dodgepot n. originally, a race horse that is heavily favored but has mixed success; (hence) a quirky or eccentric person. Etymological Note: The information given in Gerald Hammond’s The Language of Horse Racing is probably correct, that dodgepot is a blend of dodgy and hotpot. Hammond says a hotpot first meant a heavily backed race horse, then later came to also mean a “star performer.” Hammond traces the term dodgepot back to as early as 1990. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital is a sensuous, exhilarating meditation about the strangeness of life on a space station, with its mix of tedious tasks and jaw-dropping views. And: a musician who rode the rails in his youth shares the slang he...