al mudbakh
n.— «The real action was taking place in al mudbakh—the kitchen—a euphemism for the elite group of perhaps 12 party leaders and aides who huddled behind doors that were closed even to the members of the committee drafting the constitution.» —“Awaiting Rebirth of a Nation, Officials Pace” by Ashraf Khalil in Baghdad, Iraq Los Angeles Times Aug. 23, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...