shock and hee-haw
n.— «The surge really has accomplished a reduction in the violence, and things are safer. But convoys are still being hit by the IEDs and the vehicle-borne IEDs. They’re even putting explosive devices under satchels on donkeys. The soldiers call them “shock and hee-haw.”» —“‘Best of the best’ headed to Iraq” by John Andrew Prime Shreveport Times (Louisiana) Jan. 5, 2008. (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...