Welcome to another edition of the A Way with Words newsletter. What was college slang like 100 years ago? That's what we talked about on the air this past weekend. We also talked about "go fly a kite," nicknames for Vancouver, and why...
monster n.— «Frampton’s team argues that the extra entropy is generated by the random nature of quantum physics. This should sometimes allow a collapsing ball of matter to spontaneously transform into something called a “monster”—an arrangement of...
scriptment n.— «“What do you mean, you’re going to greenlight the movie with a kid named Matt directing?” Mr. Grey said, according to Mr. Weston. Yet with just a 65-page “scriptment” (more than a treatment, less than a script) laying out a film...
monster-mashing n.— «“Forward march.” The movements are new, and Cain still has to think about what he is doing. Pretty soon, left becomes right, and instead of swinging his arms naturally—right arm, left leg, etc.—he is “monster-mashing,” the...
John Wayne contract n.— «One of the reasons a new GP contract is necessary is that for many years GPs have had no way of limiting their workload and this has led to the concept of a “John Wayne contract” where “a GP’s got to do what a GP’s got to...
frankenbuild n.— «Microsoft has issued an update to Windows Vista that’s intended to stop a piracy monster. The software maker said Thursday that the update is aimed at thwarting a technique that was letting some people use pirated versions of the...