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...
Kirby in Deer River, Minnesota, an agriculture science and Future Farmers of America advisor, asks whether ruminate as in pondering comes from the cud-chewing done by ruminants. The image fits, but the figurative language is older than modern farm...
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...