If someone plans to make hay of something, they’re going to take advantage of it. It comes from the idiom “make hay while the sun shines,” based on the fact that moving hay can be a real pain when it’s dark and damp. This is...
The Library of Congress is archiving the entire content of Twitter. Grant explains why that’s a gold mine for language researchers like David Bamman at Tufts University. You can see some of the results Bamman’s compiled at Lexicalist.com...
Howdy from Wordville! In this week’s archive edition of “A Way with Words,” we talk about Mushroom Basket, Moose Point, and other wacky names given to paint chips and nail polish colors. We also discussed the origin of...
flour gold n.— «You can find nuggets. California is renowned for having larger pieces. But primarily what you’re going to find at first is fine gold, or flour gold as they call it. That’s all worth money too. Don’t throw it out, or be...
gold-beater’s skin n.— «As a conservator, if we saw a tear like this, we’d look to parchment repair, a very similar organic material.…They use something called gold-beater’s skin—the lining of a cow’s stomach—very, very thin...
fil-lim n.—Gloss: a movie believed to be important or to have a significant message. Note: From an exaggerated pronunciation of “film.” This term seems to be similar to the Anglo-Indian phillum. «If the conceit holds...