The slang term kittenball is used in parts of the American Midwest for the sport of softball. According to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, a fire company Minneapolis, Minnesota, first applied the term kittenball to softball, and called its first...
After Sarah moved from Wisconsin to Iowa, she sparked some momentary confusion when she asked a store clerk where his TYME machine was. In parts of Wisconsin, Florida, and Michigan there are automated teller machines, or ATMs, called TYME machines...
How did the town of What Cheer, Iowa, get its name? The word cheer was long used to indicate an emotional state of any kind, so asking someone, What cheer? was another way to say “How are you?” The greeting, What cheer, netop? is closely associated...
Kavya from Des Moines, Iowa, grew up calling striped little chipmunks or ground squirrels squinnies, a word she hasn’t heard even in Iowa City. The term does seem to be mostly Iowan, with written evidence from the 1970s onward, though it’s probably...
The grandmother of a woman in Council Bluffs, Iowa, says tousled hair looks like a hoorah’s nest. Also spelled hurrah’s nest or hooraw’s nest, this means “an untidy mess” or “a commotion.” Its origin is...
Emily in Boulder, Colorado, grew up in Minnesota saying hotdish, usually one word, for dishes like tater tot hotdish, while her Iowa friend calls the same Pyrex-baked mix a casserole. Hotdish is especially a Minnesota usage, with reach into nearby...