What’s the origin of the phrase “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise”? It has to do with travel and farming and nothing whatsoever to do with Native Americans. Back when wagons rode on low gravel roads, you couldn’t...
A Minnesotan who relocated to Wisconsin gets called a mud duck, and wants to know why. Much in the way Wisconsinites get referred to as cheese heads, it’s really a harmless bit of nomenclature from a cross-state rivalry. In hunting, the term...
A native Japanese speaker is mystified by the expression “happy as a clam.” In Japanese, she says, if you had a good night’s sleep you might say you “slept like a clam” or “slept like mud.” So why do English...
mud suite n.— «“They can be the jewelry of the space,” says the designer, who often includes a message center in what she likes to call the “mud suite.” This area can contain anything from a drawer for keys, to shelving...
cartocacoethes n.— Note: Related to cacoethes. «Indeed, many prehistoric “maps” may be the result of cartocacoethes—a mania, uncontrollable urge, compulsion or itch to see maps everywhere. Map simulacra like chipped paint: a stone China:...
mud logging n.— «Tecton provides on-site rig monitoring and mud logging for the geothermal drilling industry. Mud logging is the term for testing and keeping track of the microscopic nature of rock and the presence of liquid in wells...