A listener was confused when she heard a radio announcer say a man had “Amanda Lynn” in his hands, only to find out that it was “a mandolin.” These funny misheard phrases are called mondegreens, a term coined in Sylvia Wright’s 1954 Harper’s...
A woman from upstate New York says her stepfather used to keep small dishes in various rooms to collect small odds and ends like paper clips and rubber bands. He called them culch piles. Martha has the story on this term. This is part of a complete...
ice out v. phr.— «The people who develop rivalries in the Obamaland? They don’t do so good. You may not have noticed that during the course of the campaign. But people who are shooting at each other? They tend to get iced out,” Podesta told me...
actigraphy n.— «They also filled out sleep questionnaires, kept a log of their hours in bed and participated in six nights of sleep studies with a technique called wrist actigraphy that uses a motion sensor—worn like a watch—to estimate actual...
ATM offering n.— «UAL registered earlier this month to sell as much as $200 million through a dribble. “We believe this program provides more flexibility” than a traditional follow-on, said United spokeswoman Jean Medina. The method allows the...
cutter n.— «It is a bread-and-butter pitch for many left-handers—the fastball that bores in on right-handed batters, a “cutter” as it is known.» —“Slumping Renteria: ‘I feel bad’” by Lynn Henning in Seattle, Washington Detroit News (Michigan) July...