Word of the Day

Receipts, in the phrase show me the receipts, as evidenced in jarrett hill and Tre'vell Anderson's new book, Historically Black Phrases, out now from Ten Speed Press from Penguin Random House: PRONUNCIATION Phonetic. TRANSLATION "Where is the proof?" USAGE A defiant dare meant to encourage the spoken-to to prove their allegation. If the speaker is the person implicated in said allegation, they likely believe there is no verifiable proof and therefore are willing to stick their neck out to boldly demand proof. EXAMPLE When Tia and Tamera said they'd gone to finish their homework with Roger after school, Lisa wasn't buying it. "Show me some receipts," she said, waiting for this allegedly completed homework to come out of their backpacks.

• Receipts originated in Black English and spread to the mainstream most likely in 2002, when singer Whitney Houston demanded proof of an accusation in an interview by saying, "I want to see the receipts."
• The phrase morphed into show me the receipts in the late 2000s, and was used more generally in the context of celebrity scandals and gossip.
• The singular noun receipt was first recorded in 1350–1400 from Middle English receite, which came either from Old French recete or directly from Medieval Latin recepta “money received, receipt, recipe,” from Latin recipere “to receive.”

• Selcouth is an archaic word that appeared in English before 900.
• Selcouth comes from the Old English word seldcūth, which means "seldom couth."
• The couth part derives from an older meaning of couth, "known or acquainted with."
• Literally, selcouth means "seldom known."

• It was very selcouth and unsettling to see the empty streets that night.
• Her voice had a selcouth lilt to it that indicated she might not feel comfortable.

• The buff part of debuff originally comes from buffalo, whose leather was used to polish metal in the 1800s.
• Buff became a verb by 1849, meaning “to polish or shine.”
• A century and a half later, buff was used to describe someone who was physically fit.
• Buff, “strong and muscular,” is what gamers had in mind in the mid-1990s when they began to buff up their characters in role-playing games.
• The opposite of buffing a player is debuffing them, which was first recorded in 2000–05.

• The mage cast a powerful spell to debuff the enemy, reducing their strength and making them easier to defeat.
• The potion she drank debuffed her opponent's defense, giving her an advantage in the battle.

Tea, as dished about in jarrett hill and Tre'vell Anderson's new book, Historically Black Phrases, out now from Ten Speed Press from Penguin Random House: PRONUNCIATION Phonetic. TRANSLATION "Information." USAGE A foundational piece of Black queer language that originated in Black drag culture. Describes potentially unknown or little-known information; it can be obvious or take some discerning. EXAMPLE Ryanne arrived to the after-party late. "What's tea, sis?" she said to her bestie Mika, sensing she's just missed something. "Apparently Simone's boyfriend and side piece are both on their way," Mika whispered.

• Tea may have come from the celebrated drag performer The Lady Chablis, who is quoted in the 1994 bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: “Yeah, my T. My thing, my business, what’s goin’ on in my life.” T, here, is short for truth.
• The slang tea may riff on The Lady Chablis’s T as well as on tea parties, at which well-to-do Southern women are popularly imagined to gossip.
• Tea spread thanks in part to RuPaul’s Drag Race starting in 2009. The reality show frequently uses (spilling the) tea for “gossip.”

• While eggcorn is attested as early as the early 19th century, its present sense dates from 2003.
• Eggcorn is a coinage by linguistics professor Geoffrey K. Pullum based on the word acorn, which could be mistaken to be a compound of egg and corn because of acorns’ size and shape.
• Eggcorns tend to reflect common mistakes at the individual level—no matter how widespread these mistakes may be—that do not change the spelling of the mistaken word or phrase.
• Eggcorns are based on logical misunderstandings, so not every misspelling qualifies as an eggcorn.

• After watching the movie, she couldn't help but laugh at the eggcorns he made when trying to quote famous lines.
• As a linguistics enthusiast, he found joy in discovering eggcorns that had permeated everyday language, such as "old wise tale" instead of "old wives' tale."