Paul in Tucson, Arizona, asks about ragamuffin, a word his mother used for someone with ripped, dirty, or disheveled clothes. The word’s history isn’t entirely clear, but hundreds of years ago ragman and ragamuffin referred to the Devil, possibly...
Sarah Jane in Tucson, Arizona, recalls hearing the phrase out where God lost his galoshes for any far-flung, hard-to-reach place. Similar phrases include where God left his overshoes, where Jesus lost his sandals, where Jesus lost his cap, where...
John in Tucson, Arizona, remembers his grandfather used the possessives hisn, hern, yourn, and ourn, as in Those cattle are hisn or That house is hern. These archaic forms originated hundreds of years ago, formed by analogy with mine and thine...
Vlad in Tucson, Arizona wonders: How did white dog come to be a slang term for whiskey that’s not yet been sufficiently aged? It probably has to do with the natural coloration process, where the whiskey starts out clear (or “white”) and...
Gay in Tucson, Arizona, remembers her grandmother inviting guests in with take off your cape and fascinator and have a seat. Originally, a fascinator was a kind of scarf that held one’s hair in place and added an air of mystery, and thus...
We’ve previously discussed when pigs fly and other idioms expressing profound skepticism that something will occur. That prompted an email from Guillermo in Tucson, Arizona, who shared a Spanish phrase that conveys a similar idea: cuando la...
