Long after quitting--still under construction!
The Word Nerds Archive
If you've followed thewordnerds.org in early 2018, you have ended up here. This is the "Word Nerds Archive." This contains the first 63 episodes of the Word Nerds podcasts--"classic Word Nerds," if you will. Because our Word Press site was badly infected with malware sometime after 2010 or so, we are moving to a new server. However, the task of rebuilding the site and installing episodes 63.5 through 120 will be tedious and take awhile. Rest assured that I (Dave) do intend to rebuild the site, even if that means over several months. This is not a promise to revive production of TWN or anything...
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Comments are disabled here
The Word Nerds Archive
As of Wednesday, July 18, 2007, the ability to comment on blog posts here at the Word Nerds' archive site has been disabled. This measure is being taken to prevent the flood of comment spam, and the attendant notifications, that have plagued this site.You can still participate in discussions on any Word Nerds post, either here or in our , as well as at the forum site.
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This is the archive
The Word Nerds Archive
This is the archive blog and feed for The Word Nerds, a weekly podcast about language.If you want access to podcasts published before April 1, 2006, this is the place to be. You can subscribe to this archive feed by using the appropriate buttons in the right-hand navigation column.To subscribe to current and new podcasts of The Word Nerds, please go to .
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To subscribe to the old shows...
The Word Nerds Archive
...all you have to do is to subscribe to this RSS feed: .If you have iTunes, just grab that URL by right-clicking (or
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We're changing our blog! (63.5)
The Word Nerds Archive
Dave Shepherd announces changes to The Word Nerds' blog and feed, which will take place this weekend. The web address for The Word Nerds will remain , and the feed address is now .This may mean duplicate downloads for editions of TWN that you have already received from April and May 2006. You can correct this on your end by changing the settings in your podcatcher software so that you are receiving only the most recent episodes of podcasts, not all episodes.If, despite this, you still receive duplicate downloads, I apologize. After this weekend (5/27/06) you should only get one copy of each...
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Idioms and Culture (63)
The Word Nerds Archive
Dave Shepherd welcomes back the North Carolina Nerd, Howard Shepherd, who is home from his travels to Denmark. Dave and Howard respond to several voicemails and emails about ePrime and puns. (1:55) ...
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Non-Verbal Communication (62)
The Word Nerds Archive
Dave Shepherd and Howard Chang talk about environments in which we communicate without using any words: elevators, restrooms, automobiles, interviews (1:59) ...
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Another blog update
The Word Nerds Archive
We just learned from Apple Computer that The Word Nerds will be featured as a "splash" on the front page of the iTunes Music Store for about a week. ...
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Some changes coming
The Word Nerds Archive
The Word Nerds will be making some changes to our blog setup sometime in the next week. (This means sometime between May 9 and May 16.) ...
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Language, Race, and Homophonic Creep
The Word Nerds Archive
Hearing Howard Chang talk about “homophone creep? (a term that I like very much) made me think of the problem that I encounter every year when reading Hamlet. At one point in the play, either Rosencranz or Guildenstern uses the expression “niggard of question…? Invariably, the student who is reading that part pronounces the word as “ni-GARD,? because s/he is unwilling to say “NIG-gerd.? ...
info_outlineDave Shepherd welcomes back the North Carolina Nerd, Howard Shepherd, who is home from his travels to Denmark. Dave and Howard respond to several voicemails and emails about ePrime and puns. (1:55)
Howard shares his memories of his trip with his students to Hobro Gymnasium in Denmark. (8:53)
Revisiting our show on Insidious Idioms, we explain our categories of idiomatic distinctions: national, regional, and socio-economic class differences. (11:36)
Music bumper from by "Make Me Understand" by Matt Thorpe (15:07)
International textures: expressing the same idea in different languages, and the perils of mistaken translation (15:43)
Song: "Fill Me In," by Hollins Steele (21:42)
Rude word of the week: "pot to piss in" (25:41)
Music bumper from "Dancing Cow" by Liquid Floor (27:25)
Variations of idioms by class and region (28:06)
Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network
Theme music by Kick the Cat
time: 36:45
size: 25.3 Mb
rating: PG-13 (We discuss some amusing mis-translations of American idioms, some of which have sexual implications in other countries and languages.)
Tags: language, idiom, culture