A Woodbridge, Connecticut, caller tells the story of coming across the following definition for jungftak in Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary (1943): “n. A Persian bird, the male of which had only one wing, on the right side, and the female...
recycled pulsar n.— «Astronomers have long theorized that these superfast stars share their orbit with a companion star from which they leech extra material. The material settles around the pulsar’s middle in a so-called accretion disk. As material...
ditch-switch n.— «It also turns out that the pilots on Flight 1549 did not throw the so-called “ditch-switch,” designed to seal the plane’s belly and make it more buoyant after a water landing. Investigators say the pilots were properly working...
rewilding n.— «Missing links in ecosystems disrupted by extinctions could be restored by introducing species that perform the same function, field experiments on a remote island suggest. But some scientists caution against the controversial...
two plus two n.— «Students avail themselves of such options as “two plus two”—attending community college for two years, then transferring to a four-year college for the remaining two—and “distance education,” in which they take courses online or...
midnight plumber n.— «Why would thieves—midnight plumbers as the police call them—tear out the floorboards, toilets, even the walls of the homes, all in search of copper tubing?» —“With the Price of Copper Up, the Plumbing Can Go Missing” by Sean D...
