Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...
Hannah from Shreveport, Louisiana, is curious about Cooter Brown, a name she’s often heard applied to someone behaving mischievously. Cooter Brown shows up in several expressions, including drunk as Cooter Brown, high as Cooter Brown, and fast as...
The words we choose can change attitudes — and change lives. A swing-dance instructor has switched to gender-neutral language when teaching couples. He says that using words like “leader” and “follower” actually works better than using gendered...
A listener in Shreveport, Louisiana, reports that after a fine meal, her father used to announce, “I have dined sufficiently, and I have been well surossified.” It’s a joking exaggeration of the word satisfied. In a 1980 article in American Speech...
boss lift n.— «Local cavalry troopers doing annual training at the National Guard’s Camp Minden this week and next will get unusual inspections Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, they’ll get the once-over from their bosses in what the services call a...
wooly-booger n.— «Rep. Robert Barton, R-Bossier City, introducing his bill to exempt Shreveport-area riverboat casinos from Coast Guard inspections. “I’m not bringing you a wooly-booger.”» —“Baton Rouge Report News And Views From The Louisiana...