Delope is a term used in duelling meaning to throw away one’s shot — specifically, to fire into the air rather than at an opponent. The word appears in The Art of Duelling from 1836 with the spelling dilope and the gloss “fire in the air.” The...
If you’re on tenterhooks, it means you’re in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15th-century manufacturing process. Also, you probably have a term for those crumbs that...
A month of Sundays, meaning “a long period,” or “longer than I can actually figure out,” goes at least as far back as the 1759 book The Life and Real Adventures of Hamilton Murray. This is part of a complete episode...
Lee from Philadelphia’s green Amazon parrot is named Alexander Hamilton, not Polly, but strangers still greet him with Polly want a cracker? The joke is old: Poll was a nickname for parrots as far back as the 1600s, and by 1848 the cracker line was...
digi-roid
n.— «Canon D30 digi body for digi-roids.» —“What The Pros Are Rockin’ Nick Hamilton 16.1″ Snow Magazine (Oceanside, California) Aug. 21, 2002. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
swing space n.— «Students from Spingarn Senior High would move into a new building on the school’s Northeast campus, and the old building would be used for “swing space”—housing students from other schools whose buildings are...