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

by Jeffrey Kacirk

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 cow dung, widely used for fuel in Texas in the Southwest slang for a cemetery "confounded" in Nebraskan idiom. "I'll be chawswizzled!" to Cape Cod inhabitants, a person of slow comprehension Puncture 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Unfinished

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[karenbee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm SO not going to finish this one. I just hate, hate, hate the way Informal English is put together. I wasn't expecting what is, basically, a compilation of a few different lists of regional phrases; I was expecting a more substantial book, more of a conversation.

I might have liked it better if Kacirk had done something interesting rather than a simple alphabetical listing, like . . . I don't know, grouped things by region? Something along those lines.

To add to my irritation, there were a few entries in the first handful of pages that I attempted to straight-read that had what may or may not have been typos. I couldn't tell. For example: the headline for an entry is spelled one way, then in its example sentence it's spelled differently.

Once I decided to skip around in the book, I enjoyed it more, but overall, the format ruins this one for me. Two stars instead of one, since there are some awesome finds in there if you can get past the dictionary approach.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

flippercanorious.

I was a blackberry baby.