A triathlete in Traverse City, Michigan, calls to say she’s going stir-crazy while recuperating from an injury. The term stir-crazy makes sense if you know that stir is an old synonym for “prison.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
“Put up your dukes!” means “Get ready to fight!” But its etymology is a bit uncertain. One story goes that it’s from Cockney rhyming slang, in which dukes is short for Dukes of York, a play on the slang term fork, meaning “hand.” But the phrase more...
dick v. to watch or to keep under surveillance. Editorial Note: There are also, of course, a wide variety of sex-related slang homonyms that are well-covered elsewhere. Etymological Note: The Historical Dictionary of American Slang attributes this...
