buffet flat
n.— «The casual, migratory and unskilled drinkers of the world, along with a scattering of habitual, non-migratory and skilful [sic] drinkers, have found a new haven. It is the buffet flat and the New York police are authority for the statement that there are now about 10,000 of these sheltered retreats in Manhattan and Brooklyn and they are diverting streams of “sucker” money from the night clubs and they constitute a new and baffling factor in the problem of liquor law enforcement.» —“Buffet Flat Solves Many of High Society’s Drinking Problems” by Harvey Anderson in New York City Port Arthur News (Texas) Jan. 9, 1927. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a word-pecker is “a person who trifles or plays with, or quibbles over, words.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word-Peckers” I always love it when I’m looking through the dictionary and...
Responding to our conversation about the word chat, meaning “the gravelly residue of mines,” Isabella from Marquette, Michigan, reports that where she lives, in the state’s Upper Peninsula, such runoff is commonly called slag. She uses some made-up...