slow clap
The thing I find fascinating about the phrase “slow clap” is that it's used to refer to two different things that are near-opposites in meaning. On the one hand, there's...
Archive for Specific Words
bondoon
I was reading Suzanne Brockmann's novel The Defiant Hero, and I came across this phrase: as they crossed the roof on their bondoons. I had no idea what bondoons were....
metumpsychosis (sic)
The other day, while doing some editing, I came across the word “psychopomp,” which obliquely reminded me of an incident from high school. Possibly earlier, but I think it was...
First Lady
I always thought that the phrase “First Lady” meant, by definition, the wife of the head of state; in particular, in the US, that it specifically meant the wife of...
burka, hijab, niqab, chadri, etc
Nice post from last month at HotCoffeeMississippi about various names for Islam forms of modest dress, including all the ones in the title of this entry. The BBC provides a...
ixnay
The other morning, as I was waking up, it occurred to me that I pretty much never hear the word "nix," but I do occasionally hear the Pig Latin word...
Three pirate lasses
It occurred to me recently to wonder about the derivation of the word "cutlass." Turns out it's from Middle French "coutel," meaning knife, which ultimately derives from Latin "culter," meaning...
island of misfit toys
I don't think I had ever heard of the Island of Misfit Toys before a couple of months ago, when it figured prominently in an anti-iPhone Verizon commercial. Which would...
Language changes
I'm reading a science fiction story published in 1958: "Eastward Ho!", by William Tenn. It posited a post-Collapse future in which white people live in low-tech poverty, while American Indians...
baramin
Recently was reading some discussion or other of creationism and came across the word "baramin." Creationists use the word to refer to the "created kinds" of animals referred to in...