Diana from Tucson, Arizona, reports that when she was young, her Irish grandmother would chase her and her misbehaving siblings around the house yelling, “You omadhauns!” Also spelled amadán, this word of Celtic origin means...
Kara from Rockwood, Tennessee, asks about boogeyman after hearing in Port-au-Prince that the word came from a Haitian slave-revolt leader named Bokman. That story is unlikely, because related words are older than the revolt that led to Haiti’s...
Macakeneatit n.— «Scots are known in England as the “Macakeneatits” because they want thie cake while eating England’s.» —“Rangers, Celtic and the question of survival in the English Premiership” by Stephen...