![]() ![]() That’s one of many amusing terms from the Longhorn State such as Texas canary bird (a mule), Texas nightingale (a donkey), Texas itch (mange), and Texas time (a space-time continuum, or maybe just a state of mind, where people are leisurely and/or late). In one of the hugest smaller states, a Texas tortoise is a gopher. as the lower 48, but it turns out we’re also known as the smaller states. I knew that Alaskans referred to the rest of the U.S. Rather, my ignorance is caused by my singleness, since this is a humorous (at least from a piggish male perspective) term for a wife. I know little of war departments, but not because I’m a civilian, a pacifist, or a resident of regions far from the southern and western states where this term is used. At least in Wyoming, people who need to see a man about a dog also say they’re going to see the President’s wife. White House is a cousin of similar outhouse-describing terms such as federal building, government house, and Roosevelt. White House seems so fitting given the base nature of our political system, which is ever at home in the sewer. Readers of previous columns know I love a good term for an outhouse, but this might be my all-time favorite. No matter where you reside, these terms will allow you to join the tradition of down-home, fresh-baked, half-baked, all-American malarkey. In some areas of the country, folks will know just what you mean in others, they will be paralyzed with confusion. It is a whoopensocker (“Something extraordinary of its kind”).Īmong the many terms and turns of phrase are some of the freshest euphemisms that have ever caught my ear or struck my eyes. To call it a wealth of lexical riches would be the understatement of the eon. ![]() This historical dictionary of words and phrases that do not ring out from sea to shining sea is one of the most ambitious works of lexicography ever. One of the happiest occasions in dictionary and word-nerd history occurred recently when the Dictionary of American Regional English - a project five decades in the making - published its final volume. ![]()
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