I want to know what you think of when I say the word ditto.
I love the words that have shared meanings but come from different roots.
Coming up on Word Matters,
a useful word that's mostly fallen by the wayside and a pair of suffixes that are the same but different.
I'm Emily Brewster and Word Matters is produced by Merriam-Webster in collaboration with New England Public Media.
On each episode, Merriam-Webster editors Amon Shea,
Peter Sokolowski and I explore some aspect of the English language from the dictionary's vantage point.
In this episode, an obsolete technology will take us back to the word that lent it its name.
Come along with me as we look at where the word ditto has been.
ditto, copy machines.
All right, Peter and Amon, I want to know what you think of when I say the word ditto.
It's the language of my elementary school, I think.
I can hear my classmates saying it, but meaning same, meaning I agree or I would do the same.
Oh, okay.
Like, I like ice cream, ditto.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Interesting.
Okay, Amon, how about you?
Is this on a test?
I'm going to go with what Peter said, in effect.