To sip a mint julep on the veranda of an evening may be a distinctly Southern activity, but the phrases “of an evening” or “of a morning,” meaning “in the evening” or “in the morning,” go back at least to the 1600s and the Diary of Samuel Pepys...
The term mesmerize, meaning to attract strongly or hold spellbound, comes from Franz Mesmer, the German doctor who purported to heal people by righting their internal magnetic forces. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Mesmerize”...
I liked to died when that ol’ toad-strangler crashed through the veranda! The Southernism liked to, also known as the counterfactual liketa, derives from the sense of like meaning “nearly.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Liketa...
It’s the shank of the evening! But when is that, exactly? This phrase is typically suggests that the night is far from over, shank being an old word for something straight, or the tail end of something. But as the Dictionary of American Regional...