Something Borrowed

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Say hello to our next contestants, Julia Schult and Lyssa Mandel.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: All right, have either of you ever borrowed something that you have never given back? Julia?

JULIA SCHULT: Oh, my. Well, I am a librarian.

EISENBERG: Oh, boy.

SCHULT: So I have to confess that one of my formative things was when I was in second grade or maybe first grade and I went to a U-U church and I found this book in their library and I read it and I never returned it.

EISENBERG: What's the book?

SCHULT: I can't even remember (laughter) but I felt guilty about the book all the way through, until this day.

EISENBERG: I absolve you.

(LAUGHTER)

SCHULT: Thank you. What a relief.

EISENBERG: It's good. It's OK. I didn't know you had to take them out for a really long time.

Lyssa, how about you?

LYSSA MANDEL: I borrowed my Northwestern tuition from my parents and they are never getting that back.

EISENBERG: I think a lot of people have borrowed something like that from someone else, yes. I borrowed mine from the government. They haven't received that either.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: This round is called Something Borrowed. Many English words are called loan words because they are words borrowed from other languages so we'll give you a clue with the language of origin and a literal English translation and you tell us the familiar word. Let's go to our puzzle guru Art Chung for an example.

ART CHUNG, BYLINE: So if we said Japanese for empty orchestra, you might enjoy performing it in a bar with your friends, that would be karaoke.

EISENBERG: Yes, it is. Ring in when you know the answer.

If you're amused by the misfortunes of others, you're experiencing this German word for damage-joy.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Lyssa.

MANDEL: Schadenfreude.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

MANDEL: My favorite.

EISENBERG: If your life feels like it's reached a dead-end, your house may be located in one of these, French for bottom of the bag.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Lyssa.

MANDEL: Cul-de-sac?

EISENBERG: Cul-de-sac, yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Make no mistake, this early form of a shotgun comes from the Dutch word for thunder gun.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Julia.

SCHULT: Blunderbuss.

EISENBERG: Blunderbuss is correct.

MANDEL: Whoa. I had no idea.

EISENBERG: Yeah, it's like a boot-cut firearm.

(LAUGHTER)

MANDEL: Nice, appropriate for the '70s.

EISENBERG: Yeah, really. It was a '70s fashion thing. This creature's name comes from the Afrikaans for earth pig, perhaps because it digs in the ground and makes a pig of itself, scarfing up ants and termites.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Lyssa.

MANDEL: Anteater?

EISENBERG: No. Anteater is not borrowed from another language.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Julia?

SCHULT: So it wouldn't be groundhog?

EISENBERG: We can't do process of elimination, but that's interesting.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Would you like to say groundhog?

SCHULT: Sure.

EISENBERG: Groundhog is not correct.

JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: We were thinking of hints. Like, Cirribus is one of them.

EISENBERG: Cirribus?

COULTON: Or Arthur.

SCHULT: Mythological?

COULTON: Cartoons. It's Aardvark.

MANDEL: Right, yes - that.

EISENBERG: An extensive variety of tasty dishes or a wide range of choices, metaphorically, can be found on one of these from the Swedish for sandwich table.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Julia.

SCHULT: Smorgasbord.

EISENBERG: Smorgasbord, yes.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: You thought Americans had big portions, right? A sandwich table sounds amazing. This Italian word for beverage means little hood, referring to the hood worn by a certain order of Friars, presumably jittery from drinking lots of espresso. Yeah, Italian word, little hood.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Lyssa?

MANDEL: I know this is French, but I'm going to say aperitif anyway.

EISENBERG: Aperitif? That is lovely. Not correct, but I like it. Julia would you like to...

SCHULT: Coffee?

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Nope.

COULTON: Some deep pools. Some deep pools.

CHUNG: The answer was cappuccino.

EISENBERG: I know.

SCHULT: Now, that's Italian.

EISENBERG: Last clue. You might practice this ancient system of arranging your living space from the Chinese words for the elements wind, water.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Julia.

SCHULT: Feng shui.

EISENBERG: Feng shui is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Hey, puzzle guru, Art Chung.

CHUNG: Hey, Ophira.

EISENBERG: How did our contestants do?

CHUNG: They both did great. It was a close game and Julia is our winner. Congratulations.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Coming up we'll talk to our VIP writer Neil Gaiman about the dark corners of his imagination so stay tuned.

I'm Ophira Eisenberg and this is NPR's ASK ME ANOTHER.

(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.