reef
v.— «I failed to understand it a bit later, when I hooked the bottom of the lake. To me, reefing and reefing and reefing on my Very Expensive graphite rod was fairly serious business. To her, it was a good belly laugh. Especially when I reefed so hard that the rod snapped.» —“Trip’s Humor Lost With Reporter’s Cherished Rod” by Ron Judd Seattle Times (Washington) Oct. 28, 1993. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below your mouth and the other at your ear, as if you’re holding an old-fashioned candlestick...
When a teenager went a week without talking as part of a school project, he noticed a surprising side effect: Instead of rehearsing a response to what other people were saying to him, he was focused on listening — and feeling smarter as a result...