Butter No Parsnips

This is a special look at the Patreon exclusive podcast Butter’d Parsnips available on our Patreon . For just $5 a month, you gain access to our entire backlog as well as a bunch of other fun perks. It’s springtime! And Emily, Kyle and Seth are wandering through fields of flowers in this episode of Butter’d Parsnips, plucking from their research the origins of some common flower names.  Daffodils,...

Butter No Parsnips is celebrating 200 episodes with a zine! It’s filled to bursting with poetry and prose inspired by weird, wonderful, and wicked words—written by hosts, guests, and you! The zine will be digitally available to Patreon subscribers at the $5 tier, or for a one-time purchase of $6 on Ko-Fi. SUBMISSIONS ARE STILL OPEN! We are accepting pieces for the zine until Monday, July 13th. Tha...

Seth drives straight through bat country with Kyle, Emily, and the Lexiconicon this week to dive headfirst into the dubious history of the word ‘gonzo’. Old journalism made new and New Journalism made gonzo, the gang enters the chaotic world of Hunter S. Thompson.  With excess and subjectivity, the word reveals its murky origins. Italian? Bostonite slang? A jazz song? A prank?! The search turns in...

Emily sets sail with Kyle this week into the nautical history of ‘scrimshank.’ With not a second to spend dawdling, the duo drift quickly into the world of whaling, sailor slang, and idle shipboard hobbies. As with many a seafaring term of yore, the deeper they dive, the murkier the etymology becomes. From ‘scrimshaw’ to ‘scrimp shanking’ to ‘skrimshander,’ there’s no time to waste (or money, for...

This week, Kyle and Emily finally throw some shade. In learning the etymology and history of the word historiaster, they’ll unearth a treasure trove of historical diss-tracks and put-downs harsh enough to make an intellectual cry “mater”. Turns out, historians had a lot of strong words for their rivals, and Kyle brings the receipts as he serves the tea on their feuds. And while the consequences of...

This week Emily and Kyle are looking for the perfect cure-all, but all they find are false claims. They’ll separate good remedies from bad, both within the pharmaceutical world and without, as they discuss the meaning and origin of the word nostrum. They begin by exploring why this word’s origins don’t seem to fit its definition. Kyle learns why “patent medicine” was rarely an accurate term. And E...

Kyle and Emily are mired in a true word salad this week. Diving into a bit of food history as well as word history, they’ll talk about mish moshes of all different kinds, as well as the meaning and origin of the word salmagundi. In sifting through theories about this word’s origin, Kyle reveals a medley of food terms that are all surprisingly linked. Linguistically speaking, the word salt is worth...

Better pack an umbrella, because this week Emily and Kyle are seeking shelter from the rain. A conversation beginning at thatched roofs trickles down to local snoops, as our hosts discuss the meaning and origin of the word eavesdrip. The pair discuss why your roof juts past your walls, how a singular word can accidentally become plural, and what haircut was all the rage in the Anglo Saxon era. Kyl...

This week, Kyle and Emily talk, chat, banter, converse, and more with author and dance critic Sarah L. Kaufman about her new book Verb Your Enthusiasm . Drawing from her background in dance, Kaufman connects movement on stage to movement on the page, showing the surprising power of verbs to make writing more vivid and precise. From the practical to the poetic, Sarah expounds on verbs of manner, ac...

Kyle and Emily have a traitor in their midst, and his name is Quisling. They’ll talk about a decidedly terrible politician, a quagmire of Q words, and a word for all betrayers great and small. This eponym takes us back to World War II, and unfortunately straight to the man dubbed Norwegian Hitler. Our hosts discuss how this WW2 traitor became a household name, why the name itself feels so satisfyi...

Get ready to think more than ever about the way you talk and the way people talk to you as Emily and Kyle sit down this week with sociolinguist Valerie Fridland to discuss her latest book Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents .  From baby talk to regional accents, the trio explores how our speech patterns develop as a combined effort of the brain and the world of speakers around us....

Emily and Kyle think, therefore they are—and this week thinking is the name of the game! They’re digging into the philosophy of human intelligence, the mind that set the universe turning, and common sense in British slang, as they discuss the meaning and origin of nous. Our hosts parse through the Ancient Greeks’ understanding of the mind. They look at quotes from Homer as well as Parmenides—whose...

How closely does one need to stick to the letter of the law? Emily and Kyle explore just that, as they discuss Greek grouches, Christian controversy, diabolical discourse, and the word adiaphoron. Our hosts separate the roots of this word, and add them up to find a solution equal to indifference. Taking a walk through Ancient Greece, Kyle provides a crash-course on Cynicism and Emily is reminded w...

Kyle encounters what he thinks is an obvious word, in more ways than one, but Emily puts some complications in his path. Together they’ll parse through unexpected definitions, clunky phrases, and linguistic repetition, all in pursuit of the word obviate. This word leads our hosts through a smorgasbord of linguistic topics. Emily introduces a unique feature of Algonquian grammar. Kyle recalls a cou...

Who’s got the power? Anyone from proper princesses to mighty militias, and devastating dandies to high-jumping horses, as Kyle and Emily reveal in discussing the word puissant. Our hosts dive into yet another journey of French words into the English lexicon, from translations of French morality tales, to Shakespearean lines about powerful liege lords. Puissant describes that which is mighty in eve...

Emily has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged Kyle to a swordfight, but the blade she pulls is a little smaller than expected. The two hack and slash at language and history, as they discuss the winding origins of the word snickersnee. Our hosts look back at some Dutch roots that stick like glue, put a stitch in your side, and are even surprisingly snide. Kyle gets a refresher on how words can...

Get ready for some classic love potion hijinks! This week Kyle and Emily are talking about magical concoctions, dubious enchantments, desirable faces, and the word 'philtrum'. This word gets our hosts in the mood for love. They delve into antiquity and ask what a philter is made of, how it’s administered, and what it can do. Spoiler alert, all the answers are bad. It turns out there’s a da...

You can support worm.so directly at https://www.worm.so/worm-plus. After three months of membership, you’ll be eligible to receive a worm.so–branded tote! Kyle and Emily sit down with Kara Raynoha this week to share the good word about a new name in book tracking apps: worm.so . Kara walks the hosts through how the idea first took root, and why the current landscape of reader platforms leaves a lo...

Emily and Kyle get a little bourgeois this week, and uncover why that’s considered such a bad thing. They’ll look at French history, wealthy upstarts, and some classic New York literature as they explore the word parvenu. Our hosts travel through French etymology and arrive at a word describing those who have… well, arrived. They discuss how money, unfortunately, isn’t everything; Emily reveals so...

This week Kyle and Emily take a trip to their local planetarium, to learn not about the cosmos but about the machine itself. They’ll chat about astronomy, invention, and perhaps a bit of theater as they explore the word orrery. This word dips our hosts into a bit of Irish history, where they encounter an earl who was either a mechanical genius or a marketing shark. Kyle and Emily trace how earlier...

Where can Kyle store all of his chainmail, his holy oil, and of course his loose almonds? Emily has the answer, as the two of them chat about that most versatile vessel: the aumbry. This antique word for a cupboard has done anything but gather dust over the years. It’s also gained a wide range of spellings, pronunciations, and definitions both closely related and completely separate. Our hosts sor...

Kyle and Emily unwrap a deceptively sweet treat this week: jujube. What seems only to be a humble fruit quickly reveals a tangled history of biblical proportions. From man’s original sin, to Odysseus’ fruit-addled men, what was once medicine is now a sweet tooth’s dream. From Classical Latin and Greek, through French phonetic quirks, and into a global plant of myth, the fruit finds its way into bo...

Kyle and Emily find themselves boxed in this week by a word that describes the worst kind of obligation: zugzwang. It’s a bad decision no matter what as Kyle and Emily are forced to explore the German roots of this chess-inspired word. Starting on the chessboard, they unpack the concept behind the word, how it emerged in 19th-century German chess culture, and what takes a player from stalemate to...

Kyle and Emily show their true colors in this episode, exploring the history of flags of all kinds and learning the meaning and origin of the word guidon. This word guides our hosts through the vexing world of vexillology. Join them in learning some heraldry history, carrying the banner into battle, and seeing what our standards really ought to be. And, to boot, see Emily hoist the colors over her...

This episode turns Emily into a bit of a fence sitter, as she and Kyle discuss the sting of betrayal, the dangers of devil’s advocacy, and the history of the word tergiversation. This word has our hosts turning their backs over and over again. They learn exactly what it means to converse with one another, which side of a leaf is the back, and why Caesar’s soldiers didn’t dilly-dally. While in Anci...