Bathroom walls, missing graffiti, and social media. Where have all the cute quips on bathroom stalls gone? We wonder about the apparent decline of restroom graffiti. Are people saving their witticisms for Twitter and Facebook? And: If...
A hootenanny, commonly thought of as a party in Appalachia, is also a term for German pancakes. But when you look in the Dictionary of American Regional English, you’ll notice that hootenanny is synonymous with doohickey or thingamajig, and...
Elise, a seventh-grade teacher in Dallas, Texas, noticed her students using finna in speech and notes, as in finna go to the store. It’s a tight contraction of fixing to, meaning “about to,” common in the American South and Gulf States and also in...
If you take a job at an airline, beware if your new co-workers ask you go find them a belly stretcher—they’re playing a practical joke on you. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Belly Stretchers” Curly Price from...
The online Dictionary of American Regional English lets readers search entries in full, so a search for donut and doughnut turns up many regional terms. Among them are friedcake, twister, floater, sinker, finger, drop cake, dough ball, dough boy...
Language lovers, rejoice! The Dictionary of American Regional English is now available online. This massive collection of regional words and phrases across the United States requires a subscription, but 100 sample entries, including sound...