True American Words: Our Hosts Test Their Knowledge

The Takeaway

Ben Zimmer, Executive Producer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com  is putting John and Celeste to the test by asking them to identify the real definition of words with truly American origins.  Could you identify absquatulate, callithump and copacetic? If so, you might do well on producer Kristen Meinzer’s  quiz.
Here are the words with which Ben Zimmer tried to stump the hosts: absquatulate, callithump, copacetic, hornswoggle, lagniappe, rumbustious. Do you know what they mean?

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