bastard n. a (large) tool with a rough side or edge used for smoothing or shaping. Editorial Note: A curiosity of the LOTJ editing process is that the first citation listed for it came before the second: somewhere, the definition was expanded but there’s no information on the source that enabled them to do so. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
She sells seashells by the seashore. Who is the she in this tongue twister? Some claim it’s the young Mary Anning, who went on to become a famous 19th-century British paleontologist. Dubious perhaps, but the story of her rise from seaside...
Images of birds flutter inside lots of English words and phrases, from “nest egg” and “pecking order,” to proverbs from around the world—including a lovely Spanish saying about how birds sense light just before dawn. Plus...