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While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be...
Listeners are sharing their favorite terms for coffee that’s weak, including warm wet, branch water, pond water, scared water, and in the immortal words of Ani DiFranco, just water dressed in brown. One listener has a friend in North Dakota...
In parts of Appalachia, really weak coffee is sometimes referred to as scared water. This is part of a complete episode.
fluffy n.— «If you’re not familiar with the term, a fluffy—known in Australia as a baby cino—is basically a tiny cup filled with froth and sprinkled with chocolate for the pint-sizers, allowing them to think of themselves as coffee...
coffee-housing n.—Gloss: in a competition or game, trying to distract or annoy another player. «Anything you do to distract is called “coffee-housing,” and it’s against the rules. But there’s a lot of gray area. It’s illegal to talk...
Bedouin n.— «If only we Bedouins—to use a term catching on in San Francisco to describe roaming workers armed with laptops and cellphones—could unionize. Suggested motto: Coffee-shop squatters of the world, unite!» —“Ode to Annoying...