Juice in Genoa, New York, remembers her mother used to say I am so mad I could spit nickels. It’s one of several variations on the idea of being angry enough to spit, period, or to spit something specific, such as spit tacks, spit nails, spit rust. Other examples: I could chew nails, I could spit rivets, I could spit blood, I could spit ten feet. When Australians are thirsty, they sometimes say, I’m so thirsty I could spit chips, or I’m so thirsty I could spit cotton. Juice also wonders about the phrase head over tin cups to describe someone taking a tumble. Other versions (which we also talked about here) include head over heels, rump over teakettle, head over teacups, ass over appetite, ass over elbow, and head over apple cart. A somewhat similar idea is expressed in the idea of going full scorpion, when you fall face first and your legs go back up over your head so that your body mimics a scorpion’s shape. This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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