What exactly is a planet? Controversy over this question led to Pluto’s redefinition, along with a brand-new English word. And: Some people now use the phrase all the things! to mean and whatnot or you know what I mean. This new sense of all the...
Eduarda phones from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to ask about the English expression burn the midnight oil, meaning “to work late.” The phrase goes back to the days of having to use oil lamps for illumination at night. A Spanish idiom somewhat along...
It’s all about terms of endearment: If your loved one is far away for a long time, you’re probably tired of just saying “I miss you” over and over. For variety’s sake, there are some creative alternatives to that phrase. Also, what do you call the...
The “burning platform” is a trendy phrase in business at the moment, used for a crisis that demands immediate action. It refers to a guy on an oil rig that caught fire, and he had the choice of staying on the rig and facing certain death, or jump...
see-through building n.— «In Houston, where the oil bust of the mid-1980s led to see-through buildings devoid of tenants, brokers are wary of space proliferating in the “energy corridor,” running along Interstate 10 from western Houston toward the...
jobber n.—Gloss: A wholesaler. «Within the next few years, the trio hopes to sign up 90 oil distributors (also known as jobbers) to form a group of as many as 2,000 C-stores east of the Mississippi selling private-branded Liberty gasoline...