necklace light n.— «The lights on the bridge cables, in a colorful bit of shop talk, are called “necklace lights.” The phrase, or a variation of it, appears to have been around for a couple of decades (a caption on a 1981 New York Times photo by...
Martha and Grant discuss a strange new word making the rounds: lecondel. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Lecondel” So Grant, earlier we were talking about nominations for this year’s Word of the Year. And we’ve heard from several...
In this episode, Grant offers a peek at some expressions he’s nominating for the American Dialect Society’s 2007 Word of the Year vote in January, 2008. Will it be w00t, subprime, or something else? You can also check out Grant’s look at “word of...
SOD n.— «In December 1996, inspired in part by Mr. Randall’s well-publicized late fatherhood (his wife was 26 at the time), I wrote an article for The New York Times about men having children at a stage in life when their peers were usually...
fundit n.— «“I either say I’m a television personality or that I’m a fundit,” the 36-year-old says from his home in New York. “I coined the term “fundit,” and The New York Times stole it from me. I feel violated. I believe they used it to describe...
spadia n.— «A lucky smattering of folks who picked up The New York Times on Monday were treated to a spadia—a strip just wider than a column, overlapping the front page, that announced the day’s highlights… As it happens, the spadia also creates...