Amir from Chicago, Illinois, grew up hearing the word brolic, meaning “extremely muscular, physically imposing,” from his father, who grew up in the Farragut Projects in Brooklyn. The word has clear New York City roots, with an early notable...
In New York and northern New Jersey, a children’s playground slide was once commonly known as sliding pond or sliding pon. The terms reflect the considerable influence of Dutch settlement in that area, the Dutch word baan meaning a “path” and...
Candace from Memphis, Tennessee, wonders about the phrase You’re eating me out of house and home. The emphatic doublet house and home is part of a long tradition that includes scared out of house and home and chased out of house and home. Even...
Chris in San Antonio, Texas, a professional musician, asks where the word gig comes from. While gig is now the standard term for a musical engagement and has broadened to any short-term job, its early origins are murky. It may be related to the term...
Allison in Redwood City, California, says her family has long used the word zorbit to refer to what happens when someone playfully blows a raspberry on your cheek or belly to make a funny sound. That’s probably their version of a fanciful word first...
Mary-Clare recalls that when she was growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, everyone she knew used the term hoosier as a kind of teasing pejorative. If someone did something silly, others would say You’re such a hoosier, the adjective hoozh, or jokingly...