Has your boss ever used the expression “Let’s put the moose on the table”? This management buzzphrase, meaning “let’s address the problem everyone’s been avoiding,” is relatively new, showing up in print around the early 1990s. The phrase pops up in...
What’s the source of the phrase “No way, Jose”? And who in the world is Jose? Although in this call Grant says the expression doesn’t show up in print until 1973, he has since found it in a college newspaper in 1966 and no doubt it is probably older...
screamer n.— Note: In print journalism, “screamer” can also refer to a large, bold headline. «The exclamation mark—or “screamer,” as it is sometimes called by journalists—is often derided as the most brash and vulgar of punctuation marks.» —“ Let’s...
fish with feet n.— «Digital magazines—the flappable, page-by-page replication of a publication’s print edition, rather than content uploaded individually to a magazine’s Web site—have been around for about a decade, and Zinio has long been the...
data exhaust n.—Gloss: the incidental statistics and information that accumulate when people interact with a system, process, or event, such as when tracking visitor interaction on a web site. «Hansen also touted the utility of absorbing all the...
low-touch adj.— «The company’s approach is so automated that each batch printed of material requires less than 60 seconds of human involvement. The low-touch approach is partly why VistaPrint charges an average of about $40 for an order of 1,000...
