mixed martial arts

Alternative form: MMA

Though mixed martial arts has successfully peeled away fans from boxing (a sport that’s lost any compelling champions and much of its dignity) and WWE (a “sport” that’s always existed in quotation marks) it’s had trouble shaking its reputation as “human cockfighting.”

2002 April 19, Scott Tobias, “Fightville”, in AV Club:

Other top talent in the Central Vision library includes Black Belt Hall of Fame members Ernie Reyes Sr., Frank Shamrock, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, mixed-martial arts champion Pat Miletich, breaking champion Larry Fields and Olympic judo medalist Mike Swain.

2003 November, “Century Completes 100th Martial Arts Video”, in Black Belt, page 111:

Jiu jitsu competitions are vastly different from mixed martial arts, as they are grappling-only, and if an athlete does well in jiu jitsu, it doesn't guarantee that he'll also do well in mixed martial arts (and vice versa).

2005, Jeremy Wall, UFC′s Ultimate Warriors: The Top Ten, page 202:

Mixed martial arts is essentially about making the opponent tire out before you do so you are at an advantage in dealing devastating moves.

2008, Mickey Dimic, Christopher Miller, Mixed Martial Arts Unleashed: Mastering the Most Effective Moves for Victory, page 20:

(sports, martial arts) A style of combat sport allowing a wide range of combat techniques such as striking and grappling.


antoikoi

As antoeci, but closer to the Ancient Greek spelling.


antoeci

From the Latin antoecī, from the Ancient Greek ἄντοικοι (ántoikoi, “dwellers opposite”), from ἀντί (antí, “opposite”) + οἶκος (oîkos, “dwelling”).

uder

Antœci are such as dwell under the same Meridian and the same Latitude or Parallel equally distant from the Æquator; the one northward, the other Southward; the days in both places being of a length; but the Summer of the one being the others winter.

1622, Peter Heylin, Cosmographie in Four Bookes, Containing the Chorographie and Historie of the Whole World, published 1674, introduction, page 20, column 1:

Antichthones…comprehend both the Antipodes and Antœci, or all beyond the Line[.]

1684, Thomas Burnet, The Theory of the Earth, book 2, published 1697, page 174:

Antœci…have their noon, or midnight, or any other hour at the same time; but their seasons are contrary, being spring to the one, when it is autumn with the other.

1796, Charles Hutton, A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary, volume 1, page 121, column 1:

The inhabitants at two points on the globe that share a longitude and for which the sum of their degrees of latitude equals zero.

antecos

the inhabitants of the place at the opposite degree of latitude


bitt-heads

(nautical) The upright timbers let in and bolted to the beams or the deck, and stepped to the backbone or infrastructure of the ship.


mollusca

The mollusca are animals with soft bodies, enveloped in a muscular skin, and usually protected by a univalve or bivalve shell. […] The univalve mollusca are encephalous, or furnished with a distinct head; they have eyes and tentacula, and the mouth is armed with jaws.

1851, S[amuel] P[ickworth] Woodward, “Classes of the Mollusca”, in A Manual of the Mollusca; or, A Rudimentary Treatise of Recent and Fossil Shells, London: John Weale, […], page 6:

Turning for a very brief space to animals: on the land there are some hermaphrodites, as land-mollusca and earth-worms; but these all pair.

1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Natural Selection”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 100:

The amphibious animals are provided with special organs for the sense of smell, although a very delicate sense of smell is likewise met with among the crustacea, such as crabs, mollusca and insects.

1862, Arthur Lutze, translated by Charles J[ulius] Hempel, “[Appendix.] The Human Body”, in Manual of Homœopathic Theory and Practice. Designed for the Use of Physicians and Families., New York, N.Y., Philadelphia, Pa.: […] William Radde, […], page 532:

Probably frogs, crabs, mollusca, and insects form their chief diet; […]

1886 July, Keswal [pseudonym; W. F. Sinclair], “Notes on the Waters of Western India. Part I.—‘British Deccan and Khandesh.’”, in R[obert] A[rmitage] Sterndale, E[dward] H[amilton] Aitken, editors, The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, volume I, number 3, Bombay: […] [T]he Education Society’s Press […], page 114:

The löss fauna is largely of terrestrial mollusca, as in America, […]

1910, Frank Leverett, Comparison of North American and European Glacial Deposits, Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger, page 302:

The gentle slopes are favorable to the growth of various mollusca whose hard parts contribute additional material to the growing limestones.

1940, Frank F[itch] Grout, “[The Sedimentary Rocks] Limestones”, in A Handbook of Rocks for Use Without the Petrographic Microscope, 6th edition, New York, N.Y.: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., […], page 169:

On salt marshes, burrowing crabs, mollusca and annelids undoubtedly assist in aeration of the soil. […] One can, for example, make a study of the algae that occur on the shells of some of the larger mollusca or on barnacles.

1964, V[alentine] J[ackson] Chapman, Coastal Vegetation, Oxford, Oxon, […]: Pergamon Press; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →LCCN, pages 16 and 31:


sits vac

Abbreviation of situations vacant: job vacancies, or advertisements for job vacancies


erratas

[…] he trusts the reader will overlook verbal criticisms, and a few literary erratas.

1822, Antoinette Baroness de Poly, Memoirs of the Family de Poly:

The mistakes of the presse can breed but little obstruction to the progresse of the Ingenius Reader, if with his pen, before he enter upon the perusal of this Treatise, he be pleased thus to correct, as I hope he will, these ensuing Erratas […]

1641, Sir Thomas Urquhart, Epigrams, Divine and Moral:


falcula

(plural only, zoology) A curved and sharp-pointed claw.


operatics

exaggerated or overly emotional behaviour; histrionics


penates

From Latin Penātēs, from penus (“inner part of house”).

lest the name thereof being discovered unto their enemies, their Penates and Patronal Gods might be called forth by charms and incantations.

1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3:

(Roman mythology) The household deities thought to watch over the houses and storerooms of ancient Rome.


regimentals

As when two doves, or two wood-pigeons, or as when Strephon and Phyllis (for that comes nearest to the mark) are retired into some pleasant solitary grove, to enjoy the delightful conversation of Love, that bashful boy, who cannot speak in public, and is never a good companion to more than two at a time; here, while every object is serene, should hoarse thunder burst suddenly through the shattered clouds, and rumbling roll along the sky, the frightened maid starts from the mossy bank or verdant turf, the pale livery of death succeeds the red regimentals [i.e. blushes] in which Love had before drest her cheeks, fear shakes her whole frame, and her lover scarce supports her trembling tottering limbs.

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

The uniform worn by a soldier in a regiment.


working conditions

I'm not proposing a return to Victorian working conditions, or anything like that, but there are two areas where things need changing.

2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 25:

The environment in which one works, as influenced by factors such as cleanliness, lighting, equipment, paid overtime, uniforms, access to amenities, etc.


SLOC

(programming) Initialism of source lines of code.


sex, lies and videotape

en-noun

sex, lies and videotape pl (plural only)

Today, choosing a president seems to have more to do with sex, lies and videotape.

1992, John Laschinger, Geoffrey Stevens, Leaders & lesser mortals: backroom politics in Canada, Key Porter Books, page 123:

Thus, Chetan Anand is described as "the biggest taker and sponger I met in my life": another blurb reads, "Sex, lies and videotape, the story of I.S. Johar's life"...

1995, India today, Volume 22, Aroon Purie for Living Media India Ltd., page #111

It is not "sex, lies and videotape" but the drama of CAD, cost and cycle time that is generating a revolution in the business of design.

1998, Nino S. Levy, Managing high technology and innovation, Prentice Hall, page 105:

"Inquiring minds want to know. Give 'em what they deserve. Sex, lies and videotape."

2002, Mack Mangham, Things Left Undone, iUniverse, page 155:

Whatever the media promote and the chorus chants, whatever dapples dinner tables, this is not a mundane story of sex, lies and videotape.

2008, Toni Morrison, Carolyn C. Denard, What moves at the margin: selected nonfiction, Univ. Press of Mississippi, page 151:

The controversy surrounding a political scandal.


brown bits

Add 1/2 cup of the red wine and stir up the brown bits to deglaze the pan.

2004, Diane Rossen Worthington, Noel Barnhurst, The Taste of the Season: Inspired Recipes for Fall and Winter, page 56:

Pour 1 cup water into pan; scrape pan with a wooden spoon to loosen brown bits from bottom of pan.

2002, American Heart Association, American Heart Association Low-Salt Cookbook, page 121:

Stir vigorously and scrape all of the brown bits from the pot bottom.

1996, Beverly Mills, Alicia Ross, Desperation Dinners!, page 6:

(cooking) Caramelized remnants of meat left in a pan after the cooking of the meat, which are often re-cooked in wine or other liquids and then absorbed into cut vegetable pieces in order to make sauce or gravy.


fleshings

Flesh-coloured tights (worn by actors or dancers)


earlies

I'm on earlies next week.

(informal) Early shifts, in a job with a shift rotation.


animal fries

Thousand Island dressing
Thousand Island dressing

(chiefly Canada, US) French fries that are served with melted cheese, grilled onions, and Thousand Island dressing or special sauce instead of ketchup.


Bermuda-shorts

She had doffed the shirt and Bermuda-shorts which she had been wearing and was now dressed for her journey home.

1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII:


brills

Compare Dutch bril, German Brille (“spectacles”).

(dialectal) Spectacles (glasses), especially double-jointed ones.


Wolfeana

Things, generally, connected with someone with the surname Wolfe, especially Thomas Wolfe.


sternsheets

(nautical) The stern area of an open boat; the planking that forms the floor or seating in that area

кърмова площадка

the stern area of an open boat; the planking that forms the floor or seating in that area


unnecessaries

[…] for they had a mayor there, among other unnecessaries […]

1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, page 51:


15 megabytes of fame

Culture is your friend who likes to draw[…]. / The web is an opportunity to make good our fifteen megabytes of fame. / The more widespread and grassroots the Internet, the more difficult it will be to dominate and control it.

Even when the time commitment becomes incredible—some would say insane—they argue they’re “compensated” accordingly, whether in pleasure or new knowledge or what Scholz calls their “15 megabytes of fame.”

2015 July 22, Caitlin Dewey, quoting Trebor Scholz, “You don’t know it, but you’re working for Facebook. For free.”, in Washington Post, →ISSN:

(humorous) A modest amount of fame achieved in the world of computing, as by inclusion on a popular video or audio clip available on the Internet.


tighty-whities

(slang) Alternative form of tighty whities


metaphyta

(biology, botany) All multicellular plants, of the subkingdom Embryophyta.


tidy whities

9. I like walking down the hall in my tidy whities, or less, and it is a coed dorm

1994 March 19, Thunder Dan, “Re: Help Me Kill My Roomates^([sic])”, in soc.college (Usenet):

To toughen yourself up for a face-off with a stuffed shirt, make like Marcia Brady: Picture him in his tidy whities

1999, Glamour, volume 97, numbers 1-4, Condé Nast Publications, page 186:

She tried her mother again when her father started coming into her room dressed only in his tidy whities. She got slapped for telling lies.

2004, MaryJanice Davidson, Undead and Unwed, Berkley Sensation, →ISBN, page 67:

For instance, I like to wear men's underwear. Yes the tidy whities with the little pocket thing in front. I throw on some of those and wife beater and lounge in my house watching TV.

2006, Brandelyn Castine, “Call Me Crazy: A thought”, in Spoken Silence: Life in 4 Parts, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 47:

Eighteen-year-old guys, doing their laundry for the first time had no idea about sorting colors before putting clothes in the washing machine. You just crammed everything you could in the washer, put in some soap and turned it on. Unfortunately, most of us bought new college sweatshirts to wear and when they were put in the wash with the tidy whiteys, the tidy whiteys were no longer white. Instead, they were a faded color of the new sweatshirt that you also washed.

(informal, nonstandard, proscribed) Eggcorn of tighty whities.


tighty whities

Here are 5 more reasons to hate Chris Jefford: 5 He’s the only date that’s truly from hell. 4 He THINKS that his body his cool. 3 He wants his dates to to tell him so 2 “I want to have sex”. 1 Cool guys don’t wear "tightie-whities". - Someone else who knows.

1988 November 16, The Observer (Notre Dame and Saint Mary's), page 5:

[W]hat do you females (lurkers included :-) think of boxers as opposed to the traditional Fruit-O-The-Loom/Hanes "tighty-whities"?

1990 March 11, Chris Cleeland, “Large breasts”, in alt.sex (Usenet):

Forbes, in his tighty whities and black socks, seems an incongruous apparition against the sense of home the kitchen implies.

1999, Noah Hawley, A Conspiracy of Tall Men, page 345:

It would indeed be great if my red socks and my tighty whities declared themselves to my washer.

2000, Edward Lerner, Creative Destruction, page 29:

I brushed and flossed my teeth, and got in bed with only my tighty-whities on.

2008, Justin Pinnick, Another Funny Memory, page 62:

Temple was laid out with a cold. Ada hoped she hadn't brought baby Jarius's bug out to him. As soon a Ada had gotten the toilets cleaned and the soup on the stove she rubbed her daddy down with a lemon cut in half, then lowered him (wearing purple tighty whities) into a hot bath she had spiked with red pepper flakes and Tabasco. When Temple was up to his shoulders in the water, Ada gave him a shot of whisky.

2012, Alice Randall, Ada’s Rules: A Sexy Skinny Novel, page 97:

We never had time to do laundry, so I would rinse my tighty-whiteys in the sink and hang them to dry inside the van during the next day’s ride.

2016, NOFX, Jeff Alulis, NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories, page 198:

Tiny carried a bag of nails tucked into the back of his jeans, worn low to show off his tighty whiteys.

2021, R.J. Linteau, The Architect, page 203:

(originally US, colloquial, often derogatory) Men's or boys' traditionally white briefs.


delenda

He marked in red several delenda throughout the text.


hozen

thy Hozen muxy up zo vurs thy Gammerels to tha very Hucksheens o' tha

1746, Exmoor Courtship, published 1879, page 42:

(obsolete, West Country) stockings; hose


gists

From gist + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum).

suffix

(obsolete) A roll reciting the several stages arranged for a royal progress.


the Quality

I would have spoken further, but before I could get under way the door opened, revealing Ma Cream, and [my manservant Jeeves] shimmered silently from the room. Unless expressly desired to remain, he always shimmers off when what is called the Quality arrive.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

Alternative letter-case form of the quality (the upper class)


the quality

20 July 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian
I shall appear at the masquerade dressed up in my feathers, that the quality may see how pretty they will look in their travelling habits.

The rector kept open house on that day, but by degrees the “quality” gave up going, and the fair, of course, became disreputable, till at last it was put down as a nuisance.

[In 1919 Ireland.] ‘Be quiet, Ripon! It's not nonsense at all. Ripon's father calls us “fish-eaters” and “Holy Romans” and so on. So does Ripon. So will you, Major, when you're among the “quality”. In fact, you'll become a member of the “quality” yourself, high and mighty, too good for the rest of us.’

1970, James Gordon Farrell, Troubles, 1st edition, page 34:

Yet they did not pretend to be members of ‘the quality’, the people of fashion, the cosmopolitan beau monde or the ton, although they were not above harping on their exalted acquaintances among the nobility or the antiquity of their lineage when they saw fit.

2006, James Alan Downie, "Who Says She's a Bourgeois Writer? Reconsidering the Social and Political Contexts of Jane Austen's Novels", in Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 40, Nr. 1, Fall 2006

(UK, idiomatic, archaic) The upper class, the high society, the gentry; the people of quality.


cricket whites

(cricket) The traditional clothing worn by cricketers, consisting of white trousers, shirt and optionally sweater.


pantalettes

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

A mad world this, my friends, a world in its lunes, petty and other; in lunes other than petty now for some time; in petty-lunes, pettilettes, or pantalettes, about these six weeks, ever since when this rampant androgynous Bloomerism first came over from Yankee land.

1851, Thomas Snarlyle, “Bloomerism: A Latter-Day Fragment”, in Punch, page 217:

In the second row of the cavalcade were Francie, Fanny's god-daughter, now thirteen years old and already elegant in long frilled pantalettes, tartan skirts, and a leghorn hat with streamers, […]

1929, M. Barnard Eldershaw, A House Is Built, Chapter IX, Section iii:

(historical) A form of long underpants with a frill at the bottom of each leg.


nine-tenths

(loosely) Almost all; the vast majority.


Baure

An Arawakan language spoken in Beni, Bolivia.


Condy's crystals

potassium permanganate
potassium permanganate


gdns

E. Norton (Machine Tools) Ltd., Grosvenor Gdns. House, Grosvenor Gdns., London […]

In Earl's Court, Barkston Gdns, very close to the tube, has a long row of perfectly pleasant hotels, all of which seem individual but clean and welcoming.

2004, Charles Godfrey-Faussett, Footprint England:

(UK, in street addresses) Abbreviation of gardens.


sophi

From the Latin sophī, the nominative plural form of sophus, from the Ancient Greek σοφός (sophós).

Valladolid, our Athens gins to tast
Of thy ranck filth, Camphire and Lettuce chast,
Are cleane casheird, now Sophi Ringoes eate,
Candid Potatoes, are Athenians meate.

1598: John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie, Three Books of Satyres, volume 1, chapter 3, page 181 (1966 republication)

(obsolete, plural only) Wise men; sages.


talaria

From Latin tālāria, plural form of tālāris (“of or pertaining to the ankle or heel”), from tālus (“anklebone, talus; heel”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).

refn

From the collection of the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, California, USA.

der

Byres has drawn these figures with wings at their ankles, sometimes fastened to the leg, and sometimes like those at their shoulders, growing from the flesh—in both which ways the talaria of Mercury and Perseus are represented on ancient monuments. Nothing of this sort could I perceive; it was manifest to me that these were not talaria, but simple buskins with peaked flaps, such as are commonly depicted on vases of the archaic Greek style, and on the legs of Roman Lares in the paintings of Pompeii.

1848, George Dennis, “Bieda.—Blera.”, in The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, footnote 10, page 319:

From the Graiæ the literary myths make him [Perseus] go to the Nymphs, the artistic ones to the Naiads or nymphs of the lake Tritonis, from which he receives the helmet of Hades, the kibisis or wallet, and the talaria or winged sandals. [...] Other versions made him receive the helmet and talaria from Hermes. On the early monuments the helmet of Hades is like the petasus of Hermes, and the sandals are winged, but in many other works of art, such as mirrors or gems, the talaria are represented as wings, which he attaches to his feet.

1854 May 25, Samuel Birch, “V. On a Vase Representing an Adventure of Perseus.”, in Archaeologia: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, London: Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London; printed by J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […], published 1855, →OCLC, page 56:

With his horizon all his own, yet he a poor man, born to be poor, with his inherited Irish poverty or poor life, his Adam's grandmother and boggy ways, not to rise in this world, he nor his posterity, till their wading webbed bog-trotting feet get talaria to their heels.

1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Baker Farm”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 225:

It was the god Hermes, he who conducted souls to the Elysian fields, the slender, agile, elegant figure, beautiful in its sinuous motion, with the petasus on his head and the winged talaria on his ankles, that I beheld floating over me.

1867 May, W. W. S., “A Modern Magician”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CI, number DCXIX, Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 566:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The winged sandals worn by certain gods and goddesses, especially the Roman god Mercury (and his Greek counterpart Hermes).


Hildebrand rules

After the 1992 case Hildebrand v. Hildebrand.

Previously, a spouse who came across information showing their partner was hiding money could copy it and put it before the court – a protection called the Hildebrand rules that was intended to help the financially impoverished.

2010 July 30, Natalie Hanman, “Covertly found assets no longer valid in divorce”, in The Guardian:

(law) The unofficial acceptance of the use of one's spouse's private documents in court during a divorce.


culturati

en-noun

culturati pl (normally plural, singular culturatus)

/ˌkʌlt͡ʃəˈɹɑti/

The Club became like town meetings for the entire New York art scene, attracting dealers, collectors, uptown curators like Alfred Barr, critics, and just about any other culturati who could wrangle their way in.

Instead of letting WQXR disappear into the maw of sports talk or a top-40 juggernaut, the transaction ensures that New York City — so often pointed to by its culturati as a music capital — will have at least one classical outlet.

2009 July 17, Daniel J. Wakin, “Amid Changes at WQXR, Music Stays”, in New York Times:

Well-educated people who are interested in cultural activities.


raspberry ripples

January 24 2008, Sexy stars who need a bra, The Sun
Cue stiff nipples and a flurry of camera bulbs to broadcast her raspberry ripples to the world.
Dozens of stars been caught looking like they're smuggling peanuts like this.

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang

(Cockney rhyming slang, plural only) Nipples (of a woman)


arisings

The waste products or byproducts of an industrial process.


Eora

An Australian Aboriginal tribe or clan of the Sydney region and surrounds.


payables

debts and liabilities owed by a business


thinnings

plants that have been removed in order to improve the growth of the remainder


galluses

From gallowses, rare plural of gallows (“suspenders, braces.”).


opticals

So don your 'opticals' for these charming Indian-English terms still widely encountered and many now entering mainstream use: […]

2003, The Chemical Engineer, numbers 740-751, page 68:


dark ages

Alternative letter-case form of Dark Ages


devisen

[…] in February there was a moderate decline in its holdings of devisen, and in March there was a loss of both devisen and gold.

1930, The Execution of the Experts’ Plan: Fifth Annuity Year and Transition Period, September 1, 1928 to May 17, 1930, page 110:

[…] the fall in the value of Hungary’s exports in 1930 had already driven the Government to use up a large proportion of its reserves in gold and devisen.

1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 91:

The central monetary powers were obligated to maintain existing parities and convertibility of their currencies by contracting their domestic money supply and shipping gold if under pressure and by offering credits, intervening on foreign exchange markets, and refraining from liquidating devisen to support other currencies under pressure.

1992, Kenneth A. Oye, Economic Discrimination and Political Exchange, →ISBN, page 107:


Waswahili

Waswahili pl (normally plural, singular Mswahili)


bums on seats

"What's for sure is we've got to make sure people do take it up because it's only experimental and the funding for the evening service at least from Sirius Minerals is only for three years so we've got to make sure there are bums on seats within three years."

2020 January 2, Graeme Pickering, “Fuelling the changes on Teeside rails”, in Rail, pages 60–61:


wintersports

The sports that are traditionally played in winter, such as those involving snow.


pacificae

pacifical letters
pacifical letters#English


dubia

dubia pl (normally plural, singular dubium)

Borrowed from Latin dubia, plural of dubium (literally “doubt”).

Coordinate term: responsa

The dubia began as a private letter, as is usual with such requests for doctrinal clarity. Francis offered no reply.

2016 November 26, Ross Douthat, “His Holiness Declines to Answer”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Eleven dubia, have been raised regarding the application of the Motu proprio Traditionis custodes through which in July 2021 Pope Francis promulgated new norms regarding the use of the liturgical books in use prior to the reform enacted by the Second Vatican Council.

2021 December 18, “Celebration of old rite: Holy See responds to questions presented by bishops”, in Vatican News:

On July 10, Cardinal Burke and other leading traditionalist cardinals sent a letter to Francis known as a “dubia” that conveyed their concerns about the Synod, and demanded that he clear up, among other issues, the blessing of same-sex unions.

[2023 October 3, Jason Horowitz, “Conservative Catholics, Relegated to Sidelines, Denounce Papal Gathering”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(Roman Catholicism) A set of questions on doctrine sent by Catholic bishops to the Holy See.


muliebria

(medicine, archaic) The female genitals.


naturalia

The Will of man in the Eternal Nature and its organism in the temporal nature are not ashamed of the naturalia, and of the reproductive act […]

1923, Herman Vetterling, The Illuminate of Görlitz:


heapings

There were the heapings of praise for the idea of America, for American ingenuity, and for the American military, shout-outs to Reagan and Roosevelt, a smattering of God - and the obligatory glowing reference to Senator Edward Kennedy.

2009 March 5, Oliver Burkeman, “Gordon Brown's lifelong love affair with America, in 36 minutes”, in The Guardian:


Khalsa

Borrowed from Punjabi ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ (xālsā) / خالْصَہ (xālṣah), ultimately from Arabic خَالِص (ḵāliṣ, “pure”).


IMC

instrument meteorological conditions
w:instrument meteorological conditions

Initialism of instrument meteorological conditions.


golubtsy

From Russian голубцы́ (golubcý), singular голубе́ц (golubéc). Doublet of holubtsi.


Timiskaming

From the Temiscaming people's spoken language. Alternate spellings from the 1700s: Temiscaming, Timiscaming, Temiscamin, Temescaming.

The Temiscaming live between Lake Temiscaming and Lake Abitibi in Northeastern Ontario.


pussytoes

pussytoes pl (normally plural, singular pussytoe)

From pussy + toes: named for the way the cluster of flower heads resembles the pads that make up the paw of a cat.

Any of several species of composite flower in the genus Antennaria, known for their clusters of white fluffy flower heads.


Gwich'in

Climate varies from among the harshest in the Subarctic in the northern territory of the Gwich'in to more benign among the Carrier in the south.

2009, Alan D. McMillan, Eldon Yellowhorn, First Peoples In Canada, →ISBN, page 246:

It is not a Gwich'in history, nor is it a self-conscious effort to use Gwich'in structures of knowledge.

2010, Richard J. Preston, A Kindly Scrutiny of Human Nature: Essays in Honour of Richard Slobodin, →ISBN:

This history of the Gwich'in people is mostly unknown due to the lack of a written language.

2013, James Minahan, Ethnic Groups of the Americas: An Encyclopedia, →ISBN, page 162:

An ethnic group native to the northern Yukon Territory and adjacent parts of Alaska.


Enawene Nawe

A small tribe who live by fishing and gathering in Mato Grosso state, Brazil.


discretionaries

discretionary income
discretionary income

(economics) Goods and services that are not essential, bought by a customer using discretionary income.


bells and smells

(informal) A style of religious worship emphasising high ritual, including use of vestments, bells and incense, especially that of High Church Anglicanism and Catholicism.


preces

(Christianity) The alternate responsive petitions, as the versicles and suffrages, between the clergyman and the congregation in liturgical worship.


dejecta

From Latin dejecta (“things which have been cast away”), neuter plural of dejectus, past participle of dejicio (“I cast away”).

uder

(medicine, zoology) any liquid or solid waste matter that is emanated, shed or discharged from the body. Dejecta include urine, faeces, sputum, pus, mucus, skin sloughing, lochia; their discharge can be nasal, aural, by expectoration, urethral, vaginal and so on.


battells

Alternative form of battels (“fees charged by an Oxford college for accommodation and living expenses”)


vareniki

en-noun

vareniki pl (normally plural, singular varenik)


Nashi

Alternative form of Nakhi (“ethnic group”)


kitchenalia

From kitchen + -alia (from paraphernalia).

More modern designs included wild strawberries, marine fauna and hogweed, while papers intended for kitchens featured not only fruits and vegetables, but also kitchenalia, recipes and bottles of "foreign" wine […]

2003, Judith Miller, The Style Sourcebook:

Miscellaneous kitchen utensils, cooking equipment, and other items typically found in kitchens.


generalia

/d͡ʒɛnəˈɹeɪliə/

there is need of a set of intermediate scientific truths , derived from the higher generalities of science , and destined to serve as the generalia or first principles of the various arts

1843, John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC:


Wiyot

The now-extinct Algic language of the Wiyot people.


Ao

A tribe living primarily in the state of Nagaland in India.


Ao

Their language, belonging to the Tibeto-Burman language family.


twenty winks

All right, go along to the doting mother, while I stretch out on the settle and chance twenty winks of sleep before Andrew turns up. I never sleep well on the train, as you know.

1931, Henry Berman, Life Demands! And Other Plays:

Twenty winks offered to drivers

2003 November 3, “Twenty winks offered to drivers”, in BBC.co.uk:

Twenty winks [title]

2004 November 10, Annalisa Barbieri, “Twenty winks”, in The Guardian:

(idiomatic) A very short sleep, half as long as forty winks.


Iswa

From the tribe's autonym, ye iswa (“people of the river”), from Catawba ye (“people”) + iswa (“river”).

A Native American people who inhabit the Carolinas: the Catawba.


reliquiae

The most abundant fossil remains of plants belong to terrestrial tribes; but the animal reliquiæ are mostly of aquatic origin; […]

1831, Philosophical Magazine, volume 9, page 435:

Remains, especially of fossil organisms.

(archaeology) Artifacts; things made or modified by human art.


Canterbury bells

Campanula medium, an annual or biennial flowering plant with bell-shaped flowers.


De'ang

An ethnic minority group found in Southern China and Burma. Languages spoken in regions populated by this group include Palé, Riang, Rumai, and Shwe, all of which belong to the Palaungic sub-group of the Khasi-Khmuic family of languages.


exies

(slang) Expenses (charged to one's employer).


boothose

An item of clothing worn over the stockings, in fashion in the seventeenth century.


belligerati

Blend of belligerent + literati which is also the plural of belligerātus.

I am not, in this instance, referring to the belligerati - Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis and chums - ever-present in the liberal press on both sides of the Atlantic.

2005, Tariq Ali, Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography Of The Sixties, page 19:

They are the belligerati who are given opinion columns and radio talkback programs; who are accorded the status of minor celebrities; and there can at times seem no end to the uniquely Australian cross of their public bullying

2011, Andrew Charlton, Man-Made World, page 88:

Since neoconservatives and the liberal belligerati have sought to appropriate these ideological resources on behalf of imperialism, aspects of this question will be examined in chapter 1.

2011, Richard Seymour, American Insurgents: A Brief History of American Anti-Imperialism, page xviii:

Literary people, authors — literati — who promote wars of aggression.


antigropelos

From anti- + Ancient Greek ὑγρός (hugrós, “wet”) πηλός (pēlós, “mud”).


praecognita

From Latin praecognitus, past participle of praecognoscere (“to foreknow”). See pre- and cognition.

It having been the common received Opinion amongſt Men of Letters, that Maxims were the foundations of all Knowledge; and that the Sciences were each of them built upon certain præcognita, […]

1689, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Menston, U.K.: Scolar Press, published 1970, page 323:

It is not true that we have either innate ideas or moral instincts that impel us to a love of virtue; for in such cases the most savage tribes among mankind would be the most virtuous; their præcognita, or innate ideas, being but little disturbed by foreign ideas, acquired by education or extensive commerce with the world; and their moral instincts as little disturbed by foreign habits acquired from the same causes.

1826, John Mason Good, The Book of Nature, volume 3, London: Longman, page 205:

As a perfect understanding of our subject depends upon a clear and precise knowledge of that part of the body, concerning whose injuries we are about to treat, and as their features and treatment derive importance from a correct idea of the structures implicated, I have not hesitated to enter upon the subject with an anatomical sketch of the component parts, and, if possible, thus, by showing "how parts relate to parts, and these to whole," to start with certain præcognita.

1849, Thomas Callaway, A Dissertation upon Dislocations and Fractures of the Clavicle and Shoulder-Joint., London: Samuel Highley, page 5:

The "character studies" which purport to represent his life abound in philosophical, ethical, theological, and political praecognita which he himself would not have found tenable or even theoretically congruent.

1962, Fulton Henry Anderson, Francis Bacon, His Career and His Thought, Los Angeles, C.A.: University of Southern California, page 3:

There are no praecognita, therefore anything which is thought to be knowledge is either itself an unjustified assumption, or derived therefrom.

1967, Sean O'Connell, Four Sceptical Tropoi, Edmonton, Canada: University of Alberta, page 117:

(rare) Things previously known, or which should be known in order to understand something else.


Spanish practices

Many in the newspaper business – including some who criticised Murdoch at the time – now concede that the end of Fleet Street's Spanish practices probably helped prolong the life of the British press by a good few decades.

2011 July 27, Jon Henley, “Rupert Murdoch and the battle of Wapping: 25 years on”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK) Irregular practices in favour of the workers at a place of work, which are implied, but not specified, in the work contract.


afferentia

From Latin afferentia. Doublet of afference.

(anatomy) Any afferent vessels, whether blood or lymph vessels; specifically, the afferent arteries of the kidneys.


Wamba-Wamba

Alternative spelling of Wemba-Wemba, a group of indigenous Australians, found in north-western Victoria and south-western New South Wales.


contact details

Information on how to contact a person or entity, typically including a telephone number, address etc.


living conditions

The conditions in which someone lives, seen in terms of their sanitary value, social, status etc.


dox

Phonetic respelling of docs, which is a short form of documents.

Why is it that, even after DECADES of carping from Jerry Pournelle, software companies STILL don't hire competent professionals to write their dox?

1995, J Eric Chard, “Will Vinton's Playmation”, in comp.graphics.animation (Usenet):

its ok, someone emailed me his address, phone #, ss#, the works. seems theres^([sic]) someone out there that dislikes him more than i do. i cant wait to hear how many people have his dox now. this should be really interesting...

2002, X, “this is getting old”, in houston.general (Usenet):

judging by the lack of the 6 it would appear we have our spammer here, LETS^([sic]) PULL HIS DOX!

2004, Andrew D Kirch, “Here is something that will work for the rest of us”, in news.admin.net-abuse.email (Usenet):

(slang) Documents, especially information sought by hackers about an individual (address, credit card numbers, etc.).


delikatessen

Wittenberg, Louis, 2 kegs of anchovy, 2 kegs of pickles, a keg of sourkrout and delikatessen.

1898, Annual Report, The Jewish Foster Home and Orphan Asylum, page 24:

He then opened a fish and delikatessen store at 1685 N. Clark st.

1908, History of the Swedes of Illinois, The Engberg-Holmberg Publishing Company, page 218:

The variety of delikatessen prepared from fish in Germany is well known.

It may be only half-an-hour after a solid mid-day lunch, but the question will be put nevertheless, and your obliging steward, if you cannot make up your mind what you will have, will very likely leave you for a moment only to hurry back with a tray bearing a large assortment of samples of the delikatessen beloved of the Fatherland.

1913, R. A. Fletcher, Travelling Palaces: Luxury in Passenger Steamships, London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., […], page 296:

The imprisoned cows’ fare consists largely of the excellent Norwegian hay and barley straw, together with a delikatessen slop, now and then, consisting of crabs, herring heads and other such dainties.

1917, N[ehemias] Tjernagel, Walking Trips in Norway, Columbus, Ohio: Lutheran Book Concern, page 209:

The scene of this enigmatic meal, at which Anthony had eaten ham and eggs, while Miss Holloway exhibited a fondness for smoked salmon sandwiches, and both of them had absorbed some blackish coffee, was Morgenstern’s in Coventry Street, in an underground apartment, lined with mirrors and pervaded by shadowy smells of delikatessen and mildew.

1927, Paul Selver, One, Two, Three, George H. Doran Company, pages 171–172:

My brother-in-law who lives in Zürich, where he’s got a delikatessen shop would call you a fine young fellow-me-lad, he would!

1935, Ernst Glaeser, translated by Gwenda David and Eric Mosbacher, The Last Civilian, New York, N.Y.: Robert M. McBride & Company, page 244:

Producers of boneless cured herring, maties, fillets, and delikatessen.

1961, Fisheries Year-Book and Directory, page 249:

Fish and delikatessen, flowers and the usual provisions.

1971, Inga Norberg Bredelius, Here Is Sweden: Not for Tourists Only, Askild & Kärnekull, page 110:

Lebensmittel in Mitte […] is a casket full of delikatessen, where you can drink a coffee and taste or buy an excellent selection of wines.

2012 May, Travel Europe - Berlin, Script, →ISBN, page 51:


delikatessen

There is a small, deluxe delikatessen on the street floor, offering fresh caviar, sturgeon, smoked salmon, home-made chaud-froid of chicken, fresh foie gras and old Gouda cheese, the first primeurs, especially the succulent Dutch asparagus, and other assorted delicacies.

There is a Café Mozart and a Rathskeller, to say nothing of German-style delikatessens, bakeries, sausage-makers, etc.

1987, David F. Walker, editor, Manufacturing in Kitchener-Waterloo: A Long-Term Perspective, →ISBN, page 114:

Delikatessens within the super deluxe hotels also retail in large selections of the above items.

2001, Jacqueline De Ville-Colby, The Expatriate Handbook: Seoul, Korea, Hollym, →ISBN, page 82:

Sitting in a delikatessen, surrounded by the girls from her school, she feels “securely adrift” (p. 88).

2011, David Trotter, “The Modernist novel”, in Michael Levenson, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Modernism, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 90:


back stairs

It is consequently my degrading duty to serve this upstart as First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief Justice, Commander-in-Chief, Lord High Admiral, Master of the Buckhounds, Groom of the Back Stairs, Archbishop of Titipu, and Lord Mayor, both acting and elect, all rolled into one.


Seven Wonders of the World

en-proper noun

the Seven Wonders of the World pl (plural only)

the Seven Wonders of the World (canonical plural)

Any of several lists of remarkable natural or man-made places.

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

New Seven Wonders of the World
New Seven Wonders of the World


rejectamenta

Things that are thrown away or rejected; items with little or no value waste, rubbish, garbage, refuse, ejecta


gym knickers

"But instead of going there, I sneaked into the Trunchbull's room. And after a speedy search I found the drawer where she kept all her gym knickers."

I never knew why they singled me out, though at the time I believed it was because my mother made me wear green gym knickers and everyone else's were navy or white.

1993 October 11, Angela Lambert, The Independent:

I remember being forced to do cross-country runs in horrible navy gym knickers, which is a nightmare when you're not exactly built like Paula Radcliffe [...].

2010 December 5, Gail Emms, The Guardian:

(UK) Large girls' underpants traditionally worn as shorts during school sports activities.


magnalia

Thus God applies his magnalia, that is works, and thus is the school of the light of Nature, that we should not only satisfy our eyes but wonder and investigate the phenomena which we cannot see and yet which confront us as clearly as a pillar stands before a blind man…

1999, Paracelsus, “Opus Paramirum”, in Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, transl., Essential Readings, North Atlantic Books, page 96:


Kutenai

The language isolate spoken by this people.


skilts

The lad's skilts, through which were thrust his lean dry shanks, gave him a semblance to a peasant of Gascony on stilts.

1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret: A Tale of the Real and Ideal, Blight and Bloom, page 22:

(US, dialect, dated or historical) A kind of wide, coarse, short trousers worn in the USA around the 18th century.


zeugitae

(historical) A class of citizens in ancient Athens having property or an estate above a certain value.


Aramanik

The original language of this people, Aasax.


laquearia

[…] stirred by the air / That freshened from the window, these ascended / In fattening the prolonged candle-flames, / Flung their smoke into the laquearia, / Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.

1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part II. A Game of Chess.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, →OCLC, page 18:

(historical) The panels of a coffered ceiling in Ancient Rome; a coffered ceiling.


Basij

Transliteration of Persian بسیج (basij).


basaji

From Persian بسیجی (basiji, “member of the Basij”), from بسیج (basij, “Basij, volunteer army”).

bor

In other parts of the world, soldiers have also been willing to commit suicide in bombing another army, most notably the Japanese kamikaze in World War II and the Iranian basaji during the Iran-Iraq War

2006, Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel, Global cooperation: challenges and opportunities in the twenty-first century, →ISBN, page 116:

A class of low-ranking Iranian foot soldiers.


bodhisattva vows

Affirmations, similar to an oath, aligning a person with the specific set of rules of conduct consistent with a specific bodhisattva tradition (similar to a Catholic or Anglican order) within Buddhism, by which the person transforms and sanctifies their ontological status in the style of the corresponding tradition.


Nican Tlaca

(US, politics) The indigenous peoples of the Americas, including full-bloods and mixed-bloods, regarded as one people or one nation.


Penrose stairs

After a drawing by Lionel Penrose and Roger Penrose.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Penrose stairs.

An impossible loop of endlessly ascending and descending stairs, or an optical illusion appearing to depict such a loop.


ladyparts

(informal, euphemistic) The breasts and/or genitalia of a woman.

(transgender slang, euphemistic) The penis of a trans woman.


marching orders

/ˈmɑɹtʃɪŋˌɔɹɾɹ̩z/

Riled by a decision that went against him, Ziv kicked his displaced boot at the assistant referee and, after a short consultation between the officials, he was given his marching orders and the loudest cheer of the night.

2011 October 20, Michael da Silva, “Stoke 3 - 0 Macc Tel-Aviv”, in BBC Sport:

(UK) Dismissal: an instruction to leave.


racing thoughts

Once the racing thoughts began, I had trouble concentrating on any subject and I felt like I couldn't think at all.

(psychology) A series of uncontrollable thoughts that switch rapidly between ideas, a symptom of bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders or other mental illnesses.


spuriae

(rare) The alae spuriae, or bastard wings.


praecoces

(zoology) Alternative form of precoces (“precocial birds”)


Framers

(US) The Founding Fathers of the United States; those who framed the US Constitution.


caricæ

Caricæ taken largely give a fetor to the Sweat.

1776, John Rutty, Observations on the London and Edinburgh dispensatories, page 205:

(obsolete, medicine) figs, especially those from Caria


Suevi

From Latin Suēvī, from Proto-Germanic *swēbaz.


Suebi

From Latin Suēbī, from Proto-Germanic *swēbaz.

A group of Germanic tribes living mostly near Elbe in what is now central Germany around the first century BCE.


intermediae

(zoology) The middle pair of tail feathers, or middle rectrices.


harns

From Middle English hernes, from Old English hærnas (“brains”), plural of hærn (“brain”), from Proto-West Germanic *hirʀnī, from Proto-Germanic *hirzniją (“brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱérh₂sō (“head”), from *ḱerh₂s- (“head”).

(now archaic, dialectal or rare) Brains.


whore's eyes

Argyll Robertson pupils
Argyll Robertson pupils

(slang, pathology) Argyll Robertson pupils.


majusculae

Unadapted borrowing from Latin majusculae, feminine plural form of majusculus (“somewhat greater or great”), diminutive of major, majus.

ubor

capital letters, as found in manuscripts of the sixth century and earlier


notabilia

Neuter plural of Latin notabilis (“notable”).

(archaic) Things or people worthy of notice.


hard yards

A sporting analogy referring to the game of rugby football, where making progress on the field, in measurements of yards, may lead to accomplishment and victory.
Alternatively derived from sailing, when furling or unfurling the canvas from certain (perhaps higher) spars was both dangerous and difficult.

do the hard yards

put in the hard yards

As with coupons and vouchers, there is seemingly no end to the opportunities that exist to improve a Web site's traffic flow by giving something away for nothing—as long as users are prepared to put in the hard yards, of course.

2007, Ian Cocoran, The Art of Digital Branding, Allworth Press, →ISBN, pages 128–129:

Those clever women at the frontier of fashion do all the hard yards for us, every month, by attending the shows in London, Paris and New York.

2010, Kelly Doust, A Life in Frocks, Sydney: Murdoch Books, →ISBN, page 129:

In tough conditions, with no room for complacency, the campaign will need to slog out the hard yards, give it 110% and leave it all on the field.

2017 August 22, Peter Lewis, “In a tough campaign the marriage equality team faces hard yards ahead”, in The Guardian:

The couple had already put in the hard yards: Fred started out in '60s freakbeat combos The Weeds and Lollipop Shoppe, with Toody joining him in early '80s punk trio The Rats.

2021 December, Jon Dale, “Dead Moon fever!”, in Uncut, →ISSN, page 8:

(originally Australia) The key effort in completing a difficult task.


widow's weeds

From (now) fossil word weeds (“garments, esp. mourning garments”), from Old English wǣd (“garment”).

(philately) a stamp bearing a portrait of Queen Victoria wearing mourning clothes


greetz

From greets + -z.
Phonetic spelling of greets.

OK, greetz to all the real amateur radio ops and enthusiasts out there.

2000, MattD.., “Greetz! And Mark, where are ya?”, in uk.radio.amateur (Usenet):

2003, [sis], “Greetz from Poland ;)”, in soc.culture.czecho-slovak (Usenet):

(often demoscene) Greetings; Alternative form of greets


six senses

extrasensory perception
extrasensory perception

The five senses and the sixth sense; sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and extrasensory perception.


five senses

The five major senses in most animals: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.


straitened times

Periods of austerity or economic slowdown.

perioade de austeritate

periods of austerity or economic slowdown


terms of use

(law) The terms, conditions, or restrictions under which a person, commonly called an end user, may or may not utilize the aspects of a particular manufactured object, commonly called the end product.

here whakamahi

terms under which the end user may or may not utilize the end product


middlings

(business) Commodities that are of intermediate price, quality, or size.


Ghats

A pair of mountain ranges in southern India.


whys and wherefores

en-noun

whys and wherefores pl (normally plural, singular why and wherefore)

I can no more tell you the whys and wherefores of myself than I can lift myself up by the waistband and carry myself into the next county.

1887, George Bernard Shaw, chapter 5, in An Unsocial Socialist:

[I]f she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 1, in Anne of Green Gables:

Of the hundreds of thousands who served in Vietnam, most still do not understand the whys and wherefores of our involvement.

September 5 2004, Albert M. Forget, “Question integrity of vets attacking Kerry”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

(set phrase) The reasons or motivations for a fact, action, or decision, especially the complete set of such reasons or motivations.


keys of the kingdom

"I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven."

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 16:19:

The malcontents intrigued with Holland in 1666, and schemed to capture the three Keys of the Kingdom—the castles of Stirling, Dumbarton, and Edinburgh.

1911, Andrew Lang, chapter 26, in A Short History of Scotland:

keys to the kingdom
keys to the kingdom#English


valenki

valenki pl (normally plural, singular valenok)

From Russian ва́ленки (válenki), singular ва́ленок (válenok).

With our feet protected from frostbite in our valenki, we were able to walk outside. The valenki came just in time, since the temperature was falling rapidly and the winter was fierce beyond normal.

1999, Hanna Davidson Pankowsky, East of the Storm: Outrunning the Holocaust in Russia:


donkey ears

This was a frustrating year for us, anyway, and we were losing to the Tigers, 13-0, in the sixth inning when Aaron Robinson popped one into short left. I dropped the fly, they began to boo; and when I came in I gave them the donkey ears, which hardly seemed adequate.
My Turn at Bat
The Story of My Life
by Ted Williams, As Told to John Underwood, p. 116

A hand gesture made by placing the thumbs above each ear and waving the index fingers in unison; used to express derision.


bunny ears

I only realized I had been given the bunny ears after the pictures were developed.

A hand gesture in which the index and middle fingers are raised and parted, while the other fingers are clenched, used behind the head of a subject of a photograph.


MOSS

MIME Object Security Services
w:MIME Object Security Services

(computing) Acronym of MIME Object Security Services.


MOSS

Map Overlay and Statistical System
w:Map Overlay and Statistical System

(software) Acronym of Map Overlay and Statistical System.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
w:Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

(software) Acronym of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

w:Market Oriented Sector Selective talks

(trading) Acronym of Market Oriented Sector Selective talks.


destroyed jeans

(US) Blue jeans that have ragged edges, holes in them and worn-out sections, either due to long wear or as a result of design and manufacture.


polydrugs

It is, however, impossible to estimate the number of people who are obtaining polydrugs illegally or abusing them.

1978, Donald R. Wesson, Polydrug abuse: the results of a national collaborative study:


business hours

Business hours are from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday.

The hours and days when a given business is available to the public.


explementary angles

(geometry) A pair of angles that sum to 360 degrees.


conjugate angles

(geometry) A set of angles that sum to 360 degrees.


geekerati

It took until 1993 and the advent of Mosaic (a forerunner of Netscape) to move the Web out of the hands of solely the geekerati and into the realm of technological early adapters^([sic]).

2007, Hank Bordowitz, Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business, page 165:

He was overwhelmed by an immediate onrush of hospitality as the geekerati lined up to get a word with him.

2007 October 29, David Carr, “Murdoch, a Folk Hero in Silicon”, in New York Times:

(slang) An elite community of computer geeks.


incognoscenti

Some incognoscenti grumped when they couldn't find the word in their dictionaries, but there it is in the with-it fourth American Heritage: A word or phrase created because an existing term that was once used alone needs to be distinguished from a term referring to a new development...

2007 November 18, William Safire, “Retronymy”, in New York Times:


contiguous 48

United States of America
United States of America

District of Columbia
District of Columbia

(US, geography) the contiguous continental states area of the United States of America, comprising 48 states in number, and the District of Columbia, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.


swaddling-clothes

swaddling clothes
swaddling clothes#English


man and wife

I now declare you man and wife.


boys and girls

Dutchman's breeches
Dutchman's breeches#English

Synonym of Dutchman's breeches (“the plant Dicentra cucullaria”)


polpettine

Upstarts like the snack menu, with its little offerings of polpettine and deviled eggs, are encroaching from the flank.

2007 December 5, Kim Severson, “Is the Entree Heading for Extinction?”, in New York Times:


röck döts

/ˈɹøːk ˌdøːts/

The words rock dots with the unnecessary umlaut placed above them.

In the world of heavy metal, the umlaut - otherwise known as röck döts - is the ultimate illustration of Spinal Tap's dictum that there's a fine line between clever and stupid.

2005 December 2, Micheal Dwyer, “The full Mötley”, in The Age:

I imagine I'd be seeing a lot of metal tonight, so why not go for an obscure eighties punk song? Plus, Hüsker Dü = dual röck döts!

2006, Björn Türoque, To Air Is Human: One Man's Quest to Become the World's Greatest Air Guitarist, Riverhead Books:

Heavy metal umlaut(s)
heavy metal umlaut

(informal, humorous) Heavy metal umlaut(s).


beggar's-lice

I had gotten beggar lice and twigs and stuff all over me, inside my clothes and shoes and all, and then I happened to look around and I had my hand right on a bunch of poison oak..

1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury:

Galium aparine
Galium aparine#Translingual

Any of various plants, including Galium aparine and (US) Hackelia virginiana, which stick to clothing.


Roman hands and Russian fingers

Roman hands and Russian fingers pl (plural only)

Jocular modification of roaming hands and rushing fingers.

He might turn in test papers that were utterly blank—or blank except for a large, decorative question-mark—and Mrs. Douglas had discovered it was best to keep him away from the girls because of his Roman hands and Russian fingers, but he was quiet, so quiet that there were times when he might have been taken for a big lump of clay that had been crudely fashioned to look like a boy.

"Let's just say he had Roman hands and Russian fingers," she said. "I made him take me back home."

2002, Lon Leatherland, A Town Called Woodbridge, page 51:

I described them as foreigners — with Roman hands and Russian fingers. If that's all they wanted, they could just hit the dusty trail. I double-dated some, but decided I wasn't going out by myself with a boy again.

2005, Cleo Hicks Williams, Gratitude for Shoes: Growing Up Poor in the Smokies, page 366:

(humorous or euphemistic) A tendency towards unwanted sexual touching.


steak fries

Thick-cut French fries without the skin, typically served with a steak.


groundstaff

The United players refused to leave, and a dispute broke out between the players and Chelsea stewards and groundstaff before the incident was resolved.

2008 April 27, Bloomberg News, “Ballack Gets Chelsea Even in the Premier League”, in New York Times:

The staff who maintain the grounds of a school, sports facility, etc.


saucer eyes

Big, round eyes, characteristic of astonishment.


graveclothes

The clothes in which a corpse is buried.


four F's

A set of four basic biological instincts: feeding, fighting, fleeing, and fucking.


Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates

Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates pl (plural only)

Named after Martin Kruskal and George Szekeres.

(physics, general relativity) A coordinate system suited to the geometry of certain kinds of black hole.

George Szekeres
Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates
Martin Kruskal


creditor's rights

(law) The set of procedural provisions designed to protect the ability of creditors to collect the money that they are owed.


Spanish Netherlands

(plural only, historical) The southern part of the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) during and after the Eighty Years' War, ruled by Spain and lasting from 1581 to 1713.


agrémens

When to this was added the state dinners, to which she was always regularly invited, and held as a distinguished guest, and it was remembered how seldom this occurred in other houses since her widowhood, the vacillating mind took a new direction, and it was voted an impracticable thing to part with the baroness and her atmosphere of agrémens.

1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 205:

Arthur Young, that shrewd plucky traveller, smiled as we do at the tedious repetition of the agrémens of beautiful Paris.

The impressions which I had previously conceived were confirmed that there was no place in the world in which the agrémens of life are so accessible at so little cost by an individual who lives only for himself...

1858, "The Life of George Tucker", in The Life and Philosophical Writings of George Tucker (republished in Bristol by Thoemmes Press in 2004), volume 1

"I was the principal witness for the prosecution in this cause célèbre, with all the agrémens that attend that enviable position."

2006, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Room in the Dragon Volant:


wabs

a DVD of the noxious, abominably brilliant 1983 teen sex-comedy Screwballs. That's right, the one about a foxy cheerleader named Purity Bush and the six nerds who'll move heaven and earth to catch an eyeful of her tanktop-straining wabs.

1999 December 17, John Patterson, The Guardian:

But what of your wabs? After all, it's not like it's any easier to think of something to call your breasts. They sit on your ribcage, from the age of 13 onwards, and yet there's scarcely a word you can refer to them with that isn't going to make either you, or someone else, uncomfortable.


shortribs

ONIEALS GRAND STREET, 174 Grand Street, at Centre Market Place, Lower East Side, (212) 941-9119, site of a former speakeasy at the end of Weegee’s block, is a clubby hideaway known for its shortribs and filet mignon.

2008 June 20, “Weegee: A Primer”, in New York Times:


short ribs

A cut of beef from the rib and plate primals and a small corner of the square-cut chuck.


tetanics

(medicine, dated) A class of diseases of the nerves that affect the spinal cord.


Bai

From Chinese 白 (Bái). Doublet of Bach (Vietnamese surname).


estovers

(law, history) An estover, an allowance made from an estate for a person's support.


oversocks

oversocks pl (normally plural, singular oversock)

Oversocks, when worn over regular hiking socks, will arm you for assaulting boot-saturating bogs, crossing streams

1995 September, “Raingear for Feet”, in Backpacker, volume 23, number 144, page 99:

Socks intended to be worn over another pair of socks.


underdrawers

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

They put on her a purple vest, thickly embroidered with gold and pearls, underdrawers of scarlet silk, and gauze trousers (such as Eastern women wear) of many folds.

1901, Maurice Hewlett, The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay:

Then, his laughter suddenly booming out he bunched his muscles and a black haired giant of a man in shirt and underdrawers was jerked floundering out of his bunk to the middle of the room.

He was quite an imposing spectacle in his bare feet, with his trousers rolled up to his great knees, thereby revealing his scarlet flannel underdrawers.

His extra shirt, instead of being wadded into the fore-end of the saddlebag on top of a pair of socks, had been stuffed into the hinder end on top of a pair of underdrawers.

1921, William Patterson White, The Heart of the Range:


Unknowns

(US) Those US military personnel who have died in service, usually in war, without proper burial.


Aracanese

en-adj

Aracanese (comparative more Aracanese, superlative most Aracanese)

more Aracanese (comparative)
most Aracanese (superlative)

(historical) Of or pertaining to Aracan (or Arakan) in British Burma, corresponding to the modern Rakhine State.


Aracanese

(historical) The people native to Aracan in British Burma.


Arakanese

Arakanese (comparative more Arakanese, superlative most Arakanese)

more Arakanese (comparative)
most Arakanese (superlative)


Kato

A particular group of Native American people in the United States.


pipes of Pan

In Greek mythology, Pan is often represented playing panpipes, whence the instrument derives its name.


claes

Variant of clathes, from Middle English clathes, from Old English clāþas (“clothes”), plural of clāþ (“cloth”). More at clothes.


Bondiana

The scales fall from your eyes pretty quickly but the allure of Bond and Bondiana is potent while it lasts.

2007, William Boyd, Bamboo: essays and criticism:

When a character in a 1966 farce called Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title says to another, "You've been watchin' too many of those James Bond movies," it's probable that he is referring as much to a general climate of Bondiana as much as to the handful of actual Bond films then in release.

2009, Jeremy Packer, Secret agents: popular icons beyond James Bond, page 25:

items relating to the fictional spy James Bond.


poffertjes

en-noun

poffertjes pl (normally plural, singular poffertje)

Traditional Dutch treats resembling fluffy pancakes, made with yeast and buckwheat flour.


nerderati

At the offices of Pseudo at 600 Broadway in SoHo, his legendary parties brought together the nerderati and the downtown art set.

2009 January 26, David Carr, “Sundance Toasts an Early Online Life”, in New York Times:

It's likely that if you don't already have one or more social media nerderati in residence, you're going to need one soon.

2011, Jay Baer, Amber Naslund, The NOW Revolution, page 37:


PJs

We lived in the PJs, that's what we called the projects. It was integrated. The people next door were white, and there weren't that many blacks […]

1996, Murray Dubin, South Philadelphia: Mummers, Memories, and the Melrose Diner, page 64:

He had to win over the children in the PJs. Come rain or shine, he continued to walk his parish.

2008, Eric Gutierrez, Disciples of the Street: The Promise of a Hip Hop Church, page 62:

(US, slang) Short for projects (“urban housing developments for people with low incomes”).


multibillions

There may be some taxpayer comfort in the fact that this scandal was rooted in Nigeria, not Iraq, where the Halliburton megacorporation (you know, the one Dick Cheney ran before he became vice president) reaped multibillions as the Bush administration’s most favored no-bid contractor.

2009 February 15, “More Annals of Global Greed Inc.”, in New York Times:

More than one billion of something, especially money.


Gaelic games

The traditional sports played in Ireland: Gaelic football (known in Ireland as football), hurling, camogie, Gaelic handball and rounders.


kruptadia

From Ancient Greek κρυπτάδια (kruptádia), neuter plural form of κρυπτάδιος (kruptádios, “secret”).

We may also assume that the kruptadia, still in manuscript, which Nashe wrote for the delight of the young rufflers of the Court and for the filling of his own very ill-garnished pockets, will not be printed.

1904, Notes and Queries, volume CIX, page 105:

the word “pornography” [...] is, I am aware, not altogether a satisfactory term, but it seems to me better than the ones usually used. The D.N.B., for example, offers the quaint “Kruptadia,” which is clearly impossible.

1966, Steven Marcus, The Other Victorians:

This is a curious book about far more "curious and uncommon books"; kruptadia, forbidden erotic literature "of an incandescent kind".

2001 June 15, Lord Biggs, Times Higher Education:


bloggerati

That’s why the bloggerati pounced gleefully last week on the news that one of their own had fallen in love with a commoner, er, commenter.

2009 April 5, Jan Hoffman, “Commoner Captures Princess, Blog Version”, in New York Times:


loukoumades

From Greek λουκουμάδες (loukoumádes), ultimately from Arabic لُقْمَة (luqma, “morsel”).

A $28 traditional Greek dinner, available after 5 p.m. next Sunday, will feature magiritsa, Greek salad, rotisserie- or oven-roasted lamb and loukoumades — Greek-style doughnuts.

2009 April 12, Kris Ensminger, “Lamb Aplenty”, in New York Times:

Pastries made of deep-fried dough soaked in sugar syrup or honey and cinnamon, and sometimes sprinkled with sesame. (used especially of the Greek version of these pastries)

lokma

used especially of the Turkish variant of this pastry


Eburones

A Belgic people of Germanic or Celtic descent who lived in the upper north of Gaul in ancient times.


periscii

The inhabitants of the polar regions, whose shadows, during part of the summer, make a complete revolution.


mineral spirits

Pour a solvent such as paint thinner, mineral spirits, or a liquid sandpaper product in a metal can or enamel bowl. Wear protective gloves.

2004, Mickey Baskett, Fabulous Painted Furniture, page 13:


cigarette pants

The narrow leg portions are likened to the cylindrical shape of a cigarette.

(plural only) Pants (trousers) with a snug fit through the legs, ending in a small leg opening.

cigaretbukser

pants with a snug fit through the legs, ending in a small leg opening


softgoods

Soft products manufactured from textiles, such as clothes, mats, curtains, and cushions.


deets

Clipping of details, respelled to indicate the long vowel.

(slang) Dox; a person’s personal information, usually published without their consent.


me and mine

(colloquial) My family or relatives, including myself.


vanilloes

(archaic) An inferior kind of vanilla, the pods of Vanilla pompona.


blognoscenti

The blognoscenti were quick to note after the Uniform Project site started making the rounds that earlier projects have played with the one-dress idea.

2009 July 12, Rob Walker, “This Year’s Model”, in New York Times:

(informal, neologism) Intelligent, discerning bloggers.


golabki

From Polish gołąbki. Doublet of holubky.

The highlights include cheese blintzes, pirogi, golabki (cabbage stuffed with ground meat and rice, covered in tomato sauce) and bigos (sauerkraut sautéed with bits of meat and kielbasa).

2009 August 2, Christopher Brooks, “Strong on Polish Classics”, in New York Times:

Traditional Polish cabbage rolls made with minced meat and tomato sauce.


designerati

On this evening, members of the city’s designerati dined in the gallery, which featured a monthlong show of work by eight local artists, ranging from $100 to $5,000.

2009 September 13, Deborah Schoeneman, “A Feast for the Eyes and Ears”, in New York Times:

(informal) Fashion designers collectively.


macrostatistics

Africa’s pockets of wealth also are often buried in gloomy macrostatistics.

2009 October 5, Robb Young, “African Wealth and African Style at a Glamorous Juncture”, in New York Times:


track marks

When a patient has copious track marks demonstrating severe circulatory system damage, injections are done by drilling into the bone marrow and administering medicine intraosseously.

(medicine, pathology) The conspicuous signs of artery and vein damage as a result of chronic intravenous injection of drugs.


outland Germans

Calque of the German term Auslandsdeutsche.

Whatever dependence the Pan-German chauvinist had placed on outland Germans proved to be a broken reed.

1919, William Milligan Sloane, The powers and aims of western democracy, page 402:

The little figures, he tells them, represent, according to color, 200 to 50,000 outland Germans each.

And Bruno's name is "Bienenfeld" meaning that I would place him as what are in Cleveland anyway called "Donau Schwaben" i.e., outland Germans living in SE Europe […]

2001 June 12, Mike Echo Mike, “Why do I fly !!!”, in rec.aviation.student (Usenet):

Germans living abroad, in a foreign land.


percentile dice

A pair of ten-sided dice which are rolled to determine a numeral result as a percentage of 100, usually for a roleplaying game.


Qadiriyya

From Arabic الْقَادِرِيَّة (al-qādiriyya) and/or Classical Persian قادریه (qādiriyya), named after Abdul Qadir Gilani.

bor

الْقَادِرِيَّة

A member of a particular fundamentalist Sufi order.


trigs

high trigs


kicking boots

If these two were outstanding, the others were not far behind. Finlow, having his best game for the School, put Murphy in for the next try and it did not seem to matter that Mangeot had for once left his kicking boots behind[,] for Lintin, Finlow and H. Cooper were all but over before half-time.

1979, “Rugby Football”, in The Ampleforth Journal, volume 79, page 154:

Helped by a quite remarkable individual run by Jason[…], Jonny found his kicking boots again, Wales succumbed 28—17 and we were through to the semis in Sydney on 16 November.

2009, Josh Lewsey, One Chance: My Life and Rugby, page 127:

As in their narrow defeat of Argentina last week, England were indisciplined at the breakdown, and if Georgian fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili had remembered his kicking boots, Johnson's side might have been behind at half-time.

2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:

(chiefly rugby, idiomatic) Ability to kick well.


islets of Langerhans

en-noun

islets of Langerhans pl (normally plural, singular islet of Langerhans)

Translating French îlots de Langerhans; named after Paul Langerhans, the German anatomist who discovered these regions in the pancreas.

Edward Sharpey-Schäfer determined that the substance necessary for carbohydrate metabolism was produced in the Islets of Langerhans, naming this new substance ‘insuline’ after the Latin insula (island).

1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 545:

(anatomy, biology) Distinctive regions of tissue in the pancreas, which contain its endocrine cells.


winning ways

Robin van Persie scored his 99th and 100th goals for Arsenal as the Gunners returned to winning ways with a deserved victory over 10-man Bolton.

2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport:

(idiomatic) a winning streak; a sequence of winning games.


deadworks

(nautical) The parts of a laden ship that are above water.


prismatic colours

(physics, optics, British spelling) Colours visible when white light is split in a prisma.


prismatic colors

(physics, optics, Canada, US) Colors visible when white light is split in a prism.


blood wings

blood + wings by analogy with an angel gets his wings.

Dude, I got blood wings going down on Veronica yesterday, I had to wipe off the blood with an SOS pad I was so disgusted.

My little brother Trevor was so giddy he finally got his blood wings today!


red wings

From red + wings, by analogy with an angel obtaining its wings.

Told us all how he got his red wings over the bandstand railings. Her skirt, an umbrella blown inside out, white tights shed to high heels.

2005, Owen Sheers, Skirrid Hill, page 15:

I remember my friend describing his face when he described eating the pussy of a bleeding woman. That he had red wings.

2007, Maggie Nelson, Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions, page 194:

He ate that freak-fuck out once when she was on her period and earned his red wings like the animal he was.

2016, Jim Marquez, A Moveable Beast: Tales From L.A. & Beyond, page 81:

(slang, sex) An instance of a male getting menstrual fluid on his face while performing cunnilingus.


twilight years

Now that he's entering his twilight years, he's writing his memoirs.


patatas bravas

At least three per person, and don't you dare think about skipping the patatas bravas

Don't miss the classic patatas bravas, or the churro for dessert.

2008 March, Indianapolis Monthly, page 264:

A Spanish dish consisting of small pieces of potatoes fried in oil, with a spicy tomato sauce.


pelvic lines

That guy is so fat you cannot see his pelvic lines.


cum gutters

From cum + gutters, by analogy with an actual gutter on an occasion when a person ejaculates on their sex partner's or their own navel and the semen flows along the pelvic lines.

It mingled with his sweat and ran in little currents along the cum gutters formed by his abs.

2009, Brad Saunders, “The Jungle Gym”, in Men I Might Have Known, Kensington, →ISBN:

Stretching my arms above my head, I notice all the cum pooling along Walt's abs—his “cum gutters” are overflowing.

2010, Timothy McGivney, Zombielicious, Albion, NY: MLR Press, →ISBN, page 181:

Dante's sweat-slick chest was rising and falling rapidly, laced with thick semen. More ran in the grooves of his abdominal muscles. “Cum gutters,” Dante called them.

2011, Damon Suede, Hot Head, Dreamspinner Press, →ISBN, page 97:

(slang, vulgar) The iliac furrows (also known as a V-line), particularly of a man.


multicolours

Fair Isle is a term that is used to describe patterned knitting in multicolours.

2008, Jenny Udale, Textiles and fashion, page 75:


Ackinchesacky

From Unami ahkinkèshaki (“stony ground”, or “hook mouth”, or “on low ground”), whence also Hackensack.


plasticuffs

From the briefcase he took two pairs of plasticuffs, and handed them to the first — and now entirely compliant — bodyguard.

2003, Chris Ryan, The Hit List, page 230:

As he cut through my plasticuffs with a pair of scissors, the guy I'd shared a smile with spoke to the back of my head.


varmin

There's things folks 'ud pay to be rid on, besides varmin.

Powerful sight of varmin there allers be round they sheds and places.


life savings

She spent her life savings on a new car.

A large sum of money one has saved over a considerable number of years.


broad strokes

Maurice hastily climbed the fence, and while he was thus occupied Mr. Samuel Williams received a great enlightenment. With startling rapidity Penrod, standing just outside the storeroom door, extended his arm within the room, deposited the licorice water upon the counter of the drug store, seized in its stead the bottle of smallpox medicine, and extended it cordially toward the advancing Maurice.
Genius is like that—great, simple, broad strokes!

1914, Booth Tarkington, chapter 14, in Penrod:

While the movie unfolds in broad strokes, Ms. MacLaine treats this character with exquisite sensitivity and without condescension.

2000 December 1, Julie Salamon, “Television Review: On a New Limb With Shirley MacLaine”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-10-18:

So sketch with broad strokes, dial up the imagery on a few main points, and leave room for a reader to play a part in your novel.

2010, James V. Smith, You Can Write a Novel, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 55:

(idiomatic, especially of a narrative or artistic work) Developments, movements, or descriptions presented in a bold or sweeping manner, without intricacy, adornment, or subtlety.


Yvelines

One of the departments of Île-de-France, France. Capital: Versailles (INSEE code 78).


juvenalia

(antiques and collectibles) items connected with children, such as toys, dolls, teddy bears, etc.


almsfolk

And on the northside of the churchyard there, he founded a faire large almeshouse for an almose priest or schoolemaister, and thirteene poore almes folke

1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC:

(archaic) Persons supported by alms; almsmen.


pontificalia

Synonym of pontificals (“vestments of a bishop, priest, or pope”)


minjung

From Korean 민중(民衆) (minjung), from Middle Chinese 民眾 (MC mjin tsyuwngH, “common people, the masses”). Compare Mandarin 民眾／民众 (mínzhòng).

ltc-l

The minjung have learned to dream of a world from which oppression, conflict and suffering have been removed; a world where they are no longer the ruled, but the rulers of their own lives and destinies, and the subjects of their own history.

1996, Sang Taek Lee, Religion and Social Formation in Korea, page 171:

Therefore the theologians' main concern was not dealing with individual poor people but rather to do with social process and the system which prevents the minjung from coming out of their misery.

2008, Sebastian CH Kim, Christian Theology in Asia, page 140:

Jesus was minjung and the friend of the minjung, teaching forgiveness and love of enemies, but Moses was also minjung, political leader of his people against oppression.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 978:

(politics, theology) In South Korea, peasants or working-class people.


shpilkes

Borrowed from Yiddish שפּילקעס (shpilkes, “needles”), ultimately from a Slavic term such as Polish szpilka, which comes from Italian spilla, from Late Latin spīnula (“little thorn”).

This job interview tomorrow gives me shpilkes.

A state of impatience, agitation, and/or anxiety.


backroom staff

Wenger's wild celebrations with his players and backroom staff told the story - and made it eight wins in Arsenal's last nine games.

2011 October 29, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport:

The members of staff who work out of public view, such as the coaching team in a sports club.


side whiskers

The first who entered was a little ribston-pippin of a man, with ruddy cheeks and fluffy white side-whiskers.

1904 February 27, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Black Peter”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:


moeurs

From the French mœurs (“ways, character, morals”), from Latin mōrēs (“ways, character, morals”), the plural of mōs. Doublet of mores.

bor

Georgie was already becoming a little bit bohemian, absorbed into the moeurs of the Pre-Raphaelite world.

2011, Fiona MacCarthy, The Last Pre-Raphaelite, Faber, →ISBN, page 117:

Alternative form of mores, a set of moral norms or customs derived from generally accepted practices.


kibblings

Portions of small fish used for bait on the banks of Newfoundland.


vivers

From French vivres, plural of vivre (“to live”).

I'll join you at three, if the vivers can tarry so long.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

(obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect) provisions; victuals


tradesfolk

Small trades-folk, male and female shopwalkers, better class artisans, lower middle-class women worn with household cares, occasional young folk in search of a sensation - these were the impressions which the audience conveyed to the trained observation of Malone.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

Victuallers , Vintners , and Tradesfolk would soon get all the Money of the Kingdom into their own Hands

c. 1724, Jonathan Swift, The Drapier Demolished:

People employed in trade; tradesmen and tradeswomen.


Garamantes

Probably from Berber igherman, "cities".

(historical) An ancient Saharan people who used an elaborate underground irrigation system, and founded a prosperous Berber kingdom in what is modern-day Libya.


pilchers

(Australia, New Zealand, dated) Synonym of plastic pants (“an undergarment worn over a diaper/nappy (or underwear) to prevent leakage.”)


dos and don'ts

A set of rules or guidelines that one has to follow in a particular situation; etymologically, a set of things that one should do or not do in such situation.

rogor unda moikcet da rogor ar unda moikcet

როგორ უნდა მოიქცეთ და როგორ არ უნდა მოიქცეთ


natals

[…] diviner thoughts inspire / Your pregnant fancy, and with holier fire / Must exercise your soaring braine, to tell / The Natals of our Saviour […]

1636, Charles Fitzgeoffrey, The Blessed Birth-Day:

(obsolete) One's birth, or the circumstances attending it.


knubs

(archaic) Waste silk formed when winding off the threads from a cocoon.


pigs in the parlour

Before 1968, what little coverage there was of Irish affairs was of the traditional 'pigs in the parlour' kind.

1986, Yonah Alexander, Alan O'Day, Ireland's terrorist dilemma, page 111:

(Ireland, UK) An allegory for a backward rural society.


autophagi

(zoology) Birds that are able to run about and obtain their own food as soon as they are hatched.


navals

(obsolete) naval affairs or achievements


cizars

a pair of Cizars

1704, [Jonathan Swift], A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC:


wall bars

A type of exercise equipment used for gymnastics exercises as well as rehabilitation.


jears

(nautical, archaic) Collectively, tackles, for hoisting or lowering the yards of a ship.


knoppern

knoppern (canonical)
knoppern (canonical plural)
knopperns (plural)

(archaic) A kind of gall produced by a gallfly on the cup of an acorn, and formerly used in tanning and dyeing.


fleetings

As soon as the whey is exhausted of its cream , about two quarts of butter-milk is poured into it , which again breaks into what are called fleetings or flit milk

1813, H. Holland, General View of the Agriculture of Cheshire:

(UK, dialect) A mixture of buttermilk and boiling whey; curds.


meat curtains

For instance, a dollar will buy you a bag of chips, a soda, or get you a closer gander at a stripper's meat curtains.

2010, Forrest Griffin, Erich Krauss, Be Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down: A Survival Guide to the Apocalypse, page 86:

Back to Sativa's anatomy: a flashlight was definitely needed to view between the meat curtains. It was a dark hole one could easily lose oneself in . . .

2010, G. L. Giles, Hearts at Stake, page 39:

Revealing a porcelain religious figurine of the Virgin Mary that he intends to insert inside her, the now-enraged attacker instructs Amy to "part them succulent meat curtains, darlin', and get ready for the religious experience of your life."

2009, Kylo-Patrick R. Hart, Annette Holba, Media and the Apocalypse, page 72:


glory days

The San Francisco 49ers had their glory days under Joe Montana and may be making a comeback under Alex Smith.

Period in which an individual or group exhibits great success and wealth


nittings

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond


days of wine and roses

From the 1896 poem "Vitae Summa Brevis" by Ernest Dowson.

A bygone era of innocence and simplicity, especially youth


Groucho glasses

Joe handed Groucho glasses to each of them and then indicated the guns.

2000, Chloe Green, Going Out in Style, New York: Warner, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, LCC PS3557.R363 G65 2000, page 58:

I felt like I was going down on a pair of Groucho glasses.

2004 May, Gus Mattox, “Fuzz Down Below”, in Out, →ISSN, page 93:

Dan Menaker handed me a pair of Groucho glasses as I entered the room.

2006 October 17, Joe Klein, “Afterword”, in Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, Trade Paperback edition, Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, LCC PS3550.A1 P75 2006, page 378:

And there on the wall with trick sunglasses you can use to look behind you, Groucho glasses, and the glasses with the eyeballs on springs was something very, very creepy.

2011, David Anderegg, Nerds: How Dorks, Dweebs, Techies, and Trekkies Can Save America and Why They Might Be Our Last Hope, New York: Penguin, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 21:

A novelty pair of horn-rimmed glasses with attached eyebrows, plastic nose, and bushy mustache, caricaturing Groucho Marx.


tacenda

From Latin tacenda, future passive participle of taceo.

Things that are not to be spoken about or made public.


cunabula

the cunabula of the human race

The earliest abode; original dwelling place; originals.


inexpressibles

From inexpressible + -s. Compare unmentionables (“underwear”).

Have you never observed, through my inexpressibles, a large prominency, circa genitalia? It was a swelled testicle […] .

1796, Edward Gibbon, letter, in Memoirs of My Life, Penguin 1990, p. 196

For some years past the favorite costume of the out-and-out young gentleman has been a rough pilot coat, with two gilt hooks and eyes to the velvet collar; buttons somewhat larger than crown-pieces; a black or fancy neckerchief, loosely tied; a wide-brimmed hat, with a low crown; tightish inexpressibles, and iron-shod boots.

1833-36, Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, "The Out and Out Young Gentleman", in The Oxford Illustrated Dickens, p. 596

"Well , my good man ," said he , brushing off , with the arm of his coat , some dust that had settled on his inexpressibles

1832, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Eugene Aram:

"I had barely the time, as he made for the cabin door, to grab him by the seat of his inexpressibles.


rullichies

Compare Dutch rolletje (“a little roll”).

(US, New York) Chopped meat stuffed into small bags of tripe, then sliced and fried.


altrices

Borrowed from Latin altrīcēs, plural of altrīx (“nourisher”).


balls of steel

(slang, idiomatic, humorous) Courage, audacity.


devilled sausages

From associating hot or spicy food with the Devil; see devil (verb); compare deviled egg(s), deviled ham.

A stew of sausages, onions, tomatoes, gravy and spices.


cunning folk

(historical) professional or semi-professional practitioners of magic (who were often charlatans) who were active from at least the 15th up until the early 20th century.

вядзьмак

professional or semi-professional practitioner of magic


tabernariae

All his plays bear Latin titles and their plots prove them to have been tabernariae. The fragments show a broad and popular tone, a bold, lively and fresh manner reminding one of Plautus, […]

1900, Wilhelm Sigmund Teuffel, Ludwig von Schwabe, Teuffel's History of Roman Literature, volume 1, page 167:

These Atellane plays were not praetextatae, i.e. comedies in which magistrates and persons of rank were introduced, nor tabernariae, the characters in which were taken from low life; they rather seem to have been a union of high comedy and its parody.

2022, William Smith, A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities:

(historical) Ancient Roman comedies dealing with the life of the lower classes.


vicontiels

(UK, law, obsolete) Things belonging to the sheriff, especially farms (also called "vicontiel rents") for which the sheriff used to pay rent to the king.


hopperings

(dated or historical) The gravel that remains in the hopper of a cradle while panning for gold.


sugar walls

From the suggestive 1984 song "Sugar Walls", written by Prince and performed by Sheena Easton.

In retrospect, during the '80s, when I could have been fucked by half of the gay ghetto, I took care of myself by loving a supportive, nurturing partner. He was far from perfect. He had a bad temper and knew nothing about the arts. Even more importantly, my sugar walls went unappreciated by him — and by the many Greenwich Village men I hid from and desperately wanted during hundreds of lifeless evenings spent watching television with my passive lover in Brooklyn.

1992 April 13, Christopher Street, volume 14, number 20, page 36:

(slang, vulgar, by extension) The rectum, especially in relation to anal sex.


gramashes

But the form was indisputable — Douce David Deans himself, in his best light-blue Sunday's coat, with broad metal-buttons, and waistcoat and breeches of the same, his strong gramashes or leggings of thick grey cloth

1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC:


outbounds

So in short which are now the most out-bounds and abandoned space hee cleane wyped out many great townes

1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:

The farthest or exterior bounds; outer limits.


hippophagi

From the plural of New Latin hippophagus. See hippophagous.

the unsavory subsistence of those hippophagi of the Sierra Nevada

1847, James Madison Cutts, The Conquest of California and New Mexico:


mutton flaps

"Mutton flaps are the discarded parts of the lamb that are not fit for consumption in New Zealand. They were able to dump this stuff on the Pacific countries."

2016 January 18, Katy Watson, Sarah Treanor, “How mutton flaps are killing Tonga”, in BBC News:

A fattening cut of meat in the South Pacific, from the rib area of a sheep.


Greek calends

Calque of Latin ad kalendās Graecās; unlike the Roman calendar, the Greek calendar had no calends.

Blockheads, friends of my heart and liver, cousins of my tripe, are you ignorant that this symposium is as authentic as any of those tales of the Greek Calends, which you swallow and digest so easily, [...]?

1923, [François Béroalde de Verville], “Origin of the Decretals”, in Arthur Machen, transl., Fantastic Tales or The Way to Attain—a Book Full of Pantagruelism Now Done for the First Time in English, Carbonnek [i.e., London]: Privately printed, →OCLC, page 98:

My book with Professor [John Ronald Reuel] Tolkien – any book in collaboration with that great but dilatory and unmethodical man – is dated, I fear, to appear on the Greek Kalends!

1950 January 12, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, “Letters: 1950 [To Sister Penelope CSMV (BOD)]”, in Walter Hooper, editor, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, volumes III (Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963), New York, N.Y.: HarperSanFrancisco, HarperCollins, →ISBN, pages 5–6:

(idiomatic) A time that never occurs; never; when pigs fly.

met sint-juttemis

never (translations include the leading preposition)


moslings

Thin shreds of leather shaved off while dressing skins.


Alemanni

From Latin Alemannī (“the confederation of German tribes related to Suebi who lived near the upper reaches of Danube”).

der

Of or related to the Alemannic language or dialects.


hastings

The large white and green Hastings are tender , and not to be set till the cold is over , and then not very thick , for they spread much and mount high , and therefore require the help of tall Sticks

1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:

Early fruit or vegetables, especially peas.


Homologoumena

From New Latin homologūmena, from Ancient Greek ὁμολογούμενα (homologoúmena, literally “things agreed upon”), neuter plural form of the present mediopassive participle of ὁμολογέω (homologéō, “to agree with”).

ὁμολογούμενα

(Christianity) Those books of the New Testament which were acknowledged as canonical by the early church; distinguished from Antilegomena.


lesses

From French laissées, from laisser (“to leave”). See lease (transitive verb).


pinnywinkles

They prick us and they pine us, and they pit us on the pinnywinkles for witches; [...]

1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume II (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 230:


wokou

From Mandarin 倭寇 (wōkòu, “Japanese pirates”).

(historical) Pirates of a mixture of ethnicities who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th to 16th centuries.


Volsci

(historical) An ancient Italic people and culture from the first century of the Roman republic.

Volsques

an ancient Italic people and culture from the first century of the Roman republic


bpp

(computer graphics) Initialism of bits per pixel.


inferiae

From Latin inferiae, from inferus (“underneath”).

(historical, Roman antiquity) Sacrifices offered to the souls of deceased heroes or friends.


trossers

your French hose off , and in your strait trossers

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]:


friskals

Apparently the plural of *friskal (“a playful leap or jump”), from frisk (“brisk and lively movement”) + -al. Compare frisco.

Lay but the raynes on her necke, to take too and seeke not to hold her in, there is no ho with her; then much liberty shall you see what friskals shee will fetch, leape, fling, and flie out, that no ground shall hold her.

Ixion […] turn'd dancer, does nothing but cut capreols, fetch friskals, and leads lavaltoes

And, saying so, he gave two or three friskals in the air with very great signs of contentment, and presently went to Dorotea, and taking her mule by the bridle he withheld it, […]

1923, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, translated by Thomas Shelton, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, modernised spelling edition:


BES Islands

Caribbean Netherlands
Caribbean Netherlands

Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba; the Caribbean Netherlands.


Salii

From Latin Salii (“the Leapers, the Jumpers”), from salīre (“to leap, to jump”).

bor

(historical) The 12 priests of Mars Gradivus in Ancient Rome.


Lotophagi

Latin, from Ancient Greek Λωτοφάγος (Lōtophágos).

(Greek mythology) The lotus eaters; a people visited by Ulysses who subsisted on the lotus.


seaswine

From sea + swine. Compare Middle English brunswin (“porpoise”).

The seaswine are almost always seen in troops, especially in their sexual season, which is in the month of August.

1828, John Davidson Godman, American natural history:


nombles

[…] as she had seen the red blood and the new grave, when she was a little girl, and ran home and mentioned it to her grandfather, who charged her as she valued her life never to mention that again, as it was only the nombles and hide of a deer which he himself had buried there.


pobs

(Northern England) Pieces of bread soaked in hot milk used as a comfort food for children during illness


terminalia

The terminalia consist of the terminal complex of modified genital and anal segments, plus any adjacent segments that show modifications for copulation and oviposition.

1981, Manual of Nearctic Diptera, volume 1, →ISBN, page 37:

Part of the documentation includes the first detailed illustrations and descriptions of structures of the male terminalia.

2005, “Revision of New World Species of Shore Fly Genus Discomyza Meigen (Diptera: Ephydridae)”, in Annals of the Entomological Society of America^(http://dx.doi.org/10.1603/0013-8746(2005)098%5B0431:RONWSO%5D2.0.CO;2), volume 98, number 4, page 431:

(entomology) The hindmost segments of the abdomen of an insect, modified for reproduction.


handygripes

For now the mastives, charging home, / To blows and handygripes were come:

c. 1660–1680, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part I, canto III:

(obsolete) Seizure by, or grasp of, the hand; close quarters in fighting.


Zou

The Kukish language spoken by the Zou people.


Englishry

/ˈɪŋ(ɡ)lɪʃɹi/

/ˈɪŋ(ɡ)lɪʃɹi/

From English + -ry, in legal senses after Anglo-Norman englescherie, englecherie. Compare Late Latin Anglescheria, Englescheria (“the state of being English”).

Coordinate term: Irishry

a general massacre of the Englishry

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 12, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

(now historical) Those people living in Ireland or in Wales who are of English descent (chiefly with definite article).