desert cooler
n.— Note: Wikipedia has a decent entry for this type of air conditioner. Collins is the only mainstream dictionary publisher to include the term, but does so with an outdated definition: “a cooling device in which air is driven by an electric fan through wet grass.” «The South Korean white goods manufacturer is eying the lower-middle class consumer who largely continues to use water-based coolers, also known as desert coolers, to beat the summer heat.» —“It’s cool! LG plans ACs as cheap as coolers” in Seoul, South Korea LivePunjam June 4, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In Cockney rhyming slang, apples and pears is a synonym for “stairs,” and dustbin lids means kids. Plus, sniglets are clever coinages for things we don’t already have words for. Any guesses what incogsneeto means? It’s the...
Twice a day the River Thames recedes, revealing a muddy shoreline. Hobbyists known as mudlarks stroll the surface searching for objects that have found their way into the river over the centuries, everything from ancient Roman jewelry to modern...