meez n.— «Literally “put in place,” mise en place is the kitchen term for your set up, the gathering and preparation of all the tools and food you need to complete the task at hand; mise en place can refer to a cook’s organization on the...
Fellow wordivas and wordudes, This week on A Way with Words we start a brand-new season! To celebrate, we noodled with anagrams, including the one in the title of this episode. Listen here. Also on the show: A New York City schoolteacher asks...
A Way with Words is starting a brand-new season! Find out what a motorcyclist wears to keep from getting sunburned– is it a do-rag or a dew-rag? A listener wonders “Why is an undesirable task called a g-job?” Martha shares a trick...
trowel fodder n.— «I have been working in a commercial archaeology company as basic trowel fodder for a year and have now been given the task of writing the small finds report from my first site.» —“Draft layout for a small finds...
floater n. a person who files down or smooths horse teeth; a tool used for such a task. Etymological Note: Directly related to the verb “to float,” meaning “to file the teeth of a horse.” The Oxford English Dictionary...
coolered adj.— «Players that hold a big hand but run into a bigger hand are now officially “coolered” in the poker lingo. It’s a word that’s attached to nearly every sob story where the hero ran into a losing situation that...