Jane in Billings, Montana, says her daughter is a veterinary student who pronounces the word experiment as ecks-PEER-a-ment rather than ex-PARE-a-ment. By their early teens, children tend to get their language from peers, rather than their parents...
Cory in Newark, Ohio, says that while in South Africa, he heard the exclamation shot! used in an empathetic way to mean “that’s so sweet!” or “bless your heart!” In South Africa, the word can be used to express agreement, and in Australia, the...
Good googly moogly—or great googly moogly—is a jubilant exclamation for surprise, delight, or emphasis, something Lisa from Chesapeake, Virginia, remembers her father saying over a big fish at Hatteras Harbor Marina. The form was established in...
Adair in Fort Worth, Texas, heard her mother describe a frightening drive in Louisiana by saying she and her husband nearly bought the ranch. That ranch version is a less common variant of buy the farm, meaning to die, especially in a crash or other...
Brad from Allen, Texas, is curious about a term he’s heard only in Texas. It’s used to refer affectionately to a mother or grandmother: T Jones. Most uses of this term for a parent or grandmother seem to occur in the Dallas area...
Scott in Billings, Montana, wonders about the word hornswoggle, meaning to swindle, bamboozle, deceive, or trick. This verb found its way into American English during the 1820’s, when there was a fad among newspaper editors and writers for inventing...
