The phrase don’t worry, it’ll be a pig’s foot in the morning is meant to comfort or reassure a child who’s stubbed her toe or scraped her knee or suffered some other minor injury. This expression is especially common in Northern England. This is...
In northern England, mafting, a word of uncertain origin, means “oppressively hot” or “sweltering.” This is part of a complete episode. Another weather word that’s used in the UK and that’s only been around since the 1990s is the word mafting. M-A-F...
Modals are helping verbs that affect a verb’s grammatical mood and express possibility, capability, likelihood, permission, or obligation. The use in the Southern United States of multiple modals, such as might could and might should reflect the...
If you can make neither moss nor sand of something, then if you can’t make sense of it. This phrase is particularly common in Northern England. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Neither Moss Nor Sand” We were talking earlier about...
Touchous means tender, sore, or painful to the touch, as in a twisted hand that’s still “right touchous” a few days later. Ken in Richmond grew up hearing it from his eastern North Carolina family. The word is heard in the South and South Midlands...
If someone’s a cuddywifter, are they a) a wine snob, b) left-handed, or c) a circus clown? Folks in Scotland and Northern England refer to left-handed people as cuddywifters, along with a host of other terms. This is part of a complete episode...