haiga
n.— «Gente humilde, casi todos indígenas o mestizos morenos. Que no saben usar palabras elegantes. Que champurran el spanglish con los “haiga”, los “ansina”, los “mesmamente” y los “dendenantes.” Que gustan de andar de sombrero y botas. De bigote ancho, y cinturón ‘pipeao’.» —“Mexicanos discriminando paisanos: El racismo que faltaba” by César Fernando Zapata in Dallas, Texas La Crónica (Juárez, Mexico) Sept. 25, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Aubrey in Waco, Texas, says her mother used to warn the kids against contracting honkus of the bonkus, a fanciful name for a contagious disease. This colloquial term probably comes from the words bonk and konk, meaning “to hit” or...