Carol in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, recalls her mother using the word meckle to mean “mess around with,” as in stop meckling with your cereal and eat it! Or if a sewing project was too complicated, she’d say there was too much meckling involved...
Ron from Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, shares a family word he learned from his college roommate: asyou. The word asyou denotes “the second or third stair on the staircase” — in other words, the stair where you put things to remember to take...
Betsy in Virginia Beach, Virginia, asks about her family’s word goonus, fondly used for loose, soft flesh on people or animals, from baby thigh rolls to the flap that swings under a cat’s belly. It does not appear in the literature consulted, and it...
Lindy from Bozeman, Montana, grew up hearing her father call cocktail time at the family’s summer cabins horning hour, a kind of private happy hour for the drinkers on a beach where some neighbors abstained. The phrase hasn’t turned up in the...
A Somerville, Massachusetts, listener wonders about a phrase her family uses, freeze your caboogies off. Its origin is unknown, and it’s unclear whether it’s related to another term for the backside, bahookie. This is part of a...
What do you call the rear compartment of a station wagon or minivan? Many know it as the way back (or wayback), not to be confused with the regular back, which is more likely to have seat belts. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
