A Wisconsin wonders if anyone outside her family uses the word funsel, possibly spelled funcil, to denote “a single strand of leftover cobweb hanging from the ceiling.” That one may be all their own, but another word she asks about, gnurr, meaning “fuzzy lint in the corner of a pocket” is indeed used by others. Gnurr appears in the whimsical book Ounce, Dice, Trice (Bookshop|Amazon) by Scottish poet Alastair Reid. The 1958 volume says that gnurr is a smaller variety of oosse, “the airy furry stuff that ultimately gathers under beds,” also known as trilbies, kittens, or dust-bunnies. This is part of a complete episode.
In Newfoundland the word bridge, also spelled brudge, can mean “a deck” or “a porch,” while the word porch refers to an additional room, usually attached at the back of a house, and used as a storage space or mud room. If a Newfoundlander says it’s...
Jennifer teaches yoga on the beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and she and her students have been collecting synonyms for derrière, such as dump truck, rear end, and badonkadonk. The last of these has been around for at least 25 years, and was...
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