en-verb

86 (third-person singular simple present 86s, present participle 86ing, simple past and past participle 86ed)

Unknown for certain but most probably from soda jerk slang from the 1920s for 'all out', referring to an item on the menu not being available.
The earliest mention in print is from 1933https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/a-restaurant-eighty-sixed-sarah-huckabee-sanders-what-does-that-mean/563588/. The OED suggests possible rhyming slang for nix. Another possibility is that it is rhyming slang for deep six.
Cassell's Dictionary of Slang claims that the term comes from the digging of a standard grave, which is 2.5 feet wide by 8 feet long by 6 feet deep.
Other, more elaborate theories include Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City, as item #86 on their menu, their house steak, the famous Delmonico steak, is supposed to have run out often in the 19th century. Another theory is that this term came from the New York speakeasy Chumley’s, which was a hotspot in the 1920s. Chumley’s is hidden inside a West Village building which has two entrances: a well-set-back main entrance on Barrow Street and an obscure back-door exit on 86 Bedford Street. When police were sighted approaching the main entrance, the barkeeps supposedly yelled ‘86 it!’ to signal the patrons to hide the liquor and exit quickly through the back door.

86 the lobster bisque – we won’t have the lobster delivery until tomorrow.

(informal, transitive) To temporarily remove an item from the menu.

We finally had to 86 that old printer after it jammed one too many times.

(informal, transitive) To throw out; discard.

The restaurant 86ed us because we didn't fit the dress code.

(Ben Sanderson, speaking to a bartender) -- "Please, serve me today, and I'll never come in here again. If I do, you can 86 me."

(informal, transitive) To deny service to.

He stole from me and snitched on me, so I 86ed him.

RONALD:”They tried to ghost your girl Isabel right here”. WES CHANDLER(played by Ron Perlman):”Tried to ‘ghost’ her?” RONALD:”Merk. 86. Put her down in the dirt. You feel me?”

2017 September 28, Josh Corbin, 37:03 from the start, in Start Up, season 2, episode 6, spoken by Ronald Dacey (Edi Gathegi):


hole up

hole up (third-person singular simple present holes up, present participle holing up, simple past and past participle holed up)

holes up (present singular third-person)
holing up (participle present)
holed up (participle past)
holed up (past)

From hole + up. Attested from the 19th century.

The guerrillas holed up in a small cave.

The battle ended a two-day siege of an apartment block, where the suspects were holed up.

2005, BBC News, Thursday, 27 January, 2005, 18:50 GMThttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4211625.stm


score

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear.
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.

der

Let's pull a score!

Batman: Dangerous crowd you're stealing from.
Catwoman: Jesus. Is this how you get your kicks, hon? Sneaking up on girls in the dark?
Batman: Is that why you work in the club? It was all just a score?

2022, Matt Reeves, Peter Craig, The Batman:

(US, slang, crime) A criminal act, especially:

A criminal act, especially:
A bribe paid to a police officer.

He made a big score.

A criminal act, especially:
An illegal sale, especially of drugs.

A criminal act, especially:
A prostitute's client.

Ah, who gives a shit? The only score I'm interested in is the one I might make if some foxy chicks start pilin' outta there.

1976, William C. Thomas, Cat Murkil and the Silks, spoken by Punch:

(originally US, vulgar, slang) A sexual conquest.


score

en-verb

score (third-person singular simple present scores, present participle scoring, simple past and past participle scored)

scores (present singular third-person)
scoring (participle present)
scored (participle past)
scored (past)
score (infinitive)

→⇒ Irish: scóráil

(ambitransitive) To obtain something desired.

(US, crime, slang, of a police officer) To extract a bribe.

To obtain something desired.
To extract a bribe.


score

(US, slang) An acknowledgement of success.


red-hot

red-hots (plural)
red hot (alternative)
redhot (alternative)

(dated, US) Alternative spelling of red hot


shadow

en-adj

shadow (comparative more shadow, superlative most shadow)

more shadow (comparative)
most shadow (superlative)

From Middle English schadowe, schadewe, schadwe (also schade > shade), from Old English sċeaduwe, sċeadwe, oblique form of sċeadu (“shadow, shade; darkness; protection”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shade, shadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“darkness”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots scaddow, schaddow (“shadow”), Saterland Frisian Skaad (“shade, shadow”), Dutch schaduw (“shadow”), German Schatten (“shadow, shade”), Norwegian skodde (“fog, mist”), Irish scáth (“shadow”), Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos, “darkness, gloom”) (whence English scoto-).

cog

The shadow cabinet cannot agree on the terms of the agreement due immediately after they are sworn in.

The insurgents’ shadow government is being crippled by the federal military strikes.

(US, politics) Acting in a leadership role before being formally recognized.


nipple

nipples (plural)
neple (alternative)
nypil (alternative)
nyppell (alternative)
neapel (alternative)
neaple (alternative)
neble (alternative)

→ Dutch: nippel

→ German: Nippel

→ Danish: nippel

→ Norwegian: nippel

From earlier neple, nypil, neble, believed to be a diminutive of nib, neb (“tip, point”), equivalent to nib + -le. Compare Old English nypel (“elephant trunk”), formed analogously as "a protuberance from one's neb" .

nippel

piece to connect a bicycle spoke to the rim

(plumbing, chiefly US) A short tube threaded at both ends, used as a connector.


fathom

From Middle English fathome, fadom, fadme (“unit of length of about six feet; depth of six feet for nautical soundings; (loosely) cubit; ell”) [and other forms], from Old English fæþm, fæþme (“encircling or outstretched arms, bosom, embrace; envelopment; control, grasp, power; fathom (unit of measurement); cubit”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *faþm (“outstretched arms, embrace; fathom (unit of measurement)”), from Proto-Germanic *faþmaz (“outstretched arms, embrace; fathom (unit of measurement)”), from Proto-Indo-European *pet-, *peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly”).
Cognates
* Ancient Greek πέταλος (pétalos, “broad; flat”), πετᾰ́ννῡμῐ (petắnnūmĭ, “to open; to spread out; to be dispersed or scattered”) (whence English petal)
* Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌸𐌰 (faþa, “fench; hedge”)
* Latin pateō (“to extend, increase; to be accessible, attainable, open; to be exposed, vulnerable”)
* Low German fadem, faem (“cubit; thread”)
* Middle Dutch vadem (modern Dutch vaam, vadem (“fathom”))
* Norwegian Bokmål favn (“an embrace; a fathom”)
* Old Frisian fethm (“outstretched arms”)
* Old High German fadam, fadum (“cubit”) (Middle High German vade (“enclosure”), vadem, vaden, modern German Faden (“fathom; filament, thread”))
* Old Norse faþmr (Danish favn (“an embrace; a fathom”), Icelandic faðmur (“an embrace”), Swedish famn (“the arms, bosom; an embrace”))
* Old Welsh etem (“thread”)

nb...

fadam, fadame, fademe, fadim, fadmen, fadome, fadum, fadym, fathem, fathme, fathum, fedme, fethme, feþme, (Southern England) vathym, vedme, vetheym, vethym, veðme, veþum

cog

[T]he ſhipmen deemed that they drew neere to ſome countrey: And ſounded, and found it twentie fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they ſounded againe, and found it fifteene fathoms.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 27:27–28, column 2:

Full fadom fiue thy Father lies,
Of his bones are Corrall made:
Those are pearles that were his eies,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a Sea-change
Into someting rich, & strange

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 5, column 1:

(chiefly nautical, historical, US) A man's armspan, generally reckoned to be six feet (about 1.8 metres). Later used to measure the depth of water, but now generally replaced by the metre outside American usage.

dupa

measure of six feet — see also brace, toise

After we'd rowed for an hour, we found ourselves stranded ten fathoms from shore.

At fifty fathoms, the waters of the Southern Ocean are dark blue.

1983, Richard Ellis, “The Predators”, in The Book of Sharks, 1st paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published 1989, →ISBN, page 7:

(nautical, US) A measure of distance to shore: the nearest point to shore at which the water depth is the value quoted.


turnaround

en-noun

turnaround (countable and uncountable, plural turnarounds)

turnarounds (plural)
turn-around (alternative)
turn around (alternative)
turnround (alternative)


turnout

turnout (countable and uncountable, plural turnouts)

turnouts (plural)
turn-out (alternative)

When towing a trailer, use the turnouts to let faster traffic pass.

This is a location that should not be missed, especially during late afternoons in winter. This field can be photographed from the narrow driveway that leads down to the restaurant or from the turnout south of the restaurant, ...

2011, Douglas Steakley, Photographing Big Sur: Where to Find Perfect Shots and How to Take Them, The Countryman Press, →ISBN, page 56:

An article published recently in our associated weekly contemporary, The Railway Gazette, dealt at some length with the differences in construction and operation between civil and military railways, and explained that points and crossings are more commonly termed "turnouts" in military parlance.

1943 September and October, “Military and Civil Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 257:

Crossing stations on single lines are laid out so that one line has a straight run through, and is signalled in each direction, avoiding the need to slow down to take the turnout into the loop.

1954 August, J. B. Snell, “The New Zealand Government Railways—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 562:

[...] the Welwyn bottleneck will be relaid with high-speed turnouts and resignalled for reversible working.

1960 June, “Talking of Trains: Sunday on the G.N. line”, in Trains Illustrated, page 322:

When the engineer of Extra 3119 West reported that he was in trouble, the VAN train was about 4 1/2 minutes from the east turnout of Dawes passing track and about 4 miles ahead of Extra 3119 West. The dispatcher probably could have averted the accident by immediately acting to align the turnout at Dawes to the passing track and instructing the VAN train engineer to slow down sufficiently to allow for the time it would take for the CTC command to be executed.

1981 August 18, National Transportation Safety Board, “Role of Dispatcher”, in Railroad Accident Report: Rear-End Collision of Union Pacific Railroad Company Freight Trains Extra 3119 West and Extra 8044 West, Near Kelso, California, November 17, 1980, archived from the original on 2022-03-29, page 30:

(rail transport, chiefly US) A place where moveable rails allow a train to switch tracks; a set of points.


bumbershoot

bumbershoots (plural)
bumberchute (alternative)
bumberschutz (alternative)

Probably from bumber + shoot, modifications of umbr(ella) + (para)chute. Compare umbershoot.

It smells like rain. Perhaps we should take along a bumbershoot.

Oh! Hang the bumbershoot! [Flings umbrella away, clasps Mrs. Dobbs wildly.]

1887, Olivia Lovell Wilson, “Left. A Railroad Episode.”, in Parlor Varieties: Part Three: Plays, Pantomimes, and Charades, Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard; New York, N.Y.: Charles T. Dillingham, →OCLC, act I, page 113:

Little drops of water / It is safe to bet / If you have no bumbershoot, / Make you doosid wet.

1891 March 21, “From the New Mother Goose”, in Brooklyn Life: A Journal of Society, Literature, Drama & the Clubs, volume III, number 55, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Brooklyn Life Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 2, column 1:

"It—it belongs in our family," said Button-Bright, beginning to eat and speaking between bites. "This umbrella has been in our family years, an' years, an' years. But it was tucked away up in our attic an' no one ever used it 'cause it wasn't pretty." / "Don't blame 'em much," remarked Cap'n Bill, gazing at it curiously; "it's a pretty old-lookin' bumbershoot."

1912, L[yman] Frank Baum, “The Magic Umbrella”, in Sky Island […], 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp, Clark Co., →OCLC, page 25:

Two women pickets, Krkossa and Menefee, walked the picket line in front of the Respondent's studio for 1½ hours on 1 day carrying large old-fashioned men's umbrella (perhaps better described by the word "bumbershoots") thereby, according to the Respondent's theory, committing serious strike misconduct by interfering with pedestrian traffic in front of the Respondent's studio, by preventing others on the street or sidewalk from reading advertising material painted on the approximately 50-foot expanse of windows of the Respondent's building facing upon the street, and by reason of the hazard allegedly created of physical damage to passing pedestrians from the ribs of said bumbershoots.

1958 December 1, “Wichita Television Corporation Incorporated, d/b/a KARD-TV and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Machine Operators of the U.S. & Canada, Motion Picture Projectionists, Local No. 414, AFL-CIO [Cases Nos. 17-CA-1109 and 17-CA-1153]”, in Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, volume 122, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office [for the National Labor Relations Board], published 1959, →OCLC, page 251:

Nick Fury. Hey, Percy! Get that blasted umbrella outta my ribs!! / Percy Pinkerton. I beg your par … Oh! You mean my bumbershoot!

1964 September, Stan Lee, “On to Okinawa!”, in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Marvel Comics Group, →OCLC, page 8:

Me ol' bamboo, me ol' bamboo / You'd better never bother with me ol' bamboo. / You can have me hat or me bumbershoot / But you'd better never bother with me ol' bamboo.

1968, Richard Morton Sherman, Robert Bernard Sherman (lyrics and music), “Me Ol’ Bamboo”, in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: Original Cast Soundtrack, performed by Dick Van Dyke, New York, N.Y.: United Artists, →OCLC:

Wait a minute! Where's my hat? Where— and somebody stole my bumbershoot!

1970 December 11, Ken Anderson et al., The Aristocats, spoken by Napoleon (Pat Buttram), Glendale, Calif.: Walt Disney Productions, →OCLC:

On the march, it began to rain, I had an umbrella, but at 5:51 we copped out for our dinner-date, when just in sight of the sidestreet leading to the U. N., solid with motionless people under their parapluies and bumbershoots; that’s the way it shone back to us, international.

1972, Hortense Calisher, “Seizures of Love and Work”, in Herself, New York, N.Y.: Arbor House, →ISBN, page 274:

Drizzles and mizzles. Recruit a bumbershoot.

1982, Robert B[ailey] Thomas, “April, the Fourth Month”, in Jud Hale [i.e., Judson D. Hale Sr.], editor, The (Old) Farmer’s Almanack, Calculated on a New and Improved Plan for the Year of Our Lord 1982, number 190, Dublin, N.H.: Rob Trowbridge, Yankee Publishing, →OCLC, page 49:

She was terrified as a pair of footmen—dressed in full sixteenth-century livery, powdered wigs and all—cut through the chaos and ushered them inside the Waldorf, shielding them from the flying debris with bumbershoots.

2021 April, Renée Rosen, chapter 60, in The Social Graces, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 352:

(originally and chiefly US, slang, humorous) An umbrella.

sontsa

(slang, humorous) umbrella — see also umbrella


stand up

en-verb

stand up (third-person singular simple present stands up, present participle standing up, simple past and past participle stood up)

stands up (present singular third-person)
standing up (participle present)
stood up (participle past)
stood up (past)

Tok Pisin: sanap

From Middle English standen up, from Old English standan up; equivalent to stand + up. Compare Old Norse standa upp.

(US, military, transitive) To formally activate and commission (a unit, formation, etc.).


green thumb

→ Canadian French: pouce vert (calque)

→ German: grüner Daumen (calque)

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

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

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

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

2003, Barbara Damrosch, The Garden Primer:

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

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

(US, idiomatic) A natural skill for gardening.

I should ask the green thumb next door what she recommends for my droopy daffodils.


check

From Middle English chek, chekke, borrowed from Old French eschek, eschec, eschac, from Medieval Latin scaccus, borrowed from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “king or check at chess, shah”), borrowed from Classical Persian شَاه (šāh, “king”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /šāh/), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /xšāyaθiya/, “king”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšáyati (“he rules, he has power over”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tek- (“to gain power over, gain control over”). All of the English senses developed from the chess sense. Compare Saterland Frisian Schak, Schach, Dutch schaak, German Schach, Danish skak, Swedish schack, Icelandic skák, French échec, Italian scacco. See chess and shah (“king of Persia or Iran”), from the same source.

der

Norton had made a neat, lawyerly check beside each of the items he and Billy had picked up—half a dozen or so, including the milk and a six-pack of Coke.

(US) A mark (especially a checkmark: ✓) used as an indicator.

סימון \ סִמּוּן (simún, literally “a mark”)

I was not carrying cash, so I wrote a check for the amount.

(US) An order to a bank to pay money to a named person or entity.

I summoned the waiter, paid the check, and hurried to leave.

(US) A bill, particularly in a restaurant.

فَاتُورَة

bill, particularly at a restaurant — see also bill


check

en-verb

check (third-person singular simple present checks, present participle checking, simple past and past participle checked)

checks (present singular third-person)
checking (participle present)
checked (participle past)
checked (past)

→ Brazilian Portuguese: checar

→ Cantonese: check

→ Finnish: tsekata

→ German: checken

→ Gulf Arabic: چيك (čayyak)

→ Hijazi Arabic: شَيَّك (šayyak)

→ Hungarian: csekkol

→ Russian: че́кать (čékatʹ)

→ Russian: че́кнуть (čéknutʹ)

→ Russian: проче́кать (pročékatʹ)

→ Spanish: chequear, checar (Mexico)

From Middle English chekken, partly from Old French eschequier and partly from the noun (see above).

check yourself before you wreck yourself

Check the items on the list that interest you.

Check the correct answer to each question.

(transitive, US, often used with "off") To mark items on a list (with a checkmark or by crossing them out) that have been chosen for keeping or removal or that have been dealt with (for example, completed or verified as correct or satisfactory).


spelunker

From then-obsolete spelunk (noun) + -er. Coined by New England cave explorer Roger Charles Johnson in the 1930s.

I took to fishing, on mountain brooks and lakes, and finally I was inveigled into becoming a spelunker. A spelunker is a human worm who crawls into caves ("splunca" is Latin for cave) and explores them.

1943, Clay Perry, Author and Journalist Magazine:

(Canada, US) One who explores caves; one who spelunks.


knock

knock (third-person singular simple present knocks, present participle knocking, simple past and past participle knocked)

knocks (present singular third-person)
knocking (participle present)
knocked (participle past)
knocked (past)

From Middle English knokken, from Old English cnocian, ġecnocian, cnucian (“to knock, pound on, beat”), from Proto-West Germanic *knokōn, from Proto-Germanic *knukōną (“to knock”), a suffixed form of *knu-, *knew- (“to pound on, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gnew-, *gen- (“to squeeze, pinch, kink, ball up, concentrate”). The English word is cognate with Middle High German knochen (“to hit”), Old English cnuian, cnuwian (“to pound, knock”), Old Norse knoka (compare Danish knuge (“to squeeze”), Swedish knocka (“to hug”)).

knock someone into the middle of next week

Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

And my friend, the reporter, could see nothing funny in this! Sent out on an assignment to write up a roaring, hilarious, brilliant joshing story of—but I will not knock a brother—let us go on with the story.

1910, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Thing's the Play”, in Strictly Business:

A Judge must be respected, / A Judge you mustn't knock / Or else you'll be detected / And shoved into the dock.

1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 148:

“And what do you care when some folks start knocking you? It’s a sign you getting some place.”

1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books, published 2014, page 386:

The pious have sometimes knocked the day [Thanksgiving] for its laughter, its late sleeping, its overeating.

1980 November 27, “Inclusive”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(transitive, colloquial, originally US) To criticize verbally; to denigrate; to undervalue.


ginger

en-adj

ginger (comparative more ginger or (rare) gingerer, superlative most ginger or (rare) gingerest)

more ginger (comparative)
gingerer (comparative rare)
most ginger (superlative)
gingerest (rare superlative)

/ˈd͡ʒɪnd͡ʒɚ/

He’s going to get an interview about ten o’clock, making the old gentleman predict war, and we’ll get out the gingerest kind of a special on the strength of it!

1899 April 1, Richard Stillman Powell [pseudonym; Ralph Henry Barbour], “The President and Tom Collins”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 171, number 40, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 626, column 2:

Wherefore, although for my own car I want the “gingerest” possible engine, I realise that it has shortcomings for the general market and I would commend to designers the ideal of an engine that shall be as “woolly” as possible, so long as its artificially restricted dimensions shall not cause its owner to find himself unable to tackle respectable gradients.

1921 January 29, W. Harold Johnson, “[The Automobile World.] My Ideal Small Car Specification”, in Country Life: The Journal for All Interested in Country Life & Country Pursuits, volume XLIX, number 1277, London, page lxvi, column 1:

“Coney Island” is by far the best picture the Hip has had. That says very little for a house that has held the worst, but this F. B. O. [Film Booking Offices] will do business this week for the Hip because it more than makes good under one of the gingerest of names. And a name that should draw by itself.

1928 February 15, “Coney Island”, in Variety, volume XC, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Variety, Inc., →ISSN, page 27, column 3:

They, the Rabbis, for better or for worse, were very ginger with this question.

2006, John W. McGinley, About the King’s Choice to Build His Palace Right on Top of a Dunghill: (Or, How to Conceptualize Jewishly), Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 540:

After a very ginger landing, everyone aboard was able to see up close how lucky they had been to reach base.

Moving very slowly, taking extremely ginger steps, the woman felt beads of sweat dripping down from her body.

2009, Franklin Newman, The Prophetess of Bromfryel: The Knights of Callistor, page 509:

My face hurt like a son of a bitch every time I placed even the gingerest of fingertips on it, but from what I could see from my reflection in the broad blade of my letter opener, it still hadn’t swollen.

2011, Craig Russell, chapter 5, in The Deep Dark Sleep (Lennox; 3), London: Quercus, →ISBN, page 106:

To walk, each crutch he kinda hopped forward a little and used his torso to drag his legs after, using them as the gingerest element of a tripod.

2013, T. D. Badyna, chapter 4, in Flick, Whistle-Bit Books, →ISBN, page 44:

Silence settles once more between us all, filled only by the gingerest of clinks of forks reluctantly hovering over flesh.

2015, James Hannah, “Rib”, in The A to Z of You and Me, London: Black Swan, Transworld Publishers, →ISBN, page 221:

(chiefly British, regional, Canada, US) Very careful or cautious; also, delicate, sensitive.


ladybug

ladybugs (plural)
lady-bug (alternative)

From lady + bug, the “lady” here referring to Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Compare German Marienkäfer, Danish mariehøne, Latvian mārīte, Macedonian бубамара (bubamara) and Spanish mariquita.


Moses

From Latin Mōsēs, Mōȳsēs, from Ancient Greek Μωυσῆς (Mōusês), from Biblical Hebrew מֹשֶׁה (mōšê). Further etymology is unclear, but it is sometimes conjectured to derive from Egyptian ms-s (msj, “to give birth to”), a common element in Egyptian names of the form ‘[name of deity] is the one who bore him’; or, alternatively, contains Egyptian N35A (mw, “water”).

der

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">msj</i>

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">mw</i>

(US, African American culture) pseudonym for Harriet Tubman


barber

en-verb

barber (third-person singular simple present barbers, present participle barbering, simple past and past participle barbered)

barbers (present singular third-person)
barbering (participle present)
barbered (participle past)
barbered (past)

PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
From Middle English barbour, from Anglo-Norman barbour, from Old French barbeor, from barbe (“beard”), from Latin barba.

‘I shouldn't ought to barber with you. But when I like a guy, the ceiling's the limit.’

1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 29:

(intransitive) (US, slang) To chatter, talk.


jersey

en-noun

jersey (countable and uncountable, plural jerseys)

→ Catalan: jersei

→ French: jersey

→ Galician: xersei

→ Portuguese: jérsei

→ Spanish: jersey

From a typical fisherman's sweater used on the island of Jersey.

(countable, US) A shirt worn by a member of an athletic team, usually oversized, typically depicting the athlete's name and team number as well as the team's logotype.


sterile

en-adj

sterile (comparative more sterile, superlative most sterile)

more sterile (comparative)
most sterile (superlative)

From Middle French stérile, from Latin sterilis (“barren, futile”). See also Ancient Greek στεῖρα (steîra).

An early CIA decision was to bring war surplus in Europe to the United States, rather than let it fall into the hands of left-wing movements. Some of the guns would also, it was reasoned, be useful as "sterile" weapons (foreign-made and untraceable to the United States) to be provided secretly to foreign friends.

1980, Russell Warren Howe, Weapons: The International Game of Arms, Money and Diplomacy:

In addition to this rapid supply system, the US Army Counterinsurgency Support Office on Okinawa helped procure special equipment including rucksacks, special rations for irregular troops, 'sterile' weapons which could not be traced to the USA and other items not procurable through foreign channels.

1990, Leroy Thompson, The US Army in Vietnam, page 111:

(US, military) Of weapons: foreign-made and untraceable to the United States.


nonplussed

nonplussed (comparative more nonplussed, superlative most nonplussed)

more nonplussed (comparative)
most nonplussed (superlative)
non-plussed (alternative)

Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Morewood Staniforth
Oxford University Press
Random House

From nonplus (“state of bewilderment or perplexity”, noun) or nonplus (“to bewilder or perplex (someone)”, verb) + -ed (suffix forming adjectives, and the past tense and past participle forms of verbs). Nonplus (noun) is derived from Latin nōn plūs (“no further, no more”), from nōn (“not”) + plūs (“additionally, more; further”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The etymological sense is similar to being left speechless as a result of confusion: the nonplussed person can say or do “no more”.
Sense 2 (“unaffected”) is probably from a misinterpretation of the first element of the word as the prefix non- meaning “not”.

suffix

"I regard Dean [W. P.] Baddeley's gambling activities with embarrassment and dismay," said Anglican dean of Melbourne S. Barton Babbage. […] The Rev. Baddeley remained nonplussed. "I don't intend to make a habit of going to the races but I feel clergymen should mix as our Lord did with all walks of life," Dr. Baddeley said.

1960 August 2, “Cleric’s error was to win his wagers”, in Oakland Tribune, home edition, volume CLXXIII, number 33, Oakland, Calif.: Oakland Tribune, →ISSN, →OCLC, page E7, column 6:

And while many of us might be a little taken aback if Mom showed up at our offices, Secrist is utterly nonplussed, even happy about it.

2002 April 14, Debra Pickett, “Sunday lunch with”, in Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Public Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24:

One cannot help but wonder how the unnecessary death of 10 men sat on [John Charles] Fremont's conscience. From all appearances, he seemed nonplussed and never was remorseful or contrite.

2003 September, Gerald F. Kreyche, “John Charles Fremont and the Exploration of the American West”, in USA Today, volume 132, number 2700, New York, N.Y.: Society for the Advancement of Education, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-13, pages 52–57:

My screams woke everyone on the boat the first night when a large bat flapped up against the screen door to our small cabin, with its foam double beds. My brother-in-law, Mike, was nonplussed: "Why would you get excited over a little bug like that?"

2004 June, Shannon Thompson, “Houseboating on California’s Shasta Lake”, in Sunset, volume 212, number 6, Oakland, Calif.: Sunset Publishing, published 2 September 2004 (online), →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-12, page 140:

The lions in question were nonplussed. "They just stuck their noses into the wind, looked around and slumped down again into the grass," the now 73-year-old [Jonathan Scott] recalls.

2022 August 14, Joe Shute, “The rise and fall of the pride that inspired the Lion King”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-30:

(chiefly US, informal, nonstandard) Unaffected, unfazed; unimpressed.


antelope

→ Irish: antalóp

→ Manx: antelope

From Middle English antelope, from Old French antelop, from Medieval Latin antilops, from Byzantine Greek ἀνθόλοψ (anthólops), which is of obscure origin.

Rarely antelopes are seen, but wolves, rabbits, and sundry ground squirrels abound.

1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 24:

"It reminds me of when I was hunting antelope in Colorado," he said to her.

1881, John W. Forney, The New Nobility, page 80:

Antilocapra americana
Antilocapra americana#Translingual

(US) The pronghorn, Antilocapra americana.


water buffalo

en-noun

water buffalo (plural water buffalos or water buffaloes or water buffalo)

water buffalos (plural)
water buffaloes (plural)
water buffalo (plural)

[ˈwɑɾɚˌbʌfəloʊ]

(US, colloquial) A water tank mounted on a trailer to be towed by a motor vehicle.


static

static (countable and uncountable, plural statics)

Modern Latin staticus, from Ancient Greek στατικός (statikós), from ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to make stand”). By surface analysis, stasis + -tic.

Near-synonym: flak

Don't you be giving me any static over it. You know the rules.

You want to start some static?

1984, Daniel Petrie Jr., Beverly Hills Cop, spoken by Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy), Paramount Pictures:

And then she heads for the clinic and she gets some static walkin' through the doors / They call her a killer, and they call her a sinner, and they call her a whore

1998, “What It's Like”, performed by Everlast:


monkey

monkey (plural monkeys or (obsolete) monkies)

monkeys (plural)
monkies (obsolete plural)

→ Chukchi: маӈкы (maṇky)

→ Coeur d'Alene: moonki

→ Irish: moncaí

→ Navajo: mágí

→ Scottish Gaelic: muncaidh

→ Tumbuka: munkhwele

→ Welsh: mwnci

Uncertain. May be derived from monk + -ey (diminutive suffix), or borrowed from Middle Low German Moneke, the name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox (which may represent an unattested colloquial Middle Low German *moneke, *moneken), itself of uncertain origin. Possibly derived from a Romance term represented by Late Middle French monne (whence Modern French mone (“monkey”)) or earlier Old French monnekin (“monkey”), originally Monnekin, the name of a monkey in Li Dis d'Entendement. Compare also Old French and Middle French monin (“monkey”). The French terms may have been borrowed from Italian monna (“monkey”), from Old Spanish mona (“female monkey”), itself a shortening of mamona, variant of maimón, from Arabic مَيْمُون (maymūn, “baboon”)). However, Old French monnekin may alternatively be unrelated to the other terms, instead being a borrowing of Early Middle Dutch mannekin (a diminutive of a personal name or surname; hence, nickname, literally “miniature man”).

gl

whence Modern French <i class="Latn mention" lang="fr">mone</i> (“monkey”)

der

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

you can take the monkey out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the monkey

A thousandth of a million squid or two monkeys
Or a whole fifty scores

2004, The Streets (lyrics and music), “It Was Supposed to Be So Easy”, in A Grand Don’t Come for Free:

(slang) Synonym of five hundred, especially (British) 500 pounds sterling or (US, dated) 500 dollars.


fountain

From Middle English [Term?]; from Old French fontaine (whence modern fontaine); from Late Latin fontana, from Latin fontanus, fontaneus, adjectives from fons (“source, spring”).

He takes out a soup bowl, fills it with Pepsi from the fountain, and places it carefully on the counter in front of the boy. “That'll be a quarter,” he says professionally.

2014, Danielle Sarver Coombs, Bob Batchelor, We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life... and Always Has, page 222:

A Sproke was a soft drink Gloria and I had created with Jimbo’s help at the Banana Shack. It was basically fountain Coke mixed with fountain Sprite.

2018, Chris Grabenstein, Sandapalooza Shake-up, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 67:

(US) A drink poured from a soda fountain, or the cup it is poured into.


Gothic

en-adj

Gothic (comparative more Gothic, superlative most Gothic)

more Gothic (comparative)
most Gothic (superlative)
gothic (alternative)
Gothick (alternative)
goffick (alternative)

From Late Latin gothicus (“Gothic, barbaric”), from Ancient Greek Γοτθικός (Gotthikós), from Ancient Greek Γότθοι (Gótthoi, “Goths”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), proposed to derive from unattested Gothic *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌰 (*guta). Equivalent to Goth + -ic. The various usages of the adjective are introduced nearly simultaneously in the first half of the 17th century. The literal meaning “of the Goths” is found in the 1611 preface of the King James Bible, in reference to the Gothicke tongue. The generalized meaning of “Germanic, Teutonic” appears in the 1640s. Reference to the medieval period in Western Europe, and specifically the architecture of that period (“barbaric style”, initially a term of abuse), also appears in the 1640s, as does reference to “Gothic characters” or “Gothic letters” in typography.

готически

of the type formerly used for printing German

(typography, US) Of a sans serif typeface using straight, even-width lines, also known as grotesque or lineal.


tea

en-noun

tea (countable and uncountable, plural teas)

Gullah: tea

Jamaican Creole: tea

→ Abenaki: ti

→ Chickasaw: tii'

→ Cocopa: ṭi·

→ Cornish: té

→ Cree:

Canadian syllabic script: ᑎᕀ (tiy)

Latin script: tiy

→ Inuktitut: ᑏ (tii)

→ Irish: tae

→ Maori: tī

→ Malecite-Passamaquoddy: ti

desc

→ Mikasuki: ti'g'tlo'q, ji'gitlo'q (“kettle”) (from "tea kettle")

→ Panamint: tii

→ Scottish Gaelic: tì, teatha

→ Tamil: டீ (ṭī)

→ Tashelhit: atay

→ Telugu: టీ (ṭī)

→ Unami: ti

→ Welsh: te

Amoy
Amoy dialect
Dutch East India Company
Macao
Álvaro Semedo

First appears c. 1655, in the writings of Álvaro Semedo. From Dutch thee, from Hokkien 茶 (tê) (Amoy dialect), from Old Chinese, ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-la (“leaf, tea”). Introduced to English and other Western European languages by the Dutch East India Company, who sourced their tea in Amoy; compare Malay teh along the same trade route. Doublet of chai and cha (and, distantly, the first element of lahpet), from same Proto-Sino-Tibetan root; see discussion of cognates.
Cognates
The word for “tea” in many languages is of Sinitic origin (due to China being the origin of the plant), and thus there are many cognates; see translations. These are from one of two proximate sources, reflected in the phonological shape: forms with a stop (e.g. /t/) are derived from Min Nan tê, while forms with an affricate (e.g. /tʃ/) are derived from other Sinitic languages, like Mandarin chá or Cantonese caa4 (all written as 茶). Different languages borrowed one or the other form (specific language and point in time varied), reflecting trade ties, generally Min Nan tê if by ocean trade from Fujian, Cantonese caa4 if by ocean trade from Guangdong, or northern Chinese chá if by overland trade or by ocean trade from India.
Thus Western and Northern European languages borrowed tê (with the exception of Portuguese, which uses chá; despite being by ocean trade, their source was in Macao, not Amoy), while chá borrowings are used over a very large geographical area of Eurasia and Africa: Southern and Eastern Europe, and on through Turkish, Arabic, North and East Africa, Persian, Central Asian, and Indic languages. In Europe the tê/chá line is Italian/Slovene, Hungarian/Romanian, German/Czech, Polish/Ukrainian, Baltics/Russian, Finnish/Karelian, Northern Sami/Inari Sami. tê was also borrowed in European trade stops in Southern India and coastal Africa, though chá borrowings are otherwise more prevalent in these regions, via Arabic or Indic, due to earlier trade. The situation in Southeast Asia is complex due to multiple influences, and some languages borrowed both forms, such as Malay teh and ca.
Sense 10 (“information, especially gossip”) is originally from T standing for truth, which evolved into tea.

茶水

cheap or free tea in Chinese restaurants

紅茶 (こうちゃ, kōcha) (black tea, lit.: "red")

what does that have to do with the price of tea in China

We'd like one tea and one coffee, please.

(countable, Commonwealth, northern US) A cup or (East Asia, Southern US) glass of any of these drinks, often with milk, sugar, lemon, and/or tapioca pearls.


minor

en-adj

minor (comparative more minor, superlative most minor)

more minor (comparative)
most minor (superlative)
miner (alternative)
maner (alternative)
minore (alternative)
minour (alternative)
mynor (alternative)
mynour (alternative)
mynowr (alternative)
mi (alternative)

antonym(s) of

serious, grave, severe, dangerous, fatal, life-threatening, acute (informal)

From Middle English minor, menor, menour, etc., from Latin minor (“lesser; young; young person”) both directly and via Norman and Middle French menor, menour, etc. Doublet of minus but not mini-. Cognate with minister, minify, Minorca, Menshevik, and possibly minnow. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow.

der

The minor requirements only involve about 20 hours of classes.

Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option, particularly:

(Canada, US, education) Of or related to a minor, a secondary area of undergraduate study.


minor

minors (plural)
miner (alternative)
maner (alternative)
minore (alternative)
minour (alternative)
mynor (alternative)
mynour (alternative)
mynowr (alternative)
mi (alternative)

byvak

subject of secondary undergraduate study

I got a minor in English Lit.

(Canada, US, education) A formally recognized secondary area of undergraduate study, requiring fewer course credits than the equivalent major.

I became an English minor.

(Canada, US, education, uncommon) A person who is completing or has completed such a course of study.


major

From Middle English major, from Latin maior, comparative of magnus (“great, large; noble, important”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs (“greater”), comparative of *meǵh₂- (“great”). Compare West Frisian majoar (“major”), Dutch majoor (“major”), French majeur. Doublet of mayor.

pääaineopiskelija

student specializing in a specified subject

Midway through his second year of college, he still hadn't chosen a major.

(education, Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand) The principal subject or course of a student working toward a degree at a college or university.

She is a math major.

A student at a college or university specializing on a given area of study.


bracket

From earlier bragget, *bracket, from Middle English *braget, *braket (attested in braket nail), from Old French braguette (“the opening in the fore part of a pair of breeches, one's fly”), a diminutive of Old French brague (“knickers, britches”), from Old Occitan braga, from Latin brāca (“pants”), from Transalpine Gaulish *brāca, from Proto-Germanic *brāks, an early form of Proto-Germanic *brōks (“leggings, breeches, trousers”).

kllapë

generically any of “(”, “)”, “[”, “]”, “{”, “}”, “⟨”, “⟩”, “<”, “>”, etc.

Any of the characters “(”, “)”, “[”, “]”, “{”, “}”, “⟨”, “⟩”, “<”, “>”, or the like, used in pairs to enclose parenthetic remarks, sections of mathematical expressions, etc.

(US) “[” and “]” specifically, as opposed to the other forms, which have their own technical names.


carry

en-verb

carry (third-person singular simple present carries, present participle carrying, simple past and past participle carried)

carries (present singular third-person)
carrying (participle present)
carried (participle past)
carried (past)

borrow

the equivalent reverse procedure in the inverse operation of subtraction

→ Cantonese: carry

From Middle English carrien, from Anglo-Norman carier (modern French charrier); from a derivative of Latin carrus (“four-wheeled baggage wagon”), ultimately of Gaulish origin.

tīhei

on the back but held in place with hands

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

one can't carry two watermelons under one arm

A holster can help you carry in confidence, knowing that your weapon is secure and close at hand.

(Canada, US) To bear a firearm, such as a gun.


preference

en-verb

preference (third-person singular simple present preferences, present participle preferencing, simple past and past participle preferenced)

preferences (present singular third-person)
preferencing (participle present)
preferenced (participle past)
preferenced (past)
præference (alternative)

From Middle French preference, from Medieval Latin preferentia. Doublet of preferans.
Morphologically prefer + -ence.

(US) To give preferential treatment to; to give a preference to.


thong

From Middle English thong, thwong, thwang, from Old English þwong, þwang, þweng, þwæng (“thong, band, strap, cord, strip of leather; phylactery”), from Proto-West Germanic *þwangi, from Proto-Germanic *þwangiz, *þwanguz (“coercion, constraint, band, clamp, strap”), from Proto-Indo-European *twenk- (“to squeeze, press, pressure”). Cognate with Scots thwang, thwayng, thang (“thong”), Middle Low German dwenge (“clamp, jaws, steel-trap”), German Zwinge (“vise, clamp”), Danish tvinge (“clamp”), dialectal Norwegian tveng (“shoestrap, shoelace”), Icelandic þvengur (“strap, thong, latchet”).

cog

She was impressed by her friend's confidence to wear a thong on the crowded beach.

(UK, US) An item of clothing, usually an undergarment or swimwear consisting of very narrow strips designed to cover just the genitals and nothing more.


flip-flop

flip-flops (plural)
flip flop (alternative)
flipflop (alternative)

→ Japanese: フリップフロップ (furippu-furoppu)

Onomatopoeic. Most probably an imitation of the sound produced when walking in them.

the necessity for yet another place at which to buy a polo shirt or a pair of flip-flops may not be apparent to the town's residents

30 August 2004, The New Yorker,, page 38

(US, UK, Fiji) A sandal consisting of a rubber sole fastened to the foot by a rubber thong fitting between the toes and around the sides of the foot.

A change of places; an inversion or swap.

(US) An instance of flip-flopping, of repeatedly changing one's stated opinion about a matter.

vatulointi

repeatedly changing one’s stated opinion

We'll catch you on the flip-flop. This here's the Rubber Duck on the side. We gone, 'bye, 'bye.

1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

(US, slang, truck driving) A return trip.


peanut

peanuts (plural)
pea nut (alternative)
pea-nut (alternative)

From pea + nut, perhaps a folk etymology of pinda, pinder (still found in Southern US dialects).


Australianize

en-verb

Australianize (third-person singular simple present Australianizes, present participle Australianizing, simple past and past participle Australianized)

Australianizes (present singular third-person)
Australianizing (participle present)
Australianized (participle past)
Australianized (past)


AS

Coordinate term: AD

(US, Navy) Initialism of auxiliary submarine: a naval tender, a submarine tender that tends to submarines


guess

guess (third-person singular simple present guesses, present participle guessing, simple past and past participle guessed)

guesses (present singular third-person)
guessing (participle present)
guessed (participle past)
guessed (past)
guess (infinitive)

From Middle English gessen (verb) and Middle English gesse (noun), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse, gitse, getsa (“to guess”), from Old Norse *getsa, *gitsa, from Proto-Germanic *gitisōną (“to guess”), from Proto-Germanic *getaną (“to get”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to take, seize”).
Cognate with Danish gisne (“to guess”), Norwegian gissa, gjette (“to guess”), Swedish gissa (“to guess”), Saterland Frisian gisje (“to guess”), Dutch gissen (“to guess”), Low German gissen (“to guess”), Dutch gis (“a guess”). Related also to Icelandic giska ("to guess"; from Proto-Germanic *gitiskōną). Compare also Russian гада́ть (gadátʹ, “to conjecture, guess, divine”), Albanian gjëzë (“riddle”) from gjej (“find, recover, obtain”). More at get.

gloss

"to guess"; from Proto-Germanic <i class="Latn mention" lang="gem-pro">*gitiskōną</i>

cog

That album is quite hard to find, but I guess you could try ordering it online.

Not all together; better far, I guess, / That we do make our entrance several ways.

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

But in known images of life I guess / The labour greater.

1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]:

"Are you a member of the union?"
"Sure."
"Then you'll get your job, I guess. Have you any friends?"

1914–1915, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear:

(chiefly US) to suppose, to imagine (introducing a proposition of uncertain plausibility).


juice

en-verb

juice (third-person singular simple present juices, present participle juicing, simple past and past participle juiced)

juices (present singular third-person)
juicing (participle present)
juiced (participle past)
juiced (past)

From Middle English jus, juis, from Old French jus, jous, from Latin jūs (“broth, soup, sauce”), from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs, from *yewH- (“to mix (of meal preparation)”). Doublet of jus and ukha. In this sense, mostly displaced native Middle English sew (“juice”), from Old English sēaw (“juice, sap”) (> English sew (“juice, broth, gravy”)). Sense of "soft drink" most likely an ellipsis of fizzy juice, another similarly common term in Scotland.

Saw your girlfriend, you don't need advice / Always in your ear like, "He's not nice" / She's just upset cause she got juiced in the bunk bed / And you know, she's not wife

2016 February 14, Joseph Adenuga, Darren Dixon, Tariq Devega (lyrics and music), “Ladies Hit Squad” (track 6), in Konnichiwa, performed by Skepta ft. D Double E and ASAP Nast, Boy Better Know:

(transitive, slang, originally US) To have sexual intercourse with.


shan't

shalln't (alternative)
sha'n't (alternative)

From shall + -n't; contraction of shalln't or shall not, historically via shannot.

I shan't be coming back after the way you've treated me today.

That's not a threat, sir, for they have played fair with me, and I sha'n't sacrifice a penny of their money—unless they force me to do so. But—I'm in control. I'm sitting pretty. They can't unseat me, and I warn them not to try.

1922, Rex [Ellingwood] Beach, “chapter XXIV”, in Flowing Gold, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, by arrangement with Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 290:

(UK, Ireland, colloquial; archaic in US, Canada; dated in Australia, New Zealand) Contraction of shall not (negative auxiliary).


frown

From Middle English frown, froun (“a threatening appearance; lowering of the clouds”), from frounen (“to frown”). See below.

The smile and the frown are both indicated and the operation of a motor driven flasher causes the face to look happy and sad in turn.

1911 December 25, “Facial Expression Electric Sign”, in Popular Electricity, volume iv, number 8, Chicago, page 714:

1931, “Turn That Frown Upside Down, Smile at the Cock-eyed World”, Joe Young (lyrics), Sam Stept (music):

(Canada, US) A downturn of the corners of the mouth, typically expressing sadness.


oughtn't

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) (US, Philippines, dated, rare) ought not (negative auxiliary).


main

From Middle English mayn, main, maine, mæine, mæȝen, from Old English mæġen (“strength”), from Proto-Germanic *maginą (“strength, power, might”), *maginaz (“strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (“be able”).
The word is cognate with Old High German magen, megin, Old Norse magn, megn, megin, Old Saxon megin. More recent senses are derived from the adjective.

inh

In the year that followed of 1589, we gave the Spaniards no breath, but turned challengers, invaded the main of Spain. In which enterprize, although we failed of our end, which was to ſettle Don Antonio in the kingdom of Portugal, yet a man ſhall hardly meet with an action that doth better reveal the great ſecret of the power of Spain: […]

1624, Francis Bacon, “Considerations Touching a War with Spain. Inscribed to Prince Charles, An. 1624.”, in The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England, volume III, London: Printed for J[ohn] Walthoe, […], published 1740, →OCLC, page 526:

No man is an Iland, intire of it ſelfe; euery man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; […]

1624, John Donne, “17. Meditation”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, pages 415–416:

The higheſt land on the mayne, yet it was but low, we called Keales hill, and theſe vninhabited Iſles, Ruſſels Iſles.

1624, Anthony Bagnall, Nathanaell Powell, Anas Todkill, “Chapter V. The Accidents that Hapned in the Discovery of the Bay of Chisapeack”, in Iohn Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: […], London: […] I[ohn] D[awson] and I[ohn] H[aviland] for Michael Sparkes, →OCLC, book 3; reprinted in The Generall Historie of Virginia, … (Bibliotheca Americana), Cleveland, Oh.: The World Publishing Company, 1966, →OCLC, page 56:

Tashtego's long, lean, sable hair, his high cheek bones, and black rounding eyes— […] all this sufficiently proclaimed him an inheritor of the unvitiated blood of those proud warrior hunters, who, in quest of the great New England moose, had scoured, bow in hand, the aboriginal forests of the main.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Knights and Squires”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 131:

(now archaic, US dialectal) The mainland.


cruise

Borrowed from Dutch kruisen (“cross, sail around”), from kruis (“cross”), from Middle Dutch cruce, from Latin crux.

I ended my cruise of four years in the Marine Corps at the first Officers' Training Camp for enlisted men at Quantico […]

1919, United States. Marine Corps, Recruiters' Bulletin, page 16:

The New Orleans had to have numerous alterations made, and as the Chicago was just about going into commission, I was ordered to that ship to finish my cruise.

2015, George Barnett, Andy Barnett, George Barnett, Marine Corps Commandant: A Memoir, 1877-1923:

(US, military, informal) A period spent in the Marine Corps.


jackass

en-noun

jackass (countable and uncountable, plural jackasses)

(chiefly US) A foolish or stupid person.

Bobby, only jackasses go around saying how much money they make.

(chiefly US) An inappropriately rude or obnoxious person.

As the vintner Louis Foppiano recalled years later, Sonoma County during Prohibition became a center for bootlegging, not of wine, but of spirits. 'There were some big stills hidden up in the hills of Sonoma, some producing five hundred gallons of Jackass [spirits made from spring water and sugar] a day.'

Richard Mendelson, From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009, p. 82)

By now the wine counties were rife with the activity of the illegal wine trade and the force of the Prohibition Unit was hustling to keep up. At the start of the year, Officer William Navas had staged a raid on the dining room at Healdsburg's Hotel Sotoyome and discovered 'jackass' brandy […]

Vivienne Sosnowski, When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America's Wine Country (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, p. 110)

(US, slang, uncountable) A kind of bootleg liquor.


yam

Borrowed from Portuguese inhame and Spanish ñame, likely from Wolof ñàmbi (“cassava”) or a related word. The term was spelled yam as early as 1657.

yellow yam

Dioscorea cayenensis. Dioscorea panthaica

Ipomoea batatas
Ipomoea batatas#Translingual

(US) A sweet potato; a tuber from the species Ipomoea batatas.


wayleave

wayleaves (plural)
way leave (alternative)


caucus

tlb

(US, Canada, Israel, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, archaic in UK, not used in the European Union)

Unknown. Often claimed to be from an Algonquian language; transcribed words such as cawaassough and caucauasu meaning "counselor, elder, adviser" appear in early texts. A popular folk etymology attested in Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896 stated: "In the early part of the eighteenth century a number of caulkers connected with the shipping business in the North End of Boston held a meeting for consultation. That meeting was the germ of the political caucuses which have formed so prominent a feature of our government ever since its organization." American Heritage Dictionary states the term is taken from the Caucus Club of Boston in the 1760s, possibly from Medieval Latin caucus (“drinking vessel”).

bor

He conferred with Mr. Warren of Plymouth upon the necessity of giving into spirited measures, and then said, "Do you keep the committee in play, and I will go and make a caucus against the evening; and do you meet me."

1788, William Gordon, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America:

A usually preliminary meeting of party members to nominate candidates for public office or delegates to be sent to a nominating convention, or to confer regarding policy.


hawk

Sranan Tongo: aka

From Middle English hauk, hauke, hawke, havek, from Old English hafoc (“hawk”), from Proto-West Germanic *habuk, from Proto-Germanic *habukaz, controversially derived from a Proto-Indo-European *kopuǵos, perhaps ultimately derived from *keh₂p- (“seize”).
See also West Frisian hauk, German Low German Haavke, Dutch havik, German Habicht, Swedish hök, Danish høg, Norwegian Bokmål hauk, Norwegian Nynorsk hauk, Faroese heykur, Icelandic haukur, Finnish haukka, Estonian haugas; also Latin capys, capus (“bird of prey”), Albanian gabonjë, shkabë (“eagle”), Russian ко́бец (kóbec, “falcon”), Polish kobuz (“Eurasian Hobby”)).

[…] take-out sandwich from Arnie's on Jackson, then a brisk walk to Michigan Avenue in the face of the "Hawk," blowing newspapers and skirts and the gulls wheeling over the Michigan Avenue Bridge in front of […]

2000 September 26, William Anderson, A Season of Flames, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 27:

[…] a hand-fired coal furnace that required little attention and kept the cottage coy in spite of "the hawk" blowing icy blasts outside. So in spite of Thumper's continuing discomfort we enjoyed a fairly merry Christmas. But then the base daily bulletin was published with the roster of OGs (officers of the guard) for the[…]

2002 June 25, Charles W. Dryden, A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman, University of Alabama Press, →ISBN, page 215:

I wanna learn by Ruby's birthday party." Pride turned up his collar against the hawk blowing from the river."

2007 December 1, Gay G. Gunn, Pride and Joi, Kensington Books, →ISBN, page 47:

[…] in Chicago […] I can't help but love winter and fall. Mostly fall, because fuck snow, and that hawk blowing off the lake is enough to make your teeth drop right out of your skull , but winter can be kind of okay if it doesn't snow a whole lot and no one asks me to go sledding or do some other Hallmark-movie nonsense.

2017 May 30, Samantha Irby, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.: Essays, Vintage, →ISBN, page 95:

(US, especially Chicago, and nationwide in African-American, often with "the") Cold, sharp or biting wind.

especially Chicago; and nationwide in African-American; especially Chicago; and nationwide in African-American


pope

Jamaican Creole: puop

Tok Pisin: pop

→ Hindi: पोप (pop)

→ Urdu: پوپ (pop)

From Middle English pope, popa, from Old English pāpa, from Vulgar Latin papa (title for priests and bishops, esp. and by 8th c. only the bishop of Rome), from early Byzantine Greek παπᾶς (papâs, title for priests and bishops, especially by 3rd c. the bishop of Alexandria), from late Ancient Greek πάπας (pápas, title for priests and bishops, in the sense of spiritual father), from πάππας (páppas, “papa, daddy”).

der

do not sit in Rome and strive with the Pope

(Roman Catholicism and generally) An honorary title of the Roman Catholic bishop of Rome as father and head of his church, a sovereign of the Vatican city state.

(US, obsolete) Pope Day, the present Guy Fawkes Day.

The Pope is of a bright blue round the head; on the throat it is of a fine red, and on the back of a gold green colour, it sings very finely and is the size of a canary bird.

1771, M. Bossu, Travels Through that Part of North America Formerly Called Louisiana, volume 1, page 371:

The birds [of Louisiana] are the partridge, cardinal and pope, and a species of mocking bird, called the nightingale.

1806, Berquin-Duvallon, Travels in Louisiana and the Floridas, in the Year, 1802: Giving a Correct Picture of Those Countries, page 122:

[...] some others, such as the crow, the heron, and the wild goose, which are found in Europe, I also observed ; but the most beautiful are the pope bird, whose head seems bound with the most bright azure blue, and the cardinal, being entirely of dazzling scarlet [...]

1821, Édouard de Montulé, A Voyage to North America, and the West Indies in 1817, page 54:

(US regional) The painted bunting (Passerina ciris).


pope

The Whipperwill has so named itself by its nocturnal songs. It is also called the pope, by reason of its darting with great swiftness, from the clouds almost to the ground, and bawling out Pope!

1781, S. Peters, Gen. Hist. Connecticut, section 257:

Caprimulgus vociferus
Caprimulgus vociferus#Translingual

(US, dialectal, obsolete) The whippoorwill (Antrostomus vociferus, syn. Caprimulgus vociferus).

Common Nighthawk... Pope (Conn[ecticut]. From the sound made by its wings while dropping through the air).

1956, Massachusetts Audubon Soc. Bull., 40 81:

Chordeiles minor
Chordeiles minor#Translingual

(US, dialectal, rare) The nighthawk (Chordeiles minor).


ghetto

en-adj

ghetto (comparative more ghetto, superlative most ghetto)

more ghetto (comparative)
most ghetto (superlative)

Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto.

The music I liked was very ghetto and gritty. It was the stuff that didn't really cross over much, but spoke to a roots black experience. People don't understand this now, but the falsetto, crying singers were the most ghetto back then.

2002, Russell Simmons, Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, + God, page 26:

You're the one that grew up in the suburbs and you act way more ghetto than I do.” “I am not ghetto.” Val said in an English accent and broke out laughing.

I beat up my kid's principal. Can you get any more ghetto than that?

2005, Chester Kelly Robinson, The Strong Silent Type:

He wasn't lying because, truth be told, I looked a lot like Halle Berry, only I was much thicker in all the right places and I was way more ghetto than Halle. And I had the tattoos and the attitude to match.

2008, Mark Anthony, “So Seductive”, in Around the Way Girls 5, page 244:

Oh yeah, we played the whole thing, I mean we was acting more ghetto than what we was. We was talking slangs and giving dabs every time we said so

2010, Timothy Black, When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets, page 93:

Kesha rang us up, and instructed another girl in the back to add extra food to the bag. "Your girl is kinda ghetto ain't she?" I asked when we left the store. "No more ghetto than anyone else around here" he replied,

2010, T. S. Weatherspoon, The Promise, page 20:

(US, informal, often derogatory or offensive) Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.

نيئة

characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of US ghetto


cot

Borrowed from Hindi खाट (khāṭ), from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀔𑀝𑁆𑀝𑀸 (khaṭṭā), from Sanskrit खट्वा (khaṭvā, “bedstead”).

(Canada, US, Philippines) A simple bed, especially one for portable or temporary purposes.


slip

From Middle English slippen, probably from Middle Low German slippen, from Old Saxon *slippian, from Proto-West Germanic *slippjan, from Proto-Germanic *slipjaną (“to glide”), an iterative form of *slīpaną (“to slip, slide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyb- (“slimy; to slide”). Possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *slewbʰ- (“slip, slide”), or related to Proto-Germanic *slībaną (“to split”); related to Old English slipor (“slippery”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian slipje (“to slip”), Dutch slippen (“to slip”), German Low German slippen, slupen (“to slip”), German schlüpfen (“to slip”).

der

there's many a slip between the cup and the lip

there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip

(US) A long seat or narrow pew in churches, often without a door.


manifold

manifolds (plural)
manyfold (alternative)

From Middle English manifold, from Old English maniġfeald (“manifold, various, varied, complicated, numerous, abundant, plural”), from Proto-Germanic *managafalþaz, equivalent to many + -fold. Cognate with Middle High German manecvalt (“manifold”), Icelandic margfaldr (“multiple”). Compare also German mannigfaltig (“various”), Dutch menigvoudig (“various”), Danish mangefold (“multiple”), Swedish mångfald (“diversity”).

cog

My conjecture being right he will find the third stomach, or manifolds, the seat of difficulty.

1830, Anson, Somerset Co. Me., retrieved 2007-06-12:

(US, dialectal, chiefly in the plural) The third stomach of a ruminant animal, an omasum.


muggle

en-noun

muggle (countable and uncountable, plural muggles)

Origin unknown; first known to have come into use in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., in the mid-1920s.

Marijuana is a variety of hemp weed (Cannabis sativa) long common in Mexico, lately becoming common in the U. S. Its leaves can be dried, ground and rolled into cigarets, which are bootlegged under the name of "muggles," "reefers," or "Mary Warners." Thinner, shorter than standard cigarets, "muggles" are made from the small delicate leaves of the female marijuana plant.

1931 September 7, “Crime: Muggles”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2014-10-14:

“[...] Eddie, what is this cigarette? It tastes a bit like opium.” / “It’s a ‘muggles’, kid—Mex marijuana; it won’t hurt you any if you don’t inhale too deeply, but you’ll pass out if you do. [...]”

1933, Cecil de Lenoir, “Way down South”, in The Hundredth Man: Confessions of a Drug Addict, London: Jarrolds […], →OCLC, page 226:

Windy, muggle-smoking Louis Armstrong has never had patience or skill to build an orchestra of his own. He is happy strutting before any good hot band where he can introduce himself as "The Reverend Satchel Mouth" and proceed to triple-tongue a cornet at incredible speed.

1933 June 12, “Hot Ambassador”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2007-12-01:

But even then "muggle" smoking does not affect along a given pattern. "Afflicted with hallucinations of terrifying extent," [James Skelly] Wright said, "he is liable to run amok, leaving a trail of crime – even murder, in his wake." Case after case in which criminals have admitted smoking "muggles" indicates this is true, according to Wright.

1938 July 1, Mansfield News Journal, Mansfield, Oh.: Mansfield Journal Co., →OCLC:

“Ever smoke any muggles?” he asked me. “Man, this is some golden-leaf I brought up from New Orleans, it’ll make you feel good, take a puff.”

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Quit Foolin’ with That Comb”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 51:

(countable) A marijuana cigarette; a joint.


nasty

en-adj

nasty (comparative nastier, superlative nastiest)

nastier (comparative)
nastiest (superlative)

From Middle English nasty, nasti, naxty, naxte (“unclean, filthy”), whence also Early Modern English nasky (“nasty”), of obscure origin. Probably from earlier Middle English *naskty, *naskedy, from Middle English *nasked (“dirty, messy”) + -y, ultimately of North Germanic origin (comparable to Danish nasket (“dirty, foul, unpleasant”), Swedish naskot (“dirty, filthy”), Swedish naskig, naskug (“nasty, dirty, messy”)), themselves all probably related to Proto-Germanic *hnaskuz (“tender, soft”). Likely doublet of nesh and nosh. Cognate with Scots nastie, nestie (“dirty, filthy”).
Alternative theories have also been proposed, which include:
* From Low German nask (“nasty”) + -y.
* From Old French nastre (“bad, strange”), shortened form of villenastre (“infamous, bad”), from vilein (“villain”) + -astre (pejorative suffix), from Latin -aster.
* Middle Dutch nestich, nistich ("nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch nestig (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)), perhaps ultimately connected to the Scandinavian word above, or related to *nest (“nest”).
* Other suggestions include Old High German naz (“wet”), hardening of English nesh(y) (“soft”), or alteration of English naughty.
* Modern use of the word is sometimes attributed to the popular and often derogatory 19th century American political cartoons of Thomas Nast, but the word predates him.

unc

obscure

gloss

"nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">nestig</i> (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)

In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.

I really don't have any friends at school Mama Mia. They talk about me all the time. They say my hair's nappy and my clothes are nasty.

2006, Marie Fontaine, The Chronicles of my Ghetto Street Volume One, page 156:

"Well," she grinned, looking hot and sexy. "They say you doing some real nasty shit in the NBA, but on the mic you a little too competitive. They say you a gaming niggah who likes to keep up all kinds of go-to-war gangsta friction between rappers. That shit must work for you though, huh? You stickin' all over the charts when other artists are failin' off. They rotating your cuts on the radio like mad too."

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 15:

(slang, chiefly US) Formidable, terrific; wicked.


torrid

en-adj

torrid (comparative torrider, superlative torridest)

torrider (comparative)
torridest (superlative)

From Latin torridus, from torreō (“parch, scorch”).

But thanks to a torrid stretch that started in mid-June, the Yankees have regained first place in the A.L. East and built the largest division lead — nine games ahead of the second-place Tampa Bay Rays — in the league.

2019 July 22, James Wagner, “Yankees Face Another A.L. Powerhouse in the Twins”, in The New York Times, page B11:

(chiefly US, sports) [of a streak, form, etc.] Good, impressive, hot


STFU

Southern Tenant Farmers Union
w:Southern Tenant Farmers Union

(US, historical) Initialism of Southern Tenant Farmers Union.


poker

Compare Danish pokker (“the deuce, devil”), and English puck.

The very leaves on the horse-chesnuts[…]cling to the bough as if old poker was coming to take them away.

5 May 1784, Horace Walpole, letter to Hon. H. S. Conway:

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(US, colloquial) Any imagined frightful object, especially one supposed to haunt the darkness; a bugbear.


speedway

en-noun

speedway (countable and uncountable, plural speedways)

трек

для мотоцикле́тных го́нок

(chiefly US) A road for high speed traffic; an expressway.


billiards

→ Irish: billéardaí

→ Welsh: biliards

From French billard, originally referring to the wooden cue stick, diminutive of Old French bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“large tree, tree trunk”)), from Proto-Celtic *belyos (“tree”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yos (“leaf”), from *bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”).

cog

(games, US) Any of various games played on a tabletop, usually with several balls, one or more of which is hit by a cue.


chore

en-verb

chore (third-person singular simple present chores, present participle choring, simple past and past participle chored)

chores (present singular third-person)
choring (participle present)
chored (participle past)
chored (past)

From earlier char, from Middle English charr, charre, cherre (“odd job, turn, occasion, business”), from Old English ċerr, ċierr (“a turn”), from ċierran (“to turn”), from Proto-Germanic *karzijaną (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gers- (“to bend, turn”).
Cognate with Dutch keer (“time; turn; occasion”), German Kehre (“a turn; bend; wind; back-flip; u-turn”). Also related to Saterland Frisian kiere, käire (“to turn”), Old Saxon kērian, Old High German chēran (“to turn”) (German kehren (“to turn”), Dutch keren (“to turn”)). See also char.


couch

→ German: Couch

→ Serbo-Croatian: кауч /kauč

From Middle English couche, cowche, from Old French couche, from the verb (see below). Doublet of cwtch.

At a casting workshop, an actor was performing a blank scene […] and he had not bothered to make any choices about why he was on stage, what his motivation was, what he was playing. He had decided who he was and where he was (on a couch with his girlfriend) but had not decided what he wanted. So the performance was flat and lifeless.

2009, Nancy Bishop, Secrets from the Casting Couch: On Camera Strategies for Actors from a Casting Director, London: Methuen Drama, A & C Black, →ISBN:

[…] I want to try to describe my efforts to take psychoanalysis as a method off the couch and into the work of creating and using a political conference table.

2010, Alessandra Lemma, Matthew Patrick, “Off the Couch and Round the Conference Table”, in Alessandra Lemma, Matthew Patrick, editors, Off the Couch: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Applications, London: Routledge, →ISBN:

It's not a particularly unique living room. It has a window that faces the street, two broken-in beige couches, a few end tables, a television (not the latest model), and a dark blue throw rug in the center of it all. Alice sat down on one end of one couch, and I sat down on the other end.

2014, Jennifer Mathieu, The Truth About Alice: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Roaring Brook Press, →ISBN:

(Canada, US, Australia, Ireland) An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person; a sofa.

bank

furniture for seating of more than one person


millennial

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Late Latin mīllennium (“millennium”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming nouns). The English word may be analysed as millennium + -al or milli- (prefix meaning ‘thousand’) + -ennial (suffix meaning ‘years’).
Sense 5 (“of or relating to, or characteristic of, people born in the last two decades of the 20th century”) was coined by the American authors William Strauss (1947–2007) and Neil Howe (born 1951) in their book Generations (1991): see the quotations.
The noun is derived from the adjective.

coinage

Michael Dimock (2019 January 17) “Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins”, in Pew Research Center, archived from the original on 2020-06-01.

semiannual · annual · biennial · triennial · quadrennial · quinquennial

quintennial · sextennial · septennial · octennial · novennial · decennary

decennial · sesquidecennial · centennial · sesquicentennial · bicentennial · tricentennial · quadricentennial · bimillennial · trimillennial · quadrimillennial · decamillennial

the millennial generation

He was suffering from a typical millennial problem: Which is the correct emoji to use?

Boomers played cassettes in their cars and popularized FM radio. Thirteeners love their compact disks. Today's electronics industry is abuzz with talk of the new digital technology that awaits Millennial teenagers.

1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Past as Prologue”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page 352:

When the staccato, Neptunes-ian single "Boyfriend" was released in March, musical prognosticators were quick to peg the album it portended, Believe, as Justin Bieber's Justified, a grown-and-sexy, R&B-centric departure that evolved millennial teenybopper Justin Timberlake into one of the unifying pop-music figures of the aughts.

2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2023-04-05:

Many people, or at least a handful of very loud people, hate to being dubbed Millennial. They see it as derogatory.

2015 August 24, Samantha Sharf, “What is a ‘Millennial’ Anyway? Meet the Man who Coined the Phrase”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-29:

But, while many have jumped to label the astrology boom as another millennial trend, that may not actually be the case.

2018 March 22, Wilder Davies, “Mercury Is Entering Retrograde Again. This Is Why So Many People Care”, in Time:

We make hits / Two broke millennial men / And we'd do it again

2024, “We Make Hits”, in James Smith (lyrics), Where's My Utopia?, performed by Yard Act:

(by extension, originally US, demography) Often capitalized: of or relating to, or characteristic of, people born in the last two decades of the 20th century from around the early 1980s to the mid 1990s (with 1996 births cited as the last Millennial year), and who reached adulthood early in the third millennium C.E.


millennial

millennials (plural)
Millennial (alternative)

Someday, Boomers hope, Millennials will build according to great ideals their parents can only envision, act on vital issues their parents can only ponder.

1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Millennial Cycle”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page 342:

Meet the Millennials, born in or after 1982—the "Babies on Board" of the early [Ronald] Reagan years, the "Have You Hugged Your Child Today?" sixth graders of the early [Bill] Clinton years, the teens of Columbine, and, this year, the much-touted high school Class of 2000, now invading the nation's campuses.

2000 September, Neil Howe, William Strauss, “The Next Great Generation”, in Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 4:

When we saw Millennials as kids being raised so differently, we could already make an easy prediction. We had seen this dark to bright contrast in child upbringing before many times in American history, so we already foresaw that by the time you got to 2000 you would see huge changes in people in their late teens and early 20s.

2015 August 24, Samantha Sharf, quoting Neil Howe, “What is a ‘Millennial’ Anyway? Meet the Man who Coined the Phrase”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-29:

In a bumper for a newsmagazine program, a reporter muses: “[It’s] the year of the yuppie, but what is a yuppie?” That’s right, fellow millennials: Not long ago, young people had so much economic opportunity that their generation was defined by its upward mobility.

2020 June 25, Eve Peyser, “In vintage TV ads, a curious fountain of hope (and cheese)”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-20:

(originally US, demography) Often capitalized: a person from the generation born in the last two decades of the 20th century, from around the early 1980s to the mid-1990s and who reached adulthood early in the third millennium C.E., characterized by their familiarity with computer technology and poorer financial prospects than their parents.


carburetor

carburetors (plural)
carburator (alternative)
carburettor (alternative)
carbureter (alternative)
carburetter (alternative)

/ˈkɑːb(j)əˌɹɛtə/

Attested from 1862, from carburet (“enrich an illuminating gas with carbon-rich fuel”) + -or. The motor vehicle sense is attested since 1896

affix

carburet<t:enrich an illuminating gas with carbon-rich fuel>

internal combustion engine
internal combustion engine

(US, Canada) A device in an internal combustion engine where fuel is vaporized and mixed with air prior to ignition.

مَازِج

a device in an internal combustion engine


meek

en-verb

meek (third-person singular simple present meeks, present participle meeking, simple past and past participle meeked)

meeks (present singular third-person)
meeking (participle present)
meeked (participle past)
meeked (past)

From Middle English meek, meke, meoc, unknown origin, likely related to Old English smēag (“subtle, stealthy, etc.”) and smūgan and possibly a borrowing from Old Norse mjúkr (“soft; meek”), from Proto-Germanic *meukaz, *mūkaz (“soft; supple”), from Proto-Indo-European *mewg-, *mewk- (“slick, slippery; to slip”).
Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk mjuk (“soft”), Norwegian Bokmål myk (“soft”), and Danish myg (“supple”), Dutch muik (“soft, overripe”), dialectal German mauch (“dry and decayed, rotten”), Mauche (“malanders”). Compare as well Welsh mwyth (“soft, weak”), Latin ēmungō (“to blow one's nose”), Tocharian A muk- (“to let go, give up”), Lithuanian mùkti (“to slip away from”), Old Church Slavonic мъчати (mŭčati, “to chase”), Ancient Greek μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to blow the nose”), Sanskrit मुञ्चति (muñcati, “to release, let loose”).


coyote

coyotes (plural)
cayeute (alternative)
cayota (alternative)
cayote (alternative)
coyoto (alternative)

→ Irish: cadhóit

Borrowed from Spanish coyote, from a Nahuan language, from Proto-Nahuan *koyootl. Compare Chinook ki-o-tī.

Jorge’s father had pawned his last four goats for $2,000 to help pay for their transit, another loan the family would have to repay at 100 percent interest. The coyote called at 10 p.m. — they would go that night.

2020 July 23, Abrahm Lustgarten, “The Great Climate Migration”, in The New York Times:

undocumented immigrant
undocumented immigrant

United States of America
United States of America

(US, informal) A smuggler of undocumented immigrants across the land border from Latin America into the United States of America.


jackrabbit

en-verb

jackrabbit (third-person singular simple present jackrabbits, present participle jackrabbiting, simple past and past participle jackrabbited)

jackrabbits (present singular third-person)
jackrabbiting (participle present)
jackrabbited (participle past)
jackrabbited (past)


timber

en-noun

timber (countable and uncountable, plural timbers)

From Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-West Germanic *timr, from Proto-Germanic *timrą, from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“build, house”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dṓm).
Cognates include Dutch timmer, Old High German zimbar (German Zimmer), Norwegian tømmer, Old Norse timbr, Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (timrjan, “to build”), Latin domus and Ancient Greek δόμος (dómos).

der

(outside Canada, US, uncountable) Wood that has been pre-cut and is ready for use in construction.

خَشَب

wood that has been cut ready for construction


lumber

en-noun

lumber (usually uncountable, plural lumbers)

Exact origin unknown. The earliest recorded reference for the noun was to heavy, useless objects such as old, discarded furniture. Perhaps from the verb lumber in reference to meaning "awkward to move"; Online Etymological Dictionary thinks this may derive from the same root as lame. Possibly influenced by Lumbar, an obsolete variant of Lombard, the Italian immigrant class known for being pawnbrokers and money-lenders in early England. Compare English lumpish.

Here they live by fishing on the most plentiful coasts in the world; there they fell trees, by the sides of large rivers, for masts and lumber […].

1782, H. de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer:

4 December 1883, Chester A. Arthur, Third State of the Union Address
The resources of Alaska, especially in fur, mines, and lumber, are considerable in extent and capable of large development, while its geographical situation is one of political and commercial importance.;

(Canada, US) Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.


dumpling

A folk word, first attested in c. 1600s, apparently from a Norfolk (East Anglian) dialect, of uncertain origin:
* perhaps from some Low German word (compare dümpeln (“bobbing up and down”)),
* or from the rare dialectal adjective dump (“lump, of the consistency of dough”) (first attested in the late 1800s), + -ling (diminutive suffix), although dumpling is recorded much earlier. However, compare dumpy (“short and stout”).

(cooking) A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.

(chiefly US) Specifically, a food composed of a dough wrapper around a filling.


trunk

From Middle English tronke, trunke, from Old French tronc (“alms box, tree trunk, headless body”), from Latin truncus (“a stock, lopped tree trunk”), from truncus (“cut off, maimed, mutilated”). For the verb, compare French tronquer, and see truncate. Doublet of truncus and tronk.

der

the apple does not fall far from the trunk

I'm a stunt; ride in the car with some bump in the trunk.

2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:

(Canada, US, automotive) The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon-style car.

bak

luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car

(heading) A channel for flow of some kind.

(US, telecommunications) A major circuit between telephone switchboards or other switching equipment.


bureau

Unadapted borrowing from French bureau, earlier "coarse cloth (as desk cover), baize", from Old French burel (“woolen cloth”), diminutive of *bure (compare Middle French bure (“coarse woolen cloth”), French bourre (“hair, fluff”)), from Late Latin burra (“wool, fluff, shaggy cloth, coarse fabric”); akin to Ancient Greek βερβέριον (berbérion, “shabby garment”). Doublet of burel and borrel, taken from Old French.


beau

From Middle English beau, beu, bew, bewe, from Old French beau, from Latin bellus (“beautiful”). Doublet of bello and boo.

Hannah's beau takes all her time 'n' thought, and when she gits a husband her mother'll be out o' sight and out o' mind.

1917, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, page 142:

“I don’t see how. But anyhow, you’ll be rich some day—your Aunt Elizabeth will likely leave you all her money, Mother says. So I don’t care if you are living on charity—I love you and I’m going to stick up for you. Have you got a beau, Emily?”
“No,” cried Emily, blushing violently and quite scandalized at the idea. “Why, I’m only eleven.”

1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon:

Kristin Davis has taken time out to enjoy the surf and sand with her Australian beau, photographer Russell James.

2009 December 10, Philippa Bourke, Monsters and Critics:

Reporters ask her about her love life—her current beau is rumored to be Conor Kennedy, a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy—even if they get nowhere.

2012 October 24, Jon Caramanica, “No More Kid Stuff for Taylor Swift”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(dated, US, Canada) A male lover; a boyfriend.


truck

en-noun

truck (countable and uncountable, plural trucks)

Belizean Creole: chrok

→ Bengali: ট্রাক (ṭrak)

→ Bislama: trak

→ Cebuano: trak

→ French: truck

→ Hindi: ट्रक (ṭrak)

→ Indonesian: truk

→ Japanese: トラック (torakku)

→ Korean: 트럭 (teureok)

→ Maguindanao: trak

→ Malay: trak

desctree

→ Spanish: troca
→ Southeastern Tepehuan: trooka

→ Polish: trak

→ Tagalog: trak

→ Taos: tròkiʼína

→ Tausug: tarak

→ Tok Pisin: trak

→ Urdu: ٹْرَک (ṭrak)

Perhaps a shortening of truckle, related to Latin trochus (“iron hoop, wheel”) from Ancient Greek τροχός (trokhós).

Mexican open-bed trucks haul most of the fresh produce that comes into the United States from Mexico.

A line of fifty trucks from the Zenith Steel and Machinery Company was attacked by strikers-rushing out from the sidewalk, pulling drivers from the seats, smashing carburetors and commutators, while telephone girls cheered from the walk, and small boys heaved bricks.

1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 1, in Babbit:

That's why driving truck became more than a job for many in the industry. Driving truck was a lifestyle.

2009, James Beach, Peterbilt: Long-Haul Legend, page 48:

lorry

in Singapore usually referring to a smaller vehicle

(countable, uncountable, US, Canada, Australia) A heavier motor vehicle designed to carry goods or to pull a semi-trailer designed to carry goods; (in Malaysia/Singapore) a such vehicle with a closed or covered carriage.

vragmotor

heavier motor vehicle designed to carry goods — see also semi-trailer truck, pickup truck

དོས་འདྲེན་རླངས་འཁོར (dos 'dren rlangs 'khor, literally “transport steam-wheel”)

དོས་འཁོར

abv. of དོས་འདྲེན་རླངས་འཁོར

(US, rail transport) Abbreviation of railroad truck or wheel truck; a pivoting frame, one attached to the bottom of the bed of a railway car at each end, that rests on the axle and which swivels to allow the axle (at each end of which is a solid wheel) to turn with curves in the track.


truck

en-verb

truck (third-person singular simple present trucks, present participle trucking, simple past and past participle trucked)

trucks (present singular third-person)
trucking (participle present)
trucked (participle past)
trucked (past)

I want to tell you a story from 'way back: / Truck on down and gig me, jack / In eighteen hundred and sixty-five / A hep cat started some jive / He said, "Come on, gates, and jump with me / At the Juneteenth Jamboree."

1940, Sam Price (lyrics and music), “June Teenth Jamboree”, performed by Louis Jordan:

I brought them around again, hard, and some fluff hit me in the face, cool and wet. . .and I laughed and trucked on down, a mad. fiddler dancing to my own music, happy and alone in my private white world.

1974 October 25, Skiing, volume 27, number 2, page 194:

Instead, when relatives heard that the right ship had docked, they trucked over to Ellis Island and waited desperately by the Kissing Post.

2009 May 20, Maggie Koerth-Baker, “Ten important kisses in history”, in Mental Floss, CNN:

In November 1978, Hay and Starratt trucked on down toward the Classic City in a VW Van (of course), following the Grateful Dead's tour […]

2022 August 12, Lee Valentine Smith, “Athens band still Squallin' after all these years”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

(intransitive, US, slang) To travel, to proceed.

Keep on trucking!

It has been five months since I left Mt. Diablo , and I'm still trucking along gaining slowly and I'm just a few pounds from my goal healthy weight. I'm the happiest I've been in my life because through my experiences with anorexia I[…]

1988, Krista Brown, Prepared Statement, to the United States House Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, regarding 'Eating Disorders: The Impact on Children and Families', July 31, 1987, page 22:

“What's ol' Harrison up to these days, Larry?” Grandpa asked. “Oh, he's still trucking along,” Uncle Larry replied.

2018 September 4, Brittany Terwilliger, The Insatiables, Amberjack Publishing, →ISBN:

(intransitive, US, Canada, slang) To persist, to endure.


truck

From Middle English trukien, from unrecorded Anglo-Norman and Old French words, from Latin trocāre, from Frankish *trokan. Related to Etymology 2.

As the home house people (the industrious part of them at least) might want ground for their truck patches, they might, for this purpose, cultivate what would be cleared. But I would have the ground from the cross fence by the Spring, quite round by the Wharf, first grubbed, before the (above mentioned) is attempted.

1792 November 4, George Washington, (Please provide the book title or journal name), quoted in The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources: Volume 32, 1745-1799.:

"Wid dat, Brer Rabbit 'low dat Mr. Man done been had 'im hired fer ter take keer er his truck patch, an' keep out de minks, de mush-rats an' de weasels.

1903, Joel Chandler Harris, chapter 11, in "Brother Rabbit's Cradle", New Stories of the Old Plantation:

I obtained my first view of a lunar city. It was built around a crater, and the buildings were terraced back from the rim, the terraces being generally devoted to the raising of garden truck and the principal fruit-bearing trees and shrubs.

1923, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 10, in The Moon Maid:

(US, often attributive) Garden produce, groceries (see truck garden).


local

From Middle English local, from Late Latin locālis (“belonging to a place”), possibly also via Old French local; ultimately from Latin locus (“a place”).
The ring-theoretic senses derive from Krull, who first referred to Noetherian commutative rings with a unique maximal ideal as "Stellenring" (Stellen (“place”) + ring) in 1938. The term was inspired by algebraic geometry, where local rings encode information about the behavior of curves (surfaces, etc.) at points; hence, describe "local" behavior.

der

(US, slang, journalism) An item of news relating to the place where the newspaper is published.


flour

en-noun

flour (usually uncountable, plural flours)

→ Drehu: falawa

→ Maori: parāoa

→ Palauan: blauang

→ West Uvean: falawa

flower (for people who pronounce flour as two syllables or flower as one)

Spelled (until about 1830) and meaning flower in the sense of flour being the "finest portion of ground grain" (compare French fleur de farine, fine fleur). Doublet of flower. Partially displaced native meal.
The U.S. standard of identity comes from 21CFR137.105.

standards of identity
standard of identity

(US standards of identity) The food made by grinding and bolting cleaned wheat (not durum or red durum) until it meets specified levels of fineness, dryness, and freedom from bran and germ, also containing any of certain enzymes, ascorbic acid, and certain bleaching agents.


mango

mango (countable and uncountable, plural mangoes or mangos)

mangoes (plural)
mangos (plural)
manga (alternative)

→ Armenian: մանգո (mango) (or from Russian манго (mango))

→ Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܡܵܢܓܘܿ (mango)

→ Asturian: mangu

→ Catalan: mango

→ Chichewa: bango

→ Czech: mango

→ Danish: mango

→ Dutch: mango

→ Esperanto: mango

→ Finnish: mango

→ Georgian: მანგო (mango)

→ German: Mango

→ Greek: μάνγκο (mángko)

→ Hebrew: מנגו (mango)

→ Hungarian: mangó

→ Irish: mangó

→ Italian: mango

→ Japanese: マンゴー (mangō)

→ Korean: 망고 (manggo)

→ Macedonian: манго (mango)

→ Norwegian: mango

→ Polish: mango

→ Romanian: mango

desctree

→ Russian: манго (mango)
→ Armenian: մանգո (mango) (or directly from English mango)
→ Kazakh: манго (maño)
→ Mongolian: манго (mango)

→ Slovak: mango

→ Slovene: mango

→ Spanish: mango

→ Swedish: mango

→ Turkish: mango

→ Welsh: mango

Online Etymology Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
mango

Borrowed from Portuguese manga, from Malayalam മാങ്ങ (māṅṅa) / Tamil மாங்காய் (māṅkāy), possibly via Malay mangga, ultimately from Proto-South Dravidian *mām-kāy (“unripe mango”), a compound of *mām (“mango tree”) + *kāy (“unripe fruit”). First used for the fruit as early as the 1580s and the tree by the 1670s. The Oxford English Dictionary says it ultimately stems from Malayalam മാങ്ങ (māṅṅa, “unripe mango”) (മാവ് (māvŭ, “mango tree”) + കായ (kāya, “unripe fruit”)), while the Online Etymology Dictionary points to Tamil மாங்காய் (māṅkāy, “unripe mango”) (மா (mā, “mango”) + காய் (kāy, “unripe fruit”)). The etymology of the -o ending is not certain.

der

Tamil மாங்காய் (māṅkāy)

檨仔

soān-á, soǎiⁿ-á, sōaiⁿ-á, soāiⁿ--á, soān--á

Mango peppers by the dozen, if owned by the careful housewife, would gladden the appetite or disposition of any epicure or scold.

1879, Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, Agriculture of Pennsylvania, page 222:

Best mango peppers

1896, Ohio State Board of Agriculture, Annual Report, page 154:

Cut tops from mangoes; remove seeds.

1943 August 9, Mary Adgate, “Stuffed Mangoes”, in The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, page 5:

Finally, although both the South and North Midlands are not known for their tropical climate, that's where mangoes grow. These aren't the tropical fruit, though, but what are elsewhere called green peppers.

2000, Allan A. Metcalf, How We Talk: American Regional English Today, page 41:

(US, chiefly southern Midland US, dated) A green bell pepper suitable for pickling.


loo

I asked my loo to let me escort you in. I wanted a moment to thank you personally.” “There's no need.” “So you said before, but there is. And was. I'll take you in to Lieutenant Ricchio.”

2012, J. D. Robb, New York to Dallas, Penguin, →ISBN, page 91:


trucker

From truck (“a vehicle”) + -er (occupational suffix).

suffix

I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck
We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll."
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight.
I says "Let them truckers roll, 10-4!"

1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

Because of deregulation and the drive to lower costs, Mr. Lorr said, truckers are now regarded by many companies as just another replaceable part. Some can barely eke out a living.

2020 September 24, Alex Williams, “The Ugly (and Glorious) Truth About American Supermarkets”, in New York Times:


curriculum

en-noun

curriculum (plural curricula or curriculums)

Borrowed from Latin curriculum (“course”), derived from currō (“run, move quickly”). Doublet of curricle.

But as the effects of climate change have become more visible in recent years, and the breadth of the transformation needed to fight it has become clear, law schools, med schools, literature programs, economics departments and more are incorporating climate into their undergraduate curriculums, grappling with how climate will transform their fields and attempting to prepare students to face those transformations in the labor market.

2021 April 16, Ciara Nugent, “The Unexpected Ways Climate Change Is Reshaping College Education”, in Time:

(US) The set of courses, coursework, and content offered at a school or university.


homo

homo (countable and uncountable, plural homos)

One quart of homo wholesale in glass equals one quart equivalent. Certain modifications were made in these relatives to adjust for variations in units per ...

1956, Purdue University. Agricultural Experiment Station., Station bulletin, page 25:

(dated, US, Canada) Homogenized milk with a high butterfat content.


homo

Regular homo milk was being sold out of stores in half gallons for 33 cents against 44 cents on regular homo milk on home delivery.

1958, American milk review and milk plant monthly, volume 20, page 190:

(Canada, US) Homogenized; almost always said of milk with a high butterfat content.


pattern

From earlier patten, paterne, from Middle English patron (“patron; example”), from Old French patron, from Medieval Latin patrōnus (“patron”). Doublet of padrone, patron, Patronus, and patroon.

skemo

intelligible arrangement which has a mathematical, geometric, statistical etc. relationship

(US) The material needed to make a piece of clothing.