Skip to main content

sotto voce 

From the Italian, meaning 'low voice'. To speak quietly out of the corner of your mouth so that the subject of your speech can't hear your insult or know that you are speaking.
"Oh, what a beautiful creature your daughter is", said Mrs. Mulroy saccarinely to Mrs. Katz at the Bat-mitzvah.
"Too bad the zoo can't identify what kind of creature she is", Mrs. Jackson said sotto voce to Mrs. Mulroy as they plastered wide smiles on their faces.
sotto voce by MAC-Gyver May 27, 2003
sotto voce mug front
Get the sotto voce mug.
See more merch

sotto-sotto voce 

Like sotto voce (commenting softly so that the third-person subject of the comment cannot hear the comment),
but spoken loudly with the intention that the third-person subject will hear that he is being spoken about.

A reversal of sotto voce: sotto-sotto intended to mean a loud voice.
Person 1 speaking to person 2 with person 3 in ear-shot (the subject of the remark):
In sotto-sotto voce: "Someone doesn't know their place!"
sotto-sotto voce by TownWombat April 22, 2024

sotto-sotto voce 

An aside, like sotto voce, but spoken loudly enough that the person who is the subject can hear it.

Note: There is no synonym that I'm aware of.
When he said "someone doesn't know their place!", he didn't say it sotto voce, but sotto-sotto voce, loud enough for all to hear.

faux sotto voce 

An aside, like sotto voce, but spoken loudly enough that the person who is the subject can hear it, unlike sotto voce.
He spoke to them about me, but in a faux sotto voce for me to overhear: "Somebody doesn't know their place."

bang a you-ee 

of Massachusetts orig. "to make a u-turn"
hey, we missed the bar, bang a you-ee
Word of the Day on July 19, 2026
The word 'flag' as pronounced by people with thick Belfast accents. The term is a perfect encapsulation of the disproportionate and overblown reaction to the removal of the Union Jack (as in 'de fleg') from above City Hall in Belfast. Where previously it had flown for 365 days per year, it is now flown on 17 designated days of the year - in line with many other British cities.

The event caused a portion of the Protestant community ('fleggers') to make international pricks of themselves as they proceeded to wreck the fucking place, claiming it was another erosion of a 'British' identity they perceive to have been under attack since the horrifying spectre of equality reared its head in Northern Ireland.

The word 'fleg' - and indeed 'fleggers' - fittingly describes a section of humanity unconcerned with knowledge, reality or the vagaries of the English language. Like America's tea-baggers they are ruled by instinct, fear and paranoia with a side dish of rampant bigotry and startling ignorance of the world around them.
"Wat de fuck like! The taigs got de fleg took down! Let's wreck de fuckin place! No surrender!"

"De fleg has been took down! Before ye know it there'll be a united Ireland! Attack Short Strand! God Save The Queen!"
Fleg by OnionFleg August 9, 2013
Word of the Day on July 18, 2026
To take something small, that doesn't quite qualify as a theft. Probably from the Danish "skæv" or the Dutch "scheef", both of which are pronounced similarly, meaning "askew, or not quite right'. To change an item's ownership without permission, but only something small and of little worth.
"I skeefed an apple off the neighbor's tree." "I skeefed some chips outta your bag when you looked away." "Don't skeef my chair when I go to the bathroom."
Skeef by kachinaflonk July 16, 2026
Word of the Day on July 17, 2026