14-er
n.— «As a man in his 70s, Dr. Reed started climbing the “14-ers,” as they are called: the dozens of mountains in Colorado that rise to 14,000 feet or higher. Friends said that on those steep mountains, where the air grows thin, he outclimbed friends two to three decades younger.» —“Dr. Cramer Reed dies at 91″ by Roy Wenzl Wichita Eagle (Kansas) Apr. 12, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Dylan from Charlottesville, Virginia, was rock climbing at his brother’s bachelor party when he heard other climbers called gumbies. Dylan figured that a gumby must be the kind of beginner or overconfident participant whose skills don’t...
What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...