skylab

skylab
 n.— «With my eyes closed, I could still feel the dust on my face as the “skylab” roared through the scabrous path and past the verdant groves. “Skylab” was the name the villagers had given the puny motorbike that could seat six people—one person in front of the driver, two behind him and two on each side of the horizontal slab of wood tied tightly to its rear like an outrigger.» —“Philippines indigenous peoples threatened” by May Primera NATIVE-L Aug. 11, 1992. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

Punny Names From 1916

In 1916, a small-town newspaper in Pennsylvania printed a fanciful item about a local gathering with a guest list that included, among others, Miss Ella Vader, Mr. Ray Zor, and other punny names. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...

Fat Wood and Fat Lighter

A Navy veteran recalls hearing the Southern expression fat lighter from his wife’s family in Troy, Alabama. It denotes an old, resin-rich pine wood that becomes highly flammable as it ages. Fat lighter is prized as kindling and often called fat...

Recent posts