Every now and then we get an email from a listener letting us know that a particular segment really resonated with them. One thing we haven't heard much about, though perhaps we will now, is a listener resonating with a particular segment.
Two listeners wrote to us recently about the latter use of "resonate" in the above paragraph. One of them, Danielle Richard, says that she's been hearing podcasters and their guests say things like, "I resonate with that concept," or "I resonate with that artwork."
Richard says, "How can people resonate? I want to think that things are putting out vibes, and they either resonate with certain people or not. Like, the people are the receivers of the vibes, not the one putting out the vibes to connect with things."
We're not sure whether Richard's question resonated with us, or if we resonated with the question. Either way, we decided to look into "resonate" which has an interesting history. It can be found in English as early as the 17th century with the literal meaning "to echo" or "to resound," before taking on metaphorical meanings by the early 20th century.
As is often the case when we look into a seemingly new use of a word, it turns out both of the aforementioned uses of "resonate" go back to the early 20th century. In 1903 H.G. Wells was using "resonate" to talk about people resonating with an idea or something else. Around the same time, we see things resonating with people as in they're producing a sympathetic response.
Something else that isn't resonating with our listeners is the pronunciation of "street" as "shtreet." To hear that conversation, listen to the audio above.
