dibby dibby
adj.— «The first time I heard it was by a minibus conductor, who was arguing with a passenger. The woman had passed some remark, which the conductor was not pleased about. He told her to move herself from “[there]…yuh dibby dibby gal.” At that point she went into a rage.…What does it mean? “…means say you washy, wasy,” my friend Howard explains, “…no saying a thing…not desirable.”» —“Dibby Dibby” by Livern Barrett The Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) Nov. 17, 1988. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city’s youngest readers, extolling the many benefits of libraries. One of the loveliest was from E.B. White, author of...
There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little seven-year-old in school. Classes in his day were demanding — and all in Latin. A new book argues that this rigorous curriculum actually nurtured the creativity that later flourished...