shmen
n.— «Let us assume that “wench” is a current sexist way of making a masculine or neuter noun apply to women. We can hypothesize that “shwench” is a feminine form of “shmen.” From this breakthrough, we can then ask: What word used frequently by sophomores has “shmen” as its last syllable?» —“T’sup on campus” by William Safire New York Times Mag. Sept. 22, 1985. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...