When Matt was growing up in western North Carolina, he heard the word gaum, also spelled gom, meaning a mess. Someone misbehaving might be described as gauming around, or something was gaumed up, meaning messed up, or a person was dismissed as...
Brian in Church Hill, Tennessee, asks about naming a blues-rock-country band Smackin’ Bejeebus, which echoes expressions such as “smack the bejeebus out of you” and “scare the bejeebus out of you.” Bejeebus is a playful variant of bejesus, also...
A woman in San Diego, California, says that when she was making too much noise as a youngster, her dad would gently reprimand her by saying, “You’re a noisy piece of cheese.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
A woman in Virginia Beach, Virginia, says her Appalachia-born grandmother would occasionally say that it was time to string the leather britches or to hang up the leather britches. She was referring to preserving green beans. So why the leather and...
Kyarn, also spelled cyarn, is an Appalachian and Ozark dialect form of carrion, dead or rotting flesh. Jennifer, calling from the public library in Chowan County, North Carolina, heard it from her father, who grew up in eastern Kentucky, in phrases...
Spread out like a week’s washing is a colloquial way to describe something extending far and wide. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Spread Out Like the Week’s Washing” I came across this expression from...