“A horse apiece”, meaning “six of one, half a dozen of the other,” comes from an old dice gambling game to describe a draw. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of “A Horse...
Larovers to catch meddlers, layovers for meddlers, and many variations thereof, are among the comically evasive things parents say when their kids ask, “What’s that?” It essentially means, “shoo.” This is part of a...
Elise, a seventh-grade teacher in Dallas, Texas, noticed her students using finna in speech and notes, as in finna go to the store. It’s a tight contraction of fixing to, meaning “about to,” common in the American South and Gulf States and also in...
We need a common word for “the parents of your son-in-law or daughter-in-law.” Although English has the word affines, it’s rarely used outside of such fields as anthropology or psychiatry. Other languages have more commonly used...
The pronunciation crick of creek is well documented in the Northern Midwest, including Wisconsin and Minnesota, and also appears farther west in the Northwest and parts of California. Sherry in Menominee, Michigan, grew up near Bear Creek...
Cyarn and kyarn are spellings for a Southern and Appalachian pronunciation of carrion, the rotting flesh of a dead animal. Kenny from Barnesville, Georgia, heard his mother use it for roadkill dragged into the yard by a dog and also more broadly for...