tramp dread
n.— «My excuse is that, as a freelance journalist, I do not receive any paid holiday. If I stop working, the money stops coming in—and my finances are so precariously balanced that simply forgoing one week’s wages could bring the whole house of cards tumbling down. I suffer from what Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens refer to as “tramp dread”—the fear that if you stop churning stuff out you won’t merely fall behind on the mortgage, you’ll be completely destitute by the end of the month.» —“The office clown” by Toby Young Guardian (United Kingdom) Sept. 6, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
She sells seashells by the seashore. Who is the she in this tongue twister? Some claim it’s the young Mary Anning, who went on to become a famous 19th-century British paleontologist. Dubious perhaps, but the story of her rise from seaside...
When you had sleepovers as a child, what did you call the makeshift beds you made on the floor? In some places, you call those bedclothes and blankets a pallet. This word comes from an old term for “straw.” And: What’s the story...