Chanukah bush
n.— «Two of the brightest moments of the weekend’s viewing were Gertrude Berg’s account—on the Ed Sullivan show—of her father’s substitution of a “Chanukah bush” for a Christmas tree.» —“Fills Female Scrooge Parts” by Cynthia Lowry Indiana Evening Gazette (Pa.) Dec. 22, 1959. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A Kentucky listener says her father often prefaced statements with the phrase I tell you what’s the truth. This regionalism appears in the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English (Bookshop|Amazon). A shorter version is I’ll tell you...
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...