In the first ever episode of Lexitecture, Amy takes a trip to the Isle of Serendip to find out what you call it when you find something you weren’t even looking for. Ryan, meanwhile, explores the relation between “nice” and “science” and traces the history of a surprisingly old way to call someone stupid.
Lexitecture is a podcast about words. Each episode, a Canadian (Ryan) and a Scot (Amy) each present their current favourite word and talk about its origins, current use, and try to puzzle out how it may have gone from A to B. If you love thinking and talking about words, word origins, or just random bits of head-scratching language trivia, this may be the show for you!
Reddit love, ya’ll. (Best word mutation to come from mid-west America.)
This is my jam. Thank you for uploading, hope you enjoy making it as much as I did listening.
Piffle and Balderdash,
Some Dude.
Hi there!
I liked the choice of words: from the uncommon “serendipity” to the ultra-common “nice”.
Your discussion of nice reminded of how a friend once reprimanded because when we were speaking German I used the word “nett”, the equivalent of “nice” in German, way too often. He said that the context and frequency of my usage it made it seem like an insult. So I had to widen my vocabulary 🙂
Another thought I had when I listened to this episode was about the transformation of the word “awesome”. I imagine the word as an adjective for a mighty monarch sitting on his throne, inspiring awe and dread. Yet now it is as benign as “nice”.
Anyway, good luck with the podcast!
Yours,
Gaius Julius