river rash
n.— «“It’s like I told the U.P.S. man the other day, it’s the challenge,” said Mr. Ramsey, who has a tattoo of a catfish on one shoulder and whose forearms are cross-hatched with battle scars, known in noodling circles as “river rash.” “Anybody can throw a trout line in the river and hang a perch on it. But very few people are going get in the river, and wade around and look for a hole in the bank, stick your hand in there, and hope it’s a catfish.”» —“The Catfish Are Biting (and It Hurts)” by Malcolm Gay in Cowden, Illinois New York Times July 28, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In Cockney rhyming slang, apples and pears is a synonym for “stairs,” and dustbin lids means kids. Plus, sniglets are clever coinages for things we don’t already have words for. Any guesses what incogsneeto means? It’s the...
Janet in Montgomery, Alabama, reports that a day after she had surgery on her hand, the wound burst open, and a doctor noted that her wound dehisced. She’s used to hearing dehisce used in botany to mean the splitting of a plant structure to...