Kim from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, remembers her Alabama-born mother asking, Where are you proging today? The word progue, also spelled prog, is a bit of dialect meaning “to poke around” or “to ramble.” In the UK, this word, from a Germanic root...
Laura in Tucson grew up hearing her West Virginia grandmother use tight as a tick for a room packed with people, and wondered whether it referred to a blood-swollen tick or the tick of a clock. It’s the blood-fed tick, whose body can become taut and...
A physician in Onancock, Virginia, shares some expressions he’s picked up from his patients, such as Old Arthur, as in Old Arthur’s in town — a reference to suffering from arthritis. Patients have also described feeling discouraged or...
The locals on Cape Cod refer to a newly arrived outsider as a wash-ashore. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Wash-Ashores” Not long ago, we had a conversation with Melinda, who had moved to the Chesapeake Bay area of...
In southeastern Virginia, a come-here is “an outsider” or “someone who recently moved to the area.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A “Come-Here” in Virginia” Hello, you have A Way...
Chesapeake Bay crabbing has a vocabulary as specialized as a waterman’s gear. Rob, a retired conservationist and biologist near Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic coast, notes that a male blue crab is a jimmy, while a female may be a sook, silk...