Vince from Brooklyn, New York, remembers growing up there and using the expression cut a chogi! to mean “beat it!” or “get away from here!” He’d assumed it was simply Brooklynese until years later in Alabama, when he used it and a returning service member asked where he’d learned Korean. This bit of slang shows up in the early 1950s among U.S. soldiers who picked it up during the Korean War. It likely stems from a rough translation of a Korean expression meaning “go there.” In Korean, cheogi or jeogi means “there.” In English, the word is variously spelled chogi, chogie, chogey, or chogee, and sometimes with a double g. Variants include pull a chogi and do a chogi. This is part of a complete episode.
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...
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