Thomas from Huntsville, Alabama, was baffled when his Ohio-born fiancée told him she was going to sweep the house, then proceeded to use a vacuum cleaner. Is she the only person who calls a vacuum cleaner a sweeper? This is part of a complete...
David says that when he was growing up in Akron, Ohio, his family referred to the grassy area between the sidewalk and street as the devil strip. He’s since moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he doesn’t hear that term. There are lots of terms for...
David from Nashville, Tennessee, wonders about a word he’s heard only in that city: gherming. Someone who ghermsmakes a habit of pestering country-music celebrities or acting overly familiar with them in public. Nashville songwriter Marc Alan...
Ty in Nashville, Tennessee, has fond memories of his dad handing him what he called folding money. This term simply refers to bills, rather than coins. Other versions include folding dough, folding stuff, folding matter, folding green, folding...
Vanessa, who is originally from New Zealand, jokingly calls her American boyfriend a wally, an adjective that means “silly,” “daft,” or “inept.” Heard in much of the United Kingdom, this term may be related to the British slang term for “cucumber”...
Insure in the US Constitution’s preamble, as in to insure domestic tranquility, isn’t a mistake. Tim from Nashville noticed that modern usage often reserves insure for financial protection against loss and ensure for making certain something...