A new online archive of Civil War letters offers a vivid portrait of the everyday lives of enlisted men. These soldiers lacked formal education so they wrote and spelled by ear. The letters show us how ordinary people spoke then. • Is there a single...
A Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, woman says her family has long used the term nun puckeroo to designate a kind of vague, non-serious malaise. Neither Martha nor Grant knows that exact one, but the Dictionary of American Regional English gives similar...
rum court n.— «Michael Ratner from the Centre for Constitutional Rights said: “The outcome has been predetermined when you go into one of these special, what I have to call, a kangaroo hearing, CSRT (Combatant Status Review...
skankie n.— «It happened a year ago on my first-ever visit to one of the Dominican Republic’s all-inclusive resorts. My friend and I looked at each other, wondering what to do. They weren’t hitting on us, exactly. But, even through the...
Tom and Jerry n.— «Of course, one more permutation of eggnog needs to be addressed. How did the hot version come to be called a “Tom and Jerry”? When I was a kid in Minnesota, the eggnog my brothers and I furtively gulped...
flat flounder n.— «In official and academic circles it is called intellectual dishonesty. On the long wall in Challengers or at the rum shop it is called CROOKEDNESS. At times the people afflicted are called “FLAT FOUNDER”...