calor licitantis
n.— «Confused, the team tried a larger sample—this time observing thousands of iPod auctions. In that case, 45 to 50% of eBay auctions exceeded the “buy it now” price, she says. Expanding the pool again, they found that the quirk affects expensive and cheap items, men’s cologne and women’s perfume, and books by liberal Sen. Barack Obama and by conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly. The Romans had a term for this auction-house “curse,” Malmendier says, “They called it calor licitantis—bidder’s heat.”» —“Economists puzzled by irrational eBay buyers” by Chris Gaylord USA Today July 17, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In Black English, the word trifling describes a person who lacks ambition or fails to keep promises. Former President Barack Obama used it that way in his memoir Dreams from My Father (Bookshop|Amazon). This is part of a complete episode.
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