Tory in Paulson, Wyoming, is surprised to find that many people aren’t familiar with the term bowery used to mean “an open-air pavilion.” Bowery comes from a Dutch word for “farm,” bouwerij. Today this specialized use...
What you call the space between mountains depends on which part of the country you’re in. The word gap is used more in the Southern United States, notch in the Northeast, and saddle or pass in the West. See Grant’s analysis of place...
Why do we call a frankfurter a hot dog? It seems an unsettling 19th-century rumor is to blame. Also, if someone quits something abruptly, why do we say they quit cold turkey? This term’s roots may lie in the history of boxing. Plus, a...
The exhortation grab a root and growl is a way of telling someone to buck up and do what must be done. The sense of grabbing and growling here suggests the kind of tenacity you might see in a terrier sinking his teeth into something and refusing to...
Leslie in Fort Laramie, Wyoming, grew up in western Nebraska hearing the roadside ditch beside a raised road called a borrow pit, especially in a construction family. That form is real regional usage, found more often in the West and around...
Do you know what a “buffet flat” is? Is it A) a type of shoe you wear to all-you-can-eat dinners, B) a lull in economic growth predicted by Warren Buffet, or C) a squalid apartment found in the Rocky Mountain States? Find out when Grant...