Trombonist Benjamin Jacobs-El, who toured with jazz great Lionel Hampton, calls from Huntsville, Alabama, to say that Hampton regularly addressed friends and band members as gate, as in Hey, gates, how’re you doing? Is that because good jazz swings and a gate swings, too? It appears that’s the case, although it also may be a reference to Gatemouth, one of trumpeter Louis Armstrong’s many nicknames. When he played, audiences would shout Swing it, Gate! It’s also possible that Gate evolved into cat, as in a “hip or cool character,” a term also influenced by tomcat and the sly characteristics associated with a streetwise male feline. 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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