Scooter Pooting (Rebroadcast) - 26 May 2025
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You're listening to A Way With Words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. You've probably had this experience. You're waiting for a bus, and you keep waiting, and you keep waiting, and other buses go past that aren't going to the destination that you want, and you keep waiting, and then three buses show up, and they're all going to the same place you were planning to go. Yes. Thank you, New York City MTA. Which always seemed to be the problem there. Yeah.

Well, did you know that there's a term for this? It's bunching or something, isn't it? That's it. I should have known that you would know the transportation jargon. Yes, it's called bus bunching or banana bus. Banana bus? What? Why is it called banana bus? Because it's a bunch. Oh, because it's a bunch.

Yeah, and other terms for this are clumping or convoying or piggybacking or platooning, but it refers to a group of two or more vehicles, like buses or trains that are running along the same route, and they're supposed to be evenly spaced, but then one of them gets delayed and it messes up everything. And it's just, I've been spending a little time, of course, looking at how transportation analysts try to figure out how to make that not happen.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So do you have the second and the third buses pass the first? Because the first one picks up more passengers, so it's going to be slower loading and unloading, right? Right, right. Or if it's slowed down by picking up, say, someone in a wheelchair or...

Just doesn't make it through a light in time too many times. Yeah. That's a good question. Yeah. And then more people show up and hop on that bus. And that means that for the next bus, there are fewer people. So it's going even faster. Right. It can just sail by some stops because there's nobody waiting and nobody wants to get off. So shout out to all of you who are working to prevent bus bunching. And shout out to our Lingua bunch. We're a show about language and we like to talk about anything related to language.

Whether it's grammar, new words, slang, old words, stuff that the family says, stuff that the kids brought home, or a word that we need that English just doesn't seem to have. And if you're a second language speaker of English, we'd like to talk to you too. What's the big mystery of English that you really had to get your mind around? Let us know. 877-929-9673. Or explain it and tell us your thoughts in email, words at waywardradio.org.

Hello, you have a way with words. Hello, this is Mary. I'm in Alexandria, Virginia, a stone's throw from George Washington's home. Yeah, what would you like to talk with us about, Mary? Sometime in the most recent past, I, on Zoom, watched a presentation on ageism, and my mind has been chewing that topic up like a dog with a bone. Okay.

And I've become more and more aware of the euphemisms that we use to avoid using the word old. The one word that made me contact you is the word senior, because we say senior citizens.

So I went to the dictionary to see what the dictionary says. Well, the first two definitions are like in school or rank. The last one is elderly. And so my question is,

Has that third definition always been there, or is it connected with the fact that we now use the euphemism senior citizen? Oh, what a great topic you've opened up, Mary. There's lots and lots to say about this.

So how do you feel about it? Now that I'm aware of it, I'm making changes in how I see myself and how I react to other people. When they say to me, oh, 80 is the new 60, I say, well, this is the new 80. I like that.

I like that a lot. And when the topic of old comes up, I say, you know what? If you're lucky, you'll get old. Exactly right. Yeah, I like that. This is what 80 looks like. Well, I am very lucky to be in good health, but we have such a negative image.

image and such a fear of aging. The other thought that came to mind is, of course, that we are now sending people, I think the AARP magazine starts at 50 or 55. Right. And lifespans are extending. It's not uncommon for people to live to 90 and 100. Right.

Right, right. So what's old? And what is senior? I mean, there are all sorts of different connotations for that word. I mean, back in the 14th century, the word senior didn't only mean that you were up in years. It could mean that you were older than someone. You know, you were the senior person. Yes, it was a ranking. Yes, and the other sense of it was that it was venerated. You know, it was a word that was applied to, for example, church elders. Yes.

And I have to take a moment, Mary, and digress on the etymology a little bit because it's really interesting. It comes from the Latin senix, which means old man in Latin, and that's where we get the word senate. It was originally a council of elders. Of course, it's also the origin of the term senility, but there are these words that have to do with advanced age that have that S-E-N in them.

The term senior citizen, that one bothers me. And it sounds like it bothers you a little bit. Sort of. I don't understand the whole thing about aging. I've always told my true age. I don't understand why people don't tell their true age. I'm proud of it. Right. I agree with you. To me, there's something a little bit...

I guess, condescending about the term senior citizen. It was apparently popularized in the 1930s by a Californian named Sheridan Downey, who successfully ran for the U.S. Senate and served for many years. And he was using it as kind of a euphemism or a more appealing term. I say it isn't what I look like, but what I can do. Sure. That's important.

Because they now start aging at 50 or 55 or whatever, I'm approaching 82. I say I'm middle old. You're middle old. Middle old. I've been going around about this myself, you know, as I get older. And I've seen other terms that people have suggested like vintage or super adults or golden agers. And more recently, somebody suggested the term perennials, suggesting that people

that perennials could be applied to anybody who's ever-blooming, a curious person of any age who wants to know what's happening in the world and that kind of thing. But I don't like that term. But, you know, Martha, we're circling around the euphemism treadmill here. This is really what we're talking about.

This idea that we have terms that are perfectly good and then they become skunked. They kind of become ruined or stale or kind of poisoned a little bit. And then we have to come up with something else that's fresh and new that sounds really good. And then in turn goes bad. And we keep replacing them with something a little different.

a little more pristine until it's soiled. And this happens again and again and again. It happens with a lot of different fields. Aging is just one of them. How do we make old a positive instead of a negative? That is a fantastic question, and I'm sure that our listeners are going to want to weigh in on this. I've come around just to the term older.

An older person. Yeah, I'm old. Because you're always going to have people younger than you, and probably you're going to have people older than you. You have raised a fantastic topic, Mary, and I'm sure we're going to hear lots and lots about this. People want to weigh in on this, and we're going to hear about it. So thank you for raising the topic, Mary. We appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me. Take care now. Bye-bye. Thanks, Mary. Be well.

877-929-9673. Email words at waywardradio.org. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, this is Anna Jo from Bellingham, Washington. Well, my roommates are just a little bit younger than me, but it's the kind of younger where they know all kinds of words and all kinds of songs that I don't.

And sometimes they think this is so, so funny that they won't tell me what they mean by words. And there's one that's been driving me crazy lately because it seems to mean opposites. They've been saying bet to about everything. B-E-T, bet. B-E-T, like what you do at the blackjack table.

Okay, so in what context would they say this? Can you give us an example? It seems to mostly mean, I believe you and I don't believe you. I say, I'm going to see if I can finish the whole album today. They say, bet. And they never say it quiet. It's always pushed a little bit. And do they say it like a question? Are you raising your voice at the end of that? Bet?

Is it like that? You know, it does have that tone scoop, but I think it's more of a challenge than a question. That's just how it feels. It really has something of a vogue in the last five to ten years. But you know about bet, use this way. Sometimes it's just a single word. Sometimes it's duplicated or even triplicated as bet, bet or bet, bet, bet.

And often it is used to mean sure or yes, okay, good, cool. And it's used in exactly that way. It's kind of an affirmative statement after somebody else says something. But it's at least 30 years old. So these young folks who are gatekeeping you are using old people slang. And you can tell them I said that. I will. I will. I will.

It probably started among African-American youth about 30 years ago or more. And it quickly spread to African-American college students, to all college students. And it's had a gradual rise ever since. And it's really stayed kind of under the surface again into the last five or 10 years when it just kind of exploded. And it's probably simply a shortening of UBET, which is a lot older now.

And it's very American slang. You're just not really going to find this in much of the rest of the English-speaking world, this particular use of bet in this way. Yeah, so my sense would be that you would say, do you want to go get a coffee? And I say bet, meaning, yes, I really want to go. But it sounds like your roommates are using it in a sarcastic way. Yeah. Or challenging you a little bit. It feels like the person saying bet is

isn't really exerting effort anywhere else. They're just sitting in their nice chair saying, bet watching me do my thing. Yeah, they're just rolling it. It's going to be so played out so fast. That's the problem when you use slang too much. It dies a quick death. So just know that this fad will pass quickly and you just won't have to put up with it. It'll be something new and annoying after this. Yeah.

Finally, some good news. Yeah. Anna, I hope this helped somewhat, but you just tell them that that is 30-year-old slang. The linguist and lexicographer Connie Ebley recorded Bette use this way among her college students at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1991.

So, and that just means that she recorded, yeah, and she recorded it there. So it's certainly older than that. So great to talk to you both. Great talking to you too. Bye-bye. All righty. Bye-bye. We know you're having conversations with your family or your roommates or your coworkers about language. So give us a call, 877-929-9673 and tell us about it. Or send an email to words at waywardradio.org.

More of what we say and why we say it as A Way With Words continues.

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You're listening to A Way With Words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Martha Barnett.

And I'm Grant Barrett, and we're joined by our quiz guy, John Chinesky. Hi, John. Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. Today's quiz is inspired by those word rebuses that used to be a staple of Xerox culture, but have persevered to become passed around the internet. Now, a word rebus consists of a word or two or a phrase, usually presented in some way as to suggest a famous phrase. For example, you might see a square, and next to it the word think, and the answer to that word rebus would be...

Do you know what that is? Think outside the box. Yes, exactly. Think outside the box. Simple little visual little thing. But we're going to do it on the radio. This quiz is special in that it only uses parts of words. I'll describe the letters you see and some blanks, but they will always illustrate only part of a word. Now, since you can't see the remiss, I'll give you a hint as well. For example, if the hint is a part of a football game,

and the rebus is T-I blank blank, the answer would be halftime. Got it? Oh, Lord. Okay. Yeah, you can get this. You might need a pencil for some of these, but I think you can do them in your head. Let's try. Here's a prediction in the newspaper. C-L-O-U blank blank. C-L-O-U blank blank.

Partly cloudy. Partly cloudy, yes. I would also have accepted mostly cloudy since it is four of the six letters. Yeah, very good. Now, they're big but not active. Blank, I-L-E-N, blank. I-L-E-N, blank. Silent majority. Yes, exactly. I-L-E-N is a majority of the word silent. Very good.

These are often found in a dictionary. Blank P, blank E, blank H. Parts of speech. Parts of speech. Yes, parts of speech. Good. This is a topic of discussion at a salon. S, blank, blank, blank, T. Not split ends. It is split ends. Oh, split ends. There we go. Very good. Nice. You might get one at a wedding. B, E, T, blank, blank, blank.

Better offer. No. You've got the word. You've got part of it. Better offer. Better half. Better half. Better half. Yes. Each get a better half. Each is half of better. What weddings are you going to, Martha? You're going to the exciting ones. Yeah, that's cool.

All right, guys. I call those part rebuses because they're all parts of words. And you did very, very well. Nice work. All right. Take care, John. Give our best to the family. You too. Talk to you next week. All right. Bye-bye. Stick around for more Semantic Antics 877-929-9673 or send us an email. That address is words at waywardradio.org.

Hello, you have a way with words. Hello, my name is Terry Wilson and I am calling from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Hi Terry, welcome to the show. What's on your mind? Well, I was listening to your show a month or so ago and I got thinking about a term that was used back in my hometown of Akron, Ohio.

And I have never heard it used anywhere else before. Since then, I've traveled a lot and lived in different places. And the term is Devil's Strip. Tell us what you know about Devil's Strip. In my hometown of Akron, Ohio, the Devil's Strip was the little strip of land between the sidewalk and the street. And the curb, in other words.

And it was actually city property, but everybody was responsible for keeping it mowed. It was actually, I think, where probably some of the utility meters were located, like the water meter and so on. But it was just considered, you know, part of our place. And I can remember my dad saying, you know, hey, I'm going to go out and mow the lawn. Don't forget to mow the devil's strip. And I would say, okay, no problem. So it's a space...

Space between the sidewalk and the road, the little strip of grass there. Yeah, that's it. Boy, have we got a story for you. You know, there's a reason that this is famous among people who study American dialects and American regionalisms. It's because this term...

is currently only used in Akron, Ohio. It's not used anywhere else. Now, it used to be. You used to be able to find it in Rochester and Buffalo, New York, or Toronto and Montreal and Ottawa. But for some reason, it only seems to last in Ohio.

But the reason this is famous among people studying American dialects is there's a forensic linguist by the name of Roger Shai. And there was this well-known kidnapping case where the police came to him with a note that a kidnapper had given them, a ransom note. And the note said, no cops, come alone. And the cops was spelled with a K. And then it said, put it in the green trash can, and can was spelled with a K, on the Devil's Strip at the corner of 18th and Carlson.

And so Roger Shy, he says, is one of your suspects an educated man born in Akron, Ohio? And the cops were amazed. And Roger said, first, nobody would actually spell cop and can with a K, even if they were poorly educated. So it's clearly somebody who's well-educated trying to look uneducated. And second, devil's strip is only used in Akron, Ohio currently.

Other places call it things like a sidewalk buffer or the tree lawn, but or have no name for it at all. And so they solved the case because only one person that they were considering as a suspect was from Akron, Ohio. Wow. That is cool. Yeah. Great. Well, you know, the only other time I've ever heard anybody say anything about it.

and it was really a different strip, was that they said back in the late 1800s when there were streetcars that they often called the little strip of land between the streetcars that were going one direction or the other because basically it was a very dangerous place to be.

That is exactly right. You're talking about when you have two sets of streetcar tracks going in opposite directions, and there's like this strip of surface between them, and people might want to walk or bicycle there. But if you get caught there, you might get caught between two streetcars going in opposite directions. And if you're a little wider than the space allowed by those streetcars overhanging their tracks, you're going to get crushed. And actually, if you look in old newspapers, you will find stories of

of people being killed or severely injured by walking on the devil's strip between streetcars. Wow.

Interesting. Well, Terry, I am so excited to hear from somebody who is from Akron who uses that term devil's strip because that is one of my favorite stories in all the forensic linguistics. You know, they use linguist talents to solve crimes sometimes, and that's such a great example of it. So I love that you brought that field report to us. I'm glad I could. I enjoyed it. Thank you, Terry. Take care and give us another call sometime. Okay. All right. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Bye-bye. Bye, Terry.

877-929-9673.

Grant, you remember our call from Quinn who wanted to know why is Q so often followed by U? Yes. Quinn, who was five and three quarters years old and was very adorable, had a great question. Yes. Well, as it turns out, there is a brand new book on this topic and it's called Q and U Call It Quits. It's by Steph Wade and it's illustrated by Jorge Martin.

and it's for children ages four to eight. And I just love the advertising copy. It says, what happens when best friends Q and U quarrel? It's a real quandary since they've always been quality friends, a true squad. But sometimes U wants time to herself, even though Q is lonely because he doesn't always fit in with the other letters without her. When the rest of the alphabet notices the split,

They decide to do the same, and utter chaos ensues. Can Q and U come together to quell the mayhem and help the letters repair their friendships? You've got to read this book. Yeah, no question.

Very good. It's actually from the quill tree imprint of HarperCollins. Lovely. What's the title again, Martha? Q and U Call It Quits. I hope somebody gives that book to Quinn. Fantastic. Send us your book recommendations and we'll take a peek. Words at waywardradio.org.

Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, this is Pavika. I'm calling from San Diego. Pavika, welcome to the show. How can we help you? Hi, my question is about a phrase that I heard in a class. The phrase is, too clever by half.

Now that phrase, I hadn't heard it before, but I've heard the Gujarati version, which is the language we speak at home. It's duvday, which basically means one and a half times clever. So I was wondering how it works, whether it was originated in England or in India and like what the roots of that phrase are.

Oh, okay. And what is your sense of what that expression means? How would you use it? Yeah, so my family uses it to tease me. They say I'm dodai. I'm a little bit too clever. So if I'm saying something, maybe like saying something with a smart mouth, then they tease me for it. So it's not necessarily a good thing. Yeah. So you're more clever than you are prudent, maybe. Yeah.

I think that's about right. Yeah, that's a good question. So which language did it start in? I'm happy to hear that it's in another language. I wouldn't know for sure that it started in English, but I suspect that it did start in English because I don't know of it in any other language except for now these two. And it has been in English in some form or another,

this particular part of it, the "by half" for about 400 years. So the "too clever by half" is just one iteration of it. So "by half" can mean a lot or considerably and it's not necessarily negatively. So as far back as the 1600s, we can find print examples of "fairer by half" meaning prettier by half, meaning too pretty or very pretty.

And then we see by the 1830s people being described as too clever by half. And so my suspicion is that the hundreds of years of British history in India, besides leaving a slew of English speakers there and many other imprints of their culture in the subcontinent,

also left this phrase as well, and then it was borrowed into Gujarati so that some of the 50 million speakers of the language use it. That's my suspicion. Hard to know. I don't have any etymological dictionaries of that language, nor do I speak it, so...

But that's my guess, because the imprint of English in the subcontinent is deep and vast and quirky, even. Wow, thank you. And how do you spell the word that you were using? So it's difficult because in English there is only one letter D, but in Gujarati there are four ways to pronounce the letter D. And this one uses three of them. So that's three different D letters. Ah, I see. Interesting.

And it means literally what again? So dood means one and a half. And di is like clever or good. So my question is, what are you doing in your family when they call you...

When they call you too clever by half, you have a quick wit or a smart mouth or you just get yourself into trouble that you can't get yourself out of? Yeah, I think it's quick wit, smart mouth. If, for example, if somebody says something to me and my response is very quick, then it's like, oh, you're being don't die. So, yeah.

It's used endearingly and lovingly, but it's not necessarily a good thing. Yeah, that's how it is in English, too. Well, thank you so much for calling and sharing that information. It was a delight to talk with you, Babilka. Take care. Thank you.

You too. Bye-bye. Well, we love hearing from listeners who speak more than one language. We'd love to hear your thoughts about English or your own native tongue. So give us a call, 877-929-9673, or tell us what you've observed in email. That address is words at waywardradio.org. Hello, you have a way with words. Hey, guys. My name is Logan Weber. I'm calling from Greenville, North Carolina. Hi, Logan. Welcome to the show. Hey, Logan. What's up? I have...

A question about a phrase I grew up hearing, scooter poot. Scooter poot? Is that a noun or a verb? I've heard it in both ways, actually. So basically in usage, I would hear like, so what did you do today? Oh, I went scooter pooting. Okay.

Or, I did some scooter pooting today. So mostly as a verb, I guess. Okay. So if you're scooter pooting, what are you doing? So in how I understood it, it's kind of just like going around town, doing errands, kind of just piddling around, um...

Just driving around town, I guess. Who's saying this? Well, my mother actually was the one I heard it the most from. I guess it would be like my mom and my grandma on my mom's side. So they weren't necessarily on a scooter riding around.

No, no, no. We've never had a scooter. We've never owned a scooter. So, yeah, it's always just in cars. I kind of thought it may be scooter-related, just like maybe the sound a scooter makes when you're driving it around, but I never knew. And have you heard anybody outside your family use this term? No, not once. Okay, because this term has been floating around for a while, and I believe the earliest version of it is scooter pooping with a P rather than a T. Oh, okay.

Yeah, at least back to the late 1930s. And in fact, you can look at databases of newspapers and there's one little story that made the rounds again and again and again in 1938 when a reporter in Savannah, Georgia, wrote a little piece about a conversation that he had with a girl who said she'd been invited to go scooter pooping.

And this reporter had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. So he asked some of the younger employees at the newspaper, and he learned that scooter pooping is, quote, currently a popular term for going out and having a good time. And the reporter ended the little story by saying that he returned to his typewriter feeling very old. Well, that's...

even more interesting than I was expecting. Scooter pooping, okay. Scooter pooping, yeah. Is there like an origin...

why they, I guess, where the poop part came from? No, that's the mystery, Logan. That is a big mystery. We've got theories, though, don't we, Martha? Yeah, I mean, part of it is just the fun of the rhyme, I think, Scooter Pooping. But it could be just, you know, tooting around, tooling around. It's just the idea that you're not really making a lot of progress. You're just, you

you know, putt-puttin' from place to place. Yeah, and scooter is an old slang term for automobile, so it could have had to do with that. But we've gotten calls over the years about this. Beverly Sanders called us last year and left a voicemail talking about... Actually, she was asking about another phrase that her mother used to use instead of saying, well, land's sake, or my goodness. Her mother would say, well, my cow on a surfboard. But...

In passing, she also mentioned that her mother and her friends, when they were going out at night to go clubbing or socializing, they would go scooter pooping.

I'm not sure where she was from. Yeah, and she said that was around the 1950s. We also heard from Rachel Waters from Wilmore, Kentucky, and she knew it as Scooty Poopin', which she learned from her former Kentucky in-laws. We also heard from Kelly Gilliam in New Yorktown, Virginia, Lindsey Green from Arizona, and Dee Morton in Texas, who all knew some form of the term. So it's gotten out there. It's still in use here and there, and people still know it.

There's a lot of scooter pooping going on out there. So it's national. Okay. Yeah, it does seem to be associated mainly southern, though. It does seem to be mainly southern. And interestingly, the earliest use we found in print is attributed to a boy in North Carolina in 1937, which is where you are now. So...

I don't know that there's a North Carolina connection, but it was just an interesting coincidence. Yeah, that is actually way more interesting than I was suspecting. Well, Logan, we're really glad you called. Happy scooter pooping. Yeah. Thank you so much. You too, guys. Thank you so much. All right. Take care. Thanks, Logan. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Children, this is the line to call when your parents say something mystifying. When your parents pull out that old rusty lingo, the dusty stuff that you just can't make out, give us a call. We'll try to explain it. 877-929-9673. And parents, when the kids come home from school with that shiny new glittery chrome slang, well, we'll try to puzzle that out too. Let us know words at waywardradio.org.

This show is about language seen through family, history, and culture. Stay tuned for more of A Way With Words.

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You're listening to A Way With Words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. As long as there have been books, people have been writing in the margins. You probably made notes yourself in a book agreeing with what the author said or maybe disputing it. Or maybe you personalized a book for someone with a gift inscription.

In the 19th century, books were even a kind of social media. They were especially popular as gifts because they were cheap enough now to be owned by the middle class, but they were enough of an investment that people hung on to them for their whole lives, and families tended to pass them down from one generation to the next. In fact, books were considered so precious that eventually many of them ended up being donated to libraries.

But this means that increasingly libraries face the challenge of deciding which books to clear out and digitize to make room for more. And there's a really cool project that began at the University of Virginia using a cadre of researchers and volunteers to seek out what they call this shadow archive of history.

This effort has now spread to other colleges and universities, and it's described in the new book called Book Traces, 19th Century Readers and the Future of the Library. It's by Andrew Stauffer, who's an associate professor of English at the University of Virginia.

And I love this example. He describes a volume of poetry that they found, and it has a penciled inscription above one of the poems saying that it was read to a woman who died in childbirth. A short time before she died, the woman had asked her mother to read that poem to her.

and a family member later noted that in pencil on the page above the poem. They even pasted the woman's newspaper obit in the front of that anthology and attached a flower. And Grant, it's a touching window into both the role of poetry and the role of book

in the lives of 19th century Americans. And there are lots of examples like that in the book, and it just, it makes you wonder what's out there on the shelves just waiting to be discovered and what we're losing in the process of what they call deaccessioning volumes.

Oh, I have so much to say about this. Oh, good. Well, the first thing is I spend a lot of time on archive.org researching the history of words because they have many scanned books, which are often deaccessioned books from libraries. And you will often find that these books at one point were gifts from person A to person B. So there'll be an inscription in the front.

You know, something like, to Bill on your birthday, many happy returns or something like that. It's usually fairly innocuous. But Bill owned this book and he had this and it was for his birthday and somebody thought it was for him. And it's just nice to see that this book had a history. Someone cared enough to buy it and to give it as a gift. And that's a history. That's a story, right? But in my own collection of books and my own used books that I've bought, I have found many things, including...

A receipt from the 1970s for a casino in Lebanon. Wow. Yeah, an adorable photo of a mother nursing a child.

A letter. I bought a book as part of an estate sale for a lexicographer well-known in my industry. And I found a letter that she'd written to another lexicographer about a third lexicographer in which she described him in unkind terms. And apparently he was something of a rascal. Somebody's story and somebody's life is opened up to me when I find stuff in books.

Right. This reminds me of when I was a little kid and I checked out of our church library a copy of Little Women. And I got about halfway through and I hadn't realized that someone had pressed four-leaf clovers into the pages after the halfway point.

Grant, when I saw the first one, it just took my breath away. You know, I mean, imagine some little girl, she's reading Little Women and she's maybe, maybe she's outdoors reading Little Women and she's also looking for four-leaf clovers. It gave you a picture of a time and a place and a person. Yeah. Yeah. And a connection. Yeah. It was the connection that took my breath away. What's the most curious thing that you found in the book?

Share what you found with us so we can share it with the world. 877-929-9673. And share your used book discoveries with us and email to words at waywardradio.org. And if you've got pictures, we'd love to see them. Put them on Twitter at W-A-Y-W-O-R-D.

Hi there, you have a way with words. Hi, this is Joan. I'm calling from McKinney, Texas. I'm originally from New Jersey, but I moved out here recently to be near my grandchildren. What's on your mind? I've always had an interest in the origin of words. I decided to suggest a word that's really been fun

on my mind for a long time, and it's the word knucklehead. Knucklehead. Do you call people knuckleheads? Like your grandkids? No. I don't. Do people call you knucklehead? No, no. Okay. You know, the first thing I thought about was a ventriloquist and a dummy.

That's what it reminded me of, like a dummy. And then my mind went to the Twilight Zone because they had dummies on that series a lot. And they were really scary. As a kid, you know? You know, I hadn't thought of that. But, you know, you're not far off from why we call people knuckleheads, right?

And it's the same reason we might call people a bonehead or a blockhead. The idea behind all three of these words is that there's no room for brains. All that's up there is wood if you're a blockhead or bone if you're a bonehead or knuckle if you're a knucklehead. It's just...

knuckle all the way through. No brains. It just kind of means you're dope. You're dumb dumb. It's not nice, but I think knucklehead is said with a lot of humor these days. I think it's a very mild deprecation, a very mild insult.

You might look at somebody who is trying to, let's say, put a grocery card back and not really getting it in the slot very well. And they keep trying to say, look at this knucklehead. What is he doing? You know, it's just kind of a good natured insult, I think. I wasn't sure. You know, I was on the fence whether or not it was good natured or if it was really disparaging. But I'm glad to hear that. Yeah. And it goes, it's got a little bit of a history now.

As far back as the 1860s, there were a variety of different coupling devices in oil drilling and railroading and other things.

that had the name knuckleheads or just knuckles because they kind of looked like knuckles on the hand, kind of these curved devices that connect to each other. But I don't think that's the origin and neither do any of my colleagues who've looked into this. But by 1890, we find knucklehead as an insult. And it pops up here and there as a nickname, but it kind of faded out of use eventually.

Until World War II, when the U.S. military had a cartoon character named Cadet R.F. Knucklehead. He was used by the Army Air Force starting in 1941.

pilots what not to do when flying. He was just really this, how should I put this? He was the antithesis of an ace, an ace pilot, you know? He always did the wrong thing. He didn't do his flight checks. He didn't prep his plane. He flew the plane incorrectly. He was always prone to accidents. He was kind of a danger to himself and others. And after that, Knucklehead kind of took on a new life, not only in the Army Air Force,

But other branches of the service started popping up in the slang and jargon of the Air Force, spread throughout the military, and then spread with more force into the larger population. And, of course, we may know Knucklehead through the Three Stooges, but really had a lot more life after that. And then it's kind of, again, faded away.

out of use ever since. Wow, that's very interesting. I didn't realize that the origin of the word went way back. So there you go, John. That's great. Thank you so much. Sure, we appreciate your calling. Our pleasure. Take care now. Bye-bye. 877-929-9673. Email words at waywardradio.org.

We heard from Eric Ceresky in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He writes, when I was a five-year-old kindergartner who loved science and electricity, you can imagine how excited I was when the teacher called all of us to line up because we're going to the laboratory. After a short walk from the classroom, we arrived at the lavatory. I think I'm still disappointed to this day. Oh, poor thing.

Poor kid. 877-929-9673. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, Martha, this is John. I'm calling from the Chicagoland area. What's up? Hi, John. Welcome to the show. What can we do for you? Well, a couple weeks ago, I posted a...

A phrase that I heard when I was a kid and, you know, we were hanging out. We were all talking and one kid said, you're selling me wolf tickets.

And we were all confused. We didn't know what that meant. And he explained it. And I thought it was such a great saying, you know, rather than calling you a liar, it's a nice way of saying you're lying. Ah, you're just selling wolf tickets. Yeah, you're selling wolf tickets. Or you're selling me wolf tickets. And so that's Wolf, W-O-L-F, Wolf? Yes, Wolf.

So what does it mean if one kid says to another, oh, you're selling me wolf tickets? What do they mean? They mean they're basically calling you a liar. You know, trying to pull a fast one over them. And I guess it comes from the boy that cried wolf. Yeah, that's generally what we believe. We think that it's just a version of...

of the old story about somebody who lied, lied, lied, and then finally told the truth. The earliest use that I know of is in the 1940s and no further back than that. There's also just the verb "to wolf" or "wolfing." The variations in meaning can be

It might not just be about lying, but you could be bragging or talking big. And there also could be the idea of challenging someone or stepping to, like you're kind of mean-mugging them or like, you know, showing how tough you are. But maybe you're not really down to battle. You're just making yourself known, kind of claiming and owning your space, you know?

Sometimes it's spelled woof, W-O-O-F, because it's one of these terms that's primarily transmitted orally. And so the L kind of disappears. It sounds like woof instead of wolf.

And it's got a heavy association, a strong association with black Americans. African-Americans tend to use this and it pops up again and again and again in books of African-American English and slang collections. There's also the idea of buying wolf tickets, which is somebody like is threatening you when you believe them. And that's kind of a problem because a lot of times this is just about show, right?

You're not being earnestly tough. You're not really wanting to fight. You're just kind of showing off a little bit. Wow, that's really interesting. Thank you both, and have fun. Enjoy the day.

Thanks, John. Take care. Okay, bye-bye. Well, the great thing is we have a lot of listeners, young and old, who can tell us about their slang. Whether you're 14 or 84, call us and let us know about your slang, your language, the way you speak now and the way you spoke then. 877-929-9673. Email words at waywardradio.org.

Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, my name is Dawn Davis from Evansville, Indiana. Hi, Dawn. Welcome to the show. Hey, Dawn. Thank you. What's up? Back in March, my son and I, my 16-year-old and I, went to get our vaccine, our COVID vaccine. And one of the ladies, there was a guy and a girl, one of the ladies made a mistake and she said, oh, Fiddle 6. And so her co-worker said, why do you always say that?

Whenever you make a mistake, she said, well, that's the first thing that comes up, and I've always said it. He said, where does it come from? She said, I don't know. And so I said, that would be a great word for one of my favorite shows, Away With Words. And she said, yes, absolutely. Just let me know where it comes from and where it originated. She said, I have no idea. Oh, fantastic. Well, it'll stick. I can just see it. Yep.

It's a polite way of cursing, a polite swear, right? Yes. Yeah. I appreciate it because my 16-year-old was there. Well, that one is pretty straightforward, Dawn. You can tell them that it just goes back to the 17th century, meaning nonsense, and it just has to do with the bow on a fiddle. You know, when you're playing a fiddle and you have that really long, thin bow, and it's kind of...

insubstantial. There was also the expression, a fiddlestick's end, like you might say, I don't care, a fiddlestick's end, meaning that tip of the fiddlestick, the tip of the bow of the violin, which is really small. So it's very straightforward and it's very handy, as you suggested. And I think it's also...

got some appeal because you've got that initial F sound that can release frustration, but you also have the soft I's in there, the I in fiddle and stick. Fiddle sticks. Yeah, it's a satisfying word to shout. That's what she said. She was just so happy. She said, oh, fiddle sticks.

You know, I'm just happy. And, you know, as I said, I don't like using other words. But you know how to explain to my son if you replace a curse word with another word. Yeah, well, it's a really good one for that because sometimes you need a replacement if you're in a certain context, right? Exactly. So, Dawn, are you going to pick that up there in southern Indiana and start using that term? I am. And I have. Okay.

And how about the 16-year-old? Probably not. He thinks it's a little corny, and he thinks I'm corny, so he may not do that. Give him a few years. He'll come to love all your corn, Ma. He'll come to think of everything you do as charming. Just give him a few years. Yeah.

Thank you so much. Take care of yourself and be well, all right? Yeah, thanks for sharing that story. Bye-bye. Thank you so much. Thanks, Dawn. Bye-bye. Well, if you're shouting something else besides fiddlesticks that we can talk about on the air, if there's a little euphemism, an unknown saying, an expression that you blurt out anytime you're frustrated or very happy, well, let's explore it. 877-929-9673. Or we'll dig down deep in email, words at waywardradio.org. ♪

I learned something interesting about the word passenger the other day. Back in the 1300s, the word passenger referred specifically to the pilot of a ferry, you know, a boat that's going back and forth over a body of water. And the original word was passenger, you know, someone who travels along a passage on a boat or ship.

And then in the 1400s, it was also applied to a person who passes by or through a place, you know, somebody who's a traveler. And then that word passenger acquired what linguists call an intrusive N or the parasitic N. So it went from passenger, that is someone making a passage,

And in the early 1500s, people were using the word passenger as we know it today. Oh, that's so interesting. So the N just is a phonetic intrusion. There's no etymological source for it. Well, yeah. And the same thing happened with messenger and scavenger. Oh, interesting. I love it. Yeah. I love it. It's just something that happens when you say a word enough.

It just, it wants an in there. Yeah, it wants that in. And I was just so surprised to learn that it wasn't somebody who was being conveyed on a boat. It was the person steering the boat who was the passenger. Lovely, lovely. There's always a story behind the words.

If you've got a word and you'd love to hear the story, let us know. Talk to us on Twitter at W-A-Y-W-O-R-D. Or give us a call on our line that's toll free in Canada and the United States, 877-929-9673.

Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth Weisler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter, and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at waywardradio.org. Our toll-free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us

words at waywardradio.org. A Way With Words is an independent production of Wayward, Inc., a nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language. Many thanks to Wayward board member and our friend Bruce Rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye-bye. ♪