What do you call a segment of an orange? These juicy pieces of fruit go by lots of different names, including section, wedge, and carpel. But they’re also called pegs or even pigs! The stringy parts of a banana also have a surprising name. Also, we...
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 together they...
In our Facebook discussion about unusual English words for ordinary things, a listener points out the term wharfinger, which means someone who manages a wharf. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Wharfinger” Here’s another word I...
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 more obscure terms like “pebble...
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 in...
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 uncounted...