︎we-be
n.— «Washington civil servants are bracing for that personnel hurricane that sweeps through the federal bureaucracy every eight years or so, when a new administration places thousands of political appointees in all the top jobs—and some not-so-top jobs. These bureaucrats call themselves the “we-be’s”—as in, “We be there when you arrive, and we be there when you leave.”» —“The Energy Shadow Government” by Darrell Delamaide EnergyBiz Magazine Dec. 10, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Understanding the varieties of conversational styles can mean the difference between feeling you’re understood and being insulted. “High-involvement” speakers interrupt or talk along with someone else to signal their enthusiasm...
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...