I'm really embarrassed of this one, but...
I live in the south, so enunciation is not one of the strong points of my people. I'd heard people (mainly men) reference elderly women as old (what I always thought would be phonetically spelled) badalacks. It turns out, I was wrong.
Some girl I work with who's from Southern NJ, referenced her mother-in-law as an old "battle-axe." Her enunciation was perfect. And I felt like a jackass for not knowing for YEARS that the term was "battle-axe."
Also, I grew up mainly on a hillside, and the people across from me were "across the holler." I asked what that meant, and my mom told me, "You have to holler from one side to another to hear them."
It wasn't until college that I realized the actual word was, "hollow," and felt like a jackass, again.
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It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they're better left unsung
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