American wake
n.— «Connolly then recounted the first time he picked up a fiddle; he was about 9 or 10 years old and was at a party for his Uncle Patty who was immigrating to the United States. Such going-away-parties in Ireland were referred to as “American wakes” because those who immigrated to the United States were “considered dead or gone forever,” as Connolly said.» —“Ten-time Fiddler champion offers advice” by Jamie Fleming in Boston College The Heights (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts) Mar. 19, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...