scribble
v.— «Gracefully folding a mixture of southern African languages and slang into her supple prose (“Scribble” is slang for “kill”; when her dad sees her growing fascination with K, he warns, “Curiosity scribbled the cat”), Fuller captures the rhythms and wounds of her subjects, cannily allowing the horror of their stories to speak for itself.» —“Once were (white) warriors” by Daneet Steffens Globe and Mail (Toronto, Can.) May 22, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Words for “mother” begin with the letter M in many languages, but not all of them. The reason has to do with the physiology of infant vocalization. Among the first sounds babies make are bilabial sounds with an open vowel, the lips...
Old. Elderly. Senior. Why are we so uncomfortable when we talk about reaching a certain point in life? An 82-year-old seeks a more positive term to describe how she feels about her age. And: a linguist helps solve a famous kidnapping case, using the...