tag
n.— «Standard paid him the industry standard—a 50 percent commission on each delivery run, or “tag” in messenger parlance. Companies charge about $6 a tag, give or take a few quarters depending on the length of the run, the weight of the cargo, and the urgency of getting it to where it’s going. Morell put in nine-hour days, and as often as not lunch meant a sandwich in one hand and a handlebar in the other.» —“Fresh Air! Speed! Poverty! Servitude!” by Scott Eden Chicago Reader June 23, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small table under a huge disk with more than 4,000 characters. A new book chronicles...
Brian from Lafayette, Indiana, wonders why chicken is abbreviated CHX in the restaurant industry. Using X as a substitute or shortener has a long history. Medieval scribes sometimes drew a line through the final stroke of an abbreviated word. This...