tick-tack
n.— «The lads who fondle the ticktack clocks—when most of us are warming feathers—slip me this as the “best sprinter at Coney Island.”» —“Collyer Gives Sprinter Chance” by Bert E. Collyer Washington Post Aug. 6, 1926. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
If you speak a second or third language, you may remember the first time you dreamed in that new tongue. But does this milestone mean you’re actually fluent? And a couple’s dispute over the word regret: Say you wish you’d been able...
A flashlight doesn’t flash. It provides a steady beam of light. So why is it called a flashlight? The earliest versions lit up only briefly before the batteries gave out and required a recharge, so they were literally “flash lights...