While watching a broadcast about the Artemis moon launch, Josh from Jacksonville, Florida, noted that amid all the precise language, scientists describing precise orbital adjustments used the word tad, as in just a tad, which seemed like the...
Brittany in Green Coast Springs, Florida, says that when she was grumpy or irritated as a child, her mother would say a phrase that sounded like Don’t be such a scooch. This bit of Italian-American slang, often rendered as skutch, denotes a “pest”...
Anna in Bellingham, Washington, is puzzled by her younger roommates’ use of the expression bet to “sure,” “okay,” “yes,” “cool.” This slang has been around for at least 30 years and is sometimes...
Martita in San Antonio, Texas, is curious about the expression cool beans! meaning “that’s great!,” or “excellent.” This phrase was commonly used in the 1980s, and although the TV show Full House may have helped...
Andrew in Omaha, Nebraska, says his Italian-American grandfather, who grew up in the city’s Little Italy, uses george for something exceptionally good, especially food, and double george for something really great. Slang George goes back to the...
Jen in Denton, Texas, grew up in upstate New York hearing her Brooklyn-born parents say scutch when someone was being a pest, as in “Don’t be a scutch.” The family spelling she gives is scutch, while a more often seen Italian-American spelling is...

