Radio Smart Talk: Amazing Words

Radio Smart Talk for Friday, February 1:

Fascinating. Defined as “extremely interesting or charming.” Fascinating is a good word to describe the book, Amazing Words by Dr. Richard Lederer. In the book, Dr. Lederer writes about hundreds of words in the English language, where they came from, how they evolved, and teaches the reader things he or she didn’t know about common words.

For example, the word “run” is perhaps the biggest word in the English language (at least in the dictionary) because it has 645 meanings. Not only is run defined as “to move swiftly on alternate feet” but you can run a company, run it up a flagpole, run up debts, run for school board, get a run in your stocking, run the motor of your car, run an idea past a friend, and hopefully your nose isn’t running.

Run comes in ahead of the words “put” and “set” in number of meanings.

The word “Dachshund” is the name of one of the oldest and most popular breeds of dog. It is derived from the German words dachs meaning badger and hund which is hound. Lederer describes how the hot dog — the ones on a bun — got its name and how it relates to dachshunds and sausages.

Dr. Richard Lederer is considered an expert on language and its usage. He has written more than 40 books with titles such as Anguished English, The Miracle of Language, and Sleeping Dogs Don’t Lay.

Dr. Lederer will appear on Friday’s Radio Smart Talk in what could be a fascinating hour.

By the way, fascinating was first used in 1638 but Lederer probably already knew that.

Listen to the program: {mp3remote}http://witf.vo.llnwd.net/o35/smarttalk/radiosmarttalk/RST_February012013.mp3{/mp3remote}