desire line n.— «Note long ago, a friend told me about an intriguing concept called “desire lines.” It seems that when landscape architects lay out walking paths and trails in parks and other public spaces, they invariably...
Hello, guys and dolls--it's another newsletter from A Way with Words. We aired an episode this past weekend in which we talked about the footwear known as "go-aheads," what part of the body is "possible,"...
Mark from Redmond, Washington, asks for the term for a person whose name happens to fit their line of work, such as CNN broadcaster William Headline, a preacher named James God, or the physician Dr. Hurt. Such names are called aptronyms or aptonyms...
suicide headache n.— «Cluster headache (CH) remains an enigma to the medical profession.…Many chronic CH sufferers eventually take their own lives—earning CH the gruesome moniker “suicide headaches.”» —“LSD cured my...
suitcase provider n.— «The vast majority of these are very small—in many cases, one-person enterprises or, in the vernacular, “suitcase providers.”…The traditional view is that a “suitcase provider” is a bad...
juicing the hard way n.— «Before, a wrestler used to “blade”—have a little razor blade attached to a finger and that’s how they would cut their forehead. Now, they do what’s called “juicing the hard way.” When the...