Brianna from Jacksonville, Florida, says her family and friends call someone who’s causing a scene or acting foolish a weapon. A blunder or awkward moment is weaponry. The usage, which she picked up from her dad, who’s from Long Island, New...
A mangle is an old device for squeezing water from laundry. In 19th-century England, this word figured in the discourteous catchphrase Has your mother sold her mangle? The question implies that the person addressed has to make ends meet by selling...
You would rather not be called hobbyless. That’s an insult appearing increasingly in social media that suggests someone spends far too much time on inconsequential things when they should get themselves a hobby. This is part of a complete episode...
Responding to our conversation about the word chat, meaning “the gravelly residue of mines,” Isabella from Marquette, Michigan, reports that where she lives, in the state’s Upper Peninsula, such runoff is commonly called slag. She uses some made-up...
Wendy from Falls Church, Virginia, asks about a gesture corresponding to the exclamation Shame, shame! that involves scraping one index finger over the other, almost as if peeling a carrot. A German name for a similar gesture actually translates as...
Clabberhead is a mild rebuke that suggests someone has a curdled dairy product for brains, clabber being sour milk, ultimately from an Irish Gaelic term for “mud.” The Dictionary of American Regional English has a good history of clabberhead. In...