Leslie from Hickory, North Carolina, is curious about an expression her grandmother used when the weather was particularly warm. Leslie never saw the expression spelled out, but she guesses it was hot as bringup, and pronounced with a soft g. Was that saying uniquely hers? The more common version is hot as brinjer, an expression that’s likely related to the Scots word breenge, which as a verb means “to rush forward recklessly” and as a noun means “a punch” or “a blow.” In the Scots language, a breengin is “a beating.” In Southern Appalachian dialect, brinjer appears in comparative phrases expressing something extreme, such as hot as brinjer, cold as brinjer, and in statements such as today’s a brinjer or it’s brinjin’ cold today. This is part of a complete episode.
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...
Debbie from Crawfordsville, Florida, says that when she and her husband reach an impasse while working on something, they’ll say Let’s grok about it, which they use to mean “Let’s think about it.” Grok was coined by...
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