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
A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can the use of an employee’s first name ever reflect a power differential? And: a community choir director wants a term for “the act of...
Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below your mouth and the other at your ear, as if you’re holding an old-fashioned candlestick...