booby Jacuzzi
n.— «By gently warming her breast, her doctors unleashed the cell-killing compounds in the vicinity of the tumor without poisoning the rest of her body. All she had to do was lie face down on a padded table, her affected breast protruding through an opening into a tub of warm water. Then she blissed out to the music of Yanni while radio waves heated the breast to Jacuzzi temperature. “Most patients really enjoy the table,” says Dr. Kimberly Blackwell, the medical oncologist at Duke University who treated Link. Patients have even coined their own name for it—the “booby Jacuzzi.”» —“Fresh Weapons For an Old Battle” by Anne Underwood Washington Post May 5, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be...
High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass, they’re telling you to get a reality check — but the last thing you’d actually want to touch is dog water! Also, the history of the word hangover...