brownout
n.— «The San Francisco Fire Department, with the OK of Mayor Gavin Newsom, has been taking certain engines and trucks out of service on a rotating basis since last summer. The “brownouts,” as they’re called, save money on staffing costs. If there aren’t enough people to staff the rigs on regular duty, brownouts are enacted to reduce the need to call firefighters in on costly overtime.» —“Firefighters hot about brownouts” by Rachel Gordon San Francisco Chronicle Mar. 11, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Oofless is an antiquated bit of British slang that describes someone temporarily short on cash. It’s from ooftisch, a Yiddish-derived term for “cash placed on the table,” from German auf Tisch. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...