If you catch your blue jeans on a nail, you may find yourself with a winklehawk. This term, adapted into English from Dutch, means “an L-shaped tear in a piece of fabric.” And: What’s your relationship with the books on your...
The dated term “jingoism” denotes a kind of belligerent nationalism but the word’s roots lie in an old English drinking-house song that was popular during wartime. Speaking of fightin’ words, the expression “out the side of...
When someone says they should be bored for the hollow horn, it’s typically a lighthearted way of saying they should have their own head examined. The saying comes from an old supposed disease of cattle that made them dull and lethargic, and...
One definition of a shivaree is “a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the...
Wagnolater n.— «They are a rare breed, those rabid fans of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, and right now, they are angry.…While some Ringheads or Ringnuts, as they are called, took the change in stride, others were not shy about expressing...
windshield cowboy n.— «These weekend ranchers are also called “windshield cowboys” because they use sack feed instead of graze and have trained their cattle to come at the sound of an auto horn.» —“Cowboys—the real...