An East Tennessee caller wonders about the phrase “cutting a head shine,” meaning “pull off a caper” or “behave in a boisterous, comical manner.” Cutting a head shine derives from an alternate use of shine, meaning “trick,” and head, a term used in Appalachia meaning “most remarkable, striking, or entertaining.” A similar phrase, “cutting a dido,” is used not only in the South and South Midlands, but through much of New England as well. This is part of a complete episode.
More from this show
Unparalleled misalignments are pairs of phrases in which the words in one phrase are each synonyms of the words in the other, but the phrases themselves mean different things. For example, the phrase blanket statement can be paired with cover story...
Jameela in Charlotte, North Carolina, says her family refers to their television’s remote control as the clicker, but her friends insist on calling it the remote. These devices go by other names as well, including doofer, flicker, zapper, and...