half-pat
adj.— «When described as a diasporic writer, Shamsie had something interesting to say. She coined her own phrase to describe where she writes from—“half-pat.” Not ex-pat or nomad, but just somebody who has been exposed to different spaces and is able to access both (or however many) to be able to create something.» —“Loving the word” by Mina Malik-Hussain Daily Times (Lahore, Pakistan) Feb. 19, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Diane, a bridge player from Wilmington, North Carolina, asks about sitting with the bathtub, a phrase her friend uses for a lopsided game where one pair keeps getting the good cards. The phrase appears in newspaper columns about bridge starting in...
What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...