Home » Dictionary » SWMBO

SWMBO

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)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

When Alligator Gets Loose in the Dictionary!

What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...

Price of Tea (episode #1648)

The words cushy, cheeky, and non-starter all began as Britishisms, then hopped across the pond to the United States. A new book examines what happens when British words and phrases migrate into American English. Also, if you speak a language besides...