pound

en-noun

pound (plural pounds or (UK colloquial) pound)

pounds (plural)
pound (UK colloquial plural)

From Middle English pound, from Old English pund (“a pound, weight”), from Proto-West Germanic *pund, from Proto-Germanic *pundą (“pound, weight”), an early borrowing from Latin pondō (“by weight”), ablative form of pondus (“weight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to pull, stretch”).
Cognate with Dutch pond, German Pfund, Danish pund and Swedish pund. Doublet of funt, pfund, pood, and punt.

der

an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure

an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves

Holonym: hashtag

To be connected, press pound.


A

* (highest rank, grade, music): From the initial position of the letter A in the English alphabet.
* (blood type): From A antigen

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of A.M. (“ante meridiem”) or AM


brown

en-adj

brown (comparative browner or more brown, superlative brownest or most brown)

browner (comparative)
more brown (comparative)
brownest (superlative)
most brown (superlative)

American Sign Language: B@Cheek-PalmForward B@Jaw-PalmForward

From Middle English broun, from Old English brūn (“brown; dark; dusky”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-. Doublet of bruin.
Cognates
* Dutch bruin
* German braun
* Ancient Greek φρύνη (phrúnē), φρῦνος (phrûnos, “toad”)
* Latin brunneus (“brown”)
* Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”)
* Sanskrit बभ्रु (babhrú, “reddish-brown”)
* West Frisian brún

cog

Reminds me of the time they asked me and a group of other Latino, predominantly Mexican, friends for our passports when we tried to go to their [expletive] party a little over a year ago.[…]
The saddest part is that I don’t think they understand why it’s insulting to ask a brown person for a passport.

2015 November 2 [2014], Susan Svrluga, quoting Ivonne Gonzalez, “Students accuse Yale SAE fraternity brother of saying ‘white girls only’ at party door”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-11-03, Grade Point:

(sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin.


Monday

From Middle English Monday, Monenday, from Old English mōnandæġ (“day of the moon”), from Proto-West Germanic *mānini dag, a translation (interpretātiō germānica) of Latin diēs Lūnae, equivalent to Moon + day. Compare Saterland Frisian Moundai (“Monday”), West Frisian moandei (“Monday”), German Low German Maandag, Moondag, Maondag (“Monday”), Dutch maandag (“Monday”), German Montag (“Monday”), Pennsylvania German Mundaag (“Monday”), Danish mandag (“Monday”), Swedish måndag (“Monday”), Norwegian Bokmål mandag (“Monday”), Norwegian Nynorsk måndag (“Monday”), Icelandic mánudagur (“Monday”), Finnish maanantai (“Monday”).
Compare Japanese 月曜日.

inh

We've worked out the schedule for Easter week: We'll be shopping Monday […]

Sunday · Monday · Tuesday · Wednesday · Thursday · Friday · Saturday [edit]


Tuesday

/ˈt͡ʃʉːzdæe/

From Middle English Tewesday, from Old English tīwesdæġ (“Tuesday”), from Proto-West Germanic *Tīwas dag (“Tuesday”, literally “Tiw's Day”).
This was a Germanic interpretation of Latin diēs Mārtis, itself a translation of Ancient Greek Ἄρεως ἡμέρα (Áreōs hēméra) (interpretatio romana). Cognate with Scots Tysday (“Tuesday”), Saterland Frisian Täisdai (“Tuesday”), West Frisian tiisdei (“Tuesday”), dialectal German Ziestag (“Tuesday”), Danish tirsdag (“Tuesday”), Swedish tisdag (“Tuesday”), Finnish tiistai (“Tuesday”). More at Tyr, day.

cog

(US, Canada, informal in UK) On Tuesday.


Wednesday

From Middle English Wednesday, Wednesdai, from unattested Old English *wēdnesdæġ (“Wednesday”), synchronically an i-mutated form of attested wōdnesdæġ (itself from Proto-West Germanic *Wōdanas dag, its reflex Middle English Wodnesdei falling into disuse), from Proto-West Germanic *Wōdinas dag also attested in Old Frisian wednesdei and Middle Dutch wenesdach. In any case, a calque (interpretātiō germānica) of Latin diēs Mercuriī (“day of Mercury”) and Koine Ancient Greek ἡμέρα (hēméra, “day”) Ἑρμοῦ (Hermoû, “of Hermes”), via an association of the god Odin (“Woden”) with Mercury and Hermes.
Cognate with West Frisian woansdei (“Wednesday”), Afrikaans Woensdag (“Wednesday”), Dutch woensdag (“Wednesday”), Limburgish woonsdig (“Wednesday”), Dutch Low Saxon woonsdag (“Wednesday”), German Low German Woonsdag (“Wednesday”), dialectal German Wodenstag (“Wednesday”), Danish onsdag (“Wednesday”), Norwegian Bokmål onsdag (“Wednesday”), Norwegian Nynorsk onsdag (“Wednesday”), Swedish onsdag (“Wednesday”).
See also Japanese 水曜日 (Mercury's day).

(US, Canada, informal in UK) On Wednesday.


Thursday

From Middle English Thursday, Thuresday, from Old English þursdæġ, þurresdæġ (“Thursday”), possibly from a contraction of þunresdæġ (“Thursday”, literally “Thor's day”), but more likely of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse þórsdagr; all from Proto-West Germanic *Þunras dag (“day of the thunder god”). Compare West Frisian tongersdei, German Low German Dunnersdag, Dutch donderdag, German Donnerstag, Danish torsdag. More at thunder, day.
A calque of Latin diēs Iovis (diēs Jovis), via an association (interpretātiō germānica) of the god Thor with the Roman god of thunder Jove (Jupiter).

der

(US, Canada, informal in UK) On Thursday.


Friday

From Middle English Friday, from Old English frīġedæġ. Compound of Frīġ and dæġ (“day”), from Proto-West Germanic *Frījā dag, a calque of Latin diēs Veneris, via an association (interpretātiō germānica) of the goddess Frigg with the Roman goddess of love Venus.
Compare West Frisian freed, German Low German Freedag, Friedag, Dutch vrijdag, German Freitag, Danish fredag.
Old Norse Frigg (genitive Friggjar), Old Saxon Fri, and Old English Frīġ are derived from Proto-Germanic *Frijjō. Frigg is cognate with Sanskrit प्रिया (priyā́, “wife”). The root also appears in Old Saxon fri (“beloved lady”); in Swedish fria, in Danish and Norwegian as fri (“to propose for marriage”); a related meaning exists in Icelandic as frjá (“to love”) and similarly in Dutch vrijen (“to make love (to have sex)”).
Compare Japanese 金曜日.


Saturday

From Middle English Saterday, from Old English sæterdæġ, earlier sæternesdæġ (“Saterday”, literally “Saturn's day”), from Proto-West Germanic *Sāturnas dag; a translation of Latin diēs Saturnī. Compare West Frisian saterdei (“Saturday”), Dutch zaterdag (“Saturday”), German Low German Saterdag (“Saturday”).

Saturday (disambiguation)
Week-day names

(US, Canada, informal in UK) On Saturday.


Sunday

From Middle English Sonday, from Old English sunnandæġ (“day of the sun”), from sunne (“sun”), + dæġ (“day”), from Proto-West Germanic *sunnōn dag, as a translation (interpretātiō germānica) of Latin diēs Sōlis; declared the "venerable day of the sun" by Roman Emperor Constantine on March 7, 321 C.E..
Compare Saterland Frisian Sundai (“Sunday”), German Low German Sünndag, Dutch zondag, West Frisian snein, German Sonntag, Danish søndag.


hour

hours (plural)
hower (alternative)
houre (alternative)
howre (alternative)

Bislama: aua

Tok Pisin: aua

→ Hausa: awa

From Middle English houre, hour, oure, from Anglo-Norman houre, from Old French houre, (h)ore, from Latin hōra (“hour”), from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “any time or period, whether of the year, month, or day”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, season”). Akin to Old English ġēar (“year”). Doublet of hora and year.
Partly displaced native Old English tīd (“time, hour”), whence Modern English tide.

der

the darkest hour is always just before the dawn

the darkest hour is just before the dawn

This place is an hour away from where I live.

(chiefly US) A distance that can be traveled in one hour.


minute

Tok Pisin: minit

→ Baluchi: منٹ (minaṭṭ)

→ Bengali: মিনিট (miniṭ)

→ Burmese: မိနစ် (mi.nac)

→ Central Dusun: minit

→ Chichewa: miniti

→ Fiji Hindi: minit

→ Fijian: miniti

→ Gujarati: મિનિટ (miniṭ)

→ Hausa: minti

→ Hindi: मिनट (minaṭ)

→ Indonesian: menit

→ Malay: minit

→ Malayalam: മിനിറ്റ് (miniṟṟŭ)

→ Maori: miniti

→ Marathi: मिनिट (miniṭ)

→ Nepali: मिनेट (mineṭ)

→ Odia: ମିନଟ (minaṭa)

→ Pashto: منټ (minëṭ)

→ Punjabi: ਮਿਨਟ (minaṭ)

→ Sinhalese: මිනිත්තුව (minittuwa)

→ Urdu: مِنَٹ (minaṭ)

From Middle English mynute, minute, mynet, from Old French minute, from Medieval Latin minūta (“60th of an hour; note”). Doublet of menu and menudo.

Oh, I ain't heard that song in a minute!

“Man, I haven’t seen you in a minute,” he says, smiling still. “Maybe like two, three years ago?”

2010, Kenneth Ring, Letters from Palestine, page 18:

I seen Too$hort up there. Me and $hort ain't talked in a minute.

RON:I remember my first. I was a minute younger than you. […]I remember thinking, saying to myself..."This is the first time I'm eating as a person who killed someone."

2016 November 8, Ben Katai, Josh Corbin, Sharon Lennon, directed by Ben Katai, StartUp(Recapitalization) (StartUp (TV series)), season 1, episode 10 (TV), spoken by Ronald Dacey (Edi Gathegi):

(slang, US, Canada, dialectal) A while or a long unspecified period of time.


product

en-noun

product (countable and uncountable, plural products)

From Middle English product, from Latin prōductus, perfect participle of prōdūcō, first attested in English in the mathematics sense.

I got some product here — you buying?

(countable, uncountable) A commodity offered for sale.

(US, slang) Illegal drugs, especially cocaine, when viewed as a commodity.


pumpkin

pumpkin (countable and uncountable, plural pumpkins)

Tok Pisin: pamkin

→ Big Nambas: pavkin

→ Irish: puimcín

→ Japanese: パンプキン (panpukin)

→ Marshallese: baan̄ke

→ Scottish Gaelic: puimcean

Alteration of pompion, pumpion (“pumpkin”) with the diminutive -kin, from Middle French pompon, from Latin pepō (whence English pepo), from Ancient Greek πέπων (pépōn, “large melon”), from πέπων (pépōn, “ripe”), from πέπτω (péptō, “ripen”).
The alternative theory that it may be from Massachusett pôhpukun (“grows forth round”) is false.

noncog

You must be daddy’s little pumpkin.

1991, John Prine, Pat McLaughlin (lyrics and music), “Daddy’s Little Pumpkin”, in The Missing Years (album):

term of endearment
term of endearment#English

(US) A term of endearment for someone small and cute.


ab

From the spelling books and the fact that it was the first of the letter combinations.

(US) The early stages of; the beginning process; the start.


abalone

en-noun

abalone (usually uncountable, plural abalones)

From American Spanish abulón, from an indigenous language of the Monterey Bay area such as Rumsen/Southern Ohlone aūlun (“red abalone”)

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(Canada, US, Australia, Hong Kong) An edible univalve mollusc of the genus Haliotis, having a shell lined with mother-of-pearl.

(Canada, US, Australia, Hong Kong) The meat of the aforementioned mollusc.


abate

en-verb

abate (third-person singular simple present abates, present participle abating, simple past and past participle abated)

abates (present singular third-person)
abating (participle present)
abated (participle past)
abated (past)
abate (infinitive)

From Middle English abaten, from Anglo-Norman abatre, from Late Latin abbattere, from Latin battere.
detailed etymology, sense derivation, and cognates
The verb is derived from Middle English abaten (“to demolish, knock down; to defeat, strike down; to strike or take down (a sail); to throw down; to bow dejectedly or submissively; to be dejected; to stop; to defeat, humiliate; to repeal (a law); to dismiss or quash (a lawsuit); to lessen, reduce; to injure, impair; to appease; to decline, grow less; to deduct, subtract; to make one’s way; attack (an enemy); (law) to enter or intrude upon (someone’s property); of a hawk: to beat or flap the wings”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman abater, abatier, abatre, abbatre, Middle French abattre, abatre, abattre, Old French abatre, abattre (“to demolish, knock down; to bring down, cut down; to lessen, reduce; to suppress; to stop; to discourage; to impoverish, ruin; to conquer; to overthrow; to kill; to remove (money) from circulation; (law) to annul”), from Late Latin abbattere (“to bring down, take down; to suppress; to debase (currency)”), from Latin ab- (prefix meaning ‘away; from; away from’) + Latin battere, from older battuere (“to beat, hit; to beat up; to fight”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to dig; to stab”)).
The noun is derived from the verb.

zrušit

to make (a writ or other legal document) void — see also nullify

alentua

(intransitive) to decrease in amount or size

(chiefly US) To dismiss or otherwise bring to an end (legal proceedings) before they are completed, especially on procedural grounds rather than on the merits.

[…] in actions ariſing ex contractu, by breach of promiſe and the like, where the right deſcends to the repreſentatives of the plaintiff, and thoſe of the defendant have aſſets to anſwer the demand, though the ſuits ſhall abate by the death of the parties, yet they may be revived againſt or by the executors: being indeed rather actions againſt the property than the perſon, in which the executors now have the ſame intereſt that their teſtator had before.

1768, William Blackstone, “Of Pleading”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 302:

(chiefly US) Of legal proceedings: to be dismissed or otherwise brought to an end before they are completed, especially on procedural grounds rather than on the merits.


abolition

/ˌæb.əˈlɪʃ.n̩/

First attested in 1529. Either from Middle French abolition, or directly from Latin abolitiō, from aboleō (“destroy”). Compare French abolition. Equivalent to abolish + -tion.

(historical, often capitalised, UK, US) The ending of the slave trade or of slavery.

abolició

abolition of slavery and the slave trade

Abschaffung (der Sklaverei / des Sklavenhandels)


abolitionism

en-noun

abolitionism (countable and uncountable, plural abolitionisms)

Norwegian Bokmål: abolisjonisme

Polish: abolicjonizm

/ˌæb.əˈlɪʃ.əˌnɪz.m̩/

աբոլիցիոնիզմ

opinion in favor of the abolition of something

(historical, US) Support for the abolition of slavery.


abolitionist

Norwegian Bokmål: abolisjonist

Polish: abolicjonista

First attested in 1788. abolition + -ist.

Among other slave notabilities of the plantation, was one called by everybody Uncle Isaac Copper. It is seldom that a slave gets a surname from anybody in Maryland; and so completely has the south shaped the manners of the north, in this respect, that even abolitionists make very little of the surname of a negro.

1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 3, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:

A person favoring or advocating for the abolition of any particular institution or practice.

(chiefly historical, especially US) A person favoring or advocating for the abolition of slavery.


abridgment

abridgment (countable and uncountable, plural abridgments)

abridgments (plural)
abridgement (alternative)

First attested in 1494. From Middle English abrygement, from Middle French abrégement. Equivalent to abridge + -ment.

an abridgment of pleasures or of expenses

(US) The act of abridging; reduction or deprivation

(US) The state of being abridged or lessened.

When the goal is simply to be as faithful as possible to the material—as if a movie were a marriage, and a rights contract the vow—the best result is a skillful abridgment, one that hits all the important marks without losing anything egregious.

2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club:

(US) An epitome or compend, as of a book; a shortened or abridged form; an abbreviation.


calendar

calendars (plural)
kalendar (alternative)
calender (alternative)

Tok Pisin: kalenda

→ Japanese: カレンダー (karendā)

→ Korean: 카렌다 (karenda)

→ Korean: 캘린더 (kaellindeo)

→ Swahili: kalenda

Etymology tree
Old French calendierbor.
Middle English kalender
English calendar
From Middle English kalender, from Old French calendier, from Latin calendarium (“account book”), from kalendae (“the first day of the month”), from calō (“to announce solemnly, to call out (the sighting of the new moon)”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁-. Doublet of calendarium.

etymon

(US) An appointment book (US), appointment diary (UK)


bone

en-noun

bone (countable and uncountable, plural bones)

bones (plural)
bane (alternative)
byen (alternative)

From Middle English bon, from Old English bān (“bone, tusk; the bone of a limb”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone”), from *bainaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike, beat”).
Cognate with Scots bane, been, bean, bein, bain (“bone”), North Frisian bien (“bone”), West Frisian bien (“bone”), Dutch been (“bone; leg”), German Low German Been, Bein (“bone”), German Bein (“leg”), German Gebein (“bones”), Swedish ben (“bone; leg”), Norwegian and Icelandic bein (“bone”), Breton benañ (“to cut, hew”), Latin perfinēs (“break through, break into pieces, shatter”), Avestan 𐬠𐬫𐬈𐬥𐬙𐬈 (byente, “they fight, hit”). Related also to Old Norse beinn (“straight, right, favourable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen”) (whence Middle English bain, bayne, bayn, beyn (“direct, prompt”), Scots bein, bien (“in good condition, pleasant, well-to-do, cosy, well-stocked, pleasant, keen”)), Icelandic beinn (“straight, direct, hospitable”), Norwegian bein (“straight, direct, easy to deal with”). See bain, bein.

cog

sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me

what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh


English

en-noun

English (countable and uncountable, plural English or Englishes)

or Englishes (English plural)
Inglish (alternative)
Englishe (alternative)
english (alternative)
english (alternative)

From Middle English Englisch, English, Inglis, from Old English Englisċ (“of the Angles; English”), from Engle (“the Angles”), a Germanic tribe + -isċ; equivalent to Engle + -ish. Compare West Frisian Ingelsk, Scots Inglis (older ynglis), Dutch Engels, Danish engelsk, Old French Englesche (whence French anglais), German englisch, Spanish inglés, all ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- (“narrow”) (compare Sanskrit अंहु (áṃhu, “narrow”), अंहस् (áṃhas, “anxiety, sin”), Latin angustus (“narrow”), Old Church Slavonic ѫзъкъ (ǫzŭkŭ, “narrow”)).

cog

You are putting too much English on the ball.

(uncountable, Canada, US) Alternative form of english.


acceptance

en-noun

acceptance (countable and uncountable, plural acceptances)

acceptances (plural)
acceptaunce (alternative)

* First attested in 1574. From Middle French acceptance, from Old French accepter (“accept”). Equivalent to accept + -ance.

(government, US) The act of an authorized representative of the government by which the government assents to ownership of existing and identified supplies, or approves specific services rendered, as partial or complete performance of a contract.


acclimate

en-verb

acclimate (third-person singular simple present acclimates, present participle acclimating, simple past and past participle acclimated)

acclimates (present singular third-person)
acclimating (participle present)
acclimated (participle past)
acclimated (past)

(transitive, chiefly US) To habituate to a climate not native; to acclimatize.

aclimatar

(transitive, mainly US) to habituate to a climate not native; to acclimatize

(transitive, chiefly US) To adjust to a new environment; not necessarily a wild, natural, earthy one.

(intransitive, chiefly US) To become accustomed to a new climate or environment.


accolade

First use appears c. 1591 in the publications of Thomas Lodge, borrowed from French accolade, from Occitan acolada (“an embrace”), from acolar (“to embrace”), from Italian accollato, from Vulgar Latin *accollō (“to hug around the neck”), from Latin ad- + collum (“neck”) (English collar).

der

(US) A written presidential certificate recognizing service by military personnel or civilians serving the US armed forces who died or were wounded in action between 1917 and 1918, or who died in service between 1941 and 1947, or died of wounds received in Korea between June 27, 1950 and July 27, 1954.


season

→ Japanese: シーズン (shīzun)

From Middle English sesoun, seson (“time of the year”), from Old French seson, saison (“time of sowing, seeding”), from Latin satiō (“act of sowing, planting”) from satum, past participle of serō (“to sow, plant”) from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, plant”). Akin to Old English sāwan (“to sow”), sǣd (“seed”). Doublet of saison. Displaced native Middle English sele (“season”) (from Old English sǣl (“season, time, occasion”)), Middle English tide (“season, time of year”) (from Old English tīd (“time, period, yeartide, season”)).

temps

(obsolete) an extended, undefined period of time

The third season of Friends aired from 1996 to 1997.

Or - is she Erin Gray in the second season of Buck Rogers beautiful?

1998 February 11, “Tom's Rhinoplasty”, in South Park, season 1, episode 11:

(Canada, US, Australia, broadcasting) A group of episodes of a television or radio program broadcast in regular intervals with a long break between each group, usually with one year between the beginning of each.


spring

en-verb

spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)

springs (present singular third-person)
springing (participle present)
sprang (past)
sprung (past)
sprung (participle past)
spring (infinitive)

From Middle English springen, from Old English springan (“to spring, leap, bounce, sprout forth, emerge, spread out”), from Proto-West Germanic *springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (“to burst forth”), from Proto-Indo-European *spre(n)ǵʰ- (“to move, race, spring”), from *sper- (“to jerk, twitch, snap, shove”).
Cognates
* Saterland Frisian springe
* West Frisian springe
* Dutch springen
* German Low German springen
* German springen
* Danish springe
* Swedish springa
* Norwegian springe
* Faroese springa
* Icelandic springa (“to burst, explode”).
Other possible cognates include Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push (in)”), Old Church Slavonic прѧсти (pręsti, “to spin, to stretch”), Latin spargere (“to sprinkle, to scatter”), Ancient Greek σπέρχω (spérkhō, “to hasten”), Sanskrit स्पृहयति (spṛháyati, “to be eager”). Some newer senses derived from the noun.

cog

His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.

If I was in jail I know you'd spring me

2007, Mike Batt (lyrics and music), “If You Were a Sailboat”, performed by Katie Melua:

(transitive, slang, US) To free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.

(transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of sprain.

(transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of strain.


your mileage may vary

The United States Environmental Protection Agency requires all new vehicles to undergo a set of standard emissions tests which simulate city and highway driving. Part of the test measures estimated city and highway gas (petrol) mileage estimates. Since no test can exactly simulate all driving habits and conditions, the actual gas mileage of each vehicle will vary. As a result, when these estimated mileage claims from automobile manufacturers appear in advertisements, they are almost always accompanied with the standard disclaimer “your mileage may vary”.

The battery lasts a day in my phone, but your mileage may vary.

When that definition is executed, the metadata for the temporary table is put into your schema (most likely—your mileage may vary), but no space is allocated to hold data.

1993, Jim Melton, Alan R. Simon, “Basic Data Definition Language (DDL)”, in Understanding the New SQL: A Complete Guide, San Francisco, Calif.: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, →ISBN, section 4.3.4 (Temporary Tables), page 74:

In other words, your mileage may vary and my disk-size figures are just estimates provided for your convenience.

1994, Bob LeVitus, Macintosh System 7.5 for Dummies (For Dummies), San Mateo, Calif.: IDG Books, →ISBN, page 328:

We pause here to emphasize that with animals, there are no absolutes. […] We like to say that with any given wolf or dog, "your mileage may vary."

2012, Jessica Addams, Andrew Miller, “Modern Wolf Mythology: The Things that ‘Everyone Knows’”, in Between Dog and Wolf: Understanding the Connection and the Confusion, Wenatchee, Wash.: Dogwise Publishing, →ISBN:

Mallory Ortberg: […] The advice game is the ultimate your-mileage-may-vary exercise—do you have a feeling for when someone is looking for (or needs) a gentle smack to return them to their senses, a bit of empathy, a dose of humor? It’s a tricky balance, I think, between writing something entertaining for your many readers and trying to be genuinely helpful to the original writer.

2015 November 12, Daniel Mallory Ortberg, Emily Yoffe, “Dear Prudie, from Prudie: Emily Yoffe’s advice to her successor, Mallory Ortberg”, in Slate, archived from the original on 2018-02-07:

(Canada, US, idiomatic, often computing) It may work differently in your situation, or be different in your experience.

možná to máte jinak

it may work differently in your situation

ez mindenkinél másként/máshogy/máshogyan van/működik (persze)

э́то мо́жет срабо́тать у тебя́ по-друго́му

I think that red dress looks really good on you, but your mileage may vary, of course.

Your mileage may vary when it comes to the over-the-top carnage and in-your-face machismo, but it’s impressive just how bonkers Fate [The Fate of the Furious] is, like a litter of kittens hopped up on grade-A catnip.

2017 April 12, Brian Truitt, “Review: ‘Fate’ is furious enough to excite the faithful”, in USA Today, archived from the original on 2018-09-06:

The privatization of luxury space in planes, trains and automobiles have certainly enhanced our ability to keep to ourselves on the road (see the rise of personal pods at airports for a recent example of the lengths people will go to for solitude). And as those spaces get increasingly automated, human interaction is becoming increasingly limited (although your mileage may vary as to how much you really enjoy that interaction with customs or gate agents).

2018 August 31, Leslie Wu, “Mobile Hotel Rooms are the New Home away from Home”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 2018-09-01:

(Canada, US, idiomatic) Used to express a possible difference in taste: this is just my opinion, your opinion may be different.

és només la meva opinió

this is just my opinion — see also there's no accounting for taste

des goûts et des couleurs, on ne discute pas


can

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

From Middle English canne, from Old English canne (“glass, container, cup, can”), from Proto-Germanic *kannǭ (“can, tankard, mug, cup”).

kanaçe

a more or less cylindrical vessel for liquids

(toilet):

(place with a toilet):

Shit or get off the can.

Bob's in the can. You can wait a few minutes or just leave it with me.

I didn't have anything special to do, so I went down to the can and chewed the rag with him while he was shaving.

1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 35:

1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
If he was going to hide out in the can, he can just stay there & sleep in the tub.

(archaic) A chamber pot.
(US, slang) a toilet or lavatory.

[…] prosecution for selling and giving away marijuana, the evidence clearly constituted substantial proof that a package purchased by defendant contained marijuana where he requested "four cans" of marijuana to be delivered to himself and […]

1970, California. Supreme Court, Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California:

(US, slang) An ounce (or sometimes, two ounces) of marijuana.

(vulgar, slang, Canada, US) The breasts of a woman.


can

en-verb

can (third-person singular simple present cans, present participle canning, simple past and past participle canned)

cans (present singular third-person)
canning (participle present)
canned (participle past)
canned (past)
can (infinitive)

The boss canned him for speaking out.

As a result of his refusal, the employee was subsequently canned in 2015 on the basis of "professional inadequacy" and failing to embody the "party" atmosphere that the consultancy was trying to cultivate.

2022 November 25, B. Cost, “Man wins legal right to be 'boring' at work, gets $3K from company”, in New York Post, NYP Holdings, retrieved 2022-11-27:

(US, euphemistic, transitive) To fire or dismiss an employee.


number

numbers (plural)
nummer (alternative)
numbre (alternative)

Tok Pisin: namba

→ Brunei Malay: numbur

→ Burmese: နံပါတ် (nampat)

→ Hindustani: नंबर (nambar) / نمبر (nambar)

→ Japanese: ナンバー (nanbā)

→ Kikuyu: namba

→ Malay: nombor

Indonesian: nomor

→ Maori: nama

→ Navajo: námboo

→ Papiamentu: number

→ Palauan: lambang

→ Swahili: nambari, namba

→ Yoruba: nọ́ḿbà

From Middle English number, nombre, numbre, noumbre, from Anglo-Norman noumbre, Old French nombre, from Latin numerus (“number”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to divide”). Compare Saterland Frisian Nummer, Nuumer, West Frisian nûmer, Dutch nummer (“number”), German Nummer (“number”), Danish nummer (“number”), Swedish nummer (“number”), Icelandic númer (“number”). Replaced Middle English ȝetæl and rime, more at tell, tale and rhyme.

رَقْم

used to show the rank of something in a list or sequence

These were the two that Tommy had chosen to collect a debt owed to his family by a dude named Heath who ran numbers out of a grocery store on 131st and Lenox.

2005, K'wan, Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 1:

Back at his place again, Doc rolled a number, put on a late movie, found an old T-shirt, and sat tearing it up into short strips […]

2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage, published 2010, page 12:

(slang, chiefly US) A marijuana cigarette, or joint; also, a quantity of marijuana bought from a dealer.

jointti

slang: marijuana cigarette, or quantity of marijuana


LDP

(US, automotive) Initialism of limited driving privilege.


quarter

en-noun

quarter (countable and uncountable, plural quarters)

From Middle English quarter, from Anglo-Norman quarter, from Latin quartarius, from quartus. Compare Spanish cuarto (“room, quarters; quarter”). Doublet of quartier.

cog

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

çerek

one of four equal parts — see also one-fourth

(Canada, US) A quarter-dollar, divided into 25 cents; the coin of that value minted in the United States or Canada.


parole

en-noun

parole (usually uncountable, plural paroles)

[p(ʰ)əˈɹəʊɫ]

Borrowed from Middle French parole (“word, formal promise”), from Old French parole, from Late Latin parabola (“speech”), from Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ). Doublet of parabola, parable, and palaver.

doublet

(US, immigration law) The permission for a foreigner who does not meet the technical requirements for a visa to be allowed to enter the U.S. on humanitarian grounds.


German

en-noun

German (countable and uncountable, plural Germans)

/ˈd͡ʒɜː.mən/

From Latin Germānus, Germānī (“the peoples of Germānia”), as distinct from Gauls (in the writings of Caesar and Tacitus), and of uncertain ultimate origin (possibly Celtic/Gaulish).
Not related to german (“closely related”) or germane (from the Latin adjective germānus, through Old French).
Attested since at least 1520. Replaced the older terms Almain and Dutch (from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz) in English. Besides cognates of German, Almain, and Dutch, two other categories of words for the Germans in other languages are cognates of Saxon and descendants of Proto-Slavic *němьcь; see those entries for more.
The surname is generally from the noun, though sometimes confused with Herman, Hermann under Russian influence. As a German surname, Americanized from Germann. Compare Germán, Germain, Jerman.

(uncountable, US printing, rare, dated) A size of type between American and Saxon, 1+¹⁄₂-point type.


FTP

"Fuck the police" emerged as the unofficial motto of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles[…]Following the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, street signs and businesses were frequently tagged with FTP.

[2018, David Correia, Tyler Wall, Police: A Field Guide, page 263:

As nationwide protests continue to grow, demanding justice for George Floyd and the black community as a whole, YG has shared a new protest song titled "FTP (F--- the Police)."

2020 June 2, “YG Has a Clear Message in New Protest Song 'FTP'”, in Billboard:


one

ones (plural)
wone (alternative)
o (alternative)
I (alternative)

PIE word
 *h₁óynos
From Middle English oon, on, oan, an, from Old English ān (“one”), from Proto-West Germanic *ain, from Proto-Germanic *ainaz (“one”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos (“single, one”).
Cognate with Scots ae, ane, wan, yin (“one”); North Frisian ån (“one”); Saterland Frisian aan (“one”); West Frisian ien (“one”); Dutch een, één (“one”); German Low German een; German ein, eins (“one”); Danish en (“one”); Swedish en (“one”); Norwegian Nynorsk ein (“one”), Icelandic einn (“one”); Latin ūnus (“one”) (Old Latin oinos); Russian оди́н (odín), Spanish uno. Doublet of a, an, and Uno.
The use as an indefinite personal pronoun may have been influenced by unrelated French on, although the Germanic languages widely use cognates for the same sense (usually in non-subject function, but also in subject function, e.g. Luxembourgish een).
Verb form from Middle English onen.

inh

I need some ones to make change.

(by ellipsis) Used to briefly refer to a noun phrase understood by context


two

twos (plural)
twain (alternative)
twey (alternative)

→ Russian: туз (tuz, “two-oar dinghy”)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English two, twa, from Old English twā, feminine and neuter of twēġen (whence twain), from Proto-West Germanic *twai-, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.
Cognate with Scots twa (“two”); North Frisian tou, tuu (“two”); Saterland Frisian twäin, two (“two”); West Frisian twa (“two”); Dutch twee (“two”); Low German twee, twei (“two”); German zwei, zwo (“two”); Danish and Norwegian to (“two”); Swedish två, tu (“two”); Icelandic tvö (“two”); Faroese tvey (“two”); Latin duō (“two”); Ancient Greek δύο (dúo, “two”); Irish dhá (“two”); Lithuanian dù (“two”); Russian два (dva, “two”); Albanian dy (“two”); Old Armenian երկու (erku, “two”); Sanskrit द्व (dvá, “two”); Tocharian A wu, Tocharian B wi. Doublet of duo. See also twain.


AD

en-noun

AD (countable and uncountable, plural ADs)

ADs (plural)
A.D. (alternative)
A. D. (alternative)

auxiliary destroyer
auxiliary destroyer#English

(US, Navy) Initialism of auxiliary destroyer (a naval tender, a destroyer tender that tends to destroyers).


FBI

→ Arabic: إِف بِي أَي (ʔif bī ʔay)

→ Bulgarian: ФБР (FBR)

→ Dutch: FBI

→ French: FBI

→ Galician: FBI

desc

→ Hindi: एफ़ बी आई (ef bī āī)

→ Hindi: एफ़ बी आई (ef bī āī)

→ Indonesian: FBI

→ Japanese: エフ・ビー・アイ

→ Japanese: エフ・ビー・アイ

→ Marathi: एफ्.बी.आय्. (eph.bī.āy.)

→ Persian: افبیآی

→ Portuguese: FBI

→ Romanian: FBI

→ Russian: ФБР (FBR)

→ Thai: เอฟบีไอ

→ Thai: เอฟบีไอ

The FBI began publishing national quarterly crime reports last year, but has not done so for the first two quarters of 2021, stating that they require at least 60% of agencies to submit NIBRS data in order to publish quarterly data.

2021 September 27, Priya Krishnakumar, “Murders rose sharply in 2020 but data is lacking across much of the country”, in CNN:

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation#English

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of Federal Bureau of Investigation.


FBI

Groups of Heterosexuals gather in Daytona Beach to tan their normally pale skin, eat fried shrimp, and buy novelty T-shirts that say things like Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee! and FBI: Female Body Inspector.

2013, Jeffery Self, Straight People: A Spotter's Guide to the Fascinating World of Heterosexuals, Running Press, →ISBN:


letter

From Middle English letter, lettre, from Old French letre, from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet"; in plural, "epistle”). Displaced Old English bōcstæf (literally “book staff”) in sense 1 and ǣrendġewrit (literally “message writing”) in sense 2.

displaced

(US, uncountable) A size of paper, 8½ in × 11 in (215.9 mm × 279.4 mm).

(US, scholastic) Clipping of varsity letter.


letter

en-verb

letter (third-person singular simple present letters, present participle lettering, simple past and past participle lettered)

letters (present singular third-person)
lettering (participle present)
lettered (participle past)
lettered (past)
lettre (alternative)

I think Mom lettered in shot put her junior year.

1992 September 23, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes:

(intransitive, US, scholastic) To earn a varsity letter (award).


Irish

en-noun

Irish (countable and uncountable, plural Irish or Irishes)

From Middle English Irish (12th c.), from Old English *Īrisċ, from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Irish Éire (“Ireland”)), further origin heavily debated but probably from Proto-Celtic *Φīweriyū (“fat land, fertile”), from Proto-Indo-European *péyh₂wr̥ (“fat, swelling”), from *peyh₂- (“to swell; to be fat”), akin to Ancient Greek πίειρα (píeira, “fertile land”), Sanskrit पीवरी (pīvarī, “fat”).

cog

But her Irish was up too high to do any thing with her, and so I quit trying.

1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Nebraska, published 1987, page 65:

Whenever he got his Irish up, Clancy lowered the boom.

1947, Hy Heath, John Lange, Clancy Lowered the Boom:

The Priest is as fierce a fighter as I am when he gets his Irish up.

1997, Andrew M. Greeley, Irish Lace, page 296:

(uncountable, US) Temper; anger, passion.


century

/ˈsɛnt͡ʃʊɹi/

From Middle English centurie (“a count of one hundred (of anything); a division of the Roman army; century; a division of land”), from Old French centurie, from Latin centuria, from centum (“one hundred”). The most common modern use is a shortening of century of years.

inh

(US, informal) A banknote in the denomination of one hundred dollars.


IRC

Internal Revenue Code
Internal Revenue Code#English

(US law) Initialism of Internal Revenue Code.


OCR

(politics, US) Initialism of Office for Civil Rights.


sub rosa

subrosa (alternative)
sub-rosa (alternative)

/ˌsʌb ˈɹəʊzə/

/ˌsʌb ˈɹoʊzə/

Aphrodite
Eros
Harpocrates
Louis-Philippe Mouchy

PIE word
 *upó
The adverb and adjective are an unadapted borrowing from Late Latin sub rosā (literally “under the rose”), from Latin sub (“beneath, under”) + rosa (“rose”) (possibly from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”), ultimately from Proto-Iranian *wardah (“flower; rose”) and Proto-Indo-European *Hwerdʰ-, possibly a metathesis of *h₁lewdʰ- (“to grow; to rise”)). The reason for the reference to a rose is uncertain, though it has been suggested that it derives from the Ancient Greek myth that Aphrodite (the goddess of love) gave a rose to her son Eros (the god of love and sex), who in turn gave it to Harpocrates (the god of silence, confidentiality, and secrets) to ensure that Aphrodite’s sexual indiscretions were not revealed. Roses thus became a symbol of secrecy—they were, for example, used at meetings to pledge the participants not to disclose what had been discussed. Compare under the rose which is attested earlier.
The noun is derived from the adverb and adjective.

ubor

Questions about Esparza's surveillance practices were exacerbated by an incident in December 2003, in which another subject of a sub-rosa complained of being followed by Esparza wielding a video camera.

2006 March 23, Daniel Blackburn, “Fraud Busters”, in New Times:

workers' compensation
workers' compensation

(US, law, slang) Covert surveillance video used as evidence against applicants for workers' compensation to show they are not in fact (seriously) injured.

salaa kuvattu video

covert surveillance video used as evidence against applicants for workers’ compensation


bit

From Middle English bitte, bite, from Old English bita (“bit; fragment; morsel”) and bite (“a bite; cut”), from Proto-Germanic *bitô and *bitiz; both from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). More at bite.
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian bit, Saterland Frisian Bit, Dutch bit, German Low German Beet, Biet, German Biss and Bissen, Danish bid, Swedish bit, Icelandic biti.

der

A quarter is two bits.

He left after shaking her down for four bits for carrying the bags.

1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 16:

Applied to a various small units of currency and coins.

(historical, US and Canada) A unit of currency worth one eighth of a dollar, originally of a Spanish dollar but later also US or Canadian; also, a coin with this value, in particular the silver Spanish real.

The smallest coin we had in Canada in early days was a dime, worth ten cents. The Indians called this coin “a Bit”. Our next coin, double in buying power and in size, was a twenty-five cent piece and this the Indians called “Two Bits”.

1941, Emily Carr, chapter 10, in Klee Wyck:

(obsolete, US and Canada) A coin of a value similar but not equal to this, in particular the ‘short bit’, i.e. the ten-cent piece or dime.


BC

en-noun

BC (countable and uncountable, plural BCs)

BCs (plural)
B.C. (alternative)
b.c. (alternative)
bc (alternative)


point

point (countable and uncountable, plural points)

→ Cantonese: point

→ Indonesian: poin

→ Japanese: ポイント (pointo)

→ Korean: 포인트 (pointeu)

→ Malay: poin

From Middle English poynt, from Old French point m (“dot; minute amount”), from Latin pūnctum (“a hole punched in; a point, puncture”), substantive use of pūnctus m, perfect passive participle of pungō (“I prick, punch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“prick, punch”)); alternatively, from Old French pointe f (“sharp tip”), from Latin pūncta f (past participle). Displaced native Middle English ord (“point”), from Old English ord (“point”). Doublet of pointe, ponto, puncto, punctum, punt, and punto.

kärki

position at the front or vanguard of an advancing force

decimal point

not used when reading decimal fractions aloud

A small discrete division or individual feature of something.

(US, slang, dated) An item of private information; a hint; a tip; a pointer.


are

From the phonetic similarity between our and are in many English dialects (both /ɑː(ɹ)/).


nigger

niggers (plural)
n****r (alternative)
n-word (alternative)
nigga (alternative)
niggah (alternative)
nigguh (alternative)

Sranan Tongo: nengre

Aukan: nengee

Saramaccan: në́ngë

Probably immediately from French nègre or Spanish and Portuguese negro (“a black African”); ultimately from Latin niger (“black”), thus a doublet of negro and noir. Compare Danish nigger, Swedish neger, German Nigger, Dutch nikker. First use appears c. 1577, in the writings of Edward Hellowes (fl. 1574–1601). The expected Modern English pronunciation would be with /iː/; compare neger. The modern pronunciation with /ɪ/ may be due to influence from the Latin etymon (compare the older Southern US pronunciation of negro with /ɪ/), but compare the dialectal American pronunciations of eagle and eager as /ˈɪɡəl/ and /ˈɪɡɚ/.

чёрный

note: негр m (negr) and негритя́нка f (negritjánka) are neutral terms

حبشی

offensive if intended otherwise 'Male Ethiopian/Abyssian'

حبشن

offensive if intended otherwise 'Female Ethiopian/Abyssinian'

Well, it's a big heavy line, and you operate the nigger — capstan it's also called — by steam. You wrap your line around that and keep taking in the slack, and that draws up them things.

(archaic, US) A steam-capstan on some Mississippi river boats, used to haul the boat over bars and snags by a rope fastened to a tree on the bank.


dick

en-noun

dick (countable and uncountable, plural dicks)

→ Finnish: dikki (colloquial, humorous)

Ultimately from Dick, pet form of the name Richard. The name Dick came to mean "everyman", whence the word acquired its other meanings.

Last weekend I did dick.

Cool, whatever you say, slick, but I need to tell you something about all your skills. As of right now, they mean precisely… dick.

1997, Ed Solomon, Men in Black, spoken by Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones):

(uncountable, US, Canada, vulgar, slang, uncommon) Absolutely nothing.


dick

A shortening and alteration of de(t)ec(tive).

private dick, railroad dick

“I am a detective,” said Hercule Poirot with the modest air of one who says “I am a king.”
“Good God!” The young man seemed seriously taken aback. “Do you mean that girl actually totes about a dumb dick?”

1937 November 1, Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile:


port

en-verb

port (third-person singular simple present ports, present participle porting, simple past and past participle ported)

ports (present singular third-person)
porting (participle present)
ported (participle past)
ported (past)

From Old French porter, from Latin portāre (“carry”). Akin to transport, portable.

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

(US, government and law) To transfer a voucher or subsidy from one jurisdiction to another.

siirtää

to transfer a voucher or subsidy from one jurisdiction to another


pissed

en-adj

pissed (comparative more pissed, superlative most pissed)

more pissed (comparative)
most pissed (superlative)

From Middle English pissed, pissede, pyssyd, pisside, equivalent to piss + -ed.

That one looks pissed, Ms. Gennero...

1987, Jeb Stuart, Steven E. DeSouza, Die Hard, scene 287:

Some women were physically incapable, and the guys would say, “See, I told you women can′t hack it.” The more I saw of that, the more pissed I got, and the more determined I got to stick it out.

1989, Judith Stiehm, Arms And The Enlisted Woman, page 255:

So I was already pissed at Bill to begin with, for what happened with the O′Donnell disaster the year before, and now I was even more pissed at the fuckin′ guy.

2009, Steve Serby, No Substitute for Sundays: Brett Favre and His Year in the Huddle with the New York Jets, page xv:

(chiefly US, Canada, Australia, mildly vulgar, colloquial) Annoyed, angry.


feist

en-noun

feist (countable and uncountable, plural feists)

feists (plural)
fist (alternative)
fice (alternative)

Earliest sense is “fart”, and later “stink” as abbreviation for fysting cur “stinking dog” (1520s). From Middle English fysten (mid-15th century), from Old English. Cognate with Middle Dutch veest and Dutch vijst. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *fistiz (“a fart”), presumably from Proto-Indo-European *pesd-, though this is disputed.
One explanation for the association of farting with small dogs is given in an 1811 slang dictionary, which suggests that the dogs were blamed for farting, specifically defining fice as “a small windy escape backwards, more obvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladies charged on their lap-dogs.”
Cognate terms include German Fist (“soft fart”), Danish fise (“to blow, to fart”) and Middle English askefise (“bellows”, literally “fire-blower, ash-blower”), from Old Norse; originally “a term of reproach among northern nations for an unwarlike fellow who stayed at home in the chimney corner”.

cog

(US, countable) A small, snappy, belligerent mixed-breed dog; a feist dog.


billion

→ Chichewa: biliyoni

→ Hausa: biliyan

→ Hawaiian: piliona

→ Maori: piriona

→ Niuean: piliona

→ Samoan: piliona

→ Shona: bhiriyoni

→ Somali: bilyan

→ Swahili: bilioni

→ Tongan: piliona

→ Welsh: biliwn

→ Xhosa: ibhiliyoni

→ Zulu: ibhiliyoni

From French billion, from bi- (“two”) + -illion.

At the last assessment it [the national debt] amounts to seven billion pounds (£7,000,000,000).

1921 January 24, “National Finances”, in Devon and Exeter Gazette, page 5:

In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.

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

However, despite the prospect of HS2 being curtailed and the revelation that the programme is late and billions over budget, for now, at least, work on the scheme appears to be business as usual

2019 October, Dan Harvey, “HS2 costs rise as schedule slips”, in Modern Railways, page 9:

The ChatGPT service which serves as Web front-end to GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 was the fastest-growing service in history to break the 100 million user milestone in January and had 1 billion visits by February 2023.

2023 October 30, Herbold et al., “A large-scale comparison of human-written versus ChatGPT-generated essays” (18617), in Scientific Reports, volume 13, page 1:

(US, modern British & Australian, short scale) a thousand million (logic: 1,000 × 1,000²): 1 followed by nine zeros, 10⁹; a milliard

modern British & Australian; short scale; modern British & Australian; short scale

miljard

a thousand million (1,000,000,000); a milliard

երկիլիոն

a million million; 1,000,000,000,000 — see also trillion


trillion

→ Welsh: triliwn

From French trillion, from French tri- (“three”) + -illion, equivalent to tri- + -illion.

biljoen

a million million, 1012 — see also billion

تِرِيلِْيُون

a million million million, 1018 — see also quintillion

Javik: Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters. Their silence is your answer.

2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3: From Ashes (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

(US, modern British, Australia, short scale) A million (times a) million: 1 followed by twelve zeros, 10¹².


ten

en-noun

ten (countable and uncountable, plural tens)

From Middle English ten, tene, from Old English tīen, from Proto-West Germanic *tehun, from Proto-Germanic *tehun, from Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥. Cognate with Scots ten, tene (“ten”), West Frisian tsien (“ten”), Saterland Frisian tjoon (“ten”), North Frisian tiin (“ten”). See also teen.

not touch something with a ten-foot pole

I was in the Woodley Park–Zoo in D.C. and mom and sister were waiting to see the pandas, so me and my pops broke away to check out the monkey house. Well, there was a beautiful teacher, I mean we're talking a ten, she was blond, had a low-cut dress on, just gorgeous. And she has about eight or nine students and she's pointing out all the different monkeys. And me and my dad noticed this huge orangutan kind of fiddling with himself. And on close [censored] And we kept checking it out and he was looking directly at the teacher. Well, a couple minutes passed by [censored] he proceeds to [censored] that's when the teacher noticed and, you know, took the kids away very hurriedly. But I looked at my dad and said, you know, they're so much like us.

2006 May 9, Penn Jillette, Michael Goudeau, quoting Chris, 22:22 from the start, in Penn Radio:

An Office Ten is a person who falls somewhere between average to mildly good-looking in the world at large but skyrockets to wildly attractive within the confines of an open-concept desk plan.

2023 September 11, Danielle Cohen, “Why Am I Attracted to My Coworker? Meet ‘The Office Ten’”, in New York Magazine:

(countable, US, slang) A perfect specimen, (particularly) a physically attractive person.

(countable, US, slang) A high level of intensity.


safety valve

safety valves (plural)
safety-valve (alternative)

purkautumiskeino

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

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

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

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

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

vähimmäisrangaistuksen sivuuttamisen salliva laki


stock

stock (countable and uncountable, plural stocks or (obsolete) stocken)

stocks (plural)
stocken (obsolete plural)

→ Dutch: stock

desctree

→ French: stock
→ Romanian: stoc
→ Turkish: stok

→ Italian: stock

→ Portuguese: estoque

→ Spanish: stock

From Middle English stok, from Old English stocc, from Proto-West Germanic *stokk, from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz (“tree-trunk”), with modern senses mostly referring either to the trunk from which the tree grows (figuratively, its origin and/or support/foundation), or to a piece of wood, stick, or rod. The senses of "supply" and "raw material" arose from a probable conflation with steck (“an item of goods, merchandise”) or the use of split tally sticks consisting of foil or counterfoil and stock to capture paid taxes, debts or exchanges. Doublet of chock.

stark (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

(finance) The capital raised by a company through the issue of shares. The total of shares held by an individual shareholder.


NATO

en:National Association of Theatre Owners

From National Association of Theatre Owners.

(US, film) Acronym of National Association of Theatre Owners.


music

en-noun

music (usually uncountable, plural musics)

musics (plural)
musick (alternative)
musicke (alternative)
musique (alternative)
musike (alternative)

Jamaican Creole: myuuzik

Pitcairn-Norfolk: myuusik

Tok Pisin: musik

→ Dhivehi: މިއުޒިކް (miuzik̊)

→ Japanese: ミュージック (myūjikku)

→ Malay: muzik

→ Swahili: muziki

→ Welsh: miwsig

From Middle English musik, musike, borrowed from Anglo-Norman musik, musike, Old French musique, and their source Latin mūsica, from Ancient Greek μουσική (mousikḗ), from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”), an Ancient Greek deity of the arts. By surface analysis, muse + -ic (“pertaining to”). In this sense, displaced native Old English drēam (“music”), whence Modern English dream.


most

A well-daiquiried redhead eyed him from across the room at Jilly's one night in 1963 — although it could have been most any night ever […]

1998, Bill Zehme, The Way You Wear Your Hat: And the Lost Art of Livin' (page 181)

"We walked there most every day after school."

2000, Jewish Baltimore: A Family Album, →ISBN, page 159:

“Can't be all that bad if Luke likes it. Most everywhere has air-conditioning, he says.”

2011, Charlotte Maclay, Wanted: A Dad to Brag About, →ISBN:


jour

(chiefly US) Abbreviation of journeyman, e.g. jour printer.


DOD

(US, military) Initialism of United States Department of Defense.


BM

en-noun

BM (countable and uncountable, plural BMs)

We broke the story ... the melee was caught on video, and appears to show a group of people attacking Fetty [Wap]'s BM and her friends.

2019 January 28, “Fetty Wap's Baby Mama Arrested After Fight for Telling Cop ... 'Suck My F***ing D***!!!'”, in TMZ:

Frequent involuntary urination. Frequent desire for B.M. but no result.

1911, Journal of the National Medical Association:

Mr. Jansen stated that he had a medium-sized, soft, formed, brown BM after breakfast today.

2017, Sheila A. Sorrentino, Leighann N. Remmert, Mosby’s Textbook for Nursing Assistants, 9th edition, St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier, →ISBN, page 424:

(Canada, US, euphemistic) Initialism of bowel movement.


AL

(US, Canada, baseball) Initialism of American League.


war

war (countable and uncountable, plural wars)

wars (plural)
warre (alternative)
warr (alternative)

From Middle English werre, from Late Old English werre, wyrre (“armed conflict”), from Old Northern French werre (compare modern French guerre), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish *werru (“confusion; quarrel”), from Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”). Gradually displaced native Old English beadu, hild, ġewinn, orleġe, wīġ, and many others as the general term for "war" during the Middle English period.
Related to Old High German werra (“confusion, strife, quarrel”) and German verwirren (“to confuse”), but not to Wehr (“defense”). Also related to Old Saxon werran (“to confuse, perplex”), Dutch war (“confusion, disarray”), West Frisian war (“confusion”),
Old English wyrsa, wiersa (“worse”), Old Norse verri (“worse, orig. confounded, mixed up”), Italian guerra (“war”). There may be a connection with worse and wurst.

cog

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River

Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851 painting)

we have always been at war with Eastasia

The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party... Ask all our millions, north and south, whether they would vote now (were such a thing possible) to have our war for the Union expunged from history... and probably hardly a handful of eccentrics would say yes. Those ancestors, those efforts, those memories and legends, ar the most ideal part of what we now own together, a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured out. Yet ask those same people whether they would be willing, in cold blood, to start another civil war now to gain another similar possession, and not one man or woman would vote for the proposition.

1906, William James, The Moral Equivalent of War:

the War on Poverty... the War on Drugs... the War on Christmas...

(countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularly

(chiefly US) Campaigns against various social problems.


and

Inherited from Middle English and, an, from Old English and, ond, end, from Proto-West Germanic *andi, from Proto-Germanic *andi, *anþi, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énti (“facing opposite, near, in front of, before”). Cognate with Scots an (“and”), North Frisian en (“and”), West Frisian en, in (“and”), Yiddish און (un, “and”), Low German un (“and”), Dutch en (“and”), German und (“and”), Danish end (“but”), Swedish än (“yet, but”), Icelandic and Norwegian enn (“still, yet”), Albanian edhe (“and”) (dialectal ênde, ênne), ende (“still, yet, therefore”), Latin ante (“opposite, in front of”), and Ancient Greek ἀντί (antí, “opposite, facing”). Doublet of an ("if").

cog

an' (alternative)
'n' (alternative)
n (alternative)

(unstressed form, also for some speakers stressed form) end

-и

used to connect two similar words, phrases, et cetera

-kä (in a negative clause; prefixed with a negation verb)

en

used to string together sentences or sentence fragments in chronological order

as well as

used to connect two similar words or phrases

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

"Where ys Sir Launcelot?" seyde King Arthure. "And he were here, he wolde nat grucche to do batayle for you."

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VII:

Peter answered, and sayde: master, and thou be he, bidde me come unto the on the water.

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew:

"And he went slower," Mike said softly, "he go better."

1958, Shirley Ann Grau, The Hard Blue Sky:

(heading) Expressing a condition.
(now US dialect) If; provided that.

Expressing a condition.
If; provided that.


lifetime job

So, while choice of military service as a lifetime-job preference should be indicative of an orientation to military life, the reverse is not true: many people may be predisposed to service life without expressing it as a job preference.

1972, Jerome Johnston, Jerald G. Bachman, Young Men and Military Service, →ISBN, page 39:

The lifetime-job program was one of the concessions that the UAW won from Ford, and later from General Motors, in return for labor cost savings during contract negotiations […] Perhaps it is this rethinking of labor’s needs, on the parts of both unions and management, that will surface as the most important gain from the lifetime-job experiment.

1984, John Diebold, Making the Future Work: Unleashing our Powers of Innovation for the Decades Ahead, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, pages 300–301:

1994 January 24, Michael Williams, “Toyota Creates Work Contracts Challenging Lifetime-Job System”, in the Wall Street Journal, page A10.

(US) A job in which one remains for one's whole career until one's retirement.


apple

qualifier

< <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">apples</i>

→ Abenaki: aples (< apples)

→ Arikara: ápos (< apples)

→ Assamese: আপেল (apel)

→ Bengali: আপেল (apel)

→ Dhivehi: އާފަލު (āfalu)

→ East Futuna: apo

→ Fijian: yapolo

→ Fiji Hindi: aapul

→ Finnish: äpyli

→ Malay: epal (Malaysia)

→ Malayalam: ആപ്പിൾ (āppiḷ)

→ Maori: āporo

→ Marshallese: abōļ

→ Sinhalese: ඇපල් (æpal)

→ Sotho: apole

Sylheti: ꠀꠄꠚꠟ (aefól)

→ Tamil: ஆப்பிள் (āppiḷ)

→ Telugu: ఆపిల్ (āpil)

desc

→ Thai: แอปเปิล (ɛ́p-bpə̂n)

→ Thai: แอปเปิล (ɛ́p-bpə̂n)

→ Tokelauan: apu

→ Tok Pisin: apel

→ Yurok: 'erplers (< apples)

Book of Genesis
Frans Floris
Malmö Art Museum
The Fall of Man

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl
Proto-Germanic *aplaz
Proto-West Germanic *applu
Old English æppel
Middle English appel
English apple
The noun is derived from Middle English appel (“Malus domestica fruit or tree, apple; any type of fruit, nut, or tuber; tree bearing fruit; (figurative) ball, sphere; (Christianity) forbidden fruit in Eden”), from Old English æppel (“apple; any type of fruit; (figurative) ball, sphere; eyeball”), from Proto-West Germanic *applu (“apple; any type of fruit”), from Proto-Germanic *aplaz (“apple; any type of fruit”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl, *h₂ébl̥ (“apple”).
As regards sense 1.4 (“forbidden fruit”), the type of fruit eaten by Adam and Eve is not identified in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It may have come to be identified with the apple because of the similarity between Latin mālum (“apple”) and malum (“evil; misery, torment; wrongdoing”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
Cognate with Danish æble, Dutch appel, German Apfel, Irish úll, Lithuanian óbuolỹs, Russian я́блоко (jábloko), Scots aipple, Swedish äpple, Welsh afal, West Frisian apel, possibly Ancient Greek ἄμπελος (ámpelos, “vine”).

ref

From the collection of the Malmö Art Museum in Malmö, Scania, Sweden.

omena

something which resembles the fruit of Malus domestica

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

the apples on the other side of the wall are the sweetest

My ancestors five generations removed were "apples" who were "White" on the inside and "Red" on the outside. […] We need a new breed of "apples."

1996, Joel Spring, “From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Ford: The End of the Choctaw Republic”, in The Cultural Transformation of A Native American Family and Its Tribe 1763–1995: A Basket of Apples, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2011, →DOI, →ISBN, part II (The Choctaw Republic and Its People):

The presenter, close to tears, told the audience that she's really an apple—white on the inside and red on the outside—Native American.

1998, Opal J. Moore, “‘From the Back of the Bus to the Back of the National Priority List’: The Civil Rights Movement, Integration, and beyond [Git that Gal a Red Dress: A Conversation Between Female Faculty at a State School in Virginia]”, in Daryl Cumber Dance, editor, Honey, Hush! An Anthology of African American Women’s Humor, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 537:

(US, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Native American or redskinned person who acts or thinks like a white (Caucasian) person.

Native American
Native American#Adjective


urban

en-adj

urban (comparative more urban, superlative most urban)

more urban (comparative)
most urban (superlative)
urbane (alternative)

Borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin urbānus (“of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated”) + English -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Urbānus is derived from urbs (“city; walled town; Rome”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence”) or *werbʰ- (“to enclose”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).
For the euphemistic or proscribed term, it was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music.

der

(US, proscribed, outdated) Relating to contemporary African American culture, especially in music.

(US, UK, euphemistic, offensive) (of inhabitants or residents) Black; African American.


AA

en-noun

AA (countable and uncountable, plural AAs)

But Wilson's loyal administrative assistant, Charlie Simpson, felt that he couldn't put up with it anymore. […] “I have to learn how to be a congressman and you need to learn how to be an AA [administrative assistant],” Wilson had told Simpson. “And this is the first thing we have to do.” […] The experience left the AA believing that perhaps the two of them shared a special destiny.

2003, George Crile, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times, New York: Grove Press, →ISBN, page 186:

administrative assistant
administrative assistant#English

(chiefly US, politics) Initialism of administrative assistant.


AA

en:Alcoholics Anonymous
en:Anna's Archive
en:The AA

(US, baseball) Double-A: the second-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball after Triple-A (AAA).

American Association
w:American Association (20th century)

(US, historical, baseball) Initialism of American Association: an American minor league baseball league from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997.

American Association

Alternative form: A.A.

In the American steel industry, only two labor organizations were of any great significance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These were the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers (The A.A.), and the Knights of Labor. The A.A. was formed in 1876 when the United Sons of Vulcan, composed of iron puddlers and boilers, joined forces with several smaller unions of rolling mill hands and other skilled iron workers.

1985, James Holt, “Trade Unionism in the British and U.S. Steel Industries, 1888-1914: A Comparative Study”, in Daniel J. Leab, editor, The Labor History Reader, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, pages 170–171:

w:Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers

(US, historical) Initialism of Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers.

(US, rail transport) Initialism of Ann Arbor Railroad.

• APO/FPO AE ZIPs 094-098 — Space Available Mail, Nov. 26; Parcel Airlift Mail, Dec. 3; Priority Mail, Dec. 10; First Class Mail Letters and Cards, Dec.10 and Express Mail Military Service, Dec. 18.
• APO/FPO AA ZIP 340 — Space Available Mail, Nov. 26; Parcel Airlift Mail, Dec. 3; Priority Mail, Dec. 10; First Class Mail Letters and Cards, Dec. 10 and Express Mail Military Service, Dec. 18.
• APO/FPO AP ZIPs 962-966 — Space Available Mail, Nov. 26; Parcel Airlift Mail, Dec. 3; Priority Mail, Dec. 10; First Class Mail Letters and Cards, Dec. 10 and Express Mail Military Service, Dec. 18.

2010 October 29, Bill Shrum, “Shipping to soldiers for the holidays”, in Stuttgart (Arkansas) Daily Leader:

(US, military) USPS military code of Armed Forces – Americas.


derecho

/dəˈɹeɪ.t͡ʃoʊ/

Learned borrowing from Spanish derecho (“straight”). First used by Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs in 1888, apparently coined to distinguish the winds from tornadoes, which rotate; compare tornado. Doublet of direct.

lbor

Combining all of the above, the Arkansas Valley, Ouachita Mountains, Interior Plateau, and Southwest Appalachian ecoregions have the greatest risk of wind damage from tornadoes and derechos, whereas weakening hurricanes are an important disturbance, especially in the Piedmont ecoregion.

2015, Chris J. Peterson, Jeffery B. Cannon, Christopher M. Godfrey, “5: First Steps Toward Defining the Wind Disturbance Regime in Central Hardwoods Forests”, in Cathryn H. Greenberg, Beverly S. Collins, editors, Natural Disturbances and Historic Range of Variation, Springer, page 116:

Derechos have winds as powerful as those of some hurricanes and tornadoes. "Derecho" comes from the Spanish word meaning "straight."

2016, Bill Streever, And Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind, Hachette, unnumbered page:

A derecho can be as destructive as a weak to moderate tornado, but the damage is mainly the result of straight-line rather than rotating winds.
However, tornadoes can also form along the bow of a derecho. Derechos can sometimes be recognized as a bank of ominous-looking "shelf" clouds that appear darker than normal clouds.

2022, Alexander Gates, Earth's Fury, Wiley, unnumbered page:

(meteorology, US) A windstorm characterized by strong, straight-line winds.

dereĉo

windstorm with strong straight-line winds


wall

From Middle English wal, from Old English weall (“wall, dike, earthwork, rampart, dam, rocky shore, cliff”), from Proto-West Germanic *wall (“wall, rampart, entrenchment”), from Latin vallum (“wall, rampart, entrenchment, palisade”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”).
Perhaps conflated with waw (“a wall within a house or dwelling, a room partition”), from Middle English wawe, from Old English wāg, wāh (“an interior wall, divider”), see waw.
Cognate with North Frisian wal (“wall”), Saterland Frisian Waal (“wall, rampart, mound”), Dutch wal (“wall, rampart, embankment”), German Wall (“rampart, mound, embankment”), Swedish vall (“mound, wall, bank”). More at wallow, walk.

cog

throw enough mud at the wall and some of it will stick

throw things at the wall and see what sticks

(US, slang, medicine) A doctor who tries to admit as few patients as possible.


wall

Wall, they spoke up, 'n' says to her, s'd they, "Why, look a-here, aunty, Wus't his skin, 't was rock?" so s's she, "I guess not." (Well, they spoke up and says to her, said they, "Why look a-here, aunty, was it his skin that was rock [referring to the Apostle Peter]?" So says she, "I guess not.")

1858, Robert Lowell, The New Priest in Conception Bay:

Wall, be that as it may, ol' Hosshead was a purty good citizen in his day, an' he shore did make Juneybell toe the mark.

1988, Herbert M. Sutherland, Tall Tales of the Devil's Apron, The Overmountain Press, →ISBN, page 97:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling


Mexican

Borrowed from Spanish mexicano, from Nahuatl mēxihcah plural of mēxihcatl (“a Mexica”) + -ano (“-an”). By surface analysis, Mexico + -an.

Fox News issued an apology on Sunday for an on-screen graphic that mistakenly indicated President Donald Trump was reducing aid to "three Mexican countries."

2019, Claire Atkinson, “Fox News apologizes for graphic about '3 Mexican countries'”, in NBC News:

What kind of Mexican are you?

(US, slang, offensive) A person from, or of descent from, any Spanish-speaking country.


meeting

en-noun

meeting (countable and uncountable, plural meetings)

Belizean Creole: meetn

Bislama: miting

Krio: meeting

Pijin: miting

Tok Pisin: miting

Torres Strait Creole: miting

→ Australian Kriol: miding, miting

→ Bulgarian: митинг (miting)

→ Catalan: míting

→ Crimean Tatar: miting

→ Czech: meeting, mítink

→ French: meeting

→ Galician: mitin

→ Italian: meeting

→ Japanese: ミーティング

→ Korean: 미팅 (miting)

→ Latvian: mītiņš, (dated) mītings

→ Lithuanian: mitingas

→ Macedonian: митинг (miting)

→ Ottoman Turkish: میتینغ (miting)

Turkish: miting

→ Persian: میتینگ (miting)

→ Polish: myting

→ Portuguese: meeting

desctree

→ Russian: ми́тинг (míting), ми́тингъ (míting) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
→ Armenian: միտինգ (miting)
→ Azerbaijani: mitinq
→ Georgian: მიტინგი (miṭingi)
→ Kazakh: митинг (mitiñ)
→ Kyrgyz: митинг (miting)
→ Yiddish: מיטינג (miting)

→ Serbo-Croatian: miting / митинг

→ Spanish: meeting, mitin, mitín

→ Tagalog: miting

From Middle English meeting, meting, from Old English mēting, ġemēting (“meeting, assembly, association, society”), equivalent to meet + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian moeting (“meeting, encounter”), Dutch ontmoeting (“meeting, encounter”), Middle Low German mö̂tinge (“meeting”). Compare also German Low German Möte (“meeting, encounter”), Danish møde (“meeting, encounter”), Swedish möte (“meeting, encounter”), Icelandic mót (“meeting”). Related to moot.

cog

You use ta give a good meetin'. I recollect one time you give a whole sermon walkin' around on your hands, yellin' your head off.

1939, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, page 20:

(rustic US, dated) A religious service held by a charismatic preacher in small towns in the United States.


say

From Middle English seyen, seien, seggen, from Old English seċġan (“to say, speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *saggjan, from Proto-Germanic *sagjaną (“to say”), from Proto-Indo-European *sokʷ-h₁-yé-, a suffixed o-grade form of *sekʷ- (“to tell, talk”).
Cognate with West Frisian sizze (“to say”), Low German seggen (“to say”), Dutch zeggen (“to say”), German sagen (“to say”), Danish sige (“to say”), Norwegian Bokmål si (“to say”), Norwegian Nynorsk seia (“to say”), Swedish säga (“to say”), Yiddish זאָגן (zogn, “to say; to tell”).
The adverb and interjection are from the verb.

saie (alternative)
saye (alternative)
seye (alternative)
thay (alternative)
zay (alternative)

Say, what did you think about the movie?

(US, colloquial) Used to gain someone's attention before making an inquiry or suggestion


Asian

From Latin āsiānus. The popular American definition referring to East and Southeast Asians collectively seems to be a shortened form of "Asian American", a term whose origins activists and academics trace back to 1968 and University of California, Berkeley (UCLA) students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee, who, inspired by the Black Power Movement and the protests against the Vietnam War, founded the "Asian American Political Alliance" as a way to unite Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino American students on campus. It replaced the term "Mongoloid", but still continued the racial grouping of "Mongoloid". South Asians are also sometimes called "Asian" in the English settler colonies (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) but rarely (if ever) Near Easterners and Central Asians. The British term exclusively referring to South Asians was due to South Asians forming a majority of immigrants from the continent of Asia in the United Kingdom.

Asiër

person from or descended from people from the Indian sub-continent

One of a supernational region within Asia

One of a transcontinental nation partially within Asia

One of a partially-recognized or unrecognized country or nation within Asia

One of a former country or nation within Asia

A person from the continent of Asia, or a descendant thereof - especially:

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A person from or with ancestry in East or Southeast Asia, occasionally South Asia.

東亞裔 /东亚裔

person from or descended from people from east Asia


um

umm (alternative)
uhm (alternative)
hum (alternative)
erm (alternative)

"About the same, wherever you go," he agreed.
"Um," I said.

1963, Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle, Dell Publishing Co., Inc., page 65:

Um, excuse me!

(US) An expression to forcefully call attention to something wrong.


incorporated

/ɪŋˈkɔːpəɹeɪtɪd/

/ɪŋˈkɔɹpəɹeɪtɪd/

[ɪŋˈkɔɹpəɹeɪɾɪd]

/ɪŋˈkɔɹpɹeɪtɪd/

[ɪŋˈkɔɹpɹeɪɾɪd]

/ɪŋˈkoːpəɹæɪtɪd/

[ɪŋˈkoːpəɹæɪɾɪd]

/ɪŋˈkoːpɹæɪtɪd/

[ɪŋˈkoːpɹæɪɾɪd]

(US) Being a type of company, a legal entity where the ownership has been arranged into shares. A shareholder has no responsibilities to the company and the potential losses of the shareholder are limited to the value of the stock turning to zero in the case of a bankruptcy.

manatōpū

a company or legal entity where ownership is held by shareholders who have no responsibilities to the company and potential losses of shareholders are limited to the value of the stock turning to zero in the case of bankruptcy.


Canada

From French Canada, from the Laurentian kanata (“village, settlement”) (compare Onondaga ganataa), ultimately from Proto-North Iroquoian *-nat-. See also "Name of Canada" on English Wikipedia.

der

Belgium is France's Canada.

2015, Michael DeMocker, The land of waffles, frites, chocolate, meat and, oh yes, culture, Louisiana: The Times-Picayune, page 1:

(US, informal) A country bordering a larger country that shares many similarities with it, but is overshadowed by the more prominent larger.


gas

en-noun

gas (countable and uncountable, plural gases or gasses)

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

(uncountable, Canada, US, New Zealand) Gasoline, a light derivative of petroleum used as fuel.


gas

en-verb

gas (third-person singular simple present gasses or gases, present participle gassing, simple past and past participle gassed)

gasses (present singular third-person)
gases (present singular third-person)
gassing (participle present)
gassed (participle past)
gassed (past)

The cops are coming. Gas it!

(US) To increase the fuel flow to a vehicle's engine in order to accelerate it.

давам газ

give a vehicle more fuel in order to accelerate

Between 0945 and 1020 six definite explosions were reported in the hangar. Explosions at 0945 and 1006 were described as minor while those at 1002, 1003 and 1005 were classed as major explosions and the explosion at 1020 was described as a heavy explosion but less severe than some previous ones. The cause of these explosions was not reported and can only be estimated from the damage sustained by the ship and the known condition of loading. Each of the six torpedo planes spotted in the hangar was armed with one Mark 13, torpex-loaded torpedo and was fully gassed, including auxiliary wing tanks. Explosions in the hangar therefore might have been either detonations of torpedoes or gasoline vapor explosions.

1947 October 30, Bureau of Ships, “SECTION III - DISCUSSION”, in U.S.S. Princeton (CVL23): Loss in Action, Battle for Leyte Gulf, 24 October 1944, United States Hydrographic Office, archived from the original on 2024-06-25, B. Fires and Explosions in Hangar., page 8:

(transitive or reflexive) To die through the inhalation of a gas.

(US) To fill (a vehicle's fuel tank) with fuel.


turkey

en-noun

turkey (plural turkeys or (obsolete) turkies)

turkeys (plural)
turkies (obsolete plural)
turkie (alternative)

Clipping of turkey-cock and turkey-hen (“(originally) the guinea fowl (family Numididae)”), which was imported to Europe by Turkey merchants through Turkey. The word was then applied to the larger northern American bird Meleagris gallopavo which was brought to Spain by conquistadors in 1523. This transfer of the name may have occurred because the two birds were considered similar to each other, or because the North American turkey was in part introduced through Ottoman territories, or simply to indicate that it was foreign.

like turkeys voting for an early Christmas

(countable, Australia, US, slang, dated) A pack carried by a lumberman; a bindle; also, a large travel bag, a suitcase.

That film was a turkey.

And despite the gross incompetence of Hemmings' direction, the ludicrous script, and the heavy-handed acting, there remains a stellar reason to see and enjoy Just a Gigolo: David Bowie. David Bowie is a great actor, and not even this turkey can obscure that fact.

1981 August 8, Rob Schmieder, “Starring Bowie and Berlin”, in Gay Community News, page 11:

There were a few turkeys. In the rush to present a futuristic vision, the railways' heritage was largely forgotten and we ended up with new stations at Euston and at Coventry, its brash sidekick which I particularly loathe, although (of course) it won design awards.

2021 April 7, Christian Wolmar, “Electrification is a given... but comfort matters as well”, in RAIL, number 928, page 46:

The turkey cut in front of me and then berated me for running into him.

(countable, US, slang, usually mildly derogatory) A foolish or inept person.


Vietnam

→ Burmese: ဗီယက်နမ် (biyaknam)

→ Japanese: ベトナム (Betonamu)

/ˌvjɛʔˈnɑːm/

US, rare, perhaps modeled on piece etc, or the South Vietnamese pronunciation

Borrowed from Vietnamese Việt Nam. Extended senses come from the Vietnam War.

Viet-Nam (alternative)
Viet Nam (alternative)

David Rabe's anti-Viet Nam play Streamers

1983 December 31, Michael Bronski, “A Sharply Focused Film”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 16:

(chiefly US, colloquial) The Vietnam War.


Vietnam

Vietnams (plural)
Viet-Nam (alternative)
Viet Nam (alternative)

/ˌvjɛʔˈnɑːm/

Welcome back to Vietnam, California.

1992, “187um (Deep Cover Remix)”, in Deep Cover, performed by Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg:

Vietnam, California, back in and on a mission.

1992, “Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat”, in The Chronic, performed by Dr. Dre, Death Row Records:

(US, slang) A place that is very dangerous, especially if afflicted by violence.

Everyone was miserable, including Coppola. "It was my Vietnam," he moaned a few months later.

1989, Michael Goodwin, Naomi Wise, On the Edge: The Life and Times of Francis Coppola, page 195:

Judy is the great deceiver / Judy is your Viet Nam

2011, “Judy is your Viet Nam”, performed by They Might Be Giants:

(US, slang, by extension) A situation in which one cannot win.


french fries

french fries pl (normally plural, singular french fry)

french fry (singular)
French fries (alternative)

Clipping of earlier French fried potatoes (1856) and French-fried potatoes, potatoes supposedly prepared in the French style.

French fries are our specialty.

“What's the matter?” she asked quickly. “Haven't we had all the things before? Soup, chops, peas, French fries, and the fruit pudding–there wasn't a thing new.”

1903, Lillian Pettengill, Toilers of the Home, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 292:

His first official act was to order dinner. “A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king.

1922, Robert C. Benchley, chapter XXII, in Love Conquers All, Henry Holt & Company, page 111:

(chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) Strips of deep-fried potatoes that have been frenched (cut into strips).

nímasii ádaałtsʼóózígo niheeshgizhgo akʼah bee shibézhígíí


Spanish

From Middle English Spainish, Spanish, equivalent to Spain + -ish.

(US, Canada, informal, nonstandard) Of or pertaining to Hispanic people or their culture.


Spanish

Spanish (countable and uncountable, plural Spanish or Spanishes)

Sixty-four percent more Spanish are functionally illiterate compared to Anglos in Lubbock (only 15 percent more of nonwhites than Anglos).

1970, Henry Sioux Johnson, William J. Hernández-Martinez, Educating the Mexican American, page 87:

(US, informal, nonstandard, collective in the plural) People of Hispanic origin; one whose first language is Spanish.


LOL

LOLs (plural)
lol (alternative)
lawl (alternative)
lel (alternative)
lul (alternative)
lols (alternative)
LOLS (alternative)
lolsies (alternative)
LOLsies (alternative)
lolzies (alternative)
lulz (alternative)

Acronyms. Laugh Out Loud abbreviation apparently coined by Canadian Wayne Pearson in the early-to-mid 1980s and first attested in 1989.

coinage

(US, Commonwealth, Ireland) Loyal Orange Lodge, a prefix given to all branches of the Loyal Orange Order. For example, LOL 1 is Portadown branch.


Greek

en-adj

Greek (comparative Greeker, superlative Greekest)

Greeker (comparative)
Greekest (superlative)
Gr. (alternative)
Greeke (alternative)

Inherited from Old English Grēcas (“Greeks”), variant of Crēcas, from Proto-West Germanic *Krēkō, from Latin Graecus of uncertain origin, perhaps derived from the toponym Γραῖα (Graîa) or from other Paleo-Balkanic forms from a tribal name Graii.
Greek in any case has the cognate Γραικός (Graikós), the mythological ancestor of the Γραίοι (Graíoi, “Graecians”). Germanic cognates include Dutch Griek, German Grieche. The ⟨g⟩ in English and Germanic cognates was restored under influence from French grec and classical Latin Graecus. The adjective dates to 14th-century Middle English, replacing Old English Grēċisċ (“Greekish”) and earlier Middle English Gregeis. In reference to fraternities and sororities, a clipping of earlier Greek-letter in reference to their usual names being initialisms of mottos in the Greek language. In reference to terms used to analysize financial derivatives, from their usual names consisting of Greek letters.

inh+

“Every single person is going to have a different experience watching this film,” she said when I asked about possibly labeling the Greek system as “toxic”.

2023 May 24, Adrian Horton, “‘Competitive femininity’: inside the wild and secretive world of sororities”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(US, not comparable) Of or relating to collegiate fraternities, sororities, and/or (uncommon) honor societies.


Greek

en-noun

Greek (countable and uncountable, plural Greeks)

Greeks (plural)
Gr. (alternative)
Greeke (alternative)

Was Joe a Greek in college?

(countable, US, colloquial) A member of a collegiate fraternity or sorority.


burp

Originally from American English, of imitative origin.

onom

imitative

Lennon let out a burp after downing the beer.

Sylvanshine would burp and it would seem like more than a burp; it would taste like he'd almost thrown up a little.

2011, David Foster Wallace, The Pale King, page 9:

When they approached, he turned from them and made swallowing noises indispersed with burps.

2016, Thomas Corfield, The World Is Badly Made:


fuddy-duddy

fuddy-duddies (plural)
fuddyduddy (alternative)

My grandma is a fuddy-duddy when it comes to keeping her house clean.

(US, informal) An old-fashioned, persnickety or ineffective person.


fuddy-duddy

en-adj

fuddy-duddy (comparative fuddy-duddier, superlative fuddy-duddiest)

fuddy-duddier (comparative)
fuddy-duddiest (superlative)
fuddyduddy (alternative)

Kingsolver lives by the tenets of her public-spirited fictional characters, whom she sculpts with a keen eye for individuality, e.g. Nannie Land Rawley, a seventy-something orchardist who shocks a fuddy-duddy male neighbor by wearing shorts, […]

2015, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Barbara Kingsolver: A Literary Companion, McFarland, →ISBN, page 4:

(US, informal) Old-fashioned and persnickety or ineffective.


ace

→ Japanese: エース (ēsu)

→ Korean: 에이스 (eiseu)

→ Russian: эйс (ejs)

→ Swedish: ess

(?) → Finnish: ässä

Inherited from Middle English as, from Old French as, from Latin as, assis (“unity, copper coin, the unit of coinage”). Doublet of as. Likely related or deriving ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs, or otherwise taking from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp, pointed”) in the sense of "singular".

der

[…] maybe two or three twenties, a dozen tens, and twenty or thirty fins. The rest is all aces and silver.

1990, David F. Friedman, Don DeNevi, A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-film King, page 136:

If they got too many aces (dollar bills) or fives or tens, they turned them in to the vault where they became part of the reserve.

1996, Arthur M. Smith, Robert Thomas King, Let's Get Going, page 65:

(US, baseball) The best pitcher on the team.

(US, baseball, dated, 19th century) A run.

"Most of the aces weren't on holes I would have liked to have made them on," confessed Colk, who dropped his fifth dodo of 1935 on December 29, which was believed at the time to be a record for most aces in a year.

2012, Arv Olson, Backspin: 120 Years of Golf in British Columbia, page 253:


ace

en-verb

ace (third-person singular simple present aces, present participle acing, simple past and past participle aced)

aces (present singular third-person)
acing (participle present)
aced (participle past)
aced (past)

(transitive, US, informal) To pass (a test, interviews etc.) perfectly.

(ambitransitive, US, informal) To defeat (others) in a contest; to outdo (others) in a competition.


NAIA

w:National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

(US) Initialism of National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

National Animal Interest Alliance
w:National Animal Interest Alliance

(US) Initialism of National Animal Interest Alliance.


inc

(chiefly Canada, US) Alternative spelling of Inc


storm

→ Esperanto: ŝtormo

→ Irish: stoirm

→ Scottish Gaelic: stoirm

From Middle English storm (“disturbed state of the atmosphere; heavy precipitation; battle, conflict; attack”) [and other forms], from Old English storm (“tempest, storm; attack; storm of arrows; disquiet, disturbance, tumult, uproar; onrush, rush”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *sturm (“storm”), from Proto-Germanic *sturmaz (“storm”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH- (“to agitate, stir up; to propel; to urge on”). Related to stir.
Cognates
* Danish storm (“storm”)
* Dutch storm (“storm”)
* German Sturm (“storm”)
* Icelandic stormur (“storm”)
* Low German storm (“storm”)
* Norwegian Bokmål storm (“storm”)
* Norwegian Nynorsk storm (“storm”)
* Scots storm (“storm”)
* Swedish storm (“storm”)
* West Frisian stoarm (“storm”)

nb...

starme, steorm, storem, storme, stourme, strom

storm

Any disturbed state of the atmosphere causing destructive or unpleasant weather, especially one affecting the earth's surface involving strong winds (leading to high waves at sea) and usually lightning, thunder, and precipitation; a tempest.

(by extension, Canada, Scotland, US, dated) A period of frosty and/or snowy weather.

(Canada, US, chiefly in the plural) Ellipsis of storm window (“a second window (originally detachable) attached on the exterior side of a window in climates with harsh winters, to add an insulating layer of still air between the outside and inside”).


storm

en-verb

storm (third-person singular simple present storms, present participle storming, simple past and past participle stormed)

storms (present singular third-person)
storming (participle present)
stormed (participle past)
stormed (past)
storm (infinitive)

The verb is derived from Middle English stormen (“of the wind: to blow violently; to cause to roll or toss”), from storm (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs).
Compare Middle English sturmen (“to attack (someone) with great force”), from Old English styrman (“to rage, storm; to make a great noise, cry aloud, shout, storm”), from Proto-West Germanic *sturmijan (“to storm”), from Proto-Germanic *sturmijaną (“to storm”), from *sturmaz (“a storm”) (see etymology 1) + *-janą (suffix forming causatives from strong verbs, with a sense of ‘to cause to do [the action of the verb]’). The Middle English word did not survive into modern English.
The noun is derived from verb sense 2.3 (“to violently assault (a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.) with the aim of gaining control of it”).
Cognates
* Dutch stormen (“to bluster, storm”)
* German stürmen (“to rage, storm; to assault, attack”)
* Icelandic storma (“to storm”)
* Low German stormen (“to storm”)
* Swedish storma (“to bluster, storm”)

щурмува́м

It stormed throughout the night.

Throughout the night it stormed violently—rain, hail, snow, and sleet beating upon the vessel—the wind continuing ahead, and the sea running high.

1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter V, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 34:

We all like to see people seasick when we are not, ourselves. Playing whist by the cabin lamps when it is storming outside, is pleasant; walking the quarter-deck in the moonlight, is pleasant; […] but these are all feeble and commonplace compared with the joy of seeing people suffering the miseries of seasickness.

1869, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter III, in The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company. […], →OCLC, page 35:

(impersonal, chiefly US) Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have strong winds and usually lightning and thunder, and/or hail, rain, or snow.


money

en-adj

money (comparative more money, superlative most money)

more money (comparative)
most money (superlative)
monie (alternative)
mony (alternative)

From Middle English moneye, moneie, money, borrowed from Anglo-Norman muneie (“money”), from Latin monēta (“money, a place for coining money, coin, mint”), from the name of the temple of Juno Moneta in Rome, where a mint was.
In this sense, displaced native Old English feoh, whence English fee. Doublet of mint, ultimately from the same Latin word but through Germanic and Old English, and of manat, through Russian and Azeri or Turkmen.

der

But Schilling was great again today. As my younger son would no doubt say, he's so money he doesn't know he's money. Two more like him and never mind the World Series; the Red Sox would be ready for the Super Bowl.

2011, Stewart O'Nan, Stephen King, Faithful:


cow

en-noun

cow (countable and uncountable, plural cows or cattle or (archaic or dialectal) kine)

cows (plural)
cattle (plural)
kine (archaic dialectal plural)

bull

antonym(s) of “female domesticated ox or other bovine”

Sranan Tongo: kaw

Tok Pisin: kau

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">cows</i>

→ Abenaki: kaoz (from cows)

→ Maori: kau

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws
Proto-Germanic *kōz
Proto-West Germanic *kō
Old English cū
Middle English cou
English cow
Inherited from Middle English cou, cu, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Cognate with Sanskrit गौ (gow), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina, “beef”), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian ku (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef.
The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cȳna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).

etymon

the cow knows not the worth of its tail till it loses it

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

Colonel Red Reeder, West Point Second Classman
An assistant manager, wearing the stripes of a cadet corporal, walked up to Coach Smith. Clint knew him, a Cow from B-l. What had he done to become so outstanding that the Tacs made him a corporal?

When I was a cow (junior) at West Point, I dated a plebe (freshman), which is considered fraternization in the cadet realm.

2023, James E Parco, David A Levy, Daphne DePorres, Attitudes Aren't Free: A Call to Action, page 242:

(US, military, slang) A third-year cadet at West Point.


Guinea

→ Japanese: ギニア (Ginia)

Borrowed from Portuguese Guiné, which is of uncertain origin.

(derogatory US slang, ethnic slur) Someone of Italian descent in the United States.


Samoa

Borrowed from Samoan Sāmoa. See there for more.

(US) A kind of cookie with coconut flavoring, often sold by Girl Scouts.


scrimmage

/ˈskɹɪmɪd͡ʒ/

/ˈskɹɪməd͡ʒ/

Merchandise sales surged. The spring scrimmage, usually a yawn of an afterthought at Colorado, was packed.

2024 October 4, John Branch, “What Does College Football Have to Do With College?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(US, athletics, soccer) In some team sports, especially soccer, a practice game which does not count on a team's record.


stand

→ Catalan: estand

→ Danish: stand (semantic loan)

→ Dutch: stand

desctree

→ French: stand
→ Khmer: ស្តង់ (stɑng)
→ Romanian: stand

→ Italian: stand

→ Japanese: スタンド (sutando)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: stand

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: stand

→ Portuguese: estande, stand

→ Russian: стенд (stend)
→ Armenian: ստենդ (stend), սթենդ (stʻend)

→ Southern Ndebele: isitandi

→ Spanish: estand, stand

→ Swahili: stendi

From Middle English standen, stonden (verb) and stand, stond (noun, from the verb), from Old English standan (“to stand, occupy a place”), from Proto-West Germanic *standan, from Proto-Germanic *standaną (“to stand”), from Pre-Germanic *sth₂-n-t-´, an innovative extended n-infixed form of Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots stand (“to stand”), Saterland Frisian stounde (“to stand”), West Frisian stean (“to stand”), dialectal German standen (“to stand”), Danish stande (“to stand”), Swedish stånda (“to stand”), Norwegian standa (“to stand”), Faroese standa (“to stand”), Icelandic standa (“to stand”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (standan), Russian стоя́ть (stojátʹ, “to stand”). Also from *steh₂-: Irish seas, Latin stare, Lithuanian stóti, Old Church Slavonic стояти (stojati), Albanian shtoj (“to increase”), Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to put”), Avestan 𐬵𐬌𐬱𐬙𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (hištaⁱti), Sanskrit तिष्ठति (tiṣṭhati). From the related Proto-Germanic *stāną (“to stand”): West Frisian stean, Dutch staan, German stehen, Danish stå.

cog

a good, bad, or convenient stand for business

(US, dated) The situation of a shop, store, hotel, etc.

(US, historical) Short for tavern stand (“a roadside inn”).