tea money
n.— «While Vietnam operates in a very centralized, federalist system, with little variance in local laws, a much greater variance exists in the application and enforcement of national laws. “Tea money,” common parlance for bribes, is a regular cost of doing business and manifests itself in every facet of life, from dealing with traffic cops to dealing with higher-ranking government officials.» —“Day 3 in Saigon” by Tommy Perkins in Vietnam Hot Freaks and Other Roadside Attractions (Austin, Texas) Mar. 9, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Aubrey in Waco, Texas, says her mother used to warn the kids against contracting honkus of the bonkus, a fanciful name for a contagious disease. This colloquial term probably comes from the words bonk and konk, meaning “to hit” or...