planespotter
n.— «In addition to its FAA flight history, the Gulfstream has been tracked, and sometimes photographed, by the worldwide cadre of aviation aficionados who call themselves “planespotters”—not because of its possible connection with the U.S. government, but because planespotters pride themselves on keeping meticulous records of every aircraft that comes and goes at their chosen airports.» —“Jet’s travels cloaked in mystery” by John Crewdson, Tom Hundley Kansas City Star (Mo., Kan.) Mar. 20, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small table under a huge disk with more than 4,000 characters. A new book chronicles...
What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...