Miley in The Dalles, Oregon, asks about going gunny bags meaning to “break down” or “go haywire.” Her mother uses this expression, but has no idea where she picked it up. The term gunny sack, referring to a bag made of coarse material such as jute...
Elsie from Fredericksburg, Texas, wonders if a gunnysack and a burlap bag are the same thing. Both are made from coarse fabric, but the word gunnysack is actually redundant, because the gunny goes back to a Sanskrit word that means “sack.” Tow sack...
Gina in Dallas wonders where her Louisiana family got croaker, their slang term for a $100 bill. The evidence is scant, but known examples point mostly to Louisiana, and standard dictionaries apparently do not include this sense. One plausible...
Summer brings a shift to weekly online audio releases instead of new radio broadcasts. The production team continues to read audience messages and social media posts. The linguistic concept of a pleonasm receives an explanation through the phrase...
leaverite n.— «I always carry a rock hammer and a gunny sack, and when I see a likely piece of jasper or agate, I chip a corner to see how it holds up. Like as not, the whole stone may shatter making it into leaverite (leave-‘er...
