Greg in Mena, Arkansas, says that when he was learning to be a professional pilot, one of his instructors would say, You thought like Nelly if someone had thought they were doing something correctly, but failed to. Although the phrase is not that...
A Nebraska listener came across his great-grandfather’s account of going out carousing and then returning home at steen o’clock. The context suggested that he meant he returned home extremely late. Although never that common, the expression steen...
If an older man and woman spend lots of time together, going to family gatherings and the like, but they’re NOT dating, what do you call their relationship? Best friends? Dear friends? Or . . . something else? And a marathon runner who’s crossed 31...
Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn has been mulling how to classify the term BBQ, since the “Q” reflects sound, not an initial. It’s a type of abbreviation called clipping. BBQ goes back to restaurant signs and menus from the 1930’s where...
So you think you hate puns? Wait until you hear this item from a Singapore newspaper about a Japanese banking crisis. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Japanese Banking Pun” Something I recorded in my Commonplace book a long time...
rito n.—Gloss: A clipping of “burrito.” «(804) just got out of a noise viloation because the cop recognized my roomate as his favorite chipotle burrito roller. just another reason I love ritos.» —Texts From Last Night Sept. 1, 2009. (source: Double...