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Slip Someone a Mickey

To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...

Norn Words like Gruggy and Skump

The haunting new novel Clear (Bookshop|Amazon) by Carys Davies is set amid the Scottish Clearances of the 19th century, a relentless program of forced evictions that drove whole communities of tenant farmers off the land. The story concerns a...

Scrumbunctious

Since the late 19th century, the word scrumbunctious has been used to describe someone who is energetic or high-spirited. Scrumbunctious is probably a portmanteau of scrumptious and rambunctious. This is part of a complete episode.