grapling

grapling
 n.— «The men and boys would wade out into the waters of the Savannah, and it was called graplin’. They would run their hands under the rocks and grab an object that was not a rock. Many times I saw a snake being hurled across the water. Some wiser and experienced men would fix a hook on a thimble and grab, therefore the term, grablin.’» —“Jolly green johnny” Independent-Mail (Anderson, S.C.) July 17, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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Further reading

Blessing Box (episode #1613)

Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...