spendthrift

[T]hat vve vvould doe / VVe ſhould doe vvhen vve vvould: for this vvould changes, / And hath abatements and delayes as many, / As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents, / And then this ſhould is like a ſpend thrifts ſigh, / That hurts by eaſing; […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii], signature [L4], verso:

VVell goe too vvild oates, ſpend thrift, prodigall, / Ile croſſe thy name quite from my reckoning booke: / For theſe accounts, faith it ſhall skathe thee ſomevvhat, / I vvill not ſay vvhat ſomevvhat it ſhall be.

1602, [Thomas Heywood], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie, wherein is Shewed How a Man may Chuse a Good Wife from a Bad. […], London: […] [Thomas Creede] for Mathew Lawe, […], →OCLC; reprinted as How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad (Old English Drama Students Facsimile; 50), [London: s.n.], 1912, →OCLC, signature C, recto:

Prodigue, & grand beuveur de vin n'a du ſien ne four, ne moulin: Pro. The drunken ſpendthrift vvaſts his beſt poſſeſſions.

1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Prodigue”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, column 1:

[T]emperate people choose neither total abstinence nor perpetual indulgence, but something in between; liberal people are neither spendthrifts nor misers; the properly angry are neither apathetic nor short-tempered; and the strictly just person distributes to everyone what is his or her due, neither more nor less.

1999, Warren G. Bovée, “Democratic Promise, Democratic Reality, and the Journalists”, in Discovering Journalism (Contributions to the Study of Mass Media and Communications; no. 56), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, pages 79–80:

Someone who spends money improvidently or wastefully.

مُبَذِّر

someone who spends money improvidently or wastefully

It was one of those bright days in spring, which are very spendthrifts of sunshine, when the darkest alley in London wins a golden glimpse, and the eternal mist around St. Paul's turns to a glittering haze:...

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Publishing”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 9:

(figuratively) Anything that distributes its attributes profusely, without restraint.


computer literacy

en-noun

computer literacy (usually uncountable, plural computer literacies)

programming language
programming language

(computing) The ability to operate a personal computer, including its associated hardware and software (but not necessarily to understand the underlying electronics or a programming language).


roughneck

From rough + neck, originally "someone who works a manual labour job".

Coordinate term: redneck

LaTisha has long wanted to show Carole sheʼs not the roughneck she used to be, the roughneck who wasnʼt good enough to be her friend.

2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 202:

(colloquial, chiefly US) Someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person.

грубиян

someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person

(colloquial, chiefly US) An ironworker; a dirty or low-paid worker, a labourer.

This first ship had a small geophysical-type drilling rig mounted over the side of the ship with a steel grid runround for the roughnecks, who stood in knee-deep water while making connections or pulling the drill string.

1992, Elmer P. Wheaton, “William Bradford Whitehill Rand”, in Memorial Tributes: Volume 5, page 234:

As for the minerals, there has been a good deal of drilling along the big river; trucks and roughnecks no longer garner any notice.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 286:

(colloquial, chiefly US) A labourer on an oil rig.


roughneck

en-verb

roughneck (third-person singular simple present roughnecks, present participle roughnecking, simple past and past participle roughnecked)

roughnecks (present singular third-person)
roughnecking (participle present)
roughnecked (participle past)
roughnecked (past)

There was a time not long ago when this region appeared as some enduring mystification, its citizenry best known for roughnecking on the North Slope […]

2009 January 13, Michael Brick, “Racing's Last Frontier”, in New York Times:


farmland

en-noun

farmland (usually uncountable, plural farmlands)

From Blackwater there is a more or less level run through gently rolling farmlands and downs to Merstone, with its island platform and passing loop.

1946 July and August, K. Westcott Jones, “Isle of Wight Central Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 243:

Other common farmland butterflies to have suffered steep declines include the small tortoiseshell (64%), the wall brown (37%) and the large skipper (35%).

2015 November 24, Patrick Barkham, “Pesticide may be reason butterfly numbers are falling in UK, says study”, in The Guardian:

Land that is suitable for farming and agricultural production.

أَرْض زِرَاعِيَّة

land which is suitable for farming and agricultural production


earworm

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

/ˈɪ(ə)ɹˌwɚm/

From ear + worm; senses 1 and 3 (“tune that keeps replaying in one’s head”; “earwig”) are a calque of German Ohrwurm (“tune that pops up in one’s memory all the time; earwig”) (from the idea of a creature burrowing into the ear, an erroneous belief where earwigs are concerned), while sense 2 (“moth larva”) refers to the fact that these pests infest, among other things, ears of maize or sweet corn.

calque

I had planned in mind to tell you [...] how I protected, that is, guaranteed, Evergreen sweet corn against the bud worm and the ear worm; [...]

1924 January–March, Martin V. Calvin, “Agricultural Research”, in Annual Report of Georgia Department of Agriculture for 1923 (Quarterly Bulletin of the Georgia Department of Agriculture; serial no. 95), Atlanta, Ga.: Georgia Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 44:

The number of bollworms or ear worms increases greatly as the season advances. This indicates a need for hastening the maturity of all crops affected.

1929 June, F[red] C[ory] Bishopp, “Control Measures”, in The Bollworm or Corn Ear Worm as a Cotton Pest (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 1595), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 7:

Encouraging progress is being made, however, in the search for and utilization of earworm-resistant strains of both field and sweet corn. We mentioned the protection of ears from earworms, weevils, and grain moths by tight husks that extend beyond the tip of the ear.

1952, C. M. Packard, John H. Martin, “Resistant Crops, the Ideal Way”, in Alfred Stefferud, editor, The Yearbook of Agriculture 1952: Insects, Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture; United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 434, column 1:

The fall armyworm and the corn earworm attack sweet corn as earworms. [...] Although they may sometimes eat through the husk to attack the side of the ear, most earworms feed on the silks and enter through the silk channel to attack the tip of the ear. The earworm population may be almost completely composed of corn earworms or of fall armyworms, or of a mixture of the two species.

1967 February, Victor L. Guzman et al., “Insects and Their Control”, in Sweet Corn Production on the Organic and Sandy Soils of Florida (Bulletin (Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Florida); no. 714), Gainesville, Fla.: Agricultural Experiment Stations, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, →OCLC, pages 27–28:

A single earworm may seriously damage or destroy the bud of a cole crop plant, causing the plant to be disfigured or to produce several secondary buds. Earworms may disfigure the heads of cabbage plants by their feeding and tunneling [...].

1980 October, C. S. Creighton, J. E. Halfhill, “Caterpillars and How They Damage Plants”, in Control of Caterpillars on Cabbage and Other Cole Crops (United States Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin; no. 2271), Washington, D.C.: Science and Education Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 10, column 2:

[I]nsects exert undesirable influence on tropical maize production, with stem borers, ear worms and weevils being the most ubiquitous groups.

1984, J. M. Fajemisin, S. K. Kim, Y. Efron, M. S. Alam, “Breeding for Durable Disease Resistance in Tropical Maize with Special Reference to Maize Streak Virus”, in Breeding for Durable Disease and Pest Resistance […] (FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper; 55), Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization, published 1985, →ISBN, page 49:

(originally US) Short for corn earworm (“larva of the moths Helicoverpa zea (syn. Heliothis zea) and Helicoverpa armigera, which are agricultural pests”).


hillside

Tai Ping Shan (peace mountain) is, strictly speaking, not a mountain but a hillside district in Victoria situated to the south of Sheung Wan between Queen's Road and Caine Road.

2012, Qizhang Dong, “The Curse of Tai Ping Shan”, in Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 76:

As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants.

2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:


hothouse

From Middle English hothous, equivalent to hot + house.

As with much of Carsley's reign, England entered this Athens hothouse with sub-plots in the background, this time the nine withdrawals from the squad which was met with a critical public response from the normally strictly-on-message captain Harry Kane.

2024 November 14, Phil McNulty, “'A night of redemption for Carsley offers real hope for Tuchel'”, in BBC Sport:

An environment full of conflict or plots.


thunderbox

From thunder + box. Senses 1 and 2 (“portable commode; any lavatory or toilet”) are probably because of the noises that may be made while using it, especially while defecating.

True, our cash would run out, but Charleton wouldn't let us starve. He'd put us into shorts, and we should wash the dishes and clean the thunder-boxes and take out guests for walks.

1939 March, W[ystan] H[ugh] Auden, Christopher Isherwood, “Travel-diary. Chapter 7.”, in Journey to a War, London: Faber & Faber […], →OCLC, page 182:

Then, after another pause, he said: "Well, if you must know, it's my Thunder-box." […] He opened it, showing a mechanism of heavy cast-iron brass and patterned earthenware of solid Edwardian workmanship. On the inside of the lid was a plaque bearing the embossed title Connolly's Chemical Closet.

1952 October, Evelyn Waugh, chapter XV, in Men at Arms […], Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 196:

[T]he response would sound from some soldier unseen, perhaps astride a thunderbox in the ablutions.

1975, Leslie Thomas, chapter 7, in Stand Up Virgin Soldiers, London: Arrow Books, published 2005, →ISBN, page 105:

In the present age the historian must content himself with the role of humble camp follower to the sociologist and economist. But like the sweeper in my regiment who carried the thunder-box of the sahibs through the Arakan campaign there is the hope that in the end it is he and not they who will be awarded the decoration.

1978, Eric [Thomas] Stokes, “The Return of the Peasant to South Asian History”, in The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in Colonial India, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House in association with Cambridge University Press, →OCLC, page 289:

Then there were the million-odd Indians, coolies, gardeners, house servants, ayahs, syces and others who performed the tasks that no one else would tackle; they emptied the "thunder boxes", collected the refuse and were the main source of labour in the docks.

1987, Alfred Draper, chapter 2, in Dawns Like Thunder: The Retreat from Burma 1942, London: Leo Cooper, →ISBN, page 22:

I am afraid his history on the advent of pan latrines or what is better known to 'thoroughbred colonials' as "Thunder Boxes" was rather wanting; and I don't blame him. […] [W]ell after the end of the Second World War some boarding schools in Cape Coast were still using "thunder boxes".

1991 April 20, Carl Mutt, “The dilemma of ‘thunder boxes’”, in The Mirror, Accra, Ghana: Graphic Corp., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 5, columns 1–2:

At Roorkee, in King George's Own Royal Bengal Sappers and Miners quarters, thunderboxes with a china receptacle were the only form of sanitation. Outside the little room in which the thunderbox was enclosed prowled a "sweeper" with a wickerwork basket. As soon as the thunderbox had been used, the sweeper hurried forward and carried off triumphantly the china receptacle and contents.

1994, Michael Blundell, “Towards Peace – via Ceylon”, in A Love Affair with the Sun: A Memoir of Seventy Years in Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya: Kenway Publications, →ISBN, part II (Ups and Downs of War), page 80:

The adults in the family used commodes or ‘thunderboxes’ – European-style toilets on which one sat. The children and servants relieved themselves in the traditional Indian way at ground level. […] [W]hen running water was introduced, the thunderboxes became flushable.

2001, Katherine Frank, “Descent from Kashmir”, in Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, part 1 (Indira Nehru), page 8:

[O]ur nocturnal visitors would, with much clattering and banging, collect and dispose of the contents of our commodes, or thunder boxes, doubtless to be used as fertiliser for distant vegetable gardens. We had about half a dozen thunder boxes ranged down one side of the bathroom,[…]. The practice was to leave unused thunder boxes with their seats and lids up, to indicate which were available, and then close them after use.

2004, Peter Moss, “Far Titanic City and a Near Fatal Thunder Box”, in Bye-bye Blackbird: An Anglo-Indian Memoir, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 50:

(slang) A chamber pot enclosed in a box; a portable commode.

(outhouse):

Meantime the ICE [Institute of Consumer Ergonomics] experts are poring over their photographs, and making measurements, which, presumably, will go into a computer, and out will come the specification for the perfect thunderbox.

1974 June 13, Donald Gould, “A Groundling’s Notebook: Ice Waterloo”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 62, number 902, London: IPC Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 708, column 2:

In the old days, when there was a corrugated iron thunderbox, the Holts' guests were told to approach it with caution: where other thunderboxes had redback spiders, the local ones tended to have taipans.

1979, The Bulletin, volume 100, Sydney, N.S.W.: Australian Consolidated Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 35, column 1:

It's an invaluable open-sided box with no bottom and a hole in the top. Perch this over a hole in the ground and voila! you have a thunder box. Comfy to sit on and handsome as well.

1992, Gerald Durrell, “Crystal Country and beyond”, in The Aye-aye and I: A Rescue Mission in Madagascar, London: BCA, →ISBN, page 94:

A more macabre exercise in historical reconstruction follows the fate of those who, on the eve of the Great War, scrawled their names on the plaster of the ‘thunder box’—the toilet next to the dark house.

1998, Raphael Samuel, “The Lost Gardens of Heligan”, in Alison Light, with Sally Alexander and Gareth Stedman Jones, editors, Island Stories: Unravelling Britain: Theatres of Memory, Volume II, paperback edition, London, New York, N.Y.: Verso, published 1999, →ISBN, part II (English Journeys), page 128:

There are basically three types of toilets in provincial and national parks. The first are the pit toilets—"thunderboxes"—boxes painted white inside, centrally located in various sections of the campground. The second type of toilet looks like a thunderbox but houses an odour-free flushing toilet.

2004, Jayne Seagrave, “How to Be a Happy Camper”, in Terri Elderton, Karla Decker, editors, Camping With Kids: The Best Family Campgrounds in British Columbia and Alberta, Surrey, B.C.: Heritage House, →ISBN, page 20:

He [John Blashford-Snell] boobytrapped the ‘thunderbox’ and the next guardsman who sat down was met by a deafening blast. The guardsman and plastic loo seat were hurled one way, the loo paper another, but there were no injuries.

2005 May, Benedict le Vay, “Eccentric Pastimes”, in Eccentric Britain: The Bradt Guide to Britain’s Follies and Foibles, 2nd edition, Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire: Bradt Travel Guides; Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Eccentric Things We Do), page 57:

And finally he pointed to an old thunderbox and shovel. 'Our toilet block.' Everyone except Fly stared at that old thunderbox like it was from Mars.

2007, Shelley Birse, Blue Water High, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan Australia, →ISBN, page 230:

We did not have any toilet facilities inside the building. However, after searching, we found small groups of thunderboxes over pits down on the slope in front of the building. These lonely thunderboxes had no protection from the weather, not even a hessian screen.

2013, Frederick Rennie From, “The German Barracks”, in That’s Enough, Freddy From!, Houston, Tex.: Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co., →ISBN, page 234:

(by extension, chiefly Australia, British, slang) Any lavatory or toilet, especially a rudimentary outdoor latrine or toilet, or an outhouse.

[T]wo articles, both indispensibly necessary to a theatre, are not blundered, viz. a property room, and thunder box!—no they are omitted altogether!!

1806 September, Argus [pseudonym], “Provincial Drama, &c.”, in The Monthly Mirror: Reflecting Men and Manners. […], volume XXII, London: […] J. Wright, […] [a]nd published by Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, […], →OCLC, pages 205–206:

[H]e [the English actor West Digges] said, "Take the child to the slips;" and I was led through the carpenter's gallery, the cloudings and thunder boxes, and placed in a good seat, where I saw the play with great delight.

1833 May, O’Keeffe, “The Late Mr. O’Keeffe”, in Edward Bulwer-Lytton, editor, The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume XXXVIII, 2nd part, number CXLIX, London: [F]or Henry Colburn by Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 37:

It was what is called a good passage, and a feather in the Casco’s cap; but among the most miserable forty hours that any one of us had ever passed. We were swung and tossed together all that time like shot in a stage thunder-box.

1891 February–December, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Hatiheu”, in In the South Seas […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1896, →OCLC, part I (The Marquesas), page 65:

The pouring and pattering of rain and the beating of hail require four different contrivances. The most novel of these is a wooden box, about twelve feet long and six inches square, inside of which are numerous slanting sheets of tin, punctured with small holes. A number of peas are rushed continuously up and down the box, rolling over the punctured tin and tumbling from one sheet to the other in a manner like that described of the iron balls in the "thunder box."

1892 January, “Ingenious Stage Machinery”, in The Theatre: A Record of the Stage, Drama, Music, Art, Literature, volume VIII, number 1 (number 179 overall), New York, N.Y.: The Theatre Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 32, column 1:

Thundercrashes, on the other hand, are made by a number of barrel strakes, suspended above one another on a rope to one side of the stage. At a given signal they are allowed to drop to the floor with a crash, followed by loud peal of thunder from the thunderbox.

1991, Paul Britten Austin, transl., edited by Hans Åstrand, Inger Mattsson, and Gunnar Larsson, Gustavian Opera: An Interdisciplinary Reader in Swedish Opera, Dance, and Theatre, 1771–1809 (Kungliga Musikaliska Akademiens Skriftserie [Royal Academy of Music Book Series]; 66), Stockholm: Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien [Royal Swedish Academy of Music], →ISBN, →ISSN, page 101:

(theater) A box of metal balls which is shaken to create a thunder sound effect.


greybeard

From grey + beard; men of advanced age would be expected to have a grey beard.

A powerful wave in the vicinity of Cape Horn.


showgirl

She was a Las Vegas showgirl when she was younger.

A non-starring but physically beautiful female dancer in an often lavishly produced theatrical revue; a chorine.


pickthank

[T]he Dogge nuſling his noſe vnder the necke of the Deare, the Wolfe glad to let the Lambe lye vpon hym to kéepe him warme, the Lyon ſuffering the Aſſe to caſt hys legge ouer him: preferring one honeſt vnmannerly friende, before a number of croutching picke-thankes.

1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, “The Vnfortunate Traueller”, in The Vnfortunate Traueller. Or, The Life of Iacke Wilton, London: […] T. Scarlet for C[uthbert] Burby, […], →OCLC:

Yet such extenuation let me beg, / As, in reproof of many tales devised, / which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear, / By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers, / I may, for some things true, wherein my youth / Hath faulty wander’d and irregular, / Find pardon on my true submission.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

1628, John Earle, Micro-cosmographie, or, A Piece of the World Discovered; in Essayes and Characters, Characters, 40. A rash man,
He is a man still swayed with the first reports, and no man more in the power of a pickthank then he.

1755, Eliza Haywood (under the pseudonym Exploralibus), The Invisible Spy, London: T. Garner, Volume 1, Chapter 7, p. 256,
Why then, sir, your friend is no better than a pickthank for bringing you such idle stories; and I am not afraid to tell him so to his face.

1868, F. H. Doyle, Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford, London: Macmillan, Lecture 2, pp. 49-50,
Some pickthank contrived to let the little great man know what had taken place, and he, so she informed me, was ungenerous enough to wreak a mean revenge.

A sycophant; one who meddles, tattles, informs (often in order to curry favour).


mooncake

From moon + cake, a calque of Mandarin 月餅 /月饼 (yuèbíng, “mooncake”), from 月 (yuè, “moon”) + 餅 /饼 (bíng, “pastry; biscuit, cookie”), probably because the pastry’s traditional round shape resembles the full moon visible during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The fifteenth Day of the eighth Moon, is ſolemniz'd by the Chineſes with great feaſting and rejoycing. […] To this purpoſe, the preceding Days they ſend to one another Preſents of little Loaves and Sugar-Cakes, which they call Yue Pim, or Moon-Cakes. They are round, but the biggeſt, which are about two hands breadth in diameter, and repreſent the Full Moon, have every one a Hare in the middle made of a Paſt of Walnuts, Almonds, Pine-Apple-Kernels and other Indgredients. Theſe they eat by the Light of the moon; the Richer ſort having their Muſick alſo playing about 'em, which is very good.

1688, Gabriel Magaillans [i.e., Gabriel de Magalhães], “Of Several Other Palaces, and Some Temples Erected within the Same Enclosures”, in [anonymous], transl., A New History of China, Containing a Description of the Most Considerable Particulars of that Vast Empire. […], London: […] Thomas Newborough, […], →OCLC, page 318:

Mei-kwei 玫丨 [i.e., 玫瑰] name of a pearl; also of a round cake, called the moon-cake, eaten at the harvest moon; […]

1819, R[obert] Morrison, “瑰 [guī]”, in A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, […], part II, volume I, Macao: […] East India Company’s Press, by P[eter] P[erring] Thoms, →OCLC, entry number 6772, page 507, column 3:

The 15th day of the 8th moon is the 中秋 mid autumn feast. […] The cake shops are cleared of other stock, and nothing is to be bought in them for many days but the moon cakes. The moon cake—I am afraid I cannot convey an idea in words, of the delicacy of this exquisite morceau. I merely give its composition, and leave the rest to the imagination of the reader. A small pie in shape of a pork pie, with a crust not quite so tough as well tanned leather, filled with lumps of pork fat mixed with sugar, almonds, chopped walnuts, sesamum, and other varieties of seed.

1870 December, F. H. Ewer, “Some Account of Festivals in Canton”, in Justus Doolittle, editor, The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, volume 3, number 7, Foochow, Fukien, China: Rozario, Marcal & Co., published 1871, →OCLC, paragraph VII, page 187, column 2:

[M]aybe his mother has promised him a mango or a moon-cake if he would be good; […]

1890 February, Yan Phou Lee, “The Boys and Girls of China”, in Mary Mapes Dodge, editor, St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks, volume XVII, part I, number 4, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 362, column 2:

The emblematical pastry of the period, the moon cake, has for its ingredients a little bit of everything grown during all the seasons of the year. […] Indeed, it is the nearest thing to pie the Chinese cookery affords. Bits of pork, cabbage, pumpkin, figs, fruit and fowl baked together in a cast-iron crust, seasoned with pork fat, may not be appetizing to the Caucasian taste, but they tickle the palate of a Chinaman into epicurean laughter and make him believe he is enlarging his mind proportionately with his waist.

1893 April, Don Seitz, “A Celestial Farm on Long Island”, in Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, volume XXXV, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Frank Leslie’s Publishing House, […], →OCLC, page 495, column 2:

The servants had already packed and loaded a rickshaw with the day's basic provisions: […] sweaty earthen jars of preserved meats and vegetables; stacks of red boxes lined with four mooncakes each; and of course, sleeping mats for our afternoon map.

1989, Amy Tan, “Ying-Ying St. Clair: The Moon Lady”, in The Joy Luck Club, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 73:

The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruit cakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels, and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled into a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year"—that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.

1989, K. S. Tom, “Celebrations and Festivals”, in Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends and Lore of the Middle Kingdom, Honolulu, Hi.: Hawaii Chinese History Center, published 2000, →ISBN, page 40, column 2:

During the year we gathered together in the coolie room a few times to celebrate certain festive occasions, like the Ghost Month or the Mooncake Festival. If you had money to spare, you would buy some food, for example mooncakes to celebrate with your sisters.

1994, Claire Chiang, “Female Migrants in Singapore: Towards a Strategy of Pragmatism and Coping”, in Maria Jaschok, Suzanne Miers, editors, Women and Chinese Patriarchy: Submission, Servitude and Escape, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; London: Zed Books, →ISBN, part III (Social Remedies and Avenues of Escape), page 245:

[S]he just said, 'The mooncake, if don't eat, must throw away. But like that waste money, very gek sim.' I didn't want to hurt her heart, so I ate the cake. My mother watched me eat the mooncake. 'Do you like it?'

1997, Hwee Hwee Tan, Foreign Bodies […], 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Pocket Books, published January 2000, →ISBN, page 149:

Fruit mince moon cakes […] Over the years, the Chinese moon cake has evolved into a variety of treats with different fillings. To cater to the health-conscious, many bakeries also offer miniature moon cakes and sugar-free moon cakes. I have used a fruit mince filling to make these moon cakes a little more familiar to the European palate, but you do need a moon cake mould to make these.

2007, Dean Brettschneider, “Pastries”, in Global Baker: Inspirational Breads, Cakes, Pastries and Desserts with International Influences, new edition, Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, published 2020, →ISBN, page 120:

Remember the overthrow of the Manchus, when messages hidden in moon cakes roused the people to bring arms to the meeting place.

2008, Chin Woon Ping, “Mooncakes and the Moon”, in Hakka Soul: Memories, Migrations, and Meals, Singapore: NUS Press, →ISBN, page 29:

Tea and moon-cakes were served after dinner. The cakes came in square, octagonal and round shapes, each one about two inches thick and covered in a soft, brown skin. Emily cut them into quarter slices and handed them round.

2012, Tan Twan Eng, chapter 10, in The Garden of Evening Mists, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Myrmidon Books, →ISBN, page 143:

A rich, dense Chinese pastry traditionally filled with lotus seed paste and nowadays with a variety of other fillings, usually eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar; early September to early October).

كَعْكَة اَلْقَمَر

Chinese pastry usually eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival


daylight robbery

en-noun

daylight robbery (countable and uncountable, plural daylight robberies)

From daylight + robbery, originally used literally to refer to robbery occurring in the daytime rather than at night, which was thought to be more audacious or risky.

(uncountable) The practice of cheating or of imposing an exorbitant charge for a product or service; (countable, rare) an instance of this.

je reinste diefstal

practice of cheating or of imposing an exorbitant charge for a product or service; an instance of this

(chiefly sports, uncountable) Conduct which unfairly deprives an opponent of an advantage or a win; (countable, rare) an instance of this.

A daylight robbery of a store carries with it a risk that the store clerk will be present and a confrontation will ensue, so grounds to fear a daylight robbery give rise to a reasonable inference that the defendant is armed and dangerous.

2006, Sarah N. Welling, “Stop and Frisk”, in Paul Finkelman, editor, Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, volume 3, Routledge, published 2013, →ISBN, page 1570, column 1:

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see daylight, robbery.


burnt offering

/bɜːnt ˈɒfəɹɪŋ/

/bɝnt ˈɔfəɹɪŋ/

PIE word
 *h₁epi
From Middle English brend offring, brend offringe, from brend (past participle of brennen (“to burn”)) + offring, offringe (“presentation of something as a religious offering; offering presented to God or another deity”), used in biblical texts to translate Late Latin holocaustum (“burnt offering wholly consumed by fire”) in the Vulgate version of the Bible. The English term is analysable as burnt + offering.

noncog

[…] Job ſent for them, and clenſed them agayne, ſtode vp early, and offred for eueryone a brẽtofferinge [brentofferinge].

1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Job j:[5], folio i, recto, column 2:

When they faſt I will not heare their crie, and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation I wil not accept them: but I will conſume them by the ſword, and by the famine, and by the peſtilence.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 14:12, column 2:

(biblical) A slaughtered animal offered and burnt on an altar as an atonement for sin.

brandoffer

(religion, by extension) Any similar sacrifice to a deity or deities, or to a deceased person.

polttouhri

any similar sacrifice to a deity or deities, or to an deceased person

A cooler oven would give heavy, doughy loaves while a hotter oven would provide the family with the inevitable burnt offerings.

1991, Sara Minwel Tibbott, Baking in Wales, page 21:


copy and paste

en-verb

copy and paste (third-person singular simple present copies and pastes, present participle copying and pasting, simple past and past participle copied and pasted)

copies and pastes (present singular third-person)
copying and pasting (participle present)
copied and pasted (participle past)
copied and pasted (past)


copy and paste

Note that the console listings are straight copy and pastes from the machines used to actually run this exploit—you see exactly what I saw while I ran it.

2010, Ryan Trost, Practical Intrusion Analysis: Prevention and Detection for the Twenty-First Century, Pearson Education, →ISBN:

The log should include links, screenshots, or copy and pastes of the specific commands you ran as well as a short explanation for why you did this.

2015, Megan Squire, Clean Data: Save Time by Discovering Effortless Strategies for Cleaning, Organizing, and Manipulating Your Data (Community Experience Distilled), Packt Publishing, →ISBN, page 4:

One of the concerns I had when considering adopting PeerWise was in relation to students doing a copy and paste of questions and not creating their own.

2019, Suzanne Fergus, “Using PeerWise to support the transition to higher education”, in Michael K. Seery, Claire Mc Donnell, editors, Teaching Chemistry in Higher Education: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Tina Overton, Creathach Press, →ISBN, page 184:


copy-and-paste

en-noun

copy-and-paste (countable and uncountable, plural copy-and-pastes)

We mention XCOPY here because it is the command-line way of basically doing a copy-and-paste of the files you want to move.

2008, Bill Evjen, Scott Hanselman, Devin Rader, Professional ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB, Wiley Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 1493:

I am not arguing for a copy-and-paste of Orkney future-making practices to urban centers of design and innovation.

2014, Laura Watts, “Liminal Futures: Poem for Islands at the Edge”, in James Leach, Lee Wilson, editors, Subversion, Conversion, Development: Cross-Cultural Knowledge Exchange and the Politics of Design, Cambridge, Mass., London: The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 34:

The KPA’s works were beyond copy-and-pastes of the Soviet works.

2018, Youngjun Kim, Origins of the North Korean Garrison State: The People’s Army and the Korean War (Cold War History), Routledge, →ISBN:


copy-and-paste

en-verb

copy-and-paste (third-person singular simple present copy-and-pastes or copies-and-pastes, present participle copy-and-pasting or copying-and-pasting, simple past and past participle copy-and-pasted or copied-and-pasted)

copy-and-pastes (present singular third-person)
copies-and-pastes (present singular third-person)
copy-and-pasting (participle present)
copying-and-pasting (participle present)
copy-and-pasted (participle past)
copy-and-pasted (past)
copied-and-pasted (participle past)
copied-and-pasted (past)

Image and filter sequences were composed using Photoshop layers and then copy-and-pasted onto Director’s Internal Cast palette.

1997, Elaine Weinmann, Peter Lourekas, Photoshop 4 for Macintosh, Peachpit, →ISBN, page 265:

But instead of designing new work for this new offering, Hirst, do-nothing artist of our time, simply copy-and-pasted his old stuff.

2013 October 4, Mallika Rao, “Damien Hirst's Children's Book, Reviewed By A Six-Year-Old Painter (PHOTOS)”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 2021-01-25:

Even the very title of Proclamation No. 23/1992 was simply copy-and-pasted onto Proclamation No. 37/1993.

2014, Kjetil Tronvoll, Daniel R[ezene] Mekonnen, The African Garrison State: Human Rights & Political Development in Eritrea, James Currey, →ISBN, page 30:

I simply copy-and-pasted it from the original pilot-project article – the one I had turned over to Dr. Bhattacharya last fall because I could no longer bear looking at it.

2016, Kakali Bhattacharya, Norman K. Gillen, Power, Race, and Higher Education: A Cross-Cultural Parallel Narrative (Teaching Race and Ethnicity), Sense Publishers, →ISBN, page 167:

Called in Japanese language “matome [meaning “compilation”] site”; it designates a round-up and add-up site which collects and “copy-and-pastes” information from other websites, SNS or anonymous textboards,.

2017, Yuriko Haga, “Right to be Forgotten: A New Privacy Right in the Era of Internet”, in Marcelo Corrales, Mark Fenwick, Nikolaus Forgó, editors, New Technology, Big Data and the Law (Perspectives in Law, Business and Innovation), Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., →ISBN, part I (Purpose and Limitation), page 117:

Following his aim of linguistically adapting the quote to its new Young Avestan context, he replaced the Old Avestan stem drəguuaṇt- by its regular Young Avestan equivalent druuaṇt- and removed the characteristic Old Avestan final long vowels, which are usually maintained when an Old Avestan passage is simply ‘copy-and-pasted’ into a Young Avestan environment.

2022, Benedikt Peschl, The First Three Hymns of the Ahunauuaitī Gāθā: The Avestan Text of Yasna 28–30 and Its Tradition, Brill, →ISBN, page 227:


battlefield

The night of the 16th of May found McPherson's command bivouacked from two to six miles west of the battlefield, along the line of the road to Vicksburg

1886, Ulysses S. Grant, chapter 35, in Personal memoirs of U.S. Grant:

Though in the past it saw much of the unhappiness and strife of Border warfare—the great battlefields of Pilleth and Mortimer's Cross are nearby—it is now a quiet and happy place.

1939 September, John D. Hewitt, “The Kington Branch of the G.W.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 191:

The area where a land battle is fought, which may not necessarily be a field.


yellowtail

en-noun

yellowtail (plural yellowtails or yellowtail)

yellowtails (plural)
yellowtail (plural)

Any of various fish with yellow tails, including:

yellowtail amberjack
yellowtail amberjack

Seriola lalandi
Seriola lalandi#Translingual

Japanese amberjack (Seriola quinqueradiata), native to the northwest Pacific, often used in sushi, .

yellow-tailed black cockatoo
yellow-tailed black cockatoo

Calyptorhynchus funereus
Calyptorhynchus funereus#Translingual

A yellow-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus), a large cockatoo native to the south-east of Australia.

A yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonax flavicauda), a New World primate endemic to Peru.


slipstream

slipstream (countable and uncountable, plural slipstreams)

Compound of slip + stream. Fiction sense coined by cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling in 1989.

coin

Monza was the seventh race in a row at which Leclerc had out-qualified Vettel. There were extenuating circumstances this time - Vettel did not have a slipstream on his first lap and the farcical end to qualifying prevented him doing another - but a clear pattern is emerging.

2019 September 8, Andrew Benson, BBC Sport:

The low-pressure zone immediately following a rapidly moving object, caused by turbulence.

The Republicans, who in fact quintessentially represent what I understand to be private and special interests of a narrow economic kind, have nevertheless managed, flying in the slipstream of Ronald Reagan's rhetoric, to look like the true guardians of the nation's public interest.

2012, Benjamin Barber, “Liberal Values in the Age of Interdependence”, in Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture:

(figurative, by extension) A generated advantage which makes forward movement easier.

The relative wind experienced as a result of movement through air.

(aviation) The airflow over a propeller-driven aircraft generated by the motion of its propeller(s).

Coordinate term: New Weird

Slipstream is not simply a mixture of fantasy and realism, but something which lies between or even beyond the two.

2000, Damien Broderick, quoting Justina Robson and Rozanne Rabinowitz, Transrealist Fiction: Writing in the Slipstream of Science, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 88:

(uncountable, fiction) A genre of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries.


slipstream

en-verb

slipstream (third-person singular simple present slipstreams, present participle slipstreaming, simple past and past participle slipstreamed)

slipstreams (present singular third-person)
slipstreaming (participle present)
slipstreamed (participle past)
slipstreamed (past)

Although dangerous, over-the-road truck drivers sometimes slipstream with each other to save fuel.

To take advantage of the suction produced by a slipstream by travelling immediately behind the slipstream generator.

You do this by slipstreaming the updates into the distribution folder.

2003, William Boswell, Inside Windows Server 2003:

A better solution is to create a bootable Windows XP installation CD slipstreamed with the current service pack...

2004, Ed Bott, Carl Siechert, Craig Stinson, Microsoft Windows XP inside out:

It is illegal to distribute slipstreamed CDs. In some locales, it may also be illegal to create them.

2005, Jesper M Johansson, Steve Riley, Protect your Windows network: from perimeter to data:

(computing, transitive) To incorporate additional software (such as patches) into an existing installer.


manservant

en-noun

manservant (plural manservants or menservants)

manservants (plural)
menservants (plural)

From Middle English man servant, man servaunt; equivalent to man + servant.

I asked my manservant to attend to the washing and cleaning.

Sixe dayes thou ſhalt labour, and doe all thy worke. But the ſeuenth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou ſhalt not doe any worke, thou, nor thy ſonne, nor thy daughter, nor thy man ſeruant, nor thy maid ſeruant, nor thine oxe, nor thine aſſe, nor any of thy cattel, nor thy ſtranger that is within thy gates, that thy man ſeruant and thy maid ſeruant may reſt as well as thou.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 5:13–14, column 2:

"A great people were they. They conquered till none were left to conquer, and then they dwelt at ease within their rocky mountain walls, with their man servants and their maid servants, their minstrels, their sculptors, and their concubines, and traded and quarrelled, and ate and hunted and slept and made merry till their time came."

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

But a man who holds so tightly to what he calls his rights over what he calls his debts will hold tightly also to what he calls his rights over her whom he calls his wife. No sir smile neighbour shall covet his ox or his wife or his manservant or his maidservant or his jackass. / —Or his jennyass, Buck Mulligan antiphoned.

1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:


blood blister

A blister filled with blood, usually caused by a sharp pinch to the skin.


breadboard

en-verb

breadboard (third-person singular simple present breadboards, present participle breadboarding, simple past and past participle breadboarded)

breadboards (present singular third-person)
breadboarding (participle present)
breadboarded (participle past)
breadboarded (past)

From bread + board.
Regarding definition 3: the etymology is either that electric circuits used to be prototyped on actual bread boards (definition 1) populated with nails, or that solder breadboards have lots of holes and are usually brown (they visually resemble a slice of bread), or a merging of the two. The etymology is less obvious today given the popularity of solderless breadboards.

If the breadboarded circuit operates incorrectly or erratically, try relocating some of the components.

1990, Delton T. Horn, 49 electronic 6-volt projects, page 9:

There are many commercial breadboarding systems, but almost all of them are designed to facilitate the breadboarding of digital systems, where noise immunities are hundreds of millivolts or more.

1998, Jim Williams, The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design, page 114:

(transitive) To set up (an electronic device) on a breadboard.


redback

1988 June 16, Stephanie Pain, Things that go plop in the night, New Scientist, page 78,
“If you find a redback, squash it firmly,” advised one guide.

Many a red-back, funnel-web, or other spider has found its resting days at the bottom of a vegemite jar shoved into some dark recess of the laundry.

1996, James Lambert, The Macquarie Book of Slang, Sydney: Macquarie Library, page 254:

2005 October, Martha Harrison, Brilliant 10: Marydianne Andrade, Popular Science, page 58,
Andrade first encountered the redback— whose lethal bite gives it as infamous a reputation in Australia as the black widow enjoys here in North America—when her grad-school adviser asked to travel to go to Perth to study them.

Easily identified by a red, orange or brownish stripe on the abdomen, Redbacks are responsible for by far the most spider bites in Australia.

2007, Steve Backshall, Steve Backshall's Venom: Poisonous Animals in the Natural World, page 114:

The only truly dangerous Australian spiders are funnelwebs and redbacks but, these days, deaths of people from these spiders seem to be a thing of the past since antivenom is now available.

2012, Peter Macinnis, Australian Backyard Naturalist, page 55:

(Australia) A venomous spider, Latrodectus hasselti, endemic to Australia.

Calidris alpina
Calidris alpina#Translingual

(US) A brown and white sandpiper (Calidris alpina), native to the Northern Hemisphere; the dunlin.


redback

Modelled after greenback, the currency of the United States of America, except using Communist Red

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

(slang) the yuan (CNY), the currency of the People's Republic of China (Red Chinese money)


cathead

The noun is derived from cat + head.
Sense 1.1 (“heavy piece of timber projecting from a ship on which an anchor is raised or lowered, and secured”) is from the fact that such a timber traditionally had a cat or lion’s head carved on its end. Sense 4 (“short for cathead biscuit”) is apparently from the fact that the biscuit is similar in size to a cat’s head.
The verb is derived from the noun.

The trick to eating catheads was to get the butter on them before they got cold—then they were delicious. When, unluckily, they were allowed to get cold, they tended to a gooeyness, not unlike a wad of tired gum.

1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 6, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →LCCN, page 36:

(US) Short for cathead biscuit (“a large fluffy biscuit, typically served with gravy”).


doorbell

A device on or adjacent to an outer door for announcing one's presence. It can be mechanical, directly sounding a bell, or a button that electrically sounds a chime or buzzer inside the building.

جَرَس الْبَاب

A button that activates an electric doorbell.


doorbell

doorbell (third-person singular simple present doorbells, present participle doorbelling, simple past and past participle doorbelled)

doorbells (present singular third-person)
doorbelling (participle present)
doorbelled (participle past)
doorbelled (past)

→ Tagalog: dorbel

(intransitive) To ring many doorbells in an effort to contact people and thereby spread information or solicit.

We doorbelled the whole district in an effort to get out the vote.

(transitive) To ring many doorbells of (target people or an area) in an effort to contact people and thereby spread information or solicit.


doorknob

A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.

2012 March 30, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3:

A circular device attached to a door, the rotation of which permits the unlatching of the door.

مِقْبَض اَلْبَاب

circular device attached to a door, the rotation of which permits the unlatching of a door


fire marshal

(US, Philippines) A public official with police powers responsible for enforcing fire safety regulations, and sometimes, who also investigates suspicious fires.


fathead

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

California sheephead
California sheephead

A labroid food fish of California; the California sheephead. Semicossyphus pulcher.


selfsame

PIE word
 *swé
From Middle English self sam, self same, selve same (“the very same, selfsame”) [and other forms], from self (“that specific (person mentioned), herself, himself, itself, themselves”, pronoun) (from Old English self, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”)) + sam, same (“(adjective) equal, identical; unchanging; referred to earlier, abovenamed, aforementioned; (adverb) again, repeatedly”) (from Old Norse samr (“same; agreeing, of one mind”), ultimately probably from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one, together”)). The English word is analysable as self + same.
Cognates
* Danish selvsamme (“identical, selfsame”)
* Old High German selbsama (“identical, selfsame”)

cog

For both of you are Birds of ſelfe-ſame Feather.

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 III, scene iii], page 162, column 1:

In my ſchoole dayes, vvhen I had loſt one ſhaft [i.e., arrow], / I ſhot his fellovv of the ſelfe-ſame flight / The ſelfe-ſame vvay, vvith more aduiſed vvatch / To finde the other foorth, and by aduentring both, / I oft found both. I vrge this child-hoode proofe, / Becauſe vvhat follovves, is pure innocence.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

He and his Horse, were of a piece. / One Spirit did inform them both, / The self-same Vigor, Fury, Wroth: […]

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 40:

He trod the very ſelf-ſame ground you tread, / And victory refuted all he ſaid.

1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1782, →OCLC, page 21:

Mine be the strength of spirit fierce and free, / Like some broad river rushing down alone, / With the selfsame impulse wherewith he was thrown / From his loud fount upon the echoing lea:— […]

1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Sonnet”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 1:

And Quack and Dupe, as we must ever keep in mind, are upper-side and under of the self-same substance; convertible personages: turn up your dupe into the proper fostering element, and he himself can become a quack; […]

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Morrison’s Pill”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book I (Proem), page 26:

But in [Isaac] Newton, science was as easy as breathing; he used the same wit to weigh the moon that he used to buckle his shoes; and all his life was simple, wise, and majestic. So it was in Archimedes,—always self-same, like the sky.

1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Works and Days”, in Society and Solitude. Twelve Chapters, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 164:

[T]hrough my police issue 200 × 6000 macroscopic laser-prism binoculars I could see he was the same guy who had just bopped the doorman in the head. […] But you can imagine my surprise when I angled said state-of-the-art bins to the street, watched the long black car as it rolled up and saw the self-same guy step out of it.

1992, Robert Rankin, chapter 12, in The Suburban Book of the Dead: Armageddon III: The Remake, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 131:

Chiefly preceded by the: precisely the same; the very same; the same not only in being similar but in being identical.


pizza parlor

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

The gang and I went to the pizza parlor to order some pizza and kill a little time.

(US) A restaurant or other business establishment whose primary menu item is pizza.


hiding place

A place where someone or something may be hidden.


lovey-dovey

en-adj

lovey-dovey (comparative more lovey-dovey, superlative most lovey-dovey)

more lovey-dovey (comparative)
most lovey-dovey (superlative)

And then when she'd put me right off, and I didn't want her, she'd come all lovey-dovey, and get me. And I always went.

1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 14, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Gutenberg edition, [Florence, Italy]: [ […] Tipografia Giuntina, […]], →OCLC; republished as Lady Chatterley’s Lover (eBook no. 0100181h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, August 2011, archived from the original on 2020-11-11:

This ain't no fooling around / No time for dancing, or lovey dovey / I ain't got time for that now

1979, “Life During Wartime”, in Fear of Music, performed by Talking Heads:

(informal) Affectionate in a rather mushy or oversentimental fashion.


warhorse

a Wagner warhorse

I remember taking the old warhorse, “Una Voce Poco Fa,” from Il Barbiere (Rossini) to three of the greatest living singing masters in Italy.

1910, Millie Ryan, What Every Singer Should Know, Omaha, Nebr.: Franklin Publishing Co.:

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo[…] presented a typical program of Russian warhorses of the 19th and early 20th centuries[…]

1997 August 6, Jennifer Dunning, “Horsing Around With Balletic Warhorses”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A Mendelssohn Warhorse Gets the Perlman Treatment [title]

1995 August 5, Anthony Tommasini, “A Mendelssohn Warhorse Gets the Perlman Treatment”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

[…] the ROH mounts a new production of an Italian repertory warhorse that is fully on the level of the one it replaces […

2006 June 11, Stephen Jay-Taylor, “Tosca dress”, in rec.music.opera (Usenet):

(theater, music) A regularly revived theatrical or musical work, as with Hamlet or a Beethoven symphony, or as excerpts thereto. May imply that the work in question has become hackneyed.


analysis paralysis

The condition of being unable to make a decision due to the availability of too much information which must be processed in order for the decision to be made.


bafflegab

Toss in a few technical terms that most people don't understand—"stochastic" this, "regression" that—and you can use people's justified respect for math and science to get them nodding along. This is granularity as bafflegab.

2015 September 29, Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Crown, →ISBN:

Teachout has a gift for slicing through the bafflegab and revealing that the grifter's patter disguises nothing more than unimaginative, sociopathic scams.

2020 July 29, Cory Doctorow, “Break 'Em Up”, in Pluralistic, retrieved 2020-08-02:

Pretentious, incomprehensible, or overly technical language, especially legal or bureaucratic jargon.


bafflegab

en-verb

bafflegab (third-person singular simple present bafflegabs, present participle bafflegabbing, simple past and past participle bafflegabbed)

bafflegabs (present singular third-person)
bafflegabbing (participle present)
bafflegabbed (participle past)
bafflegabbed (past)

(rare) To use pretentious, incomprehensible, or overly technical language.


shipworm

Ship-VVorms [running head] […] It is reported that thoſe VVorms vvhich get into a Ships bottom in the ſalt vvater, vvill dye in the freſh vvater; and that the freſh vvater VVorms vvill dye in ſalt vvater: but in brackiſh vvater both ſorts vvill increaſe prodigiouſly.

1697, William Dampier, chapter XIII, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 363:

The Ship-VVorm of Jamaica. This inſect is extremely deſtructive to all the ſhips that anchor for any time in the harbours of Jamaica, or in any other part vvithin the tropics: They cut vvith great facility through the planks, and burrovv a conſiderable vvay in the ſubſtance of them, incruſtating the ſides of all their holes vvith a ſmooth teſtaceous ſubſtance[…].

1756, Patrick Browne, “Of Insects”, in The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica. […], London: […] T[homas] Osborne, and J. Shipton, […], →OCLC, part II, book III, class I, section II, order IV, page 395:

The Teredo, or ſhip-vvorm, has tvvo calcareous javvs, hemiſpherical, flat before, and angular behind. The ſhell is taper, vvinding, penetrating ſhips and ſubmarine vvood, and vvas brought from India into Europe,[…].

1791, [Erasmus Darwin], The Botanic Garden; a Poem, in Two Parts. […], London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, part I (The Economy of Vegetation), page 30:

The teredo navalis, or ship-worm, is seldom six inches in length, but the muscles and armour with which its head is provided enables it to penetrate readily into the stoutest oak-planks of a vessel, committing dreadful havoc among her timbers, and chiefly producing the necessity for her being copper-bottomed.

1826, John Mason Good, “Lecture X. On the Principle of Life, Irritability, and Muscular Power.”, in The Book of Nature. […], volumes I (Series I. Nature of the Material World; […].), London: […] [A[ndrew] & R. Spottiswoode] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, page 265:

[W]e have suffered seriously in our dock yards and harbors by the operations of the shipworm, to which the soundest and hardest oak offers no impediment.

1852 January 1, “Art. II.—Shell Fish: Their Ways and Works. An Introduction to Conchology, or Elements of the Natural History of Molluscous Animals. By George Johnston, M.D. LL.D. London, J. Van Voorst. [book review]”, in The Westminster Review, volume I (New Series; volume LVII overall), number CXI, London: John Chapman, […], →OCLC, page 55:

Old spars and water-soaked timbers cast on the beach are full of the workings of the shipworm—long cylindrical tunnels penetrating all parts of the wood. Usually nothing remains of the creatures themselves except occasional fragments of their small calcaerous shells; these proclaim that the shipworm is a true mollusk, despite its long, slender, and wormlike body.

1955, Rachel Carson, “The Rim of Sand”, in The Edge of the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →OCLC, page 185:

The shipworms, wood boring bivalves of the family Teredinidae, belong to the oldest invaders. […] Even though mankind has tried to develop counter measures for thousands of years, still there is no easy solution to the shipworm problem in sight.

2002, Kai N. Hoppe, “Teredo navalis – The Cryptogenic Shipworm”, in Erkki Leppäkoski, Stephan Gollasch, Sergej Olenin, editors, Invasive Aquatic Species of Europe: Distribution, Impacts, and Management, Dordrecht, South Holland: Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, page 116:

Once inside edible wood, the shipworm begins eating and growing, and some species, such as those in the Caribbean, can attain a length of over 3 feet. In our waters, however, the shipworm seldom attains a length of over a foot-and-a-half long.

2004, Donald Launer, “The Lower Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Raritan Bay, and Their Tributaries”, in A Cruising Guide to New Jersey Waters, revised edition, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 39:

In 1980, divers discovered that Teredo navalis, a shipworm, had infested the timber support. Such was the damage, it left the viaduct at risk of being closed permanently – and with it, the entire line.

2020 August 12, Andrew Mourant, “The Tide is Turning for a Victorian Wonder”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 51:

Any of several wormlike marine molluscs (not true worms) of the family Teredinidae that bore through the wooden hulls of ships and other woody material immersed in salt water; specifically, the naval shipworm or turu (Teredo navalis), the type species of the genus Teredo.

broma

any of several wormlike marine molluscs of the family Teredinidae


bonehead

Near-synonyms: thickhead, numskull; see also Thesaurus:fool, Thesaurus:idiot

Musical Potterism, for example, is everywhere rampant. It bobs up in music criticisms and peeps forth in daily intercourse. "Give me good old Mozart," cries the classical Potterite, "and keep your modern kickshaws. Mozart is good enough for me!" Alas, we think Mozart is too good for this bonehead, who no doubt prefers a Broadway comic opera to The Marriage of Figaro.

1921, James Huneker, Variations, page 248:

(slang) Someone who is thick-skulled, stupid, or stubborn.


displaced person

en-noun

displaced person (plural displaced persons or displaced people)

displaced persons (plural)
displaced people (plural)

A refugee, especially of war or of forced migration.


guttersnipe

(slang, dated) A small poster, suitable for a kerbstone.


bodyboard

en-verb

bodyboard (third-person singular simple present bodyboards, present participle bodyboarding, simple past and past participle bodyboarded)

bodyboards (present singular third-person)
bodyboarding (participle present)
bodyboarded (participle past)
bodyboarded (past)


battleground

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Mr. Biden, the former vice president, is ahead of Mr. Trump in the Northern battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as in the Sun Belt states of Florida and Arizona, according to a poll of likely voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena College.

2020 November 1, “Election at Hand, Biden Leads Trump in Four Key States, Poll Shows”, in New York Times:

battleground state
battleground state#English

(US politics) Ellipsis of battleground state.


flash flood

The West Highland Line reopened for passengers on July 11, following emergency repair works after more than 1,600 tons of material was washed away by a flash flood on June 25.

2020 August 12, Philip Haigh, “Short-term access planning is not in passengers' interest”, in Rail, page 55, photo caption:

One of the most heavily hit regions was Germany’s Ahrweiler district, where flash floods surged through the village of Schuld, washing away six houses and leaving several more on the verge of collapse. The police said at least 50 people had died in Ahrweiler district.

2021 July 15, Melissa Eddy, “Hundreds Missing and Scores Dead as Raging Floods Strike Western Europe”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(meteorology) A sudden, rapid flood, usually of short duration and local impact.


space race

The competition between nations in the field of space exploration.

宇宙開発競争

うちゅうかいはつきょうそう


workspace

An area allocated for someone to work in, especially in an office.

(computing) A file (or system of files) in which related software and data can be manipulated or developed in isolation from others.

työtila

computing: A file (or system of files) in which related software and data can be manipulated

Unlike other Microsoft Office applications, Access doesn't automatically display an empty workspace when you start the program.

2011, June Jamrich Parsons, Dan Oja, Donna Mulder, Practical Microsoft Office 2010, page 128:

graphical user interface
graphical user interface

(computing, graphical user interface) An empty portion of the screen or window that serves as a container for other windows or objects.

(computing, graphical user interface) Any of the screens that can be switched between in a virtual desktop.

(robotics) The set of points that can be reached by the end-effector of a robotic manipulator


trailer sailer

A sailboat designed to be carried on a towed trailer.


hot-brain

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From hot + brain. Compare Old English hātheort (“furious, angry, irascible, passionate, ardent”).

cog

(obsolete) an impetuous, fiery person; a hothead


squarehead

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

(slang) An honest person; a non-criminal.

The squarehead bent his chin to his breast and said, "Very well. In an hour."

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), page 771:

"If I'm good enough to talk about I be good enough to drink with," Peters shouted. "Fritz! Squarehead! Two phlegm-cutters here."

2022, Brian Penton, Landtakers: The Story of an Epoch:

(slang) A foreigner of Germanic origin, especially a German, Dutch, or Scandinavian person.


jerkwater

From jerk (“to move with a sudden movement”) + water. Refers to the need to supply the boilers of steam trains with water. In rural areas and small towns with no water tower, where the train did not stop, this was done by scooping ("jerking") water from a track pan. First appears c. 1852, in the Miami County Sentinel (Peru, Indiana).

compound

Twenty-five miles down the narrow arid highway, there is another town like Napoleon, a little smaller. And then twenty-five miles further, another. This chain of jerkwaters stretches for a lazy afternoon, until you finally encounter a cluster of people that almost resembles a modern civilization, with a movie theater and chain restaurants.

2016 April 19, Rex Sorgatz, “The Internet Really Has Changed Everything. Here’s the Proof.”, in Wired:


washboard

en-verb

washboard (third-person singular simple present washboards, present participle washboarding, simple past and past participle washboarded)

washboards (present singular third-person)
washboarding (participle present)
washboarded (participle past)
washboarded (past)

Individual bees have been observed washboarding on the inside glass of an observation hive.

2015, James E. Tew, The Beekeeper's Problem Solver, →ISBN, page 73:

This behaviour is believed to be associated with general cleaning activities but under what circumstances workers washboard is not known.

2015, Robert Owen, The Australian Beekeeping Manual, →ISBN, page 19-51:

(bees) To move up and down or back and forth across the surface of a hive, possibly to lay down a layer of propolis and wax.


washbowl

A sink in a bathroom, connected to a supply of water and a drain, in which one may wash one's face and hands.

умивалник

a sink in a bathroom, connected to a supply of water and a drain


washrag

Mrs. Glass abruptly leaned her weight forward, without getting up, and reached out and picked up something from the top of the laundry hamper. "Do you have a washrag back there?"she asked.
"The word is 'washcloth,' not 'washrag,' and all I want, God damn it, Bessie, is to be left alone in this bathroom.

1957, J. D. Salinger, “Zooey”, in Franny and Zooey, published 1961:

(Southern US) A square piece of cloth for washing the face and body.


watercourse

From Middle English water course; equivalent to water + course.

Any channel, either natural or artificial, through which water flows.


dustpan

→ Tagalog: daspan

→ Cebuano: daspan

When she got downstairs, she would find the house tidy, but dirty. She could not rest until she had thoroughly cleaned; so she went down to the ash-pit with her dustpan.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

A flat scoop with a short handle, into which dust, dirt and other material is conveyed with a brush or broom.


goldilocks

From goldy + locks. Goldilocks is a traditional children's story and its protagonist.

A person with golden hair, especially a girl with long hair.


yellowback

From yellow + back, from their bright covers, often printed by chromoxylography.


windstorm

A storm in which there are strong, violent winds but no precipitation.


woodworker

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workbook

A book, used by a student, in which answers and workings may be entered besides questions and exercises.

A book, used by a business, containing a record of work to be done, or work completed.

(computing) A collection of spreadsheets stored in the same file.


worktable

A table designed for work of a specific type.

(historical) A small table used by ladies for doing needlework.


workweek

A 32-hour workweek is a 4-day week and an 8-hour day combined.

Mrs. Lienemann, the French Housing Minister, sees socialist and ecological forces proposing what she calls “a new culture”—perhaps named “Ecosocialism”—that might, she believes, work for innovations like a 32-hour workweek, more democracy at the workplace, and “a greater stress on quality than quantity in everyday life.”

[1992 November 1, Roger Cohen, quoting Marie-Noelle Lienemann, “Ideology Wanes for Europe, Leaving Politicians Adrift”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

That trial, which began the same week as the elections that brought Margaret Thatcher to power, remains a symbol, to a certain sort of Englishman, of the societywide breakdown of the 1970s, which was a decade of currency devaluations, crippling strikes, uncollected garbage and shortened workweeks.

2009 December 7, Christopher Caldwell, “Can David Cameron Redefine Britain’s Tory Party?”, in The New York Times:

(US) The range of days of the week that are normally worked


wristband

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final whistle

Before the next [tennis] game begins, the players in each court change partners: and the same routine is followed until the time agreed upon has elapsed, when the final whistle is sounded, scores are added up, and prizes awarded.

1888 July, “Chat”, in Demorest’s Monthly Magazine, volume XXIV, number 9 (number CCCI overall), New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] Jennings Demorest, →OCLC, page 583, column 2:

Only fifteen minutes now remained before the referee would blow the final whistle, and both teams exerted every effort to gain the mastery.

1910 January 15, Bernard Finch, “The Outside Right: A Football Story”, in The Boy’s Own Paper, volume XXXII, number 16 (number 1618 overall), London: “Boy’s Own Paper” Office, […], →OCLC, page 255, column 2:

On December 14 Cornell's green, soph-laden basketball team tasted its first defeat as it fell before an experienced Niagara five. […] The second half Niagara jumped into the lead and held it until the final whistle.

1949, “Basketball”, in The 1949 Cornellian, Ithaca, N.Y.: The 1949 Cornellian Board for the students of Cornell University, →OCLC, page 313, column 2:

It ended 1–0 to West Ham, and at the final whistle their players were going mad, knowing they were staying up [i.e., not being relegated].

2006, Wayne Rooney, “Introduction”, in Wayne Rooney: The Way It Is, London: HarperSport, HarperCollinsPublishers, published 2007, →ISBN, page 3:

The final whistle prompted a pitch invasion – although there appeared to be an unwanted incident when a supporter seemed to punch Stevenage's Scott Laird, who subsequently fell to the ground.

2011 January 8, Paul Fletcher, “Stevenage 3 – 1 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2023-01-01:

(sports) The blow of the whistle by the referee or other adjudicator signifying the end of a match.

صَافِرَة نِهَائِيَّة

blow of the whistle signifying the end of a match


hometown

These vehicles convey Esther from her hometown hospital, then to a city hospital, and finally from the city hospital in another hearselike conveyance […]

1994, Lindsey Tucker, Textual escap(e)ades:

“It’s not good stewardship. If the guests wanted to walk through a funhouse with guys jumping out of the shadows saying ‘booga-booga,’ they’d go to one of the Halloween Houses in their hometowns. The Mansion’s better than that. I can’t be a part of this plan.”

2003, Cory Doctorow, chapter 6, in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom:

An individual’s place of birth, childhood home, or place of main residence.

hometown decision, hometown verdict

(attributive) Designating a decision or judgement that is biased, or perceived to be biased, in favour of local preference.


rubberneck

Coined in the sense of "tourist" in the United States in the late 19th century. A favored Americanism of H.L. Mencken.

We must have looked gorgeous. And what made it worse, there was at least a hundred rubbernecks that didn't have anything better to do than stand around and watch everyone falling all over themselves.

1951, J. D. Salinger, chapter 17, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 168:

Someone who engages in rubbernecking, or turning and staring.

зяпач

someone who engages in rubbernecking, or turning and staring — see also rubbernecker


rubberneck

rubberneck (third-person singular simple present rubbernecks, present participle rubbernecking, simple past and past participle rubbernecked)

rubbernecks (present singular third-person)
rubbernecking (participle present)
rubbernecked (participle past)
rubbernecked (past)

The driver was so busy rubbernecking, trying to get a good view of the accident, that he was almost part of another accident.

To watch by craning the neck (as though it were made of rubber), especially if the observer and observed are in motion relative to each other.

Hoover’s books go down like a T.M.I. Facebook confessional, rubbernecking you in from the first sentence. Certain patterns quickly emerge.

2023 July 6, Pamela Paul, “What’s the Story With Colleen Hoover?”, in The New York Times:

To cause (someone) to watch in fascinated horror, as if rubbernecking to see a roadside accident.


kerbstone

You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party.

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act I, page 115:

Gabriel often saw him on the streets, playing on the curbstone with other boys his age.

1953, James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →OCLC, part 2 (The Prayers of the Saints):

A paving stone that forms part of a kerb.


cutwater

Rynchops niger
Rynchops niger#Translingual

A black skimmer; a sea bird of the species Rynchops niger, that flies low over the sea, "cutting" the water surface with its lower mandible to catch small fish.


steam shovel

(historical) An excavating machine designed to effect a shovelling action through steam power.

蒸汽挖掘機 /蒸汽挖掘机

(by extension) Any excavating machine of similar design, no matter how powered.


steam shovel

steam shovel (third-person singular simple present steam shovels, present participle steam shovelling or (US) steam shoveling, simple past and past participle steam shovelled or (US) steam shoveled)

steam shovels (present singular third-person)
steam shovelling (participle present)
steam shoveling (US participle present)
steam shovelled (participle past)
steam shovelled (past)
steam shoveled (US participle past)
steam shoveled (US past)

At Lahontan the teams were engaged on the earthwork of the dike with the adjoining Lahontan Beach canal south of the dam. Paving of the up-stream slope of the dam was carried out by night shift in steam shoveling rock at the quarry and delivering by cars and cableway to the dam, where paving was placed by day shift and nearly completed to the present top of the dam at the end of the month.

1914 February, “Construction Work, January”, in Reclamation Record, volume 5, number 2, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Reclamation Service, →OCLC, page 66, column 2:

[H]ere in America there are mountains of oil rock which can be blasted and steam-shoveled and transported by gravity to great retorts which will turn out oil and fertilizer in limitless quantities.

1918 February, Guy Elliott Mitchell, “Billions of Barrels of Oil Locked up in Rocks”, in Gilbert H[ovey] Grosvenor, editor, National Geographic, volume XXXIII, number 2, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 205, column 2:

Considerable copper ore, steam-shoveled from Sacramento Hill and piled at Bisbee, was of smelting and milling grade, and some of it was put on the dump for heap leaching.

1922 November 28, V. C. Heikes, “Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, and Zinc in Arizona”, in Mineral Resources of the United States 1921, part I (Metals), Washington, D.C.: [United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior]; Government Printing Office, published 1924, →OCLC, page 321:

I do know that some of the most influential people in the oil-mining industry have made some investigations with a view of steam shoveling certain areas, and that they found conditions were such, with the beds of barren material lying between the high-grade product, that they could not steam shovel it, […]

1931 February 17, Mark L. Requa, quotee, “Statement of Harold Walker, Representing the Pan American Petrolum & Transport Co., New York City”, in Regulating Importation of Petroleum and Related Products: Hearings before the Committee of Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Seventy-first Congress, Third Session on H.R. 16585: A Bill to Regulate Commerce between the United States and Foreign Countries in Crude Petroleum and All Products of Petroleum, including Fuel Oil, and to Limit the Importation thereof, and for Other Purposes […], Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 297:

Approximately eighty-five percent of the iron mined in the United States in recent decades has come from the ore ranges adjoining the upper Lakes, and most of all from the fabulous Mesabi Range, some fifty miles northwest of Duluth, now steam-shovelled deep in what was recently a frontier wilderness of snow, lakes and northern forests, […]

1943 March 19, “Appendix DD: The War Shipping Panel [Opinion on Union Maintenance]”, in The Termination Report of the National War Labor Board: Industrial Disputes and Wage Stabilization in Wartime: January 12, 1942 – December 31, 1945, volume III (Appendixes to Volume I, Part II), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, published 1947, →OCLC, page 234:

At first I was acutely aware of how close we were, but then—when Dan started steam-shoveling food into his mouth—I laughted and relaxed into the moment.

2008, Terri Clark, chapter 7, in Sleepless, New York, N.Y.: HarperTeen, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, page 95:

I'm steam-shoveling scrambled eggs and pancakes with syrup into my mouth next morning when Dad sits down with the newspaper.

2008, Coleen Murtagh Paratore, “Tucker, Jupey, and Stew”, in The Funeral Director’s Son, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 40:

Jesse imagined a group of Children back there steam shoveling the mashed corpses out of the way, an assembly line of the beasts passing the deat and wounded back toward the arena.

2019, Jonathan Janz, chapter 3, in Savage Species, London: Flame Tree Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (Night Terrors):

(transitive) To excavate (a place, or something from a place) using a steam shovel.

kaivaa höyrykaivurilla

to excavate (a place, or something from a place) using a steam shovel

I have never had any experience with steam shoveling.

[1876 September 28, C. C. Martin (witness), “[Proceedings before the City Court of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York]”, in N.Y. Court of Appeals: William C. Kingsley & Abner C. Keeney, Appellants, against the City of Brooklyn, Respondent: Appeal Book, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Eagle Print, […], published 1879, page 883:

[I]n the tumultuous rootings of a potato field, in which hogs had long foraged and steam-shoveled, there were woodcock, squatting sedately and boring assiduously in the soft brown loam.

1920 June, Archibald Rutledge, “Twenty Feet at Rimini”, in Reginald T. Townsend, editor, Country Life, volume XXXVIII, number 2, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 92, column 3:

They're steam shoveling there with this great ugly nose plowing out a hole and throwing the dirt up on the bank or in trucks to haul away.

a. 1964 (date written), A[iden] W[ilson] Tozer, Worship: The Reason We Were Created—Collected Insights from A. W. Tozer, Chicago, Ill.: Moody Publishers, published 2017, →ISBN:

(intransitive) To operate a steam shovel.


sun dog

PIE word
 *sóh₂wl̥
From sun + dog (“(figurative) visible atmospheric or meteorological phenomenon”).

compound

December […] the 28th [1714], the Sun being an Hour high, appeared a Sun-Dog or Parhelion, the Sky full of flying Clouds.

1749, Thomas Short, A General Chronological History of the Air, Weather, Seasons, Meteors, &c. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Longman, […]; and A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 474:

Sun-dogs, called Mock Suns, becauſe they reſemble the ſun, are tvvo ſpots that frequently appear in a cloud vvhen the ſun ſhines through it, and vvhen he is about 15 to 20 degrees above the horizon. […] One is ſituated on the north, and the other on the ſouth ſide of the ſun. The refraction and reflection of the rays of light are the cauſe of theſe phænomena.

1791, Samuel Stearns, “Of the Cause of the Rain-bow, Meteors, Sun-dogs, Jack-with-a-lanthorn, Hurricanes, Trade-winds, Monsoons, Whirlwinds, Water-spouts, Clouds, Rain, Hail, Snow, Frost, Mist, Fog, and Dew— […]”, in The American Oracle. Comprehending an Account of Recent Discoveries in the Arts and Sciences, […], London: […] J[ames] Lackington, […]; and J. Parsons, […], →OCLC, page 167:

Two sundogs dread famine bring / A bloody war, and new-crown'd king.

1837 April, F. [pseudonym], “Notices by the Way Side—from Notes Taken in 1821. No. IV. Sacket’s Harbor.”, in The Monthly Traveller, or Spirit of the Periodical Press. […], volume VIII, number 4, Boston, Mass.: Badger & Porter, […], →OCLC, page 146, column 1:

The good fog heard—like a splitten sail, to the left and right she tore, / And they saw the sun-dogs in the haze and the seal upon the shore.

1896, Rudyard Kipling, “[The Seven Seas.] The Rhyme of the Three Sealers.”, in The Seven Seas, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 68:

Sometimes it is clear, and at midday the sun looks at us for a moment over the hills to the south. The northern lights flame in the sky, and the sun-dogs dance, and the air is filled with frost-dust.

1905, Jack London, “The Sun-dog Trail”, in Love of Life and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published September 1907 (December 1907 printing), →OCLC, pages 223–224:

A sun dog on each side of the sun foretell a bad storm in the night.

1935, Harry Middleton Hyatt, “Weather”, in Folk-lore from Adams County Illinois, New York, N.Y.: Memoirs of the Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation, →OCLC, paragraph 678, page 26:

Long understood also, is the fact that sundogs—colored spots of light to the right or left of the sun or moon—belong in the same class with halos.

1941 August 31, “When there’s a ring around the sun”, in John T. Curtis, editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer, volume 225, number 62, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Philadelphia Inquirer Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, “Everybody’s Weekly” section, page 2, column 4:

Every rainbow and every sundog remind us, "Yes, you are human and you often fail to live up to God's standards. But God's covenant is eternal, and God loves you nonetheless and not the less."

2000, Michael J. Coyner, “Sundogs and Other Signs”, in Prairie Wisdom: Reflections on Life in the Dakotas, Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, →ISBN, page 126:

Some videos seem to show sun dogs jumping around. […] No one is sure what causes these "jumping" sun dogs. Some scientists think the electric field from lightning in the cloud makes the ice crystals move. When the crystals move, the sun dog moves. But this is just a hypothesis. No one is sure what causes this phenomenon.

2017, Suzanne Garbe, “Sun Dogs”, in The Science behind Wonders of the Sun: Sun Dogs, Lunar Eclipses and Green Flash, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Raintree, Capstone Global Library, →ISBN, page 28:

A bright spot in the sky, usually one of two on a parhelic circle on both sides of the sun (or occasionally above and below it), caused by the refraction of the sun's image through ice crystals.

parhelium

bright spot in the sky caused by the refraction of the sun’s image through ice crystals

úlfakreppa

to the east and west of the sun simultaneously


cop shop

From cop (“police officer”) + shop (“workplace”).

1977-1984, Cop Shop (title of an Australian television series).

Billy Suggs spotted Sam standing outside the cop shop when he still was two blocks away.

“Could you go up the cop shop and bring Paul home again” said Heather.

2007, Rachel Bramble, Stephanie Clover, page 47:

He then drove up to the township and dragged me inside the cop shop.

2011, Robert Watkins, A Face in the Crowd, page 40:

(UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, slang) A police station.


teammate

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

Pass the ball to your teammate.


circulatory system

en-noun

circulatory system (plural circulatory systems)

(physiology) The parts of an animal body comprising the heart, blood vessels (arteries, veins, and capillaries), and blood, which circulate the blood around the body.

bloedsomloopstelsel

parts of an animal body which circulate the blood around the body

(technology) The parts of a machine responsible for the circulation of some fluid.


everyplace

He told me that Buster took her face 'bout right off. Said there's guts and hair everyplace. There's a platoon or so of Payton's bluejackets up there on the View now.


bob-cherry

Playing at bob cherry
Tom and Nell and Hugh:
Cherry bob! cherry bob!
There's a bob for you.
Tom bobs a cherry
For gaping snapping Hugh,
While curly-pated Nelly
Snaps at it too.

1893, Christina G. Rosetti, A NURSERY RHYME BOOK:

A game where one tries to snap at a swinging cherry with one's mouth.


sin bin

From sin + bin. Apparently Australian. Usage of the panel van sense is influenced by the US trade name.

1972 September, What′s New: Rolling pad, Popular Science, page 70,
There′s a shag rug on the floor, padding on walls and ceiling, and, for extra comfort, a 600-gallon water bed. The Sin Bin is made by Chinook Mobilodge.

1978 March, Jim Elder, Camp/work conversion, Popular Mechanics, page 110,
There is the shag-carpet “sin bin” with its fur upholstery, mahogany paneling, stained glass, color TV and chrome sidepipes.

1986 January, A Family Affair, Popular Mechanics, page 86,
Unlike the full-size Sin Bins of the ′70s, the new family vans are cute, comfortable and carlike.

(US, Australia, colloquial) Synonym of fuck truck: A panel van with a mattress in the back.


scrapyard

A steady procession of new Class 421 and '423' electric multiple units to the Southern Region from Derby and York allowed the despatch of many pre-nationalisation 2-BIL and 2-HAL units to scrapyards.

2020 April 8, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was at risk”, in Rail, page 67:

A junkyard, a place where scrap is stored, discarded or resold.

廢料場 /废料场

a junkyard, a place where scrap is stored, discarded or resold


filthy lucre

From filthy + lucre, which appears in the Tyndale Bible, and four times in the King James Version of the Bible, as a calque of Ancient Greek αἰσχρόν κέρδος (aiskhrón kérdos) and related terms such as αἰσχροκερδής (aiskhrokerdḗs, “[a person] given to filthy lucre”): see the quotations and Citations:filthy lucre.

calque

αἰσχρόν κέρδος

(money obtained dishonestly):

For there are many diſobedient and talkers off vanitie⸝ and diſceavers off myndes⸝ namly they off the circumciſion⸝ whoſe mouthes muſt be ſtopped⸝ which pervert whole houſes⸝ teachynge thyngꝭ [thynges] which they ought nott⸝ becauſe off filthy lucre.

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Pistle of Paul unto Titus j:[10–11], folio cclxxxiij, verso:

A Biſhop then muſt be blameleſſe, […] Not giuen to wine, no ſtriker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not couetous; […]

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 3:2–3:

Both her auditors, brother and sister, assented to this, and declared on their own knowledge that no man lived less addicted to filthy lucre than the warden.

1855 January 5, Anthony Trollope, “Iphigenia”, in The Warden, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 175:

The abomination of filthy lucre has made such inroads among the rulers of the churches, that certain of those who call themselves religious men and women, forgetting the commandments of the Lord have been altogether led astray, and for the sake of money have received those presenting themselves for the sacerdotal order and the monastic life.

1900, “The Seventh Ecumenical Council. The Second Council of Nice, a.d. 787. [The Canons of the Holy and Ecumenical Seventh Council. Canon XIX.]”, in Henry R[obert] Percival (volume), Philip Schaff, Henry Wace (series), editors, The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church. […] (A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series; XIV), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons; Oxford, Oxfordshire; London: Parker & Company, →OCLC, page 567:

The reason why, like pretty much everything these days connected with the current Duke [Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex] and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, comes down to their various money-making gambits. (With a reported $68,000-a-month mortgage to pay and a hen house full of chooks to keep in gluten-free grain, these days the couple need filthy lucre the exact same way that you and I do.)

2022 November 2, Daniela Elser, “King Charles could strip Harry of Duke title after his memoir, Spare, is released”, in Shayne Currie, editor, The New Zealand Herald, Auckland: New Zealand Media and Entertainment, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-15:

(idiomatic, derogatory, often humorous in modern use) Money, especially if obtained dishonestly.


bookplate

en-verb

bookplate (third-person singular simple present bookplates, present participle bookplating, simple past and past participle bookplated)

bookplates (present singular third-person)
bookplating (participle present)
bookplated (participle past)
bookplated (past)

(transitive) To affix a bookplate to (a book).


tabletop

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

(skateboarding) A fixed item resembling a table, used for performing skateboarding tricks.

Some people watch TV, others play tabletops. You might like to work out. The object is to bide your time.

2021, Dorian Sykes, The Good Life Part 2: The Re-Up:

(roleplaying games) Ellipsis of tabletop game.


tabletop

tabletop photography

tabletop gaming


tabletop

tabletop (third-person singular simple present tabletops, present participle tabletopping, simple past and past participle tabletopped)

tabletops (present singular third-person)
tabletopping (participle present)
tabletopped (participle past)
tabletopped (past)

(roleplaying games, rare) To play tabletop games.


vomit comet

From vomit + comet, from its potential to cause nausea.

(slang) A reduced-gravity aircraft, an airplane that briefly provides a nearly weightless environment by flying on a parabolic flight path; used to train astronauts or conduct research.


gatehouse

(archaic) A fortified room over the entrance to a castle or over the gate in a city wall


garden gnome

A small statue of a gnome used as a garden ornament.

nan de jardí

a small statue of a gnome used as a garden ornament


monkey's fist

(knots, nautical) A type of knot tied at the end of a rope to serve as a weight, making it easier to throw the line.


whack-a-mole

en-noun

whack-a-mole (countable and uncountable, plural whack-a-moles)

/ˈʍæk.əˌməʊl/

From whack + a + mole (“small, burrowing, insect-eating mammal of the family Talpidae”), from the arcade game Whac-A-Mole which involves quickly and repeatedly hitting the heads of mechanical moles with a mallet as they pop up from holes. The name of the arcade game was coined in 1977 when it was first sold in the United States; the original game released in Japan in 1975 was called モグラ退治 (Mogura Taiji, literally “Mole Extermination”).

compound

Trying to get rid of spam e-mails is like whack-a-mole: as soon as you delete one, another appears.

Identify a challenge. Put your shoulder into it. Make it go away. Just as it disappears, whoops, here comes another one. It's like a game of whack-a-mole. Trust me, you'll never run out of quarters.

2007 November, Gil Schwartz, “The Office Politic: Escape from the Job Monster”, in David Zinczenko, editor, Men’s Health, volume 22, number 9, Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 122, column 1:

What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.

2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, page 9]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-06-10:

Some flew across the United States; some were planning to fly into London from Europe, though, like many of us, they could only try their best to keep up with the government’s air corridor whack-a-mole.

2020 August 29, Rebecca Nicholson, “Tom Cruise: Another groundbreaking role for cinema’s cheerleader”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-10-16:

With power being redistributed automatically and surging through other circuits as the system tried to reroute electricity to keep things operational, various parts of the ship began to flicker internally as more and more breakers began to trip and were reset, only to trip again. Then, one of the engineers, tired of playing whack-a-mole, tied one of the more important breakers down so that it physically couldn't trip. This turned out to be a mistake, and a cascade overload crippled the ship's radar, radios, and power training on most of her guns. With no way of communicating with Washington, South Dakota simply held course whilst men in the switchboard room tried their best to reset the ship's entire electrical grid.

2021 March 17, Drachinifel, 13:14 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 2 (IJN 3(?) : 3 USN), archived from the original on 2022-07-14:

(idiomatic, chiefly Canada, US) The practice of trying to stop problems, etc., that repeatedly occur in an apparently random manner; also, the act of dealing with such matters in a piecemeal manner without achieving a complete solution.

der Kampf gegen die Hydra

practice of trying to stop problems, etc., that repeatedly occur in an apparently random manner; act of dealing with such matters in a piecemeal manner without achieving a complete solution


hard hat

My enthusiasm wasn't exactly suppressed - my father had worked for British Rail's property department, and one of my earliest memories was walking around the forlorn buildings at Old Oak Common depot wearing his oversized BR hard hat.

2020 May 6, Tim Dunn, “The Architecture The Railways Built”, in Rail, page 72:

A helmet, usually made from rigid plastic, used on construction sites to protect the head from falling objects.


bluestone

en-noun

bluestone (countable and uncountable, plural bluestones)

Any of several bluish-grey varieties of stone used for construction:

(US, Canada) A feldspathic sandstone found in the US and Canada.


road hog

A motorist who straddles two lanes of traffic or otherwise monopolizes the road.


skinhead

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

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *(s)kenH-
Proto-Germanic *skinþąder.
Middle English skyn
English skin
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *káput-
Proto-Germanic *haubudą
Old English hēafod
Middle English heed
English head
English skinhead
From skin + head.

etymon

Their rules haven't changed: Skinheads are very young, mostly between the ages of 13 and 18, and they come from strictly working class backgrounds. They wear short‐ankled denims, T‐shirts, suspenders and heavy boots known as Bovverboots (Botherboots), and their hair is shorn to an eighth of an inch all over their skulls. They dance the Reggae, a West Indian shuffle, and they drink Coca Cola and they whip up riots at soccer games.

1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

By the end of the show, fights would break out all over the place: the Atlantic City skins against the crew from Philly; the oldschool skinheads feuding with overzealous fresh-cuts.

2017, Christian Picciolini, White American Youth:

A member of a subculture that arose among working-class youth in late 1960s England or its diaspora, defined by close-cropped or shaven heads and working-class clothing, and often associated with violence and white-supremacist or anti-immigrant principles.


singer-songwriter

From dvandva compound of singer + songwriter.

A musician who both sings and composes, especially when recording or performing their own compositions.


candlelight

en-noun

candlelight (usually uncountable, plural candlelights)

From Middle English candel lyght, candyllyght, candyll-lyȝht, candel liȝt, candle lyȝt, candeliȝt, candel-liht, from Old English candel lēoht (“candlelight”), equivalent to candle + light.

inh

I looked across the table into her shining eyes, which were golden in the candlelight, with my fingers round the stem of my own glass, ready for the toast.

1912, Cecil Barber, “Standchen”, in The Living Age, volume 275, page 426:

Cradled in the arms of Night, the gleam of moon and candlelight bring images alive from days gone by.

2013, Will Moody, Candlelight Reflections, page 65:

Using survey data gathered from social media users who participated in the candlelight vigils, he explores the prevalence of social media use during the protests, how it differs in terms of individual-level demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, […]

2021, JongHwa Lee, Chuyun Oh, Yong-Chan Kim, The Candlelight Movement, Democracy, and Communication in Korea, page 1969:

Morning dress is that which is worn during business hours or at any time in any place, where semiformal dress is not required until candlelight or seven o'clock in the evening .

1896, Walter Germain, The Complete Bachelor: Manners for Men, page 10:

The attack finally ceased Monday morning, but "soon after candlelight, came on a most terrible bombardment and cannonade, on both sides, as if heaven and earth were engaged."

2005, Jacqueline Barbara Carr, After the Siege: A Social History of Boston 1775-1800, page 35:

As Marie glances at the window, she sees that the day has gone; it is almost candlelight.

2017, Elaine Stienon, Children of a Northern Kingdom:

(archaic) The evening, when darkness falls and it is time to light candles.