Asiental
adj.— «I brought Tiger Balm to school for show and tell. I didn’t know exactly what it was for but that it looked all asiental and so I thought people would think it was cool. So I passed it around and told everyone to put it under their eyes because Tiger Balm was what made Chinese people so good at math and the violin. They believed me.» —“Making No Friends in Fourth Grade” by Jin in Iowa City, Iowa A Discontent Malcontent (Seattle, Wash.) Mar. 3, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...
Debbie from Keokuk, Iowa, shares a funny story about her family’s tradition of speed-cleaning the house if guests were coming over. Her mother would declare, “Quick, guys! Whited sepulchre approach!” Her use of the term whited...