If you’re on tenterhooks, it means you’re in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15th-century manufacturing process. Also, you probably have a term for those crumbs that collect in the...
James from San Antonio, Texas, grew up saying he hadn’t seen someone in a coon’s age, meaning in a very long time. The phrase likely refers to the old folk notion that raccoons live a long time, but because the shortened word has a long history as a...
Downton Abbey, a program featured on Masterpiece Theater, provided a handful of colorful expressions that date surprisingly far back. “Like it or lump it,” meaning “deal with it,” is found at least as early as 1830 and takes from the old verb lump...
orehano n.— «“I haven’t seen any of Wise’s men lately and I have been helping myself to some of his Orehanos and have also caught several sleepers lately” was part of a letter written to Sanford on November 10th, 1912, by Brad’s grandfather, Albert...
scamera n.— «In case you haven’t noticed, many counties and municipalities around Mississippi, most notably Jackson, have placed cameras at street intersections in an attempt to enforce traffic violations.…The proponents of what I like to call...
bluebird day n.— «It was warm and sunny, what duck hunters refer to as a bluebird day; great for lounging and talking about ducks but not the preferred nasty weather that gets the birds flying.» —“Waterfowler’s rig is rooted in Vineyard’s past” by...