torch

The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin *torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
Sense 2.3 (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun sense 1). Sense 3.2 (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (lămpắdă părădidónai, “to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another.
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

sueo'

stick of wood, etc., with one end soaked in a flammable substance and set on fire; similarly shaped implement with a replaceable supply of flammable material

(chiefly Canada, US) Short for blowtorch (“a tool which projects a controlled stream of a highly flammable gas over a spark in order to produce a controlled flame”).

blowtorch

Some years ago, another Houston torch attached a kitchen match to the bell striker on an ordinary telephone so that it would vibrate when the phone rang. He placed a piece of sandpaper close enough to the match so that when the bell rang, the match rubbed the surface of the sandpaper and started a fire. The torch, after setting up the device, drove to a town many miles from his home and then dialed his home number, successfully starting a fire in his own home.

1978 September 13, Leonard Mikeska, witness, “Testimony of Leonard Mikeska, Chief Arson Investigator, Houston Fire Department, Houston, Tex.”, in Arson-for-hire: Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, Second Session […], Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 172:

Upon the advice of the prosecutor, who was already at the arson unit's office, the torches were not arrested, but "detained" and offered the opportunity to cooperate with the investigators in their efforts to implicate the landlord. […] As one torch had had most contact with their employer, investigators decided that he should make a call to the landlord on a tapped telephone and try and discuss the planned fire with him. The landlord was reluctant to say anything over the phone and suggested that he and the torch should meet.

1984 March, Herbert F. Weisberg, Judith D. Feins, Jan Schreiber, “The Investigative Process: Getting Cases to Prosecution”, in Arson Investigation and Prosecution: A Study of Four Major American Cities (National Institute of Justice Research Report), Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, →OCLC, page 137:

A registered confidential informant may provide information, either that a particular building has been targeted to burn or that an identified "torch" has been contracted to burn some unknown building. In the first instance, fixed surveillance at the building should be started immediately to try to catch the torch before the act.

1997, David R. Redsicker, John J. O’Connor, “Surveillance”, in Practical Fire and Arson Investigation, 2nd edition, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 358:


torch

en-verb

torch (third-person singular simple present torches, present participle torching, simple past and past participle torched)

torches (present singular third-person)
torching (participle present)
torched (participle past)
torched (past)

cog

λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

Some hoodlums had torched a derelict automobile, which emitted a ghastly pall of thick, black smoke that filled the street.

(originally and chiefly US, slang) To set fire to (something), especially by use of a torch; specifically, to intentionally destroy (something) by setting on fire to try and claim compensation on a fire insurance.

polttaa tahallaan

(US, fishing) To catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight; to go torch-fishing.

kalastaa soihdunvalossa

to catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight


apartment

apartments (plural)
APT (alternative)
apt. (alternative)

→ Japanese: アパートメント (apātomento), アパート (apāto)

→ Hokkien: a-phá-tò

→ Korean: 아파트 (apateu)

→ Malay: اڤرتمن (apartmen)

desc

→ Thai: อพาร์ทเมนท์ (à-páat-mén)

→ Thai: อพาร์ทเมนท์ (à-páat-mén)

From French appartement, from Italian appartamento, from Spanish apartamiento (“separation, seclusion”). See apart.

der

apartment dwellers

I am Jonathan. I am in apartment B4. — I am in apartment C2.
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

(chiefly Canada, US, Australia, Philippines) A complete domicile occupying only part of a building, especially one for rent; a flat.

雅柏文

ngaa⁵ paak³ man⁴, aa⁶ paat¹ man⁴, aa⁶ paat¹ man⁴⁻²

condominium

domicile occupying part of a building; compare with


fraternity

en-noun

fraternity (countable and uncountable, plural fraternities)

PIE word
 *bʰréh₂tēr
From Middle English fraternite, borrowed from Old French fraternité, from Latin frāternitās, ultimately from frāter (“brother”).

(US, Philippines) A social organization of male students at a college or university; usually identified by Greek letters.


suicide

suicide (countable and uncountable, plural suicides)

First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in sense 1, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium, from suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (“act of killing or murder”), but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin. Displaced native Middle English seolf-cwale from Old English selfcwalu (literally “self-slaughter”), after which suicide may have been modelled, or calqued (compare manuscript). Sense 3 is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suīcīda; see the Etymology section at suīcīdium.

өзін өзі өлтірушілік

özın özı öltıruşılık

өзүн өзү өлтүрүү

özün özü öltürüü

You could sit at a corner and order your Suicide, and one of two twin brothers who worked there would hold an old-fashioned soda glass, a heavy tall V-shaped one with a round foot at the bottom, and go down the line with one shot of everything—cherry, lemon, Coke, and chocolate syrups—before adding soda water.

1994, Christopher Buckley, Cruising State: Growing Up in Southern California, University of Nevada Press, →ISBN, page 34:

Using Coca-Cola as a base, a suicide called for the addition of every other flavor available.

2000, Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country and Coca-Cola, Basic Books, →ISBN, page 15:

(countable, US, slang) A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.


hobbit

en-noun

hobbit (plural hobbits or (humorous) hobbitses)

hobbits (plural)
hobbitses (humorous plural)

Denham Tracts
Hobbit (word)
J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
hobbit

Coined in its current sense by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, featured in the novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jocularly etymologized by him as from a hypothetical Old English *holbytla (literally “hole-builder”), from hol (“hole”) + bytlan (“to build”) + -a (“-er”). Tolkien was possibly influenced by similar terms for house-sprites (probably from Hob, a hypocoristic form of Robert), or an isolated mention of hobbits (with hobgoblins following immediately afterwards) in a list of sprites and bogies from the 19th-century Denham Tracts.

pseudo-loan

(US, slang, uncommon) A socially unappealing, overly academic student.


plenty

→ Norwegian Bokmål: plenty

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: plenty

From Middle English plentie, plentee, plente, from Anglo-Norman plenté, from Old French plenté, from Latin plenitatem, accusative of plenitas (“fullness”), from plenus (“complete, full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”), from which English full also comes, via Proto-Germanic. Related to the Latin derivatives complete, deplete, replete.

This office is plenty big enough for our needs.

For the likes of her, the down-at-heels support of Hoboken pier was plenty good enough.

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1:

She was plenty mad at him.

Seeing clichés mimicked this skillfully is plenty hilarious.

2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07:

(Canada, US, colloquial) Used as an intensifier, very.


snot

en-noun

snot (countable and uncountable, plural snots)

From Middle English snot, snotte, from Old English ġesnot, *snott, from Proto-West Germanic *snott, *snutt, from Proto-Germanic *snuttuz (“nasal mucus”), from the same base as snout. Related also to snite.
Cognate with North Frisian snot (“snot”), Saterland Frisian Snotte (“snot”), West Frisian snotte (“snot”), Dutch snot (“snot”), German Low German Snött (“snot”), dialectal German Schnutz (“snot”), Danish snot (“snot”), Norwegian snott (“snot”).

Working the snot out of shoulders at full flexion and extension end ranges with isometrics can not only be the hidden key to creating more available range of motion for immobile, injury-prone shoulders, but also to help develop dormant muscle groups like the rear delts, which otherwise get little to no play in exercises intended for them.

2019 December 6, Lee Boyce, “4 Reasons You’ve Got No Rear Delts”, in T-Nation:

(US ?, figurative, informal) A blemish or encumbrance that one exercises out of something.


drain

drains (plural)
drein (alternative)
dreen (alternative)

→ French: drain

→ Irish: draein

→ Welsh: draen

From Middle English dreinen, from Old English drēahnian (“to drain, strain, filter”), from Proto-Germanic *drauhnōną (“to strain, sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, parched”). Akin to Old English drūgian (“to dry up”), Old English drūgaþ (“dryness, drought”), Old English drȳġe (“dry”). More at dry.

der

The drain in the kitchen sink is clogged.

An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex. The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain, as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.

2013 March 25, Frank Fish, George Lauder, “Not Just Going with the Flow”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 114:

(chiefly US, Canada) A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume; a plughole (UK)


drop

From Late Middle English droppe, Middle English drope (“small quantity of liquid; small or least amount of something; pendant jewel; dripping of a liquid; a shower; nasal flow, catarrh; speck, spot; blemish; disease causing spots on the skin”) [and other forms], from Old English dropa (“a drop”), from Proto-West Germanic *dropō (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Germanic *drupô (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to crumble, grind”).

nb...

dropan, droupe, (Northern England) droipe

afval

small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own round shape through surface tension

piisk

very small quantity of liquid, or of anything

piisk

that which hangs or resembles a liquid globule

pudotettu esine

(online gaming, video games) item dropped by a defeated enemy

langemine

decline in degree, quality, quantity, or rate

afgrond

distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level

An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).

(US, banking, dated) An unsolicited credit card issue.


drop

en-verb

drop (third-person singular simple present drops, present participle dropping, simple past and past participle dropped or (archaic) dropt)

drops (present singular third-person)
dropping (participle present)
dropped (participle past)
dropped (past)
dropt (archaic participle past)
dropt (archaic past)

From Middle English droppen, dropen (“to fall in drops, drip or trickle down; to scatter, sprinkle; to be covered with a liquid; to give off moisture; of an object: to drop, fall; of a living being: to fall to the ground”) [and other forms], from Old English dropian, droppian (“to drop”), from dropa (“a drop”) (see further at etymology 1) + -ian (suffix forming verbs from adjectives and nouns).

спадам

to decrease, diminish, or lessen in condition, degree, value, etc.

laskea

to move to a lower position; to allow to hang downwards — see also lower

laskea

to lower (a sound, a voice, etc.) in pitch or volume

(originally US) To (unexpectedly) lose (a competition, game, etc.).

kokea yllätystappio

to (unexpectedly) lose (a competition, game, etc.)


calculate

calculate (third-person singular simple present calculates, present participle calculating, simple past and past participle calculated)

calculates (present singular third-person)
calculating (participle present)
calculated (participle past)
calculated (past)
calculate (infinitive)

Borrowed from Latin calculātus, perfect passive participle of calculō (“I reckon, originally by means of pebbles”), from calculus (“a pebble”). Refer to calculus for origin.

I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal’lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

(intransitive, US, dialect) To plan; to expect; to think.


AAC

Army Air Corps
w:Army Air Corps (United Kingdom)

(British English, US) Initialism of Army Air Corps.; Army Air Corps


RF

Combination of prefix F and prefix modifier R

(US, military, aviation) reconnaissance fighter; an unarmed fighter modified for photo-reconnaissance (prefix)


tonne

From French tonne. Doublet of ton and tun.

Although loads of up to 900 tonnes could be handled by one of these locomotives, in practice the load is limited to 790 tonnes by drawgear.

1961 February, “Letters to the Editor: Swiss railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 126:

The metric ton or 'tonne' is accepted as a synonym for the megagramme, and this form Is to be preferred on the grounds of brevity and familiarity in the industry. It may be as well to use the pronunciation 'tunnie' until the risk of confusion with the old ton has passed.

1971, Transactions of the Royal Institute of Naval Arcihtects, volume 113, page 215:

The British Steel Corporation, going metric but realising the possible confusion between a ton and a tonne (1,000 kilograms) has directed its staff to pronounce ‘tonne’ ‘tunnie’.

The tonne rhymes with con (perhaps not in North America!) to distinguish it from the non-SI unit of weight, the ton rhyming with bun.

2002, Richard Chapman, Physics for Geologists, CRC Press, published 2002, →ISBN, page 138:

(outside US) A unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms.


metric ton

One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn. Fifty such kilns would devour six thousand metric tons of trees and brush annually.

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:

Scientists and engineers are developing big machines to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, but the technology sucks up a lot of energy and money as well — as much as $1,000 per metric ton of captured CO₂. A team led by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, has created a yellow powder that might boost this field by absorbing CO₂ much more efficiently.

2025, “Advances: Environment. Carbon Scrubber. An exotic powder pulls CO₂ from the air at record speed”, in Scientific American, volume 332, number 2 (February), page 14:

(chiefly US) A unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms, about 2204.6 pounds avoirdupois.


Based on the telephone number used in North America to obtain telephone numbers of listed subscribers.

(Canada, US, telephony) The telephonic information service.


appeal

appeal (third-person singular simple present appeals, present participle appealing, simple past and past participle appealed)

appeals (present singular third-person)
appealing (participle present)
appealed (participle past)
appealed (past)

From Middle English apelen, appelen (“to accuse; to make a formal charge before a court, etc., impeach; to challenge to trial by combat; to apply to a higher court or authority for review of a decision; to call upon for a decision, favour, help, etc.; to call by a name”) [and other forms], from Old French apeler (“to call; to call out”); see further at etymology 1.

nb...

apeal, apeale, apeele, apele, appel, appele

اِسْتَأْنَفَ

(intransitive) to apply to a superior court or judge for a decision or order by an inferior court or judge to be reviewed and overturned

apelovat

to call upon a person or an authority to corroborate a statement, to decide a controverted question, or to vindicate one’s rights — see also entreat, invoke

appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober

The plaintiff appealed the decision to the appellate court.

The supreme court of Victoria has upheld a decision the transfer of juvenile detainees to an adult maximum security prison, where some of them spent Christmas Day, was unlawful. The [Daniel] Andrews government had appealed the original decision, which was handed down last week.

2016 December 28, Calla Wahlquist, “Supreme court upholds ruling that children are being held at adult prison unlawfully”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-01-26:

(transitive, originally US) To apply to a superior court or judge to review and overturn (a decision or order by an inferior court or judge).

megfellebbez

(transitive) to apply to a superior court or judge to review and overturn (a decision or order by an inferior court or judge)


asshole

assholes (plural)
arsehole (alternative)
asswhole (alternative)
basshole (alternative)

Variant of earlier arsehole, from Middle English arshole, arcehoole, equivalent to ass + hole. Cognate with Norwegian rasshøl (“asshole”), Swedish arsle (“asshole”). Compare also German Arschloch (“asshole”). Attested from the 1370s, replacing earlier Old English earsþyrel (“anus”, literally “ass hole”).
First recorded in Middle English, as ers hole (Glouc. Cath. Manuscript 19. No. I., dated 1379, cited after OED), ars-hole (Bodleian Ashmole MS. 1396, dated ca. 1400, ed. Robert Von Fleischhacker as Lanfrank's "Science of Cirurgie", EETS 102, 1894, cited after OED.) Slang figurative usage dates to the 20th century; it was used of an uninviting place (compare shithole) in the 1920s, and then of an anti-social or despicable person from at least the 1950s (Harvard Advocate 137, March 1954). It is also used appositionally (as in "You're an asshole moralist", T. Chamales, 1957).

cog

My former landlord was a world-class asshole. Fortunately my current landlord is an actual human being.

He philosophised all day about Morandi, Klee, Miró and Picasso, and was such an asshole that he spelled "cunt" with a "d".

1965, Jan Cremer, translated by R. E. Wyngaard and Alexander Trocchi, I, Jan Cremer, →OCLC, page 78:

They are the assholes for thinking they and their little crotch-spawn were special and exempt from the event guidelines.

2018 December 22, Ellen Scott, “Is this bride in the wrong for kicking a crying kid out of her wedding?”, in Metro:

(vulgar, derogatory or offensive, synecdochically) A jerk; an inappropriately or objectionably mean, inconsiderate, contemptible, obnoxious, intrusive, stupid, or rude person.


exchange

en-noun

exchange (countable and uncountable, plural exchanges)

From Middle English eschaunge, borrowed from Anglo-Norman eschaunge, from Old French eschange (whence modern French échange), from the verb eschanger, from Vulgar Latin *excambiāre (from Latin ex with Late Latin cambiō). Spelling later changed on the basis of ex- in English. By surface analysis, ex- + change.

The 555 exchange is reserved for use by the phone company, which is why it's often used in films.

NPA-NXX-1234 is standard format, where NPA is the area code and NXX is the exchange.

(telephony, US) The fourth through sixth digits of a ten-digit phone number (the first three before the introduction of area codes).


centurion

Borrowed from Latin centuriō, centuriōnis, from centum (“a hundred”).

(US) A pilot in the United States Navy who has performed 100 night landings on an aircraft carrier.


commodore

→ Italian: commodoro

→ Portuguese: comodoro

→ Spanish: comodoro

Borrowed from Dutch kommandeur, from Middle French commandeur. See command, compare commend (a doublet), and mandate.

rear admiral (lower half)
rear admiral (lower half)

(US, military, nautical) A rear admiral (lower half).


lieutenant

lieutenants (plural)
leftenant (alternative)
leftenaunt (alternative)
lieftenant (alternative)
lieftenaunt (alternative)
lieutenaunt (alternative)

→ Irish: leifteanant

→ Malay: leftenan

→ Swahili: luteni

From Middle English lieutenant, lieftenaunt, from Anglo-Norman lieutenant, lyutenaunt, leu tenant, leu tenaunt (“deputy, lieutenant”), from Old French lieu (“place”) + tenant (“holder”). Doublet of locum tenens.

commissioned officer
commissioned officer

(military) The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines.

(military, US) In the US Army, Air Force and Marines, holding the rank above second lieutenant and below captain. Both ranks may be referred to as "lieutenant" or as the complete forms of the ranks.

lieutenant commander
lieutenant commander

lieutenant junior grade
lieutenant junior grade

(military, US, navy) A naval officer whose rank is above that of ensign in the United States Navy and below that of a lieutenant commander. There are two ranks of lieutenant: lieutenant junior grade and lieutenant.

(military, US) A commissioned officer in the United States Coast Guard, Public Health Service, or National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration whose rank is above that of ensign and below lieutenant commander. There are two ranks of lieutenant: lieutenant junior grade and lieutenant.

пору́чик

in imperial Russian army (1730–1917), armies of White movement, and in armies of other Slavic nations

по́ру́чник

in certain Slavic armies—a non-dictionary form in limited use instead of поручик to more precisely reproduce local terminology


massa

"All well, Massa Challenger, all well!" he cried. "Me stay here. No fear. You always find me when you want." His honest black face, and the immense view before us, which carried us half-way back to the affluent of the Amazon, helped us to remember that we really were upon this earth in the twentieth century, and had not by some magic been conveyed to some raw planet in its earliest and wildest state.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(US, historical, colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of master, representing African-American Vernacular English.


gum

gum (countable and uncountable, plural gums)

From Middle English gomme, gumme, borrowed from Anglo-Norman gome, from Late Latin gumma, from Latin cummi, gummi, from Ancient Greek κόμμι (kómmi), from Egyptian qmy (“anointing oil”), qmyt (“acanthus resin, gum”). Cognate with Spanish goma (“rubber”). Doublet of gumma.

صَمْغ

sticky substance exuded by certain plants

խեժ

sticky substance resembling that exuded by certain plants

(US, dialect, Southern US) A hive made of a section of a hollow gum tree; hence, any roughly made hive.

(US, dialect, Southern US) A vessel or bin made from a hollow log.


Uniform Code of Military Justice

(US, military) The code of military law written for the use of the United States Armed Forces.


median

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

Borrowed from Middle French median, from Latin mediānus (“of or pertaining to the middle”, adjective), from medius (“middle”) (see medium), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”). Doublet of mean and mizzen. Cognate with Old English midde, middel (“middle”). More at middle.

der

Seen from street level, the median was clean most days. From the third floor you peered over the benches and trees and saw the trash crowding the subway ventilation grates and paving stones.

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 134:

(US) The area separating two lanes of opposite-direction traffic; the median strip.


shilling

Sranan Tongo: sren

From Middle English schilling, shilling, from Old English sċilling, from Proto-Germanic *skillingaz, equivalent to skill + -ing. Doublet of scalding and schilling.

look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence

(US, historical) A currency in the United States, differing in value between states.

(US, historical, New York and some other states) The Spanish real, formerly having the value of one eighth of a dollar.


pendant

pendants (plural)
pendaunt (alternative)

From Anglo-Norman pendaunt, Middle French pendant, noun use of adjective.

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

(US) The stem and ring of a watch, by which it is suspended.


bush league

(chiefly US, idiomatic) A professional sports association at the lower levels of minor league organization.


typewriter

The battle had opened in earnest. From the wooded ridge came in reply the clacking of "typewriters,” and bullets whined over our heads.

1973, Edgar B. Jackson, Fall Out to the Right of the Road!, page 321:

It was like sinking to sleep in a soft, dry bed with a big drink of brandy in you after you're dog-tired from a tour of duty on the firing-step, or slipping into a warm bath when you're lousy-dirty and chilled to the bone from crawling through mud and filth and dodging flares and 'typewriter' bullets half the night.

1996, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Virtuous vampires, page 250:

Why, any day I'd go up against a typewriter, with a forty-five. One shot I'd need and there'd be time for three while he was getting that damn' thing swung around and pointed —

2001, Fredric Brown, Ben Yalow, From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown, page 234:

Fortunately we were on the edge of a shallow shell hole when the sentry caught our movements and Fritz cut loose with the "typewriters."

2005, R. Derby Holmes, A Yankee in the Trenches, page 60:

(US, dated, slang) A machine gun or submachine gun (from the noise it makes when firing).


over

From Middle English over, from Old English ofer, from Proto-West Germanic *obar, from Proto-Germanic *uber (“over”), from Proto-Indo-European *upér, a comparative form of *upo.
Akin to Dutch over, German ober, über, Danish over, Norwegian over, Swedish över, Icelandic yfir, Faroese yvir, Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌰𐍂 (ufar), Latin super, Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér), Albanian upri (“group of peasants”), Sanskrit उपरि (upári).
Doublet of uber, super, and hyper.

all over the place like a mad woman's custard

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

I lost my paper and I had to do the entire assignment over.

(US, usually with do) Again; another time; once more; over again.


fuckin' A

The first attestation in print is from 1947, in Norman Mailer’s World War II novel The Naked and the Dead, wherein Mailer wrote "’You’re fuggin ay,’ Gallegher snorted.”, but the origin of the term certainly predates said usage; it is probable that Mailer was familiar with an extant phrase. The origin is thought to be a clipped form of fucking affirmative, a US Army phrase from the early twentieth century.


antebellum

From the Latin ante bellum (literally “before the war”).

bor

Slavery was an accepted part of antebellum plantation life.

There was no single characteristic house style during the antebellum period, but the elegant plantation homes built in the American South, with their central entrances, balconies, columns, and formal ballrooms, came closest to representing a discrete architectural style for the period.

2004, James M. Volo, Dorothy Denneen Volo, The Antebellum Period, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 115:

(US) Of the period prior to the American Civil War, especially in reference to the culture of the southern states.


root around

en-verb

root around (third-person singular simple present roots around, present participle rooting around, simple past and past participle rooted around)

roots around (present singular third-person)
rooting around (participle present)
rooted around (participle past)
rooted around (past)

(idiomatic, chiefly US) Alternative form of root about


venti

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

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From the Italian venti (“twenty [ounces]”).

(chiefly US, of a cup of coffee) Larger than grande, usually 20 ounces (~ 0.6 l).


venti

"They always order ventis," a cashier said brightly, "and are great tippers."

2002 July 14, Judith Matloff, “Whose Neighborhood?”, in The New York Times, page 3:

(chiefly US) A cup of coffee larger than grande, usually 20 ounces.


soup

en-noun

soup (countable and uncountable, plural soups)

→ Tamil: சூப் (cūp)

→ Thai: ซุป (súp)

Wikiquote
The noun is from Middle English soupe, sowpe, from Old French soupe, souppe, sope, from Late Latin suppa (“sopped bread”), from Proto-Germanic *supô (compare Middle Dutch sope (“broth”)). Doublet of sop and zuppa. See also sup and supper.
The verb is from the noun.

(figuratively) Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.

(US, slang) Nitroglycerine or gelignite, especially when used for safe-cracking.


moxie

First recorded use in 1930. From the name of an American soft drink Moxie made since 1885 to which advertisement ascribed many beneficial properties directly but also indirectly by using the same name as a patent medicine first manufactured in 1878. The word appears in very many place names in Maine, especially of falls and ponds, and is perhaps ultimately from an Abenaki word meaning dark water.

As a girl she had speed and a knock-kneed moxie at athletics, and might have done more with it if she hadn't harvested all the glory already.

1971, John Updike, Rabbit Redux, page 401:

Yes it's true! / That you seem a little young to do the things that you do, / even with all that moxie you've got.

2011 January 29, “Rollercoaster: The Musical!” (“Aren't You a Little Young?” (song)), in Phineas and Ferb, season 2, episode 38, spoken by Building Engineer (Dan Povenmire):


flip a bitch

en-verb

flip a bitch (third-person singular simple present flips a bitch, present participle flipping a bitch, simple past and past participle flipped a bitch)

flips a bitch (present singular third-person)
flipping a bitch (participle present)
flipped a bitch (participle past)
flipped a bitch (past)

That's a cop up there! Flip a bitch and see if we can lose 'em.

I shut the door and concentrated on the checklist so that I could turn the aircrafts^([sic]) electrical system on and check the gauges for fuel or anything out of the ordinary. Every few seconds I felt the aircraft tug, as John towed the aircraft and I to the pumps. After checking the gauges, I was happy to find that both wing tanks were full, so I opened up the door, jumped out and ran ahead to tell John to flip a bitch and pull the bird back to the tower. At the tower I used the aircraft checklist to do a walk around inspection.

2010, J. L. Bourne, Day By Day Armageddon, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

“Can you flip a bitch and swing by the airport to pick me up?” It took me a minute to register what she was saying. “You're in Georgia?” Twisting around from the front seat, Griffin echoed my question.

2013, S.C. Stephens, Reckless, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(US, slang, vulgar, automotive) To make a rapid and illegal U-turn.


hang a Louie

hang a Louie (third-person singular simple present hangs a Louie, present participle hanging a Louie, simple past and past participle hung a Louie)

hangs a Louie (present singular third-person)
hanging a Louie (participle present)
hung a Louie (participle past)
hung a Louie (past)

Hang a Louie up at the next stoplight.

(US, slang, idiomatic) Make a left turn while driving a vehicle.


hang a Ralph

hang a Ralph (third-person singular simple present hangs a Ralph, present participle hanging a Ralph, simple past and past participle hung a Ralph)

hangs a Ralph (present singular third-person)
hanging a Ralph (participle present)
hung a Ralph (participle past)
hung a Ralph (past)

Hang a Ralph up at the next stoplight.

(US, slang, idiomatic) To make a right turn while driving a vehicle.


moonshiner's turn

en-noun

moonshiner's turn (plural moonshiners' turns)

Used by moonshiners to evade authorities during Prohibition.

Did you see the moonshiner’s turn he pulled in that chase scene?

One sure way to cause an accident is with your basic "moonshiner's" or "bootlegger's" turn. Whiz down the road at about sixty or seventy, throw the gearshift into neutral, cut the wheel to the left, and hit the emergency brake with one good wallop while holding the brake release out with your left hand.

1979 March, P. J. O'Rourke, “How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink”, in National Lampoon, archived from the original on 2003-01-12:

(colloquial, US) A rapid illegal U-turn performed by putting the car in neutral and applying the hand brake, thereby producing a controlled skid, with the car still moving backwards when forward power is again applied.


period

frequency

antonym(s) of “length of time of recurrence of a periodic phenomenon”

/ˈpɪə.ɹɪ.əd/

From Middle English periode, from Middle French periode, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “circuit, an interval of time, path around”), from περι- (peri-, “around”) + ὁδός (hodós, “way”). Displaced native Middle English tide (“interval, period, season”), from Old English tīd (“time, period, season”), as well as Middle English elde (“age, period”), from Old English ieldu (“age, period of time”).

periodike

length of time during which something repeats

‘You know, a period? The black spot at the end of a sentence — what do you call them over there?’

2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 299:

(now chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) The punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).


period

/ˈpɪə.ɹɪ.əd/

I know you don't want to go to the dentist, but your teeth need to be checked, period!

(chiefly Canada, US) That's final; that's the end of the matter (analogous to a period ending a sentence); end of story.


George

→ Arabic: جورج (jorj)

→ Cebuano: George

→ Cantonese: 佐治 (zo2 zi6)

→ Chinese: 喬治 /乔治 (Qiáozhì)

→ Hawaiian: Keoki

→ Japanese: ジョージ (Jōji)

→ Korean: 조지 (Joji)

→ Maori: Hōri
→ English: hori

→ Persian: جورج (jorj)

→ Swedish: George

Name of an early saint, from Middle English George, from Latin Geōrgius, from Ancient Greek Γεώργῐος (Geṓrgĭos), from γεωργός (geōrgós, “farmer, earth worker”), from γῆ (gê, “earth”) (combining form γεω- (geō-)) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”) Doublet of Jorge and Geevarghese.
The aircraft autopilot sense is probably from George DeBeeson, who patented an early (1931) autopilot system, and/or a reference to the expression let George do it. The Pullman porter sense derives from George Pullman, who hired Black people to staff his sleeping cars, and the patrons of the service seeing the Black people as servants of George Porter, much like how an enslaved person was named after the enslaver.

(Canada, US, slang, dated) Generic name for a Pullman porter.


single

→ Dutch: single

→ Finnish: sinkku

→ German: Single

→ Indonesian: singel

→ Japanese: シングル (shinguru)

→ Polish: singiel

From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.

I don't have any singles, so you'll have to make change.

She looked in her purse, found a ten and a single, gave him the ten. ‘I'll spend it on booze,’ he said.

1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 94:


sleet

en-noun

sleet (countable and uncountable, plural sleets)

From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”). Doublet of slut.

cog

(chiefly US) Pellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.


panic

en-noun

panic (countable and uncountable, plural panics)

The adjective is borrowed from Middle French panique, a word itself borrowed from Ancient Greek πανικός (panikós, “pertaining to Pan”); Pan, the Greek god of fields and woods, was believed to be the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.
Adjective sense 3 (“pertaining to or resulting from overpowering fear or fright”) is partly an attributive use of the noun.
The noun is derived from the adjective, while the verb is derived from the noun. Verb sense 1.3 (“to highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show”) is derived from noun sense 4 (“a highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show”).

der

(countable, US, originally theater, colloquial) A highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream.


panic

en-verb

panic (third-person singular simple present panics, present participle panicking, simple past and past participle panicked)

panics (present singular third-person)
panicking (participle present)
panicked (participle past)
panicked (past)

espantar

to cause (someone) to feel panic; to frighten (someone) into acting hastily

(US, colloquial) To highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show).


author

author (third-person singular simple present authors, present participle authoring, simple past and past participle authored)

authors (present singular third-person)
authoring (participle present)
authored (participle past)
authored (past)
aucthor (alternative)
aucthour (alternative)
auctor (alternative)
auctour (alternative)
auctoure (alternative)
authour (alternative)
authoure (alternative)
autor (alternative)
autour (alternative)
autoure (alternative)

[ˈɔ(ː)θ(ə)ɹ]

From Middle English auctour, from Anglo-Norman autour, from Old French autor, from Latin auctor, from augeō (“to increase, originate”). The h, also found in Middle French autheur, is unetymological as there is no h in the original Latin spelling. The OED attributes the h to contamination by authentic. Doublet of auteur.

(chiefly US, sometimes proscribed) To create a work as its author.


salable

en-adj

salable (comparative more salable, superlative most salable)

more salable (comparative)
most salable (superlative)

The landlord [...] stripped the plumbing and electrics, anything salable.

2023, Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto, Fleet, page 219:

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of saleable.


appointment

[əˈpʰɔɪ̯nʔmɪnʔ]

[əˈpʰɔɪ̯̃ʔmɪnʔ]

From Middle English appoyntement, apoyntement, from Old French appointement, equivalent to appoint + -ment.

to have an appointment

(US) An honorary part or exercise, as an oration, etc., at a public exhibition of a college.


ish

ish (comparative more ish, superlative most ish)

more ish (comparative)
most ish (superlative)

(informal, Canada, US, regional) ick, yuck


cheer

Alex participated in cheer all four years of college.

I'm going to wear my new cheer shoes at cheer today.

...[P]erspective [sic] gym cheer programs must address how to support a cheer program while maintaining appropriate and safe skill progressions.

1999, Jim Lord, Chris Calvert., Cheerleading: Where Does Your Gym Fit In?:

2000, Linda Villarosa. Cheerleading Changes, and Injuries Increase in The New York Times.
Last year, more than 75,000 high school participants took part in cheerleading competitions, and the National Federation of State High School Associations says that "competitive cheer" is the fastest growing sport for girls.

2018, Chad Thompson. Iowa Central cheer team is tops at national competition in The Messenger.
The Iowa Central Community College cheer team has achieved something no other college in Iowa has before.

(chiefly Canada, US) Cheerleading, especially when practiced as a competitive sport.


toast

en-noun

toast (countable and uncountable, plural toasts)

→ Bulgarian: тост (tost)

→ Czech: toust, toast

→ Dutch: toost, toast

→ French: toast

→ Romanian: toast

→ German: Toast

→ Greek: τοστ (tost)

→ Hebrew: טוסט (tost)

→ Italian: toast

→ Japanese: トースト (tōsuto)

→ Korean: 토스트 (toseuteu)

→ Maori: tōhi

→ Macedonian: тост (tost)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: toast

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: toast

→ Polish: tost, toast

desctree

→ Russian: тост (tost)
→ Armenian: տոստ (tost)

→ Turkish: tost

→ Ukrainian: тост (tost)

→ Welsh: tost

Bill Murray
Dow Jones & Company
Ghostbusters
The Wall Street Journal

From Middle English tost, from the verb tosten (see below).
(person who is honored with a drink): First appears in print at the very end of the 17th century. The conventional assumption is that the use is metaphorical, “the name of a lady being supposed to flavour a drink like a spiced toast.” This is pure speculation, however, as the origin of the sense remains obscure.
(something that will be no more): Ad-libbed by actor Bill Murray in the 1984 film Ghostbusters (see quotation).

The metal frame survived the fire, but the plastic and rubber bits are toast.

(uncountable, slang, chiefly US) Something that is irreparably damaged or used up, especially when destroyed by heat or fire; something which has been burnt to a crisp or incinerated.

to become/be toast

If I ever get my hands on the guy that stole my wallet, he’s toast!

This chick is toast!

1984, Ghostbusters, spoken by Peter Venkman (Bill Murray):

(uncountable, slang, chiefly US) Something that will be no more; something subject to impending destruction, harm or injury.


toaster

→ French: toasteur

→ German: Toaster

→ Hebrew: טוסטר

ja-r

トースター (tōsutā)

→ Japanese: トースター (tōsutā)

→ Korean: 토스터 (toseuteo)

→ Polish: toster

→ Russian: то́стер (tóstɛr)

From toast + -er (agent noun suffix) or -er (patient suffix).

The renegade, you been afraid I penetrate pop culture / Bring 'em a lot closer to the block where they pop toasters

2001, “Renegade”, in The Blueprint, performed by Jay-Z ft. Eminem:

(US, slang) A firearm, especially a pistol.

No. 4020 shows off the aftereffects of the GE “toaster” phenomenon as it runs on the Joint Line north of the Air Force Academy (7/02/2023).

2023 July 2, Jim Griffin, “BNSF GE Power”, in ActionRoad.net:

Railfans often call GE Dash-9s as "toasters" which certainly applies to this locomotive.

2020 December 13, containerman2, “A GE "Toaster" Leads CN Train 406 West at Boundary Creek, NB on a Nice Sunny Afternoon”, in Youtube:

IIRC, it's usually a toaster (GE).

2007 October 1, tree68, “Fire out the stack”, in Trains Forums:

(rail transport, US, informal, derogatory) Diesel locomotives built by GE Transportation known for a propensity to catch fire, especially those showing previous fire damage

2021 December 15, Trains Staff, “News Photos: Toaster, California style”, in Trains:

The origin of the design led railroaders to dub the units “meatballs,” and its boxy appearance inspired railfans to call them “toasters.”

2018 March 29, Eric Berger, “Amtrak AEM-7 Preserved at Illinois Railway Museum”, in Railfan & Railroad:

Sometimes affectionately referred to as “toasters” and “Swedish meatballs” due to their compact, boxy design and Swedish origins, the AEM-7s first entered service in May 1980 and since then have traveled more than 220 million miles.

2016 June 20, “A Fond Farewell to the AEM-7”, in Amtrak: History of America's Railroad, archived from the original on 2022-12-03:

(rail transport, US, informal) An EMD AEM-7 electric locomotive


bottom

en-noun

bottom (countable and uncountable, plural bottoms)

→ Dutch: bottom

→ French: bottom

PIE word
 *bʰudʰmḗn
From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-West Germanic *butm, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz, *budmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”). Cognate with Dutch bodem, German Boden, Icelandic botn, Danish bund; also Irish bonn (“sole (of foot)”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of a cup or jar”), Sanskrit बुध्न (budhna, “bottom”), Persian بن (bon, “bottom”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) (whence fund, via French). The sense “posterior of a person” is from 1794; the verb “to reach the bottom of” is from 1808. bottom dollar (“the last dollar one has”) is from 1882.

سَالِب

gay sexual slang: penetrated partner in sex

Where shall we go for a walk? How about Ashcombe Bottom?

The horses staled in a small brook that runs in a bottom, betwixt two hills.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

the bottoms and the high grounds

1812, Amos Stoddard, Sketches of Louisiana:

(now chiefly US) Low-lying land; a valley or hollow.


hobo

Unknown. Possibly a contraction of ho, boy or the dialectal English term hawbuck (“lout, clumsy fellow, country bumpkin”).

(Canada, US) A wandering homeless person, especially (historical) one illegally travelling by rail or (derogatory) a penniless, unemployed bum.

(Canada, US) Any migratory laborer, whether homeless or not.


kick ass

en-verb

kick ass (third-person singular simple present kicks ass, present participle kicking ass, simple past and past participle kicked ass)

kicks ass (present singular third-person)
kicking ass (participle present)
kicked ass (participle past)
kicked ass (past)
kick arse (alternative)

Did you win? We didn't just win, we kicked ass.

(idiomatic, US, Canada, colloquial, vulgar) To win decisively.

The soundtrack to this film really kicks ass!

(stative, idiomatic, US, Canada, colloquial, vulgar) To be very impressive.

показа́ть, на что ты спосо́бен/спосо́бна


work out

work out (third-person singular simple present works out, present participle working out, simple past and past participle worked out)

works out (present singular third-person)
working out (participle present)
worked out (participle past)
worked out (past)

The two Russians made good farmhands, and in summer they worked out together.

1918, Willa Cather, chapter 5, in My Ántonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 38:

[…] with them good wages, maybe a fella can get hisself a little piece a land an’ work out for extra cash.

1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 13, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, published 1958, page 201:

(intransitive, US) To earn a wage working away from one's farm.


over there

(US, colloquial, originally military) overseas to Europe (for military engagement), especially to the Western Front in France during World War I


spoon

From Middle English spoon, spoune, spone, spon (“spoon, chip of wood”), from Old English spōn (“sliver, chip of wood, shaving”), from Proto-West Germanic *spānu, from Proto-Germanic *spēnuz (“chip, flake, shaving”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peh₂- (“chip, shaving, log, length of wood”).
Cognate with Scots spun, spon (“spoon, shingle”), West Frisian spoen, Dutch spaan (“chip, flinders”), German Span (“chip, flake, shaving”), Swedish spån (“chip, flake”), Faroese spónur (“wood chip; spoon”), Ancient Greek σφήν (sphḗn, “wedge”)(though the connection to the Greek is likely impossible by modern reconstructions of PIE). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cuculer, coclear (“spoon”), from Old English cuculer, cuceler, cucler, borrowed from Latin cochlear (“spoon”).
The "metaphoric unit of personal energy" sense was coined by writer and disability advocate Christine Miserandino in 2003 (see spoon theory).

coinage

he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon

(US, military) A safety handle on a hand grenade, a trigger.


tablespoon

tablespoons (plural)
table spoon (alternative)
table-spoon (alternative)

Their eggs were deposited on a few bits of straw, and great caution was necessary in attempting to procure them, as the slightest touch crumbled their frail tenement into dust. By means of a tablespoon, I was enabled to procure many of them.

1840, John James Audubon, The Birds of America, volume 1, page 178:

(Canada, US) A large spoon, used for eating food from a bowl.


silverware

en-noun

silverware (countable and uncountable, plural silverwares)

(US, Atlantic Canada) Knives, forks and spoons.


hooker

Unknown. The "prostitute" sense is the subject of a folk etymology connecting it to General Hooker of the American Civil War, but the earliest known use dates to 1835, decades before the war. Less implausibly, it has also been connected to a coastal feature called a hook (“A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey, Red Hook in New York”) in the ports of New York and Baltimore. Carefully learned inference is not conclusive. See this essay, pp 105ff.

All my life, been hustling / And tonight is my appraisal / 'Cause I'm a hooker selling songs / And my pimp's a record label

2018, Brendon Urie, Michael Angelakos, Sam Hollander, Morgan Kibby, Jake Sinclair, Dillon Francis, “Hey Look Ma, I Made It”, in Pray for the Wicked, performed by Panic! at the Disco:


stage

en-verb

stage (third-person singular simple present stages, present participle staging, simple past and past participle staged)

stages (present singular third-person)
staging (participle present)
staged (participle past)
staged (past)

From Middle English stage, from Old French estage (“dwelling, residence; position, situation, condition”), from Old French ester (“to be standing, be located”). Cognate with Old English stæþþan (“to make staid, stay”), Old Norse steðja (“to place, provide, confirm, allow”), Old English stede (“state, status, standing, place, station, site”). More at stead. Doublet of étage.

cog

(intransitive, Canada, US) To work an internship, usually as a chef or waiter.


provost

From Middle English, from late Old English prōfost, prāfost, from Late Latin prōpositus, variant of Latin praepositus (“[one] placed in command”). In some senses, via Anglo-Norman provolt; via Anglo-Norman and Old French provost (modern French prévôt). As a Central European ecclesiastical office, via German Propst, Danish provst, etc.

steward

deputy overseeing medieval estates or fees

police officer

deputy overseeing medieval law enforcement; military police

The provost of the University of Massachusetts has reversed a decision by faculty personnel committees not to renew the contracts of two professors engaged in sex research.

1982 August 21, Keith Beasley, “U/Mass Professors To Keep Positions Despite Controversy”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 6, page 3:

The princess, already a serious and diligent child, was given lessons on constitutional matters by Sir Henry Marten, the provost of Eton, and became aware even then that she should not show emotion and must maintain a certain reserve.

2022 September 8, Stephen Bates, “Queen Elizabeth II obituary”, in The Guardian:

A senior deputy, a superintendent, particularly:

(US, higher education) A senior deputy administrator; a vice-president of academic affairs.


coach

→ Czech: kouč

→ Danish: coach

→ Dutch: coach

→ French: coach

→ German: Coach

→ Italian: coach

→ Japanese: コーチ (kōchi)

→ Korean: 코치 (kochi)

→ Malay: koc

→ Polish: coach

→ Spanish: coach

→ Swahili: kocha

→ Swedish: coach

Borrowed from Middle French coche, from German Kutsche, from Hungarian kocsi. According to historians, the coach was named after the small Hungarian town of Kocs, which made a livelihood from cart building and transport between Vienna and Budapest.
The meaning "instructor/trainer" is from Oxford University slang (c. 1830) for a "tutor" who "carries" one through an exam; the athletic sense is from 1861.

We couldn't afford the good tickets, so we spent the flight crammed in coach.

(chiefly US) The part of a commercial passenger airplane or train reserved for those paying the lower standard fares; the economy section.

(chiefly US) The lower-fare service whose passengers sit in this part of the airplane or train; economy class.


coach

John flew coach to Vienna, but first-class back home.

(chiefly US) Via the part of a commercial passenger airplane or train reserved for those paying the lower standard fares; via the economy section.


runner

From Middle English rennere, rynner, urnare, equivalent to run + -er. Cognate with Old Norse rennari (“runner; messenger”). Displaced earlier Middle English runel (“runner”), from Old English rynel (“runner”; also “messenger, courier”).

махови́к

mechanical part intended to guide or aid something else to move

In our prisons you might find a condemned man working as a runner, a trusty, which is about as far from segregation as you can get.

1959, Frederick S. Baldi, My Unwelcome Guests, page 25:

(US, dated) A trusty (prisoner granted special privileges).


moist

The adjective is derived from Middle English moist, moiste (“damp, humid, moist, wet; well-irrigated, well-watered; made up of water or other fluids, fluid; of ale: fresh; (figuratively) carnal, lascivious; undisciplined, weak; (alchemy, medicine, physics) dominated by water as an element”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman moist, moiste, moste, Middle French moiste, and Old French moiste, muste (“damp, moist, wet”) (modern French moite); further etymology uncertain, perhaps a blend of a Late Latin variant of Latin mūcidus (“mouldy, musty”) + a Late Latin derivative of Latin mustum (“unfermented or partially fermented grape juice or wine, must”).
The noun is derived from the adjective.

[T]hey launch'd the ship, the mast it bore
Advanc'd, sails hoised, every seat his oar
Gave with a leather thong. The deep moist then
They further reach'd.

1614–1615, Homer, “The Eighth Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume I, London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC, page 171, lines 65–68:

Th' Arch-Angel Uriel, one of the ſeav'n
[…]
That run through all the Heav'ns, or down to th' Earth
Bear his [God's] ſwift errands over moiſt and dry,
O're Sea and Land: […]

1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 658 and 661–663:

(obsolete except US, regional) Moistness; also, moisture.


moist

en-verb

moist (third-person singular simple present moists, present participle moisting, simple past and past participle moisted)

moists (present singular third-person)
moisting (participle present)
moisted (participle past)
moisted (past)

From Middle English moisten, moist, moiste (“to make moist or wet; to soak in liquid; to become moist or wet; to provide with moisture or water; to satisfy thirst with liquor or water, slake”) [and other forms], and then either:
* from Anglo-Norman muster (“to make moist or wet”), Middle French moistir, and Old French moistir (“to make moist or wet; to become moist or wet”) (compare enmoistir; modern French moitir), from Old French moiste, muste (“damp, moist, wet”) (see etymology 1) + -ir (suffix forming infinitives of second conjugation verbs); or
* from Middle English moist, moiste (adjective) (see etymology 1), though the adjective is first attested later.

der

He calleth for a ſponge (ſaith Theodoritus) and therevvith moiſteth and vvaſsheth Simeones mouthe, and then geueth him the holy Sacrament.

1566 January 30, Iohn Iewel [i.e. John Jewel], “M. [Thomas] Hardinge. The 21. Diuision.”, in A Replie unto M. Hardinges Ansvveare: […], London: […] Henry VVykes, →OCLC:

They [the legendary Fortunate Isles] haue raine there very ſeldom, howbeit a gentle winde commonly that bloweth in a litle ſiluer dew, which moiſteth the earth ſo finely, that it maketh it fertile and luſtie, not onely to bring forth all that is ſet or ſowen apon it but of it ſelfe without mans hand it beareth ſo good frute, as ſufficiently maintaineth the inhabitants dwelling apon it, liuing idlely, and taking no paines.

1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “The Life of Sertorius”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC, page 629:

Now no more
The iuyce of Egypts Grape ſhall moyſt this lip.

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 367, column 1:

(obsolete except British, regional and US) To make (something) moist or wet; to moisten.

(intransitive)
(US) To rain lightly; to drizzle.


exclamation point

en-noun

exclamation point (plural exclamation points)


hoe

en-verb

hoe (third-person singular simple present hoes, present participle hoeing, simple past and past participle hoed)

hoes (present singular third-person)
hoeing (participle present)
hoed (participle past)
hoed (past)
ho (alternative)

Pimpin’ came so naturally to MT when he and his sisters played pimp and hoe games that one of his sisters wanted to hoe for him when they grew up.

2003, Da’rel the Relentless One, M. T. Pimp:

(US, slang) Alternative spelling of ho (“to prostitute”).


shovel

→ Fiji Hindi: sabbal

→ Marshallese: jabōļ

From Middle English shovele, schovel, showell, shoule, shole (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English scofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix).
Cognate with Scots shuffle, shule, shuil (“shovel”), Saterland Frisian Sköifel (“shovel”), West Frisian skoffel, schoffel (“hoe, spade, shovel”), Dutch schoffel (“spade, hoe”), Low German Schüfel, Schuffel (“shovel”), German Schaufel (“shovel”), Danish skovl (“shovel”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”).

call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel

(especially US, loosely) Any shovel in the above senses, or any spade.


Yankee

Yankee (third-person singular simple present Yankees, present participle Yankeeing, simple past and past participle Yankeed)

Yankees (present singular third-person)
Yankeeing (participle present)
Yankeed (participle past)
Yankeed (past)
Yanky (alternative)
Yengee (alternative)

First attested in 1765, when it was described as "a name of derision … given by the Southern people on the Continent to those of New England". Various suggestions have been made as to its origin: that it derives from a Cherokee word meaning "slave" or "coward" and was applied to the New Englanders by the Virginians because they refused to aid them in a war against the Cherokees; that it derives from Yengees, a Native American corruption of English; and that it comes from Janke, a pet form of the common Dutch forename Jan. The OED regards the last of these as "perhaps the most plausible".

Kentuckians reportedly regarded a Yankee “as a sort of Jesuit” because of his religious zeal, while in Illinois the term yankeed was synonymous with cheated.

2011, Colin Woodard, chapter 17, in American nations, New York: Penguin, →ISBN:

(dated, slang, US, Canada, sometimes offensive) to cheat, trick or swindle somebody; to misrepresent something


kebab

kebabs (plural)
kabaab (alternative)
kabob (alternative)
kebap (alternative)
kabab (alternative)
kebob (alternative)

From Arabic كَبَاب (kabāb), partly through Urdu, Persian and Turkish kebap. Doublet of cevapi. See the Arabic entry for more.

(US) A shish kebab or any other food on a skewer.


whiskey

en-noun

whiskey (countable and uncountable, plural whiskeys or whiskies)

whiskeys (plural)
whiskies (plural)
whisky (alternative)

→ Jersey Dutch: wäski

→ Punjabi: ਵਿਸਕੀ (viskī)

→ Welsh: chwisgi

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *wed-
Proto-Indo-European *-r̥
Proto-Indo-European *wódr̥der.
Proto-Celtic *udenskyos
Old Irish uisce
Irish uisce
Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃-
Proto-Indo-European *-wós
Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós
Proto-Celtic *biwos
Proto-Celtic *-tūts
Proto-Celtic *biwotūts
Old Irish bethu
Irish beatha
Medieval Latin aqua vītaecalq.
Irish uisce beathabor.
Old Irish uisce
Scottish Gaelic uisge
Old Irish bethu
Scottish Gaelic beatha
Medieval Latin aqua vītaecalq.
Scottish Gaelic uisge-beathabor.
English usquebaugh
English usque
English whiskey
Variant of usque, abbreviation of usquebaugh, from Irish uisce beatha, calque of Medieval Latin aqua vītae (“water of life”). Compare akvavit, aquavit, aqua vitae, eau de vie, and water of life from the same source and vodka from a Russian diminutive for water in reference to the dilution of pure grain spirits.

der

LL-Q1860 (eng)-عُثمان (Middle river exports)-whiskey.wav

The exceſſive drinking of ſpirituous liquours, eſpecially whiſkey, is now become ſo common, that more people are killed by them, than by ſmall-pox, fevers, broken limbs, accidents, and all other diſtempers put together. And we are credibly informed, that in one dram ſhop only in this town, there are 120 gallons of that accurſed ſpirit, whiſkey, ſold.

1753 September 25, “Historical Chronicle”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume XXIII, number VIII, London, page 391:

(Ireland, US, England) A liquor distilled from the fermented mash of grain (as rye, corn, or barley).

(Ireland, US, England) A drink of whiskey.


counter-clockwise

en-adv

counter-clockwise (comparative more counter-clockwise, superlative most counter-clockwise)

more counter-clockwise (comparative)
most counter-clockwise (superlative)
counterclockwise (alternative)


refugee

en-verb

refugee (third-person singular simple present refugees, present participle refugeeing, simple past and past participle refugeed)

refugees (present singular third-person)
refugeeing (participle present)
refugeed (participle past)
refugeed (past)

/ˈɹɛfjʊd͡ʒiː/

/ɹɛfjʊˈd͡ʒiː/

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

Edict of Fontainebleau
refugee (disambiguation)

From French réfugié, past participle of réfugier (“to take refuge”), describing early French Protestants seeking refuge after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685. Analyzable as refuge + -ee. Displaced native Old English flīema.

(transitive, US, historical) To convey (slaves) away from the advance of the federal forces.


nuke

nuke (third-person singular simple present nukes, present participle nuking, simple past and past participle nuked)

nukes (present singular third-person)
nuking (participle present)
nuked (participle past)
nuked (past)

Clipping of nuclear weapon. The verb is derived from the noun.

If a nuclear war ever breaks out, military facilities are likely to be nuked first.

It's Christmas at ground zero / Now the missiles are on their way / What a crazy fluke / We're gonna get nuked / On this jolly holiday

1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:

Okay, listen to me: We've been nuked. The whole fucking country's been nuked. I don't know how many are dead in here, but we're alive, and so is Colonel Macklin.

1987, Robert R[ick] McCammon, chapter 15, in Swan Song (Pocket Books; 62413.X), New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN:

Nor was nuking a solution. Kargh would never forgive nuking a planet in other than defense of the Faith. While on another level, nuking might easily bring about a hatred of the Empire that would make the conversation and rule of this sector very difficult. No, nuking was another way to earn a place on the palace wall, decorating a long iron stake.

2004 May, John Dalmas, chapter 43, in The Regiment: A Trilogy (Baen Books Megabook), New York, N.Y.: Baen Publishing Enterprises, →ISBN:

Listen, I've said it once and I'll [say] it just one more time. Nuke London. This is a Presidential Decree. [...] O London is not in France. Paris is in France. Paris is the capital of France. / P I thought Paris was the capital of England. / O France. / P You mean I'm nuking the wrong place? / O Afraid. So. / P Call Charley. Tell him I revoke the order. [...] (To P) London is being nuked at this very moment.

2017 October 27, Antonia Fraser, Harold Pinter, “The US president nukes the world: read Harold Pinter’s newly discovered play”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-06-03:

Eventually, Kylie joins forces with Garrison-Trump, who is attracted to the concept of annihilating a perceived enemy, and nukes the city of Toronto into dust.

2017 November 30, Dani Di Placido, “‘South Park’ Review: History Repeats Itself in ‘Super Hard PCness’”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-11-30:

(transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To use a nuclear weapon on a target.

核平

(colloquial) to use a nuclear weapon on a target

To try to hide his posting history on Usenet, he had his posts nuked from the Google archives.

The find is all the more remarkable, [George] Koch said, because the trees are in a tract added to the park belatedly, during President Jimmy Carter's administration. "They aren't all that far from an old clear-cut," he said. "Basically, they were almost nuked. The fact that they weren't is amazing."

2006 September 7, Glen Martin, “Eureka! New tallest living Thing discovered / THE CHAMPION: At 378.1 feet, Hyperion in Redwood National Park on North Coast towers 8 feet above Stratosphere Giant”, in San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, Calif.: Hearst Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-06-14:

Cyborg romance is the flip side of the robot uprising. Our mechanical creations love us instead of nuking us from orbit. The fantasy here isn't about making it with a hot fembot. It's about wanting approval from our children, wanting them to grow up without obliterating us.

2010 September 28, Annalee Newitz, “Why do We Keep Falling in Love with Cyborgs?”, in io9, archived from the original on 2019-06-16:

Conservative Canadian commentator Lauren Southern apparently has few fond memories of her time in Melbourne, cheekily suggesting the city "should be nuked". [...] "You know that old tale in the bible where Abraham is talking to god about Sodom and Gomorrah. He's like begging with god and says 'god, if I can find ten good people in Sodom and Gomorrah, please, do not nuke Melbourne.' We did find a few hundred good ones there – there is a silent majority I believe in Melbourne so we can't nuke it yet guys I'm sorry."

2018 August 3, Tom Crystal, “Lauren Southern says ‘Melbourne should be nuked’”, in The Australian, Surry Hills, N.S.W.: News Corp Australia, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Yes, the Democratic Party's sharp leftward pivot might have nuked the Never Trump movement all on its own, because it is leaving no sane alternatives to [Donald] Trump.

2019 March 25, Tiana Lowe, “How the Russia #Resistance nuked the Never Trump movement”, in Washington Examiner, Washington, D.C.: MediaDC, Clarity Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-03-25:

(transitive, chiefly US, colloquial, figuratively) To destroy or erase completely.

aniquilar

(colloquial) to destroy or erase completely

(transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To expose to some form of radiation.

(colloquial) to expose to some form of radiation

I’ll nuke some pizza for dinner.

If you've picked up a secondhand one, you should invest $4.00 for a microwave leak tester. The one I have has a little smiley face and a little frowning face. If the smiley face lights up when you pass it in front of the turned-on microwave, then you can nuke with impunity.

1992, Lora Brody, “Welcome to Your Kitchen”, in The Kitchen Survival Guide: A Hand-holding Kitchen Primer with 130 Recipes to Get You Started, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, page 15:

Dad had just slapped dinner on the table—a frozen lasagna nuked in the microwave, salad from a bag and presliced garlic bread, also nuked.

2012, Janice Kay Johnson, chapter 1, in No Matter What (Harlequin Super Romance; 1807), Don Mills, Ont.,: Harlequin, →ISBN:

(transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To cook in a microwave oven.

(colloquial) to cook in a microwave oven

(transitive, US, nautical, colloquial) To overanalyze or despair unduly over something.


fry

fry (third-person singular simple present fries, present participle frying, simple past and past participle fried)

fries (present singular third-person)
frying (participle present)
fried (participle past)
fried (past)

From Middle English fryen, borrowed from Old French frire, from Latin frīgō (“to roast, fry”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-. Cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “I roast, bake”), Sanskrit भृज्जति (bhṛjjati, “to roast, grill, fry”), भृग् (bhṛg, “the crackling of fire”). Replaced native Middle English hirsten, from Old English hierstan (“to fry”).

cog

He's guilty of murder: he's going to fry.

To be affected by extreme heat or current.

(chiefly US, ambitransitive, slang) To execute, or be executed, by the electric chair.

informal: be executed by the electric chair


fry

(usually in the plural, fries, chiefly Canada and US, cooking) A fried piece of cut potato.

(usually in the plural, fries, US, cooking) A lamb or calf testicle.


fish stick

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

(US) A rectangular piece of processed fish coated in breadcrumbs that is cooked by frying or grilling.


malt

en-noun

malt (countable and uncountable, plural malts)

From Middle English malt, from Old English mealt, from Proto-West Germanic *malt, from Proto-Germanic *maltą (“malt”), from *maltaz (“soft; nesh; weak; squashy; melting”), from Proto-Indo-European *meld-, *mled- (“to crush; grind; make weak”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Moalt (“malt”), Dutch mout (“malt”), German Malz (“malt”), Swedish malt (“malt”), Old Church Slavonic младъ (mladŭ, “tender; young”), Russian молодой (molodoj, “young; fresh; new”). The Proto-Germanic noun was borrowed into Proto-Slavic as *malta; compare Ukrainian мо́лот (mólot), Czech mláto. More at melt.

cog

Afterward she sat in the drugstore sucking malt through a straw.

1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, Vintage (2016), page 89:

(US, informal) A milkshake with malted milk powder added for flavor.


cesarean section

en-noun

cesarean section (plural cesarean sections)

Caesarean section
Caesarean section#English

(US, medicine) Alternative spelling of Caesarean section


rutabaga

rutabaga (usually uncountable, plural rutabagas)

rutabagas (plural)
ruta-baga (alternative)

/ˈɹutəˌbeɪɡə/

1799, borrowed from Swedish rotabagge, a dialectal word from Västergötland, from rot (“root”) + bagge (“lump, bunch”).

They were both too hungry to wait for the yams and rutabagas to bake, so tonight they would have the frozen White Castle minicheeseburgers that Mr. Van Buren had won a year's supply of just before he passed away.

Brassica napus
Brassica napus#Translingual

(now Canada, US) The swede, or Swedish turnip; the European plant Brassica napus var. napobrassica

Sometimes your royal dogs tear down our thatch,
And then we seek the shelter of a ditch;
Hog-wash or grains, or ruta-baga, none
Has yet been ours since your reign begun.

1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

Chipper […] understood how his entire dinner might be scarfabl' in no time, his duties discharged and his freedom regained, and he actually picked up his fork and made a pass at the craggy wad of rutabaga […]

2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:

(now Canada, US) The edible root of this plant


outhouse

outhouses (plural)
out-house (alternative)

From Middle English outhous, equivalent to out- + house. Compare Old Norse úthús (“outhouse”).

(Canada, US) An outbuilding, typically permanent, containing a toilet or seat over a cesspit.


corn

corn (usually uncountable, plural corns)

Kashubian: kòrné (Canada)

Tok Pisin: kon

→ Maori: kānga

Inherited from Middle English corn, from Old English corn, from Proto-West Germanic *korn, from Proto-Germanic *kurną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain; worn-down”), from *ǵerh₂- (“grow old, mature”). The sense "maize" is a clipping of Indian corn. Cognate with Dutch koren, German Low German Koorn, German Korn, Danish korn, Norwegian Bokmål korn, Norwegian Nynorsk korn and Swedish korn; see also Albanian grurë, Russian зерно́ (zernó), Czech zrno, Latin grānum and Lithuanian žirnis. Doublet of grain, gram, granum, and grao.

doublet

what does that have to do with the price of corn

The planting or sowing of maize, exclusively called corn, was just accomplished on the Town Hill, when I reached it.

1809, Edward Augustus Kendall, Travels Through the Northern Parts of the United States:

Corn was the staff of life for many Indian people before contact, and it became the staff of life for many European colonists. Corn was higher in nutrition than most other grain crops. John Lawson, who travelled in South Carolina and into the interior Indian country in 1701, was one of the many colonists who sang the praises of corn.

1998 February 18, Colin G. Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America, JHU Press, →ISBN, pages 51–52:

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, uncountable) Maize, a grain crop of the species Zea mays.


corn

en-verb

corn (third-person singular simple present corns, present participle corning, simple past and past participle corned)

corns (present singular third-person)
corning (participle present)
corned (participle past)
corned (past)

to corn gunpowder

(US, Canada) To granulate; to form (a substance) into grains.

(US, Canada) To preserve using coarse salt, e.g. corned beef.

Corn the horses.

(US, Canada) To provide (an animal) with corn (typically maize; or, in Scotland, oats) for feed.


corn

He had a sharp wit, true enough, but also a good, healthy mountaineer's love of pure corn, the slapstick stuff, the in-jokes that get funnier with every repetition and never amuse anybody who wasn't there.

There were lots of jokes on the show and they were pure corn, but the audience didn't mind.

1986, Linda Martin, Kerry Segrave, Women in Comedy:

The bulk of this humor was pure corn, but as hillbilly material it was meant to be that way.

2007, Bob L. Cox, Fiddlin' Charlie Bowman: an East Tennessee old-time music pioneer and his musical family:

Cambridge University Press
w:Cambridge University Press

(US, Canada) Something (e.g., acting, humour, music, or writing) which is deemed old-fashioned or intended to induce emotion.


outta

I'm outta here!

If you're reading this... get the hell outta this place! Now!

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Aequitas:


mead

en-noun

mead (usually uncountable, plural meads)

meads (plural)
meath (alternative)
meathe (alternative)
meeth (alternative)

From Middle English mede, from Old English medu, from Proto-West Germanic *medu, from Proto-Germanic *meduz, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“honey; honey wine”).
Cognate with Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu) (whence English methyl), Lithuanian medùs, Old Church Slavonic медъ (medŭ, “honey”), Persian می (mey), Sanskrit मधु (mádhu), Welsh medd, Finnish mesi, Chinese 蜜 (mì).

cog

(US) A drink composed of syrup of sarsaparilla or other flavouring extract, and water, and sometimes charged with carbon dioxide.


octothorpe

octothorpes (plural)
octothorp (alternative)

/ˈɒktəʊθɔːp/

/ˈɑːktoʊθɔːɹp/

Origin disputed. There is no known usage before it was adopted by Bell Labs in the late 1960s or early 1970s, so most sources agree it was coined by someone at Bell Labs, but accounts from Bell Labs personnel conflict on the details. The derivation as a traditional term from octo- (“eight”) and thorpe (“field, hamlet or small village”) lacks any evidence, but there is near universal agreement that the first element refers to the number eight. Eight is derived from the number of ends of the lines. Thorpe could be a reference to Jim Thorpe, as one proponent was a fan of the athlete.

unk

disputed

The pad 1 provides keys for numerals 0 to 9, while the sextile or asterisk (*) key is decoded to provide a decimal point and the octothorp ( # ) key generates a command to send the contents of the memory unto the telephone line through a send circuit 7, a coupling circuit 8 and the hybrid network 2.

1973, US patent application ser. no. 05/422,816 (filed 3 December 1973), issued as patent no. 3,920,926 (18 November 1975), Telephone Data Set Including Visual Display Means, col. 3

Octothorp is the # on a push-button telephone. Rumor at the telephone company is that a man named Charles B. Octothorp, wanting to make his name famous, would approach anyone with a Touch-Tone ’phone, stop, and say admiringly, “That’s a mighty handsome octothorp you have there.”

1982, Willard R. Espy, A Children's Almanac of Words at Play, New York: Clarkson N. Potter, →ISBN, retrieved 2022-01-18, page 230:

Strings are enclosed in double quotation marks, numbers are not enclosed in anything, and dates and Boolean values are enclosed between octothorpe (#) characters.

2004, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak, Openoffice.org Macros Explained, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin: Hentzenwerke Publishing, →ISBN, page 139:

(chiefly US, typography) The hash or square symbol #, used mainly in telephony and computing.


wonder

en-noun

wonder (countable and uncountable, plural wonders)

From Middle English wonder, wunder, from Old English wundor (“wonder, miracle, marvel”), from Proto-West Germanic *wundr, from Proto-Germanic *wundrą.
Cognate with Scots wunner (“wonder”), West Frisian wonder, wûnder (“wonder, miracle”), Dutch wonder (“miracle, wonder”), Low German wunner, wunder (“wonder”), German Wunder (“miracle, wonder”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish under (“wonder, miracle”), Icelandic undur (“wonder”).
The verb is from Middle English wondren, from Old English wundrian, which is from Proto-Germanic *wundrōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian wunnerje, West Frisian wûnderje, Dutch wonderen, German Low German wunnern, German wundern, Swedish undra, Icelandic undra.


pound sign

A bag of peanuts is marked "5^#".

(US) The symbol #, denoting weight in pounds.


cubic centimeter

en-noun

cubic centimeter (plural cubic centimeters)

cubic centimetre
cubic centimetre#English


beef

beef (countable and uncountable, plural beef or beefs or beeves)

beef (plural)
beefs (plural)
beeves (plural)

→ Portuguese: bife

→ Spanish: bife

From Middle English beef, bef, beof, borrowed from Anglo-Norman beof, Old French buef, boef (“ox”) (modern French bœuf); from Latin bōs (“ox”), from Proto-Italic *gʷōs, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws. Doublet of cow.
Beef in the sense of “a grudge, argument” was originally an American slang expression:
* attested as a verb “to complain” in 1888: “He'll beef an' kick like a steer an' let on he won't never wear 'em.”— New York World, 13 May;
* attested as a noun “complaint, protest, grievance, sim.” in 1899: “He made a Horrible Beef because he couldn't get Loaf Sugar for his Coffee.”—Fables in Slang (1900) by George Ade, page 80.
As to the possible origin of this American usage, it has been suggested that it can be traced back to a British expression for “alarm”, first recorded in 1725: "BEEF 'to alarm, as To cry beef upon us; they have discover'd us, and are in Pursuit of us". The term "beef" in this context would be a Cockney rhyming slang of thief. The continuous use of a similar expression, including its assumed semantic shift to 'complaint' in the United States from the 1880s onwards, needs further clarification though.

Do you want to raise beeves?

Howbeit, that country bringeth forth certain kinds of goodly great wild bœufes: to wit, the Biſontes, mained with a collar, like Lions: and the Vri, a mightie ſtrong beaſt, and a ſwift: which the ignorant people call Buffles, whereas indeed the Buffle is bred in Affrica, and carieth ſome reſemblance of a calfe rather, or a ſtag.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VIII.] Of Scythian beasts, and those that are bred in the North parts.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, pages 199–200:

As when two lions in the ſtill dark night / An herd of beeves ſcatter or num'rous flock / Suddenly, in the abſence of the guard, / So fled the heartleſs Greeks, […]

1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XV.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 394, lines 398–401:

263. If he [one to whom a beef or sheep is loaned] ruins the beef or sheep that was loaned him, he is to return to the owner a beef for a beef and a sheep for a sheep.

1903 March, Henry Mason Baum, Frederick Bennett Wright, George Frederick Wright, Records of the Past, volume II, part III, page 87, translating the laws of Hammurabi

Cutting out a Beef for branding

1920–1930, Photo in the North Dakota State Museum

I remember I killed a beef one time by myself.

2012, Bart Reilly, quotee, “Beef”, in Ontario Dialects Project, Toronto: University of Toronto, retrieved 2022-07-05:

(now chiefly Canada, US, countable, now uncommon, plural beeves) A bovine (cow or bull) being raised for its meat.


shotgun

shotgun (countable and uncountable, plural shotguns)

shotguns (plural)
shot-gun (alternative)

desc

Japanese: → 散弾銃 (sandanjū) (calque), → ショットガン (shottogan)

→ Tok Pisin: sot gan

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

Elvis Presley was born in a two-bedroom shotgun in Tupelo, Mississippi.

(US, especially Southern US) A one-story dwelling with no hallways or corridors, with the rooms arranged in a straight line.


shotgun

en-verb

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

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

(US, slang) To rapidly drink a beverage from a can by making a hole in the bottom of the can, placing the hole above one's mouth, and opening the top.

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

2009, Writing Fiction For Dummies, →ISBN:

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

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

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

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

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


cowabunga

/ˌkæɔəˈbaŋɡə/

/ˌkaʊəˈbʌŋɡə/

/ˌkaʊəˈbʌŋɡə/

Unknown, but was popularized (as Kowa-Bunga) by Chief Thunderthud on the American children's show Howdy Doody in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and became associated with American surfing culture. By the early 1980s, it was used as the catch-phrase of Cookie Monster on the American television show Sesame Street, and gained popularity with a broader audience after its use in the American cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. (For further treatment, see here.)

Kowa-Bunga (alternative)
cowabonga (alternative)
kawabonga (alternative)
kowabonga (alternative)
kowabunga (alternative)

Cowabunga, dude!

Kowa-Bunga! Then Me Fix You Good! You Be Sorry.

Shouting the surfer's cry ‘Cowabunga!’ they climb a 12-ft. wall of water and ‘take the drop’ off its shoulder.

Both words turn up in the same sentence—as in ‘Cowabunga, it's humongous!’—when the children crowd around some toy.

1991 December 9, The New Yorker, page 115:

(slang, originally US, usually humorous) Expressing amazement, enthusiasm, or joy.

Cookie Monster
Howdy Doody
surfing culture


closet

→ Czech: klozet

→ Polish: klozet

→ Spanish: clóset

→ Welsh: closet

From Middle English closet, from Old French closet, from clos (“private space”) + -et (diminutive suffix), from Latin clausum. Equivalent to close + -et, but generally applied in French solely to small open-air enclosures.

cupboard

storage area set into a wall, used for storing food or dishware

cupboard

piece of furniture, used for storing food or dishware

(now chiefly Scotland, Ireland) Any small room or side room.

(US, Philippines) One intended for storing clothes or bedclothes.

wardrobe

piece of furniture, used for storing clothes


bender

Hypotheses:
* bend + -er. In sense of “heavy drinking”, originally generally “spree”, from 1846, of uncertain origin – vague contemporary sense of “something extraordinary”, connection to bend (e.g., bending elbow to drink (bend one's elbow)) or perhaps from Scottish sense of “strong drinker”.
* In Britain, for about four centuries, a sixpence was known as a bender because its silver content made it easy to bend in the hands. This was commonly done to create ‘love tokens’, many of which survive in collections to this day. The value of a sixpence was also enough to get thoroughly inebriated as taverns would often allow you to drink all day for two pence. This gave rise to the expression ‘going on a bender’.
* (interjection): From over the bender, referring to a person's arm (and sometimes accompanied by a gesture of the thumb backward over the shoulder); compare over the left shoulder.

(obsolete, slang, US) A spree, a frolic.

(obsolete, slang, US) Something exceptional.


bubble butt

But her skin was sallow, her face covered in pimples, and she never wore makeup. Then there was her bubble butt and her thunder thighs. Oh, call it what it was: fat. She was fat.

2010, Ninie Hammon, Home Grown, Kingstone Media, →ISBN, page 68:

Maxwell spun Jhonny and pulled him close until his hot ass pressed firmly against his dick, he grinded^([sic]) that bubble butt of his until he could tell Jhonny was sweating in all the right spots.

2012, A. Scott Boddie, The Hook-Up: Adventures of Maxwell Hunter, link:

(US, slang, somewhat vulgar) Large, rounded buttocks.

(US, slang, somewhat vulgar) A fat person.


Islamic

This war is between the democracies of the free world and radical Islamics.

2008, John Hagee, Financial Armageddon, Frontline, →ISBN, page 72:

(colloquial, US) a malapropism for 'Islamist'


bogie

Easy Rider
Fraternity of Man
Humphrey Bogart

Possibly from bogart (“to selfishly take or keep something, to hog; especially to hold a joint (marijuana cigarette) dangling between the lips instead of passing it on”) + -ie (suffix forming colloquial nouns). Bogart is derived from the surname of the American actor Humphrey Bogart (1899–1957), who was frequently shown smoking (tobacco) cigarettes in his films. The verb was popularized by its use in the song “Don’t Bogart Me” (1968) by the rock group Fraternity of Man which appeared in the soundtrack of the film Easy Rider (1969); the song has the lines “Don’t bogart that joint my friend. / Pass it over to me.”

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

bogies: marijuana cigarettes.

[2002 November, Alonzo Westbrook, “bogies”, in Hip Hoptionary: The Dictionary of Hip Hop Terminology (Harlem Moon), New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, →ISBN, page 15:

We normally dropped off at Shooters Billiards where we'd play pool and arcades, but sometimes left to do other shit. Shooters was a good lie to our parents when we came home smelling like smoke, because people smoked in the place, so we'd get away with smoking bogies or weed.

2008, Eric James, “Suburbia Life”, in Shades of the Moon: Brawls before Laws, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 53:

If i was the hulk i would smash you bite you like a cashew, then i smoke a bogie if i have to

2019, Joseph Anthony Torres, The World of Koolassjoe, New York, N.Y.: Koolassjoe Entertainment/USZ United, →ISBN:

I ain't got no trees for sale but I got some personal shit for me. Ima fuck with you 'cause you seem like an a'ight nigga. You smoke bogies?

2020 August 19, Levi John Gladstone, chapter 7, in The Royal Family, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN:

(chiefly US, slang) A marijuana cigarette; a joint.


President's Daily Briefing

en-noun

President's Daily Briefing (plural President's Daily Briefings)

President's Daily Briefings (plural)
PDB (abbreviation)

(US, government) Intelligence information from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) provided to the President of the United States (POTUS) every morning, to bring attention to pertinent information about international affairs.


PDB

President's Daily Briefing
President's Daily Briefing#English

President's Daily Brief
President's Daily Brief#English

President's Daily Bulletin
President's Daily Bulletin#English

(US, politics) Initialism of President's Daily Briefing or President's Daily Brief or President's Daily Bulletin.


soda pop

soda pop (countable and uncountable, plural soda pops)

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

On a hot day, there's nothing I like more than soda pop.

Could you bring me a soda pop? I'm parched!

(US, regional) Any of several sweetened, carbonated beverages.


felony

felonies (plural)
fellonie (alternative)

From Middle English felony, felonie, from Old French felonie (“evil, immoral deed”), from felon (“evildoer”). Ultimately of Proto-Germanic origin. More at felon. By surface analysis, felon + -y.

der

Coordinate term: misdemeanor

First, as felony prosecutor, I prosecute high-level felonies including homicides; sexual assaults; child endangerings; shootings and other felonious assaults; and media cases.

2015, Kenneth J. Peak, Pamela M. Everett, Introduction to Criminal Justice: Practice and Process:

Many experts have also expressed skepticism about the significance of this case and its legal underpinnings, which employed an unusual legal theory to seek a felony charge for what is more commonly a misdemeanor, and Mr. Trump will undoubtedly seek an appeal.

2024 May 30, The Editorial Board, “Donald Trump, Felon”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(law, criminology, US, historical in UK) A serious criminal offense, which, under United States federal law, is punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than one year or by the death penalty in the most serious offenses.


fideo

(US) noodles or vermicelli, or a dish or soup containing such.


whee

en-verb

whee (third-person singular simple present whees, present participle wheeing, simple past and past participle wheed)

whees (present singular third-person)
wheeing (participle present)
wheed (participle past)
wheed (past)

In Princeton marches of eighty-seven, sixty, seventy-six, fifty-two, fifty-eight, thirty-two and sixty-two yards, in which he had the whole-hearted support of a wheed-up Tiger team, Kazmaier passed for three touchdowns, thirty-three and forty-five yards to wingback Dick Pivirotto, four yards to end Len Lyon.

1952, Irving Marsh, Edward Ehre, Best Sports Stories, published 1952, page 146:

Los Angeles Rams, wheed up by 102,368, largest crowd ever to watch NFL game, who jampacked Coliseum, controlled San Francisco's Y. A. Tittle, gave own Norm Van Brocklin plenty of passing room to upset Western Division-leading 49ers 37-24[…]

1957 November 18, “Scoreboard”, in Sports Illustrated:

(transitive, US, colloquial, dated, often with up) To excite; to arouse; to energize.


yuck

Amy tells us that her husband, Jim Nelson, is deployed to Afghanistan […] as a nuclear operations officer — a result of graduating from the Naval Postgraduate School in December 2007 with a master's in Applied Physics. I guess I should have been looking for Jim to partner up with for physics help as a Yuck!

2008, United States Military Academy. Association of Graduates, Assembly (volume 67, issues 1-4, page 126)

(US, military, slang) Synonym of yearling (“a sophomore at West Point military academy”)


mart

From Middle Dutch mart, markt (“market”) (Modern Dutch markt), from Old Dutch *markat, from Late Latin marcātus, an alternative form of Classical Latin mercātus. See market.

FedMart, Walmart, Kmart, Kwik-E-Mart

(Canada, US, Philippines, usually only in combination) A shop, a store, a market.


fin

Yiddish language
fin
fin (disambiguation)

From Yiddish פֿינף (finf, “five”). Doublet of five, pimp, and finnuf.

(US, slang, dated) A five-dollar bill; the sum of five dollars.


eject

eject (third-person singular simple present ejects, present participle ejecting, simple past and past participle ejected)

ejects (present singular third-person)
ejecting (participle present)
ejected (participle past)
ejected (past)

From Middle French éjecter, from Latin ēiectus, perfect passive participle of ēiciō (“to throw out”), or from ēiectō, the frequentative form of the same verb, from ē-, combining form of ex (“out”), + iaciō (“to throw”).

(US, transitive) To compel (a sports player) to leave the field because of inappropriate behaviour.

изгонвам

to compel (a sports player) to leave the field


sub

sub (third-person singular simple present subs, present participle subbing, simple past and past participle subbed)

subs (present singular third-person)
subbing (participle present)
subbed (participle past)
subbed (past)

* Shortened form of any of various words beginning with sub-.
* (lend a person money): From subsidize.

switch

one who is willing to take either a sadistic or a masochistic role

(US, informal) To work as a substitute teacher, especially in primary and secondary education.


roast

From Middle English rosten, a borrowing from Old French rostir (“to roast, to torture with fire”), from Frankish *rōstijan (“to roast, broil”), from Proto-Germanic *raustijaną (“to roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *rews- (“to crackle; roast”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian rosterje (“to roast”), Dutch roosten, roosteren (“to roast”), German rösten (“to roast”).
Displaced native Middle English breden, bræden (“to roast”), from Old English brǣdan, related to German braten (“to roast, grill”).

der

On Memorial Day we hosted a wiener roast in the backyard.

(Canada, US) A social event at which food is roasted and eaten.


wait

en-verb

wait (third-person singular simple present waits, present participle waiting, simple past and past participle waited)

waits (present singular third-person)
waiting (participle present)
waited (participle past)
waited (past)
waight (alternative)

From Middle English waiten, from Anglo-Norman waiter, waitier (compare French guetter from Old French gaitier, guaitier), from Frankish *wahtwēn (“to watch, guard”), derivative of Frankish *wahtu (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Germanic *wahtwō (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be fresh, cheerful, awake”).
Cognate with Old High German wahtēn (“to watch, guard”), German Low German wachten (“to wait”), Dutch wachten (“to wait, expect”), French guetter (“to watch out for”), Saterland Frisian wachtje (“to wait”), West Frisian wachtsje (“to wait”), North Frisian wachtjen (“to stand, stay put”). More at watch.
In some senses, merged or influenced by Middle English waiten, weiten (“to do good to, lie in wait for, to contrive good or harm on, catch, snare”), from Old Norse veita (“to give help to, assist, grant, cause to happen”), from Proto-Germanic *waitijaną (“to show, guide, advise, direct”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know”).
Largely overtook native Middle English biden, from Old English bīdan.

der

She used to wait in this joint.

(intransitive, stative, US) To wait tables; to serve customers in a restaurant or other eating establishment.


wait on

en-verb

wait on (third-person singular simple present waits on, present participle waiting on, simple past and past participle waited on)

waits on (present singular third-person)
waiting on (participle present)
waited on (participle past)
waited on (past)
wait upon (alternative)

(colloquial, US, archaic) To court (someone).


office

Tok Pisin: opis

→ Belarusian: о́фіс (ófis)

→ Bulgarian: о́фис (ófis)

→ Cebuano: opis

→ Chichewa: ofesi

→ Central Dusun: upis

→ Hindi: ऑफ़िस (ŏfis)

→ Iban: opis

→ Japanese: オフィス

→ Marshallese: wōpij

→ Malay: opis

→ Russian: о́фис (ófis)

→ Scottish Gaelic: oifis

→ Swahili: afisi

→ Tausug: upis

→ Ukrainian: о́фіс (ófis)

Microsoft Office
office (disambiguation)

From Middle English office, from Old French office, from Latin officium (“personal, official, or moral duty; official position; function; ceremony, esp. last rites”), contracted from opificium (“construction: the act of building or the thing built”), from opifex (“doer of work, craftsman”) + -ium (“-y”, forming actions), from op- (“work”) + -i- (connective) + -fex (combining form of faciō (“to do, to make”)).
The use in reference to office software is a genericization of various proprietary program suites, such as Microsoft Office.

zyrë

room(s) or building used for non-manual work

This one was made out at a private office—Office is American for Surgery.

1975, M. Duke, chapter VIII, in Death of Holy Murderer, page 108:

A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work, particularly:

(chiefly US, medicine) A room, set of rooms, or building used for consultation and diagnosis, but not surgery or other major procedures.