first-night effect
n.— «The rooms will be recreated at the athletes’ village in Turin, helping the Americans avoid what scientists call the “first-night effect,” which is similar to jetlag and can hinder performance.» —“U.S. Olympic Dreams May Rest on Softer Pillows” by Scott Soshnick Bloomberg.com Dec. 15, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
After hearing our conversation about how dictionaries decide on a preferred pronunciation, and specifically about how to pronounce aioli, Vern from San Diego, California, wrote to say that a friend once made fun of him for pronouncing grimace with a...