yat
n.— «“You can’t take the city out of the yat, and you can’t take the yat out of the city,” said Frank Searle, a longtime Baton Rouge resident, using a slang term for New Orleanians derived from the local greeting, “Where y’at?”» —“In Baton Rouge, a Tinge of Evacuee Backlash” by Peter Applebome in Baton Rouge, La. New York Times Sept. 7, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be...
Nancy Gabriel from Ithaca, New York, recalls her father’s no-nonsense responses to minor injuries when she was a child: After making sure she was really all right, he’d say, It’s far enough from your heart; it won’t kill you. Other times he might...