&lt;p&gt;SUMMARY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is the term &quot;Oriental&quot; offensive? Many people think so. Martha and Grant discuss the reasons why. Also, where do we get the phrase &quot;not one iota&quot;? Why do we tell someone to &quot;take a gander&quot;? And who coined the word &quot;Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious&quot;? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;FULL DETAILS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Outside of a dog, a book is a man&#039;s best friend. Inside of a dog, it&#039;s too dark to read.&quot; This kind of sudden, surprising turn in a sentence is called a paraprosdokian. Martha and Grant trade some examples.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Instead of crying &quot;uncle,&quot; an Indiana woman&#039;s family cries calf-rope! She wonders if this expression of submission is unique to her family.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why do we say take a gander for &quot;have a look&quot;?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Will Rogers was a master of paraprosdokians. Martha shares a favorite.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Too much sugar for a dime can mean either &quot;too good to be true,&quot; or &quot;more trouble than it&#039;s worth.&quot; Merle Travis and Judy Hayden sing about it here.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvkppduB5d0&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Quiz Guy John Chaneski reprises his popular &quot;Puzzle Hunt&quot; game.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Chinese-American says she&#039;s not offended by the term &quot;Oriental,&quot; but she&#039;s been told she should be. Who&#039;s right?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The expression not one iota means not one bit. Martha explains that it goes back to ancient Greek, and explains its connection to the Sermon on the Mount.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A caller was taught that peruse means to examine closely and carefully, but increasingly hears people use it to mean skim quickly. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices&quot; is a new exhibit at the British Library in London featuring the earliest printed versions of Beowulf, the Wycliffe and King James Bible, and the oldest known example of written English.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.bl.uk/evolvingenglish/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A physicist is curious about the term learning curve. He pictures it as a pair of axes. But if that&#039;s the case, what&#039;s X and what&#039;s Y?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Who coined Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Martha shares another paraprosdokian.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What&#039;s the correct adjective to describe something associated with the Democrats? Is it Democrat or Democratic?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Blueberry buckle is a dessert with cake batter, fruit, and a streussel topping. What does that have to do with buckles?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;--&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Way with Words is a self-supporting independent production. It receives no financial support from NPR, PRI, PBS nor any radio station.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Support the show with your tax deductible donation: http://waywordradio.org/donate&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Email: words@waywordradio.org&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Phone:&lt;br /&gt;United States an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673&lt;br /&gt;London +44 20 7193 2113&lt;br /&gt;Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Site: http://waywordradio.org/&lt;br /&gt;Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/&lt;br /&gt;Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/&lt;br /&gt;Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/&lt;br /&gt;Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/&lt;br /&gt;Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/&lt;br /&gt;Skype: skype://waywordradio&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Copyright 2010, Wayword Inc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;feedflare&quot;&gt;
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