summer melt
n.— «Because of overcrowding problems in previous years, the college reduced the number of offers of admission from 3,486 in 2003 to 3,366 this year. However, this year the college’s admissions office experienced an unexpected low “summer melt” of just 26 students. The summer melt refers to the number of students who initially enroll at William and Mary after being admitted and later decide to attend a different college or university. In 2003, the summer melt was 57 students. Two years ago, it was 43 students.» —“W&M makes space for crowded Class of 2008″ by Brian Whitson William & Mary News (Williamsburg, Virginia) Aug. 17, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Michelle in Williamsburg, Virginia, wonders about the origin of alley-oop!, which she says when hoisting her toddler. It’s from French allez, the imperative of aller meaning “to go” and houp or hop, an onomatopoeic utterance made...
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...