Claggy, a regional UK weather word, originally meant a thick, low-level cloud, damp, overcast, foggy, or misty. Because it comes from an old word having to do with sticky things, it also came to describe air that feels unpleasantly close and humid...
Lanessa in San Antonio, Texas, remembers once when her Tennessee-born grandmother saw her grandfather coming home from work and tromping into her pristine kitchen: “What in the tarnation? You don’t have any gumption! Don’t come walking into my...
Theresa in Lyman, South Carolina, says her mother has long used the word quare to describe someone who is “odd” or “set in their ways” or otherwise “peculiar,” as in They’re the quarest people I’ve ever met. The term quare, also spelled quar...
Nancy in Newport, Kentucky, says friends used to refer to her young son and daughter as a pigeon pair. Doves and pigeons tend to have two chicks at a time, and at one point, it was believed that these offspring always consisted of one male and one...
A native German speaker is curious about the English word doofus, which sounds a lot like German doof, meaning “stupid” or “daft.” English doofus first appeared in the 1960s, apparently modeled after goofus, another...
In Lancashire, England, the dialectal term sprunny is a synonym for “sweetheart.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sprunny” Grant, I’m sure you’ll agree that you can never have too many synonyms...
