Alan in Columbia, South Carolina, says his family used the terms go juking and juking around to refer to hanging out with family and friends, moving around aimlessly, with no particular goal in mind. It’s related to the term juke, also spelled jook. In 1935, writer Zora Neal Hurston defined a jook as “a place where they sing, dance, gamble, love and compose ‘blues’ songs incidentally”—in other words, a place where lots of fun things happen. In Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending (Bookshop|Amazon), a character says, “I want you to go juking with me…that’s riding and stopping to drink and dance, and riding some more and stopping to drink and dance again, and after awhile you just stop to drink…and sometimes you stop drinking and go to a tourist cabin [with your girl].” There are similar-sounding words in West African languages to mean “living wickedly” that may well be the source of jook and juking. 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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