Wednesday's Word
formerly known as the "What're Words For..."

Word: What is, or, What Are (Interrogatory)
Definition: a curious circumlocution indicating that the questioner wishes to pursue a subject

Usage: “What is, Eben going to buy a new manure spreader?”
“Daow. He won’t buy it. Says he just wants to try her out. He will, till he cleans out his barn.”

Or:

“What are they, going to plow the Henderson Road now them new folks have built in there?”


(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)