pay-for
n.— «I think Chairman Greenspan mentioned today that he thought that it would be a slam dunk, no-brainer if you could find a pay-for for that, if you could make it so that it was revenue neutral. But I would argue that if you were to look at the net economic effect of the president’s plan absent such a pay-for, that it would still move you to make this reform because, again, if we don’t, then we’re going to fail to address a very pressing problem.» —“United States Monetary and Economic Policy” by Committee on Financial Services U.S. House of Representatives (Washington, D.C.) Apr. 30, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...
When there’s no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? Some people apply acronyms like YOYO — “you’re on your own” — or CORN, for “Clean Out your Refrigerator...