Tagvernacular

You’re the Berries

A listener has spent the last 30 years looking for the origin of the playful phrase “you’re the berries.” This affectionate expression first appears in literature in the 1908 book Sorrows of a Showgirl, then made its way into...

hung up

hung up  adj.— «I couldn’t see the bird, but I knew he was “hung up” in turkey hunting vernacular, strutting his stuff with the logical expectation that the hen (me) would come to him. That’s how it usually works in nature, but...

hundo

hundo  n.— «hundo—1. A quantity of 100. 2. 100 percent certain.Example 1: “How much money do you need? About a hundo.”Example 2: “Will you be at the game tonight? Hundo.”» —“Do you speak Juno?” by...

wasta

wasta  n.—Gloss: the Arabic word for influence, personal connections; “pull” or “juice.” Note: While not yet fully adopted as an English word, wasta is increasingly familiar to American soldiers serving in the Middle...

prank

prank  v.— «Most people born after about 1977 will know that “pranking” is when you call someone up on their mobile phone but hang up immediately afterwards. It’s entered the vernacular as a verb, for example, “I’ll prank...

poot-butt

poot-butt
 n.— «Poot-butt—A square; someone who doesn’t know what’s happening; often a child.» —“Examples of Black Vernacular” Hartford Courant (Connecticut) Dec. 30, 1973. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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