The 5-Minute Linguist is a book of short, accessible essays by linguists who answer the questions they commonly hear from laypersons. For example, what’s the difference between a language and a dialect? What causes someone to have a foreign accent...
Plenty of lizards are scary looking, but that doesn’t make them scorpions. Even so, there are places like Western Virginia where the word scorpion is used to refer to a lizard, such as the five-lined skink, known for its distinctive blue tail. This...
frailing n.— «Among country and bluegrass musicians, Mr. Martin is regarded as a master of a difficult five-fingered playing style known as clawhammer or frailing, in which the instrument’s strings are pushed down by fingernails, rather than pulled...
athlete’s clock n.— «The Huskies had hoped Miller would still be granted four years of eligibility and that the five-year window each athlete is given—commonly called an athlete’s clock—would not have started in that summer of 2006.» —“Miller...
five-day weekend n.— «Coming in third place was the Paramount Pictures” family fantasy “The Spiderwick Chronicles” which had about $27 million in box office sales for what the movie industry calls a five-day weekend.» —“”Jumper” On Top Of Long...
gimme cap n.— «They tell you just before you crouch down for the first time in your little touristo huddle, with your gimme cap tucked in your pocket to keep it from flying away.» —“A helicopter, then a hike: Canada’s five-star wilderness” by Joe...
