If you’re on tenterhooks, it means you’re in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15th-century manufacturing process. Also, you probably have a term for those crumbs that...
Ralphing, slang for vomiting, is onomatopoeic, modeled on the harsh sound itself, and dates at least to the 1960s. Kelsey in Tallahassee, Florida, went looking for a clever way to describe her dog throwing up on her paperwork and wondered whether...