Tracy in Beaufort, North Carolina, says her grandmother, aunts, and uncles used to try to calm down an upset or bossy person with Well, don’t get astorperious! You might debubiate! In the work of Zora Neale Hurston and in Harlem Renaissance slang of the 1920s, the word astorperious, also spelled asterperious, means “haughty” or “stuck-up” or “snobby.” It might be a combination of the name Astor, referring to the wealthy family, and imperious, or it might be a humorous adaptation of obstreperous, meaning “stubbornly defiant” or “aggressively boisterous.” Debubiate is far less common, but may be another fanciful formation, perhaps meaning “to leave.” This is part of a complete episode.
Darcy calls from North Pole, Alaska, to share a saying her grandparents used when she asked for something she couldn’t have. It sounded like either You may want horns, but you’ll die mole-headed or You may want horns, but you’ll...
In response to our earlier conversation about the phrase to lick the cat over, meaning to repeat a laborious process, many listeners say they use the phrase lick the calf over to mean the same thing. Among the writers who have used it this way: Zora...
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