Edward in Atlanta, Georgia, asks about the origin and uses of blah, blah, blah, the sing-song stand-in for omitted or tiresome talk. A single blah can mean dull or listless, as in “feeling blah,” while repeated blahs often replace words a speaker...
An Alabama listener says her grandmother would express astonishment with the phrase They! My goodness! This exclamation, which is common in her grandmother’s native Appalachia, is probably an R-less pronunciation of There! as in Look there...
John from San Diego, California, grew up hearing be-bopping for wandering from place to place, running around, or going about without much of a plan. The expression, also shortened to bopping, appears to draw on bebop and jazz slang, with the same...
Ashley in Danville, Kentucky, says that if she’s looking pale or wan, her mother will say You look like a haint. The dialectal term haint is used throughout much of the American South to mean “ghost” or “evil spirit”...
Barb in Battle Creek, Michigan, reports that when she was a small child, a neighbor from Georgia said she would bring her a box with five handles for her birthday. Barb was overjoyed until she learned that the phrase is actually a joking euphemism...
After our discussion of joking ways to say grace before a meal, Al from Denton, Texas, shares the story of a curmudgeon’s highly efficient one: Much obliged. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “On a Nodding Basis with the...