The intensifier pure-d or puredee is a euphemism for pure damned or pure damn. It’s also sometimes rendered as pure-t, and used most often in the Southern United States and South Midlands. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Susan in Virginia Beach, Virginia, says that whenever she looked sad as a child, her grandmother would say she looked like somebody licked the red off her candy. This phrase goes back at least to the 1920s, and refers to licking the red coloring off...
Stephen in Wilmington, North Carolina, called about hankering and unbolted cornmeal. A hankering is a strong desire for something, and the word goes back to at least the early 1600s. It’s related to hang, as in hanging around hoping for something...
In colonial times, a sugarloaf was refined sugar molded into a cone. The term sugarloaf later extended to a mountain that resembled one. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sugarloaf” Another word from that collection of...
Carol from Clays Ferry, Kentucky, remembers her grandmother’s warning dasn’t, as in “We dasn’t do that,” used in the 1950s to steer a child away from rough raspberry-picking or a furnace chain. Dasn’t is a contraction of dares not or dare not...
Lisa in Wilmington, North Carolina, grew up hearing her grandmother warn, “We’re not going to have any who struck John in this house,” meaning stop the cutting up and settle down. Traditionally, who struck John refers to a pointless argument over...