skeet

en-noun

skeet (countable and uncountable, plural skeets)

Pseudo-archaic alteration of shoot, perhaps with reference to Old Norse skjóta; compare Scots skite (“to dart, to shoot”). The name for a form of trapshooting is attested from the 1920s, see quotations below. Senses related to ejaculation of semen likely derive from this, but compare also squirt, skite, or scoot. The word skeet is attested in reference to working class persons in US English from the 19th century, or the Newfoundland and Labrador regionalism may derive from other terms such as skite or skeeter; see quotation below.

(countable, poker) A hand consisting of a 9, a 5, a 2, and two other cards lower than 9.

A small part at least of the language associated with younger speakers originates in local words that appear to have undergone local meaning change. A good example is skeet. This term may be related to skite which in neighbouring Prince Edward Island can mean a 'young scoundrel' (Pratt 1988), or to the American terms skeester/skeeter, definied by the Dictionary of American Regional English (Cassidy and Hall 1985) as 'rascal, rogue'. If older NLE speakers know this word at all, they would probably use it in this sense. Among younger speakers, however, it has much the same meaning as such British slang terms as chav, charver or scally, or even the North American white trash.

[2010, Sandra Clarke, Newfoundland and Labrador English, page 151:

(countable, Newfoundland, Labrador, slang) A young working-class person who may be loud, disruptive and poorly educated.


skeet

Unknown. Compare Icelandic skeið (“spoon”), from Old Norse skeið (“a sheath”). Attested from the 15th century; see quotation below.

The best method for wetting the after sails is with a garden syringe or small engine[…] For the head sails a skeet made of tough ash, having a good long handle ; the head or skeeting part curves scimitar fashion, to be about three and a half feet in length, and scooped out an inch and a half in width by two and a half inches in depth

1862, Vanderdecken [William Cooper], The Yacht Sailor, page 131:

(nautical) A scoop with a long handle, used to wash the sides of a vessel and formerly to wet the sails or deck.


widget

Coined by American playwright George S. Kaufman in 1924 in his play Beggar on Horseback (1924).

coin

Suppose we have a widget factory that produces 100 units per year...

Damage inflicted on the rail industry supply chain, from major contractors to widget manufacturers, would have further profound nationwide consequences on an already damaged industry and wrecked economy.

2020 August 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Rail at the brink? Not yet...”, in Rail, page 3:

A placeholder name for an unnamed, unspecified, or hypothetical manufactured good or product, typically as an example for purposes of explaining concepts.

джаджа

A floating device inside a beer can, meant to create foam when opened.

A small scraping tool consisting of a blade and a handle, commonly used to remove paint from glass and other smooth surfaces.

(informal) Synonym of tool, implement, device, gadget, part


widget

French: widget (fr)

Spanish: widget (es)

graphical user interface
graphical user interface

(graphical user interface) Any one of the components of a computer application's graphical user interface, such as a Cancel button or text input box that a user interacts with.

giny

component of a graphical user interface that the user interacts with

(graphical user interface) A small applet that can be placed on the desktop or in a sidebar, etc.


telex

en-verb

telex (third-person singular simple present telexes, present participle telexing, simple past and past participle telexed)

telexes (present singular third-person)
telexing (participle present)
telexed (participle past)
telexed (past)

From genericization of Telex Printergram and Telex, derived as a blend of tele- (“telegraph, teletype, teleprinter, etc.”) + exchange.

blend

(transitive) To send a message over a telex network.


sima

Coined by Eduard Suess in 1909, in Das Antlitz der Erde, as a blend of silicon + magnesium.

ref

Eduard Suess (1909) “Vierter Theil, Vierundzwanzigster Abschnitt: Die Tiefen”, in Das Antlitz der Erde (in German), volume 3.2, Wien: F. Tempsky, →OCLC, page 626:
Wir nehmen ferner drei Zonen oder Hüllen als maassgebend für die Beschaffenheit der Erde an, u. zw. die Barysphäre oder das Nife (Ni-Fe), ferner Sima (Si-Mg) und Sial (Si-Al). Diese Theilung unterscheidet sich von der Classification, die von hervorragenden americanischen Petrographen vorgeschlagen wurde, durch die Abtrennung der metallischen Barysphäre (Nife).
We further assume the existence of three zones or envelopes as determining the structure of the earth, namely, the barysphere or the Nife (Ni-Fe), Sima (Si-Mg), and Sial (Si-Al). This division differs from the classification which has been proposed by distinguished American petrographers, in the separation of the metallic barysphere (Nife).

(geology) The lower layer of the earth's outer crust that underlies the sial and is rich in silica, iron, and magnesium.


champ

Etymology tree
Proto-Italic *kampos
Latin campusbor.
Proto-West Germanic *kamp
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Germanic *-janą
Proto-West Germanic *-jan
Proto-West Germanic *kampijan
Proto-Germanic *-jô
Proto-West Germanic *-jō
Frankish *kampijōbor.
Medieval Latin campiō
Old French champiunbor.
Middle English champioun
English champion
English champ
Clipping of champion／championship.

etymon

The team failed to make it to the Champs.

(colloquial, in the plural) Clipping of championship.

Whatcha doing, champ?

(informal) Buddy, sport, mate. (as a term of address)


champ

en-noun

champ (usually uncountable, plural champs)

From Middle English champen, chammen (“to bite; gnash the teeth”), perhaps originally imitative.

onomatopoeic

imitative

(Ireland) A dish comprising mashed potato and chopped scallions.


champ

"They're dressed up very elegantly and it's nice they have a glass of champ, even if it's non-alcoholic," Reif says.

1990 April 6, Ann Heller, “Prom Nights Often Offer Students Primer On Fine Dining”, in Dayton Daily News:

We're drinkin' Santana champ, 'cause it's so crisp

2009, The Lonely Island (featuring T-Pain), "I'm on a Boat", Incredibad

'Glass of champ?' she called, skipping into the kitchen.

2010, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Inheritance, Pan Books, published 2010, →ISBN:


champ

en-verb

champ (third-person singular simple present champs, present participle champing, simple past and past participle champed)

champs (present singular third-person)
champing (participle present)
champed (participle past)
champed (past)

Blend of church + camp or back-formation from champing.

To camp overnight in a historic church as a novelty or part of a holiday.


peek

peek (third-person singular simple present peeks, present participle peeking, simple past and past participle peeked)

peeks (present singular third-person)
peeking (participle present)
peeked (participle past)
peeked (past)

From Middle English *peken, piken, pyken (“to peep”), probably a fusion of Middle English pepen (“to peep”) and keken, kiken (“to keek, look, spy”), equivalent to a blend of peep + keek.

(informal) To look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a crevice; to peep.

loer

A pale strip of white skin peeked out from under his waistband.

2012, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Going Down: Oral Sex Stories, →ISBN:

Her brown skin peeked through the empty gap in her clothing.

2012, Michelle Monkou, If I Had You, →ISBN:

(informal) To be only slightly, partially visible, as if peering out from a hiding place.

Coordinate term: poke

We are peeking the value from the first index's memory location.

2006, Gary Willoughby, PureBasic: A Beginner's Guide to Computer Programming, page 279:

(computing, transitive, dated) To retrieve (a value) from a memory address.

hakea

computing: To retrieve the value from a memory address


laundromat

/ˈlɔːndɹəʊˌmæt/

en:George Edward Pendray
en:laundromat (disambiguation)

Blend of laundry + automatic. From Laundromat, (former) trademark (1940s) of Westinghouse Electric Corporation for its washing machines, coined by Westinghouse publicist George Edward Pendray.

(US, Canada, Australia) A self-service laundry facility with (traditionally) coin-operated (which now may use other per-load payment methods) washing machines, dryers, and sometimes ironing or pressing machines, open to the public for washing clothing and household cloth items.


Ebonics

Blend of ebony + phonics. Coined by scholars at the 1973 Cognitive and Language Development of the Black Child conference led by Robert L. Williams and published in his 1975 book Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks. Considered outdated by some.

Buried among the jargon of the announcement was a mention of a name for AAVE, suggested by a Black scholar in 1975^([sic]) but never adopted by linguists: Ebonics. That word, concocted from ebony (a color term from the name of a dark-colored wood) and phonics (the name of a method for teaching reading), was destined to attach to the board as if chiseled into a block of granite and hung round their necks.

1999, Geoffrey K. Pullum, “African American Vernacular English Is Not Standard English with Mistakes”, in Rebecca S. Wheeler, editor, The Workings of Language, →ISBN, page 40:

African-American Vernacular English
African-American Vernacular English

African-American Vernacular English (AAVE).

Robert Williams (psychologist)
en:Ebonics


Chunnel

Blend of Channel (“the English Channel”) + tunnel; the term had been coined by 1960 (see quotation).

blend

Sir Brian Robertson, Chairman of the B.T.C., told a London audience in January that he would not be surprised if a Channel tunnel for rail traffic, equipped with special wagons to carry road vehicles, were recommended by the study group which has been re-assessing the feasibility of the "Chunnel".

1960 March, “Talking of Trains: London-Paris in four hours”, in Trains Illustrated, page 134:

Rumors, carefully and cleverly circulated by Mascodagama’s friends, diverted speculations toward his being a mysterious visitor from beyond the Golden Curtain, particularly since at least half-a-dozen members of a large Good-will Circus Company that had come from Tartary just then […] had already defected between France and England, somewhere in the newly constructed ‘Chunnel.’

1969, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 30, in Ada, or, Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Harmondsworth, London: Penguin Books, published 1970, →ISBN, part 1, page 144:

She knows a café here, a French place. Remembering breakfast there with Damien. […]Here it is: faux-French with real French waiting tables. Chunnel kids, guest workers.

2003, William Gibson, Pattern Recognition (Bigend cycle; book 1), New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 79:

(rail transport, informal) Short for Channel Tunnel.

Csalagút

Channel Tunnel — see also Channel Tunnel


chugger

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chugger.wav

Seen by many as the scourge of shoppers, chuggers can be uncompromising in their pursuit of a slice of strangers' disposable income, yet provide a rich source of funds for charities.

2003 March 9, Anushka Asthana, “Your money—or their life”, in The Observer:

(informal, derogatory) An aggressive or invasive street fundraiser, especially a private contractor working on behalf of a charity.


fo shizzle

Blend of for sure + -izzle (rhyming ending). Popularized by rap artist Snoop Dogg; see -izzle for details. Fo shizzle is a direct derivative of Fa Sheezy popularized by E40. They both share the same meaning and are used interchangeably. Both words first appeared on media in 1996 on Bay Area Rapper E40’s “Rapper’s Ball”.

2001, Shawn Corey “Jay-Z” Carter, “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, The Blueprint, Roc-A-Fella and Island Def Jam
H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A
Fo’ shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in VA

2002, Calvin Cordozar “Snoop Dogg” Broadus, Jr., “Beautiful”, Paid tha Co$t to Be da Bo$$, Doggystyle Records, Priority Records, and Capitol Records
Guy on phone: Yo dogg we on the way to do the video
Snoop: Fo shizzle!

Conversely, I was also a little jealous because it did sound a bit cool to have a church named after me, complete with my photo on the side of buses so that everyone would know that I was pastor izzle fo’ shizzle.

2006, Mark Driscoll, Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church, Zondervan, →ISBN, page 49:

(slang, hip-hop) For sure; of course; right on


Botox

Eric Andre: You look phenomenal. What's your secret?
Asa Akira: Botox.
Eric Andre: Really?
Asa Akira: Yeah. And I'm starving.

2014, The Eric Andre Show, season 3, episode 1:

Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium botulinum#Translingual

A toxic compound (generic name botulinum toxin type A) produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, that causes the paralysis of muscles, used in cosmetic surgery to conceal wrinkles and for muscle spasm relief and headache prevention.


Botox

en-verb

Botox (third-person singular simple present Botoxes, present participle Botoxing, simple past and past participle Botoxed)

Botoxes (present singular third-person)
Botoxing (participle present)
Botoxed (participle past)
Botoxed (past)

To be clear, I have no problem with anybody who Botoxes and fills.

2015, Lisa Scottoline, Francesca Serritella, Truly Funny Stories, Volume 2:

(transitive, intransitive) To inject Botox.


frosh

(colloquial, plural "froshes") Short for frosh week.


frosh

frosh (third-person singular simple present froshes, present participle froshing, simple past and past participle froshed)

froshes (present singular third-person)
froshing (participle present)
froshed (participle past)
froshed (past)

This campus does not tolerate froshing in any form.

(transitive, slang) To initiate academic freshmen, notably in a testing way.

Trying to open my car door with a coat hanger, I froshed the mechanism.

(transitive, slang) To damage through incompetence.


mobisode

An episode of content (fiction or non-fiction) that has been created to be viewed with a cellular phone, or over the Internet; usually between 30 seconds and five minutes in length.


spork

Blend of spoon + fork; originally a trademark.

An eating utensil shaped like a spoon, the bowl of which is divided into tines like those of a fork, and so has the function of both implements; some sporks have a serrated edge so they can also function as a knife.


motel

Blend of motor + hotel, from the original Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo in California, USA, established in 1925 by Arthur Heineman (1878–1974).

(also attributive) A type of hotel or lodging establishment, often located near a major highway, which typically features a series of rooms the entrances of which are immediately adjacent to a parking lot to facilitate convenient access to automobiles parked there.

A low-cost short-stay hotel, often with hourly rates rather than daily rates, and notorious for permitting illicit sexual activities; love hotel.


motel

motel (third-person singular simple present motels, present participle moteling or motelling, simple past and past participle moteled or motelled)

motels (present singular third-person)
moteling (participle present)
motelling (participle present)
moteled (participle past)
moteled (past)
motelled (participle past)
motelled (past)

(informal, intransitive) To stay in a motel or motels.


basketbrawl

en-noun

basketbrawl (countable and uncountable, plural basketbrawls)

(countable) A basketball game involving a brawl.

(uncountable) Highly physical basketball play.


infomercial

Dionne and I were both named after great singers of the past who now do infomercials.

1995, Amy Heckerling, Clueless, spoken by Cher (Alicia Silverstone):

A program-length television commercial, typically between thirty minutes and one hour long, that advertises a product or service by presenting supposedly impartial information about it.


interrobang

/ɪnˈtɛ.ɹəʊˌbæŋ/

/ɪnˈtɛ.ɹəˌbæŋ/

/ɪnˈtɛ.ɹɔˌbæŋ/

Malaysia (especially as the proscriptional usage of a verb

[ɪnˈtə.ɹəˌbæŋ]

The New York Times
W. W. Norton & Company

A blend of French (point d’)interrogation (“question mark”) or the equivalent term in another Romance language + bang (“exclamation mark, exclamation point”), coined in a 1962 article in the journal TYPEtalks by American advertising executive Martin Kiehra Speckter (1915–1988), who invented the symbol.

der

Has anyone seen an interrobang? It's a newly invented punctuation mark that looks like this: ‽ A question mark with an exclamation point superimposed, it's meant to convey that nuance of feeling—a mixture of query and surprise—that people have in mind when they say "Really?", also meaning "Really!", or "How about that‽" […] The cure for incredibility is not more punctuation, but more plain talk. We don't need symbols like the interrobang that merely express our perpetual disbelief. We need plain words to express plain truths.

1968 November 15, William Zinsser, “For clear expression: Try words: The interrobang”, in Life, volume 65, number 20, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24:

The Interrobang is not a font – just a single character. Yet it is so powerful a symbol, and such a flawed and original concept, that it deserves a place alongside the most adventurous typographic innovations of the last century. It is an exclamation mark and a question mark combined, a ligature looping the curve of the interrogation with the downward force of the expletive (which compositors and printers have traditionally called a bang). When they meld, they need only one round point at their base.

2011 September, Simon Garfield, “Breaking the Rules”, in Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, New York, N.Y.: Gotham Books, Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 268:

Popular as it was with writers and admen, the interrobang faced a struggle for mainstream acceptance. Simulating an interrobang on a typewriter was possible, if clumsy—type "?" and then overstrike it with "!"—but for typesetters creating a printed document, there was no such shortcut. Those advertisements, brochures, and books that actually honored the writer's use of the character had to be set using handcrafted interrobangs, either drawn by an illustrator or sculpted from rubber cement with a razor blade.

2013, Keith Houston, “The Interrobang”, in Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, pages 28–29:

Introduce the notion of combining punctuation marks in new ways. Explain the Interabang and its use as a nonstandard punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of the question mark and the exclamation mark. Allowing your students the use of all keyboard symbols to create additional punctuation forms, what other punctuation combinations would prove useful in allowing greater expression through punctuation?

2014, John Senior, “Idea 79: The Interabang!?”, in 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Gifted and Talented, London: Bloomsbury Education, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 94:

punctuation mark
punctuation mark#English

rhetorical question
rhetorical question#English

The nonstandard punctuation mark ⟨‽⟩ (a combination of ⟨?⟩ and ⟨!⟩), which may be used at the end of a sentence to express excitement or disbelief, or to indicate that it is a rhetorical question.

感嘆修辞疑問符

かんたんしゅうじぎもんふ

Interrobang — !?, ?!, or ‽ / What?! You’ve never heard of the interrobang!? Really? Well, now you have, so all is forgiven. An interrobang is […] used to end sentences where you really want both the exclamation point and the question mark. […] The word is used to describe both the two side by side (!? or ?!) or the combined symbol (‽).

2014, Jamie Frater, “Top 10 Fascinating Typographical Origins”, in Listverse.com’s Ultimate Book of Bizarre Lists: Fascinating Facts and Astounding Trivia on Movies, Music, Crime, Celebrities, History and More, Berkeley, Calif.: Ulysses Press, →ISBN, Culture section, page 369:

For instance, Taylor (2002: 568–570) discusses the ‘incredulity response construction’ in English as an example of a CI, exemplified by expressions such as Him write a novel?! and Me worry?! The CI has the schematic form of [nom_(sbj) v_(inf) (np)?!]. When written, it is often punctuated with an interrobang (‽ or ?!).

2014, Kam-yiu S. Pang, “‘Overthrowing’ Yesterday’s ICM: (Re)focusing of Meaning in a Hong Kong Chinese (Cantonese) Constructional Idiom”, in Masataka Yamaguchi, Dennis Tay, Benjamin Blount, editors, Approaches to Language, Culture, and Cognition: The Intersection of Cognitive Linguistics and Linguistic Anthropology, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, Part I (Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Language and Culture), section 2 (Constructional idioms), page 70:

My Jungle page had become bloated with messages since the press conference — notes from people at school, neighbors and strangers. A few people from Star Club left nice comments, and a few classmates wrote “so sorry to hear” messages. Even an interrobang-filled rant from Sasha Rosenberg?!

2019, Ria Voros, chapter 27, in The Center of the Universe, Toronto, Ont.: KCP Loft, published 2024, →ISBN, page 142:

It was not until entering the fourth movement when he would finally stop all strumming to interject with an interrobang: “WHERE is that voice COMING from!?”

2022, Choir Korneli Leviyey, “2007”, in Traumaturgy: The Abandoned Autobiography, page 53:

Now, when we run it without supplying a value for the $City parameter, we get a message suggesting we type an interrobang (!?) for help: […]

2024 February 29, Nick Parlow, “Writing Our First Script – Turning Simple Cmdlets into Reusable Code”, in PowerShell 7 Workshop: Learn How to Program with PowerShell 7 on Windows, Linux, and the Raspberry Pi, Birmingham, West Midlands: Packt Publishing, →ISBN, Part 2 (Scripting and Toolmaking), section “Providing help for our script”, subsection “Parameter help messages”, page 214:

(rare) A combination of a question mark and an exclamation mark; ⟨!?⟩ or ⟨?!⟩.


interrobang

en-verb

interrobang (third-person singular simple present interrobangs, present participle interrobanging, simple past and past participle interrobanged)

interrobangs (present singular third-person)
interrobanging (participle present)
interrobanged (participle past)
interrobanged (past)

/ɪnˈtɛ.ɹəʊˌbæŋ/

/ɪnˈtɛ.ɹəˌbæŋ/

/ɪnˈtɛ.ɹɔˌbæŋ/

[ɪnˈtə.ɹəˌbæŋ]

“I think I can help Carli, but I have to move fast. Federal agents are going to descend on this place like locusts in about twenty minutes, max, and they’ll detain everyone. It’ll be days, at least, before they’re done interrobanging around.”

1998, Laura J. Mixon, Proxies, page 270:

"Qhoenix!?" interrobanged Lrig Lanoisnemid-Eno. "You can't do this!"

2009 12, Jacob Silvia, Qhoenix, Jacob P Silvia, →ISBN, page 190:

"Rhinnick worked with Dr. Peericks?!" gasped Ian, interrobanging like nobody's business.

2022 September 20, Randal Graham, Nether Regions, ECW Press, →ISBN:

(chiefly humorous) To exclaim and question at the same time.


e-quainted

en-adj

e-quainted (comparative more e-quainted, superlative most e-quainted)

more e-quainted (comparative)
most e-quainted (superlative)

People I was thrilled to meet after being e-quainted forever: […]

1997 February 22, Kathleen Swanholt, “Correction and LCC”, in bit.listserv.dorothyl (Usenet):

I'm e-quainted with someone who goes to the VA there and he says he sees Indian groceries when he goes there.

1997 September 12, TJ, “Re: basmati rice”, in rec.food.cooking (Usenet):

2000, Russell Merris, Graph Theory, Wiley-IEEE, →ISBN, page 195,
Let’s say two people are e-quainted if, during the past year, they participated together in one or more of the same chat room discussions. Otherwise, call them e-stranged. Then any two people attending the convention’s introductory cocktail party will be either e-quainted or e-stranged.

I am e-quainted with a Catherine who became Cathrin, also for Goff reasons.

2004 December 7, Dave Larrington, “Re: Cynical? moi?”, in uk.rec.sheds (Usenet):

(Internet) Acquainted by means of online communication.


Zimblish

A language combining English with Zimbabwean languages, such as Shona, Zulu, Ndebele and Xhosa.


Spanglish

Dunglish

mixture of English and Dutch in the Netherlands

Llanito

mixture of English and Spanish in Gibraltar

The Nobel laureate Octavio Paz is said to have had it that Spanglish is “neither good, nor bad, but abominable.”

2021 November 23, John McWhorter, “America Has More Than One Spanglish”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A language blend of English and Spanish spoken by both Latinas, Latinos, and Anglo-Americans.


exoatmospheric

Pertaining to, or occurring in the nearby region of space outside the Earth's atmosphere


brunch

en-noun

brunch (countable and uncountable, plural brunches)

→ Armenian: բրանչ (brančʻ)

→ Cantonese: 早午餐 (zou2 ng5 caan1)

→ Danish: brunch

→ Finnish: brunssi

→ French: brunch

→ German: Brunch

→ Georgian: ბრანჩი (branči)

→ Icelandic: bröns

→ Italian: brunch

→ Japanese: ブランチ (buranchi)

→ Korean: 브런치 (beureonchi)

→ Norwegian:

Norwegian Bokmål: brunsj

Norwegian Nynorsk: brunsj

→ Polish: brunch

→ Portuguese: brunch

→ Romanian: brunch

→ Russian: бранч (branč)

→ Spanish: brunch

→ Swedish: brunch

→ Yiddish: בראָנטש (brontsh)

Blend of breakfast + lunch. Attested from 1895 in British English and from 1930 in the United States.

I normally have brunch at the café next to work.

Let's do brunch sometime at the salad bar!

Feeling a bit peckish, Sandra made herself some brunch with the leftovers in her fridge.

I discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch.

April 15 1993, Adam I. Lapidus, “The Front”, in Rich Moore, director, The Simpsons, season 4, episode 19, spoken by Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta):

A meal eaten later in the day than breakfast and earlier than lunch, and often consisting of typical foods from both of those meals.


tromboon

Blend of trombone + bassoon, humorously coined by composer Peter Schickele, attributed to fictitious composer P. D. Q. Bach.

(music) A trombone with the reed and bocal of a bassoon placed instead of the usual mouthpiece, which combines the limitations of both instruments, producing a loud comical sound.


Amerind

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Amerind.wav

Blend of American + Indian or possibly blend of American + indigenous. First appears c. 1899 in the publication American Anthropologist.

The cultural hiatus associated with the Pine Pollen Zone suggests that Amerinds may have avoided the area.


wapanese

Blend of white + Japanese under influence from wigger, ("white" + "nigger"), although sometimes parsed as wannabe + Japanese, popularized by the message board 4chan.

Now, I know some of you Wapanese (Caucasian Japan fanboys) might get your panties in a bunch, but it's my opinion. LIVE WITH IT.

2003 December 16, I. B. Blaqman [username], “I really hate the way Japanese media sensationalizes their so-called "superstars"”, in soc.culture.japan (Usenet):

She wasn't the best, Wapanese.

2006 February 28, Blowhole911 [username], “Re: Arakawa”, in soc.culture.japan (Usenet):

His making the greatest samurai legend in Japanese history a white guy in the middle of the closed country era pretty much sealed it that he's a Wapanese with a pen.

2007 November 5, WrestlingizReel [username], “Re: Too much Hiro in ancient Japan?”, in rec.arts.tv (Usenet):

(derogatory, ethnic slur, dated) Synonym of weeaboo: a person from elsewhere, particularly an unsocial white male, considered overly infatuated with Japanese culture.


Googlish

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Googlish.wav

One of our Austrian readers who speaks and writes excellent English has translated the German, and placed it here, if the Googlish translation is doing your brain in.

2003 June 15, “SCO's evidence unveiled?”, in The Inquirer:

(informal) A notional language, not quite identical to English, resembling the result of such translation.


stagflation

stagflation (countable and uncountable, plural stagflations)

→ Russian: стагфляция (stagfljacija)

Blend of stagnation + inflation, generally thought to have been coined by the British politician Iain Macleod (1913–1970) in a 17 November 1965 parliamentary speech: see the quotation.

coinage

We now have the worst of both worlds—not just inflation on the one side or stagnation on the other, but both of them together. We have a sort of "stagflation" situation and history in modern terms is indeed being made. There is another point behind the figures. As I say, production has fallen by 1 per cent. or ½ per cent.

1965 November 17, Iain Macleod, “Economic Affairs”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Commons Official Report (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 720, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-04-27, column 1165:

As soon as we understand how involuntary unemployment can result from rational and well-informed individual behavior, it also becomes obvious how inflation and unemployment—which we once thought could not occur simultaneously—can be combined, as they have been in the recent stagflation.

1982, Mancur Olson, “The Questions, and the Standards a Satisfactory Answer Must Meet”, in The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities, New Haven, Conn.] London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 8:

Since no one had the solutions to stagflation, [Jimmy] Carter, a fiscal conservative from the beginning, was thrown back to his personal bias and chose to elevate inflation to the nation's most pressing problem. […] More radical solutions to stagflation, such as direct wage and price controls or voluntary wage freezes to halt the wage/price spiral, were not thought to be socially acceptable. So, in the end the administration acquiesced to monetary stringency and watched its tenure recede.

1995, Anthony S. Campagna, “Conclusions and Legacy”, in Economic Policy in the Carter Administration (Contributions in Economics and Economic History; no. 171), Westport, Conn.; London: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 204:

Moving into the mid-1970s, America's economic performance suffered. Stagflation—inflation combined with minimal economic growth—eroded wages and profits, weakening business and consumer confidence.

2013, George R. Tyler, “Facing Reality”, in What Went Wrong: How the 1% Hijacked the American Middle Class … and What Other Countries Got Right, Dallas, Tex.: BenBella Books, →ISBN, section 1 (The Beginning), page 4:

The UK economy is suffering a nasty bout of stagflation and the prospects appear poor. That is the conclusion financial markets drew this week from yet more disappointing data, highlighting the weakness of the post-Covid economy and the persistence of high inflation.

2023 June 17, Chris Giles, Delphine Strauss, “Britain’s economic malaise”, in Roula Khalaf, editor, FT Weekend, London: Financial Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-21, page 6:

Stagflation is a period of stagnant economic growth accompanied by persistently high inflation and a sharp rise in unemployment. While stagflation is quite rare—the U.S. has only experienced one sustained period of stagflation in recent history, in the 1970s—it’s become a more frequent topic of speculation. While it's unlikely that the U.S. economy is headed for another bout of stagflation, it's important to contextualize what's happening with the prominent episode of stagflation in the 1970s. […] Stagflation refers to an economy characterized by high inflation, low economic growth and high unemployment.

2023 December 11, Anna-Louise Jackson, “Is the U.S. Economy Heading For Stagflation?”, in Benjamin Curry, editor, Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-02-21:

"[Donald Trump's tariff proposal] is a prescription for the mother of all stagflations,” Larry Summers, Treasury secretary during the [Bill] Clinton administration, told Bloomberg TV back in June.

2024 October 30, Laurent Belsie, “Surprisingly, Wall Street doesn’t seem to care who gets elected. So far, at least.”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass.: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(economics) Prolonged high inflation accompanied by stagnant growth, often with recession and high unemployment.

رُكُود تَضَخُّمِي

prolonged high inflation accompanied by stagnant growth


irregardless

/ˌɪɹɪˈɡɑːdlɪs/

/ˌɪɹɪˈɡɑɹdlɪs/

/ˌɪɹəˈɡɑɹdləs/

Probably a blend of irrespective + regardless; the word can also be analysed as ir- + regardless because it is possible that the prefix ir- was added to amplify the negative in regardless just as plain negatives often did at the time the word came into use (and still do in dialects).

Dear loved ones were unceremoniously hurried off home, irregardless to any previous arrangement, where they could sit down and recount the incidents of the trip to those who had been left behind, and where they were welcomed with the hearty greeting, "Home again."

1875, “History”, in Grand Excursion to New Orleans: Reed Commandery, No. 6, Knights Templar, Stationed at Dayton, Ohio, on Board the Steamer Thomas Sherlock, Dayton, Oh.: Journal Steam Job Printing Establishment, →OCLC, page 51:

Mr. Mᶜg. [Rob Roy MacGregor], far from being unsusceptable of flatterry,^([sic]) irregardless of his own private interest, readily assented, and had a paper dictated to him to the following purpose: […]

1898, John Murray, “Part II. The Expedition from the Prince’s Landing to His Arrival at Derby.”, in Robert Fitzroy Bell, editor, Memorials of John Murray of Broughton: Sometime Secretary to Prince Charles Edward, 1740–1747: […] (Publications of the Scottish History Society; 27), Edinburgh: Printed at the University Press by T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for the Scottish History Society, →OCLC, page 160:

"Karsh said to get a picture - regardless or irregardless."

1957 May 20, William P. McGivern, Alfred Hitchcock's Suspense Magazine, page 125, column 1:

Clitic resumptive pronouns are a major feature in Somali syntax. Object resumptive pronouns corresponding to arguments must always occur (with 3rd pers. pronoun=Ø) irregardless of the presence and position of the full coindexed object NPs [noun phrases].

1995 January, Marco Svolacchia, Lunella Mereu, Annarita Puglielli, “Aspects of Discourse Configurationality in Somali”, in Katalin É. Kiss, editor, Discourse Configurational Languages (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax), New York, N.Y., Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 67:

[T]he crime by definition allowed for the prosecution of both defendants irregardless of which defendant physically pulled the trigger.

2003 December 22, John Clifford Wallace, Cynthia Holcomb Hall, Diarmuid O'Scannlain, Circuit Judges, “Jonathan C. Shaw v. Cal Terhune, No. 02-16829, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), FindLaw, archived from the original on 2018-08-06:

Irregardless, ex-boyfriends are just off-limits to friends. I mean that's just, like, the rules of feminism.

2004, Tina Fey, Mean Girls, spoken by Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert):

Again following [Walter Garrison] Runciman, whether we agree with the biological race concept or not, its continued formal and informal salience confirms that competing racial understandings exist irregardless of whether they are valid truths or subjective speculations.

2005, Brett St Louis, “Racialization in the ‘Zone of Ambiguity’”, in Karim Murji, John Solomos, editors, Racialization: Studies in Theory and Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 38:

(nonstandard, proscribed, sometimes humorous) Irrespective, regardless.


aolbonics

Blend of AOL + Ebonics: the Internet service provider AOL was often regarded as having a high proportion of barely literate Internet users.

(Internet slang, rare) The practice of talking using numbers, or using short phonetic spellings (as in "Hey evry1, how r u?"), as a shorthand to save on keystrokes.


cheeseburger

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cheeseburger.wav

Etymology tree
Latin cāseusbor.
Proto-West Germanic *kāsī
Old English ċīese
Middle English chese
English cheese
English hamburger
English cheeseburger
Blend of cheese + hamburger (1928). By surface analysis, cheese + -burger.

etymon

Neon in daylight is a / great pleasure, as Edwin Denby would / write, as are light bulbs in daylight. / I stop for a cheeseburger at JULIET'S / CORNER.

1956, Frank O'Hara, A Step Away from Them:

Busy Americans (many women were working and not cooking as much) were dining on foods such as deep-fried chicken, thick slices of pizza, double cheeseburgers, and big slabs of steak.

2007, Loretta Ichord, Double Cheeseburgers, Quiche, and Vegetarian Burritos, page 48:

A hamburger containing cheese (usually one or more slices of processed cheese).


chigger

—He's not black, Stacia Jacobs who smelled like pee said. — He's yellow and black. He's a chigger. Do you know what a chigger is? It's a chink and a nigger.

2007, James Boice, MVP: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 37:

(US, slang, derogatory, offensive) An East Asian person who behaves in ways similar to a stereotypical urban African American.


slithy

Blend of lithe + slimy, coined by Lewis Carroll in 1871.

The squid wrapped its slithy tentacles around its prey.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

She wanted to wear these slithy, snaky gowns you see in the pictures in the hallways of the $3 photographers.

1906, Good Housekeeping, volume 43, page 130:

Such a carriage is known as “an araba,” or alternatively as an yaili—a name which is probably onomatopœic, for it is about the “slithiest” thing that runs on wheels.

1914, Edgar Thomas Ainger Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind: Life in Eastern Kurdistan:

Falling roof, hidden shafts, slithiest snakes could not have stopped me after that. I arrived in the sparkling area.

1917, Gertrude Singleton Mathews, Treasure, page 126:

He sweeps down; a frog is pinioned / Swift arrives his faithful soul-mate / True-loves share their slithy dinner.

2013, Jane Wilson-Howarth, A Glimpse of Eternal Snows:

The Beast, slithier even than the Jabberwock and certainly a deal more manxsome as a foe, grips in its claws a dreaded P45 from Piers marking the end of employment at Gussage Court.

2014, Timothy Edward, Lessons in Humiliation, page 157:

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There


hijack

en-verb

hijack (third-person singular simple present hijacks, present participle hijacking, simple past and past participle hijacked)

hijacks (present singular third-person)
hijacking (participle present)
hijacked (participle past)
hijacked (past)

Possibly from a blend of highway + jacker (“one who holds up”) (1915).

blend

To forcibly seize control of some vehicle in order to rob it or to reach a destination (especially an airplane, truck or a boat).


hijack

An instance of hijacking; the illegal seizure of a vehicle; a hijacking.

(politics) An amendment which deletes the contents of a bill and inserts entirely new provisions.

(poker slang) Preflop, the position two before the dealer.


nizzle

Blend of nigga + -izzle. Popularized by the hip-hop culture in 1990s and 2000s, as a rhyme of shizzle, as in fo shizzle my nizzle (“for sure, my nigga”).

(slang, US, African-American Vernacular) Nigga, nigger.


simoleon

Most likely a late-19th-century blend of simon, from simon (“sixpence coin”) (17th-century British slang, perhaps related to simony?), and Napoleon (“French gold coin worth 20 francs, bearing the image of Napoleon III”). Perhaps from New Orleans.

That'll cost you five simoleons.

"T'ought I was lyin' about the money, did ye? Well, you can frisk me if you wanter. Dat's the last simoleon in the treasury. Who's goin' to pay?"

1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 174, column 2:

Another brother working in an Alabama city has not sent a cold simolean or any long green since January; he has ignored several letters, but at last a registered letter found him O.K. and working.

1909, The International Bookbinder - Volume 10, page 240:

We gladly did so with the result that we got a menu worth a dollar and a half or two dollars for a single simolean. Can you beat that?

1912, Delta Chi Quarterly, volume 10, page 286:

His Veteran's insurance came to ten thousand simoleons, rather more than he could bring on the hoof.

Abetted by market-wise agents and paperback publishers with an eye for the speedy simolean, these double-gaited gonzos are perpetrating a plague of best-selling takeoffs of innocent newspapers, defenseless magazines, helpless self-help books - even the Good Book itself.


stash

en-noun

stash (countable and uncountable, plural stashes)

Unknown. Perhaps a blend of stick + cache or stow + cache.

They had quite a stash of food saved up for emergencies.

(countable) A collection, sometimes hidden; a reserve.

The dealers managed to store the dope in the stash just in time to avoid being caught by the police.

(countable, US, slang, informal, African-American Vernacular) A place where drugs are stored.

We've now ordered stash for everyone who said they wanted some.

(uncountable, UK, slang) Clothing or other items branded with a particular university club or society's logo.

My stash is mostly unfinished objects on the needles. I have one bag of yarn that I bought to make a coat.

2021, Julie Cicora, Contemplative Knitting, page 131:

(countable, textiles) A collection of yarn or other materials not yet allocated to any particular craft project.


stash

en-verb

stash (third-person singular simple present stashes, present participle stashing, simple past and past participle stashed)

stashes (present singular third-person)
stashing (participle present)
stashed (participle past)
stashed (past)

He stashed his liquor in the cabinet under the bar.

“Landlord,” said I, “tell him to stash his tomahawk there, or pipe, or whatever you call it; tell him to stop smoking, in short, and I will turn in with him.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 27:

All of the Do The Right Thing characters who are caught up in the quagmire of racial politics are male, while the women in the movie […] are all safely stashed away in their domestic spaces.

1989 August 12, Phil Harper, “Why It's So Hard To Talk About This Movie”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 5, page 10:

(transitive) To hide or store away for later use.


Bollywood

Urduwood

Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry

Bollywood is also very commonly known as both tinsel town and B-town, neither of which is listed in the dictionaries.

2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 302:

(India) The Hindi-language film industry located in Mumbai.


ital

en-noun

ital (countable and uncountable, plural itals)

On the other side of the spectrum are the many ital restaurants that adhere to the Rastafarian dietary laws (no meat, fish or salt).

2009 November 11, Baz Dreisingere, “Kingston: Trading Beach Chairs for Bar Stools”, in The New York Times:

The minister declined the offer of a parley and "itals"―the term for vegetarian dishes that the Dreads favored.

2016, Gabriel J. Christian, Aboard the Commandante Pineres: Dominica, The 11th World Festival of Youth & Students, Cuba July 1978, & the Caribbean Struggle for National Liberation:

(Jamaica, Iyaric) Pure, natural food suiting a Rastafari lifestyle.


bobo

Blend of bourgeois + bohemian, popularized by David Brooks to describe the 1990s equivalent of the yuppie.

The small things—an olive grove or a small chapel—take on greater meaning to a Bobo on vacation.

2000, David Brooks, Bobos in Paradise […] , Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 207:

Peruse the Paris papers these days and you'll notice an obsession with bobos: no, they're not a team of cheerleaders or a troupe of clowns, but rich, artsy types known as bourgeois bohemians, who are now pretty much the tip of Parisian tastemakers. So when friends who were recently staying in Saint Germain des Pres asked me where to go to people watch, I told them to head for the Ninth Arrondissement citadel of bobo cool.

2011 April 12, Alex Lobrano, “Bobo Heaven in Paris”, in T Magazine, retrieved 2019-06-26:

A materialistic person who affects an anti-materialistic persona.

A self-styled bodyguard or groupie of the nouveau riche (such as a professional athlete or musician)

An imitation of something, particularly a well known product, usually lower in quality than the original.


piffle

en-verb

piffle (third-person singular simple present piffles, present participle piffling, simple past and past participle piffled)

piffles (present singular third-person)
piffling (participle present)
piffled (participle past)
piffled (past)

Unknown, 1847. Perhaps blend of piddle + trifle, perhaps puff (“(onomatopoeia, puff of air)”) + -le (“diminutive”).


edutainment

en-noun

edutainment (countable and uncountable, plural edutainments)

In the three years since its beginning, the firm has managed to achieve lift-off into what is essentially the first mass market for vertical software in “edutainment,” software designed to be both educational and entertaining.

1984 September 3, Alexander Besher, “Inside HES”, in InfoWorld, volume 6, number 6, InfoWorld Media Group, →ISSN, page 49:

Educational entertainment, a form of programming (cinematic, television, live action, games or any material) that provides both education and entertainment.


Wintel

“We used to produce our publication on the Mac, but the Wintel platform is cheaper and there are just as many applications available. So it just seemed to make sense to give up the religious war and get on with the business of doing our job,” said the information systems manager at a New York-based magazine, who asked not to be named.

1996 September 23, “Intel attacks Mac publishing niche”, in Computerworld, volume 30, number 39, →ISSN, page 56:

(informal) The popular computing environment of the Microsoft Windows operating system running on an Intel CPU.


alicyclic

(organic chemistry) Of a class of organic compounds having both aliphatic (chain) and cyclic (ring) structure


clopen

James is on vacation, so I've got to do a clopen this weekend to cover his shifts.

A pair of work shifts in which a worker works a closing shift one day and then works an opening shift the following day.


protirement

Blend of pro- + retirement; coined by Arthur Godfrey, according to the article Let's Protire, The American Mercury, January 1961.

1961. George Jean Nathan, Henry Louis Mencken The American Mercury, p. 92,
In other words, retirement connotes regression, whereas protirement would mean progression. ... Arthur Godfrey was right! "Retirement" is a dirty word.

1998, John S. Murphy, Frederic M. Hudson The Joy of Old, Geode Press, 1998, (Amazon.Com book review),
Retire? Thats something you do to a wheel. The authors suggest Protirement instead

Early retirement from professional work with the positive idea of pursuing something more fulfilling.


jug

When the dog’s owners returned with their shopping, I asked what the little dog was. She was a Jug, a Jack Russell-Pug cross. We found out lots about this crossbreed, thought long and hard, and decided a Jug and a Spitz could work really well together.

2013, Lost & Found: True tales of love and rescue from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Penguin Group:

2014, Alan Kenworthy, Jugs: Buying, Caring For, Grooming, Health, Training and Understanding Your Jug Dog or Puppy, Feel Happy Limited

2015, George Hoppendale, Jugs: Jug Dog Complete Owners Manual - Jug book for care, costs, feeding, grooming, health and training, Internet Marketing Business

Stanley ¶ Jug (Jack Russell/Pug cross); 18 months old; keeps fit chasing his ball or frisbee, but would rather be laid on his back, snoring

2018, Cheryl Murphy, Dogs just wanna have FUN!, Veloce Publishing, page 110:

A small mixed breed of dog created by mating a Jack Russell terrier and a pug.


Cablinasian

Blend of Caucasian + Black + Indian + Asian; coined by Tiger Woods to describe his ethnic background.

blend

(rare, of Tiger Woods) Caucasian, Black, American Indian and Asian.


Cablinasian

(rare, of Tiger Woods) A person who is Caucasian, Black, American Indian and Asian.


aerobatics

(aviation) The practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights.


arcology

en-noun

arcology (countable and uncountable, plural arcologies)

Blend of architecture + ecology, coined by Italian architect Paolo Soleri in 1969.

coin

(urban studies, uncountable) Urban development theory proposed by Paolo Soleri involving three-dimensional building methods and efficient use of space and resources.

arcologie

urban development theory involving efficient use of space and resources

Behind the port lay the city, factory domes dominated by the vast cubes of corporate arcologies.

1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 6:

(countable) An extremely large building or complex, sufficient to maintain an internal ecology as well as an extremely high human population density.


Twofish

An encryption algorithm, related to the earlier Blowfish, used in modern cryptographic software.


INMARSAT

Blend of international + marine + satellite.

blend

A British satellite telecommunications company.


wigger

Blend of white + nigger. First use appears c. 1988. See cite below.

I have often heard the word "wigger" used to describe a white person who supposedly acts and talks "black," while the same type of taunting is put upon a black person who supposedly acts "white."

1988 April 20, “How race-conscious are high school students today?”, in The Washington Post, number ?, Washington, D.C., →ISSN, →OCLC, column ?:

To some extent wiggers are simply the most visible examples of a very American brand of teenage rebellion.

1999, Leonard Steinhorn et al., By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race, page 178:

And I just do not got the patience
To deal with these cocky Caucasians
Who think I'm some wigger who just tries to be black...

cultural appropriator
cultural appropriator

(derogatory, ethnic slur) A white person, typically young and male, considered to be overly infatuated with African-American or (UK) Afro-Caribbean culture, a cultural appropriator.


guestimate

en-verb

guestimate (third-person singular simple present guestimates, present participle guestimating, simple past and past participle guestimated)

guestimates (present singular third-person)
guestimating (participle present)
guestimated (participle past)
guestimated (past)


codec

Blend of coder + decoder, probably in imitation of how modem was formed.

Audio and video codecs are important in making multimedia files small enough to distribute and simple to play back.

(computing) A device or program capable of performing transformations on a data stream or signal.

կոդեկ

H.264 and AV1 are examples of video codecs.


carboxyl

(organic chemistry) A univalent functional group consisting of a carbonyl and a hydroxyl functional group (-CO.OH); characteristic of carboxylic acids.


cantheism

(rare) An emergent religion that uses cannabis as a sacrament.


Slush Puppie

Blend of slush + hushpuppy, a trademark.

(British) A slushie, a slush — a non-alcoholic drink made of small ice crystals flavoured with syrup.

Slush Puppy

an alcoholic drink; not to be confused with slush puppy


flog

Though a handful of viral videos and flogs have captured significant interest, the vast majority hardly register with consumers.

2008, Lucas Conley, OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder:

An element more problematic […] in the move of corporate communications and practices online is the sometimes masked nature of such initiatives, for example through blogola and flogs.

2009, Nico Carpentier, Benjamin De Cleen, Participation and Media Production: Critical Reflections on Content Creation, page 33:

[…] hidden advertising and flogs (the use of “personal blogs” for unfair commercial and political purposes), […]

2010, Beata Klimkiewicz, Media Freedom and Pluralism:

(Internet slang) A weblog designed to look authentic, but actually developed as part of a commercial marketing strategy to promote some product or service.


cermet

2003, Stephen F. Krar, Arthur Gill, Exploring Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, page 3-2-14,
The multi-component alloy cermets, made up of different hard materials and binder elements, have high wear-resistance qualities that result in long tool life.

Cutting performance of cermets was improved after development of titanium-molybdenum-carbon-nitrogen and titanium-tungsten-carbon-nitrogen compounds with binders containing nickel, molybdenum, cobalt, or a combination thereof (Ref 3, p.91).

2009, Edmund Isakov, Cutting Data for Turning of Steel, page 114:

Among various tribological materials, cermets are known for their excellent wear resistance under unlubricated conditions.

2011, Bikramjit Basu, Mitjan Kalin, Tribology of Ceramics and Composites: Materials Science Perspective, page 356:

A composite material composed of ceramic and metal materials, used in such applications as industrial saws and turbine blades.


podcast

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁én
Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér
Proto-Italic *ənter
Latin inter
Latin inter-bor.
English inter-
Proto-Indo-European *neHd-der.
Proto-Germanic *natją
Proto-West Germanic *nati
Old English nett
Middle English net
English net
Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom
Proto-Germanic *werką
Proto-West Germanic *werk
Old English weorc
Middle English werk
English work
English network
English internetwork
English Internet
English i-
English pod
English iPodblend.
Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der.?
Proto-Germanic *braidaz
Proto-West Germanic *braid
Old English brād
Middle English brood
English broad
Proto-Germanic *kas-
Proto-Germanic *kastōną
Old Norse kastabor.
Middle English casten
English cast
English broadcastblend.
English podcast
Blend of iPod (“portable music player made by Apple”) + broadcast, probably coined by the British technologist and broadcaster Ben Hammersley (born 1976) who proposed the word podcasting in 2004.

coinage

There's no restriction for what a podcast should and should not be. Of course, if you cover all these topics and more, you may find it harder to find an audience than if you focus on a narrower range and cover it well. Finding listeners is simpler if your podcast can be summarized in a sentence. More people will sample your show if it fits in a category in a podcast directory—like that found in the iTunes Store—than if it ends up lumped in a generic catch-all list.

2007, Andy [J. Williams] Affleck, “Plan Your Podcast”, in Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac, Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press, →ISBN; republished in “Plan Your Podcast”, in Take Control of Podcasting (1.0), San Diego, Calif.: Alt Concepts, 2020, →ISBN:

Try listening to a mix of well-known podcasts. You'll soon find that the best always feature hosts that have their own unique voice.

2016, Matthew Anniss, Create Your Own Podcast, Capstone, →ISBN, page 20:

A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on computers or portable devices such as mobile phones.

(loosely, by extension) An individual episode of such a program.


podcast

en-verb

podcast (third-person singular simple present podcasts, present participle podcasting, simple past and past participle podcasted or podcast)

podcasts (present singular third-person)
podcasting (participle present)
podcasted (participle past)
podcasted (past)
podcast (participle past)
podcast (past)

lähettää podcastina

to deliver (information) in the form of a program over the Internet on a regular basis for playback on computers or portable devices

lähettää podcastia

to deliver a program over the Internet on a regular basis for playback on computers or portable devices

(transitive) To deliver (information) in the form of a program, especially an audio program, over the Internet on a regular basis for playback on computers or portable devices such as mobile phones.

(intransitive) To deliver a program, especially an audio program, over the Internet on a regular basis for playback on computers or portable devices such as mobile phones.


luser

(computing, slang, derogatory) A user (especially in IRC) who disobeys the rules of the servers that they are using and usually resorts to disruptive or offensive behavior/behaviour.


squinch

squinch (third-person singular simple present squinches, present participle squinching, simple past and past participle squinched)

squinches (present singular third-person)
squinching (participle present)
squinched (participle past)
squinched (past)

Uncertain. Probably blend of squint + pinch. Compare squink-eyed, variant of squint-eyed, so perhaps it is at least partly an altered form of squint.

The president squinched his face and bit his lip and seemed too antsy to stand still.

2008 March 15, Gail Collins, “George Speaks, Badly”, in New York Times:

(transitive) To scrunch up (one's face, etc.).


Darth Vader

"Darth" is a blend of dark + death (the derivation from Dark Lord of the Sith is a later development).
"Vader" is traditionally explained as being from Dutch vader (“father”). However, the idea of Vader's fatherhood was only developed for The Empire Strikes Back (after the character was introduced), making this improbable. It is more likely a shortening of invader or from the surname Vader.

What's all this? Looks like Darth Vader's bathroom.

1982, “Knight of the Phoenix”, in Knight Rider, episode 1 (television production), spoken by Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff):

Darth Vader, a villain of the science-fantasy film series Star Wars.


hokum

en-noun

hokum (usually uncountable, plural hokums)

Uncertain; first attested as US theater slang, possibly a blend of hocus-pocus + bunkum.

Recently that publication [Collier's Weekly] has been filling its readers with the good old hokum about red likker and its steady disappearance, and if what has been offered be but half true, beer, light wine and all of the other beverages which have been tabooed by law, are on their way to that place where nothing returns.

1923 May 15, “Prohibition in Springfield”, in Jere L. Sullivan, editor, The Mixer and Server: Official Journal of the Hotel and Restaurant Employes’ International Alliance and Bartenders’ International League of America, volume XXXII, number 5, Cincinnati, Oh.: General Executive Board [Hotel and Restaurant Employes’ International Alliance and Bartenders’ International League of America] […]; printed by Roessler Brothers, printers, publishers, →OCLC, page 27, column 1:

Being in a mood of constructive criticism, I suggest that all future student conferences be made strictly social affairs. All addresses, forum discussions, patriotic service, and other hocums, as such, shall be done away with. Outside of a handful of persons, who either had to or did not know any better, everybody shunned the non-social events.

1926, The Chinese Students’ Monthly, volume 22, Detroit, Mich.: Chinese Students' Alliance in the United States of America, →OCLC, section III, page 66, column 2:

I think we have learned to beware of these political charlatans. We have enough horse sense to neutralize their hokum. But let's start right now to take their hokum apart and show up its component elements for just what they are—the siren songs of demagogy.

1945 May, Alexander Wiley, “Patent Medicine Politics”, in Washington News Digest, Washington, D.C.: Washington News Digest Foundation, →OCLC; republished in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 79th Congress, First Session: Appendix, volume 91, part II, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 14 May 1945, →ISSN, →OCLC, page A2252, column 1:

It is pure hocum, this language that they want more police officers, and they vetoed it over the lack of funding in this account. It is just a pure political thing.

1999, Congressional Record, volume 145, part 19, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 26921, column 2:

(countable, uncountable, informal) (An instance of) meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.

klatergoud

(an instance of) meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate

The majority of the twenty-six stunts described in this volume belong to a species of so-called hokum acts derived from the professional stage and handed down through several generations of actors.

1905, Harry L[ee] Newton, “Crazy Stunts by Harlan Tarbell [advertisement]”, in A Bundle of Burnt Cork Comedy: Original Cross-fire Conversations, Gags, Retorts, Minstrel Monologues and Stump Speeches, Minneapolis, Minn.: T. S. Denison & Company, →OCLC, page 127:

Every experienced playwright, every manager, every stage director, every intelligent actor who has passed his novitiate, knows of things that always have received a certain definite response. Many of these have been formulated. In the sad, glad days of prosperous melodrama they were known as "sure-fire hokum." [...] The "sure-fire hokum" of murderous melodrama encompassed, in a crudely elemental form it is true, nearly all the essentials of success in dramatic situation, most of the values that make popular favor for a play.

1911 November 25, Hartley Davis, “The Play and the Public”, in Lyman Abbott, editor, The Outlook, volume 99, New York, N.Y.: Outlook Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 767:

Probably nowhere else do the popular playmakers of Broadway reveal their imaginative shortcomings so clearly as in the employment of what is colloquially known as hokum. In particular, comedy hokum. [...] Year in and year out, and (though still largely sure-fire) become drably stereotyped and threadbare, this hokum of tripping over the doormat, throwing an imaginary object into the wings and having the stagehand thereupon strike a gong, and the like, is promulgated in all the glory of its venerable whiskers.

1919, George Jean Nathan, “Hokum”, in Comedians All, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC, § 29, page 118:

The "classy" stuff is pretty to talk about, it furnishes inspiration for the dramatic writer, but it is the hocum, the jazbo, what vaudeville styles "comedy acts," which please an audience.

2005, Lawrence Gushee, quoting Sam Kahl, “The Second Season”, in Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 138:

[M]ostly the moviegoer has to put up with clumsily contrived fist fights, musical brogues spoken as though the actor were coping with an excess of tobacco juice in his mouth, mugging that plays up all the trusted hokums that are supposed to make the Irish so humorous-sympathetic, and a script that tends to resolve its problems by having the cast embrace, fraternity-brother fashion, and break out into full-throated ballads.

2009 January 2, Manny Farber, “The Quiet Man: That’s John Wayne, who Used to Speak with His Fists and has to Brandish Them Once Again to Win the Girl of His Dreams”, in The Nation, archived from the original on 2016-04-28:

An anonymous Warner Bros. story analyst in New York, reading it in manuscript, nevertheless reported the alluring presence of “sophisticated hokum.”

2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker:

A war gets fought between authenticity and hokum in Short Term 12, and it ends in an uneasy truce. [...] As it goes along, however, Short Term 12 increasingly succumbs to a screenwriter's worst impulses, becoming neat and tidy in ways that undermine what’s so good about it.

2013 August 22, Mike D’Angelo, “Movie Review: Short Term 12”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-12-30:

(countable, uncountable, informal) (An instance of) excessively contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material in a film, television programme, theater production, etc.

effectbejag

(an instance of) excessively contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material in a film, etc.

[H]e [Stanley Baker] was still churning out the kind of Boy's Own hokums and dreary international espionage thrillers that defined that bygone era.

2004, Julian Upton, “Sir Stanley Baker: The Outsider”, in Fallen Stars: Tragic Lives & Lost Careers (Critical Vision Book), Manchester: Headpress, →ISBN, part 3 (Final Acts), page 136:

(countable, informal) A film, television programme, theater production, etc., containing excessively contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material.

[D]uring the 'twenties, jazz developed from an infrequent ‘hokum’ music in a few vaudeville acts to a household commodity.

1956, Marshall W[inslow] Stearns, “The Jazz Age Begins”, in The Story of Jazz, paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1970, →ISBN, page 153:

As a result a hybrid music, ‘hokum’, became popular. It owed much to ‘Georgia Tom’ Dorsey, Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy, and the first recordings in the idiom appeared around 1929. Many recordings by The Famous Hokum Boys, the Hokum Trio, The Hokum Boys and similar groups were recorded by 1930. Jokey, often bawdy, frequently satirical, they employed rural techniques in an urban setting, gently lampooning country ways through a city sophistication.

1985, Paul Oliver, “Black Music: ‘Sales Tax on It’: Race Records in the New Deal Years”, in Stephen W. Baskerville, Ralph Willett, editors, Nothing Else to Fear: New Perspectives on America in the Thirties, Manchester: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 210:

ES: That thing that you call double bow, I've heard many different names for it. / JG: Rockin' the bow. / ES: I've heard it called a straight shuffle. I've heard it called hocum. Have you ever heard it called hocum? / JG: Yeah, we call the jazz hocum. You see, anything away from the melody.

1990, The Devil’s Box, Madison, Ala.: Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers’ Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 27:

Pianist [Thomas A.] Dorsey and guitarist Tampa Red popularized the double-entendre, up-tempo novelty blues style known as hokum blues that was a forerunner of the up-tempo rhythm and blues, whose similarly adult lyrics often had to be bowdlerized when covered by white singers for the white teen market in the 1950s.

2008, “R&B”, in Charles Reagan Wilson, general editor, Bill C. Malone, editors, Music, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 108:

Blues and hokum intertwined at least through the mid-1930s, when the hokum bands faded out. [...] Hokum was also absorbed into the jazz tradition.

2013, Larry Birnbaum, “The Jumpin’ Jive”, in Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock ’n’ Roll, Lanham, Md.: The Scarecrow Press, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 133:

(uncountable, music) A genre of blues song or music, often characterized by sexual innuendos or satire.


rem

Knit 1 row. Dec 1 st at each end of next row and at each end of every foll alt row until 2 sts rem.

2009, Sally Muir, Joanna Osborne, Diana Miller, Pet Projects: The Animal Knits Bible, page 71:


Popsicle

Blend of pop + Epsicle. From Epperson+icicle. Named after Frank Epperson, its inventor. The Epsicle ice pop; the inventor's children renamed it popsicle, from (soda) pop.

A Popsicle brand popsicle, a type of ice lolly.


corpsicle

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-corpsicle.wav

Blend of corpse + popsicle. The cryogenic sense is a coinage by author Frederik Pohl in The Age of the Pussyfoot (1969).

'Your newspapers called you people corpsicles,' said the blond man. 'I never understood what the tapes meant by that.'
'It comes from Popsicle. Frozen sherbet.' Corbell had used the word himself before he became one of them. One of the corpsicles, the frozen dead.

There are dozens of companies that will turn you into a human corpsicle and store your chilled earthly remains indefinitely.

2007, Daniel H. Wilson, Where's My Jetpack?:, page 176:

I won't turn you into a corpsicle and hope somebody knows how to fix you in a hundred years.

(science fiction) A person who has been cryonically frozen in the hope of later revival.


nutraceutical

Blend of nutrient + pharmaceutical, a marketing term coined by Stephen DeFelice in 1989.

Coordinate term: functional food

The latest nutraceutical nostrum could come from the blueberry.

2004 August 25, “Find your thrill on blueberry hill”, in The Guardian:

Japan, where the probiotic drink Yakult was invented in 1935, is regarded as the homeland of nutraceuticals. Thanks to a lighter legislative touch than in Europe it’s also relatively easy for food manufacturers to claim special powers for their products.

2015 August 31, Trevor Baker, “Why you should forget ‘nutraceuticals’ and focus on a healthy diet”, in The Guardian:

A nutrient or food believed to have curative properties. A food used as a drug.

Nutrazeutikum

supposedly or provenly food with pharmaceutical properties


upsert

The upsert option lets you specify whether the update should be an upsert—that is, it tells MongoDB to update the record if it exists, and create it if it doesn't.

2013, David Hows, Eelco Plugge, Peter Membrey, Tim Hawkins, The Definitive Guide to MongoDB, Apress, →ISBN, page 66:

(databases) An operation that inserts rows into a database table if they do not already exist, or updates them if they do.


twigloo

A temporary circular shelter or structure built from thin branches.


foob

I'm now about six weeks post-surgery, the (proud?) owner of two brand spanking new "foobs" (fake boobs), and I've had some time to process the new additions.

2013 September 14, Joanna Montgomery, “Me and My Foobs: What It's Really Like Post-Mastectomy”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 2021-09-17:

A mastectomy is far different from a breast augmentation, because the surgeon removes all of your breast tissue, which sometimes makes it more difficult for your new breasts to look natural. Would I have to go through all of this and hate my body? But, I can very happily report that I love my foobs.

2018 October 23, Sara Altschule, “I Had A Double Mastectomy To Lower My Genetic Risk Of Cancer A Month Ago. Here's How I'm Doing Now”, in Bustle, archived from the original on 2022-08-08:

Gradually, I became more and more confident about spending time without a foob. I started going foobless around the house with my family, then gradually started introducing short shopping trips and family walks, and within months I had given up on post-surgical bras and foobs altogether.

2021 April 28, “'Bras are a curse!' How lockdown changed readers' views of their breasts”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 2022-12-15:

The suggestions that came back to me either assumed I’d be wearing foobs (breast cancer lingo for fake boobs) or that I would want to conceal my flat chest and its battle scars under high necklines, loose-fitting tops and ugly patterns.

2022 July 23, Ellyn Winters, “I’m as flat as pancake since my mastectomy, but I’m not afraid to wear revealing clothes”, in The Globe and Mail, archived from the original on 2022-09-28:

(slang) An artificial breast implanted after the original has been removed by a mastectomy.


orthonormal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-orthonormal.wav

linear transformation
linear transformation

(functional analysis, geometry, linear algebra) Of a linear transformation: that preserves both angles and lengths.


backronym

[T]he phenomenon has been dubbed STEVE, a backronym that matches the name originally given by aurora watchers. (STEVE is short for "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.")

2018 March 14, Sarah Lewin, “Meet ‘Steve,’ the Aurora-Like Mystery Scientists Are Beginning to Unravel”, in space.com, retrieved 2018-03-17:

These reverse-engineered acronyms, or “backronyms,” are inescapable on Capitol Hill. Two of the biggest laws of the past few years were the CARES Act, for pandemic relief, and the CHIPS for America Act, for semiconductor manufacturing.

2022 November 12, Matteo Wong, “How Did America End Up With the Z.O.M.B.I.E. Act?”, in The Atlantic:

A word that is originally not an acronym but is turned into one by devising a full form for it, sometimes as a folk etymology, sometimes as a contrived acronym to name a new organization, proposal, or other entity.


twunt

Sorry for being kind of a twunt about other matters, but it's because of posts like this that I don't want to write you off or lose you as a friend.

2003 August 13, David Watson, “the UN in anime”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

Let the pub-dodging twunt embarrass himself with his primitive, witless and repetitive insults.

2003 October 29, Farlie A, “Peter 'Heather' Thomas!”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

Is that the twunt who looks like Bill Bailey's younger brother?

2003 November 29, Thanatos, “Annoying ads”, in uk.media.tv.misc (Usenet):

I note that in a recent New Scientist some twunt was advocating the use of C02 pressure washers and acidic/caustic cleaning foams instead of the usual disinfectant approach.

2005 February 25, David Marshall, “Re: Election Campaign”, in alt.dur.general (Usenet):

It is completely normal to harbour desires to batter these smug twunts about the head with a hot MacBook Air.

2011 July 8, Grace Dent, The Guardian, 8 Jul 2011:

“You're so perfect at everything, deal with it yourself. I'm outta here.” [glass shattering] “Okay. That sounded expensive. Terry, Terry, don't be a twunt. What did you break?”

2023 August 14, May Darmon, “The Re-Visibility Bouillabaisse” (9:01 from the start), in Solar Opposites, season 4, episode 10, spoken by Korvo (Dan Stevens):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, vulgar) A fool; an extremely objectionable person.


spottle

(slang) A funnel-shaped container, usually made from a glass or plastic bottle with the bottom removed, that is used to inhale marijuana smoke or to cool the smoke if filled with ice.


chatterati

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chatterati.wav

Blend of chatter + literati, attested since 1990.

2002, Annabelle Sreberny, “Trauma talk,” in Journalism After September 11, Barbara Zelizer and Stuart Allan edd. http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0415287995&id=zHs5FsL2pAIC&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&sig=xCPKCNE7rqbp3yj9eDEhIlq_94o
The newspaper the Guardian, together with its Sunday sister the Observer, are the liberal papers of choice among the middle-class chatterati.

Perhaps some Anatolian Leigh Fermor had a bestseller among the chatterati of Topkapi with his Travels in the Egripos.

At last, after many years, the doctrine of multi-culturalism is being questioned. The chatterati have long held onto this as a core belief, a multi-cultural society where hundreds of different cultures exist side by side, and anyone criticising it has been labeled as a racist.

2004 January 20, Peter Simmons, “political incorrectness and the chatterati”, in One World Net, archived from the original on 2023-07-28:

2005 Christina Odone, in the Manchester Guardian, quoted in Credo by Ray Pritchard http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN1581347197&id=uR7gKh4CWUIC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&sig=58JatuzqcghLCAd6Tazni_ntH2U
From when to die to when to give birth, from whom to have sex with, to how to spend their money, the chatteratis believe they should enjoy unlimited freedom.

as if the plural of a singular *chatterati


murse

Scrubs used this one recently, where Elliot couldn't cope with the idea of dating a male nurse ("murse") and Carla was having trouble accepting Turk's marriage proposal:


fumble

en-verb

fumble (third-person singular simple present fumbles, present participle fumbling, simple past and past participle fumbled)

fumbles (present singular third-person)
fumbling (participle present)
fumbled (participle past)
fumbled (past)

Late Middle English, from Low German fummeln, fommeln, fammeln (German fummeln), or Dutch fommelen.
Or, perhaps from a Scandinavian/North Germanic source; compare related Old Norse fálma, Icelandic fálma, Danish fumle, especially Swedish fumla, famla, with variants: fumbla (“fumble”), fambla (“famble”), related to Swedish fim, fem (Danish fim, Norwegian fim, feima), with a root meaning of “cover, coating of foam or figuratively ditto”, cognate to German Feim (“surf”) and English foam. Possibly has (a more or less unconscious) connection to fathom (via Old Norse faðmr, Swedish famn) in the sense of “embrace”.
The ultimate origin for either could perhaps be imitative of fumbling. Or, from Proto-Indo-European *pal- (“to shake, swing”), see also Latin palpo (“I pat, touch softly”), and possibly Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan (“to feel”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

He fumbled through his prepared speech.

to fumble for an excuse

My understanding stutters, and my memory fumbles.

1711 August 12, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, letter to Dr. Chevenix:

Alas! how he fumbles about the domains.

1800, Wordsworth, Written in Germany on one of the coldest days of the century:

To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly.

Henderson's best strike on goal saw goalkeeper Kingson uncomfortably fumble his measured shot around the post.

2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0 - 2 Blackpool”, in BBC:

(transitive, intransitive, sports) To drop a ball or a baton etc. by accident.

I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers.

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.


fumble

onomatopoeic

imitative

(sports, American football, Canadian football) A ball etc. that has been dropped by accident.


fumble

(British) A dessert similar to a cross between a fool and a crumble.


foofy

en-adj

foofy (comparative foofier, superlative foofiest)

foofier (comparative)
foofiest (superlative)

Possibly a blend of fluffy + poofy or frilly + poofy.
Possibly derived from foofaraw.

unk

Possibly

Possibly

(slang) Excessively frilly or frou-frou, typically in a manner calculated to attract attention to an otherwise unremarkable person or event.


breathalyzer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-breathalyzer.wav

Blend of breath + analyzer. Originally a trademark of Smith & Wesson.

During the three day class we took one day of classroom study followed by one day of operating the breathalyzer and one day of drinking. Yes, I said drinking. […] I hated it but I got it down long enough to take the breathalyzer test. I blew a .11 on the model 900A Breathalyzer.

2012, G. Douglas Ward, Memories of a Small-Town Cop, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 73:

A device that measures alcohol in expired air so as to estimate the concentration of alcohol in a person's blood; used by traffic police in cases of suspected driving while under the influence of alcohol.

alkoholimetro

a device that measures alcohol in expired air


iceteroid

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-iceteroid.wav


manstress

Blend of man + mistress, not attested before 1980.

Tom and Nicole had been married for several years, but it was well known that she was keeping a manstress on the side.

4. Thou shalt commit adultery, or preadultery: If it feeleth good, do it. Particularly if you're French, and keeping a mistress or manstress is expected.

1997, Edward P Moser, Words to Live By, published in the Wall Street Journal on the 25th of March, 1997, as quoted by "Dreyfus2u" (username) on the 26th of March, 1997, "Need WSJ article 3-25-97 -- RE: 10 Commandments...", in alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater, Usenet

(slang) A male equivalent of "mistress"; a male object of one's affections who lies outside of one's primary relationship.


intrapreneurship

/ˌɪn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɜː.ʃɪp/

/ˌɪn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ.ʃɪp/

/ˌɪn.tɹə.pɹəˈnʊɚ.ʃɪp/

The practice of applying entrepreneurial skills and approaches within an established company.


zeedonk

Tigons, ligers and a zeedonk have also been created by miscegenating mammals.

1985, Hartson & Dawson, The Ultimate Irrelevant Encyclopedia, page 66:

One might have imagined that it could only have been Dr. Seuss who had thought up and named the zedonk—the animal produced when a male zebra mates with a female donkey!

1997, Thomas Fensch, Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=iDR_UvtiD_sC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&sig=qB-nL70ow8Z_m8e1cm9518ykKX4

2003, Colin Bell, GCSE Applied Science Student Book http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=WIBBzP4MtvcC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&sig=SVuPX8k4sQZ0y2HPWbm68LKgzQU
Suggest which animals are the parents of the cross breeds, zedonk and tiglion.

2004, Kevin O'Hara, Last of the Donkey Pilgrims http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=IFUBfHAkYmoC&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&sig=BaUIPzeYmdCHT2sMYfzqa4NPPsI
I could have told him about zedonks and zebrasses; donkey cures for whooping cough and gout, how an onager is a wild ass from Central Asia; that the Australian kookaburra is nicknamed “the laughing donkey”; …


zorse

The offspring of a male zebra and a female horse.


affluenza

en-noun

affluenza (usually uncountable, plural affluenzas)

The tension heightens when speaking about "affluenza" from within the economic cultures of Western countries and in particular our North American society. We do live quite privileged lives. Our privileges have clearly become expectations. […] Affluenza has been defined as a cultural disease of excess—an excess that seldom satiates the desire for more. The virus is identified by its symptoms: the feverish pursuit of products, possessions, and privileged passions, which might be outpaced only by a market-driven economy, ravenous consumption, an increasing anxiety over exponential debt, and the yield of excessive waste. Affluenza has also been more personally identified by unmanageable stress and pervasive feelings of emptiness.

2003, Dale P. Andrews, “Preaching a Just Word in Privileged Pulpits: Healing Affluenza”, in André Resner, Jr., editor, Just Preaching: Prophetic Voices for Economic Justice, St. Louis, Mo.: Chalice Press, →ISBN, page 169:

I think that all moms, no matter what their faith, struggle with the expectations of Affluenza Season, especially with the rosy Norman-Rockwell-type images of happy families shown in commercials starting at 12:01 a.m. the day after Halloween (didn't it use to be the day after Thanksgiving?).

2007, René Syler, Karen Moline, “Affluenza Season”, in Good-enough Mother: The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting, New York, N.Y.: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, →ISBN, page 225:

Many contemporary industrial societies are characterized by the condition some writers call "affluenza". In the affluenzic society, the continuous growth in material wealth and consumption of material goods sits at the centre of human life and aspirations, rapidly reducing and replacing other goals and values of human fulfilment[…]. Constituted by a set of robust positive feedback mechanisms, affluenza is the larger system under which many local and global economies now operate, and which shapes the personal values of many individuals and the social priorities of many nations and governments.

2010, Andrew Brennan, Y. S. Lo, “Beyond Individual Responsibility: Governance and the Affluenzic Society”, in Understanding Environmental Philosophy (Understanding Movements in Modern Thought), Durham: Acumen, →ISBN, page 184:

This minor epidemic of affluenzas does not signal a politics that is, in analytical terms, creative. Rather, it signals a type of commentary that has reached an impasse, uncertain of how to further develop an interpretation of and response to the exigencies of global consumption. Even more damagingly, talk of ‘affluenza’ has become a dead end in a time beyond the millennial boom; an era that requires a far more nuanced understanding of why and how the West consumes than is evident in a trite, if pithy, labelling of the western individual as manic shopper.

2010, Kim Humphery, “The New Politics of Consumption”, in Excess: Anti-consumerism in the West, Cambridge, Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, →ISBN:

A feeling of dissatisfaction, anxiety, etc., caused by the dogged and ongoing pursuit of more goods and possessions.


slanguage

slanguage (countable and uncountable, plural slanguages)

/ˈslæŋˌɡwɪd͡ʒ/

Slanguage words tend to lead mayfly lives, counting their duration by days instead of decades. For every one that survives there are dozens of crib deaths.

1994, Richard Lederer, Adventures of a Verbivore, New York: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 107:

(informal) A particular vernacular or vocabulary of slang; the jargon or lingo of a particular group.


Darth

From the Star Wars universe, where it is used as a title for Sith Lords. (There are Darth Vader, Darth Tyranus, Darth Maul etc.) Blend of dark + death (the derivation from Dark Lord of the Sith is a later development).

Consider the threat of an evil hacker, Darth, who can not only eavesdrop on your network connection but also alter the messages that are sent.

2000, David G. Messerschmitt, Understanding Networked Applications: A First Course (textbook), Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, page 400

[…] glaring malevolently across his desk at me in the manner that had earned him the nickname “Darth” among his elite cadre of audio penetration officers.

2000, Antonio J. Mendez, Malcolm McConnell, The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA, HarperCollins, published 2000, →ISBN, page 186:

The evil Darth Leonard steals the formula and a young couple must get it back (real life Ward Leonard is a legendary recluse who has hiked the Appalachian Trail something like 20-30 times).

2005, John Illig, Pacific Dream: A Pacific Crest Trail Through-Hike, Elderberry Press, →ISBN, page 74:

I’m sure Darth Hoodie has some other illegal way of messing with inexperienced quarterbacks on the road.

2015 November 27, Jimmy Kempski quoted in "Patriots-Broncos prediction roundup" in Boston Globe

(humorous) Used as a title or name for an evil person.


glutelin

A minor protein (along with gluten and gliadin) in wheat.


grundle

Possibly Utah colloquial from Blend of group + bundle.

We won't completely explain why this approach works — just trust us and save a grundle of work.

1981, Paul A. Randle, Philip R. Swensen, Personal Financial Planning for Executives, page 263:

We've got a grundle of push buttons, but nobody has to remember what mode they're in.

The guy's got a grundle of money; everyone's really excited, but one of the investors is a little bit nervous about this guy.

1994, West Virginia Bar Association, Annual Report of the West Virginia Bar Association, page 56:

This meant that for all but the richest families, the best sort of woman was one who could bear a grundle of children while working like a plowhorse.

1997, Martha Nibley Beck, Breaking Point, page 66:

For a grundle of ideas, go visit the website


snarf

en-verb

snarf (third-person singular simple present snarfs, present participle snarfing, simple past and past participle snarfed)

snarfs (present singular third-person)
snarfing (participle present)
snarfed (participle past)
snarfed (past)

Probably of imitative origin. Alternatively, perhaps a blend of snack + scarf or snort + scarf. First attested in 1963.

onomatopoeic

imitative

He snarfed a whole bag of chips in a couple of minutes!

Freed from the usual inhibitions, we get home and I snarf down pasta salad right out of the Tupperware container[…]

1999, Marya Hornbacker, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, page 239:

"I'm not going to sit there while you two watch me snarf a whole pie by myself."

2000, Nancy Woodruff, Someone Else's Child, page 40:

The old 40-horse models used to snarf up more fuel than today's 90-horse models.

2003, Allen D. Berrien, Powerboat Care and Repair: How to Keep Your Outboard, Sterndrive, Or Gas-Inboard Boat Alive and Well, page 41:

(transitive, slang) To eat or consume greedily.

As the two friends […] exited the door, they noticed two businesses, quick to snarf up the growing gay market in holiday spendingg, had pinned up notices.

1982 December 11, Andrea Loewenstein, “The Joys of Community or Holiday-itis Strikes Back”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 21, page 12:

I snarfed a bunch of freebies from the vendor's booth when he wasn't looking.

(transitive, slang) To take something by dubious means, but without the connotations of stealing; to take something without regard to etiquette.

I snarfed the whole database into my program.

(transitive, slang, computing) To slurp (computing slang sense); to load in entirely; to copy as a whole.

Either write-through or write-back policy caches may snarf the data that the bus master is writing to memory.

1995, Tom Shanley, Don Anderson, ISA System Architecture, page 296:

...in addition, the embedding enables the designer to snarf features from the underlying language […]

1996, Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, Julie Sussman, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, page 399:

2001: Brad A. Myers, Choon Hong Peck, Jeffrey Nicols, Dave Kong, and Robert Miller, Interacting at a Distance Using Semantic Snarfing, in Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Ubiquitous Computing, pages 305-314.
Other future applications of the semantic snarfing idea might include classrooms, where students might snarf interesting pieces of content from the instructor's presentation; […]

(transitive, slang, computing, by extension) To fetch (in general).


gerrymander

en-verb

gerrymander (third-person singular simple present gerrymanders, present participle gerrymandering, simple past and past participle gerrymandered)

Elkanah Tisdale
Nathan Hale (journalist)
gerrymandering

gerrymanders (present singular third-person)
gerrymandering (participle present)
gerrymandered (participle past)
gerrymandered (past)

/ˈdʒɛɹiˌmændə/

/ˈd͡ʒɛɹiˌmændɚ/

Blend of Gerry + salamander (named after Elbridge Gerry), from the similarity in shape to a salamander of an electoral district created when Gerry was the governor of Massachusetts. Coined by editors of the Boston Gazette 26 March 1812, in text likely written by Nathan Hale and Benjamin and John Russell, and accompanying a cartoon by Elkanah Tisdale.

coin

(transitive, derogatory) To divide a geographic area into voting districts in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election.

The superintendent helped gerrymander the school district lines in order to keep the children of the wealthy gated community in the better school all the way across town.

(transitive, derogatory, by extension) To draw dividing lines for other types of districts in an unintuitive way to favor a particular group or for other perceived gain.

Westminster City Council has been accused by the District Auditor of using public money to gerrymander marginal wards for the 1990 Borough elections. The strategy of attempting to 'gentrify' eight key wards, selling off council homes and hostels for the homeless to move out potential Labour voters and attract in more Conservative voters, was in conflict with the council's statutory duty to homeless people

2000, Hugo de Burgh, Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 207:

Fermanagh Council even went so far as to create the new village of Donagh in an attempt to move Catholics out of Newtownbutler, four miles away, so unionists could gerrymander a majority.

2022 December 1, Trevor Birney, Quinn, Merrion Press, →ISBN:

(transitive, derogatory, by extension, chiefly UK and Ireland) To deliberately bring in voters of one's own party or displace voters of another party from a voting district in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election.


gerrymander

/ˈdʒɛɹiˌmændə/

/ˈd͡ʒɛɹiˌmændɚ/

Elkanah Tisdale
Nathan Hale (journalist)

Any citizen looking at a map of district 12 could immediately tell that it was a gerrymander because of the ridiculous way it cut across 4 counties while carving up neighborhoods in half.

(derogatory) A voting district skewed by gerrymandering.

manipulált választókerület (határú)

a voting district skewed by gerrymandering


multiverse

First appears c. 1895. Blend of multiple + universe, coined by American philosopher William James. By surface analysis, multi- + -verse.

coined

Visible nature is all plasticity and indifference, a multiverse, as one might call it, and not a universe.

1895 October, William James, “Is Life Worth Living?”, in International Journal of Ethics, page 10:

I've never gone through a place like Racine without thinking which house with the rubber-tire swing for kids and piano-practicing inside was like Stiva Lausch's, who had two daughters brought up with every refinement, including piano lessons, and how such little-speaking Odessa-bred sons had gotten on a track like this through the multiverse.

1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 6, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC, pages 94–95:

(philosophy) The world, considered as lacking in purpose, design, or predictability.

Meronyms: monoverse, parallel universe

Our universe is a very small part of the multiverse.

And, it must be remembered, that in the great multiverse they were a mere scattering of seeds; seeds that must survive many elements if they were to grow.

1963 May, Michael Moorcock, “The Blood Red Game”, in Science Fiction Adventures, volume 6, number 32, London: Nova Publications:

I have been describing show us that the multiverse exists and that it contains many counterparts of each particle in the tangible universe. To reach the further conclusion that the multiverse is roughly partitioned into parallel universes, we must consider interference phenomena involving more than one tangible particle.

1998 [1997], David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality, New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 46:

I can’t help feeling that in the closest arm of the multiverse, there is a version of me that is fatter and happier.

2020, Raven Leilani, Luster, Picador, published 2021, page 26:

(physics, cosmology) The hypothetical group of all the possible universes in existence.

كون متعدد

hypothetical group of all possible universes

In the DC multiverse, our reality is called "Earth-33". But in the Marvel multiverse, it's "Earth-1218".

(fiction) The different canons, continuities or timelines of a fictional property, considered as a whole.


cremains

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cremains.wav

Blend of cremated + remains. Apparently originally a euphemism used by undertakers.

Some people prefer to keep the cremains in their homes in a special place.

1992, Kathleen Sublette, Martin Flagg, Final Celebrations: A Guide for Personal and Family Funeral Planning, page 52:

Paul's cremains arrived by limo service less than an hour before the living room memorial.

2009, Mugan Sozan Peter Schellin, Rogue Monk: A Memoir about Zen, Disability, and Work, page 93:

Because of these remaining bone fragments, the cremains must be pulverized to a grainy powder before any scattering of ashes.

2010, Norman L. Cantor, After We Die: The Life and Times of the Human Cadaver, page 111:


sward

en-noun

sward (countable and uncountable, plural swards)

The noun is derived from Middle English sward (“rind; skin; calloused skin; leather strap; sod, turf”) [and other forms], from Old English sweard, swearð (“rind; skin”), from Proto-Germanic *swarduz (“rind; tough skin; turf”); further etymology unknown.
The verb is derived from the noun.

nb...

sard, sart, sarth, sarthe, suerd, swad, swarde, swarffe, swarth, swarthe, swerd, swerde, sworde, sworte

inh

His eyes he op'nd, and beheld a field, / Part arable and tilth, whereon were Sheaves / New reapt, the other part ſheep-walks and foulds; / Ith' midſt an Altar as the Land-mark ſtood / Ruſtic, of graſſie ſord; […]

1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 429–433:

There is a dale in Ida, lovelier / Than any in old Ionia, beautiful / With emerald slopes of sunny sward, that lean / Above the loud glenriver, which hath worn / A path thro' steepdown granite walls below / Mantled with flowering tendriltwine.

1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Œnone”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 51:

The road wound through the greenest sward, in which trees of venerable growth were relieved by a profusion of shrubs, and flowers gathered into baskets intertwined with creepers, or blooming from Etruscan vases, placed with a tasteful and classic care, in such spots as required filling up, and harmonised well with the object chosen.

1837, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XIII, in Ernest Maltravers […] , volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I, pages 125–126:

[F]or garden it was called, though consisting but of plots of sward, bordered by fruit trees, and white rose trees not yet in blossom, […]

1843, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “Earl Warwick, the King-maker”, in The Last of the Barons, volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book II (The King’s Court), page 172:

And long we gazed, but satiated at length / Came to the ruins. High-arch'd and ivy-claspt, / Of finest Gothic, lighter than a fire, / Thro' one wide chasm of time and frost they gave / The park, the crowd, the house; but all within / The sward was trim as any garden lawn: […]

1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Prologue”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 5:

(uncountable) Earth which grass has grown into the upper layer of; greensward, sod, turf; (countable) a portion of such earth.

чим

earth into the upper layer of which grass has grown; portion of such earth; sod; turf

The roots of the Apple-tree, Olive, and Cypreſſe, lie very ebbe, and creepe hard under the ſourd of the ground.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XVI.] Of the Boughs, Barke, and Roots of Trees.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 477:

(countable, obsolete) The upper layer of the ground, especially when vegetation is growing on it.

(countable, obsolete except British, dialectal) The rind of bacon or pork; also, the outer covering or skin of something.


wholphin

Tursiops truncatus
Tursiops truncatus#Translingual

The fertile hybrid produced by cross-breeding a bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus (mother), and a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens (father).