wendy
v.— «Misogyny, anti-intellectualism, vindictive political opponents, an out-of-control press—the resignation of Wendy Alexander as leader of the Labour party at Holyrood offers something to everyone with a thesis about the loss of public respect for the UK political process. First, misogyny. In recent years the Scottish political classes have introduced a new verb to the English language—the idea of being “wendied”—a term invented to describe the way that Alexander apparently browbeat her civil servants, assistants and anyone else who didn’t match her exacting demands. A wendying was often said to be carried out in a shrill manner—another word that cropped up in descriptions of her style.» —“Alexander’s achilles” by Ewan Crawford Guardian (United Kingdom) June 30, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...
Throwing cheese and shaky cheese are two very different things. In baseball, hard cheese refers to a powerful fastball, and probably comes from a similar-sounding word in Farsi, Urdu, and Hindi. Shaky cheese, on the other hand, is the grated...