bouquets and brickbats

(idiomatic) Praise and criticism; complimentary and uncomplimentary feedback.


public funds

Some preliminary legal arrangements were made, but the scheme proceeded no further, as the various local authorities concerned were unwilling to speculate public funds on what was, even at that date, a will o' the wisp.

1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 345:

(finance) Money lent to government for which interest is paid of a stated amount at a stated time.


twenty-fours

(printing) A book made up of sections of 24 pages.


terms of service

(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 service.


MWIPS

(computing) Initialism of million Whetstone instructions per second.


kWIPS

A machine which executes 5,000 KWIPS is often called a 5 MIPS machine in the performance jargon, which represents millions of Whetstones, not thousands.

1994, John R. Newport, Avionic Systems Design, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 192:

(computing) Initialism of kilo Whetstone instructions per second.


sleepies

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


letters of request

letters rogatory
letters rogatory#English


letters rogatory

The most common remedies sought by letters rogatory are service of process and taking of evidence.

(law) A formal request from a court to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance.


long coats

(historical) Synonym of long clothes (“clothes for young infants”)


total bases

(baseball) A statistic that measures a player's hitting. In this statistic, each single counts as one base, each double counts as two bases, each triple as three bases and each home run as four bases.


yabbos

Prudence is at her desk, across the aisle from me, working the keyboard on her phone, looking like the perfect goddess she is. Her perky yabbos are doing a pretty good impression of a couple of Hostess Sno Balls below her form-fitting fuzzy pink sweater.

2010, Don Calame, Beat the Band, Candlewick Press, →ISBN, page 98:

Alternative form of yabos (“a woman's breasts”)


unangia

(biology) Unilocular reproductive structures of algae, fungi etc.


Hecatoncheires

/ˌhɛkətɒŋˈkaɪɹiːz/

From Ancient Greek ἑκᾰτόν (hekatón, “hundred”) + χείρ (kheír, “hand”), compare the adjective ἑκατόγχειρος (hekatónkheiros, “hundred-handed”). The putative *Ἑκατόγχειρες (*Hekatónkheires) is unattested in Hesiod's Theogony, which instead describes the giants with the phrase ἑκατὸν μὲν χεῖρες (hekatòn mèn kheîres).

lang

τῶν ἑκατὸν μὲν χεῖρες ἀπ’ ὤμων ἀίσσοντο, ἄπλαστοι, κεφαλαὶ δὲ ἑκάστῳ πεντήκοντα ἐξ ὤμων ἐπέφυκον ἐπὶ στιβαροῖσι μέλεσσιν· ἰσχὺς δ’ ἄπλητος κρατερὴ μεγάλῳ ἐπὶ εἴδει.

The three Hecatoncheires were named Cottus, Briareus (or Aegaeon) and Gyges (or Gyes).

1840, George Cornewall Lewis (translator), John William Donaldson (translator, later chapters), Karl Otfried Müller, History of the Literature of Ancient Greece: To the Period of Isocrates, Robert Baldwin, page 92,
[…] nor is it until the poet has related how Zeus set free these Hecatoncheires, by the advice of the Earth, that we are introduced to the battle with the Titans, which has already been some time going on.

But then Zeus went down to Tartarus and released the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed monsters. The Cyclopes awarded Zeus their weapons of thunder and lightning, and the Hecatoncheires pelted the Titans with boulders.

1973, James Weigel, James L. Roberts, Mythology, CliffsNotes, page 50:

1993, Tim Parks (translator), Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, [1988, R. Calasso, Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia], Random House (Vintage), page 202,
By this time many beings had spread out across space, both on high and below: the Titans, the Cyclopes, the Hecatoncheires.

(Greek mythology) Three monstrous giants of enormous size and strength, each with fifty heads and one hundred arms, who were offspring of Uranus by Gaia, whom Zeus freed from captivity and who in return aided the Olympians in the Titanomachy.


dippy eggs

en-noun

dippy eggs pl (normally plural, singular dippy egg)

(UK, Pennsylvania) Eggs cooked over easy or soft-boiled.


multistages

He also developed the theory of step rockets flying aloft in multistages.

2003, Abraham Resnick, They Too Influenced a Nation's History:

The axial-flow compressors to be discussed in Chapter 7 are normally built in multistages to achieve a high pressure ratio to compete with centrifugal machines in price, size, and efficiency.

2007, William W. Peng, Fundamentals of Turbomachinery, page 109:


Motherwell rules

From Motherwell F.C., a notoriously violent Scottish football club.

(Scotland) An agreed absence of rules in a fight (typically in a public house).


cLWTS

Term invented by Garrett Chiado in 2016.

Contextual Pitch Type Linear Weights#English

Initialism of Contextual Pitch Type Linear Weights.


hyppos

From "hydrophobic portion", introduced by Polly Matzinger.

(biochemistry) hydrophobic portions of proteins exposed on the surface of denatured molecule or molecular aggregates.


trauma shears

A kind of scissors with a bent blade, used by paramedics etc. to cut clothing quickly and safely from injured people.


Centimanes

From Latin centimanus, a calque of Ancient Greek Ἑκατόγχειρες (Hekatónkheires, “the Hundred-Handed”) from centi- (“100”) + manus (“hand”).

der

Ἑκατόγχειρες

1882, The Chautauquan, Volume 3, Chautauqua Press, page 486,
The Titans with the Cyclops and Centimanes (hundred-handed), were giants and the first inhabitants of the earth. Strictly the hundred hands belong to the brothers of the Titans, the Centimanes.

Of the three Centimanes enumerated by Hesiod, Brisareus only is mentioned in Homer, and, to all appearance, not as the son of Uranos, but as the son of Poseidṑn; not as aiding Zeus in his combat with the Titans, but as rescuing him at a critical moment from a conspiracy formed against him by Hḕrḕ, Poseidṑn and Athḕnḕ.

1906, George Grote, A History of Greece, Volume 1, Dent, page 54:

1998, Robert Temple, The Sirius Mystery: New Scientific Evidence of Alien Contact 5,000 Years Ago, 2nd Edition, Random House (Arrow), page 325,
‘"From their shoulders sprang a hundred invincible arms and above these powerful limbs rose fifty heads attached to their backs." For this reason they were called the Hecatoncheires or Centimanes,’ as we are reliably told.

(Roman mythology) Synonym of Hecatoncheires.


dumb quotes

(computing, typography, informal) straight quotes


b******s

... Now there is this idea that trade is entirely controlled by governments, that no trade takes place unless governments agree with each other. Well, b******s...

2016 April 17, Chloe Farand, "'It's B******s': Boris Johnson Hits Out at David Cameron over Impact of Brexit on Trade and Jobs", Independent


b******s

en-noun

b******s pl (normally plural, singular b*****k)


b******s

en-verb

b******s (third-person singular simple present b******ses, present participle b******sing, simple past and past participle b******sed)

b******ses (present singular third-person)
b******sing (participle present)
b******sed (participle past)
b******sed (past)

Crucially, this means the arch Remainer Speaker, who proudly showed off a ‘b******s to Brexit car-sticker, could still be in position for next month’s votes on leaving the EU.

2019 September 9, Alex Matthews, "B******s to Bercow", The Sun


musical glasses

The glass harp (musical instrument made up of a series of glasses) or similar earlier instrument.


Semai

A semisedentary ethnic group living in the central Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia.


dogs of war

Coined by William Shakespeare in 1599 in "Julius Caesar," act 3, scene 1:
: Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war.

Many believe that this country should set the other nations of the world a great moral example by pulling the teeth of our dogs of war, making them lambs, and inviting the lions to lie down with them, unheedful of the lesson of all ages that when the lion does lie down with the lamb, the lamb is always inside the lion.

2012, Hudson Maxim, Defenseless America:

His tragedy is an eloquent critique of Europe's leaders, diplomats, and intellectuals who were, again, about to unleash the dogs of war.

2013, Thomas Rid, Cyber War Will Not Take Place, page xiii:

It should not come to anyone's surprise that the dogs of war, once loosed, did not and do not take readily to the leash.

2014, Robert Emmet Meagher, Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War, page 107:

It became a practice on our side, at 10 o'clock each day, to turn all of these dogs of war loose upon the enemy for an hour or so.

2015, Justin S. Solonick, Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg, page 140:

The destructive capabilities of an army or war force.


livers and lights

From the most prominent organs, the liver and the lights (lungs); probably influenced by alliteration.

Helpless, the riders are borne into the Marsh, or a freshwater lake or even, so it is said in Grïmnørsland, the salt sea. After the waters close over their heads they are not seen again, although sometimes their livers and lights are found cast up on the shore.

2007, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Iron Tree:

The livers and lights of sheep, cattle, &c. were well boiled, chopped fine, seasoned with pepper and salt, and filled into the small intestines of those animals; and a piece from seven to nine inches long, sold to us for sixpence, York currency;

2009, Andrew Sherburne, Memoirs of Andrew Sherburne, page 113:

(UK) Offal; The internal organs of an animal, especially when used as food.


unwhisperables

Now Mr. Daniel Pimple was clad in white corduroy unwhisperables, and Mrs. Coffin was robed in Lyons black velvet ; anon by design, not by accident, did Mr. Daniel Pimple bring his right white knee in contact with the widow's left black one.

1839, Henry De la Pasture, Real pearls in a false setting, page 250:

Madam, the good Yankee housewife, who has reminiscences of having sold her husband's second best unwhisperables one day in the earlier period of her wedded life, to a young Israelite with a big basket, rich with gaudy mantel ornaments, who rode down contemptuously, and annihilated before her very face, the testimony of her very eyes, and made her think the unwhisperables aforesaid a bundle of worthlessness, "all tattered and torn"—mandam, I say, who remembers this, and the paltry gilt vase she got (and which the first baby luckily knoced over and broke with its excursive little fist one day), will hardly read with much sympathy these romantic rhapsodies concerning the children of Israel.

1867, The Northern Monthly Magazine - Volume 1, page 109:

The lady gives a brief account of her experience, and puts on the unwhisperables [emphasis added] in order to show her rank and regimentals [emphasis added] to an expectant crowd.

2006, William Christen, Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland:


wobbly boots

I smiled back for him, thought about you, wondered what kind of night you were having, whether you had your wobbly boots on yet.

2000, Nigel Featherstone, Joy, page 156:

She'd be unsteady on her feet or, to put it Gayle's way, wearing wobbly boots.

A father and his two big sons had put their “wobbly boots” on after drinking hard in the pub round the corner.

2011, Robin Barratt, The Mammoth Book of Hard Bastards:

A state of intoxication such that one cannot walk steadily.


scratchitti

Stage 2 is to develop a well-controlled scratchitti removal instrument or tool for manual operation and test it on NYCT rail transit cars.

The singer seemed somewhat alarmed by my desperate scratchitti but smiled gamely and said he was flattered.

2008, Carl Capotorto, Twisted Head: An Italian American Memoir, page 14:

They had had to make do with the weed killer and scratchitti.

2014, Gerald Hansen, An Embarrassment of Riches:

You were hiding out in the sweet-foul stench of a bathroom stall, gazing emptily at the scratchitti of various sexual positions someone had etched into the aluminum, as you tried to hold fast to the sweet image of Rebekkah's eyes on yours.

2017, Stefan Merrill Block, Oliver Loving, →ISBN, page 64:

A form of graffiti that is scratched or etched into a surface, especially one of glass or plexiglass.


Battenberg markings

From the resemblance to a Battenberg cake.

A pattern of high-visibility markings used on emergency-service vehicles in several countries.


urban studies

Coordinate term: urbanism

We might say that there has been a 'queering' of urban studies insofar as the metropolitan lives, subcultures and social movements of gays and lesbians are now seen as valid objects of study.

2013, Mark Davidson, Deborah Martin, chapter 8, in Urban Politics: Critical Approaches, SAGE, →ISBN:

The study of the urban development of cities.


urban studies

Urban studies of cities other than Istanbul hardly existed until two decades ago. Though cities were frequently mentioned in historical studies about the socio-economic formation of the Ottoman Empire, the city itself was seldom the primary target of concern.

2013, Masashi Haneda, Islamic Urban Studies, Routledge, →ISBN, page 185:

Individual studies carried out on this topic.


one and nines

When Tomorrow Comes was probably some sort of weepy love story which always got him laughing like a drain, often leading to his physical removal from the one and nines.

(UK, historical) Cheap seats in a theatre, costing one shilling and nine pence.


skittles and beer

She was denying herself skittles and beer, and putting up with tea and an old aunt, because she preferred the proprieties of life to its pleasures.

The men of the ARA were fond of repeating chief Cyril Quinn's line that life in the Russian mission was not all "skittles and beer."

2002, Bertrand M. Patenaude, The Big Show in Bololand:

It just comes to you that everything isn't corn flakes and skittles and beer.

2012, Lemmy Kilmister, White Line Fever: Lemmy: The Autobiography:

beer and skittles
beer and skittles#English


downdrins

(UK, dialect, plural only) An afternoon drinking session.


sunny uplands

The BTC carried out reviews of the Plan in 1956 and 1959, and continued to forecast that the sunny uplands of profitability would be reached by 1963.

2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43:


sunlit uplands

From sunlit (“illuminated by sunlight”) + uplands (“areas in the interior of a country with a generally higher elevation”) (evoking a pleasant, happy place), popularized by its use in the “This was their finest hour” speech delivered by Winston Churchill (1874–1965), the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to the House of Commons on 18 June 1940: see the quotation.

We find in the nation as a whole, the people chosen of God to preserve his name and worship throughout many generations, moving on the sunlit uplands, while the world sat in shadow beneath.

1857, Scottish Society for the Conversion of Israel, “To the Jew first”, in The Friend of Israel, volumes III: January 1856 — February 1867, Glasgow: Thomas Murray and Son, page 305:

A man, to see far, must climb to some height, and I was too much upon the plain in those days to catch even a glimpse of distant sunlit uplands of triumphant achievement that lie beyond the valley of self-sacrifice.

1898, Ralph Connor, Black Rock, a Tale of the Selkirks, Toronto: The Westminster Co., page 94:

[Adolf] Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail then the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

1940 June 18, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister, “War Situation”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Commons Official Report (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 362, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-04-23, column 61:

Whatever the misgivings might be, the future that these projects paint is bright. That just leaves the challenge of bridging the gap between today's rather gloomy situation and tomorrow's sunlit uplands.

2023 August 9, Philip Haigh, “Get the product and price right to tempt back commuters”, in RAIL, number 989, page 54:

(British, figuratively) A wished-for place or time of happiness and prosperity.

This was their finest hour
Winston Churchill


potatoes boulangères

boulangère potatoes
boulangère potatoes#English


boulangère potatoes

From French boulangère (“female baker”).

(cooking) Sliced layered potatoes cooked with herbs, onions, etc. and meat or vegetable stock.


peccata clamantia

From Latin peccāta clāmantia, literally "screaming sins".

(Christianity) A group of mortal sins referenced in the Bible as those for which God will take retribution.


ocean eyes

From ocean + eyes, drawing a parallel between the colour of the ocean and the colour of blue eyes.

I've been watching you / For some time / Can't stop staring / At those ocean eyes

2016, Finneas O'Connell (lyrics and music), “Ocean Eyes” (EP record), performed by Billie Eilish:


blood, sweat, and tears

en-noun

blood, sweat, and tears pl (plural only)

blood, sweat and tears
blood, sweat and tears#English

Alternative form of blood, sweat and tears


deserving poor

(dated) Poor people who are incapable of providing for themselves and thus seen as legitimate recipients of charity.


undeserving poor

(dated) Poor people who ought to be able to provide for themselves but are too lazy to do so, and thus seen as not worthy of charity.


Laboya

From Laboya Laboya, from the de-prenasalization of earlier Lamboya.

Moro in Laboya language means "Owner, master". The "Master of the feast" is a translation of the Indonesian "Tuan Pesta", a term which West Sumbanese use when they speak Indonesian. When speaking Laboya, different terms are used, according to the type of feast which is given.

1987, Danielle Geirnaert, “Hunt Wild Pig and Grow Rice: On Food Exchanges and Values in Laboya, West Sumba (Eastern Indonesia)”, in Rob de Ridder, Jan A. J. Karremans, editors, The Leiden Tradition in Structural Anthropology: Essays in Honour of P.E. de Josselin de Jong, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Publishers, →ISBN, page 121:

For example, in the Laboya language, which is spoken by a community who are neighbors of the Kodi in western Sumba, nyale is the word for "seaworms" while nare refers to an inedible kind of seaworm that Laboya people say causes an itchy reaction if eaten.

2017, Cynthia T. Fowler, chapter 3, in Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia, London: Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 48:

An Austronesian language spoken in the Sumba island in eastern Indonesia.


office plankton

Calque of Russian о́фисный планкто́н (ófisnyj planktón) having the same meaning.

calque

о́фисный планкто́н

What type of personality and whose values — the traditional worker or "the office plankton" — are preferable?

The fourth group is made up of office employees, the so-called "office plankton," "white-collar workers" or ...

2008, The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, page 7:

They were workaholics in their 20s — “office plankton,” as they are sometimes called here — punchy from an apocalypse-themed office party, some headed for winter vacations in Egypt and Turkey.

2011 December 23, Ellen Barry, “Young and Connected, 'Office Plankton' Protesters Surprise Russia”, in The New York Times:

But how can you invent a distinction if you feel you are part of ordinary office plankton? What if this is how the people around view you?

2012, Polina Kudiyevskaya, Gennadiy Balashov, How to Become an Adventurist? The Reflections of a Millionaire:

Office plankton is mentioned often are numerous small employees, which salary is a little connected with result of their work.

2018, Due Machiavelli, Niccolo Machiavelli, The President / The Prince:

Washington office plankton, as it turns out, are unhappy that the commander-in-chief did not heed their opinion.

2019 November 6, Gary Gindler, “Who Can Stop Trump Now?”, in American Thinker:


midway briefs

Writer Shopping Guide Lynne Tillman lives in white shirts from Brooks Brothers and the Gap. Janet Jackson buys Dolce & Gabbana's midway briefs and ribbed tanks from Barneys New York. Daryl Hannah wears Helmut Lang for her and him.


Irminones

From Ancient Greek Ἑρμίονες (Hermíones).

(historical) A large group of early Germanic tribes who settled in the Elbe watershed and by the 1st century AD had expanded into Bavaria, Swabia and Bohemia.


angel's tears

Soleirolia soleirolii
Soleirolia soleirolii#Translingual

Synonym of baby's tears (“Soleirolia soleirolii, a plant in the nettle family”)


runners and riders

From horse racing, the horses and the jockeys.

15 December 2019, Jamie Grierson, Heather Stewart, “Labour leadership contest: who are the runners and riders?”, in The Guardian:

(humorous, idiomatic) The candidates in a competition or leadership contest.


bikini panties

A pair of panties cut to fit low on the hips.


closing credits

The credits shown at the end of a film, TV program, etc.


Bulong

Alternative form of Blang (“ethnic group”)


snow grains

A solid precipitation in the form of very small particles of ice; granular snow


symmetricals

[…] what were known as "symmetricals," lumps of batting strategically placed, distorting the girls' natural curves to the masculine truck-horse taste of the times.

1942, Douglas Gilbert, Lost Chords: The Diverting Story of American Popular Songs, page 45:

The symmetricals he refers to were a false rubber “skin” that gave men a female torso or shape.

2004, Anne Alison Barnet, Extravaganza King: Robert Barnet and Boston Musical Theatre:

After some soulful discussions with Annabelle, Charlotte found what seemed an ideal solution: the stage padding then known as symmetricals, used not just by women but by men to fill out thin legs and upper body mass.

2007, Grant Hayter-Menzies, Charlotte Greenwood: The Life and Career of the Comic Star of Vaudeville, Radio and Film:

(historical) Padding worn by actors and other performers to expand their body shape.


Californiana

Other Californiana and Americana includes some grand costumes of the early days given by the Ladies' Museum Society (a kind of feminine auxiliary to the gallery) […]

1941, Magazine of Art, volume 34, page 316:

Across the street, at 50 Maiden Lane, is Sergio Old Prints (40), which offers an excellent selection of old San Francisco prints and other Californiana.

1981, Gene Anthony, Jill Losson, The great cable car adventure book: a California guide, page 22:

Items, especially collectibles, associated with the state of California.


digital handcuffs

digital rights management
digital rights management

(derogatory) digital rights management, seen as undesirably restrictive


Taurini

(historical) A Celto-Ligurian tribe of ancient Piedmont, whose chief town was Taurasi, near Turin.


purser's crabs

(UK, naval slang) Boots issued by the navy.


fifteen megabytes of fame

en-noun

fifteen megabytes of fame pl (plural only)

15 megabytes of fame
15 megabytes of fame#English

Alternative form of 15 megabytes of fame


Sound Dues

(historical) A toll on the use of the Øresund which constituted up to two thirds of Denmark's state income in the 16th and 17th centuries.


xylographica

The apparent success of this mass-produced merchandise, whether caused by piety, or fear, or simply by the desire to own pretty pictures, was apparently great and these xylographica had a considerably wider market than manuscripts.

1967, Rudolf Hirsch, Printing, Selling and Reading, 1450-1550, page 10:

These block-books, or xylographica, of which upwards of a hundred issues and editions, comprising some thirty separate works, have been recorded, were produced chiefly in the Netherlands and Germany.

2011, Harry G. Aldis, John Carter, E. A. Crutchley, The Printed Book, page 2:


ember months

Comes from the fact that three of the four months end with "-ember".

For as long as can be remembered, the end of every year is believed to be synonymous with increased crime rate and road traffic accidents in Nigeria. The last four months, September to December, popularly referred to as the "ember months" because they end with "ember", fall into this category.

2017 August 26, “‘Ember Months’ of Tragedy: Separating the Myth from the Facts”, in Leadway, archived from the original on 2019-09-21:

(often Nigeria) The final four months of the year: September, October, November, and December.


Santa Monica Mountains

en-proper noun

the Santa Monica Mountains pl (plural only)

the Santa Monica Mountains (canonical plural)

Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County#English

A mountain range in Los Angeles County and Ventura County, California, United States


Lindu

The Austronesian language of these people.


prescription glasses

Glasses made for a specific user; corrective spectacles.


poonts

He managed to tear his eyes away from gawping at her impressive bosom; the newest woman's fashion's evidently allowed even the Respectable to sport low necklines, and her "poonts" or "cat-heads" could not be faulted!

2006, Dewey Lambdin, A King's Trade, page 70:

When we had done the first time, Liza Jane lay sweatin' and pantin' in me arms an' I clasped a paw across her poonts and squoze 'er belly fondly.

2010, Michael Grady, A True History of the Robson Mistake, page 77:

Well, naked tits never appeal to me in vain[…]I disengaged the clasp of her fingers so I could work at her poonts with one hand and her stern with t'other.

2013, George MacDonald Fraser, Flashman and the Dragon, page 103:


Universal Friends

Before the Universal Friends left New England, they had, according to their means, contributed and pledged themselves to contribute to a joint fund for the purchase of land, […]

1873, Stafford Canning Cleveland, History and Directory of Yates County, page 56:

A typewritten manuscript, […] compiled by the Rev. Willoughby Newton, traces the history of the Universal Friends' meetinghouse in New Milford.

1965 (edition: 2009), Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr., Pioneer Prophetess, page 222

At the time of the Revolution itself, however, the new sects that were both the most coherent and the most fully imbued with their own sense of millennial mission were the Shakers and the Universal Friends.

1988, Ruth H. Bloch, Visionary Republic: Millennial Themes in American Thought, page 88:

Despite their obvious similarities (both, for instance, used dreams and visions as vehicles of prophetic expression, and both incorporated millennial themes in their soteriology), the Shakers and the Universal Friends offered dramatically different models of spiritual authority […]

1996, Susan Juster, Lisa MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism: Race, Gender, and the Creation of American Protestantism, page 34:

Among the signatures attached to the document was that of its author, James Parker. Joining his name are those of several other Universal Friends who had turned against the prophet […]

2015, Paul B. Moyer, The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America, Cornell University Press, page 169

(historical) An American Quaker (Christian) sect (from the 1770s to 1860s), the "Society of Universal Friends", which followed the teachings of the Public Universal Friend.


predead

Ads that had created the most visually sophisticated audience on earth: the American TV viewer. For such an audience, Radler knew, the shows being churned out by the networks were . . . predead.

1984, Mark Christensen, Cameron Stauth -, The Sweeps: Behind the Scenes in Network TV, page 356:

In sum, the fact that beings are neither Being nor capable of nonbeing is chastening — but sadness would seem considerably alleviated by the realization that (contra Sartre's No Exit) inability to exist in every way as in our predead days we wanted to exist is no block to awareness, choice, and change for the better, the natural.

1988, Joseph Hynes, The art of the real: Muriel Spark's novels, page 96:

All that came bubbling up from his memory, seeping through remembrances of long winter nights suffering with the predead stench of the human sties the Yankees called prison cells at Rock Island in Illinois.

1994, Terry C. Johnston, Winter Rain, page 28:

Tammany members could visualize Indian contemporaries — the challenging savages on the border — as simply predead Indians who, upon dying, would become historical, locked in a grand narrative of inevitable American progress.

2009, John Hausdoerffer, Catlin's Lament: Indians, Manifest Destiny, and the Ethics, page 113:

There are two types of human entities— the dead and the predead, so while you're waltzing from predead to dead, have a lot of kids in your life, laugh a lot (because life is ridiculous), have a lot of sex until the walls rattle, and have a good time.

2011, Suzanne Braun Levine, The Woman's Guide to Second Adulthood:

To you predead people. like it or not, postalive people are not your bitches.


predead

The antifemale violence implicit in such targettings of the sex appeal of the inorganic is made explicit in the everyday identification of fashion victim as zombie, the predead or undead (one of the recurrent "signatures" both of the serial killer and his victims).

He asked after the hand mirror and in the mirror he learned his eyes were shoe black and his stitched face gaunt and worn down as the predead.

2010, Robert Olmstead, Far Bright Star, page 152:


San Gabriel Mountains

San Bernardino County
San Bernardino County#English

A mountain range in Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County, California, United States, northeast of the city of Los Angeles.


percentage dice

(gambling) Dice that have been tampered with for the purpose of cheating.


Tennessee Valley Indians

en-noun

Tennessee Valley Indians pl (plural only)

Humorous alternative expansion of the initialism TVI.

“I've been using the meter to chase Tennessee Valley Indians. That's what we hams call television interference connected in any way with an amateur station,” Barney went on in answer to Mac's questioning look.

1957, Radio & Television News, volume 57, page 70:

First of a Series: Tvi (television interference, commonly referred to as "Tennessee Valley Indians") is certainly one of amateur radio's biggest problems.

1963, CQ; the Radio Amateur's Journal, volume 19, numbers 1-6, page 87:

(CB radio slang) Interference with television signals, caused by CB radio.


Tairona

(historical) A pre-Columbian culture of Colombia, consisting of a group of chiefdoms in the region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in present-day Cesar, Magdalena and La Guajira Departments.


cats and dogs

(heavy rain): Probably derived from rain cats and dogs.

(finance) Stocks that can be purchased cheaply but are unlikely to produce much profit.


two left hands

Calque of French avoir deux mains gauches.

calque

There are awkward grownup persons, having, as the French say, two left hands, whom no labour will ever make dexterous carvers;

1828, Mrs Margaret Dods [pseudonym; Christian Isobel Johnstone], The Cook and Housewife's Manual: Containing the Most Approved Modern Receipts for Making Soups, Gravies, Sauces, Ragouts, and All Made-dishes; and for Pies, Puddings, Pickles, and Preserves; Also, for Baking, Brewing, Making Home-made Wines, Cordials, &c. ..., 3rd edition, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, →OCLC, page 37:

[Orestes] Brownson is one of those characters. He has two left hands, and was never known to do anything right; whatever he touches he is sure to despoil and disfigure.

1847, William Hogan, Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries, volume 1, Hartford: Silas Andrus and Son, →OCLC, page 142:

"Oh Max, it must be true what father says, and I've got two left hands instead of one; what a scolding I'm in for!"

1905, R. E. Francillon, “Left-Handed Elsa”, in H. Chalmers Roberts, editor, Tales from "Blackwood": Being the most Famous Series of Stories ever Published Selected from that Celebrated English Publication (1), volume 1, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, pages 1–2:

So, when the factory issued a requisition for ten workers, the commandant picked the worst candidates--sick people like me, and those schlemiels with two left hands and two right feet, who he knew couldn't get the job done.

1995, Jason R. Taylor, Jacob Birnbaum, I Kept My Promise: My Story of Holocaust Survival, 1st edition, Jason R. Taylor Associates, →ISBN, page 73:

Ambidexterity means equal skill with both hands, as contrasted with the term “ambilevous” meaning equally unskilled with both hands (or described as having “two left hands”).

2002, Marian Annett, Handedness and Brain Asymmetry: The Right Shift Theory, New York: Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 23:

I've never been good at sewing; I guess I've got two left hands.

(idiomatic) Lacking dexterity in either hand; being ambilevous

They sit in the Vajraparyahka attitude and show in the two right hands the boon and the arrow drawn up to the ear, and in the two left hands the Utpala and the bow.

1958 June, Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, The Indian Buddhist Iconography, 2nd edition, Calcutta: K. L. Mukhopadhyay, page 151:

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see two, left, hands.


TERF bangs

Originated on social media platform Tumblr circa 2014 from the (possibly jocular) association of women with this hairstyle and trans-exclusionary feminist views.

TERF bangs: My tumblr post critiquing modern beauty standards got over 100,000 reblogs, but it's so important to uphold these values in day-to-day life, too. I don't even know what TERF stands for!

2017, "How To Dress Like an Art Hoe", Jerk Magazine (Syracuse University), March 2017, page 67 (caption pointing to an image of someone with such bangs)

Basically, you can pry my TERF bangs from my cold, dead forehead—unless you tell me they’re actively doing harm, in which case I guess it’s headbands for a while.

2019, Anonymous, quoted in Danny M. Lavery, "Help! My Stepfather Told Me He Had a Sex Dream About Me.", Slate, 6 August 2019

[…] tell your hair stylist at Brown Sugar you need a chin length blunt bob with terf bangs stat.

2019, "Assimilation Advice from a fellow SoCoDu", The Piranha (Trinity College, Dublin), September 2019, page 6

(slang) Short, straight, blunt-edged bangs, especially when paired with a bob on a woman.


baby bangs

This is the famous Harold Halma shot of young Capote supine on a sofa, facing the camera with his baby bangs and seductive gaze.

2012, Christopher Bram, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America:

On her feet were black socks with platform sport sandals, and her face was framed by John Lennon glasses and blue baby bangs.

2015 June 21, Amy Sohn, “Women who dress for themselves, and nobody else”, in Sierra Vista Herald, page C3:

Bangs are being reinvented this season in a big way, and baby bangs are all the rage during the warm summer months.

2016, Katelyn Bongiorno, "Hair Flair", Cliche Magazine, August/September 2016, page 38

Baby bangs will emphasise beautiful brows; […]

2019 September, Karen Campbell, “Big Bang Theory”, in Hampton Gazette, page 27:

(slang) Short, straight, blunt-edged bangs (hairstyle), especially when paired with a bob.


magirics

A plural substantive form of magiric (“culinary”), q.v.

(obsolete, rare) Synonym of culinary arts: The art of cooking.


mageirics

(obsolete, rare) Alternative form of magirics.


Yemishi

From Japanese 蝦夷 (Emishi).
The initial y- (also found in Yedo, Yezo, etc.) resulted from the merging between え (e) and 𛀁 (ye) into the latter in the 10th century CE.


fruit and flowers

Such illicit purchases might be explained away in a budget as spending on fruit and flowers.

Most journalists I know are actually rather scrupulous with their expenses – although I do know of one who tried to pass off one of their children's birthday parties as a networking opportunity (hats off!). However, I've been thinking of some of the things I might have been able to claim myself: getting my driving gloves dry-cleaned, for instance, medicinal single malts, ‘back rubs’ in foreign hotels, or that great music-industry euphemism, ‘fruit and flowers’.

2009 May 23, Dylan Jones, “Who's pinched all the paper clips?”, in Daily Mail:

Mr Hands was criticised for his robust managerial style, forcing through redundancies and highlighting excessive costs such as the £200,000 spent annually on "fruit and flowers" and £20,000 a month on candles.

2010 September 28, Cahal Milmo, “A bad buy – with a little help from his friends?”, in The Independent:

Don’t be thinking the record companies are getting all complacent and haemorrhaging all of that new cash on exorbitant executive bonuses, plush new offices and an endless supply of fruit and flowers though. Oh no. They are investing.

2019 April 3, Chris Cooke, “Streaming boom and emerging markets drive fourth year of growth for global recorded music industry”, in Complete Music Update, archived from the original on 2020-08-14:

(euphemistic, jargon, especially in the music business) Illicit purchased items such as recreational drugs or prostitutes.


squatter's rights

en-noun

squatter's rights pl (normally plural, singular squatter's right)


Eleusinian mysteries

This, to be sure, was an error in interpretation, but it made it possible to associate with the Eleusinian mysteries also a notion familiar from other contexts, the notion of mystical rebirth as a child of the godhead.

1978, Joseph Campbell, The Mysteries, page 22:

Their origins are in the ancient Greek cult, in particular the most famous one, the Eleusinian mysteries.

1983, Walter Burkert, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Rigual and Myth, page 248:

Mystical and scholarly interest in the mystery religions, especially the Eleusinian mysteries of Ceres-Isis which were celebrated annually in August, was strong from the Renaissance on, its strength deriving in part from the emotional call of the feminine on the one hand and tantalising lack of evidence as to what actually went on at the celebration of the mysteries on the other.

1985, Douglas Brooks-Davies, Pope's Dunciad and the Queen of Night, page 121:

Eleusinian Mysteries
Eleusinian Mysteries#English

Alternative form of Eleusinian Mysteries


horse and foot

From horse, meaning "cavalry", and foot, meaning "infantry".

With all one's might
with all one's might

(obsolete) With all one's might, with all one's strength, as hard as one can.


multitiers

These n-tier solutions introduce additional management challenges of the multitiers, but solve many issues with respect to performance, flexibility, and evolution of the systems.

2000, Alan W. Brown, Large-scale, Component-based Development, page 50:


loon pants

A pair of loon pants and a CND badge complete the effect.

2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 101:

Wide flared trousers of a kind worn in the disco era.


multiwires

The multiwires were used to measure the profiles of the injected beam as it passed through the 8-GeV beam-transfer line and passed once through part of the Main Ring.

1989, Melvin Month, Margaret Dienes, Physics of Particle Accelerators: Fermilab Summer School:


troons

For quotations using this term, see Citations:troons.


petrocultures

The study of petroculture; the study of how culture is dependent on oil and petrochemicals.


Wellies

My dad used to read me Paddington Bear books complete with a funny little bear voice. He’d even bought me a stuffed Paddington and red Wellies just like Paddington Bear’s. I wore them everywhere.

2007 April, Sherri Browning Erwin, “Chapter 8”, in To Hell With Love, Kensington Publishing, →ISBN:

“Are you making fun of my boots?” She was flirting now, or at least trying to flirt. Her friends back home said her technique was so subtle, boys could never tell if she was flirting or not. / “Far be it from me to insult a lady’s Wellies,” Pather replied sarcastically.

2008 January 10, Suzanne Supplee, “Chapter Two”, in When Irish Guys Are Smiling, Penguin Young Readers Group, →ISBN:

Flora pulled on a pair of her favorite jeans, choosing a long-sleeve, pink-hearted shirt over the black turtleneck she really wanted to wear. Wrapping a yellow scarf around her neck, she stepped into her Wellies.

2016 February 3, Angela Hayes, “Chapter 12”, in Got Love?, Wild Rose Press, →ISBN:


mental acrobatics

mental gymnastics
mental gymnastics#English


the boys

Me and the boys are gonna go hang out for a bit.

(informal, slang) The speaker's group of male friends. This phrase is often put after "me and" if the speaker is referring to themselves and their friends.


Hema

An ethnic group of Nilotic origin who are concentrated in parts of Ituri Province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Brega

Borrowed from Arabic البريقة (al-burayqah).

bor+

a complex of several smaller towns in Libya


Lenca

A nearly extinct language once spoken by these people.


Ishim

A class of angels said to be the closest to the affairs of mortals.


biballs

There was a naked, uncomplicated honesty in what he said as he stood there talking with his hands jammed deep into the pockets of his biballs that was impossible not to believe.

(US, Canada, informal) Loose-fitting pants (trousers) with supporting cross-straps and a panel of material in the chest (called a bib), often associated with farm work.


Luzonese

en-adj

Luzonese (comparative more Luzonese, superlative most Luzonese)

more Luzonese (comparative)
most Luzonese (superlative)


clats

Synonym of slops (“scraps fed to animals; household wastewater”)


tuition fees

A sum of money paid for instruction (such as in a high school, boarding school, university, or college).


abatagati

(South Africa) Nguni witches and/or wizards


ones and zeros

Hiro Protagonist [in Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson] must win, one might say, on both Surf and Turf against the wonderfully evil Evangelist Minister R. Bob Riff and his allies, both in the world of violence, swordplay, and aircraft carriers and in the world of ones and zeros.

1996, R[obert] James Woolsey [Jr.], “Resilience and Vulnerability in the Digital Age”, in Stuart J. D. Schwartzstein, editor, The Information Revolution and National Security: Dimensions and Directions (Significant Issues Series; vol. XVIII, no. 3), Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 79:

[D]igitalization seems to be re(con)textualizing all those foundations into ones and zeros so thoroughly that one cannot find 'the programmer'.

2006, Timothy W. Luke, “Power and Political Culture”, in Leah W. Lievrouw, Sonia Livingstone, editors, Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping and Social Consequences of ICTs, updated student edition, London, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, part 1 (New Media, Culture and Society), page 163, column 2:

You once said that the "ones and zeros" in the world's computers were demons that could trick the human race into losing all its history.

2007, Henning Mankell, chapter 8, in Laurie Thompson, transl., Kennedy’s Brain: Translated from the Swedish, New York, N.Y.: The New Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Christ’s Cul-de-sac), page 83:

If you are a developer or an architect, you are one for a good reason: Your magic and craft is turning ones and zeros into a solution that makes life and work better.

2008, Steven C. Seow, “Preface”, in Karen Gettman, editor, Designing and Engineering Time: The Psychology of Time Perception in Software, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Boston, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page xvii:

Neo has been hacking since he was in elementary school. He is more at ease with ones and zeros than his own language.

2012, Wayne M. Smith, “The Wraith of Frank—Cyber War Style”, in The Sand Castle, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, pages 99–100:


Ts and blues

Ts is an initialism of Talwin, a brand name for pentazocine; blues derives from the fact that tripelennamine tablets are usually blue in color.

[…] was usually combined with the antihistamine tripelennamine (“Ts and Bs” or “Ts and Blues” pattern of combined intravenous drug abuse).

1990, Martin W. Adler, Alan Cowan, editors, Testing and Evaluation of Drugs of Abuse (Modern Methods in Pharmacology; 6), Wiley-Liss, →ISBN, page 272:

Meth has to be the single most wicked shit I ever involved myself with. […] Could drink gallons of beer though, and, while I don't suggest this, but I would pop an OTC sleeping pill. Would do this only after having not taking a snort for a good 12 hours. Poor mans version of tease and blues I guess (meth and valium in a capsule).

1998 November 14, Markus, “Re: METH”, in alt.recovery (Usenet):

west dallas in the 1970s was no place for two growing boys. Instead of front yards, Greg and his older brother Kevin had shattered glass and dirt. Drug dealers cruised the streets, pushing heroin, or “tease and blues” as they called it. The junkies itched their way through days and nights.

2006 July, Paul Kix, “Framed”, in D Magazine:

People taking oral methadone apparently still get a hit if they shoot just cyclizine on top of it. […] It's also available on the internet without a prescription. In the US, Ts & blues was the same sort of thing. Tripelennamine in conjunction with Talwin. Then they reformulated Talwin with naloxone so you can't shoot it.

2006 November 25, piglet, “Re: kookathon”, in rec.radio.swap (Usenet):

(informal) The combination of the drugs pentazocine (an opioid analgesic) and tripelennamine (an antihistamine), used for recreational purposes due to its euphoric effect in the 1970s and 1980s.


two swords

Allegorical interpretation of Luke 22:38, “Behold, here are two swords”.

The most clear-cut definition of the Pope's possession of the two swords was given in Boniface VIII’s famous bull Unam Sanctam, which stressed the unity of Christendom under its single head.

1952, C. W. Previté-Orton, The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History, volume 2, page 943:

[…] the dispute between the two swords cut deep into the countryside in ways that the authors of ecclesiastical and revolutionary policy neither intended nor anticipated.

2004, Matthew Butler, Popular Piety and Political Identity in Mexico's Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927–29, →ISBN, page 3:

In the crusader theology, the two swords were totally united and not divided as Bernard would have it.

2009, Peter Lodberg, Religion, Politics, and Law, →ISBN, page 146:

(chiefly history, Roman Catholicism) Spiritual and temporal power, church and state.


SDW

spin-density wave
spin-density wave#English

(physics) Initialism of spin-density wave.


tease and blues

From Ts and blues, with Ts respelled as tease.


Kakwa

A Nilotic ethnic group of northwestern Uganda, southwestern South Sudan, and the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Lugbara

An ethnic group who live mainly in the West Nile region of Uganda,in the adjoining area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in Morobo County Republic of South Sudan.


PLWH

(medicine) Initialism of people living with HIV.


gladrags

So what becomes of you my love / When they have finally stripped you of / The handbags and the gladrags / That your grandad had to sweat so you could buy?

1969, Mike d'Abo (lyrics and music), “Handbags & Gladrags”, performed by Rod Stewart:

For many, ’ardkore was a depressing manifestation of rave culture's nihilistic escapism, scantily garbed in the gladrags of a vague and poorly grounded idealism.

1998, Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash, Soft Skull Press, published 2012, →ISBN, page 132:


COVID toes

Blend of COVID-19 + toe. From being first observed in children who tested positive for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 infection).

COVID toes usually begin with the patient noticing red or purple discoloration of the toes, and in some cases the skin can become raised or develop ulcerations.

2020 January 14, “COVID Toes”, in Precision Foot and Ankle, P.A.:

Doctors identified a new symptom of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, informally dubbed “COVID toes.” The presence of purple or blue lesions on a patient’s feet and toes puzzles infectious disease experts.

2020 April 21, Adrianna Rodriguez, “What are 'COVID toes'? Doctors discover symptom of coronavirus mostly seen in kids”, in USA Today:

Also known as pernio-like, pseudo-chilblain, acute acro-ischemia, and “COVID toes,” the pattern of acral lesions is described as erythematous to purple purpuric macules, papules, and/or vesicles.

2020 June 25, Hernandez, Claudia, and Anna L. Bruckner, “Focus on “COVID toes””, in JAMA dermatology, →DOI, page 1003:

Since April 2020 there has been a reported surge in the literature of chilblain-like lesions (CLL) coinciding with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This chilblain-like acral pattern, mainly affecting the toes, has been referred to as “COVID toes.”

2021 April 13, Kashetsky, Nadia, Ilya M. Mukovozov, and James Bergman, “Chilblain-Like Lesions (CLL) Associated With COVID-19 (“COVID Toes”): A Systematic Review”, in Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery, →DOI:

(pathology, informal, neologism) A PIIRS (“post-inflammatory infectious response syndrome”) associated with COVID-19, affecting mostly children, showing up as reddish or bluish swollen toes or fingers, with blisters or peeling skin.

PMIS

pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome

HCoV-NH

a virus thought associated with Kawasaki disease


Deceangli

(historical) A Celtic tribe living in Wales and west Cheshire before and during the Roman invasion of Britain.


Sandia

Borrowed from Spanish sandía (“watermelon”).

The pueblo of the Sandia people, located in southern Sandoval County and northern Bernalillo County.

Jim Wells County
Jim Wells County#English

An unincorporated community in Jim Wells County, Texas.


draids

A hairstyle worn after braided locks of hair have become matted resembling dreadlocks.


ifs and ans

From the old rhyme "if 'ifs' and 'ans' were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers" (and variations). Compare if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. See an in archaic sense meaning "if".

Away with these ifs and ans, Hans, and these et caeteraes, by mine honor Rowland Lacy none but the king shall wrong thee: […]

c. 1599, Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday:

"Oh!" quoth the Emperor, "Oh, excellent oats! . . . you feed your horses upon ifs and ans. The man that invented ifs and ans certainly made gold of chopped straw! […]

And yet such is the constitution of the human golfing soul that it not only fails to achieve it, but invents for itself multiform and manifold ifs and ans for not achieving it— […]

1912, Percy Adolphus Vaile, The Soul of Golf:

hypotheticals; counterfactuals; things that one only wishes were the case

if ifs and ans were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands


isms and schisms

Different beliefs and ideologies, and the conflicts between them.


Xhosa Wars

A series of wars between Europeans in the Cape Colony and the Xhosa to the east, from 1779 to 1879.


witches' bells

Foxgloves were called "Witches Bells", and were used by them for love philtres.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 157:


mutt's nuts

Rhyming variant of dog's bollocks; nuts in the sense of testicles.

(British, vulgar slang) Something regarded as outstandingly good.


authority issues

(euphemistic) Disobedience, a disinclination to obey.


Ghent criteria

(medicine) A set of clinical criteria used to diagnose Marfan syndrome.


Ilvates

(historical) A Ligurian tribe mentioned only in the writings of Livy.


piggin bottoms

(UK, obsolete) Spiced biscuits made in small tins.


Sixties

Occasionally this was a direct result of network attitudes — as in the fifties with integration, the sixties with Vietnam, or the seventies with Watergate.

1981, Channels of Communications, page 22:

Both Burnham and the president were middle-aged baby boomers with an investment in their Sixties youth[…]

2016, Oliver Gruner, Screening the Sixties, →ISBN, page 179:

2017 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/sixties-decade-was-it-good-sexual-revolution-swinging-london-hippies-culture-music-art-germaine-a7946506.html
When asked what the Sixties were all about, most people reply: peace, love, happiness.

Counterculture expert James Riley delves into the darkness of the Sixties to sort fact from psychedelic fiction.

The decade of the 1860s, 1960s, etc. (but especially the 1960s)

The 1960s and the first half of the 1970s—an era known as "the sixties" to most observers—has perhaps generated more mythology than any other period in American history.

1999, Andrew E. Hunt, “Introduction”, in The Turning: A History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, →ISBN, page 1:

But the sixties no more ended in 1969 than they began in 1960.

2011, Rob Kirkpatrick, 1969: The Year Everything Changed, page xvii:

It is relatively easy to choose some event (Kent State, Altamont, Watergate, and the fall of Saigon are favorites) as the end of the Sixties[…]

2013, James J. Farrell, The Spirit of the Sixties, page 17:

(US) A period in American history centered around the counterculture movement of the late 1960s.


kniffles

From Alemannic German Knöpfli (“pastry similar to spaetzle”). Compare the verb knöpfen (“to button”).

bor

Ed enjoyed kniffles, sauerbraten, a glass of pilsener taken away from home and Cosey's sight...

1987, Richard Irwin Rossbacher, Now Remembered: Living Pennsylvania History Through 1900, page 517:

Making kniffles for the sauerkraut supper, both at the church and in earlier years in my parent's house and hauling them over to the church in a big kettle.

2004, St. John's Lutheran Church, 150th Anniversary, 1854-2004:

In a separate pan, mix flour and eggs into boiling water, then mix in what he calls the "kniffles."

2008 October, Orange Coast Magazine, page 94:

Egg dumplings or noodles used in German cuisine


Dahalo

From Aweer [Term?] (“stupid, worthless”).


retained earnings

(accounting) The amount of net income left over for a business after it has paid out dividends to its shareholders.


Murmi

Synonym of Tamang (“ethnic group of Nepal”)


fifth-day fits

Most cases of the syndrome have had their onset on the fifth day of life.

(pathology) Benign idiopathic neonatal seizures, a rare form of seizures that manifests in newborns in the latter part of the first 7 days of life.


texturizing scissors

texturizing shears
texturizing shears#English


texturizing shears

(UK) A type of shears used in hairstyling. One edge is serrated, like a hair comb.


clink-clanks

Sadly for you, the fuzz didn't take kindly to you running around in your birthday suit, and faster than you can say "Miranda rights," they've put the clink-clanks on you and are hauling you off to the joint.

2020 May 26, “What Happens When You Get Arrested”, in The Infographics Show:


Ansar

From Arabic أَنْصَار (ʔanṣār, “helpers”).

(Islam, historical) A group of tribespeople, living in Madinah, who gave aid and protection to the prophet Mohammed and his followers.

The members of a Sufi religious movement in the Sudan, disciples of Muhammad Ahmad (1844–1885).


EFO

(philately) Initialism of errors, freaks, and oddities.


cisfolk

“I want to fuck gender. What does that mean? It means taking gender, a beautiful, wonderful thing and rockin it just right. Most cisfolk, they're stuck holding hands. And that's not to say no cisfolk fuck gender, or that hand holding isn't its own amazing thing. […]”

2010 Spring, “The Queerest Art: Genderf*ck”, in OutWrite Newsmagazine, University of California, Los Angeles, page 7:

Trans* and trans each come from the abbreviation of transgender, the word that I've found resonates most with cisfolk above a certain age.

2014 October, Taylor Stocks, “Gender Lesson 201”, in The Outport, page 6:

[> A transgender person is going to a lot of trouble to insist on adopting a particular gender. Why wouldn't 'they' want to adopt the usual pronoun?]
Separate issues. Some cisfolk might also prefer 'they'.

2018 August 11, Richard Yates, “Re: non-binary gender pronoun confusion”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet):


PLWHA

(medicine) Initialism of people living with HIV/AIDS.


PLWC

(medicine) Initialism of people living with cancer.


bibidees

“I like buy bibidees,” he asked his mother one day.

2010, Jack Matsuda, Beep, Beep, Akule!, page 76:

(US, slang, Hawaii) Men's or boys' briefs.


hipsterati

(informal) People who are considered the elite in the hipster subculture.


arterati

(informal, art) People who are considered the elite in the world of art.


jazzerati

Burns and Ward see their work as an attempt to reach beyond the factional discord of the “jazzerati” to introduce nonaficionados, and particularly younger Americans, to the story of one of the nation's most distinctive musical traditions.

2000, U.S. News & World Report, volume 129, page 178:

(informal) People who are considered the elite in the world of jazz music.


cyberati

But the opening of the first cutting-edge hotel, aimed at the young and newly affluent cyberati who seem to be taking over the planet, is a sign of the steamy new Zeitgeist.

2000, Elle, numbers 176–178, page unknown:

(informal) People who are considered the elite in the world of technology and computers; the digerati.


three musketeers

Three Musketeers
Three Musketeers#English

Alternative letter-case form of Three Musketeers


smoky eyes

en-noun

smoky eyes pl (normally plural, singular smoky eye)

And did I mention the makeup? She had smoky eyes, pink lips, and color on her cheeks.

2010, Shani Petroff, Careful What You Wish For, unnumbered page:

She did her makeup heavier than usual, imitating the smoky eyes and bright red lips that came up when she Google-searched “flapper makeup.”

2014, Michelle Madow, Diamonds in the Rough, page 186:

Think about the difference between dramatic smoky eyes with big full lashes, and demure liquid liner.

2014, Michelle Phan, Make Up (Enhanced Edition): Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success--Online and Off, page 67:

Eyes with a shadowy gradient or dark rings around them, created by the application of black or dark grey eyeshadow or eyeliner.


Uwa

A Chibchan language spoken by these people.


Trumpiana

Indeed, on this particular morning, ratings for the previous night's installment of The Apprentice were so momentous that the phone is jangling in its cradle in his corner office, an airy space festooned with every manner of Trumpiana, on the twenty-sixth floor of Trump Tower.

Johnston wrote the book in 27 days, drawing his material from almost three decades of following Trump’s career. “Here are those dots,” Johnston said about the glut of Trumpiana that is already out there. “Here is how they connect,” he said about his own book.

2016 August 12, Jennifer Szalai, “Inside the List”, in The New York Times:

Mr. Serrano’s collection of Trumpiana includes “Trump: The Game.” [image caption]

2019 April 10, Siddhartha Mitter, “Andres Serrano Lets Objects Do the Talking”, in The New York Times:

Objects, materials, or documents relating to Donald Trump (born 1946), the 45th president of the United States.


Lincolniana

Objects, materials, or documents relating to Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), 16th president of the United States.


Rhodesiana

Objects, symbols, and documents relating to the history, geography, and cultural heritage of Rhodesia.


Hungariana

The National Library of Buda-Pest, which is housed in the National Museum, has some of the illuminated manuscripts which belonged in the library of Mathias Corvinus. They also have the fine collection of Hungariana made by the late Count Apponyi, the one interested in education, not the famous statesman.

1929, Library Service News, volumes 1–5, page 27:

Objects, symbols, and documents relating to the history, geography, and cultural heritage of Hungary and the Hungarian people.


whiskeyana

Gordon Bass, the well-known collector of old glass, including whiskey flasks, and a close student of whiskeyana, relates that the slow journey by water to New Orleans demonstrated the beneficial effect upon whiskey of resting in wood.

1963, Gerard Carson, The Social History of Bourbon, Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, published 2010, →ISBN, page 36:

Objects and symbols associated with whiskey and its preparation.


Churchilliana

Objects, materials, sayings, or documents relating to Winston Churchill (1874–1965), British statesman, army officer, and writer.


Londoniana

Collectors of Londoniana will thank us for drawing attention to a pamphlet just published by Mr. J. B. Day, “Correspondence, &c., relating to the Parochial System and Parochial Charities of the City of London;” the noticeable feature of which is a two sheet map of the city, with the boundaries of all the parishes very clearly defined.

1870 April 1, “Trade and Literary Gossip: London Bookbinders”, in The Bookseller: A Handbook of British and Foreign Literature, number 147, page 313:

Objects, materials, or documents relating to London, the capital city of the United Kingdom.


freedom units

(humorous, US) The customary units of measurement used in the United States.


letters patents

The letters patents of king Henry the ſeuenth granted vnto Iohn Cabot and his three ſonnes, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, for the discouerie of new and vnknowen lands.

1589, Richard Hakluyt, “Iohn Cabots Patent”, in The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC, page 509:

If you do wrongfully ſeize Herford's right, / call in his Letters Patents that he hath / By his Atturneyes generall, to ſue[…]

1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 29, column 2:

(which I have kept as carefully as I would Letters Patents, ſince they intitle me to what I value more than titles of honour.)

1753, Alexander Pope, The Works of Alexander Pope Eſq., volume VII, London: J. and P. Knapton, page 176:


rules of the game

(figurative) set of implied or unspoken principles that govern a facet of behavior, especially one involving strategy


gayfolk

SO's affection for cats is important, but not nearly as important as not being allergic!

1992 November 23, Joseph E. Beason, “Re: gayfolk and cats”, in soc.motss (Usenet):

The gayfolk on the Mall, from Chicago and Bridgeport, Santa Cruz and South Bend, Denver, Atlanta, and Honolulu, were of the formulaic ethnic diversity you'd expect in a forties Hollywood bomber crew (directed by George Cukor, maybe).

South Beach is still full of debauched nightlife, much of it gay or lavender-tinged. But gentrification, which so often follows gayfolk to their ghettos, nudged much of the gay population out of Miami Beach in the 1990s.

2019 June 19, Brandon Thorp, “Why Miami Is the Greatest Gay Destination in America”, in Thrillist:


straightfolk

turning down one sheet / in our little room / while down below / the straightfolk come and go / looking for stray sons after dark.

1994, Thomas O'Neil, Sex with God, page 45:

Here is a story for you, Straightfolk of Straightworld: In May 1895, the great writer Oscar Wilde was put on trial in London for the crime of sexual indecency with other men.

2015 February 26, “The hart”, in Arkansas Times:

This ancient idea that the most "universal" (or, cough, American) story is one contingent on the problems of wealthy white, cis, straightfolk is very much still alive and thriving.

2019 September 16, Joshua Young, “In the Spotlight with The Public Theater’s Emerging Writer’s Group”, in The Brooklyn Rail:

(informal) Straight (heterosexual) people.


andartes

(military) The Greek resistance, and its members, during World War II


before times

The planters refer mournfully to the "before times," by which they describe the old slave days, and contrast them with the hard lines of the present. It is possible that the condition of the negroes has been improved by emancipation, but the state of the owners has greatly deteriorated.

1884, James McQuade, The cruise of the Montauk to Bermuda, the West Indies and Florida, page 331:

Defrag remembers a time when a new Star Wars movie was cause for excitement and rejoicing. We even remember going to the cinemas at midnight just to catch the Special Edition re-releases at the earliest possible moment. But those were happier times, more innocent times — the Before Times. Before the release of Episode I The Phantom Menace.

2002 February 19, Kerrie Murphy, “Defrag”, in The Australian, Canberra, page C.10:

Priash looked away and added, “I also found books that describe the before times in a completely different way. I'm not even sure we're living in the same place. I think we must have traveled a long way from there, across the oceans perhaps.

2013, Nicholas P. Oakley, The Watcher, See Sharp Press, →ISBN:

When you tell your kids someday about the ancient art of "concerts" in the before times, please make the chair standers the villains of your story.

2020 August 31, “Everything Wrong With Phineas and Ferb "Dude, We're Getting The Band Back Together!"” (01:42 from the start), in TV Sins, spoken by the narrator (Aaron Dicer), TVSins:

We all want to be taken back to the “before times,” where you could blow spitballs from the bushes or share an ice cream cone with a stranger […]

2020 December 14, Tala Schlossberg, “An Ode to the Before Times”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(sometimes humorous) The period of time before a defining, often apocalyptic event, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.


Brabanditti

(historical, derogatory) The soldiers of General Edward Brabant, British military commander in colonial South Africa.


rheumaticks

(British, colloquial) Archaic form of rheumatics (“rheumatism”).


proprietariat

Blend of propriety (“an owned object; a possession”) + proletariat


shivereens

Poor Charmer got deeper and deeper into falsehood, until one any he appeared with a mass of entangled wire in his hands, and declared that his machine had gone to shivereens.

1922, The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, volume 1, page 151:

(UK, dialect, archaic) Small fragments; smithereens.


orange goods

Products that are consumed and replaced moderately quickly, more frequently than yellow goods but less than red goods; e.g. clothing.


Potato Germans

Calque of Danish Kartoffeltyskere, in reference to the cultivation of potatoes in the areas they settled.

Then there were the French Huguenot tobacco farmers (early 1700s), the “Potato Germans” and paid German soldiers (late 1700s), and Moravian crafts people (late 1700s).

2017, Andrew DJ Shield, Immigrants in the Sexual Revolution: Perceptions and Participation in Northwest Europe, Springer, →ISBN, page 23:

(historical) A group of German families who settled in the heathlands of central Jutland in Denmark during the mid-1700s.


more than friends

Here we go again / I kinda wanna be more than friends / So take it easy on me / I'm afraid you're never satisfied

Participants in a two-way relationship that is closer than a typical friendship, especially a romantic or marital relationship.


just friends

Jack has confirmed that, contrary to the rumors that he and Jill are dating and are planning to marry, he and Jill are just friends.

“Oh, my God.” Cora found herself laughing. It felt like forever since she’d laughed, too. “You know that’s going to set the rumors off again.” Even Ygara had thought she and Janae were a couple. The truth was that Janae had been more than interested, though she’d taken it gracefully when Cora had turned her down. Now that the awkwardness had settled, they could be just friends.

2017 November, N. K. Jemisin, Mac Walters, chapter 13, in Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation, 1st edition (Science Fiction), Titan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 241:

Participants in a two-way non-romantic relationship.


kourabiedes

bor

κουραμπιέδες

Almond biscuits or cookies popular in the Greek and Cypriot communities.


lines of Blaschko

Blaschko's lines
Blaschko's lines#English


Jie

Borrowed from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 羯 (Jié), from Middle Chinese 羯 (kɨɐt̚), itself borrowed from Jie.

(historical) The language spoken by the Jie people, attested only in a fragment in the Book of Jin.


pinkers

When working with a woven fabric, use pinking shears for trimming because pinkers automatically notch the seam allowance for you, making the seam allowance easier to work with (see Chapter 6 for more information on notching seams).

2010, Jan Saunders Maresh, Sewing For Dummies, page 202:


peg-top trousers

Trousers that are wide and baggy at the top and taper down the legs to a close-fitting hem at the ankle.


garms

Mr Godfrey elaborates: 'Unlike New York, where violence is operating on its own irrational plane, on he streets of London there are only two reasons for trouble: your "garms or your area.

1990, "The Bedside "Guardian.", page 338:

In internet rooms and computer mainframes, there's loads of emails about your mother's blue veins. Not the ones in her legs or the back of her arms, but the ones in her member hidden in her garms.

2003, “Your Mother's Got a Penis” (track 15)performed by Goldie Looking Chain:

garms - threads, clothes (London and the South-East): Garms is a term short for garments and, although dating back to Old London, is still in use by the capital's teenagers today. Garms that are buff and criss (cool and stylish, or rude) are of course the best (or nang).

2008 November 5, Susie Dent, How to Talk Like a Local: A National Phrasebook from the Author of Word Perfect:


grey cells

(idiomatic) Brains; a person's ability to think, especially referring to intelligence.


gray cells

(American spelling) Alternative spelling of grey cells


city lights

The aggregate of street lights of a city, particularly at night (often referring to the exciting attractions that the city features, especially its nightlife)


multilevels

These symbols were given a flow of design that served to incorporate a sense of the multilevels of reality.

2005, Hannah Beaconsfield, Riding the Phoenix (Revised Edition), page 57:

The abstracted metadata are represented in the multilevels of primitive metadata, composite metadata, and personalized metadata.

2008, Ismail Khalil, Handbook of Research on Mobile Multimedia, Second Edition, page 723:


posi vibes

(chiefly in the plural) Short for positive vibes. Positive energy; good vibes.


Quandamooka

An Aboriginal Australian group living around Moreton Bay in Southeastern Queensland, and composed of three distinct tribes.


Dickensiana

Objects, materials, or documents relating to Charles Dickens (1812–1870), English writer and social critic.


dan dan noodles

zh-l

擔擔麵／担担面 (dàndànmiàn)


licensed premises

(British, Ireland, law) a place which is licensed for the sale of alcoholic beverages to the public for consumption on the premises; a public house or bar


working hours

I'll only reply to your messages during working hours

The time of the day or week when one is at work, working time.


Doc Martens

en-noun

Doc Martens pl (normally plural, singular Doc Marten)

(informal) Dr. Martens-brand footwear, especially a style of high lace-up leather boot with air-cushioned sole, traditionally associated with British skinheads, adopted by other subcultures at various times.


French-fried potatoes

French-fried potatoes pl (normally plural, singular French-fried potato)

George’s mutton chop congealed on the plate untouched. The French-fried potatoes cooled off, unnoticed. This was no time for food.

1919 May 17, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 46, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, chapter V, page 89, column 4:


French fried potatoes

French fried potatoes pl (normally plural, singular French fried potato)

French Fried Potatoes.—Cut new potatoes in thin slices, put them in boiling fat, and a little salt; fry both sides of a light golden brown colour; drain dry from fat, and serve hot.

[1856], [Eliza] Warren, “Vegetables”, in Cookery for Maids of All Work, London: Groombridge & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 88:

George's mutton chop congealed on the plate, untouched. The French fried potatoes cooled off, unnoticed. This was no time for food.

1919, P. G. Wodehouse, A Damsel in Distress:

French-fried potatoes
French-fried potatoes#English

Alternative spelling of French-fried potatoes.


french-fried potatoes

french-fried potatoes pl (normally plural, singular french-fried potato)

There had to be a secret something to make french fries that good. / Now, to most people, a french-fried potato is a pretty uninspiring object. It’s fodder, something to kill time chewing between bites of hamburger and swallows of milk shake. That’s your ordinary french fry. The McDonald’s french fry was in an entirely different league.

1977, Ray Kroc, Robert Anderson, Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s, Contemporary Books, →ISBN, page 9:

He ate quickly, as it is easy to do with fried food—opening a tartar sauce, dipping pieces of fish, lifting a few french fries, stabbing them into the ketchup, then biting them, and repeating. He ate his while it was hot, holding his fork for the coleslaw and, every now and then, tasting it. He watched Christina feeling closer to her and thought, maybe it was the pleasure of the food. He watched her open a small-side container of clear liquid, dip a french-fried potato into it, and then eat it.

2008, Tige Lewis Quintina, Gelatin Silver Print, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 118:

He ordered panfish that was served with creamy coleslaw and some french-fried potatoes.

2012, Brenda Smith, Insane Circumstances, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 229:

Alternative letter-case form of French-fried potatoes


long odds

That sense of overcoming long odds probably explained why, despite our differences in age and experience, Harry and I hit it off.

2020, Barack Obama, A Promised Land, Crown:

(idiomatic) poor chances; unlikeliness, improbability


space buns

An allusion to the wearing of this hairstyle by Princess Leia in the space opera film Star Wars.

Perhaps the farm boy clothing and the white dress and space buns hairstyle was a poor choice of attire for two people wanted by the Empire!

2018, Craig Stevens, The Star Wars Phenomenon in Britain, page 170:

Her hair was done up in two space buns with a few loose strands of hair on each side.

2019, Isabel Scheck, Ellie Everlasting, page 15:

[…] and enjoyed several rather 'highbrow' parties with her, making the acquaintance of the journalist and political broadcaster Andrew Neil, who nicknamed me Olga, because of my white-blond hair, which I wore in two 'space buns'.

2020, Sara Dallin, Keren Woodward, Really Saying Something: Sara & Keren – Our Bananarama Story:

(informal) A hairstyle consisting of twin buns worn on top of the head.


household goods

Collectively, products destined for use in the house, for example, for cleaning, cooking, eating, home entertainment, personal hygiene, sleeping, and general upkeep.

hûrûmûr

collectively, products destined for use in the house


cold robbies

Coined by American cartoonist Walt Kelly in his comic strip Pogo (derived from a mispronunciation of kohlrabi)

Lt. Mary Sue found out that the men who had beamed down were seriously stricken by the jumping cold robbies, Mary Sue less so.

1973, Paula Smith, “A Trekkie's Tale”, in Menagerie, 2, p. 6:

(humorous) An uncertain, mysterious ailment


corridors of power

Popularized by C. P. Snow in Homecomings (1956) and Corridors of Power (1964).

The official world, the corridors of power, the dilemmas of conscience and egotism—she disliked them all.

1956, C. P. Snow, chapter 22, in Homecomings (Strangers and Brothers):

When angry construction workers seeking unpaid wages stormed a site office in Yau Tong in July 2002, their violent clash with the police set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power.

2011, Alvin Y. So, “The Development of Post-Modernist Social Movements”, in Jeffrey Broadbent, Vicky Brockman, editors, East Asian Social Movements: Power, Protest, and Change in a Dynamic Region (Social Sciences / Sociology), Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 370:

The “data revolution” is the idea of the moment, and it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t think that more money, innovation and effort should be poured into counting and measuring, and that more open data can help to unlock the corridors of power.

2014 October 1, Claire Melamed, “The data revolution is coming and it will unlock the corridors of power”, in The Guardian:

He is a supposedly serious young man who was celebrated in the corridors of power not only as a financial savant but also—through his highly publicized philanthropy and conspicuous association with the “effective altruism” movement—as a moral genius.

2023 January 25, Thomas Chatterton Williams, “The People Who Don’t Read Books”, in The Atlantic:

The buildings and offices that powerful people, especially politicians, are visualised as inhabiting; (by extension) the highest tiers of government or other organisation, where important decisions are made.

C. P. Snow
Corridors of Power (novel)
Homecomings (novel)


Mosuo

A small ethnic group living in Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces in China, close to the border with Tibet.


Evil Questions Attacking Ontario

Evil Questions Attacking Ontario pl (plural only)

The admittedly 'nervous’ Maneesha Johal, top, and classmates Lee-Anna Maharaj, right, and Amanda Ibe, left, prepare for ‘Evil Questions Attacking Ontario.’

Caroline Alphonso (2013 May 31) “The debate over standardized testing in schools is as divisive as ever”, in The Globe and Mail, archived from the original on 2020-12-17

School boards have said that without the co-operation of teachers, there’s no way they can administer the tests, which teachers have dubbed “evil questions attacking Ontario.”

Kristin Rushowy (2015 May 14) “EQAO standardized testing cancelled over teacher job action”, in Toronto Star, Torstar, archived from the original on 2020-12-17

(Canada, informal, education, derogatory) Standardized tests conducted by the Education Quality and Accountability Office in the province of Ontario.


McWages

(colloquial, sometimes derogatory) The low wages paid for a McJob.

List of words formed from the prefix Mc- derived from McDonald’s


polloi

From my vantage point in this teeming city it appears that Father—feeling, I suspect, that it was ordained—accepts Mr. Coolidge’s victory too complacently. His rural retreat is untouched by the temper of the polloi.

1966, George Backer, Appearance of a Man, Random House, page 93:

On the other side a number of thinkers have espoused the cause of the polloi. History is the vicissitudes of common folk, and nothing nobler can be contemplated than the numberless multitudes who shape the world’s destiny.

‘[…]What is M. Fouquet? M. Fouquet,’ replied d’Artagnan to himself, ‘is a handsome man, very much beloved by the women; a generous man, very much beloved by the poets; a man of wit, much execrated by the polloi. Not being woman, nor polloi, I neither love nor hate Monsieur the Superintendent.[…]’

1995, A. Craig Bell, transl., Alexandre Dumas: Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (The Man in the Iron Mask): A Critical Study, Merlin Books, translation of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard by Alexandre Dumas, →ISBN, page 34:


Martii

[…] it was discovered that the Martii had employed the murderers, and they were obliged to flee away.

1795, Sarah Trimmer, A Description of a Set of Prints of Roman History, page 33:

The people were delighted with these tidings, the murderers were seized and punished, and the Martii fled in dismay to Suessa Pometia.

1855, Edward Levien, Outlines of the History of Rome, volume 1, page 20:

(historical) The descendants of Ancus Martius, especially a group who made a bid for power by accusing the king Tarquin the Elder and his son-in-law Servius Tullius of murder.


loinclothes

They were small men, wiry, active, and well-built, with lank black hair tied up in a bunch behind their heads with a leathern thong, and leathern also were their loin-clothes.

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

Garments worn about the loins and covering the crotch.


Querquetulanae

These Querquetulanae have an apparent, or barely possible, survival in the spirits called Querkeln in Bavaria.

2002, Charles Godfrey Leland, Etruscan Roman Remains and the Old Religion, page 106:

There weren't demons or vampires or fairies or shellycoats or Querquetulanae or any of that stuff.

2018, W. Stone Cotter, Saint Philomene's Infirmary for Magical Creatures:

They are partly associated with the Querquetulanae, the Roman nymphs of the oak grove.

2019, Maria Papachristos, Muses - Nymphs - Other Gods, page 55:

(Roman mythology) The nymphs of the oak grove.


foulies

(informal, nautical) Synonym of oilskins


lazyjacks

(nautical) Alternative form of lazy jacks


shining ones

Originally used in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, 1678.

"You're very welcome here, you two strangers," she said. "But we would say to you that we want outward reverence. We respect the shining ones and we will not have them insulted." "I assure you we are very earnest and fair-minded," said 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:

(often preceded by definite article) Angels or other celestial beings.


tag, rag and bobtail

rag, tag and bobtail
rag, tag and bobtail#English

Alternative form of rag, tag and bobtail


rag, tag and bobtail

Synonym of tag-rag (“lowest class of people; the rabble”)


tag-rag and bobtail

Fancy marrying a woman of low rank of life, and having your house filled with her confounded tag-rag-and-bobtail of relations! Fancy your wife attached to a mother who dropped her h’s, or called Maria Marire! How are you to introduce her into society?

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 7, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:


three squares

Out there in Breughel, N.D., surrounded by an ocean of durum wheat, we got three squares a day, piled our plates and cried Yes! to seconds.

1983 February 2, Garrison Keillor, “A Return to Basics: Mealtime without Guilt”, in New York Times, retrieved 2021-01-04:

"We have a more than 50 per cent market share in the US and there is room to grow, especially internationally," said Frito-Lay Vice President, Lynn Markley. "People are beginning to snack more instead of having their old three squares a day."

1999 July 20, David Usborne, “Corporate Profile: The Pepsi regeneration”, in Independent, retrieved 2021-01-04:

Kay, 79, who lives in Philadelphia's Society Hill Towers, has completely forsaken the conventional three squares a day. Instead, he eats 15 to 20 times a day, grazing and nibbling in the manner of our ancestors.

2010 October 25, Art Carey, “Constant eating helps senior lose weight”, in The Star, retrieved 2021-01-04:

(idiomatic) Three square meals, understood as a complete, satisfying, and nourishing regimen of food taken over the course of a day.


jail bars

(television) A display fault in which the picture is disrupted by evenly-spaced vertical bands.


Barngarla

An Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta areas.


matrikin

Coordinate term: patrikin


patrikin

Coordinate term: matrikin


pajamers

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling


price scissors

Calque of Russian ножницы цен (nožnicy cen), in reference to the two price trends appearing as the blades of a pair of scissors.

calque

(economics) The phenomenon where, for a certain group or sector of productive population, the overall valuation from their production for sale outside the group drops below the valuation of the demand of the group for goods produced outside the group after a period of reasonable equilibrium. For example, changing world price levels cause a country's exports to plummet in value, while the valuation of its imports remains relatively stable.


rubber heels

[…] Going in to do the work of the Rubber Heels.'
She asked what the Rubber Heels were, when they were at home.
'The Rubber Heels, heart, are the police investigation department. […]

2003, John E. Gardner, The Streets of Town, page 14:

[…] their programme may actually have served to enhance the attractiveness and legitimacy of CIB work, a job much reviled in the heyday of The Sweeney when the 'rubber-heels' brigade of A10 were portrayed as yet another hurdle in the pursuit of villains and justice.

2012, Frank Leishman, Paul Mason, Policing and the Media, page 147:

(UK, dated, informal) Police officers tasked with investigating corruption within the police force.


teething issues

teething troubles
teething troubles#English

(idiomatic) Synonym of teething troubles


Cottian Alps

Coordinate term: Maritime Alps

A mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps.


diseconomies of scale

In its application, the company cited “diseconomies of scale,” inflation and the diversion of normal traffic by Laker's Skytrain as reasons for seeking the increases.

1978 June 28, “T.W.A. Seeking 5% Fare Rise”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Growth at traditional organizations eventually hits a point beyond which the firm will “suffer from diseconomies of scale, scope and learning.” By contrast, “algorithm-driven operating models” of the A.I. economy are “almost infinitely scalable.”

2020 January 17, Jonathan A. Knee, “Review: Competing in the Digital Age”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The capital costs involved in creating such an infrastructure are significant and some of the fixed costs can be diluted as output expands, but there may be some important diseconomies of scale in managing the infrastructure.

2020, Francesco Ducci, Natural Monopolies in Digital Platform Markets, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 90:

(economics) The characteristics that lead to an increase in average costs as a firm grows beyond a certain size.


system sales

(business) the total sales of all outlets that use a brand, including franchises


Brinkmann coordinates

A particular coordinate system for a spacetime belonging to the family of pp-wave metrics.


short trousers

Trousers reaching as far as the knee, typically worn by young boys.


short pants

You can be young enough to wear short pants or old enough to hide your opponents' shoes with your beard over a disputed point.


piping times

One of the current melodrama uses on the hoardings a four-sheet poster showing the picture of a motherly old woman with a baby in her arms. She is saying: "Well, I guess the country will be saved without me for awhile. I'll look after baby." That's about the attitude of the nursers of business in these piping times of politics.


landsleit

From Yiddish לאַנדסלײַט (landslayt). See לאַנד (land) and לײַט (layt).

People from the same town, in American Jewish communities.


grandfather rights

en-noun

grandfather rights pl (normally plural, singular grandfather right)

He was able to drive a 7.5-tonner using his grandfather rights, as he obtained his driving licence before the law was changed.

What is described as 'grandfather rights' has allowed older equipment to continue in operation where a financial case cannot be made to adopt new regulations. But such dispensations are inevitably time limited and ultimately a decision to replace or modify them must be made.

2021 January 27, Industry Insider, “Surplus to requirements”, in RAIL, number 923, page 68:

Rights granted because of a pre-existing right or privilege, e.g. before a change in the law.


flying colours

I just barely passed the exam. No flying colours.

She sailed through the job interview with flying colours.

(usually in the phrase with flying colours) Great success.


Sussexes

They felt the Sussexes’ attitudes were antagonistic and patronising when not being dogmatic and insulting. They wanted Harry and Meghan to conduct themselves the way William and Catherine did.

2020, [Georgia Arianna,] Lady Colin Campbell, Meghan and Harry: The Real Story, Dynasty Press, →ISBN:

The Prince of Wales made little effort to conceal his disappointment—or the resentment he felt toward the Sussexes for causing the Queen so much obvious heartache.

2021, Christopher Andersen, Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan, Gallery Books, →ISBN:

Among officials across the royal households, a considerable degree of sympathy for the Sussexes had just evaporated. ‘It wasn’t easy for Meghan to adapt to this new life, but she did not allow herself much time,’ says a close charity associate of the Sussexes, who was dismayed by the turn of events.

2022, Robert Hardman, Queen of Our Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II, Pegasus Books, →ISBN:

(informal) The family of the Duke of Sussex.


Yaka

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo

An African ethnic group of the southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Yakona

Alternative form of Yaquina (“Native American people”)


Yagua

An indigenous people of Colombia and northeastern Peru.


Yojuane

(historical) A people who lived in Texas in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, associated with the Jumanos.


Yaqui

A Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Yaqui people.


Ravula

A Dravidian language spoken in the Karnataka and Kerala states of India.


Yustaga

(historical) A Timucua people who lived in what is now northwestern Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries.


housefolk

فَلَمَّا قَضَىٰ مُوسَى الْأَجَلَ وَسَارَ بِأَهْلِهِ آنَسَ مِن جَانِبِ الطُّورِ نَارًا قَالَ لِأَهْلِهِ ٱمْكُثُوا إِنِّي آنَسْتُ نَارًا لَعَلِّي آتِيكُم مِّنْهَا بِخَبَرٍ أَوْ جَذْوَةٍ مِّنَ النَّارِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَصْطَلُونَ

1930, Marmaduke Pickthall, transl., The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, surah 28, verse 29:

falammā qaḍā mūsā l-ʔajala wasāra biʔahlihi ʔānasa min jānibi ṭ-ṭūri nāran qāla liʔahlihi mkuṯū ʔinnī ʔānastu nāran laʕallī ʔātīkum minhā biḵabarin ʔaw jaḏwatin mina n-nāri laʕallakum taṣṭalūna


Hainai

A Native American tribe that lived in what is now east Texas.


Nakh

A group of languages within Northeast Caucasian, spoken chiefly by the Chechens and Ingush in the North Caucasus within Southern Russia.


Dorasque

An extinct Chibchan language of Panama, spoken by these people.


Chauceriana

/tʃɔːˌsɪəɹɪˈɑːnə/

/t͡ʃɔˌsɪɹiˈænə/

/t͡ʃɔˌsɪɹiˈɑnə/

/t͡ʃɔˌsɪɹiˈeɪnə/

Items relating to the 14th-century English writer Geoffrey Chaucer.


Kalapuya

A Native American ethnic group traditionally living in the Willamette Valley of present-day western Oregon in the United States.


Urukuena

Synonym of Wayana (“Carib-speaking people of the Guiana highlands”)


Utkuhiksalingmiut

One of 48 groups of Inuit in what is now Nunavut, Canada. Their traditional land was around the Chantrey Inlet (Tariunnuaq) area.


Nahanarvali

(historical) A Germanic tribe mentioned by the Roman scholar Tacitus.


ifs or buts

Alternative form of ifs and buts used especially in negative constructions.


ifs and buts

I'm not happy with this contract. There are too many ifs and buts.

Go and clean your room now, and no ifs or buts!

Conditions, limitations or qualifications placed on something.


crypterati

The bad faith, and (generally correct) assumption of bad faith, among bitcoin conversationalists on Reddit is really something even for Reddit. Even many of the cryptorati are, shall we say, not always exactly redolent of good faith.

2017 December 3, Jon Evans, “Metascarcity and Bitcoin’s future”, in Tech Crunch:

At that moment, the crypterati were watching in horror as high-profile ICO Tezos embarked on a public internecine war.

2018 February 23, Gian Volpicelli, “To get rich in crypto you just need an idea, and a coin”, in Wired:

In October, the IRS published tax guidance for anyone operating in the crypto industry, addressing multiple concerns of the cryptorati.

2019 December 27, “Digital Currency and Blockchain Weekly Round-Up”, in Token Post:

For a start, it's patented, and for the Crypto-purists, or Crypterati, that's a big red flag. They do not like its governance.

2020 December 23, ngtenor, “Hedera Hashgraph – The Future Google Of Distributed Ledger Technology”, in Seeking Alpha:

Those people who deal in cryptocurrencies.


Bagobo

One of the largest subgroups of the Manobo peoples.


Baggara

Borrowed from Chadian Arabic بقارى (baggāra), plural of بقاري (baggāri).

bor+

A grouping of Arab ethnic groups inhabiting the portion of Africa's Sahel mainly between Lake Chad and southern Kordofan.


Bamangwato

One of the Tswana chieftaincies of Botswana.


Barolong

A tribe of Tswana people from Botswana and South Africa.


Bhumij

A Munda language spoken by the people in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal; often considered to be a dialect of Mundari.


Tahami

A Colombian indigenous people who inhabited the Antioquia region between the Porce and Magdalena rivers.


Tahltan

A First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, and Iskut. They constitute the fourth division of the Nahane (People of the West).


Tboli

An indigenous people of South Cotabato, Philippines.


Takelma

A Native American people who originally lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwestern Oregon.


Tangipahoa

A Native American tribe that lived just north of Lake Pontchartrain and between the Pearl River and the Mississippi River.


Taltushtuntude

An Athabascan tribe of the Galice Creek area of the Upper Rogue River in Oregon.


Ibilao

Synonym of Bugkalot (“a tribe of the Philippines”)


Digor

A dialect of the Ossetian language, spoken by the Digor people.


Ahantchuyuk

(historical) A central group of the Kalapuya people, living along the Pudding River.


daedalia

A curious collection of devices, mechanisms, and other daedalia.

"As another example, machines are epic, but automatons belong to romance. In Book V, Talus is a romance marvel, like all such daedalia; but in the allegory he has some of the functions and significance of an epic siege-engine."

1976, James Nohrnberg, The Analogy of The Faerie Queene, Princeton University Press, page 23:

Miscellaneous items of an especially complex, intricate, ingenious (etc.) nature


fresh eyes

Practicing transformative justice requires local prosecutors to look at their office's mission and jurisdiction with fresh eyes, and to challenge their institution's assumptions with regard to the kinds of laws the office ought to be enforcing and the kinds of enforcement actions it ought to be bringing.

10 March 2021, “Prosecuting in the Police-less City: Police Abolition's Impact on Local Prosecutors”, in Harvard Law Review, volume 134, page 1873:

fresh pair of eyes
fresh pair of eyes#English


moral police

A special police force in some conservative countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Malaysia that enforces religious laws by punishing sinners.


Molala

A people of the Plateau culture area in the Oregon Cascades and central Oregon, United States.


molka

Secretly installed miniature cameras used to capture voyeuristic images and videos in South Korea.


Mpondo

A Southern African Nguni ethnic group having their traditional homeland in the modern-day Eastern Cape province of South Africa.


Vazimba

(folklore) The first inhabitants of Madagascar, generally described as small in stature.


unmarked, small bills

small, unmarked bills
small, unmarked bills#English

Alternative form of small, unmarked bills


Stevensoniana

Items related to the author Robert Louis Stevenson, especially collectibles.


Staroobriadtsi

From Russian старообря́дцы (staroobrjádcy).

bor

старообря́дцы


Tories on bikes

So-called due to bicycles being commonly prescribed as an environmentally friendly form of personal transportation.

The only viable alternative for decades has been The Australian Greens, formerly a protest party, but now a progressive middle-class party. It’s a coalition of Tories on bikes, socially conscious baby boomers who live in architect-designed homes, and millennials who haven’t yet graduated from edgy liberalism to socialism.

2018 September 7, Ivan Mitchell, Daniel Lopez, “The Immodest Victorian Socialists”, in Jacobin, retrieved 2021-04-01:

A derogatory name for the Greens is "Tories on bikes"; they also oppose building on green belts around cities, and thus inadvertently encourage car commuting, with its attendant car pollution.

2019, Danny Dorling, Rule Britannia: Brexit and the End of Empire, Biteback Publishing, →ISBN, retrieved 2021-04-01:

But lest we forget the Green Party’s concern for the workers who make these cheap clothes in counties such as Bangladesh, the reality is that when it comes to employees’ rights they are merely Tories on bikes.

2020 September 11, Pat Flanagan, “Green Party out of touch with ordinary people and seem to like punishing poor”, in Irish Mirror, retrieved 2021-04-01:

(politics, derogatory, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) Members or supporters of a Green Party who are politically conservative.


Udihe

A language that belongs to the Tungusic language family and is spoken by the Udihe people.


Quinnipiac

A Native American nation of the Algonquian family who inhabited the Wampanoki region, including present-day Connecticut.


Vermontese

And yet it turns out that one vestige of Vermontese lingers, and, in fact, is spreading: the glottal-stopped t in words like "Vermon'" or "Mil'on," which is mysteriously increasing among young people.

2015 November 22, Britt Peterson, “Why are young Vermon’ers dropping their t’s?”, in The Boston Globe:


Nakomgilisala

A First Nations people who traditionally inhabited the Cape Scott area of British Columbia.


Ijo

A subgroup of the Ijaw people of Nigeria.


Awshar

Alternative form of Afshar (“an Oghuz tribe”)


Firbolg

(Irish mythology) The fourth group of people to settle in Ireland, descended from the Muintir Nemid, an earlier group who abandoned Ireland and went to different parts of Europe.