chirio
n.— «For instance, the thing that frightens cats as it sucks dirt from the carpet? In Spanglish, it’s a bacunclíner. Breakfast cereal of any sort: confley or sometimes, chirio. A job of less than 40 hours is un partain, perhaps at Berguerquín.» —“Is this our creole?” by Rick Stone Sun-Sentinel (Florida) Dec. 26, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Chad in Hilliard, Florida, wonders about the expression old as Methuselah, meaning “extremely advanced in years.” The phrase references Methuselah, a figure in Jewish, Islamic, and Christian tradition said to be 969 years old when he...