We tend to take the index of a book for granted, but centuries ago, these helpful lists were viewed with suspicion. Some even worried that indexes would harm reading comprehension! A witty new book tells the story. Plus, the Latin term bona fides...
Penny in Savannah, Georgia, recalls that her father, a Navy veteran who served in the South Pacific, would say of someone who was clueless or didn’t know what he was talking about: That person doesn’t know if he’s punched, bored, or drifted. There...
Working for a furniture maker in New England, Steven and his co-workers used the word Dutchman to denote a high-quality patch to disguise an imperfection in the wood. In an article in the Journal of American Speech, historian Archie Green notes that...
One term that rose to prominence in 2017: fidget spinner. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “”Fidget Spinner” for Word fo the Year?” You know now that I think about it, another term that burst onto the scene this year is the term...
Why do we call a ten-dollar bill a sawbuck? The support for woodworking known as a sawbuck folds out into the shape of an X, the same shape as the Roman numeral for ten. Hence, the slang term for the currency worth ten bucks. This is part of a...
peeler log n.— «The reason for this is quite simple. It’s my understanding that plywood is made by shaving thin strips or “plys” of veneer from large logs (ie old-growth). These logs are called “peeler logs.” Well, most of the “peeler logs” have...