Butter No Parsnips

Feb 03 2025 130 ep. 36 mins 17

Butter No Parsnips Podcast artwork

Every week on Butter No Parsnips, your hosts Emily Moyers and Kyle Imperatore take you on an adventure through the weird, wacky, wonderful, and sometimes wicked history of one wayside word. Strange characters, delightful bits, and general joyousness abound, join them as they test each other's etymological expertise!

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128. Magnoperate

Feb 03 2025 37 mins

This weeks’ word is truly a work of art! Emily and Kyle discuss grand performances, the realities of artist life, and how to improve their next pitch; as they dig into the myriad meanings of the word magnoperate. Our hosts talk about great works, in all senses of those words. Magnoperate is a decidedly aspirational word--describing everything from a scientist’s greatest researc

127. Tintinnabulation

Jan 27 2025 42 mins

We might be long past the season, but Kyle and Emily still have a few jingle bells hangin’ around, and they’re using them to make sweet music as they discuss the word tintinnabulation. Kyle and Emily put words to sounds, finding just the right way to express the ring of a bell. Better yet, noted authors Edgar Allen Poe and Charles Dickens do the same. Our hosts also look at som

126. Susurrus

Jan 20 2025 33 mins

This episode comes in like a whisper on the wind, and gets Emily and Kyle talking about the sonically pleasing and linguistically intriguing word susurrus. Our hosts murmur about the word’s origins in Latin, as well as its satisfying sound as an onomatopoeia. Looking through the lens of some Roman poetry and English literature, they see how this word can describe all manner of no

125. Soubrette

Jan 13 2025 35 mins

Kyle lets Emily in on the true theatre kid experience, as they discuss French maids, Italian sopranos, and the history of the word soubrette. Our hosts reveal how an Occitan word for a servant came to refer to an iconic stock character as common as the Harlequin. From Italian Commedia dell’Arte, to French opera, to Shakespeare, to 1950s farces… the soubrette makes her presence

124. Charivari

Jan 06 2025 36 mins

Emily delights Kyle’s ears with a serenade of the very worst kind, as this episode parades through the history of the word charivari. Our hosts begin with this word’s origins in Greek, and a bothersome inconsistency of spelling and pronunciation. But that’s not the only headache of the day--because this wedding tradition hinges noise making. It’s a party that’s enjoyed by

123. Decalog(ue)

Dec 23 2024 81 mins

Seth, Emily, and Kyle decide that, this holiday season, they want to keep it simple. Well, not in terms of episode length. But don’t let that scare you off! Our hosts are dashing through some fascinating language history, laughing all the way! Seth starts us off with a word of uncertain spelling. The competition between decalogue and decalog launches Kyle and Emily into a journey

122. Retiform

Dec 16 2024 37 mins

Med students, pull out your flashcards! Kyle and Emily are crafting a delicate weave of medical terms, biological networks, and the word retiform. Our hosts discuss how the usage of the word retiform is a bit extended from its etymological roots. Emily does her best to recall the anatomy of the eye, and Kyle takes us through all manner of nets and networks that appear in biology. B

121. Bunco

Dec 09 2024 39 mins

Emily and Kyle roll the dice and try out some good old fashioned games of chance. If they play their cards right, they just might learn the history of the word bunco. The word arrived at the intersection of a card game and a dice game, both of which involved betting against a bank like in Blackjack or Roulette. However, you might not want to take your chances at these gambling game

120. Infangthief

Dec 02 2024 33 mins

Kyle and Emily have been caught red handed! This week they’re exploring crime and punishment of the most Medieval kind, as they discuss the meaning and origin of infangthief. They begin with the origins of this criminal word--which, if you’re wondering, IS related to fangs… a little. But the thief relation is a little more concrete, as this word pulls our hosts deep into Medi

119. Brougham

Nov 25 2024 36 mins

Get ready to shine your fender and groom your horses, because this week Emily and Kyle are talking all things brougham, a car and carriage for those looking to travel in style. Our hosts explore the history of a carriage so iconic in Victorian London that it can be seen in the works of Charles Dickens, the world of Sherlock Holmes, and more. They talk about a host of other horse-dr