Butter No Parsnips

Get your pails and shovels ready! Kyle and Emily are digging into the history and usage of the word psammophile, and building a castle fit for beach grasses, kangaroo rats, and microbiologists alike. Before they start talking about all the sand-lovers out there, our hosts chat about other kinds of “lovers” like cinemaphiles, philanthropists, and philosophers. But, before long, Emily and Kyle are c...

Don’t you just love a good throwback? Emily and Kyle certainly do—and, in this episode, so do botanists, doctors, pseudoscientists, and more! Join our hosts in taking some inspiration from the past and exploring the word atavism. Our hosts begin with a look at the Latin family tree. They learn words to describe their uncles, their grandfathers, and (most useful of all) their great great great gran...

Time is running out! And then running in again, but weirder! Kyle and Emily are joined by producer Seth, who helps them sort reality from fiction from nonsense, and discovers the time-bending truths of the word uchronia. This word takes our three hosts everywhere from Renaissance philosophy to classic science fiction. They look at the origins of uchronia in the more familiar Utopia, find that the...

We're going LIVE TOMORROW, 8pm US ET, December 23rd, 2025 at https://www.twitch.tv/butternoparsnips. You can follow us there to stay up to date on all of our monthly streams! Kyle and Emily stumble into an old Shakespearean dilemma this Chump season when Seth introduces them to E-Prime. To be or not to be? That is a question, but the bigger question is just semantics. From the wayward roots of...

We're going LIVE at Tuesday, 8pm US ET, December 23rd, 2025 at Twitch . You can follow us there to stay up to date on all of our monthly streams! This week, Kyle and Emily take a slippery step into the world of verglas. A sleek French borrowing with roots in poetry, peril, and absolutely eating it on the pavement. What does it have to do with medieval “Verses of Death”, physics, and the word v...

We're going LIVE at Tuesday, 8pm US ET, December 23rd, 2025 at Twitch . You can follow us there to stay up to date on all of our monthly streams Kyle and Emily allow their cups to spilleth over in this cheery, beery, and all around festive dive into the word ‘jorum’. From Hebrew scripture to Arabic pottery to Jesus himself, these biblical vessels are full to the brim with etymological curiosit...

Emily and Kyle enjoy a bit of a break in the weather, and bring you on a journey of a lovesick couple, gods both vengeful and kindhearted, seafaring birds, and the word halcyon. This word tells a thrilling tale from Greek mythology, full of romance, tragedy, and magical salvation. And this story tells of not only halcyon’s origin, but the origin of the kingfisher as well. Our hosts dive into mytho...

As dusk falls, Kyle and Emily set out a blanket and do some stargazing, trying to catch a glimpse of that rare and captivating phenomenon: the gegenschein. Our hosts dive into the origins of this decidedly German word. Along the way, Emily discovers some unexpectedly “shiny” words, and Kyle unpacks what it means to “gainsay” someone. But the pair quickly put etymology aside in favor of some mind-b...

Kyle and Emily welcome back the creator of the League of the Lexicon Joshua Blackburn, whose latest work is not a game, but a gorgeously illustrated compendium for the incurably curious, The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia . Inviting readers to play in the margins of language from ampersands and fossil words to why Dickensian characters are named that way, the Lexipedia is for anyone who’s ever found t...

Kyle and Emily go back and forth this week with palindromist Barry Duncan, whose masterfully mirrored sentences are more than just clever tricks of language. From his early inspirations to his mega-length compositions, Barry walks us through the curious, reflective world of reversibility, and why starting in the middle is sometimes the only way forward. Along the way, the trio explores what makes...

This week’s word gets Emily and Kyle one step closer to enlightenment. Well, linguistic enlightenment, if not spiritual. Settle in for a crash course in eastern Buddhism, a ponderous paradox or two, and the history of the word koan. Our hosts unpack the roots of this Japanese word in even earlier Chinese terms, and discover their new favorite fictional detective along the way. They likewise explor...

This week, the Lexiconicon drags Kyle and Emily to Wordition, a hellish realm of scribal errors. Plunging the duo into the fiery margins of medieval manuscripts, the pair must banish an infernal force that now possesses Seth the morally ambiguous word wizard.  From haplography to homeoteleuton, they battle the classic blunders of scribes past, decoding the corrupt world of textual criticism with t...

Kyle and Emily kick Spooky Season into high gear with a word that is sure to shake you to your core. Come with us, only if you dare, to learn about the spooky, scary, and definitely unsanitary necropants. Our hosts explore this object of Icelandic legends and folklore–which, unfortunately, is just as morbid as the name “necropants” suggests. They first dive through some familiar etymology, but the...

This week, Emily and Kyle are joined by Gary Reddin, the creator of the modern-day bestiary Monstrum Obscura , to discuss ‘Blemmyes,’ an etymologically puzzling word that may cause you to lose your head about it. Journeying through a history of the world, tales of Blemmyes and the like litter humanity’s story through myth, legend, and even cartography. And it’s not even Blemmyes all the way down!...

Kyle’s been burning the midnight oil to show Emily the things that go bump in the night. Turns out the frighteningly named lychnobite isn’t so scary after all! Our hosts discuss the history of those who live by lamplight, those who work the graveyard shift, and those who live in the apartment directly above yours doing step aerobics at 4 A.M. They also talk about other kinds of nightwalkers such a...

This week, Kyle and Emily fall into autumn with the warm, withering filemot . From feuille-morte to folium , the journey of this delicate hue reveals a surprising history of paper, pastry, and petals, and flitters freely like a leaf in a fall breeze into much, much more. Our hosts uncover how a French shade once beloved in poetry and fashion made its way into English. They trace the word through L...

This week, Butter No Parsnips welcomes back author, podcaster, and etymological powerhouse Jess Zafarris ( Words from Hell , Words Unravelled ), whose latest book Useless Etymology proves that it is anything but!  Jess leads Kyle and Emily on an etymological expedition through the origins of everyday greetings, the sneaky influence of folk etymology, and the reason why mistakes make our language t...

Kyle and Emily enter the arena this week for a word of derision, spectacle, and ancient sport: ludibrious. With roots stretching from Roman games to Protestant persecution, this term once conjured laughter and contempt in equal measure, whether on the stage, the battlefield, or the pulpit. Our hosts trace the evolution of play into scorn, and examine how public games became public shame. Along the...

Emily and Kyle learn what the average Steve does for a living, what makes shipping so expensive, and who swears like a sailor (aside from a sailor), as they explore the history of the word stevedore. Our hosts dig into the origins of this word—which, shockingly, perhaps disappointingly, have nothing to do with the name Steve. In fact, it has more to do with the ins and outs of dock work, and the p...

Kyle and Emily get a little impolite, discussing the meaning and origin of churlish—a word you might’ve heard before but has plenty to surprise you! Our hosts travel all the way back to medieval times and beyond, looking at the earliest forms of not only churlish but also husband and wife, geriatrics and grain. They also sift through some archaic terms for peasants and earls alike. And it turns ou...

This week, Emily and Kyle are tackling the great panjandrum himself, exploring the humorous origins and unexpected usage of this decidedly impressive word. Our hosts begin with a passage of 18th century nonsense, and a memory exercise that acting pros like Kyle can handle with ease. Emily then gives us a look at panjandrums through Victorian era children’s literature, satirical magazines, and mode...

EPICnyms are back! In this, the fifth (third?) installment of the EPICnyms series, Emily and Seth take you on a ride from phooey to philosophy. Starting in the Deep South with a word named for a county named for a man with some awfully bad luck, Emily reveals how a synonym for nonsense came from a political move to get right with his constituency. Seth follows up with a 9th century mathematician w...

This week, Kyle and Emily are joined by special guest Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl , as they take a deep dive into catachresis, a word that stretches the very concept of meaning and walks the line between metaphor and malfunction. Together, the trio untangles how catachresis functions when language falls short, collapsing analogies and forcing words to stand in where none exist. Along the way,...

Emily and Kyle take a look through their calendar… and through the history of the calendar, as they discuss the meaning and origin of the word calends. Our hosts begin with a bit of Latin, digging into the origins of the word calends, of various monthly words, and even of the letter K. They discuss the importance of the moon in ancient time management, and the struggles of bridging a lunar and sol...

This week, Kyle and Emily are shaking things up! They discuss the meaning and origin of the word quagswagging, a quivering, swaggering word with a delightful ring to it. Our hosts dive into the two parts of this word in turn. They talk about quagmires, quavers, quakes, and quacks. Then they move on from the swamp to talk about who’s got the most swagger and where to get the best swag. These two ha...