We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way translates as...
Jennifer, an elementary-school teacher in Tallahassee, Florida, loves saying the term chockablock, meaning “closely packed together,” and wonders about its etymology. Chock can refer to a kind of wedge used to hold something in place, and...
Overhaul comes from nautical use, meaning to add slack to tackle so the blocks in a block-and-tackle system move apart. The verb builds on haul, the sailor’s word for pulling on lines or sheets, and later broadened to mean redoing, remaking...