Blunkett
n.— «My best friend has been with her boyfriend for over two years and when she lightly dropped a hint of something more permanent in the New Year, he freaked. She is now back on the singles market. After all that investment—emotional, physical, even material. So I’m coining a new phrase for the pre-Christmas break up—it’s called a Blunkett. Everyone I know is having a Blunkett. The tears, the regret …Now, the worst thing about a Blunkett is not only that you hit the Christmas parties flying solo. You also need to start planning early to avoid a truly miserable New Year’s Eve.» —“Welcome to the restive season” by Xanadu Times (U.K.) Dec. 20, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The proverb when in Rome, do as the Romans do suggests one should respect local customs and traditions, but also more generally that sometimes it’s better to go along with a group’s consensus than resist and make a fuss. But why in Rome and not in...
Diane, a bridge player from Wilmington, North Carolina, asks about sitting with the bathtub, a phrase her friend uses for a lopsided game where one pair keeps getting the good cards. The phrase appears in newspaper columns about bridge starting in...