What time is it if it's "the crack of chicken"? And when exactly is the "shank of the evening"? How do you pronounce the word spelled H-O-V-E-R? Did Warren G. Harding really coin the word normalcy? Also, a name game, sports nicknames, flounder vs. founder, Laundromats vs. washaterias, Black Dutch, nosebaggers, medical slang terms, and a look back at the joys of the early internet.FULL DETAILSWhen a car rolls slowly through a stop sign, it's often called a California stop or a California roll http://www.waywordradio.org/mute-point/. But the Midwest has its own monikers for this sneaky move, including the farmer stop, the Chicago stop, and "no cop, no stop."How early do you have to wake up to see what one listener calls the crack of chicken? It seems to be a twist on the term crack of dawn. Other terms for this early-morning time are o'dark thirty and the scratch of dawn.Did President Warren G. Harding coin the term normalcy in his famous Return to Normalcy speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXETeWS6ub8? Turns out the word normalcy was already in use before President Harding made it famous, but it's now become largely obsolete, while its synonym, normality, is generally the preferred term. Harding is also credited with--or blamed for--bringing the term hospitalization into the common vernacular.In his book, Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush http://books.google.com/books?id=Dh0wM9DNjbAC&pg=PA124&dq=allan+metcalf+presidential+voices+belittle&hl=en&sa=X&ei=x0-LT6CRHumI2gW8obHpAg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=presidents%20as%20neologists&f=false, Allan Metcalf points out that U.S. presidents have contributed or popularized quite a few neologisms to the English language.In Texas, the California stop is also known as an Okie yield sign, an Okie crash sign, and a taxpayer stop.What does it mean to be gorked or crimped? These slang terms for high on drugs or crumpled in on oneself are used by hospital and Emergency Medical Services workers in a darkly comedic sense, often help cope with the stress of such traumatic work and to build solidarity among co-workers. Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game of aptronyms for people whose names fit certain locations or conditions. For example, a guy hanging onto a wall might be named Art. Or what do you call a woman between two buildings? Ally!The racial descriptor Black Dutch http://www.genealogymagazine.com/blackdutch.html is one used by members of a certain ethnic group, like Cherokee Indian or African-American, that feel their identity will be viewed as more acceptable by those they're around if they use a different adjective. Black Irish and Black German are also used.What's the difference between flounder and founder? To flounder is "to struggle or thrash about," while to founder is "to sink or to fail." Surprisingly,  the verb flounder shares no etymological root with the fish, though the image of a flounder flapping helplessly about on the shore may have influenced our sense of the word.Skeuomorphs are aesthetic elements of design that no longer correlate with their original function. Computer software is full of skeuomorphs; for example, the save button that we're all used to is a picture of a floppy disc. But then, who uses floppy discs any more?With Linsanity and Tebowing sweeping the country, we're thinking about other great sports nicknames. Unfortunately, it seems that with unique names taking up a greater percentage of children born, there's no longer as much practical demand for nicknames. Still, the Babe, Magic, and The Refrigerator sports-nicknames-like-magic-are-disappearing.html?pagewanted=all">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/sports/great-sports-nicknames-like-magic-are-disappearing.html?pagewanted=all live on in legend. The increasingly musty expression "like a broken record" has caused some confusion among digital natives who've heard of broken records only in terms of sports! Ben Zimmer published a brilliant collection of internet memes from the past twenty years in a the journal American Speech. Memes like facepalming http://static.divbyzero.nl/facepalm/doublefacepalm.jpg and the O, rly? owl cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/015/orly.jpg">http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/015/orly.jpg have allowed us to communicate otherwise unwritable sentiments via the internet.How do you pronounce the word hover? In England, it rhymes more with clobber than lover. If you want to learn how to say "My hovercraft is full of eels" in lots of different languages, head on over to Omniglot. http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hovercraft.htmIt's the shank of the evening! But when is that, exactly? This phrase is typically suggests that the night is far from over, shank being an old word for something straight, or the tail end of something. But as the Dictionary of American Regional English notes, in the South, evening is considered "the time between late afternoon and dusk."If you're on vacation, watch out for nosebaggers! This mid-19th century slang term refers to tourists who go to resort areas for the day but bring their own provisions and don't contribute to the local economy. A modern nosebagger might be the type of person who cracks open a soda can at the movies.Do you wash your clothes at a Laundromat or a washateria? data.com/businesses/p/1/2/8/1/4151281.JPG">http://pics3.city-data.com/businesses/p/1/2/8/1/4151281.JPG A chain of Laundromats in Texas that dated from 1930 to 1950 had the name Washateria, and it took hold as a general term, especially in Texas.A couple more variations of the California stop: the jackrabbit and the California slide.This week’s episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett and produced by Stefanie Levine.....Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.And from The Ken Blanchard Companies, whose purpose is to make a leadership difference among executives, managers, and individuals in organizations everywhere. More about Ken Blanchard’s leadership training programs at kenblanchard.com/leadership.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2012, Wayword LLC.