tin medal
n.— «For some kind of tin medal for having made the least valuable contribution toward solving the strike situation in defense industries, we nominate those gentlemen who rose in the Senate and House and shrieked for “the electric chair” and “treason charges punishable by 25 years’ imprisonment” for strikers.» —“Plain Good Sense Will Pull Us Through” Clearfield Progress (Pa.) Apr. 8, 1941. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
National Book Award winner Barry Lopez had wise advice for young writers. First, read widely and follow your curiosity. Second, travel or learn a foreign language. And third, find out what you truly believe, because if you’re not writing from...
Aubrey in Waco, Texas, says her mother used to warn the kids against contracting honkus of the bonkus, a fanciful name for a contagious disease. This colloquial term probably comes from the words bonk and konk, meaning “to hit” or...