January 15, 2026 • 47 mins
Words are everywhere -- and we're grateful, because we can't do this show without them. But all words were, at some point, just made up. So how does society decide what counts as a "real" word? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the history of language, and the oddly specific systems dictionaries put in place to decide whether a given word or phase is legitimate.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's give a big shout out
to our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Rama limiting, hibba hit, what is it? Baby bang bang
buggy set up chuting, never mind carry.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Nailed it, No, we can get it into the o ED.
That's mister Noel Brown. None other Uh. They called me
ben Bullen in this neck of the woods, and guys
they thinking about this. We love words. We actually would
not have this show without words.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Kind of key. I suppose we could just do it
with like wild gesticulations now here in the video age,
but don't think it would hit the same and it'd
be really hard to consume whilst doing your housework.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
That's right, because you have to watch us. We are
still working on the interpretive dance episodes of Ridiculous History.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's always happening in our hearts.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
There it is, so you know, thank you words. It's
weird nol because language is one of humanity's oldest technologies
ever and it is still very much a work in progress.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And we love that, you know, on this show and
on stuff that I want you to know. This idea
of things you might not think are technology as being
a form of technology. You know, it is an innovation.
The idea of being able to manipulate sounds and phonemes
and have shared understanding and logic surrounding ways that we
can relate to other people, to have a means to
(02:05):
do that, and the medium with which to transmit those
ideas is absolutely technology. And I know maybe I'm standing the obvious,
but every time that comes up, I'm always like a
little like blown away.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's wild, right, And I'm right there with you, man.
There is no universal spoken language. In previous episodes, we
talked about how there were a couple of folks over
Millennia who had tried to prove to themselves that a
universal language existed, that if you raised a couple of
(02:39):
human kids and you never let them talk to anyone else,
they would speak the true language of God.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Which is what esperanto.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I love an Esperanto reference, man, So.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Of the idea of that Speranto being the true language
of God.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
That would be so wild. Check out our pals Josh
and Chuck and Jerry. They made an excellent Esperanto episode
on their show Stuff. You should know it's weird because
to your point, it is baffling to consider language technology.
(03:18):
Over thousands of years, over millennia, all sorts of people
tried to figure out what makes language tick, how communication works,
and again the general hibity hoop love interacting with other humans,
not us or perfect at it.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And to your point, Ben, in this delightful bit of
research here on a long enough timeline, everything's gobbledegook.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh yeah, it's just.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
A matter of what kind of hits and what becomes
useful and enough people use and then that becomes part
of the you know, lexicon or whatever. And you always
say on Stuff, I don't want you to know, and
on this show, I'm certain that's you know, the English
language or language in general, is a working progress and
it is a living you know language that we're always
(04:04):
having new words being injected. And I love this idea
of other countries too, using words from countries that are
not their own and then recontextualizing them and giving them
their own unique spin. But ultimately it's a game of
telephone that involves the entire world.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, and here's a spoiler for a lot of us
listening right now. This is a play along Get Home episode.
All words at some point were made up, meaning that
at some point in ancient history enough people pointed at
the sky and said sky, and everybody just went along
(04:44):
with that because they, you know, got what you were
pointing at.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Is it vibes based?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Pin?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Is it like a lot of words? You know, we
have the term automotopia referring to a word that is
sounds like the thing that it's describing. You know, sometimes
it can be very efective. I guess, so those make
sense to me that someone looked at a thing and
this saw the sound that it made, and then created
the word. But then sky, like, where does that even
(05:10):
come from? But who are we to say, I mean,
we weren't there?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, and I love that point there, Noel, because again,
civilization is still working on, as you said, the vibes.
For a few years now, you, Max and I have
been wondering about a bit of related ridiculous history. How
does a word officially become a quote unquote real word,
(05:37):
like the kind of thing you see in a dictionary
or encyclopedia. What is to stop us, my old friend,
from just saying Grando Boys as a synonym for thousands
of US dollars. Do we just insist upon it until
everybody plays along?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah? I think that's the only way to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
This is our first meta episode of twenty twenty six.
What makes a word a word?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah? It is. And before we jump into this, I
would love I've been on a bit of a tear,
a bit of an obsessive internet rabbit hole lately. Are
you familiar with the bizarre patois and slang used by
Toronto teens?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Ah, you're on the way to Canada.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Then well I am, but this is unrelated. I just
the Internet started serving me up these videos of these
kids in Toronto. Specifically, they sound like they're Jamaican and
they use all these crazy words like cheesed and mandam
it's is a group of friends or nyse. It was
recognized walahi, which is Arabic if I swear to god
(06:44):
ting which is very much a you know, Jamaican kind
of slang. They're always saying like two two's my word,
fam and all of these crazy It's bizarre, dude, Just
look it up in your spare time. Anyone out there
that isn't a way to type in Toronto oh slang,
and you'll see some stuff that will blow your wig back.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I can't wait to dive into this. I know I
know several of those words, but it'd be weird if
I use them, I know.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
But these kids also, they all like pitch their voices
up and sound like the Lucky Charms Leprechaun. It's a
whole thing, dude, it's wild.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh man, that's all okay, okay, I'm not going to
say it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Koto is my word crow skime like it's insane.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
You give me perfect recommendations every time. Man, I'm excited
to dive in. We do have to acknowledge, folks, this
is an English centric episode, English language centric episode, and
we are talking about getting words into the official English lexicon.
If you look at other languages, your mileage may vary.
(07:50):
For example, France downright militant about what qualifies as canonical.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Friends and like they both like want you to try
to speak their language, but also will mock you relentlessly
when you do it poorly, oh oh man, or when
you do it okay, but you got a weird you
got a weird us cadence to you?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Oh also no, we have to shout this out. We're
pulling a lot of research for this episode from a
brain Stuff video I wrote years and years ago, which
features none other than the Quist.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Our dynomsis the Quist. And do check out those brain
Stuff videos. They still are live and well on the internet,
and brain Stuff, the podcast, hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum, is
still very much an ongoing concern, you know. Hearkening back
to the the our roots and the house Stuff works universe.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
As she would say, that's actual fact, actual facts.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So no, how would we define a word?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
H Let's see, Well, Miriam Webster defines like our like
like seventh grade project, you know. Presentation research is a
word as a speech sound or series of speech sounds
that symbolize and communicate a meaning, usually without being divisible
into smaller units capable of independent use. That's a that's
(09:15):
a noodle baker right there.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I don't think that's a middle school way to begin.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I do want to Merriam Webster defines, it's the old joke.
This is an incredible quote.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I do think it is, as you said, a noodle baker.
And I like that turn or phrase. We said we
were going meta folks, So for what what are they
saying here? They're saying take the word wo, r D.
You cannot break that down into a sensible series of
other words or meaning, Like if you broke it up
(09:45):
and was just wo and then rd by themselves, maybe
they are abbreviations for something, or they're nonsense entirely.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
And those are would be the aforementioned phonemes, right, the
little nuggets that comprise a word, the sounds that make
it up.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Just so we can make series of sounds that function
by the rules of a specific language, and people who
understand that language might almost intuitively understand what you're saying.
It's kind of like if you watch a if you
speak English and you watch a Scandinavian film or something
(10:26):
from the Low Countries or just you know, hang it
out in Brussels or something to that effect, you'll hear
people speaking and you can almost get what they're saying.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Absolutely, Even like the Danish versus German things like that,
there's a lot of shared you know, I'm sorry, I'm
hearkening back again to my trip to Denmark recently, but
I know German relatively wellsh enough to get by, and
there's enough shared words or words that are very similar
and mean similar things but are spelt slightly different, maybe
(10:59):
have a few more ja's in them or whatever. It's
really easy to read street signs and the typical things
walking around, just kind of using context clues.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And history has proven time and time again that there's
a reason for that that sort of connectivity. Centuries pass
and later language speakers will find a word, they'll put
their own spin on it. They'll remix it, not just
for pronunciation, but also for the spelling, for the meaning,
(11:29):
whatever best suits their environment and their ability to communicate.
This is one of our favorite sciences, etymology all about
this stuff. It also makes Noel Max and yours truly
soups fun at parties.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, and it makes us, you know, it just gives
us the warm fuzzies something that we enjoy. And this
is for it not to be confused with entomology, which
is the study of insects. I like the pause there,
just you know, on paper, it's like just one one
letter away.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Right right right, And we have all found ourselves one
letter away at some point.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well, one letter away from one word meaning in one
language something completely different, potentially mega offensive, and another.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
And again, I apologize to the good people of the
Korean peninsula.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You know what you did, and they know, and you're
on a list.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Everyone knows, and hopefully it's a good list. It's a
nice and not notation. And of course all of this
applies to phrases as well. There are, you know, certain
figures of speech.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
We went through a thing recently where we were trying
to translate some of our podcasts into other languages, and
you realize that the job of a good translator is
not only just one to one translations. It's how to
recommunicate the intent and the meaning of one of these
figures of speech that without the cultural context is going
to be meaningless. So you have to find like a
(12:56):
one to one or something at least adjacent in the
other language and culture to make it make any kind
of sense.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Absolutely, man, this is one of my favorite translators. Once
said it's a marriage between accuracy and poetry.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Familion. I knew you were going. That makes exact exactly.
There's an interpretation to it, and it requires a certain
nuance and ability to kind of read between the lines
and then really paint a picture, you.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Know, yeah, and allow us to be honest folks, we
are not really here to analyze the in the weeds
socio political mechanisms of communication, or the mechanics I should
say English, But we do know the question on everyone's mind.
(13:45):
How do I you're saying, make up a word and
then make it official.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
It's a very good question, Ben, one that I'm really
hoping that you're going to help us answer in this episode.
Otherwise it's going to be a real letdown.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Right, Okay, I'll hop on the tight rope with you. Man,
we're here together. Uh, let's play along at home, all right,
everybody in your head, make up a word? Noel, Max, Ben,
you at home, make.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Up a word. We also acknowledge that that's pretty difficult
thing to do. You could, so I kind of do
because if you I mean, my mind immediately jumps to
just like nonsense words, and even I have a collection
and lexicon of nonsense words already in my head. So
I'm having a real hard time without just grunting and
making general noises to actually come up with a discrete
(14:35):
new word.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Let's, uh, Max, what do you got?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Bute? Flargle's been done.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
We know.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
The universe somewhat some you know.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Prove it prove it, No.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I will niversery Google.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
No, we're keeping all of this in.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Counter from from the counterfeit cat universe is an anthropomorphic,
kind of a little booger looking purple alien creature.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
That sounds like a proper noun, not an actual word.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Bro, you can get a mug Flargl's in the Urban Dictionary. Dude.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Okay, now I'm on no side. Maybe it's tough.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's all I'm saying for it to actually be you know,
flargyl snorpeledork space attorney.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Okay, Uh, everybody remembers flourpol's snorkeledork flargles.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Blabberdasherie.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
See, but you just took haberdashery and and and changed hab.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
To blab Okay, fair point.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'm not saying it's ave. I just say it again.
That's the and I like. I like what you did
there because you combine a lot of consonants and vowelly
things to make it sounds like English. It does sound
like English, But I would argue that that one is
probably not going to come up on a precursory Google.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
You win, no, no craft, we're playing together, least anowledge
that it's not.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
It is very much not easy. I'm with you there,
uh And like we're saying, don't be surprised if you
run into a flargo moment if the word you made
up already exist in some form. And by the way,
Max nice one on differentiating between a proper noun and
uh uh utility word.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Right. Can I also just say in my flargle Google,
which is fun to say, I found, like ex Post says,
tried making a new word. I call it flargyl.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
You lose, Max, I was just like trying to try
and do like you know, bring my inner Rick and Mortium, Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Exactly, And they've got the schlowmies this of course, so
uh as you can tell folks, we're we're running into
the same difficulties trying to make up a new word
that means something and is not also inherently hilarious to us.
Communication is arguably one of the first big three games.
(17:06):
The other two are survival and reproduction. But Noel riddle
is this, How does a made up word like the
beautiful ones all three of us just described, how does
it become quote unquote real or accepted?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Well, I guess that depends on the context. Of the question, like,
are we talking about how in the history of the
human race a word becomes real in terms of its usage,
or are we talking about like officially on paper, recognized
by some governing body of language, like in the Phantom Tollbooth,
does a word become quote unquote accepted? Because I think
(17:44):
whichever one we're talking about, the answer is it depends.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh man, you're good at this. I missed when we
had I've missed you guys when we weren't recording.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Oh sank it. Honestly, dude, It's been really great to
have the break, because not to say that I was
getting burned out or anything like that, but it's just
we do a lot of this, and having that break
in that reset, I've just been really fired up to
do this with y'all and excited to be here some
feelings mutually.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
It's just such a great question you posed, because in
the days of old and the Empires of old, this
was so ad hoc. Like what you just heard us do, folks,
is what really happened throughout history. Most people could not
read a written language, and words were drifting in and
out of meaning, pronunciation, and spelling to a crazy degree.
(18:42):
A lot of a lot of good rulers of various
empires were aware of this, so they tried to, you know,
pull a hammer Robbie and codify stuff. But some of
them actively suppressed the power of literacy and they tried
to restrict they do that.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I don't know. I can't think of I can't think
of a logical reason why you don't want to keep
people dumb.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
I don't have a single flargle for it.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
No, wait, what is bargo bargle? It's it's it gets
a cartoon character, but it's also just like it is
a clear example of like clearly the Internet attempting to
come up with a new word. There is something called
blargo flargle that is some kind of board game. Zombie addition,
(19:30):
it says here.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
Ben, the long story short is floggles whatever you need
it to be six seven.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Oh man, you guys are so chill. I love this.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
What's a song blargo flargle Zombie edition. This is the
The insrot of the song is just blargo flargle over
and over again, and then at the end goes gra
When the day is long and the mind is numb,
blargo flargles. The words that come no rhyme or reason,
just a silly sound blargo flargle when no thoughts are found.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
That's crazy that they say no rhyme or reason, It'll
who of them that rhymes and a pair.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Of words that are clearly designed around the fact.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That they so. The idea of repressing knowledge is definitely
sith Lord stuff. I think we could argue, or let's
through Max Max, what's the Star Trek equivalent of a
sith Lord.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
I don't know. The Borg maybe, yeah, I mean, but
even the.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Border they have an imperative though it's not like they're mean,
They just are this thing, right.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah, you could argue the Borger just kind of what
the programming is. That's what I mean, they're just doing.
I mean, you look at the character like Hugh from TNG,
who is just like you know, I will make your
life better if you're gonna simulate it. Or maybe that's
from a different episode, but argue that.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
But that's Star Trek T means the next generation truth.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Seeing of all this kind of stuff. Shout out to Pluribus,
by the way, and do check that show. It incorporates
a lot of what we're talking about in terms of
hive mind kind of stuff. It's a very very very
cool depiction of that kind of sci fi trophe. But
let's get back on jack that we're talking about suppression
of language and the fact that in general, in the
days of old, most people couldn't read, so the arbiter
(21:12):
of which words became words fell to those in the
top toppy top top.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah yeah, ex oh man, you nailed it. This also
shows us this longstanding habit of suppressing knowledge shows us
the power of the written word and the power of
the book. You know, we've mentioned it before, nol. Reading
something written by your favorite dead author is a lot
(21:38):
like necromancy or time travel, and I would say the
same with hearing ancient songs.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, it's transportive. And one thing you start to see
in fascist regimes is the suppression of stories because of
how powerful they are to communicate ideas and to change
hearts and mind or to put someone in someone else's shoes.
It is an absolute superpower.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
And thankfully, humanity soldiered on through no small numbers of disasters.
Some were natural disasters, some were created by people and polity.
But now there's not just one system of word adoption.
There are several systems. So we have created a word, right,
(22:27):
we're still playing a log at home. We want legitimacy.
How do we get our word in the dictionary.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It's so crazy, man, Yeah, I mean we it always
makes our list at the end of every year, the
Websters or Cambridge or Oxford rather their word of the Year,
which I believe this year. Well, you know, in previous
years with stuff like brain rot, which you know, you
could argue that combining two existing words together into one
word makes a new word, and it is something that
(22:56):
was just very much in the zeitgeist. So a lot
of this slang and a lot of these words that
have ended up in that Toronto slang thing I was
talking about earlier are the kinds of things you're going
to really start seeing thrown around as quote unquote new words.
One hundred percent, way more to it than just pop
culture stuff. The lovely folks at Webster, Miriam, they've combed
through existing literature, right like oh, sleuthing for new words,
(23:21):
changes in language, new uses.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah. Yeah. Different dictionaries are going to have their various
sort of house rules methods for selecting words to be
included in their newer editions. But they're more or less
looking for the same criteria. It's kind of like how
point six to one fourish of a mile is technically
(23:50):
one kilometer, but both of those measurements describe the exact
same amount of distance. If you want your word canonical, buckerouse,
we got to get it in print. If you want
to get a nod from the Oxford English Dictionary, you.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Got the fancy.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Oh my gosh, they're so fancy. They don't even wear ties, man,
they wear cravats.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Mm hm yeah, the fanciest.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Do you wear a cravat? Have you ever?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Worn't know the difference in ava?
Speaker 1 (24:18):
And I'm not gonna look like I feel like it's
a fancy It's like a scarf that goes inside your colleague.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
What's an ascot? Oh my gosh, what is Fred wearing?
Scooby do? Is that a cravat? And ask that's an ascot?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
That's an ascot.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But he's got a little scarf action going on. So there.
I can't be the only one wondering.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
I'm on it all right, Max, Max is gonna update.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
You're pulling up the facts.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
He is. We're so excited. I love the instrumental version
of Max with the facts as well. Man, it's just
so hype.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Uh So, it's a Matt Frederick for composing the absolutely
mellifluous bop.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Oh yes and melifluous. What a wonderful word fan. Uh
So it's around eighteen fifty seven, and the the eggheads
over at Oxford have used a reading program ever since
then to do what you've just described. Noel, to find
what they consider use cases appropriate quotations for each entry
(25:20):
in their dictionary.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Already got me thinking, how AI is going to start
being used for this moving forward, and then it's going
to influence the outcome. And yeah, it's like a or
a Boroughs kind of situation.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I am Jack's lack of surprise.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Just thinking there's kind of no way around it, because
what you're even describing is reading programs.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Yeah, that's you know, a precursor. It's all of this
one hundred percent pattern recognition. So in their reading program
department for OED, we've got fifty lexicographers and they read
almost every possible thing that can be read. And I
(25:58):
agree with you reluctantly this probably goes into large language models.
At this point, we're not talking just novels. Newspapers. Should
it still exist? We're talking about transcripts from TV and
song lyrics and magazines and social media. And now we
returned with super producer mats.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Give us all right, I got some surprises right here.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
I was not a secondent either, But a uh, A
cravat is kind of an umbrella term that includes things
like bow ties, ascots, and actual ties.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
So there's a diagram situation.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah, well so no, like it's actually it's a catch
up floats. It's a floats are Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
How all mazes or puzzles, but not all puzzles are amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
But in this case all no, right, exactly, got it?
Speaker 5 (26:47):
So yeah, ties and uh, ascots are both cravats. But
just because it's a cravat doesn't mean it's a tie.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
There you go love that, oh my god.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
And ascot is formal necktie worn with a morning dress,
tied with a rudimentary knot, worn over the shirt and
secured with a pin. It says style of cravat that
is from bespoke unit.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Okay, it's the kind of thing you'd see a Dracula wearing.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yes, all right, and we're gonna quit while we're ahead.
Max with the facts. Okay, so we're back. We're uh,
(27:45):
we're reading. We're in the reading department. Dream job for
some people, nightmare job for others. And while we're reading,
we're on the lookout for the newest words. We see
Toronto slang, we do. We send it to our little database.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
They do a little fact check, check out the prevalence
of the usage.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
These editors spend a lot of time manually going through
this stuff, reading all published materials, checking the automated scans.
I guess of all of this stuff if they find
in databases, and I imagine online, because that's gosh, that's
I mean, that's where most language is curated these days.
It would seem not most, but if you look at
(28:27):
we're going to get to it at the end. The
words of the year, so many of them in the
last handful of years have been almost entirely Internet related.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
So, like you were saying, the editor that gets this
stuff from the database is going to go back toward
a specific word and say how long has it been
in use, how popular, how prevalent is this term. For
our buddies at Oxford, there's kind of a rule of thumb.
(28:58):
Still a bit ad hoc. We call it the triple
five rule. To get into the dictionary, to be considered
for that helcy on space, your word has to be
in print five times in five different sources, over a
period of five years. Triple five rule. And Nola, I
(29:19):
love what you're pointing out, because pre social media that
was a high bar. But now post social media, that's
one weird day on Twitter or TikTok.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Absolutely, And I mean words come and go as we're
going to get to, and now more than ever, because
not all words are slang. Of course, all slang our
words and inherent and the idea of slang is that
it's a bit of a flash in the pan, and
can't we just blast through those these days?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, and Oxford in particular, I mean, all the major dictionaries,
they're doing their best not to be unc consciously repetitive.
So when you get a word, you're the you get
a word from your database, you're the editor. You say, oh,
it's in print five times. Oh it's from five different sources. Oh,
(30:12):
this has been going on for at least five years.
Your next step is to check something called the Oxford
English Corpus. This is another database it collects everything published
across the internet. We're talking like two point five billion
words of twenty first century English.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Of course, and that's always growing. So while specifics of
this process you can vary from case to case. There
are other dictionaries, of course, that do something very similar
as we've already described, like Merriam Webster has their methods,
Cambridge has their methods, et cetera. So this is where
you sometimes see. Look these dictionaries, especially now, they are
(30:57):
still kind of online publications and they're looking the make
some headlines. So when they picked that word of the year,
it's a little bit of a pr move. It's a
little bit of a like, we're the ones that are
defining the zeitgeist this time, you know, and you look
at the competing publication, let's call them, and you start
to see that I'm trying to kind of differentiate themselves.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Oh yeah, no kidding, men, And I want to lean
on you for your for your German acumen. Here. The
idea of word of the Year began in nineteen seventy
one in Germany and they called it.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Just means the year you nailed it though, yeah, thank you.
I just tried to get the accident as best I could.
It literally translates to word the year death means of
the more or less.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That's surprising that Germany doesn't have all of it condensed
into one crazy phrase.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, they certainly do for a lot of concepts like
far Fagnugen and you know Bvangen Heights, bavouta Gong, Gavangen Heights, Bivoutigong,
which is one of my favorites, which is like a
collective guilt around the Holocaust.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
That took a turn man. Sorry, it's a perfect example.
It's perfect example, and it's my favorite one. So you know,
to my point earlier, I think a little bit you
can't really capture all the complexity of what happens in
the span of a year with a single word. But again,
it just goes to show the ways that all of
these various organizations are trying to kind of be the
(32:33):
one that gets it the closest.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
And you are so right about the pr aspect, and
I would argue it's kind of like dendo chronology, folks,
stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
That means I think the study of tree rings.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's the one, yes, of course, where you see history
writ large. If you ever want to be humbled. Folks,
go get the two uh the stump, Yes, get thee
to thy nearest stump.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Don't going down though, Look for one that's already been cut.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Figure out which year in the ring you were born at,
and then go to the current year. It's it's humbling
when you see, you know, like a redwood or or
something like that. And remember how long these conversations or
these lives continue. Similar to the English language, Look we
(33:29):
got let's say we got flargel in there. We're obviously
incredibly excited about our possibilities. We're waking up. We learn
one day that the word we created, like flargel or
schlop fizzo, I was on one with that one, or
doppel gangbanger, that's inappropriate. What whatever else you created more
(33:53):
of a pun or a portmanteau ieau. So now we're
we're in the OED, the Mirriam Webster, anything but urban dictionary.
We're riding high. We feel like Kanye West post late graduation.
You cannot tell me nothing back.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
When he was still normal.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Ish ish back before we do him as well as
we do and what it was it?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Oh gosh, I'm not comparing Kanye to Hitler, although he
would do that himself. McDonald says about Hitler, the more
I learned about this guy, the more I don't like him.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Right, Norm Gosh, what a legend.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I okay.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Here's the thing though, And Noel, I think this is
what we were alluding to, a bit. You can't get
too big for your breeches. We have to remember that
thousands of new words and new use cases can make
it into a dictionary. But every year those same dictionaries
also are going to remove some words.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Like slop phizio and doppel gangbanger right right, or for example,
it sort of fell out of fashion, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, they were like, come on, man.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
But Ben, then you'll have a golden moment. And that
moment was nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
There it was. Yeah, Prince was all over the radio.
What a time. Miriam Webster has cut words in the past.
We've got some examples. Stern fore boast, oh dad, snolly goster.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
That sounds like a Willy Wonker word. Uh, stylo podium.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Stylo podium makes sense? Right?
Speaker 6 (35:39):
Is it is? Is it a type of lectern? It
must be? Where is it where you put a writing instrument?
It's no, snolly goster. It's definitely no stylo.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Podium might well be the little the little thing you
stick your pin in on the like, you know, the clipboard.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Right, let's see just context bluing it. Oh, we are
totally wrong. What it is an enlargement at the base
of the style of flowers in certain plants of the
Parsley family.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Boring, I know, I wonder, Yeah, no one was referring
to that part. It's just too specific.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
No one was looking at a bunch of beautiful flowers
and going we should admire this stide of.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Podium maybe flower you know, scientists were, And that does
bring up a point. There are obviously words that are
considered like more jargon or very very very industry focused.
Do those make it into the dictionary or is there
like a separate list of like super niche industry specific
like science words and like you know, stuff evolving a
(36:50):
specific industry. And by the way, Ben, I completely concur
with what you've put here in this outline. We've got
to bring back ho Dad. Do we know what ho
Dad even meant? Acquiring minds?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Now we could do Dad, It's uh, it's your grandpa's dongle.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
No, it's surf slang.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It's slang. It's someone who shows up to teach and
has a surfboard but never actually goes on.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, that's amazing. Ho Dad specifically, and there's a it
looks like there's a well known surf shop also called Dad,
which is obviously it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
That reminds me of Google with trained kids. Anyway. Yeah, so,
uh we know, we know, folks, Max, if you could
give us, like a sad crowd sigh some words, do
you have to go? And that is okay because it
may sound cruel to throw these words out, but we
(37:49):
have to remember, uh nol. You and I have talked
about this a lot off air. English is a living language, right,
Communication is key, not fancy et cetera. English, and the
people who are speaking it, or any living language, they're
trying to figure out that old technology of communication. What
are the first three great games? And that means the
(38:11):
dictionaries arguably have to change with that conversation.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
No doubt. And by the way, Hodad's was a small
chain of burger joints in a Diego, not a surf shop.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Are they still open?
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I think so? Yeah, established nineteen seventy three, A tasty burger.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
We got to go get our tasty burgers.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Man, I love a California burger. I do too. They
are better.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
So we can't leave you without a dope phrase. To
step two, here are as we've been teasy words of
the year from five major dictionaries across twenty twenty five.
And folks, we love Knowell's point there about how you
can see just like tree rings, you can see large
(38:58):
patterns of social change just through these phrases over time.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah, and you are occasionally going to get some doubles.
So we'll just go through these respectively, Dictionary dot Com, Mirriam, Webster, Collins, Oxford,
and Cambridge to try to just remember that order. We'll
probably discuss a little bit some specific ones. But from
twenty twenty if you can imagine pandemic pandemic lockdown. Oxford
didn't choose a word because I guess they thought everything
(39:26):
was too f well they could get to the office.
They threw their hands up. Cambridge went with quarantine to
pandemic pandemic lockdown. Quarantine. What a year.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Yeah, go to twenty twenty one. We've got allyship vaccine
n ft VAX with it X and perseverits from our
fridge cabridge.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
It's totally positive. Keep onwards and upwards. Cambridge twenty twenty two.
We've got woman, oh color dictionary dot com. That is hilarious.
Dictionary dot COM's got some kind of dumb ones. I'm sorry,
I'm not. I'm just saying, like every every year woman, Really,
I mean, that's weird. That's almost insulting a little. It
(40:07):
was there earlier. Yeah, we've been here for years. Don't
call it a comeback gas lighting. Uh, it's twenty twenty
two kind of the year of me too.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Definitely, Okay, I guess so funny and reductive just to
have it be woman. The worst joke about that one,
by the way, is actually it's pronounced jazz.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Lighting rights, perma crisis. That's relatable goblin mode, I remember
that one. That's technically two words though at Oxford. I
guess you could make it a Onesie and Homer.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Yeah, there's all.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
These weird little outliers. That's from a Cambridge. I'll thrown
another curveball, but happened in twenty twenty three. This is
a very ai and starting to get into the brain
rot of it all.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah. Then we've got hallucinate Authentic AI RIZ and Cambridge
comes in swooping with dictionary dot com and they say
also hallucinate word.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Of the year, and that's of course referring to the
thing AI does when it just makes stuff. Up to
twenty twenty four, we've got demurror I had a moment,
polarization Brat which I love, Charlie XCX Forever brain Rot
from Oxford. That was the one that made for most News.
I think we definitely talked about that on the pod
something I Want You to Know, Strange News episode and
(41:30):
Manifest Cambridge.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
And then we get to twenty twenty five the most
recent year, dictionary dot com says six to seven.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Those are numbers, Dictionary dot com. Those are numbers six
dash seven, not even spelled out, They're just the numbers
with a dash. I don't I think that's absurd. We've
got slop that's weir webs.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
It's just just mirrorm Webster saying what Dictionary dot com
where the year was.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Then we've got Collins with Vibe coding I know.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Age baits Parasocial which is very podcast centric.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
And Cambridge that's that's courtesy of our friends at Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Cambridge is a little more nuanced in their picks, wouldn't
you agree?
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I would absolutely agree.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Like I think I like their takes the best in
a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Oh, come on, perseverance school behind.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
I would love to see the data backing that one up. Though,
It's like, what contexts are people just throwing that word
around in twenty twenty one?
Speaker 1 (42:30):
It's the word they wanted to bring to the masses.
To be honest, we also know that there are regular
pulls and rankings, very non scientific, very self reporting of
the quote unquote worst or most misliked words in English.
I think we all know a couple of characters from
(42:53):
this rogues gallery moist always phlegm.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Word of versions, right, phlam ointments. I would also argue ungwint,
which is a sister word ointment panties and slurp slurp,
I don't love you don't love slur But that would
be an automotopia describing the sound of sucking up you know,
stuff in your mouth right right.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
And we talked a little bit off air with our
with our brother in arms Max about about favorite non
favorite words. You nailed it with word of version, Noel
do you have a favorite word?
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Flargyl well doud?
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Oh my gosh, that's it, folks, this is our show.
Thank you so much for joining us for a very
meta episode where we use words to talk about words.
Good luck getting into the dictionary. Our last riddle for
today is the following. Can you guess the most common
word in the English language?
Speaker 2 (44:01):
It's probably an article I think we talked about. Is
it a or the ah? Did I get it? Am
my clothes?
Speaker 1 (44:10):
You nailed it, man, It's the most common word in
the English language. You folks are just the best. Thank
you so much for hanging out with us. We cannot
wait to hang out with you more in the future.
Now you often hear us refer to a show called
(44:30):
stuff they Don't Want you to Know, which we do
with our brothers in arms, Matt, Frederick and Dylan the
Tennessee pal Fagan. You can find us on Netflix.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
It's crazy, it's true. We just started doing that in
the new year. Coming to a Netflix tab near you
look for podcasts. I think you can actually already go
and subscribe, sort of hit the little belt to get notification.
But yeah, remind doing a new thing on Netflix. They're
trying to, you know, bring podcasts into the fold. So
we're doing and two of our weekly episodes the kind
of deep dive, topic driven episodes of soth the I
(45:06):
Don't Want You To Know as video as well that
you can find on Netflix coming very soon.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
And big, big thanks of course to our super producer
mister Max Williams Margot, mister Max Flargel Williams perfect Hey, Max,
favorite non favorite word, what do you got?
Speaker 5 (45:25):
My favorite non favorite word fair word? So before and
I think Noel wasn't on the call yet, but my
favorite word is Q because it is just it is
just like the leftover parts of a word. They're like, ah,
we'll pretty just put a Q and a U and
then I don't know an E and then what else.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
That I can never remember how to spell correctly.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
I think it's the only word in the English like
Q you e.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah, four straight follows, I know you nailed it.
Speaker 5 (45:55):
One I have is bookkeeper because it is double o,
double kuble eublep.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
In a row. You know what? They say, the most
beautiful word in the English languages, guys cellar door, Yeah,
Tony dark forever.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
This is just such a weird language. The English language
is spoken today is a non consensual game of piracy
and improv And thank you for sailing the high linguistic.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Seas with us.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Big big thanks, of course to Jonathan Strickland, aka the
Twister of fellow etymology enthusiasts.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Long may he reign over his fiefdom of lies.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
That was good, big thanks to doctor Rachel Big Spinach, Lance,
aj Bahamas, Jacobs, who.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Else rasiotis and Jeff co you're in spirit of course,
uh and you Ben what a great research doctor was.
We'll be coming back soon with some more ridiculous history
for all of you find people out there. We'll see
you next.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Epbox.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's give a big shout out
to our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Rama limiting, hibba hit, what is it? Baby bang bang
buggy set up chuting, never mind carry.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Nailed it, No, we can get it into the o ED.
That's mister Noel Brown. None other Uh. They called me
ben Bullen in this neck of the woods, and guys
they thinking about this. We love words. We actually would
not have this show without words.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Kind of key. I suppose we could just do it
with like wild gesticulations now here in the video age,
but don't think it would hit the same and it'd
be really hard to consume whilst doing your housework.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
That's right, because you have to watch us. We are
still working on the interpretive dance episodes of Ridiculous History.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's always happening in our hearts.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
There it is, so you know, thank you words. It's
weird nol because language is one of humanity's oldest technologies
ever and it is still very much a work in progress.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And we love that, you know, on this show and
on stuff that I want you to know. This idea
of things you might not think are technology as being
a form of technology. You know, it is an innovation.
The idea of being able to manipulate sounds and phonemes
and have shared understanding and logic surrounding ways that we
can relate to other people, to have a means to
(02:05):
do that, and the medium with which to transmit those
ideas is absolutely technology. And I know maybe I'm standing the obvious,
but every time that comes up, I'm always like a
little like blown away.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's wild, right, And I'm right there with you, man.
There is no universal spoken language. In previous episodes, we
talked about how there were a couple of folks over
Millennia who had tried to prove to themselves that a
universal language existed, that if you raised a couple of
(02:39):
human kids and you never let them talk to anyone else,
they would speak the true language of God.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Which is what esperanto.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I love an Esperanto reference, man, So.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Of the idea of that Speranto being the true language
of God.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
That would be so wild. Check out our pals Josh
and Chuck and Jerry. They made an excellent Esperanto episode
on their show Stuff. You should know it's weird because
to your point, it is baffling to consider language technology.
(03:18):
Over thousands of years, over millennia, all sorts of people
tried to figure out what makes language tick, how communication works,
and again the general hibity hoop love interacting with other humans,
not us or perfect at it.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And to your point, Ben, in this delightful bit of
research here on a long enough timeline, everything's gobbledegook.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh yeah, it's just.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
A matter of what kind of hits and what becomes
useful and enough people use and then that becomes part
of the you know, lexicon or whatever. And you always
say on Stuff, I don't want you to know, and
on this show, I'm certain that's you know, the English
language or language in general, is a working progress and
it is a living you know language that we're always
(04:04):
having new words being injected. And I love this idea
of other countries too, using words from countries that are
not their own and then recontextualizing them and giving them
their own unique spin. But ultimately it's a game of
telephone that involves the entire world.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, and here's a spoiler for a lot of us
listening right now. This is a play along Get Home episode.
All words at some point were made up, meaning that
at some point in ancient history enough people pointed at
the sky and said sky, and everybody just went along
(04:44):
with that because they, you know, got what you were
pointing at.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Is it vibes based?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Pin?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Is it like a lot of words? You know, we
have the term automotopia referring to a word that is
sounds like the thing that it's describing. You know, sometimes
it can be very efective. I guess, so those make
sense to me that someone looked at a thing and
this saw the sound that it made, and then created
the word. But then sky, like, where does that even
(05:10):
come from? But who are we to say, I mean,
we weren't there?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, and I love that point there, Noel, because again,
civilization is still working on, as you said, the vibes.
For a few years now, you, Max and I have
been wondering about a bit of related ridiculous history. How
does a word officially become a quote unquote real word,
(05:37):
like the kind of thing you see in a dictionary
or encyclopedia. What is to stop us, my old friend,
from just saying Grando Boys as a synonym for thousands
of US dollars. Do we just insist upon it until
everybody plays along?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah? I think that's the only way to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
This is our first meta episode of twenty twenty six.
What makes a word a word?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah? It is. And before we jump into this, I
would love I've been on a bit of a tear,
a bit of an obsessive internet rabbit hole lately. Are
you familiar with the bizarre patois and slang used by
Toronto teens?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Ah, you're on the way to Canada.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Then well I am, but this is unrelated. I just
the Internet started serving me up these videos of these
kids in Toronto. Specifically, they sound like they're Jamaican and
they use all these crazy words like cheesed and mandam
it's is a group of friends or nyse. It was
recognized walahi, which is Arabic if I swear to god
(06:44):
ting which is very much a you know, Jamaican kind
of slang. They're always saying like two two's my word,
fam and all of these crazy It's bizarre, dude, Just
look it up in your spare time. Anyone out there
that isn't a way to type in Toronto oh slang,
and you'll see some stuff that will blow your wig back.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I can't wait to dive into this. I know I
know several of those words, but it'd be weird if
I use them, I know.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
But these kids also, they all like pitch their voices
up and sound like the Lucky Charms Leprechaun. It's a
whole thing, dude, it's wild.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh man, that's all okay, okay, I'm not going to
say it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Koto is my word crow skime like it's insane.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
You give me perfect recommendations every time. Man, I'm excited
to dive in. We do have to acknowledge, folks, this
is an English centric episode, English language centric episode, and
we are talking about getting words into the official English lexicon.
If you look at other languages, your mileage may vary.
(07:50):
For example, France downright militant about what qualifies as canonical.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Friends and like they both like want you to try
to speak their language, but also will mock you relentlessly
when you do it poorly, oh oh man, or when
you do it okay, but you got a weird you
got a weird us cadence to you?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Oh also no, we have to shout this out. We're
pulling a lot of research for this episode from a
brain Stuff video I wrote years and years ago, which
features none other than the Quist.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Our dynomsis the Quist. And do check out those brain
Stuff videos. They still are live and well on the internet,
and brain Stuff, the podcast, hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum, is
still very much an ongoing concern, you know. Hearkening back
to the the our roots and the house Stuff works universe.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
As she would say, that's actual fact, actual facts.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So no, how would we define a word?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
H Let's see, Well, Miriam Webster defines like our like
like seventh grade project, you know. Presentation research is a
word as a speech sound or series of speech sounds
that symbolize and communicate a meaning, usually without being divisible
into smaller units capable of independent use. That's a that's
(09:15):
a noodle baker right there.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I don't think that's a middle school way to begin.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I do want to Merriam Webster defines, it's the old joke.
This is an incredible quote.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I do think it is, as you said, a noodle baker.
And I like that turn or phrase. We said we
were going meta folks, So for what what are they
saying here? They're saying take the word wo, r D.
You cannot break that down into a sensible series of
other words or meaning, Like if you broke it up
(09:45):
and was just wo and then rd by themselves, maybe
they are abbreviations for something, or they're nonsense entirely.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
And those are would be the aforementioned phonemes, right, the
little nuggets that comprise a word, the sounds that make
it up.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Just so we can make series of sounds that function
by the rules of a specific language, and people who
understand that language might almost intuitively understand what you're saying.
It's kind of like if you watch a if you
speak English and you watch a Scandinavian film or something
(10:26):
from the Low Countries or just you know, hang it
out in Brussels or something to that effect, you'll hear
people speaking and you can almost get what they're saying.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Absolutely, Even like the Danish versus German things like that,
there's a lot of shared you know, I'm sorry, I'm
hearkening back again to my trip to Denmark recently, but
I know German relatively wellsh enough to get by, and
there's enough shared words or words that are very similar
and mean similar things but are spelt slightly different, maybe
(10:59):
have a few more ja's in them or whatever. It's
really easy to read street signs and the typical things
walking around, just kind of using context clues.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And history has proven time and time again that there's
a reason for that that sort of connectivity. Centuries pass
and later language speakers will find a word, they'll put
their own spin on it. They'll remix it, not just
for pronunciation, but also for the spelling, for the meaning,
(11:29):
whatever best suits their environment and their ability to communicate.
This is one of our favorite sciences, etymology all about
this stuff. It also makes Noel Max and yours truly
soups fun at parties.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, and it makes us, you know, it just gives
us the warm fuzzies something that we enjoy. And this
is for it not to be confused with entomology, which
is the study of insects. I like the pause there,
just you know, on paper, it's like just one one
letter away.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Right right right, And we have all found ourselves one
letter away at some point.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well, one letter away from one word meaning in one
language something completely different, potentially mega offensive, and another.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
And again, I apologize to the good people of the
Korean peninsula.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You know what you did, and they know, and you're
on a list.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Everyone knows, and hopefully it's a good list. It's a
nice and not notation. And of course all of this
applies to phrases as well. There are, you know, certain
figures of speech.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
We went through a thing recently where we were trying
to translate some of our podcasts into other languages, and
you realize that the job of a good translator is
not only just one to one translations. It's how to
recommunicate the intent and the meaning of one of these
figures of speech that without the cultural context is going
to be meaningless. So you have to find like a
(12:56):
one to one or something at least adjacent in the
other language and culture to make it make any kind
of sense.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Absolutely, man, this is one of my favorite translators. Once
said it's a marriage between accuracy and poetry.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Familion. I knew you were going. That makes exact exactly.
There's an interpretation to it, and it requires a certain
nuance and ability to kind of read between the lines
and then really paint a picture, you.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Know, yeah, and allow us to be honest folks, we
are not really here to analyze the in the weeds
socio political mechanisms of communication, or the mechanics I should
say English, But we do know the question on everyone's mind.
(13:45):
How do I you're saying, make up a word and
then make it official.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
It's a very good question, Ben, one that I'm really
hoping that you're going to help us answer in this episode.
Otherwise it's going to be a real letdown.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Right, Okay, I'll hop on the tight rope with you. Man,
we're here together. Uh, let's play along at home, all right,
everybody in your head, make up a word? Noel, Max, Ben,
you at home, make.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Up a word. We also acknowledge that that's pretty difficult
thing to do. You could, so I kind of do
because if you I mean, my mind immediately jumps to
just like nonsense words, and even I have a collection
and lexicon of nonsense words already in my head. So
I'm having a real hard time without just grunting and
making general noises to actually come up with a discrete
(14:35):
new word.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Let's, uh, Max, what do you got?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Bute? Flargle's been done.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
We know.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
The universe somewhat some you know.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Prove it prove it, No.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I will niversery Google.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
No, we're keeping all of this in.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Counter from from the counterfeit cat universe is an anthropomorphic,
kind of a little booger looking purple alien creature.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
That sounds like a proper noun, not an actual word.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Bro, you can get a mug Flargl's in the Urban Dictionary. Dude.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Okay, now I'm on no side. Maybe it's tough.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's all I'm saying for it to actually be you know,
flargyl snorpeledork space attorney.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Okay, Uh, everybody remembers flourpol's snorkeledork flargles.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Blabberdasherie.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
See, but you just took haberdashery and and and changed hab.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
To blab Okay, fair point.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'm not saying it's ave. I just say it again.
That's the and I like. I like what you did
there because you combine a lot of consonants and vowelly
things to make it sounds like English. It does sound
like English, But I would argue that that one is
probably not going to come up on a precursory Google.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
You win, no, no craft, we're playing together, least anowledge
that it's not.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
It is very much not easy. I'm with you there,
uh And like we're saying, don't be surprised if you
run into a flargo moment if the word you made
up already exist in some form. And by the way,
Max nice one on differentiating between a proper noun and
uh uh utility word.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Right. Can I also just say in my flargle Google,
which is fun to say, I found, like ex Post says,
tried making a new word. I call it flargyl.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
You lose, Max, I was just like trying to try
and do like you know, bring my inner Rick and Mortium, Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Exactly, And they've got the schlowmies this of course, so
uh as you can tell folks, we're we're running into
the same difficulties trying to make up a new word
that means something and is not also inherently hilarious to us.
Communication is arguably one of the first big three games.
(17:06):
The other two are survival and reproduction. But Noel riddle
is this, How does a made up word like the
beautiful ones all three of us just described, how does
it become quote unquote real or accepted?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Well, I guess that depends on the context. Of the question, like,
are we talking about how in the history of the
human race a word becomes real in terms of its usage,
or are we talking about like officially on paper, recognized
by some governing body of language, like in the Phantom Tollbooth,
does a word become quote unquote accepted? Because I think
(17:44):
whichever one we're talking about, the answer is it depends.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh man, you're good at this. I missed when we
had I've missed you guys when we weren't recording.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Oh sank it. Honestly, dude, It's been really great to
have the break, because not to say that I was
getting burned out or anything like that, but it's just
we do a lot of this, and having that break
in that reset, I've just been really fired up to
do this with y'all and excited to be here some
feelings mutually.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
It's just such a great question you posed, because in
the days of old and the Empires of old, this
was so ad hoc. Like what you just heard us do, folks,
is what really happened throughout history. Most people could not
read a written language, and words were drifting in and
out of meaning, pronunciation, and spelling to a crazy degree.
(18:42):
A lot of a lot of good rulers of various
empires were aware of this, so they tried to, you know,
pull a hammer Robbie and codify stuff. But some of
them actively suppressed the power of literacy and they tried
to restrict they do that.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I don't know. I can't think of I can't think
of a logical reason why you don't want to keep
people dumb.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
I don't have a single flargle for it.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
No, wait, what is bargo bargle? It's it's it gets
a cartoon character, but it's also just like it is
a clear example of like clearly the Internet attempting to
come up with a new word. There is something called
blargo flargle that is some kind of board game. Zombie addition,
(19:30):
it says here.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
Ben, the long story short is floggles whatever you need
it to be six seven.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Oh man, you guys are so chill. I love this.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
What's a song blargo flargle Zombie edition. This is the
The insrot of the song is just blargo flargle over
and over again, and then at the end goes gra
When the day is long and the mind is numb,
blargo flargles. The words that come no rhyme or reason,
just a silly sound blargo flargle when no thoughts are found.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
That's crazy that they say no rhyme or reason, It'll
who of them that rhymes and a pair.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Of words that are clearly designed around the fact.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That they so. The idea of repressing knowledge is definitely
sith Lord stuff. I think we could argue, or let's
through Max Max, what's the Star Trek equivalent of a
sith Lord.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
I don't know. The Borg maybe, yeah, I mean, but
even the.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Border they have an imperative though it's not like they're mean,
They just are this thing, right.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah, you could argue the Borger just kind of what
the programming is. That's what I mean, they're just doing.
I mean, you look at the character like Hugh from TNG,
who is just like you know, I will make your
life better if you're gonna simulate it. Or maybe that's
from a different episode, but argue that.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
But that's Star Trek T means the next generation truth.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Seeing of all this kind of stuff. Shout out to Pluribus,
by the way, and do check that show. It incorporates
a lot of what we're talking about in terms of
hive mind kind of stuff. It's a very very very
cool depiction of that kind of sci fi trophe. But
let's get back on jack that we're talking about suppression
of language and the fact that in general, in the
days of old, most people couldn't read, so the arbiter
(21:12):
of which words became words fell to those in the
top toppy top top.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah yeah, ex oh man, you nailed it. This also
shows us this longstanding habit of suppressing knowledge shows us
the power of the written word and the power of
the book. You know, we've mentioned it before, nol. Reading
something written by your favorite dead author is a lot
(21:38):
like necromancy or time travel, and I would say the
same with hearing ancient songs.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, it's transportive. And one thing you start to see
in fascist regimes is the suppression of stories because of
how powerful they are to communicate ideas and to change
hearts and mind or to put someone in someone else's shoes.
It is an absolute superpower.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
And thankfully, humanity soldiered on through no small numbers of disasters.
Some were natural disasters, some were created by people and polity.
But now there's not just one system of word adoption.
There are several systems. So we have created a word, right,
(22:27):
we're still playing a log at home. We want legitimacy.
How do we get our word in the dictionary.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It's so crazy, man, Yeah, I mean we it always
makes our list at the end of every year, the
Websters or Cambridge or Oxford rather their word of the Year,
which I believe this year. Well, you know, in previous
years with stuff like brain rot, which you know, you
could argue that combining two existing words together into one
word makes a new word, and it is something that
(22:56):
was just very much in the zeitgeist. So a lot
of this slang and a lot of these words that
have ended up in that Toronto slang thing I was
talking about earlier are the kinds of things you're going
to really start seeing thrown around as quote unquote new words.
One hundred percent, way more to it than just pop
culture stuff. The lovely folks at Webster, Miriam, they've combed
through existing literature, right like oh, sleuthing for new words,
(23:21):
changes in language, new uses.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah. Yeah. Different dictionaries are going to have their various
sort of house rules methods for selecting words to be
included in their newer editions. But they're more or less
looking for the same criteria. It's kind of like how
point six to one fourish of a mile is technically
(23:50):
one kilometer, but both of those measurements describe the exact
same amount of distance. If you want your word canonical, buckerouse,
we got to get it in print. If you want
to get a nod from the Oxford English Dictionary, you.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Got the fancy.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Oh my gosh, they're so fancy. They don't even wear ties, man,
they wear cravats.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Mm hm yeah, the fanciest.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Do you wear a cravat? Have you ever?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Worn't know the difference in ava?
Speaker 1 (24:18):
And I'm not gonna look like I feel like it's
a fancy It's like a scarf that goes inside your colleague.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
What's an ascot? Oh my gosh, what is Fred wearing?
Scooby do? Is that a cravat? And ask that's an ascot?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
That's an ascot.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But he's got a little scarf action going on. So there.
I can't be the only one wondering.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
I'm on it all right, Max, Max is gonna update.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
You're pulling up the facts.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
He is. We're so excited. I love the instrumental version
of Max with the facts as well. Man, it's just
so hype.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Uh So, it's a Matt Frederick for composing the absolutely
mellifluous bop.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Oh yes and melifluous. What a wonderful word fan. Uh
So it's around eighteen fifty seven, and the the eggheads
over at Oxford have used a reading program ever since
then to do what you've just described. Noel, to find
what they consider use cases appropriate quotations for each entry
(25:20):
in their dictionary.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Already got me thinking, how AI is going to start
being used for this moving forward, and then it's going
to influence the outcome. And yeah, it's like a or
a Boroughs kind of situation.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I am Jack's lack of surprise.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Just thinking there's kind of no way around it, because
what you're even describing is reading programs.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Yeah, that's you know, a precursor. It's all of this
one hundred percent pattern recognition. So in their reading program
department for OED, we've got fifty lexicographers and they read
almost every possible thing that can be read. And I
(25:58):
agree with you reluctantly this probably goes into large language models.
At this point, we're not talking just novels. Newspapers. Should
it still exist? We're talking about transcripts from TV and
song lyrics and magazines and social media. And now we
returned with super producer mats.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Give us all right, I got some surprises right here.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
I was not a secondent either, But a uh, A
cravat is kind of an umbrella term that includes things
like bow ties, ascots, and actual ties.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
So there's a diagram situation.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah, well so no, like it's actually it's a catch
up floats. It's a floats are Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
How all mazes or puzzles, but not all puzzles are amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
But in this case all no, right, exactly, got it?
Speaker 5 (26:47):
So yeah, ties and uh, ascots are both cravats. But
just because it's a cravat doesn't mean it's a tie.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
There you go love that, oh my god.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
And ascot is formal necktie worn with a morning dress,
tied with a rudimentary knot, worn over the shirt and
secured with a pin. It says style of cravat that
is from bespoke unit.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Okay, it's the kind of thing you'd see a Dracula wearing.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yes, all right, and we're gonna quit while we're ahead.
Max with the facts. Okay, so we're back. We're uh,
(27:45):
we're reading. We're in the reading department. Dream job for
some people, nightmare job for others. And while we're reading,
we're on the lookout for the newest words. We see
Toronto slang, we do. We send it to our little database.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
They do a little fact check, check out the prevalence
of the usage.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
These editors spend a lot of time manually going through
this stuff, reading all published materials, checking the automated scans.
I guess of all of this stuff if they find
in databases, and I imagine online, because that's gosh, that's
I mean, that's where most language is curated these days.
It would seem not most, but if you look at
(28:27):
we're going to get to it at the end. The
words of the year, so many of them in the
last handful of years have been almost entirely Internet related.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
So, like you were saying, the editor that gets this
stuff from the database is going to go back toward
a specific word and say how long has it been
in use, how popular, how prevalent is this term. For
our buddies at Oxford, there's kind of a rule of thumb.
(28:58):
Still a bit ad hoc. We call it the triple
five rule. To get into the dictionary, to be considered
for that helcy on space, your word has to be
in print five times in five different sources, over a
period of five years. Triple five rule. And Nola, I
(29:19):
love what you're pointing out, because pre social media that
was a high bar. But now post social media, that's
one weird day on Twitter or TikTok.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Absolutely, And I mean words come and go as we're
going to get to, and now more than ever, because
not all words are slang. Of course, all slang our
words and inherent and the idea of slang is that
it's a bit of a flash in the pan, and
can't we just blast through those these days?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, and Oxford in particular, I mean, all the major dictionaries,
they're doing their best not to be unc consciously repetitive.
So when you get a word, you're the you get
a word from your database, you're the editor. You say, oh,
it's in print five times. Oh it's from five different sources. Oh,
(30:12):
this has been going on for at least five years.
Your next step is to check something called the Oxford
English Corpus. This is another database it collects everything published
across the internet. We're talking like two point five billion
words of twenty first century English.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Of course, and that's always growing. So while specifics of
this process you can vary from case to case. There
are other dictionaries, of course, that do something very similar
as we've already described, like Merriam Webster has their methods,
Cambridge has their methods, et cetera. So this is where
you sometimes see. Look these dictionaries, especially now, they are
(30:57):
still kind of online publications and they're looking the make
some headlines. So when they picked that word of the year,
it's a little bit of a pr move. It's a
little bit of a like, we're the ones that are
defining the zeitgeist this time, you know, and you look
at the competing publication, let's call them, and you start
to see that I'm trying to kind of differentiate themselves.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Oh yeah, no kidding, men, And I want to lean
on you for your for your German acumen. Here. The
idea of word of the Year began in nineteen seventy
one in Germany and they called it.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Just means the year you nailed it though, yeah, thank you.
I just tried to get the accident as best I could.
It literally translates to word the year death means of
the more or less.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That's surprising that Germany doesn't have all of it condensed
into one crazy phrase.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, they certainly do for a lot of concepts like
far Fagnugen and you know Bvangen Heights, bavouta Gong, Gavangen Heights, Bivoutigong,
which is one of my favorites, which is like a
collective guilt around the Holocaust.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
That took a turn man. Sorry, it's a perfect example.
It's perfect example, and it's my favorite one. So you know,
to my point earlier, I think a little bit you
can't really capture all the complexity of what happens in
the span of a year with a single word. But again,
it just goes to show the ways that all of
these various organizations are trying to kind of be the
(32:33):
one that gets it the closest.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
And you are so right about the pr aspect, and
I would argue it's kind of like dendo chronology, folks,
stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
That means I think the study of tree rings.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's the one, yes, of course, where you see history
writ large. If you ever want to be humbled. Folks,
go get the two uh the stump, Yes, get thee
to thy nearest stump.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Don't going down though, Look for one that's already been cut.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Figure out which year in the ring you were born at,
and then go to the current year. It's it's humbling
when you see, you know, like a redwood or or
something like that. And remember how long these conversations or
these lives continue. Similar to the English language, Look we
(33:29):
got let's say we got flargel in there. We're obviously
incredibly excited about our possibilities. We're waking up. We learn
one day that the word we created, like flargel or
schlop fizzo, I was on one with that one, or
doppel gangbanger, that's inappropriate. What whatever else you created more
(33:53):
of a pun or a portmanteau ieau. So now we're
we're in the OED, the Mirriam Webster, anything but urban dictionary.
We're riding high. We feel like Kanye West post late graduation.
You cannot tell me nothing back.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
When he was still normal.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Ish ish back before we do him as well as
we do and what it was it?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Oh gosh, I'm not comparing Kanye to Hitler, although he
would do that himself. McDonald says about Hitler, the more
I learned about this guy, the more I don't like him.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Right, Norm Gosh, what a legend.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I okay.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Here's the thing though, And Noel, I think this is
what we were alluding to, a bit. You can't get
too big for your breeches. We have to remember that
thousands of new words and new use cases can make
it into a dictionary. But every year those same dictionaries
also are going to remove some words.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Like slop phizio and doppel gangbanger right right, or for example,
it sort of fell out of fashion, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, they were like, come on, man.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
But Ben, then you'll have a golden moment. And that
moment was nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
There it was. Yeah, Prince was all over the radio.
What a time. Miriam Webster has cut words in the past.
We've got some examples. Stern fore boast, oh dad, snolly goster.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
That sounds like a Willy Wonker word. Uh, stylo podium.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Stylo podium makes sense? Right?
Speaker 6 (35:39):
Is it is? Is it a type of lectern? It
must be? Where is it where you put a writing instrument?
It's no, snolly goster. It's definitely no stylo.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Podium might well be the little the little thing you
stick your pin in on the like, you know, the clipboard.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Right, let's see just context bluing it. Oh, we are
totally wrong. What it is an enlargement at the base
of the style of flowers in certain plants of the
Parsley family.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Boring, I know, I wonder, Yeah, no one was referring
to that part. It's just too specific.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
No one was looking at a bunch of beautiful flowers
and going we should admire this stide of.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Podium maybe flower you know, scientists were, And that does
bring up a point. There are obviously words that are
considered like more jargon or very very very industry focused.
Do those make it into the dictionary or is there
like a separate list of like super niche industry specific
like science words and like you know, stuff evolving a
(36:50):
specific industry. And by the way, Ben, I completely concur
with what you've put here in this outline. We've got
to bring back ho Dad. Do we know what ho
Dad even meant? Acquiring minds?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Now we could do Dad, It's uh, it's your grandpa's dongle.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
No, it's surf slang.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It's slang. It's someone who shows up to teach and
has a surfboard but never actually goes on.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, that's amazing. Ho Dad specifically, and there's a it
looks like there's a well known surf shop also called Dad,
which is obviously it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
That reminds me of Google with trained kids. Anyway. Yeah, so,
uh we know, we know, folks, Max, if you could
give us, like a sad crowd sigh some words, do
you have to go? And that is okay because it
may sound cruel to throw these words out, but we
(37:49):
have to remember, uh nol. You and I have talked
about this a lot off air. English is a living language, right,
Communication is key, not fancy et cetera. English, and the
people who are speaking it, or any living language, they're
trying to figure out that old technology of communication. What
are the first three great games? And that means the
(38:11):
dictionaries arguably have to change with that conversation.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
No doubt. And by the way, Hodad's was a small
chain of burger joints in a Diego, not a surf shop.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Are they still open?
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I think so? Yeah, established nineteen seventy three, A tasty burger.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
We got to go get our tasty burgers.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Man, I love a California burger. I do too. They
are better.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
So we can't leave you without a dope phrase. To
step two, here are as we've been teasy words of
the year from five major dictionaries across twenty twenty five.
And folks, we love Knowell's point there about how you
can see just like tree rings, you can see large
(38:58):
patterns of social change just through these phrases over time.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah, and you are occasionally going to get some doubles.
So we'll just go through these respectively, Dictionary dot Com, Mirriam, Webster, Collins, Oxford,
and Cambridge to try to just remember that order. We'll
probably discuss a little bit some specific ones. But from
twenty twenty if you can imagine pandemic pandemic lockdown. Oxford
didn't choose a word because I guess they thought everything
(39:26):
was too f well they could get to the office.
They threw their hands up. Cambridge went with quarantine to
pandemic pandemic lockdown. Quarantine. What a year.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Yeah, go to twenty twenty one. We've got allyship vaccine
n ft VAX with it X and perseverits from our
fridge cabridge.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
It's totally positive. Keep onwards and upwards. Cambridge twenty twenty two.
We've got woman, oh color dictionary dot com. That is hilarious.
Dictionary dot COM's got some kind of dumb ones. I'm sorry,
I'm not. I'm just saying, like every every year woman, Really,
I mean, that's weird. That's almost insulting a little. It
(40:07):
was there earlier. Yeah, we've been here for years. Don't
call it a comeback gas lighting. Uh, it's twenty twenty
two kind of the year of me too.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Definitely, Okay, I guess so funny and reductive just to
have it be woman. The worst joke about that one,
by the way, is actually it's pronounced jazz.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Lighting rights, perma crisis. That's relatable goblin mode, I remember
that one. That's technically two words though at Oxford. I
guess you could make it a Onesie and Homer.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Yeah, there's all.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
These weird little outliers. That's from a Cambridge. I'll thrown
another curveball, but happened in twenty twenty three. This is
a very ai and starting to get into the brain
rot of it all.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah. Then we've got hallucinate Authentic AI RIZ and Cambridge
comes in swooping with dictionary dot com and they say
also hallucinate word.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Of the year, and that's of course referring to the
thing AI does when it just makes stuff. Up to
twenty twenty four, we've got demurror I had a moment,
polarization Brat which I love, Charlie XCX Forever brain Rot
from Oxford. That was the one that made for most News.
I think we definitely talked about that on the pod
something I Want You to Know, Strange News episode and
(41:30):
Manifest Cambridge.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
And then we get to twenty twenty five the most
recent year, dictionary dot com says six to seven.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Those are numbers, Dictionary dot com. Those are numbers six
dash seven, not even spelled out, They're just the numbers
with a dash. I don't I think that's absurd. We've
got slop that's weir webs.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
It's just just mirrorm Webster saying what Dictionary dot com
where the year was.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Then we've got Collins with Vibe coding I know.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Age baits Parasocial which is very podcast centric.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
And Cambridge that's that's courtesy of our friends at Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Cambridge is a little more nuanced in their picks, wouldn't
you agree?
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I would absolutely agree.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Like I think I like their takes the best in
a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Oh, come on, perseverance school behind.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
I would love to see the data backing that one up. Though,
It's like, what contexts are people just throwing that word
around in twenty twenty one?
Speaker 1 (42:30):
It's the word they wanted to bring to the masses.
To be honest, we also know that there are regular
pulls and rankings, very non scientific, very self reporting of
the quote unquote worst or most misliked words in English.
I think we all know a couple of characters from
(42:53):
this rogues gallery moist always phlegm.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Word of versions, right, phlam ointments. I would also argue ungwint,
which is a sister word ointment panties and slurp slurp,
I don't love you don't love slur But that would
be an automotopia describing the sound of sucking up you know,
stuff in your mouth right right.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
And we talked a little bit off air with our
with our brother in arms Max about about favorite non
favorite words. You nailed it with word of version, Noel
do you have a favorite word?
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Flargyl well doud?
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Oh my gosh, that's it, folks, this is our show.
Thank you so much for joining us for a very
meta episode where we use words to talk about words.
Good luck getting into the dictionary. Our last riddle for
today is the following. Can you guess the most common
word in the English language?
Speaker 2 (44:01):
It's probably an article I think we talked about. Is
it a or the ah? Did I get it? Am
my clothes?
Speaker 1 (44:10):
You nailed it, man, It's the most common word in
the English language. You folks are just the best. Thank
you so much for hanging out with us. We cannot
wait to hang out with you more in the future.
Now you often hear us refer to a show called
(44:30):
stuff they Don't Want you to Know, which we do
with our brothers in arms, Matt, Frederick and Dylan the
Tennessee pal Fagan. You can find us on Netflix.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
It's crazy, it's true. We just started doing that in
the new year. Coming to a Netflix tab near you
look for podcasts. I think you can actually already go
and subscribe, sort of hit the little belt to get notification.
But yeah, remind doing a new thing on Netflix. They're
trying to, you know, bring podcasts into the fold. So
we're doing and two of our weekly episodes the kind
of deep dive, topic driven episodes of soth the I
(45:06):
Don't Want You To Know as video as well that
you can find on Netflix coming very soon.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
And big, big thanks of course to our super producer
mister Max Williams Margot, mister Max Flargel Williams perfect Hey, Max,
favorite non favorite word, what do you got?
Speaker 5 (45:25):
My favorite non favorite word fair word? So before and
I think Noel wasn't on the call yet, but my
favorite word is Q because it is just it is
just like the leftover parts of a word. They're like, ah,
we'll pretty just put a Q and a U and
then I don't know an E and then what else.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
That I can never remember how to spell correctly.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
I think it's the only word in the English like
Q you e.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah, four straight follows, I know you nailed it.
Speaker 5 (45:55):
One I have is bookkeeper because it is double o,
double kuble eublep.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
In a row. You know what? They say, the most
beautiful word in the English languages, guys cellar door, Yeah,
Tony dark forever.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
This is just such a weird language. The English language
is spoken today is a non consensual game of piracy
and improv And thank you for sailing the high linguistic.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Seas with us.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Big big thanks, of course to Jonathan Strickland, aka the
Twister of fellow etymology enthusiasts.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Long may he reign over his fiefdom of lies.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
That was good, big thanks to doctor Rachel Big Spinach, Lance,
aj Bahamas, Jacobs, who.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Else rasiotis and Jeff co you're in spirit of course,
uh and you Ben what a great research doctor was.
We'll be coming back soon with some more ridiculous history
for all of you find people out there. We'll see
you next.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Epbox.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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