thumper
n.— «That banger’s thumper is a double-deuce, and he packs a gauge. Translation: That gang member’s pistol is a .22, and he carries a shotgun.» —“Gang Slang Police Compile New Glossary Of Street Talk” by Peter Hernon St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Mo.) June 2, 1992. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...