headache beam
n.— «Each set of steel posts holds up another length of steel that spans Weber Street. Warning signs announce the height restriction. If the signs are ignored, trucks that are too tall will hit the steel and, the idea goes, stop before they collide with the formwork. And the name for the trusty crossbar? Engineers call it a “headache beam.”» —“His interest in world affairs never ‘flags’” by Christian Aagaard Kitchener-Waterloo Record (Ontario, Canada) Mar. 29, 1999. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell suggested answering with ahoy! but Thomas Edison was partial to hello! A fascinating new book about...