goat
n.— «In railroad slang, “goat” refers to the smaller locomotives already used in rail yards to transfer railcars from one train to another.» —“Union Pacific invests in low-emission locomotives” in Omaha, Neb. Miami Herald (Florida) Oct. 1, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Chris in Omaha, Nebraska, asks about the use of the adjective husky to describe the boys’ clothing section in a department store. This coded term refers to clothes made for heavier fellows. Husky was originally a positive term connoting the...
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...