El Viejo
n.— «The term La Niña (the Little Girl) is used by many scientists and meteorologists to differentiate it from El Niño. It is sometimes called El Viejo (Old Man), Anti-El Niño, or simply “cold event” or “cold episode.”» —“South Cotabato revives Task Force La Niña in wake of floods” by Allen V. Estabillo in General Santos City Minda News (Davao City, Philippines) Oct. 1, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Michelle in Williamsburg, Virginia, wonders about the origin of alley-oop!, which she says when hoisting her toddler. It’s from French allez, the imperative of aller meaning “to go” and houp or hop, an onomatopoeic utterance made...
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...