Episode #012, 25.12.2011: normalcy

Sound: nôr"məl-sē

normal, adjective and noun. Conforming to standard, regular, usual, typical; hence normality (also irregular normalcy).

In a sentence: “The nation will return to normalcy.”

This word is very much associated with 29^th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding. In the election of 1920, Harding promised “a return to normalcy”. At that time some people thought that normalcy was a word that Harding made up or used inappropriately. I was indeed told in social studies in high school that he coined the word. This is not true. The term can in fact be found in dictionaries that date back as far as 1857.

But it is true, that people rather tend to use the word normality instead. It turns out that Harding did not have a problem with the English language – however he is still considered by many to have been one of the worst US presidents.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States)

Be that as it may, words can be tricky.

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Episode #011, 18.12.2011: caboodle

caboodle, noun. Slang. The whole caboodle, all the lot (persons or things). U.S., of unknown origin; compare boodle.

Boodle, noun. Crowd, pack, lot.

In a sentence: “First he wanted to take just certain things, but then he took the whole caboodle.”

Caboodle is a US slang term from the mid 19^th century. Myself I have never heard this funny sounding word in that sense.

However, Elliot Reid, one of the main characters in the series Scrubs, uses the term. When asked about it, she replies, “It’s a word I'm trying out to replace ass. I have loose morals and I'm living in sin. I'm still hoping that not being a potty mouth will get me into heaven!”

She also uses her made-up word caboodle hole. Sounds a lot nicer, doesn’t it? But then again, what’s the point of insulting then?

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Episode #010, 11.12.2011: Spotlight: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Dialogue "I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request."

This episode can again be divided by 5, so it’s another spotlight episode!

The focus is on the following dialogue from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”. The pirates, lead by Captain Barbossa, have attacked Port Royal and taken Elizabeth, one of the main characters, hostage. She, knowing the pirate code, has asked for a “parley”, a truce in order to negotiate.

Elizabeth: Captain Barbossa, I am here to negotiate the cessation of hostilities against Port Royal.

Barbossa: There are a lot of long words in there, Miss; we're naught but humble pirates. What is it that you want?

Elizabeth: I want you to leave and never come back.

Barbossa: I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means "no".

Obviously this dialogue is about how you can say one thing with simple, short words, but also with long, complicated words. We will analyze those words.

Elizabeth says that she’s “here to negotiate the cessation of hostilities against Port Royal”. So she wants to negotiate, i.e. talk to Barbossa in order to reach an agreement. To cease means to stop, so cessation or ceasing means stopping. Hostilities are acts of warfare. Therefore we gather that she wants to convince the pirates to stop attacking Port Royal. As the governor’s daughter, she was taught to talk like that.

Barbossa, however, asserts that “[there] are a lot of long words” and that he and his crew are “naught but humble pirates”, i.e. nothing but humble pirates – implying they are simple minded. Elizabeth rephrases, “I want you to leave and never come back.” which is certainly a much simpler expression.

Barbossa, making fun of her, says “I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” To be inclined to do sth. means to be disposed or willing to do sth., so to be disinclined to do sth. means the opposite. To acquiesce means to agree silently or to accept. And a request is, of course a thing asked for. In short, as he says himself, he means: “No.” A rather fanciful way of conveying such a short word, don’t you think?

But that is the end of this episode. Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

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Episode #009, 4.12.2011: warlock

Sound: /ˈwɔːlɒk/

warlock, noun. Sorcerer, wizard.

In a sentence: “The warlock conjured up a demon.”

This word does not seem to be generally known. People know the word witch and wizard, but not warlock. It seems to me, warlock is a better male version of witch, whereas the proper female version of wizard is wizardess. That’s just my opinion.

I think it is interesting that a lot of magic practitioners today are using that label for themselves. So if you come across it, you now know what it means.

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Episode #008, 27.11.2011: niggardly

Sound: /ˈnɪɡədli/ (UK) or /ˈnɪɡɚdli/ (US)

niggardly, adjective and adverb. Parsimonious, stingy, sparing, scanty, giving or given grudgingly or in small amounts.

In a sentence: “When I asked him about money, he niggardly gave me a quarter.”

Am I racist? No. First of all, I am doing a podcast about words. And I think a choice of words does not always reflect a philosophical opinion.

Niggardly is a very interesting word and it got a lot of people in trouble. It has, in fact, nothing to do with the word nigger, except that it sounds similar.

Niggardly comes from the Old Norse verb nigla, which means “to fuss about small matters”. Niggle, which is a minor complaint or problem, has the same root. Nigger, however, comes from the Spanish or Portuguese word negro, which means black.

So, if you hear the word niggardly, don’t be offended. It’s not racist. Similarly, man can also mean the entire human race, herstory instead of history doesn’t make sense etc., etc.

Words are very interesting. You can express your opinion with them, both explicitly and implicitly. But if you think, somebody said something “offensive”, ask him about his opinion, look a word up in the dictionary or ignore it. Too many people were drawn into controversies because of things they said, even though had people asked them, they would have told them that they didn’t mean to be racist, sexist or otherwise discriminatory. And who are these people who get so easily offended? Don’t they have anything better to do than getting their feelings hurt because somebody said something?

I do love rants! So I wanted to give you one arguing for free speech.

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Funny video: How the English language was developed

Episode #007, 20.11.2011: shenanigan

shenanigan, noun. Wiktionary gives three meanings:

1. Trickery, games; skulduggery. To "call", "claim" or "declare" shenanigans is to rhetorically label something as officially deceitful, improper, or otherwise incorrect.
2. A deceitful confidence trick or mischief causing discomfort or annoyance.
3. Mischievous play, especially by children.

In a sentence: In the movie Juno, the main character of the same name uses this word, “I mean I'm already pregnant so what other kind of shenanigans can I get into?”

Note that this word is much more common in the plural form.

The origin of the word is not really known, but at least four explanations have been suggested. Most interesting, it could come from the Palatinate German dialect. (For our German listeners: Palatinate is Pfalz.) In this dialect, schinägeln, that means “to work hard” closely resembles shenanigan.

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Episode #006, 13.11.2011: equivocation

equivocate, intransitive verb. Use ambiguous words to conceal the truth, prevaricate. Hence equivocation.

In a sentence: “In his book, Kant uses a lot of equivocations.”

This word originated in the 15^th century and comes from the Latin word equivocare, which means to call by the same name.

 An example of equivocation is:

A feather is light.

What is light cannot be dark.

Therefore, a feather cannot be dark.

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Episode #005, 6.11.2011: Spotlight: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Hi, this is Marco the German and this is the first spotlight episode, where I will discuss a topic that, hopefully, is of interest to you.

Today’s topic is a question, which has been asked many times by many people: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

First of all, what is a woodchuck? A woodchuck is a type of ground squirrel that is found in North America. As it is also called groundhog, the amount of wood a woodchuck would chuck, if it could chuck wood, is equal to the amount of ground a groundhog would hog if a groundhog could hog ground. The groundhog or woodchuck is very popular: There is even a holiday, called Groundhog Day, and there is also a movie about that holiday.

To chuck means to throw with carelessness and to hog means to “greedily take more than one's share“ or to “clip the mane of a horse“ (wiktionary.org).

The standard answer to the question is of course: A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Fortunately, answers.com has some more good answers. According to that website the answer depends on three things:

1. The woodchuck's desire to chuck said wood.
2. The woodchuck's need to chuck the aforementioned wood.
3. The woodchuck's ability to chuck the wood when it is a woodchuck.

There are also many other answers, like:

• Approximately 3.9675 pounds every 5.6843 seconds. So there.
• Using the formula: (W + I) * C where W = the constant of wood, which is well known to be 61, as agreed in many scientific circles. I = the variable in this equation, and stands for the word "if" from the original problem. As there are three circumstances, with 0 equaling the chance that the woodchuck cannot chuck wood, 1 being the theory that the woodchuck can chuck wood but chooses not to, and 2 standing for the probability that the woodchuck can and will chuck wood, we clearly must choose 2 for use in this equation. C = the constant of Chuck Norris, whose presence in any problem involving the word chuck must [be] there, is well known to equal 1.1 of any known being, therefore the final part of this calculation is 1.1. As is clear, this appears to give the answer of (61 + 2) * 1.1 = (63) * 1.1 = 69.3 units of wood.
• How Chuck Norris got involved: A woodchuck would only chuck as much would as Chuck Norris would allow it to, because the woodchuck shares Chuck's name. Therefore, Chuck must punish it and make it chuck as much wood as Chuck can. So, a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as Chuck could.
• During my study of Woodchuck I came to the conclusion that woodchucks don't chuck wood but only drink beer. However, this beer can frequently motivate them towards actions that can closely resemble the chucking of wood.
• It would chuck the amount of wood that she sells seashells on the seashore divided by how many pickles Peter Piper picks.

Obviously there were some tricky tongue-twisters in this episode. If I was talking way to fast, please check out marcothegerman.blogspot.com, where you will find a script of this podcast.

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Episode #004, 30.10.2011: irrecoverably

irrecoverable, adjective. That cannot be recovered or remedied. Hence irrecoverably, adverb.

In a sentence: “The key is irrecoverably lost.”

I think it is an interesting word, that’s why I picked it. However, there is not much more to say. But, I’ll make it up to you with the next episode.

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Episode #003, 23.10.2011: to boondoggle

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to boondoggle, verb. To waste time on a pointless activity.

In a sentence: “Opponents think this is a government boondoggle.”

This word, as a noun, was coined by Robert H. Link, an American scout, in 1929 and is braided ring to hold a neckerchief, which is a type of scarf. Another word for boondoggle is woggle.

However, in 1935 The New York Times reported how, as part of a New Deal program, the production of boon doggles was taught. From then on, the word signifies also wasteful government program and its corresponding verb.

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Episode #002, 16.10.2011: surreptitiously

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surreptitious, adjective. Underhand, kept secret, done by stealth, clandestine. Hence surreptitiously, adverb.

In a sentence: „Surreptitiously the thief walked through the house.“

So our second word means something that is done in secret. I think it has a nice sound to it, because of the double r.

It originated in the 15^th century and is a combination of the Latin words surripio and rapio, both meaning to steal or to snatch.

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Episode #001, 09.10.2011: gobbledygook

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gobbledygook or gobbledegook, noun (slang). Pompous official jargon. It is an imitation of the sound that turkeys make.

In a sentence: „I can’t understand this legal text. It sounds all like gobbledygook.“

I picked this word as my first word, because obviously it sounds very funny. It is probably meant that way, to make fun of people who use incomprehensible words, signifying little, in order to sound important.

This term was coined by Maury Maverick, a Member of Congress of the first half of the 20^th century. Interestingly enough, his grandfather is the source of another word, maverick, which means showing independence in thoughts or actions.

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Episode #000, 02.10.2011: Introduction

Hello. I’m Marco the German. This is the first episode, or rather episode 0 of my podcast, which shall be called A Word a Week.
I have been studying the English language for more than 10 years, since 2000 and I even spend one year in High School. Over the years I have stumbled across some very distinctive words, which I want to share with you. This will be a podcast for people who are interested in the English language, no matter what their level is.
I am using The Concise Oxford Dictionary, the second edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, dict.cc, wiktionary.org and other sources.
From time to time, I will do a special episode which I call a spotlight episode. This episode is not about a word, but about a topic, that might be of interest to you.
About the format: I will post episodes every Sunday. I will try to keep them short, but I will do longer episodes now and then. I chose this format, because I listen to a lot of podcasts and I myself enjoy this type of format the most.
I will be presenting mostly words that I myself did not know a couple of years ago, thereby trying to give you content that I would have very much liked to have listened to then.
Here is one thing I learned about learning a language: If you don’t understand something, just keep on reading or listening, especially if there are multiple words that give you trouble. You will eventually figure out what they mean because of the context. Always feel free to look up a word (or ask me!), but remember that if you are new to the language, this might be very tiring.
By the way: Doing a podcast might be tiring, too. But as I have already written more than 52 scripts, you can be sure that this podcast will last for at least one year.
My E-Mail address is awordaweek@hotmail.de. Feel free to write to me, if you know some words that I could talk about or if you have suggestions, compliments or feedback. I would really like to know, if my pronunciation is right, whether I talk to slow or too quickly and if I can improve in any way.
It would also be interesting to know, who my listeners are and where they come from. So, again, just drop me a line: awordaweek@hotmail.de

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Teaser

So, you don’t want to do any shenanigans? You don’t want to walk to and fro and ponder non sequiturs? You think creeping normalcy is inevitable? You don’t understand any of this ludicrous gobbledygook? Then check out: A Word a week! A Podcast that airs every Sunday. Simply go to: awordaweek.podomatic.com