Judy from Binghamton, New York, remembers her aunt in Redding, Pennsylvania, using the term ferhunsed to mean “confused.” Sometimes spelled fahunst or ferhoonsed, it means “teased” or “mixed up,” and derives from...
Patricia from Fort Worth, Texas, has been mystified by an expression her husband’s grandmother would use when trying to avoid answering a question about where something had gone. She’d say it’s gone where the woodbine twineth and...
John says that many of the older patients in his Northeast Tennessee orthopedics clinic will refer to habitual activity as occurring of the morning or of the evening. The vastly more common versions of these phrases in the South and South Midlands...
Our conversation about being criticized for using yes, ma’am and no, sir, prompted a letter from an Austin, Texas, listener who had a similar experience when she moved from Mississippi to Ohio. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Chandler from Chesapeake, Virginia, wonder about a term her in-laws use to mean in abundance, as in “We have strawberries up the gump stump.” The expression seems to have evolved from an earlier phrase possum up a gum tree or possum up a...
Michael in San Diego, California, plays a game with his three-year-daughter that involves spotting small round property markers in the sidewalk, which he calls bozo buttons. His mother played the same game as a youngster, but calls those metal discs...