It might be the grooviest new holiday since Burning Man: Hippie Christmas is the annual festivity surrounding the end of the college school year, when students leave perfectly good clothing and household goods by the curb or the dumpster because...
The term “spitting game,” meaning “to flirt,” comes from African-American slang going back to at least the 1960’s, when game referred to someone’s hustle. It’s well covered in Randy Kearse’s Street...
A Fort Worth, Texas, hospital worker says she’s forever telling her patients to move over on the gurney just a smidge or a tidge, and wants to know if they’re real words. Smidge is a shortening of smidgeon; tidge is likely a mix of tad...
The Blind Tiger was a speakeasy during prohibition, perhaps so named because patrons would hand over money to peek at a fictitious blind animal, but also receive illegal booze as part of the bargain. The terms blind tiger and blind pig eventually...
Finna, a slang variant of “fixing to,” meaning “to be about to do something,” has been widely distributed through hip-hop lyrics. Its formation is similar to gonna, from “going to.” This is part of a complete...
The fabric called denim originated in the town of Nimes, France, hence the name. The fabric known as jean, originally from Genoa, Italy, was popular long before Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis and teamed up in 1873 to make durable work trousers using...