san man
n.— «This point was brought home some months ago by Kevin Fitzgerald, a young “san man,” as he drank coffee on break and we stared out at a dark and empty Union Square Park. He said that his main duty after 9/11 was to man a sanitation truck, filled with sand, that blockaded the Brooklyn Bridge.» —“The Collectors” by Field Maloney New York Times Mar. 13, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a word-pecker is “a person who trifles or plays with, or quibbles over, words.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word-Peckers” I always love it when I’m looking through...
How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”? Dictionary editor Kory Stamper explains it all in her new book. Plus, the story behind the expression more...