leaner
n.— «This is apparently part of a trend called viral marketing where companies are using real people to create fake grass roots buzz about something, because it turns out that studies suggest that people trust word of mouth information, even from people they don’t know, more than they do official sources and vastly more so than commercial advertising. So you may find “friendly” people you meet in a bar or a coffee shop (they are called “leaners” in the trade) talking about how great some product is, and you do not realize that they have been paid to go around doing this.» —“Spam comments dilemma” by Mano Singham Mano Singham’s Web Journal (Cleveland, Ohio) May 5, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way...
