Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: googleganger. Plus, the language of hobbyists and enthusiasts: If you’re a beekeeper, perhaps you call yourself a...
Sam in Westville, Indiana, heard a woman from Puerto Rico use the expression You cannot cover the sun with a finger, referring to the problem of having more things to work on than she could handle. The Spanish expression tapar el sol con un dedo, or...
Grant offers examples from his latest words of the year list, including Crankshaft (the code name for the Osama Bin Laden), and basketbrawl, referring to the fight that broke out between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Chinese National Team. This is...
muhajababe n.— Note: This term has recently been popularized by Allegra Stratton’s book Muhajababes. «I call them ‘muhajababes’. (Muhajabe means veiled, or wearing the veil, and ‘babe’ speak for itself.)…The majority of the...
car-breaker n.— «There is a speed-breaker on the street, right in front of our house. In our neighborhood in Nazimabad, they are commonly called car-breakers because of their size. Rain water was running down the street and the street...
Chateau Migraine n.— «The director general of one of Egypt’s largest wine-makers, the Lebanese Andre Hadji-Thomas, smiles as he remembers his 1998 visit to the Gianaclis estate, put up for sale 30 years after its nationalisation by then...