solid
n.— «Yes, he agrees, they’re despised by the rest of the inmates, whom he refers to as “solids,” bank robbers and the like.…“A tattoo is an ID,” he explains. “It shows you’ve done time. It says, ‘I’m solid.’”» —“Just chatting with an ex-con” by Peter Duffy Chronicle Herald (Halifax, Nova Scotia) Feb. 22, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
This week it’s butterflies, belly flowers, plot bunnies, foxes, and cuckoos. Also, writing advice from Mark Twain and a wonderful bit of prose from Sara Pennypacker’s book Pax. And are there word origins? Well, does a duck swim? We’ll...
Rodney in Suffolk, Virginia, is interested in the word tattoo. His grandmother didn’t use it to mean skin art. She used it to rave about seeing a great concert or band: “It was just such a wonderful tattoo!” It might have something to do with a...