Pumpkin Floater - 16 June 2014

<p>This week on "A Way with Words": Your telephone is for talking, right? Or is it? We're guessing it's been a while since you sat next to a telephone waiting for it to ring. In fact, maybe you're one of those people who HATE to see that voicemail message light blinking. But for many of us, waiting for a text is a different. Also, California may be the "Dude!" capital of the country, but the term "dude" actually comes from New York City. And where exactly do you eat tweezer food? Plus, donning and doffing our clothes, tweezer food, the origin of kowtow, emcee, Arby's, and -orama, and modern etiquette for wedding invitations.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Sorry, Californians—the word dude actually comes from New York City, and goes all the way back to the 1800s.<br /><br />To kowtow, as in "to agree in an excessively eager or annoying way," comes from a Chinese term that means "to bow extremely low out of respect," from words that literally mean "knock head."<br /><br />Flight crews have a word for colleagues who check into a hotel, slam the door behind them, lock it shut, and don't re-emerge until checkout time. They're called slam-clickers.<br /><br />Addressing a wedding invitation to Mr. and Mrs. John Smith is pretty old-fashioned. It's more than appropriate these days to address both a husband and wife by their respective names. But if you're inviting someone who prefers the old-fashioned style, best to honor their preference.<br /><br />When flight attendants use the terms feather, leather, or fin, they're talking about "chicken, beef, or fish."<br /><br />Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has sandwiched together the first letters of first and last names for a trivia game about famous folks.<br /><br />Long before English speakers adopted the suffix -orama, as in Scoutorama and smell-o-rama, there was French word panorama referring to "a great display or spectacle." Panorama comes from Greek words that mean "whole view." University of Alabama professor Michael Piccone details the development panorama in French