dibby-dibby
adj.— «In Jamaica, life and system so hard that people can hardly find the time to listen culture music. Then they play the dibby-dibby music so long for so many years now that it becomes part of the people that they don’t want to hear nothin’ else but the dibby. And it’s some kind of wrong thing going on down there with the people.» —“Reggae Culture Has Vibrations” by Joe Brown Washington Post Feb. 8, 1991. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a word-pecker is “a person who trifles or plays with, or quibbles over, words.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word-Peckers” I always love it when I’m looking through the dictionary and...
How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”? Dictionary editor Kory Stamper explains it all in her new book. Plus, the story behind the expression more...