An 1875 dictionary of the Sussex dialect from southeastern England gives a colorful glimpse of life there in those days. A beever is “an 11 o’clock luncheon.” In parts of Sussex, a ladybug is variously known as a Bishop Barnaby, a fly-golding, or...
Emma in Texas has a dispute with her dad over the pronunciation of the word oil. The Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States records no fewer than eight different pronunciations of this word. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Pizey is an old dialectal term from the United Kingdom that means “peevish” or “irritable.” Pizey and pize, as in A pize upon you! may be related to the word poison. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
The verb duffifie is defined in the Scots National Dictionary as “to lay down a bottle on its side for some time, after its contents have been poured out, that it may be completely drained of the few drops remaining in it.” This is part...
Sarah from Grove City, Pennsylvania, says her husband had no idea what she meant when she said she wanted to make over him. Besides its other meanings, the verb to make over someone also means to be affectionate towards them. The terms make of and...
A Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, woman says her family has long used the term nun puckeroo to designate a kind of vague, non-serious malaise. Neither Martha nor Grant knows that exact one, but the Dictionary of American Regional English gives similar...