Beware of false friends, those words that don’t translate the way you’d expect. For example, the word “gift” in German means “poison,” and the Spanish word “tuna” means “the fruit of the prickly...
sorry gift n.— «Because guilt over spending is playing a big role in the sales downturn, he teaches salespeople to suggest a “sorry gift”—of another timepiece—for a wife who might be disappointed that her husband just dropped a sizable...
If you have a word lover on your gift list, Martha and Grant have book recommendations for you. For adults, Martha recommends linguist Geoffrey Nunberg’s collection of essays, The Years of Talking Dangerously. For kids, Grant’s been...
chicken riggies n.pl.— «I asked her about a shirt I’d seen in the gift shop that listed something called “chicken riggies” as one of Utica’s claims to fame. She explained that it was a pasta dish—chicken and rigatoni.» —“Beer, There...
regrat v.— «Grantor-retained annuity trusts, or GRATs, let a person avoid a gift tax when giving money earned on hedge funds, private equity, real estate, stocks and other assets. […] Market shocks that started last year threaten...
kangarooing n.— «But Colton never came home to the picture-perfect nursery his parents had set up for him. Instead, Donny and Amy Chilla and their parents spent hours cradling Colton, in a practice known as “kangarooing,” as...