Entry · Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Plymouth Barracuda
/PLI-muth buh-RAK-yoo-duh/ n.- 1. A two-door American pony car produced by Chrysler's Plymouth division from 1964 to 1974, distinguished in its first generation by a fastback roofline that sweeps uninterrupted from the A-pillar to the tail, producing a silhouette whose rear three-quarters carries significantly more visual weight than the nose has any business matching.
- 2. slang. A car whose haunches arrived at the body shop with a pre-existing agenda. The fastback just frames the argument; the hips close it.
"He spotted a thiccc 1964 Plymouth Barracuda in candy-apple red sitting in a Glendale lot, fastback catching the afternoon light like it had been waiting for someone to notice. The rear glass alone is the size of a studio apartment window."
From Plymouth (the Chrysler division named in 1928 for Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims' reputation for durability) and barracuda (from Spanish, probably from a Carib word). Chrysler named the car after the fish because it sounded fast. The barracuda is one of the slimmest fish in the sea. The car did not take the hint.
Filed by
The rear glass alone is bigger than my apartment window and I do not live in a small apartment.
Ruling PROVISIONAL
Filer wrote 'visual weight.' The catalogue requires documented weight or documented dimension. Confirm the rear glass measurement. Pending that, admitted.
In the margin
Chrysler named it after a fish famous for being thin. The car went a different direction. That is the whole etymology doing the filing for us.