A historian in Indianapolis, Indiana, says a World War II-era letter from her father to her mother refers to running a sandy. It’s a phrase that derives from poker and the act of sandbagging, a kind of bluffing of an opponent. This is part of...
Novelist Charles Dickens created many unforgettable characters, but he’s also responsible for coining or popularizing lots of words, like “flummox” and “butterfingers.” Also, the life’s work of slang lexicographer...
Chad in Omaha, Nebraska, noticed that his mother ended every phone call with mmm-bye, a form he never heard her use in person. The closing may be simply bye with the initial m sound held a little longer before the lips release for the b, not a...
A New Hampshire listener recalls that as a boy, when he talked friends within earshot of his mother and said referred to her as she, his mother would pipe up with “she, being the cat’s mother.” It’s an old expression...
J. Redding Ware’s 1909 Passing English of the Victorian Era preserves slang that would otherwise vanish with the voices that used it. Its entry for please mother open the door even prints a staff of music, explaining that the phrase expressed...
A San Diego woman says her mother always tucked her into bed with the comforting wish, “Sweet dreams, and rest in the arms of Morpheus.” This allusion to mythology evokes a time when people were more familiar with Greek myth, and the...