Cheese Toasties - 6 July 2026
Summary
Hosts Grant Barrett and Martha Barnett explore linguistic curiosities including Hawaii’s official fish, the regional term "cheese toastie," and the shifting stress in "integral." Listeners discuss the origins of "sycophant," the slang "whistlebit," and "phonotactics," and the abbreviation "CHX" for chicken. The episode also features a "Common Bonds" word quiz and addresses lexical gaps like "myco" for dictation errors.
Topics discussed
Introduction and the Hawaiian triggerfish name
Grilled cheese vs. cheese toastie regional terms
Pronunciation shift: integral and rhythmic stress
Jug-a-rum: frog calls and poetry
Common Bonds: finding word connections
Etymology of sycophant and the fig gesture
Phonotactics and adding vowels to consonant clusters
Whistlebit: southern slang for working late
Lexical gaps: micropoem and parental happy sads
Clear day tomorrow: German proverb origins
The history of X in abbreviations like CHK
Downseller behind the axe: New England idiom
Credits and sponsor message
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