Getting Down & Wordy

Are you afraid of no ghost in August? We talk boo, the word that is the thing ghosts say for some reason, and the thing we say to show disapproval, and a word for romantic partners, among many other uses! Plus, gemination and reduplication.

And we talk Paul Russell's feel good hit, "Lil Boo Thang".

In Eurovision talk, we discuss Poland's 2025 entry "Gaja" by Justyna Steczkowska.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks to Patsy Walker for...

We talk about the mysterious meaning of Kelis's milkshake, and what else she's done, from her pentecostal upbringing to her transition into the culinary world.

And we discuss milk, the origin of the word, other animals' non-breast-originating baby nourishments which are called milk, and the controversy around calling non-dairy beverages milk, such as almond milk and oat milk.

In Eurovision, we of course talk about Australia's 2025 entry "Milkshake Man" by Go-Jo.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge...

Today we talk about a couple of Getting Down & Wordy veterans, Rose from Black Pink and Bruno Mars. We talk about the meaning of APT in Korea, English loan words in Korean, and our differing opinions of the song.

In the etymology portion, we discuss the origin of various housing words including apartment, house, home, and rent.

For Eurovision, we discuss Estonia's Tommy Cash and his song "Espresso Macchiato".

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks to...

We get down to business, talking about Paramore, fantasy high school, and what is and is not emo.

We look at the history and evolution of the word business. Why is it spelled different from how it sounds? Why did it used to mean worry? And where do other languages get their word for business?

In Eurovision, we talk about Germany's 2025 entry, "Baller" by Abor and Tynna, and we learn some German business idioms.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com<...

Remember the Kendrick Lamar x Drake beef? We talk about the greatest rap beef of all time, so great it won (tied for) the most grammies of all time.

We discuss the etymology of beef and the origin and evolution of a word for a dispute, including the first beef in hip hop history.

In Eurovision, we discuss Ukraine's 2025 offering, "Bird of Pray" by Ziferblat.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com<...

It's our 100th episode! So we're talking about one hundred, the word, and "100 Years" the song. Oh no! Now what song will we feature when we have been podcasting for 100 years??

We'll discuss apparent numberphile Five for Fighting, the etymology of hundred, cent, and related words.

In Eurovision, we discuss France's classic winning song from 1965, "Poupee De Cire" by France Gall. And, a song paying tribute to it in 2025, "La poupée monte le son" by Laura Thorn representing Luxembourg.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And e...

It's 7pm Friday, it's 95 degrees. And we're ringing in the summer by talking about Glorilla's "TGIF", famously cited by congresswoman Ayanna Presley to illustrate the reality of the climate crisis for our youth.

We look at how our words related to the climate crisis originated and evolved, and the impact of the climate crisis on our language.

In Eurovision, we talk about Slovenia's "How Much Time Do We Have Left" by Klemen.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

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This week we return to Beyonce to talk about her foray into country music and the most infamous word in "improper" grammar - ain't.

We look at where ain't comes from, how it was originally used, who originally used it, and what was the opinion of it in the past? We explain its evolution and the history of the pushback against it.

In Eurovision, we discuss Albania's 2025 entry "Zjerm" by Shkodra Elektronike.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

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A murder of crows, a pride of lions. These names for groups of animals are called terms of venery! Who comes up with this stuff? We'll tell you!

And what better song to pair with this than "Shivers" by Ed Sheeran? Is there a better song, period? Ok, so there are lots of better songs in the world, but Ed Sheeran seems like a pretty likeable guy it turns out!

For Eurovision, we're talking about Montenegro's "Clickbait" by NeonoeN, a song which was selected but ultimately disqualified!

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In 2023, Steven Tyler fractured his larynx and subsequently retired from singing. We discuss Aerosmith . . .

And the larynx and vocal cords a.k.a. vocal folds! How do they work? What animals do and don't have vocal cords? What other ways do animals make sounds? What can go wrong with the voice?

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks to Patsy Walker for the use of our theme song “Who’s Wordy Now”!

This week’s promoted podcast is Freak...

In preparation for next week's episode about the vocal cords, we talk to phenomenal Asheville alt-pop musician, vocalist, voice over actor, and audiobook narrator Moon Bride about the ins and outs of working with one's voice.

You can find Moon Bride's music on all the major platforms like Spotify and Youtube by searching her name. And you can follow her on Instagram to keep up with her music releases and concerts.

Here's some links to her stuff:

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSAknB96lwkp-etOS3lxpZQ

Instagram:

...

In this episode we talk about AJR, their invention of a synthesizing process for morphing instrument sounds into different instrument sounds (idk, I don't understand it to be honest), and synesthesia. Did you know there are a bunch of different types of synesthesia? You will know after you listen. And possibly see colors while you're listening? Synesthetes, write in and tell us what colors our voices are.

We look at trends and misuses of mental health buzz words. Self care. Trigger. Gas light. Etc. Everyone's using these words, but do they mean what they think they mean?<...

We're looking at the etymology and evolution of "rawdog" so we decided to rawdog this episode! That's right, no planning, decision making, or research was done before we started recording. Listen if you dare as we go mask off and show you just how slow and dumb we really are.

We chose Pussy Cat Dolls "Don't Cha" for the music segment, and looked at a song for Eurovision that was in the running but ultimately didn't get picked.

If you like it raw, today's your lucky day.

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We talk about the history and evolution of "woke" from the simple opposite of slept to the catchall term for everything the fascists of the world dislike.

Music-wise, we'll talk about a semi-recent song that implores us to stay woke, Childish Gambino's "Redbone".

In Eurovision, we look at Cyprus's competitor, Theo Evan, and political and racial words with Greek and Turkish origins.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks to Patsy Walker for the use of our...

In America we use red blooded blue collar measurements like feet and yards and miles. But what's up with that? And what's a furlong? And a perch?

We talk about the Proclaimers' hit song and their evolution, and we talk about the evolution of the mile and other measurements that we just can't let go of even as the rest of the world has gone metric.

In Eurovision, we talk about the debut of Celine Dion, with her 1988 song for Switzerland, "Ne partez pas sans moi".

Find...

We talk about everyone's favorite lesbian pop star, where she came from and her own impact on language and the pop music discourse.

And we discuss the etymology of baby, its origins, its evolution of use over time. When and why did we start using it to mean romantic partners?

In Eurovision, we discuss Latvia's 2024 entry "Hollow" by Dons, and we talk about Latvian words for baby and for romantic partners.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge...

Since August of 2024, women in Afghanistan have been banned by the Taliban from speaking or being heard in public places. Some Afghan women have bravely released recordings of themselves singing in protest of this horrific loss of basic freedom.

We discuss the ban, and we discuss Miley Cyrus's song "Wrecking Ball", a song which in many ways exemplifies the oppressive masculine forces at play in the American pop music industry.

Find the Afghan woman's song we share in the episode here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFHTbPNPZ1o&ab_channel=VoiceofAmerica

Valentine's Day is coming up, so we talk about the thing that no one does on Valentine's Day since we're all on dates. Fart!

And who better to pair with farts than Canadian pop sensation Feist?

We talk about the etymology of fart, other words for fart, words you didn't know mean fart, and the science and cultural history of farting.

For Eurovision, we look at Sweden 2024's Marcus and Martinus and their song "Unforgettable".

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We look at the sneakily successful Mark Ambor. Give his music a listen, and you may be surprised to realize that you already know it.

And we look at the second of time. How did we come to call it that? What relation does it have to second as in 2nd place? Learn about the people who standardize time and how that came about. And learn about why we use a base 60 system for time.

In Eurovision we talk about Armenia 2024 - "Jako" by Ladaniva.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram...

Today we discuss one of the biggest hits of 2024, and we look into the etymology and history of the endless list of words for coffee, from coffee itself to descriptors of types of coffee like macchiato.

For Eurovision, we discuss Norway's 2024 song "Gåte" by Ulveham, and we talk about Norway's coffee culture including weird coffee pairings.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks to Patsy Walker for the use of our theme song “Who’s Wordy Now”!

This...

Next week we will be talking about "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter, so this week we brought on a Sabrina Carpenter fan, our friend Jess from the wonderful music news podcast Music Notes with Jess.

We also talk about her podcast, music pet peeves, and the New York dialect.

Find Jess's podcast anywhere you get podcasts, or at this link:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/music-notes-with-jess/id1482464592

Also follow her podcast on instagram at this link:

https://www.instagram.com/musicnoteswithjess/

Find us on instagram here: https...

We are once again looking at the most popular song from 100 years ago! It's 1924's "Ain't Gonna Rain No More", an old folk song performed by a variety of artists, but most famously by Wendell Woods Hall, considered by some to be the first modern pop star.

We'll explore some of the popular lyrics of the song, a song which has countless verses since lots of singers like to add new ones.

And we'll explore the dialectical variation of losing the "R" sounds, particularly after vowels, like how in the song of the episode, "more"...

Next week we are talking about r-dropping accents - accents that say cah for car and so on, often found in British accents, and so we hunted down a real live British person to talk to about the British accent.

That person is Matt from the podcast Pick a Disc. On Matt's podcast, each episode a guest tells Matt about an album they love, and they have a nice chat about it that is insightful, funny, and highly listenable. I love this podcast. I know you will too. Check it out where you listen to podcasts or...

Happy Hanukkah listeners! We're discussing apartheid, the Israel Palestine conflict, and parallels to the history of Hanukkah.

To do that, we chose Dave Matthews, a man from South Africa who has spoken out against Palestinian genocide, and his song "Last Stop" about the topic.

For Eurovision, we talk about Israel's 2024 entry "Hurricane" by Eden Golan and the controversy surrounding it.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks to Patsy Walker for the use of...

This Thanksgiving we are diving into the slang phrase "It's giving" which is used to describe something's vibes or je ne se quoix or . . . Just listen to the podcast, we explain it. We also talk about the etymology of the word give itself.

We talk about Latto, a rapper named after a racial slur? And we'll tell you who she is and how she came to be famous.

And it's Thanksgiving, so we're talking about some Thanksgiving stuff, including the origin of the phrase "Indian giver".

For Eurovision, we discuss Germany's 2024 offering, "Always...

Today we are joined by Heddwen Newton. Heddwen is half Dutch, half British, and writes two entertaining newsletters about language. 

English and the Dutch is about how Dutch people speak English (hint: sometimes badly), and also dives into interesting etymologies that link the two languages. 

Heddwen has been writing about difficult-to-translate Dutch words and idioms since 2017 on her blog HoezegjeinhetEngels.nl.

English in Progress lists neologisms and Gen Z slang in a way that is funny but also lexicographically sound.

And we are talking about the Dutch influence on English including loan...

With the diabetes and the tooth decay and so on, what's scarier than sugary sweetness? Waking up early, according to Hozier!

We talk about how to say Hozier, and other things about this artist such as his penchant for activism.

And we discuss the word sweet, its origins and etymology.

In Eurovision, we discuss Portugal's 2024 entry "Grito" by Iolanda, because it's Halloween, and grito means scream, sort of.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks...

We discuss the Bruce Springsteen of Vermont, Noah Kahan, and that one song he has that really sticks in your head. Also, what is stick season anyway?

We talk about the word stick and related words. And, no spoilers, but there are a lot of related words. We also look at some stick-based idioms like "more than you can shake a stick at", "the short end of the stick", "stuck up", and "sticks and stones".

For Eurovision, we discuss Georgia's 2024 song "Firefighter" by Nutsa Buzaladze. And we discuss the months of the Georgian calendar.

Sacre Bleu, it's the return of Billie Eilish, and she's singing in French! Oh wait she's not, just the song title is in French. Well anyway! C'est la vie.

We talk about the rise of queerness in music. And then we talk about French, the language of love. Why is it thought of as the most romantic language?

For Eurovision, we discuss Luxembourg's 2024 song "Fighter" by TALI, and the Luxembourgian language's word for love.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com<...

Today we're talking about a super sunny song and the darkness that lies within.

And we're pairing that with the topic of covert hate speech, basically. A lot of numbers. Bigots seem to really like numbers. Kind of good to know what the tainted numbers are so you don't accidentally use them, just saying.

For Eurovision, we are finally talking about the winner of Eurovision, Switzerland's Nemo, and their song "The Code".

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

...

We're talking about perhaps the greatest Metallica song, probably the most listened to now that it got the Stranger Things bump.

And we're talking about "puppet". The word, the history, the creep factor, the surprising relevance and popularity of puppets today. If anything, they're more popular than ever before.

For Eurovision, we talk about Estonia's 2024 entry 5MIINUST and Puuluup ‘(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi.’ Definitely in my (Russell's) top 3 favorite songs of the competition. This is also the last episode we recorded pre-Eurovision so after this one we'll finally know what the rest...

Next week's episode will be about the word "puppet", the etymology, history, and cultural stuff surrounding the word.

So this week, I am interviewing my favorite puppeteer, Matt Sandbank. Matt Sandbank does lightbox shadow puppetry. His shows are clever, poignant, and hilarious. He is based in North Carolina, but he does shows around the country.

We talk about his puppet work, and his ideas and views of puppetry.

You can find Matt Sandbank on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/sandbank_shadow_factory/

Or at his website: http://www.sandbankshadowfactory.com/<...

We selected the cringiest musical artist we could think of to feature in our discussion of cringe. What is this complex emotion and how has it evolved? And where did the word come from? Is it an ideophone? What's an ideophone? We discuss it.

In Eurovision, we discuss Austria's 2024 song "We Will Rave" by a Kaleen.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks to Patsy Walker for the use of our theme song “Who’s Wordy Now”!

This w...

Recently I got into the band Mannequin Pussy, and I thought it's interesting that they have trouble with censors in media and platforms such as Tiktok, for "pussy", a word that not that long ago was acceptable to use in any context because it had two meanings - cat and genitals. So we're exploring how it shifted over time from first meaning only cat, to then meaning cat and genitals, to now meaning only genitals. And now, it's even become grammaticized to a suffix in -ussy, as in bussy, pizussy, clussy, etc.

And what better song to...

Welp, we watched the musical Wonka movie. And one of us loved it and one of us did not. Which of us is which may not surprise you.

It's a "funny" movie with some funny words, so we thought we'd talk about what makes some words funny. We look at the discourse and research into what makes a word funny. And we list lots of examples of words that various people have pointed out as being funny words.

We also talk about Roald Dahl, a man who made a career out of making up funny...

We're talking about the only artist whose name rhymes with RZA . . . SZA!

And of course we're talking about the surprising history of rhyming plus different kinds of rhymes. Which words do and don't rhyme? It's more complicated than you think. Are slant rhymes bad writing? It's more complicated than you think!

For Eurovision, we discuss Croatia's 2024 song "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" by Baby Lasanga. Meow cat, please meow back.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Huge thanks to...

On this jagged little podcast we discuss Alanis Morisette's first hit and what she's done since. Amazing what a woman with pockets can do.

Of course we're talking about hands, including the etymology of the word, and also the fingers, and also various hand signs such as the high five.

In Eurovision talk, we discuss the UK's 2024 offering, "Dizzy" by Olly Alexander. And we chat a bit about the Tiktok hand dancing trend.

Find us on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gettingdownandwordy/

And email us at gettingdownandwordy@gmail.com

Today, building on our discussion last week with Michelle Troszak, creator of the Interstellar Song Contest, we talk about fictional languages. We have all your favorites except for the Game of Thrones ones! Klingon! Elvish! Simlish! Furbish! Wenja from Far Cry! And more!

In Eurovision, we talk about space-themed songs throughout the years.

Remember to check out the Interstellar Song Contest at any of the following links:

The full show (like a radio show format):

⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/skysail-theatre⁠

⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4G93JBa74dvXuCB...

Today we talk to Michelle Troszak, founder of Skysail Theatre, about her new musical, The Interstellar Song Contest.

This episode is part 1 of our discussion on fictional languages, which will conclude in next week's episode.

The Interstellar Song Contest currently exists as a cast recording and a radio show in podcast format. Find Michelle, Skysail Theatre, and the show at the following links!

The full show (like a radio show format):

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/skysail-theatre

https://open.spotify.com/show/4G93JBa74dvXuCBadnsyUk

The...

Maybe a lesser known Decemberists song, but probably one of the first ones I ever heard, we talk about "Myla Goldberg", and the person who it's about, author of the novel Bee Season. Lots of spoilers for people who have not read it and intend to, so watch out.

We discuss the spelling bee. How'd it start and what are the rules? And why is it only an English thing?

In Eurovision, we discuss a song in which they spell something, San Marino 2024's "11:11" by Megara.

Find us on instagram here: https://www...