sergebutt
n.— «Sergebutts—Sergebutts, or just “butts,” are the Juniors. The name came from their uniforms. In the past, although it is no longer true, the uniforms worn by the underclasses were different than those worn by the upperclasses. When one became a junior, one first began to wear a uniform where the pants had extra material above the belt in the back. As with every Aggie tradition, I’m sure that there are conflicting histories as to their source, but this is the one that I heard.» —“What the heck does that mean?” by Owen Boots and Sabers (Milwaukee, Wisc.) Feb. 10, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
After hearing our conversation about how dictionaries decide on a preferred pronunciation, and specifically about how to pronounce aioli, Vern from San Diego, California, wrote to say that a friend once made fun of him for pronouncing grimace with a...