In American English, khaki has come to connote “business casual,” but it comes from the Farsi word for “earthy.” In the 1840s, the British picked it up in the north of India as a descriptor for their sturdy soldiers’ pants that matched the color of...
A listener in Buford, Georgia, says his mother’s maiden name was Barnett, and reports that he was told that the addition of an “e” to a last name was once an indication that the person was descended from slave families. This is part of a complete...
brown-bag v. to illegally sell proprietary seed varieties. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
brown-bagging v.— «“Brown-bag” sales—a reference to farmers’ rudimentary packaging—are prompting big seed companies to drop expensive research programs and thus give foreign competitors an advantage, the industry claims. Pioneer Hi-Bred...
brown-bag v.— «On the farm, brown-bagging is the practice of selling harvested, government-protected varieties of seed to other farmers for future planting at discount prices. On Wednesday, in an 8-1 victory for the nation’s seed industry, the...
brown-bagged v.— «They apparently were brown-bagging seed, selling it for just under the brand price and using it for propagation purposes.”…Hanshaw says others accused were selling brown-bagged wheat seed for $1 to $2 under the certified seed...
