Rita amnesia
n.— «U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, says he’s trying to prevent an outbreak of “Rita amnesia” by asking a congressional delegation to include southwest Louisiana, devastated by Hurricane Rita, during its scheduled tour of areas hit by Hurricane Katrina.» —“Lawmaker acting to halt ‘Rita amnesia'” by Patrick Courreges in Lafayette Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.) Feb. 28, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...