Rebecca in Jackson, Tennessee, says her mother-in-law would describe people unwilling to work as not work brickle. The word brickle has long meant “brittle,” is probably a word of Germanic origin and an etymological relative of the word break. The...
In William Howitt’s Madam Dorrington of the Dene, a character named Vincent says, “Don’t let my father be fearful of me. I will be as ravenously ambitious, and as gigantically work-brickle […] as he can desire.” Grant has the goods on the dialect...
