Laura in San Diego, California, wonders about the tradition of performers saying Toi toi toi to each other backstage to wish each other a good performance. It’s possible that it derives from the ancient idea that spitting three times can ward...
While fishing from a jetty, Maria in San Antonio, Texas, wondered about this name for a structure extending from the shore out into the water. The word jetty comes to us via the French word jeter, meaning “to throw” (the dance step...
Endling means the last surviving individual of a species, a word coined in the 1990s by Georgia physician Robert Webster after a patient described herself as the last member of her family line. Webster and a colleague proposed it in a 1996 letter to...
Did you ever take lessons to play the stomach Steinway? You know, the accordion? That’s another bit of musicians’ slang sent in by a listener, along with the term bunhead, which means “a ballet dancer.” This is part of a...
travesty dancer n.— «Forget about those famous old Russian ballerinas of yesteryear: you haven’t really seen a dying swan until you’ve seen the Trocks, as this company of male travesty dancers is affectionately known.» —“Dance...