The author of Forgotten English and The Word Museum “collects America’s colorful colloquialisms, past and present” (Publishers Weekly).

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.