When Bebe, a non-native English speaker in Charlotte, North Carolina, moved from England to the United States, she learned that a minor illness isn’t called the lurgy but the crud. In the 1700s, lurgy was used jokingly to refer to “a vague medical...
Sid from Dallas, Texas, works at an animal shelter where staffers lovingly refer to the many large, tan mixed-breed dogs there as Texas brown dogs, or TBDs. Are there other colorful regional terms for mutts? In the U.S., they’ve been known as...
The expression sky-blue pink is what’s known as a “fobbing off phrase,” a playful, nonsensical answer for when a child asks one too many questions. Variations include sky blue pink with a finny haddy border (the word haddy meaning “Scottish smoked...
A lifeguard in Central Florida is perplexed when his fellow lifeguards indicate they’ve heard a radio transmission by responding with a phrase like Tower Two copies rather than Tower Two, copy. Which is correct? They both are. The word copy in radio...
Cynthia in Austin, Texas, grew up hearing her father say, No soldiering! when the kids weren’t pulling their weight in the kitchen. She was recently reminded of his admonition when she saw a bumper sticker that read no sojering. Both soldiering and...
A mangle is an old device for squeezing water from laundry. In 19th-century England, this word figured in the discourteous catchphrase Has your mother sold her mangle? The question implies that the person addressed has to make ends meet by selling...
