white-collar

en-adj

white-collar (comparative more white-collar, superlative most white-collar)

more white-collar (comparative)
most white-collar (superlative)

→ Polish: białe kołnierzyki (calque)

From the color of dress shirts worn by professional and clerical workers, as opposed to the rugged denim and chambray shirts normally worn by manual workers.

Pertaining to the culture of white-collar workers, as values, politics, etc.; contrasted with blue-collar.


everybody

Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:


safety valve

purkautumiskeino

Hernández additionally requested that he be given a two-level safety-valve reduction pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2, which mitigates the harsh effect of mandatory minimum sentences on certain first-time offenders who played only supporting roles in drug-trafficking schemes and who provided testimony about their involvement in the criminal activity.

2020 June 30, David Jeremiah Barron, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, “United States v. Hernández-Hernández”, in Federal Reporter […] (No. 19-1123), volume 964, St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-02, page 100:

(figuratively) Any mechanism offering relief from physical or emotional pressure or tension.

(US, law) A United States law, codified at 18 United States Code §3553(f), authorizing a judge to disregard mandatory minimum sentences for some criminals with few or no prior offenses.

United States law authorizing a judge to disregard mandatory minimum sentences for some criminals with few or no prior offenses

vähimmäisrangaistuksen sivuuttamisen salliva laki


guarda-chuva

[ˌɡwaɾ.ðɐˈʃu.vɐ]

[ˌɡwaɾ.ðɐˈʃu.vɐ]

[ˌɡwaɾ.ðɐˈt͡ʃu.βɐ]

From guardar (“to guard”) + chuva (“rain”).


paraguas

→ Catalan: paraigua (calque)

Verb-object compound, composed of para (“to stop”) + aguas (“water(s)”).

es-verb-obj

No sirven las gabardinas ni los paraguas en Egipto.

2011, Héctor Abad Faciolince, Oriente empieza en El Cairo, alfaguara, →ISBN:

Raincoats and umbrellas are useless in Egypt.


leap year

PIE word
 *yóh₁r̥
From Late Middle English lepe-yer, lep-yer (“year with 366 days, leap year”), from lep, lepe (“act of jumping, jump, leap”) (from Old English hlīep, hlȳp, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *klewp- (“to spring; to stumble”)) + yer (“calendrical unit based on a complete revolution of the Earth around the Sun, year”) (from Old English ġēar, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year”)). The English term is analysable as leap (noun) + year, and possibly relates to the phenomenon that any fixed date of a 365-day calendar advances one weekday each year but every date of a 366-day year after February 29 (often seen as the leap day) advances by two weekdays instead. For example, Christmas (December 25) fell on a Saturday in 2004, a Sunday in 2005, a Monday in 2006, and a Tuesday in 2007 but then “leapt” over Wednesday to fall on a Thursday in 2008 which was a leap year.
Compare also Old English mōnan hlȳp (“moon’s leap”) and Medieval Latin saltus lūnae (literally “leap moon”), an additional day added every 19 years (a Metonic cycle) to bring the lunar and solar calendars into alignment.
cognates
* Old Norse hlaup-ár (“leap year”)

noncog

The additional day which occurred every fourth year [after the Julian Reform] was given to February, as being the shortest month, and was inserted in the calendar between the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth day. February having then twenty-nine days, the twenty-fifth was the sixth of the calends of March, sexto calendas; the preceding, which was the additional or intercalary day, was called bis-sexto calendas, hence the term bissextile, which is still employed to distinguish the year of 366 days. The English denomination of Leap-Year would have been more appropriate if that year had differed from common years in defect, and contained only 364 days. In the ecclesiastical calendar the intercalary day is still placed between the 24th and 25th of February; in the civil calendar it is the 29th.

1842, “CALENDAR”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature. […], 7th edition, volume VI, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, →OCLC, page 5, column 2:

A year in the Julian or Gregorian calendar with an intercalary day added to February (in the Gregorian calendar, February 29), used to adjust for the extra hours of the solar year; a 366-day year.

skrikkeljaar

year in the Julian or Gregorian calendars with an intercalary day added to February

(loosely) Any other year featuring intercalation, such as a year in a lunisolar calendar with 13 months instead of 12, used to maintain its alignment with the seasons of the solar year.


weekend

→ Arabic: ويكند

→ Armenian: վիքենդ (vikʻend)

→ Czech: víkend

→ Danish: weekend

→ French: weekend

→ German: Wochenende (calque)

→ Hungarian: víkend

→ Italian: weekend

→ Macedonian: викенд (vikend)

→ Dutch: weekend

→ Polish: weekend

→ Romanian: weekend

→ Russian: уик-энд (uik-end)

→ Serbo-Croatian: vìkend

→ Slovak: víkend

→ Swedish: weekend

From week + end. Originally a Northern England regionalism (see 1903 quotation), in more general use from late 19th century. Compare Saterland Frisian Wiekeneende (“weekend”), West Frisian wykein (“weekend”), Dutch weekeinde (“weekend”), German Low German Wekenenn (“weekend”), German Wochenende (“weekend”).

cog

“They can live upon barley-meal without a morsel of meat from week-end to week-end, can these miserable Sawnies,” quoth another.

1874 July–December, W. Senior, “With the Herring Fleet”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, page 704:

[…] often took a few boys down there for what we North Country folk call the week-end — Saturday and Sunday; it was also used as a sanatorium if required.

1903, Francis Markham with Sir Clements Robert Markham, Recollections of a town boy at Westminster, 1849–1855, page 34:

I love a phrase of Dizzy's in one of his later letters to Lady Bradford, whom he reproaches for her addiction to what we now call week-end visits to country houses: “the monotony of organized platitude.”

1921 June 21, The Earl of Oxford and Asquith, K.G., chapter XX, in Memories and Reflections 1852–1927, volume 2, Cassell and Company, published 1928, →OCLC, page 197:

The break in the working week, usually two days including the traditional holy or sabbath day. Thus in western countries, Saturday and Sunday.

ܫܘܼܠܵܡܵܐ ܕܫܵܒ݂ܘܿܥܵܐ

šulāmā d-šāḇoʿā


backbone

en-noun

backbone (countable and uncountable, plural backbones)

From Middle English bakbon, bakebon, bac-bon; equivalent to back + bone. Compare the semantically analogous English ridgebone.

The series of vertebrae, separated by disks, that encloses and protects the spinal cord, and runs down the middle of the back in vertebrate animals.

عَمُود فَقْرِيّ

series of vertebrae that encloses the spinal cord

Before automobiles, railroads were a backbone of commerce.

Undoubtedly it can be said that the humble 0-6-0 has been the backbone for general service, or general utility on British railways right from their earliest days, and is likely to remain so.

1945 November and December, H. C. Casserley, “Random Reflections on British Locomotive Types—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 320:

With little regular employment available in East Kent the backbone of the Kent Coast passenger traffic is therefore the commuters, the not inconsiderable numbers of people who travel each day to their work in Faversham, Sittingbourne, the Medway Towns and most of all, London.

1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 212:

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) and other community-based organizations that "provide backbone and leadership" in AIDS services are "reeling under the impact of growing case loads," said Pat Christen, SFAF's new director.

1989 December 10, John Zeh, “AIDS Groups' Execs Arrested In D.C.”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 22, page 1:

(figuratively) Any fundamental support, structure, or infrastructure.

دِعَامَة

any fundamental support, structure, or infrastructure

He would make a good manager, if he had a little more backbone.

His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That's backbone. His starched collars and got-up shirt-fronts were achievements of character. He had been out nearly three years; and, later, I could not help asking him how he managed to sport such linen.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 207:

(figuratively) Courage, fortitude, or strength.


worksheet

From work + sheet. First use appears c. 1823 in the publications of Isaac D'Israeli.

(education) A sheet of paper or computerized document on which problems are worked out or solved and the answers are recorded.


snowplow

A motorized vehicle that is used to push snow off flat surfaces such as roads and parking lots.


millstone

Dalgarven Mill – Museum of Ayrshire Country Life and Costume

From Middle English mylneston, milneston, from Old English mylenstān (“millstone”), from Proto-West Germanic *mulīnu + *stain; equivalent to mill + stone; cognate with Danish møllesten, Middle Dutch molensteen (modern Dutch molensteen), West Frisian molestien, Norwegian Bokmål møllestein, Old Saxon mulinstēn (Middle Low German mȫlenstēn), Old High German mulinstein, mülstein (Middle High German mülstein, modern German Mühlstein).

As it is the circular Motion of the Mill-ſtone which brings the Corn out of the Hopper by Jerks, and with a Velocity depending upon that of the Stone, other Grains are always ſucceeding, which raiſe it anew, and the Flower just made being no longer preſs'd is carry'd away into the Boulting Mill by the Circulation of Air that the Mill-ſtone puts into motion, which makes a whirling there.

1744, J[ohn] T[heophilus] Desaguliers, “Lecture XII. On Engines, especially Hydrostatical and Hydraulick Machines.”, in A Course of Experimental Philosophy, volume II, London: Printed for W. Innys, at the West End of St. Paul's; M. Senex, in Fleet-street; and T[homas] Longman, in Pater-noster-Row, →OCLC, page 429:

The reason why a mill-stone signifies confirmation from the Word in both senses, is, because wheat signifies good, and fine flour the truth thereof, hence by a mill-stone, by which wheat is ground into fine flour, or barley into meal, is signified the production of truth from good, or the production of what is false from evil, thus also the confirmation of truth or what is false from the Word; […]

1815, Emanuel Swedenborg, “[Book of Revelation,] Chapter XVIII”, in John Clowes, transl., The Apocalypse, or Book of Revelations, Explained According to the Spiritual Sense; in which are Revealed the Arcana which are there Predicted, and have been hitherto Deeply Concealed: Translated into English from a Latin Posthumous Work, of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg [by William Hill]; and Revised by the Translator of the Arcana Cœlestia [John Clowes], volume VI, London: Printed and sold for the Society for Printing and Publishing the Works of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, instituted in London in the year 1810; by E. Hodson, 15, Cross Street, Hatton Garden; sold also by T. Goyder, 8, Charles Street, Westminster; and may be had of all booksellers in town and country, →OCLC, page 149, paragraph 1182:

We can tell what Australopithecines ate from the remains of their jaws and teeth. The earliest finds show teeth which are large and round like millstones – acting as grinding and pulverizing machines for fibrous vegetation.

1998, Colin Spencer, “Aquatic Ape Theory. How Early Did Fish Enter the Diet?”, in Harlan Walker, editor, Fish: Food from the Waters: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1997, Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, →ISBN, page 307:

A large round stone used for grinding grain.

رَحًى

In North America the millstone grit, and a grey sandy and slaty rock beneath it, occur three times; and it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish these rocks in hand specimens, without the aid of organized remains. And remains are almost exclusively confined to the grey rocks. Common quarrymen, farmers, and foreign geologists, apply the names, greywracke and millstone, to all these rocks promiscuously; neither having observed their different relative positions.

1832, Amos Eaton, Geological Text-book, for Aiding the Study of North American Geology: Being a Systematic Arrangement of Facts, Collected by the Author and His Pupils, under the Patronage of the Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer, 2nd edition, Albany, N.Y.: Published by Websters and Skinners, New York, N.Y.: G. and C. and H. Carvill, Troy, N.Y.: William S. Parker, N. Tuttle, printer, →OCLC, pages 92–93:

From the above account it will be seen how closely the Millstone Grit and the Lower Coal Measures are like one another in their lithological character. Each is a group of thick sandstones parted by shales, and in each beds of coal are very generally found on the top of the sandstones. The differences are these. Among the Millstones the sandstones are thicker, fewer, further apart, more constant both in size and character, and as a rule coarse grits or conglomerates.

1869, A. H. Green, C[lement] le Neve Foster, J. R. Dakyns, “Lower Coal-measures or Ganister-beds”, in The Geology of the Carboniferous Limestone, Yoredale Rocks, and Millstone Grit of North Derbyshire and the Adjoining Parts of Yorkshire. (Sheets 81 N.E., 81 S.E., 72 N.E., and Adjoining Parts of 88 S.E., 82 N.W., 82 S.W., and 71 N.W. of the Map of the Geological Survey.) (Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales), London: Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office; published by Longmans, Green and Co., →OCLC, page 11:

(geology) A coarse-grained sandstone used for making such stones; millstone grit.

Paying the mortgage every month is a millstone round their necks.

[H]owever great and powerful England may be, the strain of such entanglements cannot but tell on her, and one day she may find herself in a predicament in which India may simply hang as a mill-stone round her neck.

1905, Pherozeshah M[erwanjee] Mehta, “Speech on the Ilbert Bill”, in C[hirravoori] Y[ajneswara] Chintamani, editor, Speeches and Writings of the Honourable Sir Pherozeshah M. Mehta, K.C.I.E., Allahabad: The Indian Press, →OCLC, page 164:

Furthermore, Colonel [Josiah Clement] Wedgwood was dead against special representation being given to landlords or even to universities. "Let India beware," he declared, "of the expansion of communal representation which she will find as a mill-stone hanging about her neck which will grow heavier as time goes on."

[1920], “Britain and India”, in Josiah C. Wedgwood: The Man and His Work, Madras: S. Ganesan & Co., →OCLC, page 118:

Another millstone around the NDP’s neck was the relative lack of seasoned parliamentarians in the government front bench who were skilled enough at repartee to take on the Tory veterans across the floor.

1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6:

That stunning defeat effectively ushered in a three-year deep freeze on any discussion of climate in Congress, an era of paralysis so pervasive that in June 2013, in what many environmentalists hailed as a milestone for action on climate and critics decried as a millstone around the neck of a struggling economy.

2015, Seamus McGraw, “The Other White Meat”, in Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 67:

AI may be a millstone to countries with a large population, they are a boon to a shrinking one.

2023 September 23, Leo Lewis, “It takes a village”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 2:

millstone round one's neck
millstone round one's neck#English

(figurative) Ellipsis of millstone round one's neck (referring to Matthew 18:6 in the Bible): a heavy responsibility that is difficult to bear.


eyelid

From Middle English eyelidd, eye-led, eiȝelid, eghe-lydd, yȝe-lydd, ehlid, yhelidd, equivalent to eye + lid. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Oogenlid (“eyelid”), West Frisian eachlid (“eyelid”), Dutch ooglid (“eyelid”), German Low German Ooglidd (“eyelid”), German Augenlid (“eyelid”).
Generally superseded non-native Middle English palpebre (“eyelid”), borrowed from Latin palpebra (“eyelid”) (see Modern English palpebra).

By his neeſings a light doth ſhine, and his eyes are like the eye-liddes of the morning.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 41:18, column 2:

[…] the frightened or insane eyes of an animal, sometimes with eyelids closed in escapeful slumber.

2000, Joshua P. Warren, The Evil in Asheville, page 246:

Allergan, the company that turned an obscure muscle paralyzer for eyelid spasms, Botox, into a blockbuster wrinkle smoother, hopes to perform cosmetic alchemy yet again.

2009 January 14, Natasha Singer, “Love the Eyelashes. Who Is Your Doctor?”, in The New York Times:

A thin skin membrane that covers and moves over an eye.

ooglid

anatomy: a thin skin membrane that covers and moves over an eye


eyelash

(anatomy, dermatology) One of the hairs which grows along the edge of eyelids.


bullshit

en-verb

bullshit (third-person singular simple present bullshits, present participle bullshitting, simple past and past participle bullshitted or bullshit or (rare) bullshat)

bullshits (present singular third-person)
bullshitting (participle present)
bullshitted (participle past)
bullshitted (past)
bullshit (participle past)
bullshit (past)
bullshat (participle past rare)
bullshat (past rare)

We just went on stage and bullshitted the whole concert because we didn’t know any songs.

(intransitive, vulgar, slang) To come up with on the spot; to improvise.


tenderfoot

en-noun

tenderfoot (plural tenderfeet or tenderfoots)

tenderfeet (plural)
tenderfoots (plural)

From tender + foot. Refers to the delicate feet of newcomers to ranching or mining areas. First attested 1866.

Watson had risen so hurriedly that he had not been careful about his “tarp” and water had run into his bed. But that wouldn’t disconcert anybody but a tenderfoot.

1914, Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Houghton Mifflin Company, page 173:

"Lavender Cowboy," a pseudo folk song, is a tale of futility. It tells of a tenderfoot "with only two hairs on his chest," whose heroic attempt to prove his manhood results in his death.

1991 August 31, Rudy Grillo, “Color Me Gay”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 7, page 10:

(historical) A newcomer or arriviste to the region in the American frontier (Old West and Wild West).


parasol

Verb-object compound, composed of para (“to stop”) + sol (“sun”).


blackbird

From Middle English blakebird, blacbrid (“ouzel; Eurasian blackbird”), equivalent to black + bird.

Turdus merula
Turdus merula#Translingual

A common true thrush, Turdus merula, found in woods and gardens over much of Eurasia, and introduced elsewhere.


everyone

From Middle English everichon. By surface analysis, every + one.

She was really hungry, so the chicken and tarts served to divert her attention for a time. It was well I secured this forage; or both she, I and Sophie, to whom I conveyed a share of our repast, would have run a chance of getting no dinner at all: every one down stairs was too much engaged to think of us.

1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter II, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 32:

Everyone’s heart palpitated as Leo Dillon handed up the paper and everyone assumed an innocent face.

1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “An Encounter”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 22:

Hello, everyone!
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain), archived from the original on 2017-09-30

every one

archaic or when referring to every person or thing in a group separately, not as a group


Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina#English

Balkan Peninsula
Balkan Peninsula#English

Southeast Europe
Southeast Europe#English

Alternative form of Bosnia and Herzegovina: A country on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Official name: Bosnia and Herzegovina. Capital and largest city: Sarajevo


nobody

From Middle English nobody, no-body, no body. By surface analysis, no (“none, not any”, adjective) + body (“one, person, individual”).

surf

I asked several people, but nobody knew how.

As nobody who is not blind can have failed to notice, I had my hair cut just yesterday.

Not any person; the logical negation of somebody.

it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good

nobody ever went broke underestimating the good taste of the American people

nobody ever went broke underestimating the good taste of the American public

nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people

nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public

nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people

nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public

on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog


peacock

→ Hawaiian: pīkake
→ English: pikake

→ Maori: pīkake

From Middle English pecok, pekok, pocok, pacok, equivalent to pea (“peafowl; peacock”) + cock. Compare Old Norse páfugl (“peacock”, literally “pea-fowl”), and English peahen, peachick, etc.

cog

A peafowl (of the genus Pavo or Afropavo), either male or female.

аԥса́ркәты

pheasant of one of the genera Pavo and Afropavo

(entomology) Any of various Asian species of papilionid butterflies of the genus Papilio.


peacock

en-verb

peacock (third-person singular simple present peacocks, present participle peacocking, simple past and past participle peacocked)

peacocks (present singular third-person)
peacocking (participle present)
peacocked (participle past)
peacocked (past)

A routine border-check in upstate New York had turned into a back-room interrogation, and I was worried, because the three friends I was traveling with didn’t respond to authority well. I could almost hear the wry grins cracking their faces as the officers peacocked. “Is U.S. Customs a joke to you?” one officer asked. My friend Alex said, “No law against smiling, sir.”

2014 May 30, Will Butler, “The Mark of Cane”, in The New York Times Magazine:

(intransitive) To strut about proudly or haughtily.

(intransitive) To engage in peacocking, ostentatious dress or behaviour to impress women.


no one

We went to the store but no one was there.

Sundrie greate perſonages bothe learned and well acquainted with affaires, haue both learnedly, and wiſely written of Politique matters, [...] howbeit there is no one among them all, that hath once buſied himſelfe about the ruling, or direction of the Publique eſtate, in that point, that apperteineth to the vocation of men, [...]

1578, [Pierre de la Place], “That the Vocation of Men, hath beene a Thing Vnknown vnto Philosophers, […]”, in Ægremont Ratcliffe [i.e., Egremont Radcliffe], transl., Politiqve Discourses, Treating of the Differences and Inequalities of Vocations, as well Publique, as Priuate: […], London: […] Edward Aggas, →OCLC, book I, folio 8, recto:

Where Love preſumeth into place, / Let no one ſing in Loves diſgrace.

1684, John Boccacio [i.e., Giovanni Boccaccio], “The Sixth Novel. Sufficiently Declaring, that how Mighty Soever the Power of Love is, yet a Magnanimous and Truly Generous Heart, It Can by No Means Fully Conquer.”, in The Novels and Tales of the Renowned John Boccacio, the First Refiner of Italian Prose: […], 5th edition, London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […], →OCLC, page 437:

Many may boaſt finer eyes, a handſomer mouth, a more commanding figure; but no one can have a better turned ſhape, a fairer complexion, a whiter hand, a more delicate foot, a more benign aſpect, a more bewitching countenance. Without dazzling, ſhe engages, ſhe charms, and no one can tell how.

1763, J[ean-]J[acques] Rousseau, “Book V”, in [William Kenrick], transl., Emilius and Sophia: Or, A New System of Education. […], 2nd edition, volume IV, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. de Hondt […], →OCLC, pages 90–91:

Receive us. We have wronged noöne, we have corrupted noöne, we have taken advantage of noöne.

1848, Jonathan Morgan, transl., The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. […], stereotype edition, Portland, Or.: S. H. Colesworthy; […], II Corinthians 7:2, page 222, column 2:

'The doctor was confined to the house,' Poole said, 'and saw no one.' On the 15th, he tried again, and was again refused; and having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits.

1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Remarkable Incident of Doctor Lanyon”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 55–56:

Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between. His clerks, however, understood him very well. If he had written a love letter or a farce, or a ballade or a story, no one—neither clerks nor friends nor compositors—would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 6:

The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.

1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249:

However, the transcendence of 2#x5C;sqrt#x7B;2#x7D; was so difficult a problem that noöne in the audience would live to see its solution. Within a few years, [Carl Ludwig] Siegel had proven this transcendence!

1991, Craig Smoryński, “Weak Formal Theories of Arithmetic”, in Logical Number Theory I: An Introduction (Universitext), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, page 269:

And why has no one in the [rail] industry advocated for a universal requirement for face covering (even if it's just a scarf or old tea towel), [...]

2020 June 3, Christian Wolmar, “Unworkable Policies Cripple Our Beleaguered Railway”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 51:

Used in contrast to anyone, someone or everyone: not one person; nobody.


somebody

Somebody has to clean this mess up.

e.g. سَأَلَ سائِلٌ (saʔala sāʔilun, “somebody asked”, literally “an asker asked”)


someone

From Middle English sum on, sum one, sum oon, equivalent to some + one.

Can someone help me, please?

Can you get me someone more knowledgeable?

One or some person of unspecified or indefinite identity.

Some translation dictionaries have used the abbreviation s.o.


simple past

(grammar) A tense used to describe something that happened in the past, formed by the inflection of a single word, without any auxiliary verb such as be or have.

passé simple

these terms have slightly different meanings in French, they are not synonyms


hand-held

personal digital assistant
personal digital assistant

(computing) A personal digital assistant or video game console that is small enough to be held in the hands.


workshop

On any given Friday night at the Claremont Colleges, between 15 and 20 Jewish students gather to sing wordless melodies, dive into textual study of Talmud or James Baldwin, or hold workshops on antisemitism.

2019 July 3, Jess Schwalb, “Red Line Rebellion”, in Jewish Currents:

A brief, intensive course of education for a small group, emphasizing interaction and practical problem solving.


skyscraper

desc

→ Belarusian: небаскроб (njebaskrób), хмарачос (xmaračós) (calque)

zh-l

摩天樓／摩天楼 (mótiānlóu)

→ Chinese: (calque) 摩天樓／摩天楼 (mótiānlóu)

→ Czech: mrakodrap (calque)

→ French: gratte-ciel (calque)

desc

ουρανοξύστης

→ Greek: ουρανοξύστης (ouranoxýstis) (calque)

desctree

→ German: Wolkenkratzer (calque)
→ Dutch: wolkenkrabber (calque)
→ Afrikaans: wolkekrabber
→ West Frisian: wolkekrabber
→ Yiddish: וואָלקן־קראַצער (volkn-kratser)

→ Hungarian: felhőkarcoló (calque)

→ Indonesian: pencakar langit (calque)
→ Malay: pencakar langit

→ Italian: grattacielo (calque)

→ Japanese: 摩天楼 (matenrō) (calque)

→ Korean: 마천루 (macheollu) (calque)

→ Latin: caeliscalpium (calque)

→ Polish: drapacz chmur (calque)

→ Portuguese: arranha-céus (calque)

→ Romanian: zgârie-nori (calque)

desc

→ Russian: небоскрёб (neboskrjób) (calque)

nȅbodēr/не̏боде̄р

→ Serbo-Croatian: nȅbodēr/не̏боде̄р (calque)

→ Slovene: nebotičnik (calque)

→ Spanish: rascacielos (calque)

→ Turkish: gökdelen (calque)

→ Swedish: skyskrapa (calque)

→ Ukrainian: хмарочос (xmaročos) (calque)

As the curve of Sandy Hook blotted from sight the last, low glimpse of the skyscrapers which point Manhattan, Blake touched Annette's arm.

1910, William Henry Irwin, The House of Mystery:

The solitary attic—if one could thus designate a space of about three square feet—which comprised Hamar's lodging—had the advantage of being situated in the top storey of a skyscraper—at least a skyscraper for that part of the city.

1912, Elliott O'Donnell, The Sorcery Club:

Then he noticed, as a prosaic business man will notice suddenly, that a skyscraper which he has passed daily for months is out of line with its neighbor, that the seat behind the new little girl was unoccupied and that she stood alone in the aisle during exercises.

1917, Herman Gastrell Seely, A Son of the City: A Story of Boy Life:

The Wards are open-topped, with skyscrapers rising from the superstructure. Towers are sealed against vacuum, as the breathable atmosphere envelope is only maintained to a height of about seven meters. The atmosphere is contained by the centrifugal force of rotation and a "membrane" of dense, colorless sulphur hexafluoride gas, held in place by carefully managed mass effect fields.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel Station: Wards Codex entry:

From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.[…] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.

2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

(architecture) A very tall building with a large number of floors.


breakfast

en-noun

breakfast (countable and uncountable, plural breakfasts)

→ Afrikaans: brekfis

→ Irish: bricfeasta

→ Maori: parakuihi

→ Scottish Gaelic: bracaist

→ Portuguese: brequefeste, brequefesta

→ Welsh: brecwast

From Middle English brekefast, brekefaste, equivalent to break + fast (literally, "to end the nightly fast"), likely a variant of Old English fæstenbryċe, (literally, "fast-breach"). Cognate with Dutch breekvasten (“breakfast”).

You should put more protein in her breakfast so she will grow.

A ſorry Breakfaſt for my Lord Protector.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 125, column 2:

Peter, after the manner of man at the breakfast table, had allowed half his kedgeree to get cold and was sniggering over a letter. Sophia looked at him sharply. The only letter she had received was from her mother. Sophia’s mother was not a humourist.

1921, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

The first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning.

өглөөний цай (öglöönii caj, literally “morning tea”)

didjuner (more frequently under elided form "ddjuner")

We serve breakfast all day.

(by extension) A meal consisting of food normally eaten in the morning, which may typically include eggs, sausages, toast, bacon, etc.

The celebratory meal served after a wedding (and occasionally after other solemnities e.g. a funeral).

c. 1693?, John Dryden, Amaryllis
The wolves will get a breakfast by my death.

(largely obsolete outside religion) A meal eaten after a period of (now often religious) fasting.


breakfast

en-verb

breakfast (third-person singular simple present breakfasts, present participle breakfasting, simple past and past participle breakfasted)

breakfasts (present singular third-person)
breakfasting (participle present)
breakfasted (participle past)
breakfasted (past)

May 14, 1689, Matthew Prior, epistle to Fleetwood Shephard Esq.
First, sir, I read, and then I breakfast.

“Oh, he set off the moment he had breakfasted![…]”

1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter I, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 12:

Fifty years ago, the traveller might breakfast well at home in London, and take nothing more than a cup of coffee at King's Cross.

1941 August, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The English Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 356:

By seven-thirty she had breakfasted them, provided each with a packed lunch and Thermoses of coffee and tea

1987, Anne McCaffrey, The Lady: A Tale of Ireland, page 269:


aircraft

/ˈɛə.kɹɑːft/

/ˈɛː.kɹɑːft/

/ˈɛəɹ.kɹæft/

/ˈɛːɹ.kɹæft/

light aircraft

aircraft manufacturer

aircraft licence

A vehicle capable of atmospheric flight due to interaction with the air, such as buoyancy or lift


video game

video game (third-person singular simple present video games, present participle video gaming, simple past and past participle video gamed)

video games (present singular third-person)
video gaming (participle present)
video gamed (participle past)
video gamed (past)

/ˈvɪdiːəʊ̯ˌɡeɪm/

Soloway coins the “Nintendo Generation” expression, putting the attention on the never-seen-before trait of young people: they are video gaming.

2015, Emanuele Rapetti, Lorenzo Cantoni, “Learners of Digital Era (LoDE): What’s True, and What’s Just Hype About the So-Called Digital Natives”, in Mohamed Ally, Badrul H[uda] Khan, editors, International Handbook of E-learning, volumes 2 (Implementation and Case Studies), New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 79:

And Mouse hacked and video gamed.

2018, Nathan Lee Birr, One Life to Lose (The Douglas Files; 7), Beacon Books, LLC, →ISBN, page 75:

He’d logged on once, only for her to demand to know why he was video gaming during a supposed vacation.

2018, Vivienne Savage, Xander (Nova Force; 1), Payne & Taylor:

They may not be engaged because they have fully bought into the existing structures, or because they are video gaming in their dorm rooms, or because they are working multiple jobs to pay for college (or to feed a family).

2019, Rahuldeep Gill, “The Call of Death and the Depth of Our Callings: The Quality of Vocational Discernment”, in David S. Cunningham, editor, Hearing Vocation Differently: Meaning, Purpose, and Identity in the Multi-Faith Academy, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part one (Reframing Vocation: Creating Spaces for New Ways of Hearing), page 86:

This is one of the most common scenarios we see in our center — when a teen or young adult wants to finish high school, or more often college, and they are video gaming 12 hours a day.

2021, David N. Greenfield, “Ten Things You Can Do to Reduce Your Internet Use”, in Overcoming Internet Addiction (For Dummies), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, part 5 (The Part of Tens), page 296:

It means you show up. Whether it’s a diaper change, advising your son about girls, patting his back after a tough sports game, or egging him on to stop slacking off while he’s video gaming.

2021, Kendall Smith, “Step One: Being There”, in Rookie Father: A Playbook for Men Experiencing Fatherhood for the First Time, Familius LLC, →ISBN:

Relatedly, families that video gamed together reported better family satisfaction and closer relationships within the family (Wang et al., 2018).

2022, Marco Rüth, Kai Kaspar, “Educational and Social Exergaming: A Perspective on Physical, Social, and Educational Benefits and Pitfalls of Exergaming at Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Afterwards”, in Pedro L. Almeida, Michael Brach, Ricardo De La Vega, Mauricio Garzon, Julia Maria D’andréa Greve, Margarita Limon, Luis Mochizuki, editors, Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Psychological and Behavioral Consequences of Confinement on Physical Activity, Sedentarism, and Rehabilitation, Frontiers Media, →ISBN, page 508, column 1:

His feet were clad in brightly colored sneakers that made her think of the boyish side of him that often emerged when he was video gaming.

2023, Caridad Piñeiro, chapter 10, in Biscayne Bay Breach (South Beach Security; 3), Harlequin Intrigue, →ISBN:


southpaw

Since home plate is generally in the southwest corner to avoid glare in the batter's eyes, a southpaw's pitching hand is to the south.

(informal, idiomatic) One who is left-handed, especially in sports.

A boxer who leads with the right hand and guards with the left.


airplane

/ˈɛːˌpleɪ̯n/

/ˈɛəˌpleɪ̯n/

/ˈɛɚˌpleɪ̯n/

Alteration of aeroplane (Borrowed from French aéroplane, from Ancient Greek ἀερόπλανος (aeróplanos, “wandering in air”), from ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”) + πλάνος (plános, “wandering”). First used by Joseph Pline in an 1855 patent.https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Aircraft_Design/NeHoahlhCGMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Joseph+Pline+glider&pg=PA3&printsec=frontcover;https://books.google.at/books?id=fSQUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA768&dq=Joseph+Pline+brevet+1855&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgk5Cz_a_wAhXZhf0HHdjNAJwQ6AEwAnoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=Joseph%20Pline%20brevet%201855&f=false)

der

(chiefly US, Canada, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand) A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings.

飞行机

fî-hàng-kî, pî-hàng-kî, fî-yàng-kî, pî-yàng-kî

So, he'd take a spoon and he'd start playing airplane, circling the spoon around in the air until it was ready to land in the runway of my mouth.

1988, Matthew Linn, Sheila Fabricant, Dennis Linn, Healing the Eight Stages of Life, Paulist Press, →ISBN, page 66:

Willis wondered what this fellow wanted to do, spoon feed him? Play airplane?

1997 03, Maria Flook, Open Water, Ecco Press, →ISBN:

For instance, Jan has taken to playing airplane with the spoon to get Charley to attend to the spoon and want to take it into his mouth.

2013 May 13, Theo L. Dorpat, Michael L. Miller, Clinical Interaction and the Analysis of Meaning: A New Psychoanalytic Theory, Routledge, →ISBN:

(chiefly US, Canada, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand) A game to encourage small children to eat, in which the parent or carer pretends a spoonful of food is an aircraft flying into the child's mouth.


airplane

en-verb

airplane (third-person singular simple present airplanes, present participle airplaning, simple past and past participle airplaned)

airplanes (present singular third-person)
airplaning (participle present)
airplaned (participle past)
airplaned (past)

/ˈɛːˌpleɪ̯n/

/ˈɛəˌpleɪ̯n/

/ˈɛɚˌpleɪ̯n/


know-it-all

We had it all figured out, but this know-it-all marched in with "the correct way of solving it", leaving our experiment in shambles.

The same holds true for supporting details—they help you to learn more about a topic. Be a know it all by sharing these details and supporting details with friends.

2004, Princeton Review, Know It All! Grades 9-12 Reading, The Princeton Review, →ISBN, page 22:

She's a mean, bossy know-it-all.

2005, Pansie Hart Flood, Tiger Turcotte Takes on the Know-it-all, Carolrhoda Books, →ISBN:

Have you ever gone shopping with a Know-It-All girlfriend and she insists, without your consent or consulting you first, to choose your outfits for you?

2012, Joe Ike, How do I relate with a “know-it-all”?, xBusinessServices Corp., page 60

(chiefly US, derogatory) Someone who claims to be knowledgeable or an expert in something, obnoxiously dismissing the opinions, advice, suggestions, etc. of others.

ամենագետ

someone who obnoxiously claims to be knowledgeable on a subject

知ったかぶりをする人

no exact term exists, the term for the action is idiomatic


cookbook

From cook + book; possibly also a calque of German Kochbuch, from kochen (“cook”) + Buch (“book”).

A book or an encyclopedia of recipes and cookery tips.

The Anarchist's Cookbook is a great read, officially recommended by Wikimedia.


fireball

/ˈfaɪəɹˌbɔl/

Chelyabinsk meteor
Nevada Test Site
Operation Upshot–Knothole

The noun is derived from fire (noun) + ball (noun). The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.

tulipallo

bag or ball filled with combustible material; (heraldry) charge depicting a disc-shaped bombshell

[T]here vvas ſuch a Tempeſt & thunder vvith great firebals of lightning, that the vault of the church brake, and halfe the Chancell vvas carried avvay.

1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 26, page 616, column 1:

It is an obſervation of Seamen, That if a ſingle meteor or fireball falls on their maſt, it portends ill luck; but if tvvo come together (vvhich they count Caſtor and Pollux) they preſage good ſucceſſe: […]

1642, Thomas Fuller, “The Good Wife”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC, book I, paragraph 2, page 2:

An emanation of St. Elmo's fire; also (later), of ball lightning.

A ball-shaped firelighter (“small block of a flammable substance, typically a combination of sawdust and wax, used to light fires”).


gunshot

en-noun

gunshot (countable and uncountable, plural gunshots)

(countable) The act of discharging a firearm.

For those, who are come over to the royal party, are consequently supposed to be out of gunshot.

(Can we date this quote?), John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther:

The distance to which shot can be thrown from a gun; the reach or range of a gun.

обсег на оръдие

(countable) A bullet, projectile, or other shot fired from a gun.


snowball

From Middle English snoweball, snoweballe, snaweballe, snayballe, equivalent to snow + ball. Cognate with Scots snawbaw, German Schneeball, Luxembourgish Schnéiball, Dutch sneeuwbal, Afrikaans sneeubal, Limburgish snieëbal, West Frisian sniebal, Saterland Frisian Sneebaal, Sneebal, Swedish snöboll, Elfdalian sniųoboll, Danish snebold, Norwegian Bokmål snøball, Norwegian Nynorsk snøball and Icelandic snjóbolti.

A sex act involving passing ejaculated semen from one person's mouth to another's.


snowball

en-verb

snowball (third-person singular simple present snowballs, present participle snowballing, simple past and past participle snowballed)

snowballs (present singular third-person)
snowballing (participle present)
snowballed (participle past)
snowballed (past)

The high unemployment rates quickly snowballed into a major budget problem for the government.

There's a further knock-on effect from cancelling trains. It's not unusual for train crew diagrams to include a period 'on the cushions', travelling as a passenger to get staff from one train to the next. Cancel this train and it's likely the crew won't reach their next train, so this too is cancelled. Disruption snowballs and diagrams become harder to deliver.

2023 January 11, Philip Haigh, “Comment: The worst chaos for 40 years”, in RAIL, number 974, page 4:

(intransitive) To rapidly grow out of proportion or control.


snowstorm

From snow + storm. Compare Saterland Frisian Sneestoarm, West Frisian sniestoarm, German Schneesturm, Dutch sneeuwstorm, Swedish snöstorm, Icelandic snjóstormur.

As we made our way down, my eye was caught by a snowstorm—one of those little glass balls, with a baby cottage inside.

1947, Dornford Yates, The Berry Scene, Ward, Lock & Co., 273:


whiteboard

→ German: Whiteboard

→ Swedish: whiteboard

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

From white + board, modelled on blackboard.

1995, Gary Wolf, "The Curse of Xanadu", Wired Magazine
Mark Miller gave himself up to Xanadu's pull and rejoined the project full time. The new Xanadu site on Palo Alto's California Avenue was remodeled to resemble the environment at Xerox PARC. The programmers' offices opened onto a large common space, and the walls were covered with white board, which quickly became a tangle of multicolored lines, words, circles, and squiggles.

Discussion turns to the station whiteboard, which even has its own Twitter page. It's been in place for a number of years and is located right in the middle of the concourse. It's used to provide service information, upcoming alterations and event advice. There is also a 'Chuckle of the Day'.

2020 December 30, Richard Clinnick, “Greater Anglia strikes again...”, in Rail, page 43:

A writing board finished with a hard white material, which can be written upon using special non-permanent markers and subsequently wiped clean.


brain drain

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

Spokesmen for the Royal Society of London first coined this expression to describe the outflow of scientists and technologists to the United States and Canada in the early 1950s.

(medicine, informal) A Jackson-Pratt drain.


warehouse

Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.

2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

A place for storing large amounts of products. In logistics, a place where products go to from the manufacturer before going to the retailer.

magazinë

a place for storing large amounts of products


warehouse

warehouse (third-person singular simple present warehouses, present participle warehousing, simple past and past participle warehoused)

warehouses (present singular third-person)
warehousing (participle present)
warehoused (participle past)
warehoused (past)

Tobacco, for instance, shrinks materially by frequent reshippings, and as all goods are warehoused as a convenience to importers, duties should be paid on what the importer receives.

1894, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance, Opinions of Collectors of Customs Concerning Ad Valorem and Specific Rates of Duty on Imports:

(transitive) To store in a warehouse or similar.

When our elders presented school to us, they did not present it as a place of high learning, but as a means of escape from death and penal warehousing.

2015, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me, page 26:

We nevertheless pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to process many of these children through the criminal justice system, and to warehouse them for years – and even more if they end up graduating to adult prisons, as most of them do.

2020 July 23, Chris Daw, “'A stain on national life': why are we locking up so many children?'”, in The Guardian:

(transitive) To confine (a person) to an institution for a long period.

the warehousing of syndicated TV shows

(transitive, business) To acquire and then shelve, simply to prevent competitors from acquiring it.


blackboard

From black + board, because such surfaces were once typically made of black slate.

Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.

2012 March 14, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2013-02-19, page 106:

A large flat surface, finished with black slate or a similar material, that can be written upon with chalk and subsequently erased; a chalkboard.

dërrasë e zezë

a surface that can be written upon with chalk


scarecrow

/ˈskɛɚˌkɹoʊ/

The noun is derived from scare (“to frighten, startle, terrify”) + crow (“bird of the genus Corvus”). The word displaced other terms such as bogle (now dialectal, dated), sewel or shewel, and shoy-hoy (perhaps imitative of the cry of crows).
The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

(dated) Synonym of crow scarer (“a farmhand employed to scare birds from the fields”)

crow scarer

(British, dialectal, obsolete)
The black tern (Chlidonias niger).

Chlidonias niger
Chlidonias niger#Translingual

(British, dialectal, obsolete)
The hooded crow (Corvus cornix).

Corvus cornix
Corvus cornix#Translingual


firefighter

From fire + fighter. Created as a gender-neutral term for fireman and firewoman.

(firefighting) A person who has been trained to put out fires.


snowflake

From snow + flake. Compare Saterland Frisian Sneeflokke (“snowflake”), Dutch sneeuwvlok, Luxembourgish Schnéiflack, German Schneeflocke.

cog

Alright, snowflake, where's the dope?

2009, Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, Scott Sanders, Black Dynamite (motion picture), spoken by Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White):

(slang, usually derogatory) A Caucasian person.


green thumb

→ Canadian French: pouce vert (calque)

→ German: grüner Daumen (calque)

Wow, did you plant this entire garden on your own? You really must have a green thumb.

Everyone knows someone who has a "green thumb," who seems to be able to get plants to grow well just by being around, by talking or even playing music[…]

1987, Lyall Watson, The dreams of dragons: riddles of natural history:

[…]they leave gardening to those who presumably have lots of time to read and better yet, have a "green thumb."

2003, Barbara Damrosch, The Garden Primer:

Oh, I'll never have a green thumb, no matter how long I stay at it. Nothing ever seems to work for me. Everything I plant dies.

2006, Des Kennedy, The Passionate Gardener: Adventures of an Ardent Green Thumb:

(US, idiomatic) A natural skill for gardening.


Baden-Württemberg

de-proper noun

Baden-Württemberg n (proper noun, genitive Baden-Württembergs or (optionally with an article) Baden-Württemberg)

Baden-Württembergs (genitive)
Baden-Württemberg (genitive with-article)

Baden + Württemberg, the resulting Bundesland created from the merger of three smaller Bundesländer: Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern.

Baden-Württemberg (a state in southwest Germany)

Flächenländer: Baden-Württemberg · Bayern · Brandenburg · Hessen · Niedersachsen · Mecklenburg-Vorpommern · Nordrhein-Westfalen · Rheinland-Pfalz · Saarland · Sachsen · Sachsen-Anhalt · Schleswig-Holstein · Thüringen


Schleswig-Holstein

One of the component states of Germany according to the current administrative division of the nation.

Baden-Württemberg · Bavaria · Brandenburg · Hesse · Lower Saxony · Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania · North Rhine-Westphalia · Rhineland-Palatinate · Saarland · Saxony · Saxony-Anhalt · Schleswig-Holstein · Thuringia


arc

arcok (plural)
arc (nominative singular)
arcok (nominative plural)
arcot (accusative singular)
arcokat (accusative plural)
arcnak (dative singular)
arcoknak (dative plural)
arccal (instrumental singular)
arcokkal (instrumental plural)
arcért (causal-final singular)
arcokért (causal-final plural)
arccá (singular translative)
arcokká (plural translative)
arcig (singular terminative)
arcokig (plural terminative)
arcként (essive-formal singular)
arcokként (essive-formal plural)
arcul (essive-modal singular)
arcban (inessive singular)
arcokban (inessive plural)
arcon (singular superessive)
arcokon (plural superessive)
arcnál (adessive singular)
arcoknál (adessive plural)
arcba (illative singular)
arcokba (illative plural)
arcra (singular sublative)
arcokra (plural sublative)
archoz (allative singular)
arcokhoz (allative plural)
arcból (elative singular)
arcokból (elative plural)
arcról (delative singular)
arcokról (delative plural)
arctól (ablative singular)
arcoktól (ablative plural)
arcé (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
arcoké (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
arcéi (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
arcokéi (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
arcom (first-person possessed-single possessive singular)
arcaim (first-person possessed-many possessive singular)
arcod (possessed-single possessive second-person singular)
arcaid (possessed-many possessive second-person singular)
arca (possessed-single possessive singular third-person)
arcai (possessed-many possessive singular third-person)
arcunk (first-person plural possessed-single possessive)
arcaink (first-person plural possessed-many possessive)
arcotok (plural possessed-single possessive second-person)
arcaitok (plural possessed-many possessive second-person)
arcuk (plural possessed-single possessive third-person)
arcaik (plural possessed-many possessive third-person)

An archaic compound word of orr (“nose”) and száj (“mouth”), via Proto-Finno-Ugric elements. The original form of these two words was or and szá, the compound word orszá. Over time, the final vowel became short (orsza), the sz changed to c (orca), today a poetic or archaic version. The next change was the initial o to a (arca) which felt as a possessive form and later shortened to the current term.

(figuratively) sight, view, aspect, appearance


sunroof

→ Japanese: サンルーフ (sanrūfu)

→ Korean: 선루프 (seollupeu)

(automotive) A fixed or operable opening in a vehicle roof (car or truck) which allows fresh air and/or light to enter the passenger compartment. A sunroof may include a transparent or opaque panel and may be manually operated or power driven.


duststorm

In the early part of the 20th century, "dust bowl" storms in the central U.S. were responsible for crippling damage to the agricultural infrastructure.

I saw a dust-storm at Kueichow which lasted for seven hours, burying some hovels and much agricultural country, and even producing a metamorphosis of the rocky bed of the Yangtze. Such storms have been observed as far east as Shanghai, but their occurrence at Kueichow shows that their area is not limited to the Great Plain or even to the region east of the mountain barrier between HUPEH and SZE CHUAN.

[1900, Isabella L. Bird, The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, volume 1, →OCLC, →OL, page 9:

phenomenon in which gale- to hurricane-force winds blow particles up in a planet's atmosphere.


widespread

en-adj

widespread (comparative widerspread or more widespread, superlative widestspread or most widespread)

widerspread (comparative)
more widespread (comparative)
widestspread (superlative)
most widespread (superlative)

It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.

1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:

Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic[…] Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.

2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

Affecting, or found throughout, a large area (e.g. the entire land or body); broad in extent; widely diffused.


diamondback

Crotalus atrox
Crotalus atrox#Translingual

(common name) Either of two species of rattlesnake having a diamond pattern on the back: Crotalus adamanteus, found in the southeastern United States, and Crotalus atrox, found in the southwestern United States and northwestern and central Mexico.

диамантена гърмяща змия

rattlesnake with diamond pattern on its back


honeycomb

en-noun

honeycomb (countable and uncountable, plural honeycombs)

Alhambra
Oxford English Dictionary
United States Army

The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The English word is analysable as honey + comb. The Oxford English Dictionary posits that the arrangement of several plates of wax “hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth”.
The verb is derived from the noun.

kennosto

something resembling honeycomb in having numerous cells or small holes

hunaja

something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; something desirable or pleasant

Pleaſant words are [as] an honycombe, ſweete to the ſoule, and health to the bones.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 16:24, column 2:

So vvee read that God manifeſted by the Lots vvhich Saul cauſed to be dravvn [1 Sam[uel] 14.43.] the fault that Jonathan had committed, in eating a honey-comb, contrary to the oath taken by the people.

1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Word of God, and of Prophets”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 3rd part (Of a Christian Common-wealth), page 230:

The cells of the bees are perfect hexagons: theſe, in every honeycomb, are double, opening on either ſide, and cloſed at the bottom.

1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Bee”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, part IV (Of Crustaceous and Testaceous Fishes), page 10:

There was chocolate, new milk, honeycomb with its liquid amber droppings fragrant of a thousand flowers, a small loaf, and a little basket of green figs.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 9:

(uncountable) A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other food is scarce; it is also eaten by humans as part of comb-honey; (countable) a single sheet made up of two layers of this substance.

azhdë

substance made by bees primarily from beeswax which has hexagonal cells; single sheet made up of two layers of this substance

(countable, by extension) Something resembling honeycomb (sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.

(chiefly aviation) Material manufactured with small hollow cells, sometimes sandwiched between two flat sheets, which is used to make light, stiff structural components.

kennosto

material manufactured with small hollow cells

(uncountable, architecture) Short for honeycomb work (“especially in Moorish architecture: a form of ceiling ornamentation (especially of an arch or dome) made up of small vaulted arches”).

honeycomb work

honeycomb toffee

(countable, figurative) Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.

(uncountable, chiefly Australia, British, often attributive) A crumbly confection usually made by boiling together golden syrup, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and water.


honeycomb

en-verb

honeycomb (third-person singular simple present honeycombs, present participle honeycombing, simple past and past participle honeycombed)

honeycombs (present singular third-person)
honeycombing (participle present)
honeycombed (participle past)
honeycombed (past)

(architecture) To ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun sense 2.4).

koristaa stalaktiittiholvein

to ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work


busman's holiday

en-noun

busman's holiday (plural busman's holidays or busmen's holidays)

busman's holidays (plural)
busmen's holidays (plural)

From busman + -’s + holiday, from the idea that a bus driver, to go off on a holiday, would take an excursion by bus or go on a long drive and thereby engage in a similar activity to his work.

I shall indeed take a holiday soon, probably on the Continent; but it will be a "Busman's Holiday." The bus-driver spends his "day off" in driving on a pal's bus, on the box-seat by his pal's side; and I know that night after night, all through my holiday, I shall be in and out of this hall and that theatre, never happy except when I am watching some theatrical piece or Variety entertainment.

1893 April, Albert Chevalier, “On Costers and Music Halls”, in Clement Kinloch-Cooke, editor, The English Illustrated Magazine, volume X, number 115, London: The Illustrated London News, →OCLC, page 488, column 2:

Is not the following a rather notable instance of "the busman's holiday"? At a recent meeting of the Twickenham Education Committee Mr. F. W. Pearce, who is surveyor to that body as well as to the urban district council, was asked what progress had been made with regard to the affixing of tablets on historic houses in the district. To this Mr. Pearce replied that he felt responsible for any delay in the matter, but would devote to it the first week of his holiday!

1914 August 7, “Things One would Like to Know”, in The Surveyor and Municipal and County Engineer, volume XLVI, number 1,177, London: The St. Bride’s Press, […], →OCLC, page 196, column 2:

In his [a private detective's] opinion one of the chief defects in detective stories—for he was given to busmen's holidays—was that authors made their 'sleuths' like unto the angels, watching for days without, so to speak, taking their eye off the ball. It was not so in real life.

1933 October, John Galsworthy, chapter XVI, in Over the River, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 123:

Cervinia is a Mecca for the skiing greats of the world. When the season is over at home—even as long a season as at Colorado's Snowmass—the pros take their busmen's holidays on the sunny slopes of the Plateau Rosa.

1968 March–April, Samuel Young, “Cervinia”, in Doug Pfeiffer, editor, Skiing, volume 20, number 6, Chicago, Ill.: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 51, column 1:

While it would seem that the judges have a long vacation each year, they actually have a sort of "busman's holiday" in that they take their "homework" with them. They study applications for review during the summer recess.

1969, George G. Bruntz, John Bremer, “The Federal Court System”, in American Government, [Boston, Mass.]: Ginn and Company, →OCLC, unit V (Our Federal Courts Protect Our Liberty), page 252, column 2:

Although it is in the nature of a busman's holiday, I always try to visit a nursery and a botanic garden when I'm traveling.

1994, Diane Heilenman, “Plant Sources”, in Gardening in the Lower Midwest: A Practical Guide for the New Zones 5 and 6, Bloomington; Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 114:

When he [Pierre Berton] first joined the [Toronto] Star, he had requested an annual five-week holiday. Beland Honderich agreed, but suggested that two of the weeks should be "disguised as an assignment." As a result, Berton's travels produced several multi-part series of columns and Close-Up interviews. Janet [Berton] accompanied him on these busman's holidays whenever circumstances permitted.

2008, A[lexander] B[rian] McKillop, “The Drop on This World”, in Pierre Berton: A Biography, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland & Stewart, →ISBN, part 3 (Celebrity), page 367:

I have come to realize that the busman's holiday is an elemental part of my life. Actually, I don't know where my work life stops and my recreational life begins.

2015, Michael Bamberger, Men in Green, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 254:

(idiomatic) A holiday or vacation during which one does something similar to what one does as work.


horseshoe

/ˈhɔːɹs.ʃuː/

From Middle English horsscho, horssho, horscho, hors schoo, equivalent to horse + shoe.

almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

close only counts in horseshoes and darts

close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

And what has been thus affirmed of other leading commodities; the blacksmith, for example, no longer making, but buying his horseshoes, nails, nuts, and bolts;

1887, David A. Wells, "The Economic Disturbances since 1873", III, Popular Science 31 (no. 37): 595

The ancient Romans [...] used leather horseshoes; the Chinese made straw sandals for their mounts; and American Indians used leather moccasins, which they tied around their horses ' ankles. In days of old, people took their horses to the smithy to be shod.

1984, Leda Blumberg, The Horselover's Handbook: An Introduction to Owning, Caring For, and Riding Horses, →ISBN, page 46:

Each player has a turn at tossing his horseshoes, one at a time, at the stob opposite him. His opponent then throws his horseshoes.

1997, Francis Edward Abernethy, editor, Texas toys and games, page 142:

The U-shaped shoe of a horse, now typically made of metal; by extension, a representation of this used to play the game horseshoes, hung as a luck charm, etc.


nothing

nothing (countable and uncountable, plural nothings)

From Middle English nothyng, noon thing, non thing, na þing, nan thing, nan þing, from Old English nāþing, nān þing (“nothing”, literally “not any thing”), equivalent to no + thing. Compare Old English nāwiht (“nothing”, literally “no thing”), Swedish ingenting (“nothing”, literally “not any thing, no thing”).

cog

A trivial remark especially in the term sweet nothings.


dreadnought

Named after HMS Dreadnought, the first battleship finished of this type, itself named for Etymology 2.

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

Perturbed at being overtaken, the USS Texas is leading the 6th Battle Squadron at 22-and-a-half knots as the engineers pour everything they have into the effort. Behind the colossal clouds of smoke and cinders they put out come a seemingly-endless stream of dreadnoughts, battle flags flying from every mast and line they can find. It is the Grand Fleet.

2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 18:32 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 2022-08-04:

(military, nautical, historical) A battleship, especially of the World War I era, in which most of the firepower is concentrated in large guns that are of the same caliber.

Sovereign is the flagship of the rogue Spectre Saren. An enormous dreadnought larger than any other ship in any known fleet, Sovereign is crewed with both geth and krogan. At two kilometers long, its spinal-mounted main gun is likely capable of penetrating another dreadnought's kinetic barriers with a single shot.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Sovereign Codex entry:

(informal) Any type of warship heavier in armour or armament than a typical battleship.

"Much obliged to you, ma'am!" says Mr. Guppy, divesting himself of his wet dreadnought in the hall.

1853, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in Bleak House:

(by extension) One that is the largest or the most powerful of its kind.

A garment made of thick woollen cloth that can defend against storm and cold.


chupacabras

→ English: chupacabra, chupacabras

Verb-object compound, composed of chupa (“to suck”) + cabras (“goats”), literally “goatsucker”.


something

Tok Pisin: samting

→ Korean: 썸팅 (sseomting)

From Middle English somþyng, some-thing, som thing, sum thinge, sum þinge, from Old English sum þing (literally “some thing”), equivalent to some + thing. Compare Old English āwiht (“something”, literally “some thing, any thing”), Swedish någonting (“something”, literally “some thing, any thing”).

cog

look like something the cat's dragged in

something is rotten in the state of Denmark

there is something rotten in the state of Denmark

She has a certain something.

(colloquial, of a person) A talent or quality that is difficult to specify.


sundial

From sun + dial, a clarification of dial after it was used for other objects as well.

The birdbath includes a small gnomon that acts as a sundial with markings on the basin if it's aligned correctly with the sun.

Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there.
"I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

The shop carries more than a dozen sundials, mostly of bronze, plus an astrolabe ($650) of wrought iron.

1985 April 4, Daryln Brewer, “HELPFUL HARDWARE; AN ARRAY OF SUNDIALS”, in The New York Times:

It was Oxford now—the matriculation photograph, posed in the stony front quad at Corpus, the pelican on top of the sundial appearing to sit on the head of the lanky, begowned chemist at the centre of the back row.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 3, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 60:

A device measuring the time of day by the position of a shadow cast by a pole or plate (gnomon) upon an engraved series of marks.

sonwyzer

device noting the time of day by the position of a shadow


陰陽

CJKV/code

Sino-Xenic (陰陽):
* → Japanese: 陰陽(いんよう) (in'yō)
* → Korean: 음양(陰陽) (eumyang)
* → Vietnamese: âm dương (陰陽)

→ English: yin-yang, ying-yang

→ French: yin-yang

→ Portuguese: yin-yang

→ Russian: инь-ян (inʹ-jan)

/in⁵⁵ jɑŋ³⁵/

/jɐm⁵⁵ jœːŋ²¹/

/im²⁴ i̯oŋ¹¹/

/im⁴⁴⁻³⁵ iɔŋ¹¹/

/im⁴⁴⁻³³ iɔŋ²³/

/im⁴⁴⁻²² iɔŋ²⁴/

/im⁴⁴⁻³³ iɔŋ²⁴/

/im³³ iɔŋ²⁴/

/im⁴⁴⁻²² iaŋ¹³/

/im³³⁻²³ iaŋ⁵⁵/

/in⁵⁵ ɦiã²¹/

/in⁵⁵ jɑŋ³⁵/

/jɐm⁵⁵ jœːŋ²¹/

/im²⁴ i̯oŋ¹¹/

/im⁴⁴⁻³⁵ iɔŋ¹¹/

/im⁴⁴⁻³³ iɔŋ²³/

/im⁴⁴⁻²² iɔŋ²⁴/

/im⁴⁴⁻³³ iɔŋ²⁴/

/im³³ iɔŋ²⁴/

/im⁴⁴⁻²² iaŋ¹³/

/im³³⁻²³ iaŋ⁵⁵/

/in⁵⁵ ɦiã²¹/

Yin later came to be associated with “female, dark, soft, passive, etc.”, and yang later came to be associated with “male, light, hard, active, etc.”.

(literary) ancient Chinese astronomy, especially the study of the movement of celestial bodies


huishoudhulp

nl-noun

huishoudhulp f or m (plural huishoudhulpen, diminutive huishoudhulpje n)

huishoudhulpen (plural)
huishoudhulpje (diminutive neuter)


anybody

Anybody will do.

Is there anybody inside?

Any one out of an indefinite number of persons; anyone; any person.


anyone

From Middle English eny on, ony one, equivalent to any + one.

Almost anyone can change a light bulb.

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.

1891, George Bernard Shaw, Quintessence of Ibsenism:

“[…] Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm straight, but this time I had six thousand quid at stake. […] I laid 'em long odds because it wasn't in the nature of things that Wynbolt could beat all of them champs. Then—then he smashed one after another, until I got windy—nervous as you might say. […]”

1935, George Goodchild, chapter 8, in Death on the Centre Court:

It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:


wallpaper

en-noun

wallpaper (countable and uncountable, plural wallpapers)

(uncountable) Decorative paper-like material used to cover the inner walls of buildings.

خَلْفِيَّة

computing: image used to cover a desktop

This was not the wallpaper television that flickered away in the background in every dealing room but was not really watched. This was finely targeted and timely broadcast of stuff dealers would want to drop everything to watch.

2004, Brian Mooney, Barry Simpson, Breaking News: How the Wheels Came off at Reuters, page 114:

Her experiences are too early and too much part of the emotional wallpaper to be grasped in this way.

2007, Susan Nathiel, Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older with a Mentally Ill Mother:

(uncountable, figurative, sometimes attributive) Anything that serves as a background or part of the surroundings.

You can design your own wallpaper using Paintbrush. A wallpaper appears on your desktop in tiles. The number of tiles that are needed to cover the desktop depends on the size of the canvas you use to create a wallpaper.

1997, Richard Dungworth, Philippa Wingate, Windows 3.1 & Windows 95 for Beginners, page 65:

(computing, countable, uncountable) An image or tiled pattern used as the background of a computer desktop.

Scripts that include brief reference to a picture turn stock footage from 'wallpaper' to illustration.

1983, Av Westin, Newswatch: How TV Decides the News, page 88:

News bulletins on television may need general rather than specific footage. This is known as wallpaper — moving pictures over which the news item is read.

2002, Kathy Chater, Research for Media Production, page 75:

(television, slang) Generic footage of a building or location that may be used in the background of a related news report.

(philately, informal) Gaudy mass-produced stamps, typically of little or no value and only produced for sale to collectors.

Some of my wallpaper includes ORS, OPS […]

1960, QST, volume 44, numbers 1-6, page 76:

So if you are a technical ham and are looking for one more piece of "wallpaper" to put up at the shack, consider […]

1994, 73 Amateur Radio Today, numbers 400-411, page 155:

Wallpaper. Hams love awards, and thousands of awards are available.

2013, H. Ward Silver, Ham Radio For Dummies:

(CB radio slang) A radio operator's collection of awards and QSL cards.


pink-collar

en-adj

pink-collar (comparative more pink-collar, superlative most pink-collar)

more pink-collar (comparative)
most pink-collar (superlative)

/ˈpɪŋk ˌkɑlɚ/

From pink + collar.
By analogy with various constructions ending in the word collar, especially blue-collar, and from the traditional conception of pink as a feminine color (with blue its masculine counterpart), a conception perhaps magnified in this case by the sometime popularity of pink blouses among women in the service industry.

Black men have tended to congregate in laborers' jobs and certain service occupations, young workers in trade and such service enterprises as gas stations (to a lesser extent also in laborers' jobs), and women in the so-called "pink collar" occupations in trade, the services, and clerical work in all industrial sectors.

1977, Glenn Siebert, Employment Service Potential: Indicators of Labor Market Activity, Sacramento, Calif.: Employment Research Section, California Employment Development Department, →OCLC, page 115:

Good examples of employees under hidden stress are the nation's pink-collar workers. This group includes secretaries, clerks, data processors, telephone operators, and others.

1992, Emrika Padus, The Complete Guide to Your Emotions and Your Health: Hundreds of Proven Techniques to Harmonize Mind & Body for Happy, Healthy Living, Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press, →ISBN, page 210:

These days, girls and women of all ages are still reading them, particularly the blue collar or pink collar workers or wives of blue collar workers.

2003, Peggy Fielding, Confessing for Money, Denton, Tx.: AWOC.COM, →ISBN, page 7:

Of or pertaining to employees in predominantly female service industries.


candlestick

Sranan Tongo: kandratiki

From Middle English candelstik, candelstikke, from Old English candelsticca (“candlestick”), equivalent to candle + stick. Cognate with Scots candilsteke, candilstik (“candlestick”). Compare Old Norse kertastika, kertistika (“candlestick”).

inh

(gymnastics) A gymnastics move in which the legs are pointed vertically upward.

(finance) A color-coded bar showing the open and closing prices of a stock on a candlestick chart.

Inside the shrapnel shell was an iron bar with a flattened, broad nose. When the shell burst in the air this iron object fell to the ground and, since it came often from a great height, its fall was dangerous. The men called these candlesticks, which they much resembled.

1930, Ford Madox Ford, No More Parades, Grosset & Dunlap, page 20:

(British, military slang, historical) The central ignition tube connecting the fuse and charge of a WWI shrapnel shell, shaped like a candle stick.


candlestick

en-verb

candlestick (third-person singular simple present candlesticks, present participle candlesticking, simple past and past participle candlesticked)

candlesticks (present singular third-person)
candlesticking (participle present)
candlesticked (participle past)
candlesticked (past)

Planes fell in flames, planes fell not in flames. Men fell in flames, men fell safely in their parachutes, some candlesticked.

1998, Sandler Stanley, Segregated Skies, page 104:

Archie Jack had a second lucky escape in a later attempt when his pilot, nervous of flying over the high mountain ranges, made him jump out at a much greater altitude than was usual. What initially seemed inconsiderate saved Jack's life as his parachute 'candlesticked', ...

2003, Heather Williams, Parachutes, Patriots and Partisans:

Others with chutes aflame candlesticked into the sea.

(of a parachute) To catch on fire, so that the chute resembles a tapered candle with a flame on top.

The other book I would recommend is on a technical evaluation method called “candlesticking.”

2003, Cynthia Pirl, Intentional Investing:

“You wouldn't happen to be the B. J. Devine who wrote the Devine candlestick formula?” I blurted, not thinking it could be true. Candlesticking is one of the trickier methods of charting stock.

(investing) To analyze stock behavior using Japanese candlestick charts.

If cut on the individual stems at three-leaf clusters, the cane will "candlestick."

1957, The American Rose Annual - Volume 42, page 50:

Initially, the end of the shaft is ragged, but then begins to taper smoothly, exhibiting the "candlesticking" or "pencilling" referred to in the literature (Fig. 13).

1976, Journal of the American Podiatry Association:

Caught there on a candlesticked overhang of ice, Quaid turned to peer down at his buddy.

1991, Renee Roszel, Valentine's Knight, page 192:

To form a tall, thin, tapering shape similar to a candle.


anything

From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any + thing.

not that there's anything wrong with that

I would not do it for anything.

Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.

2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:

Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.

coś

'something' e.g. 'I have never done anything like that.'


anywhere

A person without strong cultural or social ties to a specific place; a cosmopolite.


redhead

I like redheads. Their mouths are like a drop of strawberry jam in a glass of milk.

2007, Matthew Weiner, “Red in the Face”, in Mad Men, season 1, episode 7, spoken by Roger Sterling:

Aythya americana
Aythya americana#Translingual

A North American duck (Aythya americana) highly esteemed as a game bird.

A kind of milkweed (Asclepia curassavica), with red flowers, formerly used in medicine.


sailboat

(slang, card games) A playing card with the rank of four.


blue-collar

en-adj

blue-collar (comparative more blue-collar, superlative most blue-collar)

more blue-collar (comparative)
most blue-collar (superlative)

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

From blue + collar.
From the color of rugged denim and chambray work shirts often worn by manual workers, as opposed to the white dress shirts typically worn by professionals and clerical workers.

Blue-collar workers represent a diminishing segment of society.

The blue-collar, vulnerable McClane of Die Hard wouldn’t even recognize the bulletproof, catchphrase-spouting superhero he’s become in the sequels.

2013 February 14, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: A Good Day To Die Hard”, in The Onion AV Club:

Bargaining on this scale led the way for the NUR's successes in negotiating with the Big Four after 1921, and subsequently British Rail. Privatisation has put paid to much of that, but railway workers are still arguably the most powerful blue-collar workforce in Britain today.

2020 January 2, Conrad Landin, “Strife and strikes in post-war Britain”, in Rail, page 53:

Working class; engaged or trained in essentially manual labor.


treasure trove

en-noun

treasure trove (countable and uncountable, plural treasure troves or treasures trove)

treasure troves (plural)
treasures trove (plural)

From Anglo-Norman tresor trové (“found treasure”), calque of Latin thesaurus inventus, where the past participle trové was interpreted in English as a noun.
Perhaps related to trophy.

His house is a treasure trove of weird socks.

So while Hobson-Jobson is a veritable treasure trove of scholarly knowledge, unless it can be independently verified, that knowledge is best used with caution.

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 502:

Council's tip shops in Acacia Ridge and Geebung are treasure troves for everyone from budding home stylists to outdoor enthusiasts.

2021 February 1, Living in Brisbane, Brisbane, page 7:

(figurative) A place where many things of value can be found.


passaporto

→ Albanian: pasaportë

desctree

→ Russian: па́спорт (pásport), па́спортъ (pásport) — Pre-reform orthography (1918), (dated or dialectal) па́шпорт (pášport), па́чпорт (páčport), (dated or dialectal) па́шпортъ (pášport), па́чпортъ (páčport) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
→ Mongolian: паспорт (pasport)
→ Romanian: pașaport

Verb-object compound, composed of passa (“to pass”) + porto (“port”).


bemoeial

nl-noun

bemoeial m or f (plural bemoeiallen or bemoeials, diminutive bemoeialletje n)

bemoeiallen (plural)
bemoeials (plural)
bemoeialletje (diminutive neuter)

From bemoeien + al, literally “meddle-all”.


nélkül

-nél + kül (an Old Hungarian variant of kívül)


everywhere

From Middle English eauerihwer, from Old English æfre + gehwær. By surface analysis, every + where.

We went to Europe last year and went everywhere: Berlin, Paris, London, and Madrid.

When I shop for shoes, I like to look everywhere.

I've looked everywhere in the house and still can't find my glasses.

(colloquial, hyperbolic) In or to a few or more locations.


busybody

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

A device consisting of three mirrors that, when attached to the wall of a house, allows an occupant to see who is at the front door without a direct line of sight.


somewhere

A person with strong cultural or social ties to a specific place.


shotgun

en-verb

shotgun (third-person singular simple present shotguns, present participle shotgunning, simple past and past participle shotgunned)

shotguns (present singular third-person)
shotgunning (participle present)
shotgunned (participle past)
shotgunned (past)

From shot + gun. Front passenger seat sense comes from ride shotgun.

An actual physical piece of paper shows that you're not just shotgunning out queries to every agent on the planet.

2009, Writing Fiction For Dummies, →ISBN:

Science fiction writers are “shotgunning ideas” through their works, he said, and people tend to recall the pellets that hit the target.

2011 December 6, John Schwartz, “Out of a Writer’s Imagination Came an Interactive World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

It's like they are on a generic mailing list and some photographer is just shotgunning cards out into the world with no thought as to who they are actually going to.

2013, Zack Arias, Photography Q&A: Real Questions, Real Answers, page 197:

(US, slang) To send out many (requests, answers to a question, etc), especially in the hope that one obtains a positive result (i.e. reveals useful information, is correct, etc), in the manner of a shotgun firing many balls of shot such that one may hit a target.


nowhere

From Middle English nowher, from Old English nōhwēr, nāhwǣr, from nā- + hwǣr. By surface analysis, no + where.
Adjective usage is taken from phrases like nowhere on the map (signifying the location was too small or too insignificant to be listed), nowhere you want to be, etc.

They went on a cruise to nowhere.

While they paced the platform of the station, they reviewed the career of misdemeanours—Nutley, Chiddiugstone, Midhurst, Penn, and many nowheres, and now Aylesbury.

1912, Charles Inge, “Nemesis or Bad Luck?”, in The Windsor magazine, volume 36, page 95:

On a warm summer's evening On a train bound for nowhere I met up with the gambler

1976, “The Gambler”, Don Schlitz (lyrics):

Oh, not the middle of nowhere like the rest of Indiana, but a nowhere so flat and ugly you want to lie down in a ditch and never get up again.

1996 Oct, Indianapolis Monthly, volume 20, number 2, page 115:

But some Nowheres do still exist and are there to be found by any genuinely free spirit willing to hook a caravan behind his four-wheel-drive and dream, say, of finding that isolated campsite beside an as yet undiscovered waterhole

2005, Dave Finkelstein with Jack London and Philip Caputo, Greater Nowheres: Wanderings Across the Outback, page xxiv:


everything

call someone everything but a child of God

if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

there is a time and place for everything

It took everything in me to resist the temptation to skip work on my birthday.


多少

CJKV/code

Sino-Xenic (多少):
* → Japanese: 多少(たしょう) (tashō)
* → Korean: 다소(多少) (daso)

/tu̯ɔ⁵⁵ ʂɑʊ̯²/

/tu̯ɔ⁵⁵ ʂɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/

/tuə²⁴ ʂɔ⁵¹/

/tɔː⁵⁵ siːu̯³⁵/

/tɤ⁴⁴⁻³³ siau⁴¹/

/to³³⁻²³ t͡sio⁵²/

/tu̯ɔ⁵⁵ ʂɑʊ̯²/

/tu̯ɔ⁵⁵ ʂɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/

/tuə²⁴ ʂɔ⁵¹/

/tɔː⁵⁵ siːu̯³⁵/

/tɤ⁴⁴⁻³³ siau⁴¹/

/to³³⁻²³ t͡sio⁵²/

/tu̯ɔ⁵⁵ ʂɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/

/tɔː⁵⁵ siːu̯³⁵/

/tɤ⁴⁴⁻³³ siau⁴¹/

The description is more or less accurate.

Zhè zhǒng miáoshù duōshǎo yǒu diǎn zhǔnquèxìng.

這種描述多少有點準確性。

这种描述多少有点准确性。


table tennis

A game or sport (similar to tennis) that involves the hitting of a light plastic ball across a table (fashioned like a mini tennis court) by rackets (paddles, bats (Britain)).


seeksorrow

In a bicentennial comment for Newsweek, he took issue with those who played the role of Seeksorrow. The Yale literary magazine had written him asking if he thought things were going to get worse […]

2002, Scott Donaldson, 9781463430856, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 301:

When my parents drove us up to Stratford, Ontario, to see a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the word seeksorrow leapt out at me from the stage, and I've loved it ever since.

2010, Phil Cousineau, Wordcatcher: An Odyssey into the World of Weird and Wonderful Words, Cleis Press, →ISBN, page xvii:

I do not think you are a seeksorrow, giving yourself comfort in vexation.

2011, Jeanne McElvaney, Old Maggie's Spirit Whispers, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 21:

A person who acts to their own detriment, contriving to give themselves vexation; a self-tormentor.


greenshirt

Bahuvrihi compound of green + shirt. Compare Brownshirt in Nazi sense.

A member of the Iron Guard death squads in Romania.


Blueshirt

(Ireland, derogatory) A member of Ireland's Fine Gael political party, which O'Duffy's followers joined after their own organization was dissolved.


Brownshirt

Calque of German Braunhemd, the nickname for a member of the Sturmabteilung, in reference to their brown uniforms. Equivalent to brown + shirt.

A heavy arched door was pouring a raucous and lurching party of Brownshirts on to the trampled snow. […] Half-way up the vaulted stairs a groaning Brownshirt, propped against the wall on a swastika'd arm, was unloosing, in a staunchless gush down the steps, the intake of hours.

1977, Patrick Leigh Fermor, “The Munich Hofbräuhaus”, in A Time of Gifts:

(historical) A uniformed member of the German Nazi Party (NSDAP), especially a storm trooper of the Sturmabteilung.


skinflint

From the phrase skin a flint (“go to extreme lengths for the sake of gain or economy”), from the brittleness and hardness of flint which makes it almost impossible to remove just its skin without shattering it.

You know, he is quite a different sort from the Public Prosecutor and our other provincial skinflints--fellows who shiver in their shoes before they will spend a single kopeck.

One who is excessively stingy or cautious with money; a tightwad; a miser.


dope fiend

Of course you know how prohibition works in many places and how the law is beaten. The dope fiends seem to be doing the same thing with this law.

1914, Arthur B[enjamin] Reeve, “The Toxin of Death”, in The Dream Doctor (The Craig Kennedy Series), New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 163:

(derogatory, dated) A person who abuses drugs.


greenhouse

en-verb

greenhouse (third-person singular simple present greenhouses, present participle greenhousing, simple past and past participle greenhoused)

greenhouses (present singular third-person)
greenhousing (participle present)
greenhoused (participle past)
greenhoused (past)

From green + house ("house for growing greens"), in reference to the produce grown within.

It's almost impossible to make judgements when you're being playful – as by definition it's spontaneous activity – so your baby ideas get nurtured and greenhoused better.

2008, Chris Barez-Brown, How to Have Kick-Ass Ideas:

(transitive, figurative) To nurture in order to promote growth.