complication
n.— «Yes, knobs. Otherwise known as complications, they control everything from a stopwatch accurate to a zillionth of a second, to displaying the phases of the moon, your altitude, and the efficacy of your golf swing. It is these complications, in addition to the expert labor and precious metals and gems used in the making of high-end watches, that add so much to the price.» —“Wristwatches for the Rich” by Nick Passmore BusinessWeek Nov. 26, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...
A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, though, suffrage isn’t about “suffering.” It’s from a Latin word that involves voting. Plus: military cadences often include...