Beth in Spring Hill, Tennessee, grew up saying bedroom suite and was startled to hear bedroom suit in Georgia and Tennessee. Both forms can mean a matching group of bedroom furniture. Bedroom suit is especially associated with the American South...
Mary in Tulsa, Oklahoma, says that growing up, she and the kids in her neighborhood used the the verb pump to refer to giving someone a lift on a bicycle. This caused a bit of confusion when she went away to college and puzzled fellow students with...
Is the term expat racist? Journalist Laura Secorun argues that the word expat implies a value judgment, suggesting that Westerners who move to another country are adventurous, while the term immigrant suggests someone who likely moved out of...
Touchous means tender, sore, or painful to the touch, as in a twisted hand that’s still “right touchous” a few days later. Ken in Richmond grew up hearing it from his eastern North Carolina family. The word is heard in the South and South Midlands...
A Pittsburgh woman reports that when she went away to college, she was surprised to find people correcting her grammar when she’d say things like “the car needs washed” or “the kids need picked up.” She wonders if she’s been saying it wrong all...
Iran-geles n.— «The US, they told me, was a good place and many Iranians migrated there, especially to Los Angeles, which they had taken to calling “Iran-geles.”» —“Sky’s the limit for Iran’s night callers” by Glenda Kwek Sydney Morning...