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MARYLAND REP

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How do you pronounce the word macabre, meaning “morbid” or “gruesome”? The word may go back to the ancient Book of Maccabees, commemorated in medieval France with the danse de Macabré, often depicted in art as skeletons leading every type of person, from kings to peasants, to their death. http://waywordradio.org

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Dan in South Bend, Indiana, wonders about the phrase good egg, meaning “a good-natured, kind person.” The expression good egg was preceded by bad egg, that is, a literal egg determined to be undesirable by viewing it close to a candle. Bad apple, on the other hand, meaning “troublemaker,” originally referred to a rotting apple that had the potential to ruin an entire barrel of them, hence One rotten apple spoils the barrel. Variations of this idea of one item causing ruin for many more are reflected in many modern European languages, as well as in Latin. In Spanish and Iberian languages, a similar expression translates as “A bad goat leads the whole flock astray.” http://waywordradio.org

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The owner of a Berlin, Maryland produce stand wants to know: When a customer is buying four ears of corn, should they say I have four corn or I have four ears of corn? Corn is a mass noun that can also be counted as a plural, just as we might say I have four coffees, even though coffee is generally thought of as a mass, or uncountable, noun. http://waywordradio.org

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Vlad in Tucson, Arizona wonders: How did white dog come to be a slang term for whiskey that’s not yet been sufficiently aged? It probably has to do with the natural coloration process, during which whiskey assumes the color of barrel in which it’s aged. It may also be connected to the terms white lightning and white mule referring to the clarity and kick or bite of the drink. The idea of hair of the dog, referring to a hangover remedy, goes all the way back to antiquity, but is unrelated to white dog. http://waywordradio.org

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Salon magazine writer Andi Zeisler likens the em-dash to black licorice: ”Those who like it love it; those who don’t will loudly and repeatedly let you know.” http://waywordradio.org

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The word emoji is a combination of the Japanese words e for “picture” and moji “written character,” so the blend emoji literally means “pictogram.” In Japanese, the word emoji can be used as either singular or plural, and in English, the plural can be either emoji or emojis. http://waywordradio.org

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For a deep dive into the world of emoji, check out Keith Houston’s new book, Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of the Emoji (Bookshop|Amazon). Emoji offer what’s called paralinguistic restitution, that is, restoring to written language elements that are otherwise lacking. Among younger users, the skull emoji suggests laughter, inferring the slang expression I’m dead, meaning “I’m laughing myself to death. Similarly, the blue trucker’s cap emoji can accuse someone of lying, because it can indicate the slang term cap meaning “lie.” Houston is also the author of a wonderful book on the history of punctuation called Shady Characters. (Bookshop|Amazon), which tells the story of the @ sign. http://waywordradio.org

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In Japanese, the word san (さん) means “three” and kyuu (きゅう) means “nine.” Said together, the words sound like English “thank you,” so back in the 1990s, when pagers were all the rage among Japanese teens, typing 999 was a quick way to punningly thank someone. http://waywordradio.org

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The wise Italian saying La mamma degli scemi è sempre incinta translates as “The mother of fools is always pregnant.” http://waywordradio.org

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Quiz Guy John Chaneski has been busy writing sequels to famous novels inspired by changing the tense of verbs in their titles. For example, what might be his new iteration of a classic Gabriel García Márquez tale about two romantic youths who became enamored in Colombia during the turn of the last century? http://waywordradio.org

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