‘Friends with Words’ is a book about language, from word origins to regional dialects

Summary

NPR's Book of the Day

Episode: ‘Friends with Words’ — A Deep Dive into Language with Martha Barnett

Date: September 3, 2025
Host: Peter O’Dowd (Here & Now, NPR)
Guest: Martha Barnett—Author of Friends with Words, Co-host of Away with Words

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Episode Overview

This episode celebrates the quirky, fascinating, and deeply human side of language. Host Peter O'Dowd sits down with word expert Martha Barnett to discuss her new book, Friends with Words, which explores word origins, the evolution of language, and regional dialects. Rather than scolding over grammar, Barnett argues that curiosity and joy are the most enriching ways to engage with language.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Linguistic Curiosity over Grammar Policing

• The conversation begins with a listener’s complaint about the misuse of the word “unique.” O'Dowd asks Barnett if the show should issue a correction.
  • Martha Barnett [03:14]:

    "I give you all a dispensation saying unique that way. Most unique, very unique. It's just not a problem anymore. There are degrees, actually, of words like that. And we like to say on Away with Words that talking about your grammatical pet peeves is the least interesting part of talking about language."

• Barnett emphasizes that language is about much more than rules. She's interested in origins, regionalisms, and personal idiosyncrasies.

The Spark of Linguistic Passion

• Barnett traces her own fascination back to her formative years:
  • Martha Barnett [04:07]:

    "I inherited that from both of my parents who were educators. But when I was in Latin class in ninth grade, I had what I call a spark word...and that was the word cras, and it means tomorrow in Latin. And I thought, wait a minute, cras. Is that any relation to procrastinate? And so I ran to the dictionary, found out that indeed, procrastinate is literally to put something off until tomorrow."

• She likens this kind of discovery to finding a “spark bird”—something that forever opens your mind to a whole new world.

A Bird’s Eye View of Language Families

• Struggling with Ancient Greek in college led to insight rather than defeat:
  • Martha Barnett [05:14]:

    "I ended up finding a fabulous tutor...gave me a bird's eye view of languages that spring from proto Indo European, which accounts for nearly half of the languages spoken in the world...all these languages that are connected, like Greek and Russian and Italian and Irish and English."

Origins of Familiar Words

• “Broadcast”: The word originates in agriculture.
  • Barnett [06:05]:

    "Broadcasting literally...meant to scatter seeds...as opposed to just putting them in the ground individually...If you're broadcasting, you're casting it far and wide."

  • Other agricultural words: “aftermath” also comes up, referring to the grass left after the first mowing.
• “Sifuncified”: An American-ism for “I’m full.”
  • Barnett [06:45]:

    "So fonsified is sort of a fancy way of saying, I've had enough to eat. It's kind of an Americanism that came up at a time when people were...having fun with English and making up words that attempt to sound more like Latin...takes different forms because it's not written down. Usually it's something that's passed on mouth to ear."

Favorite Words and Their Stories

• Martha’s Favorite: “Mellifluous”
  • Barnett [07:53]:

    "My favorite word, I think, is mellifluous...the word mellifluous comes from Latin, words that literally mean flowing with honey...if somebody has a mellifluous voice in the picturesque original sense, it meant flowing with honey."

Words That People Love to Hate

• “Moist”—the word listeners can’t stand.
  • [08:54]: Listener dramatically spells out the word "M O I S T."
  • Barnett [09:22]:

    "Linguists have actually looked into this...they saw that it was associated with words that might make people a little bit uncomfortable. It has to do with the context in which that term is often found, and it just sort of skeeves some people."

The Detective Work of Historical Linguistics

• How we know word histories:
  • Barnett [10:11]:

    "It's in the same way that an archaeologist will see...the lip of a jar...Historical linguists have been able to trace so many of these words that we use every day back to this prehistoric language, Proto Indo European...For example, the word for three in so many different languages...Spanish, tres, and French, trois. And...there's Grimm's Law, which...tells you that certain letters tend to correspond with each other...you start to see these correspondences."

  • She likens etymology to being a linguistic detective—piecing together small clues for a fuller understanding.

The Story Behind “Boycott”

• Barnett [11:41]:

  • "Boycott ... comes from the name of someone, Charles Boycott, who was a British military officer who went to Ireland to enforce evicting poor tenant farmers...the Irish rose up and ... systematically shunning him and ostracizing him...he wrote a letter to a London newspaper complaining...this letter got published and as one Irish writer said, like a comet, the verb boycott appeared."

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Memorable Quotes

• On language policing:
  • “Talking about your grammatical pet peeves is the least interesting part of talking about language.” — Martha Barnett [03:20]
• On word origins:
  • “I had a spark word, and that was the word cras, and it means tomorrow in Latin...procrastinate is literally to put something off until tomorrow.” — Martha Barnett [04:13]
• On mellifluous:
  • “In the picturesque original sense, it meant flowing with honey.” — Martha Barnett [08:15]
• On “moist”:
  • “It just sort of skeeves some people.” — Martha Barnett [09:29]
• On etymology:
  • “It's in the same way that an archaeologist will see, like, the lip of a jar, and they can discern how that jar must have looked.” — Martha Barnett [10:12]
• On “boycott”:
  • “...like a comet, the verb boycott appeared.” — Martha Barnett [12:34]

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Notable Moments with Timestamps

• [03:14] — Martha Barnett’s rationale for not being a “grammar bully.”
• [04:07] — The origin of Barnett’s word-nerd obsession: discovering “procrastinate.”
• [05:49] — Surprising origins: “broadcast” and “aftermath.”
• [06:45] — On the invented American word “sifuncified.”
• [07:53] — Barnett shares her favorite word, “mellifluous.”
• [08:54] — A listener’s dramatic spelling and hatred of “moist,” plus Barnett’s analysis.
• [10:11] — How linguists trace the genealogy of words.
• [11:41] — The true story behind the word “boycott.”

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Tone & Takeaways

Barnett’s style is warm, witty, and infectious. She delights in wordplay and encourages listeners to approach language with curiosity rather than rules. The episode is peppered with playful banter, etymological revelations, and cultural connections that will make both language lovers and everyday speakers see everyday words in a fascinating new light.

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Final Thoughts

Friends with Words invites readers and listeners to step away from grammar nitpicking and instead look at the evolving, communal, and surprising journey of the words we use. For anyone who’s ever wondered, “where does that word come from?” or delighted in the peculiarities of dialect, this episode is a reminder to approach language not as a fixed set of rules, but as an ever-changing, shared adventure.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. If you are a language lover, a words nerd, you will love today's episode. It's an interview with Martha Barnett about her book Friends with Words, which is a deep and fun dive into the etymologies of different words, the surprising histories of the phrases we use on a day to day basis. And notice I said language lover and not language bully or someone who tut tuts over grammar. Because in this interview with Here and Now's Peter o', Dow, Barnett makes the argument that that is actually the least interesting way to approach language. More after the break.

[B]

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[C]

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[C]

Get, I know many of you are sticklers for grammar and properly pronounced words. Consider this recent email read by our producer Emiko Tamagawa.

[E]

Love your program, but derailed by shocking grammar, you can't be Most unique. More unique, Increasingly unique. I've heard these and more on your program. Unique is a definitive you are or are not.

[C]

Well, I can appreciate that and so can our next guest. Martha Barnett is co host of the radio show Away with Words, and her new book is called Friends with Words. It's the kind of book that you should read if you ever want to know where the word boycott came from or why there's not a word for giving someone something to drink. Martha, Hi.

[F]

Hi. It's great to be here.

[C]

Good to have you. I know you're the kind of radio host who's used to getting feedback from passionate listeners. So, first of all, what do you think about our transgression there with the word unique? Should we be hanging our heads and getting ready to issue a retraction?

[F]

No, Peter. I give you all a dispensation saying unique that way. Most unique, very unique. It's just not a problem anymore. There are degrees, actually, of words like that. And we like to say on Away with Words that talking about your grammatical pet peeves is the least interesting part of talking about language. There's so much more to talk about about word origins and regional dialects and slang and that weird thing your grandma used to say. I mean, and often when somebody is critic somebody else's language, they're not right.

[C]

In fact, your book, it's full of words and facts about words that will blow your mind if you're interested in the English language. So let's dig into that. Where did your passion for all of this come from?

[F]

Well, I inherited that from both of my parents who were educators. But when I was in Latin class in ninth grade, I had what I call a spark word. You know, birders talk about the spark bird. That got them really excited about birding. And for me, I had a spark word, and that was the word cross, C, R, A, S, and it means tomorrow in Latin. And I thought, wait a minute, cross. Is that any relation to procrastinate? And so I ran to the dictionary, found out that indeed, procrastinate is literally to put something off until tomorrow. And that kind of started me on the road to exploring all the history and culture that can be fossilized inside, inside a single word. And then when I got to college, I took Ancient Greek and I almost flunked out.

[C]

You know, I took. I took Latin in high school. It's not fair. I did not have a spark word. In fact, I don't. I don't know if I had any sort of inspiration except for that it was very difficult.

[F]

Yes, yes, Latin is indeed difficult, and Greek is harder. And I ended up finding a fabulous tutor, a polyglot tutor who taught Me, ancient Greek in an entire different way, and kind of gave me a bird's eye view of languages that spring from proto Indo European, which accounts for nearly half of the languages spoken in the world. And so I had this sort of 3,000 foot view of all these languages that are connected, like Greek and Russian and Italian and Irish and English.

[C]

You wrote about a few words in the book that caught my attention, and I'm going to ask you about a few of those, and then we'll let you take over the wheel. But broadcast. We are broadcasting this interview across the country right now. That word has its roots in agriculture. I did not know that.

[F]

It does. Yes. Broadcasting literally, in its most original sense, meant to scatter seeds, you know, as opposed to just putting them in the ground individually. If you're broadcasting, you're casting it far and wide. And it's one of many agricultural terms that we have in English, for example, the word aftermath, which math in that sense has to do with mowing. And so it's after that first mowing, you know, the grass left around.

[G]

Hmm.

[C]

What does it mean when someone says, I am sufficiently sifuncified?

[F]

A lot of people are going to recognize that term sufficiently. So fonsified is sort of a fancy way of saying, I've had enough to eat. It's kind of an Americanism that came up at a time when people were. Or having fun with English and making up words that attempt to sound more like Latin and sufficiently safancified or sufficiently serenified and lots of different variations of that is a term that has to do with pushing back from the table and saying, I couldn't possibly eat more. But it's a fancy way of saying that.

[C]

Just to be clear, is the fontsified an actual word?

[F]

You know, I don't know if you'd find sifunified in the dictionary, but it's certainly one of these expressions that makes its way around American English in particular over the years and takes different forms because it's not written down. Usually it's something that's passed on mouth to ear.

[C]

All right, give me one of your favorite words, another one, and tell us the story behind it.

[F]

Oh, man. Well, it's sort of like, you know, what's my favorite star in the sky today? My favorite word, I think, is mellifluous. I've always had an affection for the word mellifluous because it's one of these great examples of what Ralph Waldo Emerson called fossil poetry tucked inside a single word. Because the word mellifluous comes From Latin, words that literally mean flowing with honey. If you know Spanish, you know that it's related to meaning honey. And the fluis in mellifluous has to do with. With flowing and fluid and words like that. So if somebody has a mellifluous voice in the picturesque original sense, it meant flowing with honey.

[C]

There's also words that people despise. A listener of your radio show called in because she hates a word so much, she couldn't even say it. Let's listen.

[G]

Let me spell it.

[F]

Can we say this on the radio?

[G]

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It's not an obscene word at all. It makes my flesh crawl.

[F]

Oh, my goodness.

[G]

Okay, ready? M O I S T Moist. Oh, my Lord. Grant, please.

[C]

Oh, that is funny. I knew. I knew that was the word that was coming when I first heard that piece of tape. I just knew it because people hate that word.

[F]

Why? Linguists have actually looked into this. This has been a puzzle that linguists have tried to unravel. You know, they were wondering, well, does it have to do with the diphthong? But the more they looked into it, they saw that it was associated with words that might make people a little bit uncomfortable. It has to do with the context in which that term is often found, and it just sort of skeeves some people.

[C]

I learned from your book that there's something like 7,000 living languages on Earth. And then, of course, there's the other ones that we've already talked about, like Latin and ancient Greek, that have had a huge influence on our words, even though no one really speaks them anymore. How do we know as much as we do about these origin stories from words of words when the clues are so old and they can be so complex?

[F]

Yeah, that's a really fascinating question because it has to do with sort of in the same way that an archaeologist will see, like, the lip of a jar, and they can discern how that jar must have looked. They piece together clues like detectives at a crime scene, and you see different correspondences between and among words that look similar. And historical linguists have been able to trace so many of these words that we use every day back to this prehistoric language. Proto, Indo, European. You can look at the sound correspondence, for example, the word for three in so many different languages. You know, think about Spanish, tres and French, trois. And a lot of different languages that arise from Indo European have a similar sound for that word for three. There's Grimm's Law, which the folklorist Jakob Grimm came up with, which tells you that certain Letters tend to correspond with each other, you know, like German Vater V A T E R is cognate with English father. And so you start to see these correspondences. And once you do, you can just make all these connections among languages.

[C]

I think we have a little bit more time. Why don't you pick another star in the sky and tell us what you think about it? One of your favorites.

[F]

Well, you mentioned the word boycott, which is a fascinating term because it actually comes from the name of someone, Charles Boycott, who was a British military officer who went to Ireland to enforce evicting poor tenant farmers out of their homes. And in 1880, the Irish rose up and began to find ways to resist this kind of rule. And they decided to put pressure on him by systematically shunning him and ostracizing him. And he might have faded into obscurity except he wrote a line letter to a London newspaper complaining about his treatment, about how the boy who delivered messages would no longer do that and his laundress had stopped doing his laundry. This letter got published and as one Irish writer said, like a comet, the verb boycott appeared.

[C]

Fascinating. Martha Barnett, co host of the radio show Away with Words. The new book is called Friends with Words, Adventures in Language Land. Martha, thank you very much. I'm really, gosh bustified by this conversation. Thanks so much.

[F]

Well, I guess we have to now.

[B]

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