cat bond n.— «His name was John Seo, he was 39 years old and he ran a hedge fund in Westport, Conn., whose chief purpose was to persuade investors to think about catastrophe in the same peculiar way that he did. He had invested nearly a...
flake n.— «I took a large flake of hay and laid it on some rails which I had fixed for that purpose, and creeped under it, to shelter myself, in some small measure, from the rain.» —by Stephen Burroughs Memoirs of the Notorious...
deliteracy n.— «The very purpose of this series is to combat what I call the ‘deliteracy’ of current and common culture, i.e.- the active dumbing down of art and discourse. Nowadays, many magazines that used to interview people of...
fudge n.— «This remarkable time record was rendered possible by a process known as “fudging.” The type lines set by the linotype-telegraph operator are wider at the top that at the base, so that when placed together they form...
whistle-tip n.— «A “whistle-tip” is a device that is applied to, or is a modification of, a motor vehicle’s exhaust pipe for the sole purpose of creating a high-pitched or shrieking noise when the motor vehicle is operated...
Frankenstein veto n.— «A “Frankenstein veto” is a partial veto of an appropriation bill that deletes selected words, digits, punctuation marks or larger “parts” of the bill, for the express purpose of...