whippy
n.— «The system is broken, Donelon said, adding that he sees the evidence daily in the mounting number of “whippys”—defense attorney slang for whiplash claims, so common that they are paid out at a standard rate, even though the medical experts cannot vouch that anything is really wrong.» —“Foster’s Goal Is No-Fault Insurance Detractors Say It Won’t Cut Costs” by Christopher Cooper New Orleans Times-Picayune (Lousiana) Nov. 17, 1996. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...