Stotting describes rain so heavy that it bounces on the sidewalk. In Northern England, a stotting ball or stotty ball is a rubber ball. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of ““Stotting” Means Bouncing Rain in Northern...
Kim from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, remembers her Alabama-born mother asking, Where are you proging today? The word progue, also spelled prog, is a bit of dialect meaning “to poke around” or “to ramble.” In the UK, this word, from a Germanic root...
A former healthcare worker shares his favorite word: esophagastroduodenoscopy. That’s a procedure where an endoscope is passed through the mouth and down the throat into the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum. It may be a mouthful, but even a word...
In Southern California, June gloom is the familiar marine layer that rolls in with overcast skies. Jeremy from Long Beach wonders if other places have similarly named weather patterns. Indeed, Southern California also has May gray, no sky July, and...
A heavy, wind-driven rain in England’s West Country is a kelsher. A misty drizzle that makes everything shimmer is a drisk, and a cow-quaker is a cold spring shower in the Midlands that leaves pastured cattle shivering. These are among the many...
Lisa from Tabernacle, New Jersey, grew up using the term cabbage night to refer to the night before Halloween when all manner of mischief takes place. The term itself goes back to the 1860s, while the custom of pranks on October 30 is older. The...