Michael Quinion, of World Wide Words fame, will be featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth that goes out on 26 December at 4pm GMT. You will be able to hear it online a little later by going to the BBC site and clicking on the “Listen to the latest edition” link.

Thanks for the notice, Arnie!

I have just listened to the broadcast online. It was quite interesting and covered various word-related topics. Michael Quinion only appeared for about five minutes at the end of the (half-hour) show talking about plurals - datum, data; medium, media; die, dice; etc. Well worth a listen.

Thanks, arnie. A pleasure to listen to a popular radio show on language that simply stated the facts sans the invented controversies. I particularly liked the first segment on skip rats (dumpster divers in the US); freegans (of whom I had heard); and windrow, which meaning has changed from my days on the farm (where it is a row of cut hay) to its use in the UK recycling vocabulary (where it is a row of composted material). Quinion gave a measured and calm statement of the facts on irregular plurals in English.

[Corrected skiff to skip. Thanks, arnie.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

quote:

skiff rats

Actually, that's skip rats. What you call a dumpster in the States we call a skip.

I, too, was slightly surprised by their use of windrow to describe a long row of composting material, turned over by large tractors. I note the last line of the short Wikipedia article zmj cites says "Windrows are often used in large scale vermicomposting systems." Presumably that is the use referred to.

I am going to listen to it this weekend when I have a little more time. I just love Quinion, though. Of all the online discussions about words, I find his the most reliable, comprehensive and up-to-date.