Responding to our conversation about the word chat, meaning “the gravelly residue of mines,” Isabella from Marquette, Michigan, reports that where she lives, in the state’s Upper Peninsula, such runoff is commonly called slag. She uses some made-up...
Camden from Juneau, Alaska, uses the term gaffle to mean “snag,” as in to gaffle a Coke from the fridge. In his 1872 work A Dictionary of Etymology (Bookshop|Amazon), philologist Hensleigh Wedgwood notes that in a variety of languages...
Ed in Florence, South Carolina, remembers that when he was stationed at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, the locals used a couple of words he’d never heard. They’d use “Ish!” as an interjection to express disgust and ishy, which describes...
The term “so long,” meaning “goodbye,” does not come from the Arabic word salaam. Its origin is German. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “So Long!” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, it’s...
Andy from Independence, Missouri, inherited a toe-counting rhyme from his grandfather: Tom Pumpkin, Long Larkin, Betty Pringle, Johnny Jingle, and Little Dick. The exact source is unknown, but it fits a lively family of English and Scandinavian toe...
biking n. an (all-you-can-eat) food buffet or smorgasbord. Editorial Note: Rendered in Japanese as バイキング and usu. Romanized as baikingu. Etymological Note: From English Viking, referring to the Scandinavian origins...
