Linda from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, gives directions to her remote home by telling people to turn left after the whoopsy-daisy, her term for a sudden dip in the road. There are quite a few colloquial expressions for such abrupt depression or bump in the pavement, including thank-you-ma’am, yes-ma’am, and how-do-you-do, all suggesting the nodding motion of a passenger’s head when going over it. Other terms are dippity-do, dipsy-do, belly-tickler, duck-and-dip, and whoop-de-doo. In the Ozarks, these spots are sometimes called kiss-me-quicks and love holes because of the opportunity they afford for a quick smooch. This is part of a complete episode.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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