Clabberhead is a mild rebuke that suggests someone has a curdled dairy product for brains, clabber being sour milk, ultimately from an Irish Gaelic term for “mud.” The Dictionary of American Regional English has a good history of clabberhead. In...
A listener shares a story on our Facebook group about how a child’s misunderstanding illustrates the power of metaphor. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Cows in the Ocean” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about...
rape rack n.— «Cows who are strapped into what the dairy industry calls a “rape rack” and artificially inseminated each year so they will give milk.» —“I Think; Therefore, I Don’t Eat Meat” by Mark Hawthorne OpEdNews.com Jan. 3, 2008. (source:...
swampbuster n.— «Added to the “sodbuster” penalties were new “swampbuster” provisions applying the same sanctions to farmers who drain wetlands to plant crops.» —“Dairy, Soil Plans OK’d; Grain Policies Debated” Omaha World-Herald July 10, 1985...

