Nancy from New Haven, Connecticut, has noticed the word liminal turning up everywhere lately and wonders if she’s imagining it. She’s not. The word’s use has risen sharply since around 2021, particularly in long-form journalism and public radio...
Jodie in Norfolk, Virginia, reports that a new restaurant there serving New Haven-style pizza is called District Apizza, pronounced “ah-BEETS.” The word apizza is a remnant of the language of Italian immigrants who settled in Connecticut, from la...
A Connecticut cop says his dad, a retired professor of English and comparative literature at Yale, has been reading his son’s police reports. They disagree about whether complainant is a legitimate word, or whether it should be complainer. This is...
pig night n.— «One of its disgusted members told me of its annual practice called “pig night” when pledges were sent out to find “ugly townie girls” to be invited to a big Yale party—at midnight they were told, now illegally liquored up, that they...
stump dump n.— «Mayor Craig B. Henrici said he is negotiating for the new owner to remove what is commonly called the “stump dump” from the former Meadowbrook Golf Course. The stump dump is made up of soil, debris and wood, some of which came from...
spermative action n.— «The numbers send booksellers reeling, begging writers for novels friendly to women’s book clubs. More women apply to college today than men, leading to male affirmative action, so-called “spermative action.”» —“Disney’s...