SWMBO
n.— «SWMBO. It’s pronounced “swimbo.” While we might be able to take credit for the initialism and pronunciation, the phrase is actually a phrase Idj first heard and read in the John Mortimer series “Rumpole of the Bailey.” In it, Rumpole refers to his wife as “She Who Must Be Obeyed,” and, yes, you can hear the capitalization just as Idj wrote it.» —“Idj’s SWMBO” by Grung SWIMBO (Canberra, Australia) July 1, 2004. (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...