Maggie from Washington, D.C., heard a college friend from Eastern North Carolina and later a veterinarian referring to the panting of a dog as hassling. In the 19th century, the verb hussle was used in Southeast England to mean “wheeze or breathe...
Stotting describes rain so heavy that it bounces on the sidewalk. In Northern England, a stotting ball or stotty ball is a rubber ball. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of ““Stotting” Means Bouncing Rain in Northern...
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...
In northern England, mafting means “oppressively hot” or “sweltering,” as in mafting hot weather. The word is of uncertain origin and has been around only since the 1990s. It can also work as a verb, for example when someone is mafting in bright...
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...
Nick, an Englishman who divides his time between Ireland and Virginia, says his American friends were baffled when he described a convivial evening with them as good craic, pronounced just like English crack. The word craic is now associated with...