polebrity n.— «Pretty soon, we will all probably start to complain that Obama is a man of straw, a media creation, a triumph of style over substance; more a celebrity than a politician—a “polebrity” to use the latest ugly neologism.» —“Obama’s...
It started as a typo for “own,” now it’s entrenched in online slang. A Kentucky caller is curious about pwn. It rhymes with “own” and means “to defeat” or “to triumph over.” Our hosts talk about a special meaning of “own” in the computer-gaming...
bug n.— «Rode five winners on a December 1981 afternoon at New York’s Aqueduct as an apprentice, something not even “The Kid,”” Steve Cauthen—famous and fresh off his Triple Crown triumph aboard Affirmed three years earlier—had managed to...
coin n.— «Although Bill Kristol hails the surge as a triumph of “counterinsurgency strategy” in his Time piece, genuine experts say it’s anything but “strategy.” Counterinsurgency, or “coin” in military speak, is holistic. What’s happening in Iraq...
endarkenment n.— «Yet there were also ominous signs of the days that Eric Burdon of the Animals refers to as “the endarkenment.” There was a series of rock-star drug busts, most notoriously the raid on Keith Richards” Redlands estate in February...
put a nickel in someone v. phr.— «She has complained about inhumane and unesthetic working conditions (“It’s as if I were a machine and they just put a nickel in me”).» —“A Triumph Thank Goodness” by Tom Donnelly Washington Post Jan. 13, 1973...