&lt;p&gt;SUMMARY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This week on &quot;A Way with Words&quot;: If you&#039;ve &quot;seen the elephant,&quot; it means you&#039;ve been in combat. But why an elephant? Also, Martha and Grant discuss some funny idioms in Spanish, including one that translates as &quot;your bowtie is whistling.&quot; And what names do you call YOUR grandparents? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;FULL DETAILS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you&#039;re in Bangladesh, the expression that translates as &quot;oiling your mustache in anticipation of the jackfruit tree bearing fruit&quot; makes perfect sense. In English, it means &quot;don&#039;t count your chickens.&quot; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A discussion thread on Reddit with this and many other examples has Martha and Grant talking about odd idioms in other languages. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://bit.ly/ifBbAQ&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Marine stationed in California says that growing up in North Carolina, he understood the expression fixin&#039; to mean &quot;to be about to.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some office workers say their word processor&#039;s spellchecker always flags the words overnighted and overnighting. Are those words acceptable in a business environment?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;You really love peeled potatoes.&quot; That&#039;s a translation of a Venezuelan idiom describing someone who&#039;s lazy. Grant and Martha share other idioms from South America.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle called &quot;Blank My Blank.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A woman in Burlington, Vt., says her mother used to use the expression Land o&#039; Goshen! to express surprise or amazement. Where is Goshen?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Yankee transplant to the South says that restaurant servers are confused when he tells them, &quot;I&#039;m all set.&quot; Is he all set to continue his meal, or all set to leave? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A woman in Eau Claire, Wis., remembers a ditty she learned from her mother about &quot;thirty purple birds,&quot; but with a distinctive pronunciation that sounds more like &quot;Toidy poipel blackbirds / Sittin&#039; on a coibstone / Choipin&#039; and boipin&#039; / And eatin&#039; doity oithworms.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here&#039;s the Red Hot Chili Peppers version:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fw8YywYatA&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Martha offers excellent writing advice from the former editor of People magazine, Landon Y. Jones. His whole article is here:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://bit.ly/gVRekI&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A former Texan wonders if only Texans use the terms Mamaw and Papaw instead of Grandma and Grandpa.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Martha shares some Argentine idioms, including one that translates as &quot;What a handrail!&quot; for &quot;What a bad smell!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A West Point graduate says he and fellow members of the military use the expression He has seen the elephant to mean &quot;He&#039;s seen combat.&quot; Grant explains that this expression originated outside the military.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you flesh out a plan or flush out a plan?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another Argentine idiom goes arrugaste como frenada de gusano. It means &quot;You were scared,&quot; but literally, it&#039;s &quot;You wrinkled like a stopping worm.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;--&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: 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 and 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;Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate&lt;br /&gt;Site: http://waywordradio.org/&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 2011, Wayword LLC.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;feedflare&quot;&gt;
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