One listener’s term, tee-ella-berta, is among hundreds of euphemisms for the derriere, including tee-hiney, tee-hineyboo, and tee-hinder. This is part of a complete episode.
You must log in to post a comment.
Had the Radish (episode #1527) 06/21/2019: Your first name is very personal, but what if you don't like it? For some people, changing their name works out great but for others... [more]
Abso-Bloomin-Lutely (episode #1526) 06/03/2019: The autocomplete function on your phone comes in handy, of course. But is it changing the way we write and how linguists study language? Also,... [more]
Niblings and Nieflings (episode #1525) 05/14/2019: How do actors bring Shakespeare's lines to life so that modern audiences immediately understand the text? One way is to emphasize the names of people... [more]
Kite in a Phone Booth (episode #1524) 04/29/2019: Stunt performers in movies have their own jargon for talking about their dangerous work. In New York City, the slang term brick means "cold," and... [more]
Kids Are Asking (episode #1523) 04/11/2019: Questions from young listeners and conversations about everything from shifting slang to a bizarre cooking technique. Kids ask about how to talk about finding information... [more]
Although I haven’t heard the phrase in question, I do have a possible suggestion regarding it’s source. If the grandmother or her family happened to come from an area near Alabama, its possible that the phrase was created through a simple substitution. As you may know, Alabama has a very interesting shape; it is generally rectangular, with a small tail at the southern end. At the bottom of this tail is the city of Elberta, AL. Starting with the more well known tee-hiney (et. al.) and replacing “hiney” with the city at the “bottom” of Alabama, you would end up with Tee-Elberta.