Students in New England might refer to playing hooky from school as bunking, or bunking off. Jonathon Green’s Dictionary of Slang traces the term back to the 1840s in the British Isles. This is part of a complete episode.
Whistle britches, a Southern term for fellows who draw a lot of attention to themselves, comes from the sound corduroy trousers make when you walk and the wales rub against each other. This is part of a complete episode.
Back when George W. Bush was a student at a New England prep school, he took to the thesaurus to impress a teacher, and wound up using a synonym for the wrong meaning for tear. Hence, the telltale phrase lacerates falling from my eyes wound up in...
Spleeny, meaning “hypersensitive” or “hypochondriacal,” is chiefly heard in New England and goes back to an old sense of the spleen affecting one’s mood. This is part of a complete episode.
The word climb has been sneaking by with that silent b for a while. But speakers of Old English pronounced the b in its predecessor, climban. This is part of a complete episode.
Rare word fans: uhtceare, from Old English words that mean “dawn” and “care,” is a fancy term for those worries you fret over in the wee hours. Next time you find yourself lying awake at night worrying, try reading the...