Grant, where did the links in this forum post go (they were there in the blog post)?
I was surprised to hear Grant say that he doesn"t think of "suss" as particularly British, but that may just be a function of where he first noticed the word. For many Americans, their first experience with the word came in these lyrics:
Hey you getting drunk, so sorry!
I"ve got you sussed.
Hey you smoking Mother Nature!
This is a bust!
Hey hung up old Mr. Normal,
Don"t try to gain my trust!
"Cause you ain"t gonna follow me any of those ways
Although you think you must
That"s from "We"re Not Gonna Take It", from the Who"s "Tommy".
My first notice of "suss" came from the Rod Stewart song, "I Was Only Joking."
Me and the boys thought we had it sussed.
Valentinos all of us…
I headed straight for the dictionary to find out what it meant. I do think of it as a particularly British word, as I"ve rarely heard an American use it.
As per the laundry list call, I would guess that " shirt,WOD " would mean " wet or dry ". Though it's commonly used as ' work out day ' which perhaps could apply too. It's funny because what first came to mind for me was " worn on dad ".
Also, I hear "suss" and immediately hear in a southern drawl "come on y'all, suss out a dance parnter".
I enjoyed the classroom call-in segment you had.. any chance that could become a regular feature on the show? Maybe a different classroom from around the country could call in with their question..
I propose "hypertitulism" (hyper + titular + ism) for the over-wordiness of book titles..