Responding to someone during a dispute with What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? is a way to deflect the comment or derail the discussion entirely. While the phrase the price of tea in China is the most common version...
The term skycap for workers who help with luggage at an airport was coined by analogy with redcap, a term for porters on trains who wore red caps. Skycap was the winning entry in a contest. Another contest, held in 1923, gave us the word scofflaw, a...
Why is an insulated sleeve for a beverage called a koozie, often spelled koozy, coozy, coozie, and other ways? Any relation to a tea cozy used to keep a teapot warm? In Australia, a coozie is often called a stubby holder, a stubby or stubbie being...
schmiddie n.— «Half the pubs in Brisbane these days don’t seem to sell them, instead forcing the hapless toper into a choice between a whopping great pint or something resembling a small glass thimble with a handle on it. Either that or...
coquito n.— «There was, instead, an opening-day scoop of a Caribbean gelato known as Delicioso Coco Helado, or in English, Delicious Coconut Ice Cream. With little advertising, the carts selling the ice cream, commonly called “coquito,”...