Steva, a small-animal veterinarian in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, has learned that a doppick dog is clumsy or uncoordinated. The word is a borrowing from Pennsylvania German, ultimately from the German Doppich, meaning clumsy or awkward. A nixie cat...
Beware of false friends, those words that don’t translate the way you’d expect. For example, the word “gift” in German means “poison,” and the Spanish word “tuna” means “the fruit of the prickly...
Edward from Indianapolis asks about scarf as in “You really scarfed that down,” meaning someone ate fast and greedily. This verb is unrelated to the garment word scarf; it likely came into English through Scots dialect. Earlier forms include scoff...
Where in the world would you be likely to find sculch in your dooryard, or ask for just a dite of cream in your coffee? Martha has the answers in this minicast about some distinctive regional terms.
For rain falling while the sun is shining, Elizabeth in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, grew up hearing her Georgia-born mother say the devil’s beating his wife. There are many, many variants, including the devil is beating his wife with a frying pan, the...
banging the close n.— «The CFTC alleges that the defendants employed a manipulative scheme commonly known as “banging” or “marking” the close. “Banging the close” refers to the practice of acquiring a...
