A Way with Words

Series produced by A Way with Words

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A Way with Words is a national, lively, hour-long public radio show about language, on the air since 1998. Author/journalist Martha Barnette and linguist/lexicographer Grant Barrett take listener calls about slang, grammar, old sayings, word origins, regional dialects, family expressions, and speaking and writing well. There are no carriage fees.

Learn more about the show, its hosts, and its history, and read station and listener testimonials on the A Way with Words website.


218 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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If you catch your blue jeans on a nail, you may find yourself with a winklehawk. This term was adapted into English from Dutch, and means "an L-sha...

Bought by KUAT, Tri States Public Radio, KQRU FM LP, KTXK, KTSW 89.9 and more


  • Added: Jul 13, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
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An ornithologist says there's a growing movement to change the name of a pink-footed bird currently called the flesh-footed shearwater. The movemen...

Bought by KUAT, Tri States Public Radio, KQRU FM LP, KTXK, KTSW 89.9 and more


  • Added: Jul 20, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
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Are there words and phrases that you misunderstood for an embarrassingly long time? Maybe you thought that money laundering literally meant washing...

Bought by KUAT, Tri States Public Radio, KQRU FM LP, KTXK, RadioStPete Florida and more


  • Added: Jul 27, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
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We have books that should be on every language lover's wish list, plus a couple of recommendations for history buffs. Plus: how did the word boondo...

Bought by KUAT, Tri States Public Radio, KTXK, KQRU FM LP, WCMU Michigan and more


  • Added: Aug 04, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
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What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry ...

Bought by KUAT, Tri States Public Radio, KTXK, KZMU Moab Community Radio, WCMU Michigan and more


  • Added: Aug 10, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
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Chances are you recognize the expressions Judgment Day and the root of all evil as phrases from the Bible. There are many others, though, some of w...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, Tri States Public Radio, KTXK, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Aug 17, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
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How does social context shape our perception of language? When hiking the Appalachian Trail, a young woman from Wyoming found that fellow hikers a...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, Tri States Public Radio, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Aug 24, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
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If you speak both German and Spanish, you may find yourself reaching for a German word instead of a Spanish one, and vice versa. This puzzling expe...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, KTXK, Royalton Community Radio, WRFA-LP and more


  • Added: Sep 01, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
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Some TV commercials launch catchphrases that stick around long after the original ads. The exclamation Good stuff, Maynard! is still a compliment a...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, Tri States Public Radio, KTXK, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Sep 08, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
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The emotional appeal of handwriting and the emotional reveal of animal phrases. Should children be taught cursive writing in school, or is their ti...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, Tri States Public Radio, KTXK, WCMU Michigan and more


  • Added: Sep 15, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
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Jacuzzi and silhouette are eponyms – that is, they derive from the names of people. An Italian immigrant to California invented the bubbly hot tub ...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, KTXK, WSLR, WMMT and more


  • Added: Sep 22, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
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When you had sleepovers as a child, what did you call the makeshift beds you made on the floor? In some places, you call those bedclothes and blank...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, KTXK, Royalton Community Radio, WYAP and more


  • Added: Sep 28, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
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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 ...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, Royalton Community Radio, WYAP, Tri States Public Radio and more


  • Added: Oct 05, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 20
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If someone urges you to spill the tea, they probably don't want you tipping over a hot beverage. Originally, the tea here was the letter T, as in t...

Bought by KUAT, KQRU FM LP, Royalton Community Radio, WYAP, WNIN and more


  • Added: Oct 13, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 20
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Asthenosphere, a geologist's term for the molten layer beneath the earth's crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece t...

Bought by KUAT, KTXK, KQRU FM LP, Royalton Community Radio, WYAP and more


  • Added: Oct 19, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 20
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We asked for your thoughts about whether cursive writing should be taught in schools -- and you replied with a resounding "Yes!" Here's why: Cursiv...

Bought by KUAT, KTXK, Royalton Community Radio, WYAP, KHOL (Jackson Hole Community Radio) and more


  • Added: Oct 26, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 20
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Stunt performers in movies have their own jargon for talking about their dangerous work. They refer to a stunt, for example, as a gag. Across the c...

Bought by KUAT, KTXK, WSLR, KTSW 89.9, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Nov 03, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
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In the 15th century, the word respair meant "to have hope again." Although this word fell out of use, it's among dozens collected in a new book of...

Bought by KUAT, WSLR, Royalton Community Radio, KHOL (Jackson Hole Community Radio), WPCA-LP and more


  • Added: Nov 09, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
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How do actors bring Shakespeare's lines to life so that modern audiences immediately understand the text? One way is to emphasize the names of peop...

Bought by KUAT, KTSW 89.9, WNIN, KHOL (Jackson Hole Community Radio), WYAP and more


  • Added: Nov 16, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
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The autocomplete function on your phone comes in handy, of course. But is it changing the way we write and how linguists study language? Also, supp...

Bought by KUAT, WSLR, KTSW 89.9, WYAP, KTXK and more


  • Added: Nov 24, 2020
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18