smog
v.— «Arthur Garcia had been driving the same small, 22-year-old truck to work and back for the last 12 years. But when it came time in May to get his pickup “smogged,” Californian slang for an emissions test, his local garage told him that the vehicle would not pass, not even with a tune-up.» —“There is gold in that smogmobile” CNN.com July 11, 2000. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A listener who grew up in Newfoundland remembers her grandfather declaring the fog was thick as burgoo. Turns out burgoo was sailors’ slang for a gray, gelatinous oatmeal—exactly the right image for an impenetrable Newfoundland fog. The word appears...
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their own, from a point of view that is theirs and no one else’s. Plus, why do we say...