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Podcast: A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over
Episode: Month of Sundays - 29 September 2014
Description: If youâre on tenterhooks, it means youâre in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15th-century manufacturing process. Also, you probably have a term for those crumbs that collect in the corners of your eyes overnight. They go by lots of names, like âsleepâ and âsandâ and âeye boogers.â But thereâs a medical term for them as wellâone that goes back to ancient Greek. And where in tarnation did we get the word . . . tarnation? Plus, pie charts in other countries, âa month of Sundays,â euphemisms for vomiting, â...