A Texas caller says her West Virginia-born mother uses the word hornicaboogery to mean “germs” or “the creeping crud.” Among the many such joking names for imaginary illnesses are gollywobbles, collywobbles, carlymarbles...
creeping crud n.— «Pharmacists who don’t write the name of the medicine on the bottle, only the name of the doctor (illegible) and a number. So six months later you can’t use your specific for creeping crud because you don’t know which...
creeping crud n.— «Mr. Chrapko agrees. He says he has detected a “steady drift towards communism.” Later, he will describe this as “the creeping crud.”» —“An old-fashioned Western meeting—on...