bedder
n.— «More on Bedder 6, the unlikely name given to Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman’s production company. Monkey’s mind may be even more puerile than Clarkson’s. Last week we speculated it might be a lame play on words—Bedder 6, better sex, that sort of thing—but now it appears it might be a reference to their alma mater, Repton School in Derbyshire, where the slang for dormitory was “bedder.” See? “Both were borders at the Priory boarding house,” reports former staffer James McLaren.» —“Media Monkey’s Diary” Guardian (United Kingdom) Aug. 18, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...