basement Betty
n.— «Do not just asume because you have had a bad experience with one maybe two “Basement Betties” that the whole bunch is rotten. I understand that you probably have friends that own florists and people like myself, who work out of our homes are considered pariahs in the floral community.» —“Re: Flower Problem” Usenet: alt.wedding Aug. 14, 1998. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Yasha, who grew up speaking Russian, recalls phrase used to comfort a child after a small mishap like a skinned knee. The phrase translates as “It will heal in time for the wedding,” and Yasha had assumed it was solely Slavic. So he was surprised to...
What’s a word for the act of being so focused on documenting an important event, such as a wedding or an eclipse, that your effort to capture it distracts from experiencing the event itself? The A Way with Words Facebook group has some...