That sputtering noise when someone sticks out their tongue, puts their lips together, and blows is called a raspberry. No one knows the origin of this slang term, although it may have to do with that pileup of consonants colliding in the middle of the word raspberry. It’s been suggested that it’s a shortening of rhyming slang term raspberry tart, which rhymes with “fart,” but experts in Cockney rhyming slang are skeptical. It might have started among theatergoers noisily expressing their disapproval that way. Another term for that is the bird, or the big bird, or just bird, possibly a reference to the sound a duck makes. This sound is part of what’s known as the Bronx cheer. This is part of a complete episode.
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...
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