Secret signals on the job: Waitresses at some 19th-century restaurants ensured speedy drink service by communicating with a non-verbal code. One server took orders, then placed each customer’s cup to indicate exactly what the customer wanted. A...
The word nurdle, sometimes spelled nerdle, can be used to denote various “small bits of things,” such as styrofoam packing material or detritus in one’s pockets. It may be related to the word nodule. Like thingamabob and whatsit, the word nurdle...
What’s the origin of the word nerd, referring to “an unfashionable person”? Does it come from Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo? (Amazon). Incidentally, a nerdle is a dollop of toothpaste on a toothbrush. Sometimes spelled nurdle, this slang term...
mermaid tear n.— Note: Nurdles are defined here. «More alarmingly, research has shown that small plastic pieces, also termed nurdles or “mermaid tears”, act like sponges, absorbing pollutants and other harmful substances. When consumed by living...
nurdle n.— «Ask a group of people to name an overwhelming global problem, and you’ll hear about climate change, the Middle East, or AIDS. No one, it is guaranteed, will cite the sloppy transport of nurdles as a concern. And yet nurdles, lentil-size...
nurdle
n.— «“No it’s not. Mine’s got a bigger nurdle.” “Yeah, but I bet it hasn’t got one of them new widgets”» —“Re: Amiga vs. Mac” by Julian Barkway Usenet: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Jan. 21, 1994. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)