Information technology specialists have clever lingo referring to computer users who come to them all worked up about a problem, only to discover that it’s a matter of an error on the part of the user, not the computer. In the tech world, that’s...
John, a Navy veteran in San Diego, California, shares some pranks played on new recruits. One involves sending a newbie to the boatswain’s locker for ten yards of gig line. In military jargon, a gig line is the imaginary line from the middle...
Tom in Indianapolis, Indiana, remembers hearing Irish pennant in the Marine Corps for a loose thread hanging from a uniform. The term belongs to the category of ethnophaulism, or ethnic slur, alongside expressions such as Irish screwdriver for...
air breather n.— «Hundreds of American support personnel members on the ground in Colombia complemented these elite forces, in addition to a frenzied intelligence-gathering operation located in the United States Embassy here, drawing on...
combat shower n.— «”Combat showers” are four minutes or less to conserve water, barely enough time to wash off all the sand and dust.» —“A Long Way From The Sea” by Jennifer Grogan in Camp Bucca, Iraq TheDay...
This week’s Slang This! contestant grapples with the slang terms squish and optempo. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Squish and Optempo” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett. And...