chayote
n.— «“It pricks your hands but you grab it just the same,” is how they describe the chayote, also slang for bribe, which like the vegetable is abundant and whets one’s appetite for more.» —“Complicity between press, politicians helps foster Mexico’s one-party system” by Dianne Klein in Mexico City Houston Chronicle (Texas) Apr. 6, 1987. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...