2025-02-10
53 分钟You're listening to Away With Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I'm Grant Barrett.
And I'm Martha Barnett.
We're always excited when somebody teaches us a new word,
and I just learned a new one from Alex Riggle.
He wrote to introduce us to the word anapoditan.
Anna pot a ton.
Let me see if I can break that down.
It sounds Greek.
Anna means it's a negative, means not, right?
Pod probably has something to do with base or foot and a ton, not sure.
What are we talking about here, Martha?
Well, we're not talking about pajamas without feet in them.
Now, adipotaton, and maybe I should spell that, A-N-A-P-O-D-O-T-O-N, is a term of rhetoric,
and it comes from a Greek word that actually means without a main clause.
And it refers to the first half of a proverb or a saying where you don't bother to give the second half
because you figure the listener already knows it.
For example, if I were to say, birds of a feather.
Ah, that's the one I was thinking of, birds of a feather.
And then in my mind, I finish and go flock together.