A listener has spent the last 30 years looking for the origin of the playful phrase “you’re the berries.” This affectionate expression first appears in literature in the 1908 book Sorrows of a Showgirl, then made its way into...
What’s the origin of the expressions “word!” and “word up!”? Grant shares a theory from the book Black Talk by Geneva Smitherman. Here’s that Eighties-era song
A Green Bay, Wisconsin, caller is curious about her mother’s playful interjections. If someone said, “Well,” her mother would add, “Well, well. Three holes in the ground.” If someone started a sentence with...
headless chicken n.— «The advocates and supporters of the new party notion see this as a logical solution to the political quagmire the ruling party has found itself in following the populist rhetoric, demagoguery and vindictiveness of...
repple depple n.—Gloss: in military slang, a replacement depot. «He talked to DDIL yesterday he is still in repple depple (VeetNam era slang, I don’t know the new slang).» —“Need Source for pocket KJV Bible” by...
picker n.— «The city has seen a rash of “pickers” going through curbside recycling bins and removing aluminum cans, Devaney said.» —“City trash ‘pickers’ are spilling the bins” by Bernard Harris Lancaster...