liftback
n.— «What’s wrong with the word “hatchback”? Apparently there’s enough of a negative stigma associated with the designation to make most car manufacturers’ marketing departments dub their “5-door liftbacks” everything but. Suzuki has the Areo Fastback, Mazda the Mazda3 Sportback and Chevrolet the (ahem) “5 series’; the Optra5 and now the Aveo5. Why not keep it simple like the Toyota Echo Hatchback? After all, no matter how you word it a hatchback is still a hatchback.» —“2004 Chevrolet Aveo5 Road Test” by Alexandra Straub auto123.com (Can.) July 6, 2004. (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...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...