Rube Goldberg
n.— «Rube Goldberg. Automatic machine; probably derived from this well known cartoonist’s humorous drawings of intricate but useless machinery.» —“Machinists” by Mendelowitz Lexicon of Trade Jargon , 1938-39. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...