platespeak
n.— «Is one of Britain’s best-loved dialects, the curious language of personalised number plates, heading for oblivion?…Those who cannot afford the best plates have been forced to use a bit of ingenuity to get close to the word or words they really want. Such owners rely on “platespeak,” as it is known in the business, to compose their unique signage—substituting a “5” for an “S,” for example, a “4” for an “A,” and so on.» —“Will UK Law Change Put Car Lingo In Limbo?” by David Wilkins Motorin.co.za (South Africa) Nov. 11, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Do you refer to nighttime sleepwear as jammies, jommies, or something else? A Nashville, Tennessee, woman says that her family referred to pajamas as jommies, while her husband’s family always called them jammies. Although jammies is the far more...
Paul in Tucson, Arizona, asks about ragamuffin, a word his mother used for someone with ripped, dirty, or disheveled clothes. The word’s history isn’t entirely clear, but hundreds of years ago ragman and ragamuffin referred to the Devil, possibly...
