Kennings are compound words that have metaphorical meanings, such as whale-road meaning “sea.” They’re often found in Anglo-Saxon poetry, such as The Seafarer and Beowulf, but there are modern ones as well, such as rugrats for...
What does the expression egg on have to do with chickens? Nothing, actually. Martha explains why, and tells the story of how the term curate’s egg came to mean “something with both good and bad characteristics.”
pissdale n.— «Pissdale. Compound word for a place on deck where the crew formerly “went”; a special scupper for that purpose. “Piss” is an Old French word, originally not offensive; “dale” is from Old...