59: Mailbag of Ew

In which we get together for a chat, talk about stuff we like, and — oh, yeah — answers a few questions from our great listeners.

Other languages have a word for late morning, before noon. Why doesn’t English have one?
Why is EW the sound some English speakers make when disgusted?
Why can you have potatoes, but not broccolis?
Who started calling the YouTube description the DOOBLEYDOO?
Is it WHOA or WOAH?
Why do we use capital i for the pronoun I?

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Show notes

Hunger stones, wrecks and bones: Europe’s drought brings past to surface
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/19/hunger-stones-wrecks-and-bones-europe-drought-brings-past-to-surface

Old English/Time
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Old_English/Time

déjeuner and dinner
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16132556

Glosbe: ew in Polish (as an example)
https://glosbe.com/en/pl/ew

Uncle Roger | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/c/mrnigelng

Where is the logic in whether a vegetable can be plural or not? I’ll have the cabbage. But also there are cabbages. I’ll have the broccoli. But there aren’t broccolis. Or asparaguses.
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) May 11, 2022