vernac
adj.— «Through their circulation among a fluent English-speaking, often convent-educated community, these joking questions highlight the processes of insider/outsider demarcation common to stereotyping in general. They characterize, for instance, the Tamilian or the Gujarati as having pronounced regional accents when speaking Enlish (creating thus the figure of “the vernac.”)» —“Character Stereotypes” by Leela Prasad South Asian Folklore Mar. 1, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Chances are you recognize the expressions Judgment Day and root of all evil as phrases from the Bible. There are many others, such as the powers that be and bottomless pit, which both first appeared in scripture. • There’s a term for when the...
Are there words and phrases that you misunderstood for an embarrassingly long time? Maybe you thought that money laundering literally meant washing drug-laced dollar bills, or that AM radio stations only broadcast in the morning? • A moving new...