There's a wide range of ostensible problems with language which only seem to come up when women do them,
even though they're obviously every bit is common among male speakers.
Mean is complicated.
We have to get through the hard part, which is there are three means,
three etymological words that are spelled M-E-A-N that have nothing to do with each other.
Coming up on Word Matters, the annoying like and what we mean when we say mean.
I'm Emily Brewster and Word Matters is a new podcast from Merriam-Webster produced in collaboration with New England Public Media.
On each episode, Merriam-Webster editors Neil Servin, Amin Shea,
Peter Sakalowski and I explore some aspect of the English language from the dictionary's vantage point.
There are, like, words that annoy people and then there are words that, like, really annoy people.
Love it or hate it, the word like performs some interesting feats in the language.
In this segment, we are joined by Merriam-Webster editor Serenity Carr.
Em and Shay is like, hey Serenity, tell us more about like.
We love to talk about people's linguistic peves and one of the reasons that these are so entertaining is that they tend to engender considerable passion.
on the part of people who care about language.
And the most notable examples of this, certainly of late,
is the humble little word, like, a word that people truly love to hate.
Serenity, you've done considerable work and research into like.
And what is it that gets people so pet up?
So there are some modern uses that...