tchotchke

tchotchkes (plural)
chachka (alternative)
chatchka (alternative)
chatchke (alternative)
chotchke (alternative)
tsatske (alternative)
tshatshke (alternative)
tsotchke (alternative)

/ˈt͡ʃɒt͡ʃkə/

/ˈt͡ʃɑt͡ʃkə/

Borrowed from Yiddish טשאַטשקע (tshatshke, “ornament; trinket; toy; (figurative) attractive girl or woman”), from a Slavic language and probably ultimately imitative of a baby’s utterances.
Slavic cognates
* Polish cacko (“toy; knick-knack, trinket; pretty thing”), from caca (“nice thing”), and czaczko (“(obsolete) toy; trinket; pretty thing”)
* Russian ца́цка (cácka, “(informal) knick-knack, trinket; (dated) toy”), from ца́ца (cáca, “toy; trinket; well-behaved child; nice person; conceited person”)
* Ukrainian ца́цка (cácka, “(dated) toy; ornament, trinket; conceited person; well-dressed person”), from ца́ца (cáca, “toy; well-behaved child; conceited person; attractive woman”)

cog

We're stuck with: 14 Provincial & Modern Kitchen chairs— […] 23 assorted Lamps and miscellaneous "Tchotchkes"! Help us unload.

1957 September 18, “You’re often sorry later when you don’t—plan ahead [Affiliated Home Distributors advertisement]”, in Citizen-News, Valley edition, volume 53, number 147, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: Harlan G. Palmer, →OCLC, page 6C, columns 3–4:

Barbra Streisand's ambition: to open a knick-knack shop called "Tchotchkes" (Yiddish for "knick-knacks") …

[1969 November 10, Earl Wilson, “Names make news items”, in J. Ray Hunt, editor, Philadelphia Daily News, volume XLV, number 190, Philadelphia, Pa.: Triangle Publications, →OCLC, page 45, column 1:

The idea of a discount operation, of course, is that it shouldn't look like a boutique. Presumably the price tags are decoration enough. "Décor doesn't add to the glamour of a suit," an owner pointed out. "You're not buying the rugs or the lamps or the tsatskes."

1974 July 12, Georgia Dullea, “Inflation-weary men turn to discount stores”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-04-06, page 31:

I am a child of modernism – […] As such I have inherited a distrust of the tchotchke, which I have still – even as the house I was raised in of course had its share of (modernist) tchotchkes: the Asian art, the Danish designware, the Indian pottery, the MoMA catalogues.

1998 April, Mark Rakatansky, “A/Partments”, in Assemblage, number 35, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, paragraph 45, page 58:

With limited cash and a thirst for uncommon sights, backpackers have pushed into challenging territory well before the big-money resorts or tchotchke merchants.

1999 August 8, Jesse McKinley, “The avant-garde: Follow that backpack”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-09-17, page 5.16:

The awsome dissonance of Psycho works independently even as it instantly evokes Norman Bates's stabbing knife and Marion Crane's helpless scream. Once again [Alfred] Hitchcock overturned the convention that music must remain subliminally in the background of a film: […] in its quiet moments, it roams grimly wherever it pleases, investing the most banal images—a toy, a car on an empty highway, a suitcase on a bed, a tchotchke of folding hands—with dread.

2006, Jack Sullivan, “Psycho”, in Hitchcock’s Music, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 244:

“The night market is a bit like the famous Italian street fairs of Little Italy. Very diverse. Lots of different cultures represented. Sticky shit all over the ground. And a good place to pillage or barter tchotchkes.”

2022 July 26, William Meny & Paul Simms, “The Night Market” (5:01 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 4, episode 4, spoken by Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak):

A small ornament of minor value; a knick-knack, a trinket.


teakettle

teakettles (plural)
tea kettle (alternative)
tea-kettle (alternative)

→ Jersey Norman: ticl'ye

→ Welsh: tegell

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

Phœbe and the fire that boiled the teakettle were equally bright, cheerful, and efficient, in their respective offices.

1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields:

“Such a cunning teakettle and saucepan, and a tete-a-tete set, and lots of good things to eat. Do have toast for tea, Polly, and let me make it with the new toasting fork; it's such fun to play cook.”

1869–1870, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter VIII, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1870, →OCLC:

(dated outside US) A vessel used to boil water for tea or other hot beverages.


ass over teakettle

arse over teakettle (alternative)
ass over teacups (alternative)
ass over tin cups (alternative)

When the top step gave way, he went ass over teakettle back down to the bottom.

We've been scrambling ass over teakettle to get this thing done on time.


ass over teakettle

After all that hard work cleaning up, along comes one big storm and we're ass over teakettle again.


battle-ax

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of battle axe


mix

→ Belarusian: мікс (miks)

→ Polish: miks

→ Russian: микс (miks)

→ Turkish: miks, mix

→ Ukrainian: мікс (miks)

A merger of a nominal use of the verb and a borrowing from Anglo-Norman mixte, from Latin mixtus, past participle of misceō (“mix”). Nowadays regarded automatically as the nominal form of the verb.

Eventually I could taste different drugs and tell how much mix in it or if there’s too much mix in it or what have you.

1977, John Allen, chapter 11, in Assault with a Deadly Weapon: The Autobiography of a Street Criminal,, New York: Pantheon Books, page 160:

(US, slang, uncountable) A substance used to dilute or adulterate an illicit drug.


pump

From Middle English pumpe, possibly from Middle Dutch pompe (“pipe, water conduit”) or Middle Low German pumpe (“pump”), probably ultimately imitative.
Compare Dutch pompen, German pumpen, and Danish pompe; also Spanish bomba (“pump”).

onomatopoeic

imitative


pump

en-verb

pump (third-person singular simple present pumps, present participle pumping, simple past and past participle pumped)

pumps (present singular third-person)
pumping (participle present)
pumped (participle past)
pumped (past)

⇒ Czech: pumpovat

→ Thai: ปั๊ม (bpám)

onomatopoeic

imitative

The waves were really pumping this morning.

Last night's party was really pumping.

(US, intransitive, slang) Of music: to be loud, to have strong bass and rhythms; (by extension) to be full of energy.


pump

The etymology of the term is unclear and disputed. One possibility is that it comes from pomp (“ornamentation”). Another is that it refers to the sound made by the foot moving inside the shoe when dancing. The Oxford English Dictionary claims that it appeared in the 16th century, and lists its origin as "obscure". It has also been linked to the Dutch pampoesje, possibly borrowed from Javanese pampus, ultimately from Persian پاپوش (pâpuš), borrowed from Arabic بَابُوش (bābūš).

unk

obscure

der

Arabic بَابُوش (bābūš)

She was wearing a lovely new pair of pumps.

(chiefly Canada, US) A type of women's shoe which leaves the instep uncovered and has a relatively high heel, especially a stiletto (with a very high and thin heel)


trick

en-adj

trick (comparative tricker, superlative trickest)

tricker (comparative)
trickest (superlative)

From Middle English trikke, from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier (“to defraud, act dishonestly, conceal, deceive, cheat”); > modern French tricher), itself possibly from Middle High German trechen (“to launch a shot at, play a trick on”), or one of its derivatives (e.g. Middle High German ūftrechen (“to do something to someone, hurt someone”), vertrechen (“to conceal, get over on someone”), zuotrechen (“to obtain falsely or deceitfully, wangle, finagle”), etc.); yet the Old French verb is equally likely to be derived from Vulgar Latin *triccāre, from Late Latin tricāre, from Latin trīcor, trīcārī (“dodge, search for detours; haggle, quibble”).
The term has been connected to Middle Dutch treck, trec (“draw, line, desire, game move, cord, stratagem, ruse, trick”), from Middle Dutch trekken, trēken (“to pull, place, put, move”), from Old Dutch *trekken, *trekan (“to move, drag”), from Proto-Germanic *trakjaną, *trekaną (“to drag, scrape, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreg- (“to drag, scrape”). If they are related, trick would be cognate with Low German trekken, Middle High German trecken, trechen, Danish trække, and Old Frisian trekka, Romanian truc and other Romance languages.
Compare track, treachery, trig, and trigger.

der

Wow, your new sportscar is so trick.


ass over teacups

ass over teakettle
ass over teakettle#English

(Canada, US) Synonym of ass over teakettle


fire drill

Since they've changed the standards again, our previous efforts now just amount to a fire drill.

(idiomatic, US) Any pointless, unproductive, useless, or chaotic activity.


loot

→ Portuguese: loot

Borrowed from Hindi लूट (lūṭ, “booty”), either from Sanskrit लोप्त्र (loptra, “booty, stolen property”) or लुण्ट् (luṇṭ, “to rob, plunder”). The figurative meaning developed in American English in the 1920s, resulting in a generalized meaning by the 1950s.

poen

slang: money, especially illicitly acquired

Free Loot for Children

(colloquial, US) Any valuable thing received for free, especially Christmas presents.


loot

R-run over an' wake up th' loot at th' station.

1898, Finley Peter Dunne, Mr. Dooley in Peace & War, page 11:

(US military slang, dated) Clipping of lieutenant.


schmuck

schmucks (plural)
schmock (alternative)
shmock (alternative)
shmuck (alternative)
shmuk (alternative)

From Yiddish שמאָק (shmok, “penis, fool”). Further origin uncertain. Probably from Old Polish ćmok (“dim lighted”), or Bulgarian смок (smok, “grass snake”). Perhaps akin to onomatopoeic Russian смоктать (smoktatʹ) smoktat ("to suck") according to old belief that snakes suck milk from animals. Alternatively a baby-talk corruption of Yiddish שמעקל (shmekl), a dissimilated form of שטעקל (shtekl, “penis/willy”, literally “little stick”). Alternatively from the verb Middle High German smucken, archaic German schmucken, which has several meanings allowing possible semantic connections: 1.) “to squeeze, press, fit into something tight”; 2.) “to hug, snuggle, kiss”; 3.) “to adorn, decorate”. The last of these three senses is perhaps less likely, but compare German Schmuck (“jewellery”) with English crown jewels.

One day my girlfriend, her boyfriend and I were sunbathing topless because that's Barbados - you can wear nothing if you want. And the Pepsi guy walks up and with my agent to meet us for lunch. I wondered if I should put on my top because I have a business relationship with him. I didn't want him to get offended because the rest of the beach had seen me with my top off. Meanwhile, as he's walking towards me he's saying to my agent "I hope she puts on her top.". He wasn't even being a schmuck, like wanting to see.

1995 September, “The Playboy Interview: Cindy Crawford”, in Playboy:

"SCP-7579 developed internal camouflage so a shmuck like yourself would speculate on it, then convince a more powerful shmuck unlike myself to buy it time. It's probably smarter than us, it's definitely smarter than you, and every second of its existence exponentiates the time and resources I'll have to spend cleaning up your mess."

2022 October 18, Placeholder McD, “SCP-7579 [offset 1]”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-12-20:

(colloquial, derogatory, US) A jerk; a person who is unlikable, detestable, or contemptible because he or she is stupid, foolish, clumsy, oafish, inept, malicious, or unpleasant.

kaculo

jerk; unlikable, stupid, foolish, malicious, or unpleasant person


school class

I was the only unicyclist in my English class, but it turned out there was another in my school class, and two more due to come in with next year's class.

(US) All students who have graduated or will graduate from a school in a given year.


beaucoup

Borrowed from French beaucoup, early 20th century. Popularized by American GIs during the Vietnam War.

boku (alternative)
boocoo (alternative)
bookoo (alternative)
buku (alternative)

You know that cost beaucoup bucks!

“I bet the skipper’s been drinkin^([sic]) beaucoup highballs an^([sic]) thinks Brooklyn’s Hoboken.”

1925, John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, 3rd section, page 282:

Donlon says, "Well, we're rich and we got beaucoup beer and beaucoup chow. Now all we need is the Bob Hope show."

1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 93:

Then he'd have to be relieved of command. Which you could do, Doctor, but it's beaucoup trouble if you're wrong.

1987 November 2, Michael Halperin, w:Dorothy Catherine Fontana, “Lonely Among Us”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 1, episode 7, spoken by Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), production code 108:

(US, especially Louisiana, informal) Much, many, a lot of.


spic

spics (plural)
spick (alternative)
spik (alternative)

Possibly imitative of a Hispanic pronunciation of speak. Usually considered a contraction of the earlier used spiggoty.

(US, offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Latino; a person of Latin American descent.

“He’s a spic” he said. He was frantic with jealousy, he didn’t want to be hurt again.

1934, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night: A Romance, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC; republished as Malcolm Cowley, editor, Tender is the Night: A Romance … With the Author’s Final Revisions, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951, →OCLC, book IV (Escape: 1925–1929), page 236:

(US, ethnic slur, originally) A person of Italian descent.


cracker

From crack + -er. From crack (verb), the sound made when one is broken. The hard "bread" and "biscuit" sense is first attested in 1739. The computing senses of cracker, crack, and cracking were promoted in the 1980s as an alternative to hacker, by programmers concerned about negative public associations of hack, hacking (“creative computer coding”). See Citations:cracker. Various theories exist regarding the term's application to poor white Southerners. One theory holds that it originated with disadvantaged corn and wheat farmers (corncrackers), who cracked their crops rather than taking them to the mill. Another theory asserts that it was applied due to Georgia and Florida settlers (Florida crackers) who cracked loud whips to drive herds of cattle, or, alternatively, from the whip cracking of plantation slave drivers. Yet another theory maintains that the term cracker was in use in Elizabethan times to describe braggarts (see crack (“to boast”)); a letter from 1766 supports this theory.

Brothers and the whiteys / Blacks and the crackers / Police and their backers / They're all political actors

1970, “(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go”, in Curtis, performed by Curtis Mayfield:

Check this shit: You got cracker farm boy Luke Skywalker, Nazi poster boy, blond hair, blue eyes. And then you got Darth Vader, the blackest brother in the galaxy, Nubian god!

1997, Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy, spoken by Hooper (Dwight Ewell):

“You know that old cracker beat them boys.”

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 202:

(US, derogatory, ethnic slur, offensive) An impoverished white person from the southeastern United States, originally associated with Georgia and parts of Florida; (by extension) any white person (slang).


Dana

Johnie had become a "problem" for the advisers and "baby deans" in University Hall: men with marvelously Puritan names like Dana Cotton and Christopher Wadsworth called him in and asked what the trouble was.

1971, J. Anthony Lukas, Don't Shoot — We Are Your Children, Random House, →ISBN, page 419:

Currently serving his sixth term in Congress, Dana Rohrabacher represents California's scenic 45th Congressional District.

When Dana White barreled up to the microphone, at Donald Trump’s request, to say his piece on election night, it represented confirmation of the UFC CEO’s status as one of the key members of the president-elect’s inner circle.

2024 November 16, Aaron Timms, “How UFC head Dana White became the glue between Maga and the manosphere”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(chiefly US) A unisex given name transferred from the surname, originally given in honor of Richard Henry Dana Jr.


babe magnet

Donald Rumsfeld had become a sex symbol. She observed that he was called a “virtual rock star” on CNN, a “babe magnet” on Fox, and “Rumstud” by the president.

(chiefly Canada, US, idiomatic, slang) A person, especially a man, to whom women are attracted.


dace

From late Middle English darse, dace, from Old French dars, nominative form of dart (“dace”). For a similar loss of r, compare bass, while for the pronunciation with /eɪ/, see scarce.

(US) Any of various related small fish of the family Cyprinidae that live in freshwater and are native to North America.


call collect

en-verb

call collect (third-person singular simple present calls collect, present participle calling collect, simple past and past participle called collect)

calls collect (present singular third-person)
calling collect (participle present)
called collect (participle past)
called collect (past)

prank

method for limited but free communication

In the days of payphones, if you had no coins, you could call collect and hope that the callee would accept the charges.

(US, intransitive) To make a telephone call in which the cost of the call is paid by the person receiving the call.

soittaa vastapuhelu

to make a phone call paid by the person receiving the call

Call me what you want — just don’t call me collect.

Please call me to let me know you’re safe — you’re welcome to call me collect.

(US, transitive) To call (someone) in this way.


Islamonazism

1989 December 28, “Bumiputra and Islamonazism”, in talk.politics.mideast (Usenet):

From the river to the sea, the whole land will one day be free — free of all the terrorist factions, and free for people of every religious faith to live without fear of Islamonazism, in all its perverse variations.

2002 December 5, Dave Kopel, “A Rich Tradition”, in The National Review:

2010 October 6, “Islamonazism and its historic, systematic and continue persecution of Christians ("Christains" to some)”, in alt.politics.immigration (Usenet):

(chiefly US, derogatory, offensive) Islamist Nazism, Nazi Islamism: a real or imagined conflation of Nazism and Islamism.


principal

en-noun

principal (countable and uncountable, plural principals)

principals (plural)
principall (alternative)

From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.

Principal (education)
Principal value
principal

The important administrative figure to the teacher is the school principal.

1971, Louis Kaplan, Education and Mental Health, page 413:

The problem was neatly summed up by one principal in Australia who said recently: ‘There is no incentive for me to develop my best teachers to become my successor.[…]’

2008, Brian Dive, The Accountable Leader: Developing Effective Leadership Through Managerial Accountability, page 212:

Now renamed Teaching Australia, its officers are undertaking exploratory steps in developing professional standards for school leaders. A National Standards Drafting Group of volunteer principals is currently drafting principal standards (Teaching Australia, 2007).

2009, Colin J. Marsh, Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum, page 132:

2011, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2011-2012, page 45,
Principals are now being held more accountable for the performance of students and teachers, while at the same time they are required to adhere to a growing number of government regulations.

(Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) The chief administrator of a school.

(Canada, US) A partner or owner of a business.


pastor

pasta (Australia, New Zealand, Northern England)

From Middle English pastour, from Old French pastor (Modern French pasteur), from Latin pāstor.

Coordinate term: parochial vicar

(Roman Catholicism, US) The main priest serving a parish.


white trash

→ Swedish: WT

A shortening, first attested in 1850, of poor white trash, which black slaves in the Southern United States were said to call white individuals who worked in servile positions (for example, as butlers).

This white trash can't pay for his own beer.

These lowlife characters are white trash.

Among these odd folk, who correspond exactly to the decadent element of “white trash” in the South, law and morals are non-existent; and their general mental status is probably below that of any other section of the native American people.

1919, H. P. Lovecraft, Beyond the Wall of Sleep:

“So, he is the father of Emmie Slattery’s baby,” thought Scarlett. “Oh, well. What else can you expect from a Yankee man and a white-trash girl?”

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part I, page 71:

When Linda was two and living in a San Pedro dive with her white-trash parents, he was twelve and gaining clandestine access to wealthy homes in Bronxville and Scarsdale, New York, exorcising his nocturnal heart by delivering himself to the quiet muse of other people's dwellings, sometimes stealing, sometimes not. . . .

1987 [1984], James Ellroy, Because the Night, New York: Avon, →ISBN, page 31:

Just some Portland white trash / You confronted your sorrow / Like there was no tomorrow / While the rest of the world only laughed

2017, “Tonya Harding”, performed by Sufjan Stevens:

(US, idiomatic, derogatory, ethnic slur, offensive) A poorly educated white person or, collectively, white people of low social status and often regarded as lazy, irresponsible, unintelligent, etc.

白色垃圾

white person or people of low social status (pejorative)


minority

minority (countable and uncountable, plural minorities)

From Middle French minorité, and its source Late Latin minōritās, from Latin minor.
Morphologically minor + -ity

The company claims it has hired several minorities since the complaint was lodged.


KERA

(US, education) Acronym of Kentucky Education Reform Act (1990).


around the Horn

(US, Navy, idiomatic) Via shipboard communications, formerly metal tubes with earhorn-like ends.


possum

(US) An opossum, a marsupial of the family Didelphidae of the Americas.


boot camp

From boot in the US military slang sense of “new recruit” + camp.

(chiefly Canada, US, colloquial) Initial, basic indoctrination, physical fitness training and basic instruction in service-related subjects for new recruits in the armed forces (army, Air Force, navy and Marine Corps).

(chiefly Canada, US) A short, intensive, quasi-military program generally aimed at young offenders as an alternative to a jail term.

puni whakaara

a short, intensive, quasi-military program generally aimed at young offenders as an alternative to a jail term

We will institute a boot camp for training the sales force in these new products.

(chiefly Canada, US, idiomatic) Any short, often intensive course of training.


practice

en-verb

practice (third-person singular simple present practices, present participle practicing, simple past and past participle practiced)

practices (present singular third-person)
practicing (participle present)
practiced (participle past)
practiced (past)

The noun is from Middle English practice, practique, practyse, from the verb; also compare Medieval Latin prāctica.
The verb is from Middle English practice, practise, practize, practyse, from Middle French pratiser, practiser, alteration of practiquer, from Medieval Latin prācticāre, from Late Latin prācticus, from Ancient Greek πρακτικός (praktikós).
The spelling practice is attested once in Middle English for both the noun and the verb. The noun began to be assimilated in spelling to nouns in -ice; practise (noun) is now obsolete.

I have been a liberal housekeeper enough, but I shall not be ashamed to practice economy now.

1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 57:

(now US) Alternative spelling of practise


prior

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin prior (“earlier, former, previous, prior; in front; (figurative) better, superior”), from Proto-Italic *priōs (“earlier, previous”, literally “more before”), ultimately from *pri (“before”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pró (“leading to, toward”) and its etymon *per- (“before, in front; first”)) + *-jōs (suffix forming comparative adjectives). Doublet of before, fore, and former.
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.

der

априорное распределение вероятностей

And a little later we get the routine report on his prints from Washington, and he's got a prior back in Indiana, attempted hold-up six years ago.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published 1966, →OCLC, page 47:

(Canada, US, law enforcement, chiefly in the plural) A previous arrest or criminal conviction on someone's criminal record.

досие

previous arrest or criminal conviction on someone’s criminal record


helper

From Middle English helpere, from Old English *helpere, from Proto-West Germanic *helpārī (“helper”), equivalent to help + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälper (“helper”), West Frisian helper (“helper”), Dutch helper (“helper”), German Low German Helper (“helper”), German Helfer (“helper”), Danish hjælper (“helper”), Swedish hjälpare (“helper”), Icelandic hjálpar (“helper”).

A device for the automatic control of crewless helper locomotives cut into the make-up of heavy freight trains has been perfected by the Louisville & Nashville RR in conjunction with the General Railway Signalling Co.

1964 November, “Automatic helper locomotive control on the Louisville & Nashville RR, USA”, in Modern Railways, page 354:

(rail transport, US) A locomotive that assists a train, usually on steep gradients.


rage

en-noun

rage (countable and uncountable, plural rages)

From Middle English rage, from Anglo-Norman rage, from Late Latin rabia, from Classical Latin rabiēs (“anger, fury”). Doublet of rabies.
Displaced native Middle English wode, from Old English wōd ("madness, fury, rage"; compare Modern dialectal English wood (“mad, insane, furious, raging”)); and Middle English hotherte (“anger”), from Old English hātheort (“fury, anger, wrath, rage”).

gl

"madness, fury, rage"; compare Modern dialectal English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">wood</i> (“mad, insane, furious, raging”)

ncog

That evening, Felix and Trish Homer invited me to the Sundancer for "a bit of a rage."

2013, Larry M. Edwards, Dare I Call It Murder?: A Memoir of Violent Loss, San Diego, C.A.: Wigeon Publishing, →ISBN, page 95:

(slang, US, Australia, New Zealand) An exciting and boisterous party.


rage

en-verb

rage (third-person singular simple present rages, present participle raging, simple past and past participle raged)

rages (present singular third-person)
raging (participle present)
raged (participle past)
raged (past)

From Middle English ragen, from Old French rager, ragier, from the noun (see above).
Displaced native Middle English weden (“to rage with anger”), from Old English wēdan (“to rage”), among other synonyms.

ncog

These events are all about raging hard, getting as fucked up as you can. Not necessarily even about dancing, just being a face in this giant extravaganza.

2012 August 2, Simon Reynolds, quoting Nathan Messer, “How rave music conquered America”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-02-13:

(slang, US, Australia, New Zealand) To party hard; to have a good time.


flounder

From Middle English flowndre, from Anglo-Norman floundre, from Old Northern French flondre, from Old Norse flyðra, from Proto-Germanic *flunþrijǭ. Cognate with Danish flynder, German Flunder, Swedish flundra.

Blackfishing from the beach. I've done my research. Hundreds of shipwrecks line the Jersey coast, and many of them are close enough to reach with a long cast on a dead-low tide. These wrecks hold tautog, porgies, sea bass, flounder.

2014, Nick Honachefsky, The Jersey Surf Diaries:

(Canada, US) Any of various flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae or Bothidae.


durn

The older man eyed him for a moment bale fully. "I'm goin' to set 'em again," he replied, "and don't you touch 'em. I'm goin' to trap where I durn please. There's two of you, but you don't bluff me out, not any."

1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate:

(US, informal, euphemistic) Darn; damned; extremely.


grinch

Dr. Seuss
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Named after the main character in a children's book by Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957).

Here's what they would risk: appearing responsible for higher taxes next year after Obama offered them a deal to extend the Bush-era rates, coming off as grinches for failing to extend unemployment insurance during the holiday season, and the possibility that next year Obama and Democrats will actually hold more leverage in this debate.

2010 December 9, Chris Good, “Will Republicans Scuttle the Tax Cut Deal?”, in The Atlantic:


surrogate

→ Dutch: surrogaat

From Latin surrogātus, perfect passive participle of surrogō (“ask”); a variant of subrogō, from sub (“under”) + rogō (“ask”).

(US, politics) A politician or person of influence campaigning for a presidential candidate.

(US law) A judicial officer of limited jurisdiction, who administers matters of probate and intestate succession and, in some cases, adoptions.


triple

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English triple (also þripell), from Latin triplus. Doublet of treble.

I'd like a triple with cheese.


honcho

en-verb

honcho (third-person singular simple present honchos, present participle honchoing, simple past and past participle honchoed)

honchos (present singular third-person)
honchoing (participle present)
honchoed (participle past)
honchoed (past)

From Japanese 班(はん)長(ちょう) (hanchō, “squad leader”), from 19th c. Mandarin 班長 /班长 (bānzhǎng, “team leader”). Probably entered English during World War II: many apocryphal stories describe American soldiers hearing Japanese prisoners-of-war refer to their lieutenants as hanchō.

der

I had never honchoed that many people so even something as simple as ordering them to knead dough or fondant became an important decision.

2010, Buddy Valastro, Cake Boss, Simon and Schuster, published 2020, →ISBN, page 142:

The task of choosing the clips that comprised the allotted 10 minutes in the bake-off was left to the supervising sound editor, as it was he or she who honchoed the preparation of the soundtrack for the rerecording mixing stage in the first place.

2012, David Lewis Yewdall, Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:

(transitive, informal, Canada, US) To lead or manage.


plug

→ Gulf Arabic: بلاك (blāk)

→ Burmese: ပလတ် (pa.lat)

→ Japanese: プラグ (puragu)

From Dutch plug, from Middle Dutch plugge (“peg, plug”), from Old Dutch *pluggi, from Proto-West Germanic *plugi. Further origin unknown. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *plugjaz, but the word seems originally restricted to northern continental West Germanic. Perhaps ultimately from the same source as Dutch plag (“cut-out sod”), itself considered to be from a substrate.
Compare German Low German Plüg, Norwegian plug (“peg, wedge”, probably borrowed from Middle Low German), German Pflock (“peg”, restricted to Central German and phonetically divergent). Possibly akin to Lithuanian plúkti (“to strike, hew”).

unk

unknown

cog

He preferred a plug of tobacco to loose chaw.

(US) A flat oblong cake of pressed tobacco.

That sorry old plug is ready for the glue factory!


muy

Spacehog are a perfectly nice band, with pleasantly strummed guitars, a crisp pop sensibility, and muy cute vocals on this side of awkward, but after Blur, Ride, Lush, Oasis, Stone Roses, Elastica, and what have you, Resident Alien is just the proverbial straw on this overworked and overbroke camel's back.

1995 November 30, Drema Crist, Janette Park, Marc Sorace, “Last-Second Sound Bites”, in The Chronicle, Duke University:

In her rosy two-piece traveling outfit, Adela looks muy cute as she walks toward us.

1999, Terri de la Peña, Faults, Alyson Books, published 1999, →ISBN, page 163:

But such is the case with Enrique Iglesias, the muy handsome son of Julio, who is known to his fans these days simply as Enrique.

2007 June 9, John Lannert, “Crossover King”, in Billboard:

(informal, US, chiefly in Latin-American contexts) Very.


anyways

From any + adverbial genitive of way (compare always).

"Anyways," said the damsel, "I am glad punishment followed, and I say so."

1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “book 2, chapter 12”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC:

(conjunctive, informal, chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) Anyway, anyhow, in any case.


rider

[ˈɹ̠aɪdə(ɹ̠)]

/ˈɹɑɪ.də(ɹ)/

[ˈɹ̠ʷɑe̯də(ɹʷ)]

[ˈɹ̠aɪɾ(ə)ɹ̠]

[ˈɹ̠əjɾ(ə)ɹ̠]

writer (with flapping but without Canadian raising)

From Middle English ryder, ridere, from Late Old English rīdere (“rider, knight”). Compare Dutch rijder, German Reiter. By surface analysis, ride + -er.

kalorës

one who rides — see also cyclist, driver

fo-fhadhb

math: problem of extra difficulty added to another on an examination paper

On the London Underground, Piccadilly Circus station is nearly vacant on a weekday morning, while the Delhi Metro is ferrying fewer than half of the riders it used to.

2021 March 25, Somini Sengupta, Geneva Abdul, Manuela Andreoni, Veronica Penney, “Riders Are Abandoning Buses and Trains. That's a Problem for Climate Change.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(now chiefly US) Someone riding in a vehicle; a passenger on public transport.


gob

en-noun

gob (countable and uncountable, plural gobs)

From Middle English gobbe (also Middle English gobet), from Old French gobet, gobe (“lump, mouthful”), from Transalpine Gaulish *gobbo- (“neb, muzzle”).


gob

Well I have taken the oath of allegiance for 4 years service anywhere in the world and am now a real 'gob' in the U. S. Navy.

1918 October 22, Letter of Adlai Stevenson, quoted in John Bartlow Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), page 53

If it weren't for the Fleet I should scarcely be able to endure it. Gobs are always amusing, as you know.

Full-cut, dashing "gob" slacks with back pocket.

1937, Stella Blum, Everyday Fashion of the Thirties as pictured in Sears Catalogs, published 1986, page 94:

1944 November, Fitting the Gob to the Job, Popular Mechanics, page 18,
For the first time in history, new warship crews are virtually “prefabricated” by modern methods of fitting the gob to the job.

1948 June, Fred B. Barton, Mending Broken Gobs, The Rotarian, page 22,
Taking a safe average of 2,000 rehabilitated young gobs a year, that′s a total of 100,000 years of salvaged manhood, a target worth shooting at.


gorge

From Middle English gorge (“esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten”), a borrowing from Old French gorge (“throat”) (modern French gorge (“throat; breast”)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour, swallow; to eat”). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (“throat”), Italian gorga, gorgia (“gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat”), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”), Spanish gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”). Doublet of gour.

cog

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-gorge.wav

an ice gorge in a river

An ice gorge had formed in the bed of the river at the head of the island and from bank to bank logs, driftwood, broken ice and giant floes were packed and jammed so tightly as to resist the action of the mighty current.

1903, Zane Grey, chapter VII, in Betty Zane, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 133:

(US) A choking or filling of a channel or passage by an obstruction; the obstruction itself.


gorge

en-verb

gorge (third-person singular simple present gorges, present participle gorging, simple past and past participle gorged)

gorges (present singular third-person)
gorging (participle present)
gorged (participle past)
gorged (past)

The verb is derived from Middle English gorgen (“to eat greedily; to gorge”), a borrowing from Old French gorger, gorgier (modern French gorger (“to eat greedily; to gorge”)), from gorge (“throat”); see further at etymology 1.
The noun is derived from the verb.

cog

At the mouth of the river there is shoal water, in which the ice grounds, and in severe weather, it forms a point of support for successive floating masses, until it sometimes gorges up for many miles above the ferry of the railway line.

1852 March, Ellwood Morris, “Notice of a Railroad upon an Ice Grade”, in John F[ries] Frazer, editor, Journal of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, volume XXIII (Third Series; volume LIII overall), number 3, Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by the Franklin Institute, at their hall, →OCLC, page 161:

The morbid appearances left in the body after poisoning with carbonic acid gas have been chiefly observed in persons killed by charcoal vapour. […] the heart and great veins are gorged with black fluid blood; the eyes are generally glistening and prominent, the face red, and the tongue protruding and black. Gorging of the cerebral vessels seems to be very common.

1836, Robert Christison, “Of the Poisonous Gases”, in A Treatise of Poisons, in Relation to Medical Jurisprudence, Physiology, and the Practice of Physic, 3rd edition, Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, […]; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, →OCLC, page 752:

He'd meant to only kiss her, to play a bit with her mouth, to place small kisses on the fragile bones of her cheeks, but when their tongues met, the gentleness flamed to full-fledged wanting. His cock gorged swiftly, and he pressed her tight against him between his legs.

2015 November 13, Linda Anderson, chapter 16, in The Secrets of Sadie Maynard, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN:

(transitive) To fill up (an organ, a vein, etc.); to block up or obstruct; (US, specifically) of ice: to choke or fill a channel or passage, causing an obstruction.


comp

en-verb

comp (third-person singular simple present comps, present participle comping, simple past and past participle comped)

comps (present singular third-person)
comping (participle present)
comped (participle past)
comped (past)

He comped lightly and then played a short phrase to begin his solo.

2001, Charles Suhor, Jazz in New Orleans: The Postwar Years Through 1970, page 9:

(intransitive, US) To accompany, in music.


one-armed bandit

en-noun

one-armed bandit (plural one-armed bandits)

one-armed bandits (plural)
one-arm bandit (alternative)

From one-armed (“having only one arm”) + bandit (“one who robs others in a lawless area, especially as part of a group; one who cheats others”), referring to the fact that the machine is operated by a single handle, and “steals” money from losing players.

com

(originally US, gambling) A gaming machine having a long arm-like handle at one side that a player pulls down to make reels spin; the player wins money or tokens when certain combinations of symbols line up on these reels.


balmy

en-adj

balmy (comparative balmier, superlative balmiest)

balmier (comparative)
balmiest (superlative)

I'm going away. He's off his chump, he is. I dont want no balmies teaching me.

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act II, page 125:

'I reckon he's balmy,' Claud said, and Bert grinned darkly, rolling his misty eye slowly round in its socket.

1958 April 1, Roald Dahl, “Parson's Pleasure”, in Esquire, page 148:

(informal, US) Foolish; slightly crazy or mad; eccentric.


behind

From Middle English behinde, behinden, from Old English behindan (“on the back side of, behind”), from Proto-West Germanic *bihindan, *bihindini (“on the back side of, in the rear of, behind”), from Proto-West Germanic *bi- + *hindō (“the hind side, back part”), equivalent to be- + hind. Compare Old Saxon bihindan (“behind”, adverb), Middle High German behinter (“behind; back”).

noncog

ahind (alternative)
behine (alternative)

behind every successful man there stands a woman

He was like, 'Fuck the police! Fuck you! You know who I am, you gonna quit playing with me, bitch.' I'm like let's go. 'Cause I wasn't trying to go to jail behind that shit.

2012, DeShawn Dorsey, Longsuffering Through Emotional Wounds, page 40:

(sometimes regarded as nonstandard, US, informal) Following, subsequent to; as a result or consequence of.


blunt

From Middle English blunt, blont, from Old English *blunt (attested in the derivative Blunta (male personal name) (> English surnames Blunt, Blount)), probably of North Germanic origin, possibly related to Old Norse blunda (“to doze”) (> Icelandic blunda, Swedish blunda, Danish blunde).

gloss

[…] to make his point, lead rapper B-Real fired up a blunt in front of the cameras and several hundred thousand people and announced, “I'm taking a hit for every one of y'all!”

2004, Martin Torgoff, “The Temple of Accumulated Error”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 461:


lodge

→ Dutch: lodge

From Middle English logge, from Old French loge (“arbour, covered walk-way”), from Frankish *laubijā (“shelter; arbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *laub (“leaf; folliage”) (whence English leaf).
See also (compare cognate Medieval Latin lobia, laubia; also Old High German louba (“porch, gallery”) (German Laube (“bower, arbor”)), Old High German loub (“leaf, foliage”), Old English lēaf (“leaf, foliage”). Doublet of loggia and lobby.


quid

Borrowed from Latin quid (“what, something”), neuter singular of quis (“who”).

(US, historical) A member of a section of the Democratic-Republican Party between 1805 and 1811, following John Randolph of Roanoke. (From tertium quid.)


quid

From Middle English quide, quede, from Old English cwidu, cwudu (“that which is chewed, cud”). Doublet of cud.

(US, colloquial) The act of chewing such tobacco.


blush

en-noun

blush (countable and uncountable, plural blushes)

From Middle English blusshen, bluschen, blusschen, blisshen, from Old English blysċan (“to be red; shine”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *blaskijaną, from *blasǭ (“burning candle; torch”) or alternatively from Proto-Germanic *bluskijaną, from *blusjǭ (“torch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-.
Cognate with Middle Low German blöschen (“to blush”). Compare also Old English blysian (“to burn; blaze”), Dutch blozen (“to blush”), Danish blusse (“to blush”), Old Norse blys (“torch”), Danish blus (“blaze”).

inh

2016, Mishkah Abrahams, “Blush or Rosé? The Cape's Best Summer Drink,” capetownetc.com, 29 September, 2016,
If you’re looking to indulge in some good food while you sip your blush, pair the Chardonnay-Pinot Noir with fresh, summer foods such as sushi, refreshing salads, delicious seafood and fruity summertime desserts.

(chiefly US) A pale pink wine made by removing the dark grape skins at the required point during fermentation.


chopper

Pomatomus saltatrix
Pomatomus saltatrix#Translingual

(Canada, US) The bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).


sally

(slang, drugs, Canada, US) The crystalline or powdered form of MDA.


suss

en-adj

suss (comparative more suss, superlative most suss)

more suss (comparative)
most suss (superlative)
sus (alternative)

2001, Mo Hayder, The Treatment, 2008, Bantam, UK, page 244,
‘Yes – OK, OK. Try not to struggle, Tracey. It just makes you look even more suss.’

2009, Barbara Ward Smith, Dead Centre: Murder Mystery, AuthorHouse, UK, page 191,
I think it was Amber Johnson dressed up said Marc, but its proving it, we don′t have much to go on according to her said Jan her friend has been driving her car, yes very convenient said Marc and it′s even more suss that this friend has gone on holiday, did she ever give us the name of this mystical friend? Asked Jan.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, US, colloquial) Suspicious.


aggro

aggro (comparative more aggro, superlative most aggro)

more aggro (comparative)
most aggro (superlative)
agro (alternative)

From a clipping of aggravation + -o (diminutive suffix), influenced by aggressive.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century the physically adept aggro femme had become a recurring motif in new circus and physical theatre.

2005, Peta Tait, Circus Bodies: cultural identity in aerial performance, page 131:

Each Black Flag line-up had a personality and vibe. They were all totally aggro and totally rocking.

2013, Stewart Dean Ebersole, Barred for Life:

(British, US, slang) Hardcore, aggressive.


limey

In adjectival senses, by surface analysis, lime + -y.
In the sense of Englishman, reduced from the 19th century term lime-juicer (“British ship”), from the lime juice British ships carried to ward off scurvy.

Ya look like anything ’cept a tourist who’s come to lose his wad and they get a bad case of nose trouble. Take yaself. Anyone can see ya’re a Limey even before ya start talking.

1956, Ian Fleming, chapter 15, in Diamonds Are Forever:

(US, Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) An Englishman or other Briton, or a person of British descent; an English or British immigrant.


mommy

→ Hebrew: מָאמִי (mámi)

The only bad-karma-reducing sposie on the market is a new line of biodegradable (meaning here "useless") sposie that won't last through the lightest of baby pees and will force you to change baby approximately once every thirty seconds, thereby completely undoing any so-called karma reduction. Only bad mommies use sposies.

2012, Willow Yamahchi, Bad Mommy, Insomniac Press, →ISBN, page 91:

They will never part even though in mommy's heart she wishes daddy would leave forever. One grief-some January 25 mommy rested never to return for her and daddy went on a walk. “Where is mommy”, said baby but daddy couldn't talk.

2015, Paul Easter, Consciousness Before Conscience:


mommy

en-verb

mommy (third-person singular simple present mommies, present participle mommying, simple past and past participle mommied)

mommies (present singular third-person)
mommying (participle present)
mommied (participle past)
mommied (past)

(US, Canada, rare, informal) To treat someone like a mother would; to mother someone.


mommy

en-adj

mommy (comparative mommier, superlative mommiest)

mommier (comparative)
mommiest (superlative)

She is the mommiest of mommies.

I am smack-dab in the middle of the mommiest years of my life. There are toys strewn across my once-pristine floors, goldfish crackers in my couch cushions, and empty juice boxes in my car.

2013, Erin MacPherson, The Christian Mama's Guide to Having a Baby:

(US, Canada, rare, informal, chiefly in the superlative) Characteristic of a mother; motherly.


prosty

“Okay, so he is in a relationship with a woman of the night.” “More like a woman of the afternoon. But that's fine. Jesus didn't judge prosties.”

2021 April 4, Rich Blomquist & Erin Wagoner, “Easter's 11” (14:42 from the start), in Bless the Harts, season 2, episode 16, spoken by Betty Hart (Maya Rudolph):


gee

From Middle English, from Old English ge, from Latin ge (the name of the letter G).

Just off the highway there's a small garage and paint-shop run by a gee named Art Huck.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 197:


dawg

Sup, dawg.

“Wow. What do you know? Huh. That was easy.” “Totes malotes, dawg.” “Just kind of hard to believe, you know?” “Believe it, Morty. And once again, I'm flying away with everything I can carry, and the Zigerions got nothing of mine.”

2014 January 13, Tom Kauffman, “M. Night Shaym-Aliens!” (11:23 from the start), in Rick and Morty, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Rick Sanchez (Justin Roiland):

All up in my phone, lookin' at pictures from the other night / She gon' be upset if she keep scrollin' to the left, dawg

2014, “0 to 100 / The Catch Up”, performed by Drake:

I'm not usually on African food, but the smell of that jollof is peng right now my dawg!

2017, Joseph Barnes Phillips, Big Foot ...and Tiny Little Heartstrings:

“Totes malotes, dawg,” Abby shot me with a finger-gun. “And trust me, I'm amazing at it, just like everything else. So, order the pizza, Sandy, and let's get this show on the road. This is going to be f-u-u-u-u-u-u-n.”

2019 December 8, K. M. Bishop, Fake It For Me, K. M. Bishop:

(chiefly US, slang) Dude, bud, pal, used to address a close male friend.

чувак, братан, друг, бро, кент, кєнт


bodark

It was a bo’dark sapling I had found in my travels.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 17:

(Canada, US) The Osage orange tree or its wood.


Abe

Shortened from Abraham. In the slang sense for money, refers to the picture of Abraham Lincoln on the currency.

"Gambling's not my form of masochism," said Carl. "Huh?" "So how much?" "The wad's mostly ones. Some Jeffersons. Two or three Abes."

1996, J. Madison Davis, And the Angels Sing, page 210:


doggone

en-verb

doggone (third-person singular simple present doggones, present participle doggoning, simple past and past participle doggoned)

doggones (present singular third-person)
doggoning (participle present)
doggoned (participle past)
doggoned (past)
daggone (alternative)
doggoned (alternative)

[…] doggoning something or other with deep sincerity.


dagnabbit

/ˌdæɡˈnæbɪt/

dagnabit (alternative)
dagnammit (alternative)
dangnabbit (alternative)

Dagnabbit! I lost my keys again.


spud

From Middle English spudde (“small knife”). Origin unknown; probably related to Danish spyd, Old Norse spjót (“spear”), German Spieß (“spear; spike; skewer”). Compare English spit (“sharp, pointed rod”). The use of the term for a potato was perhaps first used in New Zealand and Australian dialect and slang.

(obsolete, US, dialect) A piece of dough boiled in fat.


hombre

Borrowed from Spanish hombre (“man; human being”), from Old Spanish omne, from Latin hominem, accusative of homō (“a human being, a person”), from Old Latin hemō, from Proto-Italic *hemō (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ (“earthling”), from *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”). Doublet of gome, homo, ombre, and omi.

[W]e're glad to learn that the Yankee bullet has not quite stopped your breath. You're all right, hombre!

c. 1850, [Thomas] Mayne Reid, “A Group of Jarochos”, in The Guerilla^([sic]) Chief, and Other Tales, London: C. H. Clarke, 13, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 62:

That hombre now with the worn out hat, tattered shirt, and fragmentary breeches, wears a sword. Bless you, his dignity would suffer greatly without it!

1852 March 8, E. P., “Golden Correspondence.—No. 1”, in J[oseph] M. Church, editor, Church’s Bizarre. For Fireside and Wayside, volume I, number 1 (New Series), Philadelphia, Pa.: Church & Co., 140 Chestnut Street, published 17 April 1852, →OCLC, page 9, column 2:

The foreman. As tough an hombre who ever lived. If Mr. Bell had sent Jackson instead of me, he'd take your rifle and beat you half to death with it.

2010, Jon Sharpe [pseudonym], chapter 1, in Rocky Mountain Revenge (The Trailsman; no. 342), New York, N.Y.: Signet Books, New American Library, →ISBN:

There was a pause I didn't like, punctuated by shrieks of shrill laughter from the hombres at the bar. Only Mexicans can laugh like that.

2016, Lawrence Winkler, “Bajada”, in Orion’s Cartwheel (Cartwheels Quadrilogy; 1), Victoria, B.C.: First Choice Books, →ISBN, page 22:

(chiefly US, in Spanish-speaking contexts, slang) A man, a chap, a guy; especially a Hispanic or Spanish man.


boo

From beau. First appears c. 1988 in the Washington Post: See the cite below.

A tall, hooded young woman, clutching a newspaper article, delivered a note to the judge. “My name is Sunkist,” she wrote, “Lionel R. Harris is my boyfriend. Lewis shot my Boo and it was not self-defense . . . . Judge and jurors please listen to me I am 17 years of {age} and a good young lady and my Boo got killed for nothing.”

1988 December 22, Barton Gellman, “Judge Orders Mistrial In D.C. Slaying Case; Jury Unable to Reach Verdict After 10 Days”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page D1:

At night I think of you / I want to be your lady, maybe / If your game is on give me a call, boo / If your lovin' strong, gonna give my all to you

1996, “My Boo”, performed by Ghost Town DJ's:

No matter what I do / All I think about is you / Even when I'm with my boo

2002, “Dilemma”, in Nellyville, performed by Nelly ft. Kelly Rowland:

“Something about having to call her boo because he was getting off work and he likes to talk to her for at least half of his commute home.”

2021, Zakiya Dalila Harris, The Other Black Girl, Bloomsbury, page 309:

(US, Canada, African-American Vernacular, slang) A close acquaintance or significant other.


john

From the male given name John (q.v.), whose ubiquity led to extensive use of the name in generic contexts. Its use for toilets derives from John and Cousin John, which both probably relate to jacques and jakes, used in equivalent senses by the British and Irish.

The girls sat there while the johns (customers) moped around giving them the once-over.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 22:

In the first part of the video, Thad sucks the john's cock and takes a load in his mouth.

2004, Dennis Cooper, The Sluts, page 233:

In-calls, where the john comes to the prostitute’s residence, are prohibited.

2013, McLachlin CJ, Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford (2013 SCC 72), para. 62

(slang, US) A device or place to urinate and defecate: now usually a toilet or lavatory, but also (dated) a chamber pot or outhouse.


peewee

Probably reduplication of wee (“small”).

Is five too young for peewee football?

1971 November, Pat Strange, Mini Judoka in Aussie Ladies Tourney, Black Belt, page 61,
Each year, younger and younger girls line up for competition on the mats, and at this year′s Western Australia Women′s Judo Tournament extra peewee divisions were added to accomodate the young ladies.

(US, sports) A player in a sports league for very young children.


RMA

en-noun

RMA (countable and uncountable, plural RMAs)

Several of the recruits had special leadership responsibilities within the Company, the most significant being the Recruit Chief Petty Officer (RCPO) and the Recruit Master at Arms (RMA). […] The person responsible for being RCPO changed during the end of our training, but the RMA, who was responsible for maintaining good order and discipline, did not make it past the mid point.

2013, David Banagis, Twenty-Three Days at Sea: A Sailor's Story, Bloomington, IN: Abbott Press, →ISBN, page 12:

(US, military) Initialism of recruit master-at-arms; also RMAA.


athlete

From Middle English athlete, from Latin āthlēta (and probably also partly from Middle French athlete), from Ancient Greek ἀθλητής (athlētḗs), from ἀθλέω (athléō, “compete for a prize”), from ἆθλον (âthlon, “prize”) or ἆθλος (âthlos, “competition”).

She's the first athlete in her sport to obtain a corporate sponsor.

Athletes' use of herbal supplements has skyrocketed in the past two decades. At the top of the list of popular herbs are echinacea and ginseng, whereas garlic, St. John's wort, soybean, ephedra and others are also surging in popularity or have been historically prevalent.

2013 March 25, David S. Senchina, “Athletics and Herbal Supplements”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 2013-05-16, page 134:

(US, Canada) A person who actively participates in physical sports, especially with great skill; a sportsperson.


alum

alums (plural)
alumni (plural)
alumn (alternative)

From alumnus and alumna (> alumn- > alum), by the removal of the originally Latin gender-specific nominative singular case endings -us (masculine) and -a (feminine).

1961 Spring, Anchora of Delta Gamma, Volume LXXVII, No. 3, page 59,
Evanston-North Shore alums are happy to open their homes to Sigma actives for special social events.

You'll remember that we're starting with a list of slightly over 7,000 names that are alums (most of them over 50) that we'd like to whittle down to a manageable list of prospects.

2006, Ted Hart, James M. Greenfield, Pamela M. Gignac, Christopher Carnie, Major Donors: Finding Big Gifts in Your Database and Online, page 47:

All schools that last have alums, and, ancient as it was by American standards, Trinity by mid-century had thousands.

2009, Timothy C. Jacobson, Charity & Merit: Trinity School at 300, page 190:

(shortening, Canada, US) A past attendee or graduate (of any gender) of a college, university or other educational institution.

alumna

the original Latin gender-specific loanword


anise

anise (countable and uncountable, plural anises)

From Middle English anys, borrowed from Old French anis, from Latin anīsum, from Ancient Greek ἄνισον (ánison), from Egyptian jnst.

[…] of the butcherbirds which were perched on the electric wires skirting the road must be nesting birds, and that in the absence of trees or brush they must be nesting in some of the weeds along the highway, mostly anise (Foeniculum vulgare).

1934, The Gull (Golden Gate Audubon Society), volumes 16-29, page 25

Foeniculum vulgare
Foeniculum vulgare#Translingual

(US, often qualified as "sweet anise" or "wild anise") Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare.


baton

(weaponry, US) A short stout club used primarily by policemen.


betony

betony (countable and uncountable, plural betonies)

betonies (plural)
vetony (alternative)
bettony (alternative)

From Middle English betayny, betanie, from Medieval Latin betōnia (possibly through Old French), from Latin betōnica or ve(t)tōnica, from Vettones, a people in Lusitania. Compare French bétoine.

(Canada, US) Any plant of the genus Pedicularis (louseworts).


bobble

en-verb

bobble (third-person singular simple present bobbles, present participle bobbling, simple past and past participle bobbled)

bobbles (present singular third-person)
bobbling (participle present)
bobbled (participle past)
bobbled (past)

* (noun): from bob + -le (diminutive suffix).
* (verb): from bob + -le (frequentative suffix).
Compare bauble.

(US, sports, transitive) To mishandle a ball.


bolo

(US law enforcement) A request for law enforcement officers to be on the lookout for a suspect.


brad

Late Middle English brad, variant of brod(d), from Old Norse broddr (“spike, shaft”), from Proto-Germanic *bruzdaz (compare Old English brord, Old High German brort), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrusdʰos (compare Welsh brath (“sting, prick”), Albanian bredh (“fir-tree”), Lithuanian bruzdùklis (“bridle”), Czech brzda (“brake”). Doublet of prod.

(US, elementary school usage) A paper fastener, a fastening device formed of thin, soft metal, such as shim brass, with a round head and a flat, split shank, which is spread after insertion in a hole in a stack of pages, in much the same way as a cotter pin or a split rivet.


brant

From New Latin/Medieval Latin Branta, latinized form of Old Norse brandgás (“sheldrake”), literally "burnt (black) goose," from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (“burning”) + *gans (“goose”).

I have given you roe and reindeer, / I have given you brant and beaver, / Filled the marshes full of wild-fowl, / Filled the rivers full of fishes; / Why then are you not contented? / Why then will you hunt each other?

1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Book I”, in The Song of Hiawatha:

Branta bernicla
Branta bernicla#Translingual

(Canada, US) Any of several wild geese, of the genus Branta, that breed in the Arctic, but especially the brent goose, Branta bernicla.


burley

en-noun

burley (countable and uncountable, plural burleys)

Unknown. Compare the personal name Burley.

The price received by farmers at the auctions for burley has decreased, other conditions being about average, around 1.45 cents for each 10-million-pound increase in the production of burley

1952, Glenn Leroy Johnson, Burley Tobacco Control Programs, page 59:

(US) A tobacco grown mainly in Kentucky, used in making cigarettes.


cabana

Borrowed from Spanish cabaña and Portuguese cabana, both from Late Latin capanna. Doublet of cabane and cabin.

“So what's new in the whiskey business?” one of the fat men finally says by way of welcome, and the blonde stands up, arches one foot and dips it into the pool, looking all the while at the cabana where Baby Pignatari is talking on the telephone.

1968, Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:

(Canada, US, Australia) A shelter on a beach or at a swimming pool.


cahoot

For the noun, see cahoots. The verb is derived from the noun.

Gineral Government and the ministration are going in cahoot to undermine and overrule the undertakings of the free people of Georgia.

1827 September 15, "The Wanderer", “Barney Blinn”, in Norwalk Reporter and Huron Advertiser, Norwalk, OH, page 4:

Nay, we feel in so pleasant a humour, at the recovery of the stolen articles, that we are really disposed to extend our forgiveness to the whole "Cahoot," the more particularly, as some of the suspected, have already "suffered in the flesh;"—[…]

1831 November 9, Natchez Gazette, Natchez, MS, page 3:

Chiefly preceded by in: a group of people working together, chiefly for a nefarious reason; hence, a collaboration or collusion.


careen

en-verb

careen (third-person singular simple present careens, present participle careening, simple past and past participle careened)

careens (present singular third-person)
careening (participle present)
careened (participle past)
careened (past)

Late 16th century, from French carène (“keel”), from Genoese Ligurian carena, from Latin carīna (“keel of a ship”). Doublet of carene and carina.

(intransitive, chiefly US) To career, to move rapidly straight ahead, to rush carelessly.

The car in which I had taken Olivia to dinner and then out to the cemetery — a historic vehicle, even a monument of sorts, in the history of fellatio's advent onto the Winesburg campus in the second half of the twentieth century — went careening off to the side and turned end-over-end down Lower Main until it exploded in flames...

He tries for a lot of things, careening wildly from earnest romance to feel-good comedy to hackneyed suspense, all the while leaving it up to the audience to suss out the moral complexity and existential terror underneath the glossy surface.

2016 December 20, Katie Rife, “Passengers strains the considerable charms of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 2018-04-23:

(intransitive, chiefly US) To move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way.

řítit se

to move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way


chit

From chitty, from Hindi चिट्ठी (ciṭṭhī, “letter, note, written message”). Doublet of cure.

bor

Harry would call in a chit with some desk manager who owed him a favor.

2003, Linda Fairstein, The Bone Vault, Scribner, page 98:

Bill Clinton’s connections, and his endless supply of chits, only begin to capture his singular role in his wife’s presidential candidacy, advisers and friends of the couple say. […] And he is cashing in chits for her that Mr. Gore, post-impeachment, never asked him to do.

2007 May 13, Patrick Healy, “In New Role, Senator Clinton’s Strategist in Chief”, in New York Times:

(US, slang) A debt or favor owed in return for a prior loan or favor granted, especially a political favor.


chub

en-verb

chub (third-person singular simple present chubs, present participle chubbing, simple past and past participle chubbed)

chubs (present singular third-person)
chubbing (participle present)
chubbed (participle past)
chubbed (past)

The Texas House, where, with the 140-day legislative session nearing an end, the Democratic minority "chubbed" a voter ID bill, and coincidentally more, to death.

2009 May 30, James C[ourtright] McKinley Jr., “The Talk, and the Talk, and the Talk, of Austin”, in The New York Times (Image caption section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-26:

Did You Know? in 2009, House Democrats chubbed to death a bill to require voters to present valid ID at the polls because they feared that it would keep low-income and elderly citizens from voting.

2014, William Earl Maxwell, Texas Politics Today, Boston, M.A.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, published 2013–2014, →ISBN, page 207:

In the House, as the session approached its end, Democrats "chubbed" the bill to death (a tactic similar to filibustering) – and, in the process, killed many other bills that were waiting in line behind it.

2011 January 14, Richard Whittaker, Wells Dunbar, Lee Nichols, Jordan Smith, “This Way to the Big Top!”, in The Austin Chronicle, Austin, T.X.: Austin Chronicle Corp., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-05-17:

(US, Texas politics) To stop a bill from being passed using procedural delays.


colter

colters (plural)
coulter (alternative)
culter (alternative)

I lately left a furrow, one or twayne, / Unplough'd, the which my coulter hath not cleft […].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

What is it but a servitude like that impos'd by the Philistims, not to be allow'd the sharpning of our own axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty licencing forges.

With colters bright the rushy sward bisect, / And in new veins the gushing rills direct […].

1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 150:

(US) A knife or cutter attached to the beam of a plow to cut the sward, in advance of the plowshare and moldboard.

(US) The part of a seed drill that makes the furrow for the seed.


cove

From Middle English cove, from Old English cofa (“chamber; den”), from Proto-West Germanic *kobō, from Proto-Germanic *kubô. Cognate with German Koben, Swedish kova. This word has probably survived as long as it has due to its coincidental phonetic resemblance to the unrelated word English cave. Also unrelated to Spanish cueva, which itself is a cognate of cave.

(US) A strip of prairie extending into woodland.


crump

crump (third-person singular simple present crumps, present participle crumping, simple past and past participle crumped)

crumps (present singular third-person)
crumping (participle present)
crumped (participle past)
crumped (past)

I can only be in one place at a time, so sometimes I just have to say, “Listen, I’ve got this other patient that’s crumping down the hall.[”]

1998, Marsha E. Fonteyn, Thinking Strategies for Nursing Practice, Lippincott, page 167:

if the patient is acutely crumping from cardiac arrest, do not waste time doing an ECG when you could be performing CPR.

2009, Kevin Schwechten, USMLE Step 3 Triage: An Effective, No-nonsense Review, Oxford University Press, page 4:

Not to be confused with the dance style, doctors use 'crumping' when they have a patient that is 'crashing, but not aggressively,' the Chicago doctor told Daily Mail Online.

[2017 December 30, Natalie Rahhal, “The secret codes doctors use to INSULT their patients right in front of them - and why the lingo harms your health care”, in Daily Mail Online:

(intransitive, US, medical slang) To decline rapidly in health (but not as rapidly as crash).


duff

Uncertain; perhaps the same as Etymology 1, above.


duff

duff (third-person singular simple present duffs, present participle duffing, simple past and past participle duffed)

duffs (present singular third-person)
duffing (participle present)
duffed (participle past)
duffed (past)

Originally thieves' slang; probably a back-formation from duffer.

(US, golf) To hit the ground behind the ball.


duffel

en-noun

duffel (countable and uncountable, plural duffels)

duffels (plural)
duffle (alternative)
duffill (alternative)

From Dutch duffel, named after Duffel, a town in Belgium, itself ultimately from Latin Dubrolocus, the first particle from Gaulish dubrum.

(US, colloquial) Outfit or supplies, collectively; kit.


fay

en-adj

fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)

more fay (comparative)
most fay (superlative)

I really went for Ray's press roll on the drums; he was the first fay boy I ever heard who mastered this vital foundation of jazz music.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “They Found the Body in a Ditch”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 62:


gage

(US) Alternative spelling of gauge (“a measure, instrument for measuring, etc.”)


gage

en-verb

gage (third-person singular simple present gages, present participle gaging, simple past and past participle gaged)

gages (present singular third-person)
gaging (participle present)
gaged (participle past)
gaged (past)

(US) Alternative spelling of gauge (“to measure”)


gam

gam (third-person singular simple present gams, present participle gamming, simple past and past participle gammed)

gams (present singular third-person)
gamming (participle present)
gammed (participle past)
gammed (past)

Uncertain but surely formed within English; etymons may include game or gammon.

(US, dialect) To engage in social intercourse anywhere.


gaper

From Middle English gaper, equivalent to gape + -er.

If you want to avoid looking like a gaper, just keep yourself from looking sloppy and you should be okay.

2017, Brendan Leonard, The Great Outdoors: Everything You Need to Know Before Heading Into the Wild, page 295:


gouge

en-noun

gouge (countable and uncountable, plural gouges)

From Middle English gouge (“chisel with concave blade; gouge”), from Old French gouge, goi (“gouge”), from Late Latin goia, gubia, gulbia (“chisel; piercer”), borrowed from Gaulish *gulbiā, from Proto-Celtic *gulbā, *gulbi, *gulbīnos (“beak, bill”). The English word is cognate with Italian gorbia, gubbia (“ferrule”), Old Breton golb, Old Irish gulba (“beak”), Portuguese goiva, Scottish Gaelic gilb (“chisel”), Spanish gubia (“chisel, gouge”), Welsh gylf (“beak; pointed instrument”), gylyf (“sickle”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

inh

(originally US, colloquial) An act of gouging.

As all naval aviators have learned at one time or another in their careers, “There's plenty of bad gouge out there," and it has, does, and will get the unwary fliers in trouble.

2005, Jay A. Stout, To Be a U.S. Naval Aviator, page 63:

The Marines and “Coasties” (the nickname for Coast Guard students) were reputed to have good gouge on each class's test. Rumor had it that the Marines had inside information on the questions for the next day's FRR test, […]

2013, Douglas Waller, Air Warriors: The Inside Story of the Making of a Navy Pilot, page 89:

(US, military, slang, uncountable) Information.


heeler

The army of hungry heelers who do their bidding.

1886, Theodore Roosevelt, “Machine Politics”, in The Century:

(US, slang, politics, dated) A dependent and subservient hanger-on of a political patron.

(US) A student journalist at Yale University.


hoagie

hoagies (plural)
hoagy (alternative)
hoggie (alternative)

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

Uncertain. Often suggested to derive from hog, either in reference to Hog Island, a site of shipyards that employed Italian immigrants (who were supposedly called hoggies and who supposedly packed these sandwiches for lunch), or in reference to pork as an ingredient.

I'm going to Wawa to get a hoagie for lunch.

(US, Pennsylvania, Mid-Atlantic US) A sandwich made on a (usually soft) long Italian roll; a submarine sandwich.


hock

en-verb

hock (third-person singular simple present hocks, present participle hocking, simple past and past participle hocked)

hocks (present singular third-person)
hocking (participle present)
hocked (participle past)
hocked (past)
hak (alternative)

From Yiddish האַק (hak), imperative singular form of האַקן (hakn, “to knock”), from the idiomatic expression האַק מיר נישט קיין טשײַניק (hak mir nisht keyn tshaynik, “don't knock a teakettle at me”).

(US) To bother; to pester; to annoy incessantly.


hod

Probably an alteration of hot (“(Northern England, Scotland) large basket for carrying earth, etc.”), from Middle English hott, hote, hotte (“large basket or pannier for carrying earth, etc.; unit of measure for grain; hut or shed (perhaps originally of wattlework); lump of dirt (?)”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman and Old French hote, hotte (“large basket carried on the back”) (modern French hotte (“carrying basket”)), from Frankish *hotta (“basket”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to shake”) (see further at etymology 1), ultimately an onomatopoeia of the swaying movement of such a basket (compare Middle Dutch hotten (“to jolt; shake”)).
(Cognates):
German Hotte (“wooden basket carried on the back; (specifically) basket for collecting grapes from a vineyard”) (Rhineland, Swabia), Hutte (“basket for collecting grapes from a vineyard”) (Alsace, Switzerland)
Late Latin hotta, hottus (“hod”)

col

Cognates

Coordinate term: scuttle

[…] Fanny, forgetful of her young-ladyism and her sixteen years, had boxed Tom's ears, and Tom, resenting the insult, had forcibly seated her in the coal-hod, where he held her with one hand while he returned the compliment with the other.

1869–1870, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “New Fashions”, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1870, →OCLC, page 31:

My friend comes home and finds his dressing-gown and slippers in front of the fire. He is tired and cross, and doesn't want to sling ashes nor bang a coal-hod. But the sight of the fire makes him feel better at once, and if there be no fire, there are no ashes.

1884, John McGovern, “Wedded Life”, in The Golden Censer: Or, The Duties of To-day, the Hopes of the Future, Chicago, Ill., Columbus, Oh.: Union Publishing House, →OCLC, page 266:

The household uses of copper are principally for cooking utensils and a variety of miscellaneous items, such as urns, bowls, hods, lamps, candlesticks, vases, book ends, and ash trays.

1938, Raymond B[artlett] Stevens et al., “Copper Utensils and Hollow or Flat Plate”, in Trade Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom: Digests of Trade Data with Respect to Products on which Concessions Were Granted by the United States, volume IV, Washington, D.C.: United States Tariff Commission, →OCLC, page 3-42:

(originally British, dialectal and US) A receptacle for carrying coal, particularly one shaped like a bucket which is designed for loading coal or coke through the door of a firebox.


hone

en-verb

hone (third-person singular simple present hones, present participle honing, simple past and past participle honed)

hones (present singular third-person)
honing (participle present)
honed (participle past)
honed (past)

French hogner (“to grumble”), which could be a cross of honnir (“to disgrace, shame”) and grogner (“to grunt”).

Such tunges ſhuld be torne out by the harde rootes,

c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.

Hoyning like hogges that groynis and wrotes.

(UK, US, Southern US, dialect, intransitive) To grumble.

He lies pitying himself, honing and moaning to himself

1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:

(UK, US, Southern US, dialect) To pine, lament, or long.


hub

From earlier hubbe, which has the same immediate origin as hob. Hub was originally a dialectal word; its ultimate origin is unknown. Compare German Hubbel (“bump on a surface”), from Proto-West Germanic *hubil (“bump, hill”) (which contains a diminutive suffix *-il); compare English hive, or perhaps ultimately from the same root as hip or hop.

cog

a hub in the road

(US) A rough protuberance or projecting obstruction.


jalopy

Unknown. Perhaps from Jalapa, Mexico (now Xalapa), to whose scrapyards used cars were often sent from New Orleans starting in the 1920s. First recorded written use in 1924.

Dean is the perfect guy for the road because he was actually born on the road, when his parents were passing through Salt Lake City in 1926, in a jalopy, on their way to Los Angeles.

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 1, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:

There's only a rough track and I doubt if that jalopy of yours will make it.

2003, Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, chapter 22, in Deadly Reunion:

Through most of those early years of restless travel, he dragged his two children and his long-suffering wife, Maryann[…] behind him like tin cans tied to the bumper of a jalopy that no car dealer in his right mind would take in trade.

2009 November 20, Stephen King, “Raymond Carver’s Life and Stories”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, dated) An old, dilapidated or unpretentious automobile.

รถเก่าแก่

rt̄h kèā kæ̀

(US, dated, slang) A hip, cool, groovy automobile.


jig

Probably a clipping of jigaboo, of uncertain origin, perhaps an African/Bantu word. Alternatively, jigaboo may be derived from jig (“dance”).

“You got a new jig, huh?” The boy looked out at Jones through his swirls of oiled hair. “What happened to the last one? He die or something?”

1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN:

“…Lucky for me he wasn’t a jig, otherwise I couldn’t have done it.”
“Jig?”
“Nigger. Afro American.” His voice was heavy with sarcasm.

2011, Andrew Lithgow, Retribution, →ISBN, page 228:

(US, offensive, slang, dated, ethnic slur) A black person.


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

A good jigger will have a well formed lip that will pour a clean stream into the cocktail shaker or glass.

He also championed the “bartender’s choice” found on many cocktail menus, the use of jiggers to measure out drinks, and even the ubiquitous use of cucumber slices in water glasses.

2015 August 22, Robert Simonson, “Sasha Petraske, 42, Dies; Bar Owner Restored Luster to Cocktail Culture”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) A double-ended vessel, generally of stainless steel or other metal, one end of which typically measures 1½ fluid ounces (approx. 44 ml), the other typically 1 fluid ounce (approx. 30 ml).

“People are so dam’ sensitive about colour around here that you can’t even ask a barman for a jigger of rum. You have to ask for a jegro.”

1956, Ian Fleming, chapter 13, in Diamonds Are Forever:

(US) A measure of 1½ fluid ounces (approx. 44 ml) of liquor.

“an air-brush is a big thing-a-ma-bob or whatcha-callit, full of gas, and when you turn on a little jigger, it causes compressed air to squeeze out, which, in turn, going through a needle—” “That wasn't part of the contract, Mr. Jones,” […]

(US) A placeholder name for any small mechanical device.


jujube

From Middle English jujube, from Medieval Latin jujuba or Old French jujube, perhaps via Old Occitan from Classical Latin zīzyphum, zīzyphus, from Ancient Greek ζίζυφον (zízuphon)․ First attested in the 14th century.

(Canada, US) A type of candy; specific type varies by country.


junker

/ˈd͡ʒʌŋkə(ɹ)/

From junk + -er (relational noun suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix).

(informal, US, Canada, derogatory) A beat-up automobile.


kabuki

The whole "weapons of mass destruction" concern was phony from the start, and the drama about inspections was just kabuki: going through the motions.

2005 June 12, Michael Kinsley, “No Smoking Gun”, in Washington Post:

Health care reform recently brought Kabuki to mind for both Rush Limbaugh—“what you have here is ‘Kabuki theater’”—and New York Times columnist Frank Rich: “[I]f I were to place an incautious bet on which political event will prove the most significant of February 2010, I wouldn’t choose the kabuki health care summit.”

2010 March 14, Jon Lackman, “It’s Time To Retire Kabuki: The word doesn’t mean what pundits think it does”, in Slate:

The boy tells her she will find iPhone chargers if she takes five steps back. Here the performance shifts from mere stiltedness to a kind of hateful Kabuki, an affected defiance of how people naturally act: She walks backward, counting her steps, then turns and slaps her forehead.

2020 January 29, Dan Brooks, “Comedy Written for the Machines”, in New York Times Magazine:

(by extension, US) A stylized, pretentious, and often hollow performance; (especially) political posturing.


levee

From French levée, from lever (“to raise, rise”).

The purchaser of a riparious estate under the words "front to the levee," does not acquire the alluvion or batture, when there is land susceptible of separate ownership beyond the levee.

1826, William Christy, A Digest of Martin's Reports:

(US) A pier or other landing place on a river.


levee

en-verb

levee (third-person singular simple present levees, present participle leveeing, simple past and past participle leveed)

levees (present singular third-person)
leveeing (participle present)
leveed (participle past)
leveed (past)
levée (alternative)

to levee a river

(US, transitive) To keep within a channel by means of levees.


levy

(US, obsolete, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia) The Spanish real of one eighth of a dollar, valued at elevenpence when the dollar was rated at seven shillings and sixpence.


lop

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-lop.wav

"He's a lop; it mentions here about his getting up to the stand with his crippled leg but it doesn't say which one."

1935, Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men, page 5:

(US, dated, slang) (usually offensive) A disabled person, a cripple.


lugger

From lug + -er. Attested since the early 17th century.

Green’s Dictionary of Slang
w:Green's Dictionary of Slang


mouser

From Middle English mousere (“a hunter of mice”), equivalent to mouse + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix). The “moustache” sense is apparently an extended usage (i.e., a cat’s whiskers, jocularly transferred to human beings), possibly with influence from moustache.

inh

He was a pretty man, well upstanding, with great shoulders on him and his hair was fair and fine and he had a broad brow and a gey bit coulter of a nose and he twisted his mouser ends up with wax like that creature the German Kaiser […].

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 20:

the official resident cat at 10 Downing Street


niter

en-noun

niter (countable and uncountable, plural niters)

From Middle English niter, nitere, nitre, nytre, from Old French nitre, from Latin nitrum (“native soda, natron”), from Ancient Greek νίτρον (nítron). Ultimately from Egyptian nṯrj (“natron”). Doublet of natron and trona. Compare also natrium, nitrogen.

(US, inorganic chemistry) A mineral form of potassium nitrate (saltpetre) used in making gunpowder.


oater

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-oater.wav

From oat + -er (“Variety -er”). ~1945-50, alluding to the fodder for horses, which are common in the movies.

In recent years the western or horse opera, known in the trade as the "oater," has come to be recognized as an art form just as formal as the ballet or the symphony. […] To prove his contention that all this is so, Life Photographer John Florea took these unusual pictures during the filming of Yellow Sky. This is a $1,450,000 western with big-name stars […] and technical talent from 20th Century's top drawer, but is basically a typical oater.

1949 January 10, “The Great American Horse Opera”, in Life:

By far the more common was the low-budget "hoss opera" or "oater," ground out in relentless numbers by studios such as Universal and Republic, and designed basically for edification of the young, who took them in on Fridays and Saturdays[…] There were, to be sure, degrees of the oater; a somewhat more subtle version, designed for adult as well as child viewing, was also made.

1995, Louis Decimus Rubin, Jerry Leath Mills, A Writer's Companion:

While trying to run a trading post at the depths of the Great Depression, Harry Goulding heard that a Hollywood director was looking for the perfect Western backdrop for his next oater.

2006 April 2, Timothy Egan, “Monument Valley: Endless Earth, Infinite Sky”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(informal, US, entertainment) A movie or television show about cowboy or frontier life; a western movie.


ornery

en-adj

ornery (comparative ornerier, superlative orneriest)

ornerier (comparative)
orneriest (superlative)
onery (alternative)
onry (alternative)
o'n'ry (alternative)
ornary (alternative)

A contracted or dialectal pronunciation of ordinary. Sense 3 (“ordinary, commonplace”) was the earliest sense; the meaning of the word then shifted to “inferior, plain-looking, unpleasant”—presumably due to ordinariness—and finally to sense 1 (“disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with”).

Seemingly here was an intruder who was violating custom. Moreover, the partners had come to look upon this exceedingly rich district as their exclusive property. And so their indignation was extreme. "The low-down, ornery cuss!" said Dobbs. "The nerve of him, crowdin' in on us, just as if there wasn't lots of other places for him to go!"

1922 November 25, A[rthur] M[urray] Chisholm, “A Thousand a Plate. Chapter II.”, in Western Story Magazine, volume XXX, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Street & Smith, →OCLC, page 90, column 2:

Through Michael sped the thought: 'Could I make her jealous?' And he was shocked at it. A low-down thought—mean and ornery!

1924 October, John Galsworthy, “Sleuth”, in The White Monkey, London: William Heinemann, published November 1924, →OCLC, part II, page 196:

I ain't sayin' I don't share your sentiments, Buck, but you're a born fool. First place Luke would kill the Kid in a gun-fight. Second place if Luke did get shot he's got two brothers just as ornery as he is, and if Ike Plummer didn't kill the Kid then Hank Plummer would.

1939 February 2, Dudley Nichols, Stagecoach (motion picture), spoken by Marshal Curley Wilcox (George Bancroft), Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: United Artists, →OCLC:

[“S]he was a girl and girls are less ornery than boys. Though I guess Mim was ornery in her way. Once she got to be sixteen, she put my parents through hell.” / “Grandpa, what’s ‘ornery’?” / “Oh, you know. Mean. Contrary. Rebellious.” / “Like Daddy?” / “I don’t think of your daddy as ornery, just, what‘s the word?—very uptight about things. People get to him more than they do to most people.”

1990, John Updike, “FL”, in Rabbit at Rest (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 77:

After a lifetime of being sweet as pie, once Grandpa died, she got kinda ornery.

2013 January 20, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight (motion picture), spoken by Jesse (Ethan Hawke), New York, N.Y.: Sony Pictures Classics, →OCLC:

But in many instances, the complainers are not just being ornery [about noisy eating]; they could have a condition called misophonia, in which one experiences strong negative feelings to specific sounds—like the proverbial nails on a chalkboard.

2020 May 25, Abby Ellin, “Couples who eat together may not stay together”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-17:

(originally and chiefly US, especially Appalachia, informal) Disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with; cantankerous.

مُشَاكِس

disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous


ouster

From Old French ouster, oustre, a nominalization of Anglo-Norman oustre (“to oust”).

According to three Lakeview employees, Mr. Kendrick’s ouster came as the nursing home was telling staff members to try to clear out less-profitable residents to make room for a new class of customers who would generate more revenue: patients with Covid-19.

2020 June 21, “‘They Just Dumped Him Like Trash’: Nursing Homes Evict Vulnerable Residents”, in New York Times:

Mr. Sunak, a former chancellor whose resignation in July precipitated Mr. Johnson’s ouster, earlier said he would not serve in Ms. Truss’s cabinet.

2022 September 6, Mark Landler, Stephen Castle, “Truss Takes Office, Promising Britons They Can ‘Ride Out the Storm’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The announcement blindsided employees, many of whom learned of the sudden ouster from an internal announcement and the company’s public facing blog.

2023 November 18, Blake Montgomery, Dani Anguiano, “OpenAI fires co-founder and CEO Sam Altman for allegedly lying to company board”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(now chiefly US) The forceful removal of a politician or regime from power; a coup; an ousting.


ouzel

ouzels (plural)
ousel (alternative)
oozel (alternative)

From Middle English osel, from Old English ōsle, from Proto-West Germanic *ą̄slā, *amslā, from Proto-Germanic *amslǭ. Cognate with German Amsel.
For the spelling, compare Early Modern English bloud (“blood”).

(chiefly Canada, US) A water ouzel, an aquatic perching bird (Cinclus mexicanus).


pewee

en-noun

pewee (countable and uncountable, plural pewees)


piker

From pike + -er. In some senses, it has been linked etymologically to the word pikey as well as to Pike County in eastern Missouri https://web.archive.org/web/20051111194645/http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/p/p0300200.html. In the latter instance the term originally denoted poor immigrants to California.

(US, dated) A male freshman at Cornell University.


playa

From Spanish playa (“beach”). Doublet of plage.

Beyond the valley below lay a playa, a vast dried-white lake bed, its ends reaching farther than they could see.

2020, Diane Cook, The New Wilderness, Oneworld Publications, page 66:

“We are also deploying buses to Gerlach to take people to Reno who might walk off the playa. See our recommendations on when walking is viable or not. This is not likely a 24-hour operation at this time.”

2023 September 3, Michael Sainato, “Officials investigate death at Burning Man as thousands stranded by floods”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(geology, US) A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely.


plumb

en-verb

plumb (third-person singular simple present plumbs, present participle plumbing, simple past and past participle plumbed)

plumbs (present singular third-person)
plumbing (participle present)
plumbed (participle past)
plumbed (past)

From Middle English plumbe, plumme, from Old French *plombe, from Latin plumba, plural of plumbum.

(US, colloquial, figuratively, obsolete) To trace a road or track; to follow it to its end.


pug

Origin unknown, possibly related to West Flemish pugge (“(adjective) small; (noun) short person; pet name derived from the first name Pugge”); though it is uncertain whether sense 1 (“senses relating to someone or something small”) and sense 2 (“senses relating to people”) are derived from the same source.
Sense 1.8 (“small demon”) was probably influenced by, though not a variant of, puck.

pentu

any of various animals, such as a ferret, hare, squirrel, or young salmon

Senses relating to someone or something small.

(US, regional) A bun or knot of hair; also, a piece of cloth or snood for holding this in place.


reb

(US, historical) Clipping of rebel: a Confederate, especially a Confederate soldier.


recuse

en-verb

recuse (third-person singular simple present recuses, present participle recusing, simple past and past participle recused)

recuses (present singular third-person)
recusing (participle present)
recused (participle past)
recused (past)
recuse (infinitive)

From Late Middle English recusen, from Old French recuser (modern French récuser (“to challenge; to impugn; (formal) to make an objection; (law) to recuse”), and from its etymon Latin recūsāre, the present active infinitive of recūsō (“to decline, refuse, reject; (law) to object to, protest”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’, denoting opposition or reversal) + causa (“cause, reason; (law) case, claim; etc.”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). Doublet of rouse and possibly ruse.
Cognates
* Catalan recusar
* French récuser
* Italian ricusare
* Old Occitan recuzar
* Portuguese recusar
* Spanish recusar

recusar

to reject or repudiate (an authority, a person, a court judgment, etc.)

recuseren

(transitive, reflexive) of a judge, juror, or prosecutor: to declare (oneself) unable to participate in a court case due to an actual or potential conflict of interest or lack of impartality

jääviytyä

(intransitive) of a judge, juror, or prosecutor: to declare oneself disqualified from trying a court case due to an actual or potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality

The ſaid [Nicholas] Fiott, likevviſe, recuſeth James Pipon, eſq; [as being a judge in the cause] ſeeing, that he knovvs that the ſaid Fiott is the perſon vvho is the cauſe that the ſaid Pipon hath been ſued by rigour of lavv, before the council, in order to oblige him to do juſtice to the poor concerning the hoſpital.

1771, [John Shebbeare], An Authentic Narrative of the Oppressions of the Islanders of Jersey. […], volume II, London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, pages 238–239:

To reject or repudiate (an authority, a person, a court judgment, etc.).

(chiefly Canada, US, law) To object to (a judge, juror, or prosecutor) participating in a court case due to an actual or potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.

vastustaa jääviyden nojalla

to object to (a judge, juror, or prosecutor) participating in a court case due to an actual or potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality


ricer

He opened the cashbox and counted out the money, and Martin handed it on to one of the ricers.
"Where are you guys ricing tomorrow?" he said.
"Down in the Refuge," the ricer with the money said.

1967, The New Yorker, Volume 43, Part 6, page 41:

In exchange for use of a buyer's boat, the ricers were to sell what they harvested exclusively to him.

1988, Thomas Vennum, Wild Rice and the Ojibway People, page 229:

There are also lots of ricers. By two weeks into ricing season, Native Harvest bought from 30 or 40 ricers.

1999 September 19, Winona LaDuke, Under the Wild Rice Moon, Minneapolis Star Tribune, reprinted in 2002, The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings, page 30

(US) A person, especially a Native American, who cultivates and harvests rice.

(slang, US, derogatory) An automobile, especially one imported from an Oriental country, deemed inferior or cheap, that has been modified with after-market parts in order to appear more powerful or sporty.


rick

From Middle English *rykke, from Old English hrycce (“rick, heap, pile”), cognate with Scots ruk (“rick”), Norwegian ruka (“rick, haystack”). Related also to Old English hrēac (“rick, stack”), from Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“heap”). Further relations: Dutch rook, Norwegian rauk, Swedish rök, Icelandic hraukur.

(US) A stack of wood, especially cut to a regular length; also used as a measure of wood, typically four by eight feet.


rooter

Then, as the victorious team, streaming and slimy with mud, was borne by, literally in the arms of the populace, in a bit of momentary abstraction the beat wildly upon the thing nearest at hand, which happend to be the top of a blue and gold rooter's hat, beneath which, naturally enough, was the head of the aforementioned rooter.

1901, “The Regeneration of a Rooter”, in California Occident, volume 41, page 399:

In my country a mythology exists concerning the rooter. Great names, great deeds, great passions, great fights, and great deaths from heart attacks are the landmarks on the battlefield of a sport incorporated in Brazilian folklore. However, the different types of rooters are more interesting to the psychologist than soccer folklore proper.

1970, Gerald S. Kenyon, Tom M. Grogg, Contemporary Psychology of Sport, page 308:

My oldest brother is a hefty twelve years older; we never quite bonded, though he's always been my supporter—a real rooter for me in academic studies.

2007, Vershawn Ashanti Young, Your Average Nigga: Performing Race, Literacy, and Masculinity, page 58:

He was a rooter if there ever was one. His enthusiasm was at a boiling heat all the time.

2013, Jeffrey Michael Laing, Bud Fowler: Baseball's First Black Professional, page 145:

This was the Lawrencetown team and rooters, arriving for the fray. Led by the band the rooters gathered in a column four abreast and started to parade around the campus, later turning in the direction of the baseball diamond where they took up their section of the bleachers and forthwith began to hurl challenges at the now crowded buff and blue stands along third base line.

2023, Ambrose Bierce, Staley Fleming's Hallucination:

(US, slang) One who roots for, or applauds, something.


rube

"Same time," said Babbitt, "no sense excusing these rube burgs too easy. Fellow's own fault if he doesn't show the initiative to up and beat it to the city, like we done—did. […]"

1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 8, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC:

You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste.

1991, Ted Tally, The Silence of the Lambs (motion picture), spoken by Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins):

(US, Canada, informal) A person of rural heritage; a yokel.