summer thaw
n.— «Many schools see a “summer thaw,” when students who have decided in May to go to a certain school change their minds before September, he said. This can create a drop in the number of freshmen actually registering.» —“UNH freshman class smallest in three years” in Concord, N.H. AP Sept. 11, 1998. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...