics, dialects, word games, books, literature, writing, and more. Be on the show with author/journalist Martha Barnette and linguist/lexicographer Grant Barrett. Share your tho...
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Stub Your Toe (Rebroadcast) - 1 June 2026
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that...
Snookums and Snicklefritz (Rebroadcast) - 25 May 2026
A new book about how animals perceive their environment reveals immense worlds beyond our own. A bee can see ultraviolet light, catfish have taste bud...
If Grandma Had Wheels (Rebroadcast) - 18 May 2026
While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer r...
Match Game - 11 May 2026
Why do speakers of the same language have different accents? A lively new book called Why We Talk Funny offers a linguist’s look at how and why accent...
Touch Grass (Rebroadcast) - 4 May 2026
High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass, they’re telling you to get a reality check — but...
Catch My Drift - 27 April 2026
If you work in tech support, you might use snarky slang for problems caused by computer users themselves. There’s the acronym PEBCAK, for example, whi...
Funny Papers (Rebroadcast) - 20 April 2026
There are word nerds, and then there’s the woman who set up a folding chair on sidewalks throughout the country, cheerfully dispensing tips about gram...
Buttons on Ice Cream - 13 April 2026
How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”? Dictionar...
Go Bananas (Rebroadcast) - 6 April 2026
A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can the use of an employee’s first name ever reflect a...
What in Tarnation (Rebroadcast) - 30 March 2026
Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below your mouth an...
Tip of the Iceberg - 23 March 2026
Why does the term vegetarian cause so much confusion? Some people assume it means avoiding red meat but still eating chicken. And is there a term for...
Blue Streak (Rebroadcast) - 16 March 2026
How long can a newly married woman be called a bride? Does bride apply only as long as her wedding day, or does it extend right on through the couple’...
Color Me Surprised - 9 March 2026
Over the centuries, the meaning of happiness has traveled a long way. Today we speak of the pursuit of happiness, but it used to be that the word happ...
I Don't Have the Spoons (Rebroadcast) - 2 March 2026
Whether it’s a Rubik’s cube or a round of Wordle, why do so many of us find puzzles irresistible? A new book celebrates the allure and psychological b...
Turn on a Dime - 23 February 2026
Every subculture has its own secret lingo, whether you’re talking about surfers, cab drivers, or coffee-shop baristas. A new book uncovers the slang o...
Excuse the Hogs (Rebroadcast) - 16 February 2026
When a teenager went a week without talking as part of a school project, he noticed a surprising side effect: Instead of rehearsing a response to what...
Sweet Science - 9 February 2026
Why is boxing called the sweet science when it’s obviously such a bruising sport? Also, a mother of five is baffled when her Gen Z kids use words she...
All That and a Bag of Chips (Rebroadcast) - 2 February 2026
We tend to take the index of a book for granted, but centuries ago, these helpful lists were viewed with suspicion. Some even worried that indexes wou...
Use Your Noodle - 26 January 2026
An acclaimed poet’s tender poem about holding a newborn for the first time reflects a complex swirl of emotions. And: A caller finds that in her workp...
Familiar Strangers (Rebroadcast) - 19 January 2026
If you take up texting and social media late in life, there’s a lot to learn! A twenty-something wants advice getting her dad up to speed on memes, In...
Word Hoard (Rebroadcast) - 12 January 2026
Ever wonder what medieval England looked and sounded like? In Old English, the word hord meant “treasure” and your wordhord was the treasure of words...
You Talk Like a Sausage (Rebroadcast) - 5 January 2026
Do you refer to your dog or cat as “somebody”? As in: When you love somebody that much, you don’t mind if they slobber. In other words, is your pet a ...
Pushing the Envelope (Rebroadcast) - 29 December 2025
Sure, there’s winter, spring, summer, and fall. But the seasons in between have even more poetic names. In Alaska, greenup describes a sudden, dramati...
Safe as Houses - 22 December 2025
Temperature blankets are a visual and tactile mirror of the day’s weather. Knitters use specific shades of yarn to match daily temperatures, creating...
Minicast Bonus: Cocktail
In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant look into the myriad stories behind the word cocktail. Does the drink name come from feather...
Potatoes and Point - 15 December 2025
If there’s a logophile on your gift list, you have lots of choices, including a new trivia game for language-lovers and a murder mystery for the word-...
Minicast Bonus: Down Bucket
In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant step into the historic streets of Marblehead, Massachusetts, where the simple cry of “Down b...
Primary Colors (Rebroadcast) - 8 December 2025
Centuries ago, monks who took a vow of silence developed their own hand signs, with hundreds of gestures, that are still in use today. Plus, how do sp...
Minicast Bonus: Picketwire
In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant explore the ways foreign place names transform on official maps and in local slang. Discover...
Drop in the Bucket - 1 December 2025
A sumptuous new collection of poems about specific photographs shows how the moment in time captured by camera can inspire a verbal work of art as wel...
Deep Fried Air (Rebroadcast) - 24 November 2025
Eels, orts, and Wordle! Sweden awarded its most prestigious literary award to a book about…eels. The Book of Eels reveals the mysterious life cycle of...
No Bones - 17 November 2025
Whippoorwills, bob whites, and chickadees. How do we decide the names of birds and what to call their calls? Plus, the last syllables of Arkansas and ...
East Overshoe (Rebroadcast) - 10 November 2025
Some people work hard to lose their accent in order to fit in. Others may be homesick for the voices they grew up with and try to reclaim them. How ca...
Herd of Turtles (Rebroadcast) - 3 November 2025
Some college students are using the word loyalty as a synonym for monogamy. Are the meanings of these words now shifting? Plus, a biologist discovers...
Chow Line - 27 October 2025
Does language acquisition correspond with being ambidextrous? A woman notices her polyglot husband takes notes with his right hand for certain languag...
Big as a Breadbox - 20 October 2025
The Hawaiian word aloha is both a greeting and a goodbye, as well as a profound acknowledgement of the oneness with all living things. Plus, what’s a ...
Mittens in Moonlight (Rebroadcast) - 13 October 2025
Need a slang term that can replace just about anynoun? Try chumpie. If you’re from Philadelphia, you may already know this handy placeholder word. And...
Diamond Dust (Rebroadcast) - 6 October 2025
Diamond dust, tapioca snow, and sugar icebergs — a 1955 glossary of arctic and subarctic terms describes the environment in ways that sound poetic. An...
Brass Tacks - 29 September 2025
Why would some Spanish speakers use adaptations of certain English words when perfectly good Spanish words for the same thing already exist? Plus, han...
Sleepy Winks (Rebroadcast) - 22 September 2025
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bul...