shotgun valley
n.— «Shotgun valley. See “ragtown.”» —“Petroleum and Oil Workers’ Slang and Jargon” in Ill., Mont., Ark., Tex., Okla., Miss. Lexicon of Trade Jargon , 1938-39. (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...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...