When a bird straightens and cleans its feathers with its own beak, it’s preening. If one bird is doing the same thing for another, that action is called allopreening. This is part of a complete episode.
When a bird straightens and cleans its feathers with its own beak, it’s preening. If one bird is doing the same thing for another, that action is called allopreening. This is part of a complete episode.
Susie Dent’s murder mystery Guilty by Definition (Bookshop|Amazon) follows a lexicographer in Oxford who becomes a sleuth of a different kind, seeking the culprit in a long-unsolved killing. A lexicographer herself, Dent includes lots of obscure and...
Mona from Riverview, Florida, grew up understanding that the word schmooze, which comes from Yiddish, meant simply “to mingle and chat” at parties, but when she fondly referred to her friend as a schmoozer, the friend was insulted, assuming that a...