Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over
Episode: Mrs. Astor's Horse (Rebroadcast) - 18 January 2021
Description: "What has a head like a cat, feet like a cat, a tail like a cat, but isn't a cat?" Answer: a kitten! A 1948 children's joke book has lots of these to share with kids. Plus: an easy explanation for the difference between immigrate with an i, and emigrate with an e. And: The ancient Greeks revered storks for the way they cared for each other. They even had a legal requirement called the Stork Law, which mandated that Greek adults look after their elderly parents. Much later, the same idea inspired a rare English word that means "reciprocal...