We were invited by Huntsville, Alabama, public radio station WLRH to do a live appearance at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. During the Q&A, a listener shared a version of the phrase If I tell you a hen dips snuff, you can look under its wing (and you’ll find a whole can). It means “What I’m saying is true, and if you don’t believe it, you can check it out for yourself.” This phrase, and versions of it, have long been a part of Black American English. In a letter recorded in Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story, 1900-1971 (Bookshop|Amazon), jazz great Louis Armstrong once wrote to his biographer: If I tell you that a Hen Dip Snuff, you just look under her wings and you’ll find a whole can full. Meaning I don’t waste words either. Interested in booking us for a live appearance in your hometown? Just look under our link!This is part of a complete episode.
After an international team of scientists and staffers spent six months at a research station in Antarctica, their accents changed ever so slightly, according to an acoustic analysis by German researchers. The slang terms they shared include dingle...
Is the booty as in shake your booty related to a pirate’s booty? The booty that means “derriere” is an alteration of botty, which is itself an alteration of bottom. The booty that means “loot” or “plunder”...
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