beal
n.— «I think it’s the dreaded beal again. “Beal,” for those who may not be aware, is an illness characterized by having it. It’s named after the character Howard Beal in Network, and was discovered by one of my college English Lit professors. Thus: Susie: “I can’t go to class, I have beal.” Helpful questioner: “What’s beal?” Susie: “It’s the reason I can’t go to class.”» —“Beal Awareness Week” by Susie Practical Penumbra Feb. 9, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
Cat hair may be something you brush off, but cat hair is also a slang term that means “money.” In the same way, cat beer isn’t alcoholic — some people use cat beer as a joking term for “milk.” And imagine walking on a...