river breath

river breath
 n.— «As the material decomposes and is eaten by organisms including insects and fish, and as river conditions change, carbon dioxide is release, or degassed, from surface waters. The resulting “river breath,”…turns out to be a significant downstream movement of carbon fixed by the forest.» —“Tropical streams, rivers ‘exhaling’ millions of tons more CO2 than thought” by Sandra Hines University of Washington Office of News and Information Apr. 10, 2002. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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Further reading

Wouldn’t That Just Cork You?

Deb in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, says that when her mother was disappointed or annoyed she’d say Wouldn’t that just cork you? The idea here is that in the same way that a cork that stops up a bottle, an unexpected or irritating event...

Snaggletooth (episode #1560)

Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...