Informal English : Puncture Ladies, Egg Harbors, Mississippi Marbles, and Other Curious Words and Phrases of North America

A wide-reaching treasury of some 2500 English-language colloquialisms from the past and present is culled from dictionaries, etymological treatises, historical writings, and other sources, in a volume that features such entries as "bone-orchard" and "chawswizzled."

Gleaned from antiquated dictionaries, dialect glossaries, studies of folklore, nautical lexicons, historical writings, letters, novels, and miscellaneous sources, Informal English offers a captivating treasure trove of linguistic oddities that will not only entertain but also shed light on America''s colloquial past. Among the gems are: * Surface-coal: cow dung, widely used for fuel in Texas * Bone-orchard: in the Southwest slang for a cemetery * Chawswizzled: "confounded" in Nebraskan idiom. "I''ll be chawswizzled!" * Leather-ears: to Cape Cod inhabitants, a person of slow comprehension * Puncture lady: a southwestern expression for a woman who prefers to sit on the sidelines at a dance and gossip rather than dance, often puncturing someone''s reputation Whether the entries are unexpected twists on familiar-sounding expressions or based on curious old customs, this wide-ranging assortment of vernacular Americanisms will amaze and amuse even the most hard-boiled curmudgeon.