Frederick from Valdosta, Georgia, wonders about the term galley-west. To knock something galley-west means to “knock it into confusion” “send everything in all directions.” In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Aunt Sally angrily throws a basket across the room, which “knocked the cat galley-west.” Galley-west, meaning “crooked,” “awry,” or “wobbly” goes back to an older word meaning the same thing, collywest or collyweston. Although the precise origin of galley-west is unclear, the village of Collyweston in England was once known for having roofs covered with irregular pieces of slate, and their disordered appearance may have influenced this word’s development. This is part of a complete episode.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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