ringman n. an auctioneer’s assistant. Editorial Note: OED has a sense of ringman ‘a sporting man; a bookmaker’ to which this could be related via an original shared meaning of ‘a person who occupies or attends an enclosed area.’ (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital is a sensuous, exhilarating meditation about the strangeness of life on a space station, with its mix of tedious tasks and jaw-dropping views. And: a musician who rode the rails in his youth shares the slang he...
The word filibuster has a long and colorful history, going back to the days when pirates roamed the high seas. Today it refers to hijacking a piece of legislation. Plus, the language of yoga teachers: When doing a guided meditation, you may hear...