Jill from Greenville, South Carolina, wants to know why pickle automatically means “pickled cucumber,” as opposed to other pickled vegetables, such as onions and carrots. The answer has to do with prototypicality, the cultural agreement that one...
Martha from Rock Hill, South Carolina, wonders about the phrase She’s got the botts, meaning “she’s pouting.” The botts, also spelled the bots, refers to “a general malaise or moody spell,” and the bot in this case is the same bot in the botfly, a...
Ron in Gloverville, South Carolina, wonders about the phrase since hatchet was hammer, which some use to mean “for a long period of time,” as in My family has lived here since hatchet was hammer. Another phrase he’s heard indicating the same thing...
Trivia time! Where in the United States can you visit Soda City? If you answered Columbia, South Carolina, you’re right! This nickname apparently derives from an old practice of abbreviating Columbia as Cola. The locals then referred to the town as...
Nora in Rock Hill, South Carolina, says her great-great-grandfather’s name, Workman Hardlabor Honeycutt, reflected the family’s Quaker religious belief in the sanctity of hard work. It’s an example of what are called virtue names or grace names that...
Lee in Charleston, South Carolina, remembers her dad used to refer to a blue patch of sky after a rain as kitten’s britches. Similar terms include Dutchman’s trousers, old woman’s apron, and cat’s vest, all suggesting that small but promising bit of...