A caller from Vermont says his Mississippi-born grandfather always called him a pussle-gut, and admonish him about an unseen wampus cat. The former, also spelled puzzle-gut, simply means “a fat or pot-bellied person,” the pussle being...
The term no-see-ums refers to those pesky gnats that come out in the heat and humidity and are so tiny they’re almost invisible. The term goes back at least as far as the 1830s, and is heard particularly in the Northeastern United States. This...
In parts of the South, according to the Dictionary of American Regional English, the word mess can denote “a witty, clever, or mischievous person.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Southern Mess” You know...
Anna in Dallas, Texas, doubts her fiancée Sarah’s family word biffed it, but Sarah has the dictionaries on her side: to biff it can mean to fall, especially in an embarrassing way. Sarah grew up hearing it from her grandmother and aunt, including...
Cat face is a cute way to describe something like a piece of fruit or a tree that’s grown in on itself, giving it a puckered kind of indentation. Particularly in the African-American community, it’s used to denote a wrinkle to be ironed...
A stepmother slice, according to a 1915 citation in the Dictionary of American Regional English, is a slice of bread that’s too thick to bite. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Stepmother Slice” I was just paging...