A stereotype is a preconceived notion about a person or group. Originally, though, the word stereotype referred to a printing device used to produce lots of identical copies. • The link between tiny mythical creatures called trolls and modern-day...
Amy from Ishpeming, Michigan, says her family’s idiolect includes the word grinslies, which they use to denote the sediment in the bottom of your coffee cup. The word orts is also a term for leftovers, and a dialectal term for the last little...
Of all the letters in the alphabet, which two or three are your favorites? If your short list includes one or more of your initials, that’s no accident. Psychological research shows we’re drawn to the letters in our name. • If you doubt...
A woman in Cheyenne, Wyoming, says her mom used to refer to the cloudy scum that sometimes forms atop vinegar as mother. The term has been around at least 500 years, and can refer to the scum on the top or sediment on the bottom. It’s also...
beach nourishment n.— «Depositing sediment onto a beach and bulldozing it into place—a practice called beach nourishment—has become one of the more controversial functions of the Corps” Civil Works Directorate. Besides building...
yellow boy n.— «The mine drainage sediment—commonly called “yellow boy”—is, essentially, iron hydroxide, or rust. The problem is that the pollutant oozes out of mine areas, contaminating waterways and shutting down most...