Dude, how’d we ever start using the word dude? The Big Grantbowski traces the word’s origin—it’s over 125 years old. Here’s a poem about dandy dudes from 1883, the year the word zoomed into common use. Ben Zimmer at Visual...
psychoceramics n.— «For a time in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Kreiss sold a line of collectible ceramic figurines featuring odd beatniks and other characters that aficionados on eBay now refer to as psychoceramics. One green fuzzy-haired...
pumpkin lily n. an effete or unskilled person; a novice. Also punkin lily. Editorial Note: Nearly all discovered uses this term, including the 1922 and 1958 citations below, come from descriptions of Teddy Roosevelt, then aged 25, at the time of his...
SODDI defense
n.— «The classic SODDI defense (Some Other Dude Did It) is always persuasive with a jury when you can put a face to a deed.» —by Steven Paul Martini Prime Witness Feb., 1994. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
SODDI defence n.— «“So you’re using the old Soddi defence, are you?” the Crown Attorney asked the accused on cross-examination. “I’m not familiar with that term,” said the prisoner at the bar. “Is that...
SODDI defense n.— «If you’re a defense attorney, you’re usually going to use the SODDI or TODDI defense—”Some Other Dude Did It” or “That Other Dude Did It.”» —“I watch my son die every time I see the twin...