How did quid come to be British slang for that unit of currency called a pound? It’s tempting to assume this quid is from Latin quid pro quo, meaning “something for something.” However, a more likely explanation may be that it’s from an entirely...
Our earlier conversation about the word ruminate prompts a Fort Worth, Texas, listener to send a poem that his aunt, an elementary-school teacher, made him memorize as a child: This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Gum-Chewing...
A caller from Deer River, Minnesota, has lots of experience raising ruminants and wonders if the word ruminate, as in “to ponder or muse about something” stems from the image of such an animal chewing regurgitated cud. Indeed it does. In classical...
cud n.— «Major Die Breaks are often referred to as “cuds,” a slang holdover term from the 1960s that stuck. A cud occurs when a section of the die face and corresponding shank breaks away and leaves a void in the die in its place. The die will then...