Barbara from Seattle, Washington, was surprised to hear a friend from Montana use the term jockey box to mean “glove compartment.” Heard in much of the Northwestern United States, jockey box is a relic of the days when the drivers of covered wagons...
Niesey from Laramie, Wyoming, is curious about the word mucky-muck, meaning “an important person,” and often “someone self-important.” Usually spelled muckety-muck, or muckamuck, it’s associated with the Chinook jargon of the Pacific Northwest, in...
The term no-see-ums refers to those pesky gnats that come out in the heat and humidity and are so tiny they’re almost invisible. The term goes back at least as far as the 1830s, and is heard particularly in the Northeastern United States. This is...
You don’t know siccum, meaning “you don’t know anything,” is an idiom common in the American Northwest. It’s a shortened form of he doesn’t know come here from sic ’em, as in a dog that doesn’t know how to obey commands. This is part of a complete...
In the Pacific Northwest, the term spendy means “expensive.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Spendy” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Joseph, downtown San Diego. Well, Joseph, welcome to the program. How can we help...
A North Carolina woman says when she told her friend she had a TL for her, the friend had no idea what she was talking about. She learns that the term is a shortened form of a secondhand compliment also known as a trade-last or last-go-trade. This...
