box office n. jocularly, the cockpit of an airplane piloted by a woman. Editorial Note: The joke quoted in the second 2002 citation is widespread and has been recycled by a number of people who have claimed it for their own or published it in joke books. Etymological Note: “Box office” mirrors “cockpit,” since “box” is slang for “vagina” and “cock” is slang for “penis,” although the “cock” in cockpit is etymologically related to “rooster.” (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...