Quiz Guy John Chaneski SUBjects Martha and Grant to a SUBlime puzzle in which he SUBmits clues to words that contain the sequence of letters S-U-B. For example, “a stand-in for an absent teacher” would be a SUBstitute. Now try this one:...
Welcome to another newsletter from A Way with Words. Over the weekend we talked more about political language, "hair of the dog," "a fish rots from the head down," and "pareidolia." We also posted another language...
one eyebrow salute n.— «Some people do give what I call “the one eyebrow salute” when I tell them I’m a single male foster carer.…But I guess that’s down to the fact that it’s more common for guys to be seen as abusers...
shotta n.— «“Shottas,” a slick but dull new shoot-’em-up from Jamaica, doesn’t penetrate the mysteries of high-rolling, high-risk thug life. It perpetuates them. In the local patois, the title means “gangsta,” and...
pollaganda n.— «Pollaganda is outcome-based opinion samples (polling instruments designed to generate a preferential outcome) based on prior-opinion indoctrination or cultivation by the media, the results of which are then used to...
white-boy syndrome n.— «There’s little evidence of any overt racial tension between students or between their parents.…The school superintendent, however, concedes that a perception exists that’s sometimes called “the white...