Comments on: Religious Words (95)

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:19:10 +0000

I really enjoyed this episode. When you talked about evangelism, I started thinking about comments that I have previously made about Mac Users. I always say that Apple does not have customers, it has converts. I often refer to Mac users as Macvangelists, because I have never met a Mac user that was not trying to convert everyone else to use a Mac.

Anyway, keep up the great work, I really enjoy the podcast!

By: Christin

Christin — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 07:30:31 +0000

I have to agree with Anne, that the words used were mostly Christian. No words that are attributed to other religions (besides generic words such as “faith,” etc.) jump to mind so that is something I would have liked to hear more of in this episode.

I also took a class in college called “Heroes, Saints, and Martyrs” and we discussed the misappropriation of the word faith and how it’s used so casually. We say we have faith in just about anything these days. Just something I wanted to mention.

By: The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~ » Blog Archive » Free Rice

The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~ » Blog Archive » Free Rice — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:18:49 +0000

[...] The Word Nerds, Podictionary, and Grammar Girl. [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:37:39 +0000

Yes, it does appear that Harry Caray used “holy cow” first. Since I grew up on the East Coast of the U.S., however, and lived for a few years in New York, Phil Rizzuto’s voice was the one that came to my mind. I don’t believe I said that Rizzuto was the very first to use that expression, but if I did, I stand corrected.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:42:22 +0000

I don’t mean to be difficult, but Harry Caray was the announcer in baseball who first used “holy cow” while narrating games. Caray made this a habit to prevent curse words from escaping.

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:43:38 +0000

References are mostly Christian, though I could have thought of some others. Next to paradise we could have had Mecca in a similar meaning; some place being the ultimate spot for a certain experience.

The rude word of the week made me think of: Holy cannoli! I thought that was rather common…

The use of religiously associated words sort of erodes the load. I can see this especially clear if I literally translate some common Hebrew, rather day-to-day phrases in secular Israel into English or the even more secular Dutch. If you ask someone ‘What’s up’, in Israel, you may get, even from secular people, an answer that is the equivalent of: Praise the Lord, or: God be blessed. It doesn’t make you sound half as orthodox and observant as it looks.

http://anneisaman.blogspot.com/2007/11/religious-words.html