comp
n.— «His first assignment as he shadowed the team: cleaning up a three-week “comp” near Milwaukee, Wisc. That’s shorthand for “an apartment in which someone died and laid, unfound, for three weeks.”» —“‘Aftermath’ is not for the fainthearted” by Terri Schlichenmeyer Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Massachusetts) June 10, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Old. Elderly. Senior. Why are we so uncomfortable when we talk about reaching a certain point in life? An 82-year-old seeks a more positive term to describe how she feels about her age. And: a linguist helps solve a famous kidnapping case, using the...
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...