Jennifer, a tutor in Tallahassee, Florida, wonders what to call a segment of an orange. Among botanists, it’s a carpel. Informally, it’s a segment, slice, wedge, peg, or pig. It may be that these segments are called pigs, because all...
Where would you find a sports commentator talking about high cheese and ducks on a pond? Here’s a hint: both terms are part of what makes America’s pastime so colorful. • A government official in New Zealand proposes a new, more...
How did the acronyms POTUS, FLOTUS, and SCOTUS for President of the United States, First Lady of the United States, and Supreme Court of the United States come about? This is part of a complete episode.
Right off the bat, it’s easy to think of several everyday expressions that derive from America’s pastime–including “right off the bat.” The Dickson Baseball Dictionary catalogues not only those contributions but also...
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote, in a Supreme Court opinion no less, that “a word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time...
IRAB n.— «While the canvassing board did its job on the challenges, the Supreme Court was being asked to rule on another grouping of ballots—what we lovingly call the IRABs, or improperly rejected absentee ballots. This is a pool of...