shorty
n.— «They call it “the lot” or “the pen,” although it is also sarcastically referred to as “the cabby country club” or less charitably as “taxi driver purgatory.” From the air, it is a shimmering yellow blob on an otherwise colorless landscape of tarmac and terminals. Hidden amid the cargo depots at Kennedy International Airport, the four-acre lot contains hundreds of taxis waiting for lucrative fares to Manhattan, the dreaded “shorty” trips to Brooklyn and Queens or the dream rides to New Jersey and Connecticut.…The centralized system also helps to compensate drivers who end up with low-fare trips to nearby neighborhoods, giving them the right to enter a special “shorty” section where they do not have to wait as long for another try at the $45 flat fare to Manhattan.» —“A Talk, a Snack, a Chance at $45 or More” by Andrew Jacobs New York Times Apr. 28, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below your mouth and the other at your ear, as if you’re holding an old-fashioned candlestick...
A listener in Unadilla, New York, says her husband, whose family is French-Canadian, uses the phrase That burns my onions when something irritates him. There are several kitchen-related metaphors used to express anger, including that steams my...