smoking
n.— «Yet another attempt is being made to persuade stars, guests and audience at the Palazzo screenings to don “lo smoking,” as tuxedos are referred to here in imitation of French parlance.» —“Venice perfects its American accent” by Roderick Conway Morris in Venice Intl. Herald Tribune (Paris, France) Aug. 31, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
If your handwriting leaves something to be desired, you could apologize for your chicken scratchings. But there’s a more precise term: griffonage, which has nothing to do with the mythical griffin, though the two sound alike. Griffonage comes from...
Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...