MOOP
n.— «We packed up and searched for MOOP on our campsite. MOOP is now part of my vocabulary. It stands for Matter Out Of Place. Part of the permitting process with the Bureau of Land Management includes leave-no-trace standards. Burning Man is the largest Leave-No-Trace event in the world, and so it should come as no surprise that new vocabulary has sprung up. To me, MOOP is conceptual and applies outside the Burning man environment. A gum wrapper dropped unintentionally on the ground is MOOP. But so is a big lush green lawn in the middle of the desert.» —“Day 8: Burning Man Festival, Black Rock City, Nevada” by Diane Desenberg in Burning Man South America Journey Sept. 6, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...
The cardboard cylinder left after the last sheet of toilet, tissue, or wrapping paper comes off the roll has inspired families to make up a lot of names for the tube or the sounds you can make with it. These include oh-ah, oh-ah, drit-drit, dah-dah...