When does a word’s past make it too sensitive to use in the present? In contra dancing, there’s a particular move that dancers traditionally call a gypsy. But there’s a growing recognition that many people find the term gypsy...
To throw your hat into the room is to ascertain whether someone’s angry with you, perhaps stemming from the idea of tossing your hat in ahead of to see if someone shoots at it. Ronald Reagan used the expression this way when apologizing to...
fourth point of contact n.— «I am sorry I was in the 1/27th Infantry freezing my “fourth point of contact” on the Big Island when the veterans were in Grenada and Lebanon.» —“Sorry Veteran” by Luis...