bougie n. in volleyball, a hit on the head by the ball. Etymological Note: See the 2001 citation. This entry is unrelated to senses of bougie well-covered elsewhere, such as ‘n., (a contemptuous name for) a Black person,’ ‘adj., bourgeois (middle class), especially as an accusation between Black Americans,’ the latter having various spellings including bourgie, boojie, and boojy. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Mark in Bismarck, North Dakota, spent years as a sailor, and wonders about the term sea painter, meaning “a rope attached to a lifeboat.” Why painter? The word may derive from Middle French pendeur meaning “a kind of rope that...
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital is a sensuous, exhilarating meditation about the strangeness of life on a space station, with its mix of tedious tasks and jaw-dropping views. And: a musician who rode the rails in his youth shares the slang he...