What’s the best way for someone busy to learn lots of new words quickly for a test like the GRE? Looking up their origins can help. Or, record yourself reading the words and definitions and play them back while you’re doing other chores...
Really??? Really! A college student in Provo, Utah, says he’s hearing this expression of sarcastic incredulity more and more— even catching himself saying this to his cellphone when it dropped a call. He suspects it comes from Saturday Night...
Hockey mom, mavericky, snow machines, and—how could we forget that other memorable phrase from the 2008 presidential campaign?—lipstick on a pig. Some new and not-so-new terms leapt onto the national stage during Gov. Sarah Palin‘s run for the...
gabber n.— «The guild was pointing out how soon television might grind to a halt, including shows like Saturday Night Live (almost immediately) and what the trades call “gabbers,” like the Letterman show (the host was a union...
conehead n. a scientist; a brainy person. Also cone. Editorial Note: Probably influenced by pointy-head ‘a brainy or intellectual person.’ Despite what the 1997 citation says, this term is probably also influenced by a series of skits and a movie...
conehead n.— «Conehead. This has nothing to do with the space-alien routine made famous on Saturday Night Live. In Los Alamos, it means scientist, stemming from the unflattering “pointy-headed”—meaning too intellectual...