sez

Sez who? – Sez me!

"Whoo!" Dr. Blatnoyd had a soda straw and was busy snorting away. "No worries, it's on the house, as the TV antenna man always sez.... Hmm, missed a little...."

2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 169:


videotape

en-verb

videotape (third-person singular simple present videotapes, present participle videotaping, simple past and past participle videotaped)

videotapes (present singular third-person)
videotaping (participle present)
videotaped (participle past)
videotaped (past)

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

From video + tape, a trademark of media company Ampex.

(transitive, intransitive) To visually record (activity, or a motion picture) in general, with or without sound.


victrola

Any upright or console model phonograph from the early 1900s, usually with a wooden cabinet body and an interior horn for the projection of sound, that plays 78 rpm records using a steel needle.


zorb

Originally the trademarked name of a particular brand of sphere; perhaps from orb.

Uneven plains that are interspersed with pebbles and rocks are likely to cause punctures in the zorbs.

2006 March 25, Susmita Saha, quoting Anurag Mehra, “A different ballgame”, in Calcutta Telegraph:

There's even a kids' zorb for the under six.

2007, William Gray, “Wellington”, in Travel with Kids, →ISBN, page 309:

An Interlaken entrepreneur […] came across the activity in the Swiss canton of Valais (the Rhone Valley) and ended up buying the 'zorbs' from a German manufacturer.

2008, Katrin Blumberg, “Internationalisation in adventure tourism”, in Coles & Hall, editors, International Business and Tourism, →ISBN, page 175:

(sports) A large, transparent, inflatable ball, inside which a person may be secured and then rolled downhill.


yoyo

Genericized trademark. Likely from Ilocano yóyo or another Philippine cognate.


yoyo

yoyo (third-person singular simple present yoyos, present participle yoyoing, simple past and past participle yoyoed)

yoyos (present singular third-person)
yoyoing (participle present)
yoyoed (participle past)
yoyoed (past)


yo-yo

→ Italian: yo-yo

Genericized trademark. Most likely from Ilocano yóyo, or another Philippine cognate.

I bought a yo-yo from the toy store yesterday.

A toy consisting of a spheroidal or cylindrical spindle having a circular groove in which string is wound; it is used by holding the string in the fingers and reeling the spindle up and down by movements of the wrist.

(finance) A volatile market that moves up and down.

(aviation, military) A dogfighting maneuver involving the attacker temporarily exchanging altitude for airspeed, or vice versa, in order to rapidly catch up with the defender or to prevent an overshoot.

(sewing) A cloth rosette formed by gathering the outside edge of a circle of fabric in toward the centre using a running stitch.


yo-yo

yo-yo (third-person singular simple present yo-yos, present participle yo-yoing, simple past and past participle yo-yoed)

yo-yos (present singular third-person)
yo-yoing (participle present)
yo-yoed (participle past)
yo-yoed (past)

The yo-yoing stockmarket whizzed back up by around a quarter and then started to fall again.

1990, The Economist, volume 316, page 93:

(intransitive) To vacillate; to move up and down.


Jesus freak

The phrase originally was applied to those involved in the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, within the context of the freak scene of that era. However, some Christians now consider it a reclaimed word, as Christians, especially Christian youth, occasionally use it today as a positive term to let others know that they are not ashamed of their belief in Jesus.

What will people say when they hear that I'm a Jesus freak?
 What will people do when they find out it's true?
 I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak.
 There ain't no disguisin' the truth.

1995, “Jesus Freak”, TobyMac (lyrics), performed by dc Talk:

(Christianity, slang) An enthusiastic Christian.


identikit

Blend of identification + kit, originally a trademark.

A picture of a person, reconstructed from strips showing facial features selected to match witnesses' descriptions; used by the police to build a likeness of a person sought for a crime.


peaceful

Derived from the derogatory term religion of peace, which is used against Islam itself for its association with violent attacks by Islamic extremists, and alleged support and lack of condemnation against them by certain Muslim communities.

They only have to use a bit of code to name those people; nowadays they call them “peacefuls”. A smirking euphemism is all it takes to sail through Twitter’s filter, and keep the hate-speech flowing.

(India, Islam, Islamophobic, Internet slang, offensive) a Muslim; especially a violent member of a radical Islamist group.


mom

(spoken by the father) I don't share it with mom! Right, mom?

(Canada, South Africa, US, West Midlands, colloquial, informal) Mother.

(by extension) used as a term of address for one's wife


Viagra

Marketing name, perhaps from Sanskrit व्याघ्र (vyāghrá, “tiger”), or perhaps based on words such as vigour, virility, victory and Niagara.

Just like any other drug that elevates any aspect or level of performance, Viagra has a pretty harsh comedown, so to speak.

2004, Jayson Gallaway, Diary of a Viagra Fiend, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 49:

erectile dysfunction
erectile dysfunction

(pharmacology) A brand name of the drug sildenafil citrate, used to treat erectile dysfunction.

فِيَاغْرَا

trademark name of the drug, sildenafil citrate, used to treat erectile dysfunction


bikini

→ Norwegian Bokmål: bikini

From French bikini, named after the place name Bikini, from English Bikini, the name of the atoll where the United States tested nuclear weapons in July 1946; it was reckoned that the bathing suit would cause as much excitement as a nuclear bomb. This name was originally from German Bikini, the colonial name of the atoll as part of German New Guinea, and this was derived from Marshallese Pikinni.

Cole has little but scorn for France's famed Bikini bathing suits. Explains he: " French girls, have short legs. Swimsuits have to be hiked up at the sides to make their legs look longer. "

A brief two-piece bathing suit worn by girls and women, especially one that exposes the midriff and navel.

We high-schoolers didn't understand why death came in the form of a gorgeous young man with muscles in a skimpy bikini.

2004, Cathy Crimmons, How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization, page 202:


pike

Clipping of turnpike (“a toll road, especially a toll expressway; a spiked barrier across a road, originally used to block access to the road until toll had been paid”)
Noun sense 2 (“gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller”) and verb sense 2 (“to depart, travel, especially to flee, run away”) may refer to someone frequently using turnpikes, or may be derived from Middle English pī̆ken (“to go, remove oneself”).

inh

The true "Pike," however, in the Californian sense of the word, is the wandering gypsy-like Southern poor white. […] "I found a Pike the other day killing and salting hogs, and actually hauling the salt pork off to sell it," said a gentleman in whose company we were discussing these people. / "Certainly that was an industrious Pike," said I. / "Yes, but confound it, they were my hogs," he replied, with natural wrath.

1873, Charles Nordhoff, “A January Day in Los Angeles”, in California: For Health, Pleasure, and Residence. A Book for Travellers and Residents, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, […], →OCLC, page 138:

(derogatory, ethnic slur, slang) A gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller from any ethnic background; a pikey.


Murphy bed

We lived in just one room with a Murphy bed and a kitchen that looked out on the alley.

2021, Rickie Lee Jones, Last Chance Texaco, Grove Press, published 2022, page 104:

(Canada, US) A light type of bed designed to be folded up or swung into a wall or closet for storage when not in use.


precious

en-adj

precious (comparative more precious, superlative most precious)

more precious (comparative)
most precious (superlative)

From Middle English precious, borrowed from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin pretiōsus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price.

der

a precious rascal


gunk

en-noun

gunk (countable and uncountable, plural gunks)

Apparently from Gunk, trademark name for a liquid soap; perhaps taken as a blend of grime + funk.

(uncountable) A subculture of 21st century American males, combining elements of modern gothic culture with punk rock.


petrol sniffer

(slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) An Australian Aboriginal.


trampoline

From Spanish trampolín and/or Italian trampolino; in English, a genericized trademark based on the Spanish word trademarked in 1936.

A gymnastic and recreational device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric or rubber stretched over a (usually steel) frame using many coiled springs as anchors.


leatherette

leatherette (countable and uncountable, plural leatherettes)

From leather + -ette (suffix forming nouns meaning an imitation or substitute of something); originally a trademark that has since been genericized.

refn

From the collection of the Auckland War Memorial Museum in Auckland, New Zealand.

From the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, New York, USA.

suffix

The NYU tarts and the club slime, the art holes and the once-a-week bridge-and-tunnel leatherettes, the spikes and the usual dregs and walking garbage, Eel was giving them all the hiss.

1994, George Dawes Green, chapter 27, in The Caveman’s Valentine, New York, N.Y.: Warner Books, →ISBN; ebook edition, New York, N.Y.: Warner Books, March 2001, →ISBN:

Since I seemed to know some of the leatherettes, I was a magnet for fellow Jews wanting to know what was going on.

2003 August 19, Bruce Vilanch, “Heathers in Leathers”, in Bruce C. Steele, editor, The Advocate, Los Angeles, Calif.: Liberation Publications, →ISSN, page 66, column 2:

I could tell in advance if they were screamers, or leatherettes, or buggers, or great head-givers, or into toys and ticklers – I had it down to an art.

2005, Tom Horn, chapter 2, in The Devil and George Bailey, [s.l.]: RSE, published 2011, →ISBN, part III (Fire), page 827:

(countable, slang) A person who dresses in leather or imitation leather.


bubbler

(US) A freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens), of central North America.


esky

From Esky (“brand name”), a brand name originally owned by Malley's Ltd, of Sydney, Australia, from 1952; since genericised. From esk(imo) + -ie.

The rear of the cab was stacked with boxes of soft drinks and ‘Eskis’.

1987, Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines, Vintage, published 1998, page 75:

Instructions followed for the package to be covered with clean ice in a six-pack esky (which should be big enough), and stored in a cool room at the hotel or the butcher shop, until the arrival of the mail plane.

2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 211:

(Australia) An insulated picnic cooler, using ice or refrigerated blocks to keep food and drinks cool.


babes

Are you all right, babes?

Alternative form of babe (“as a term of endearment to a loved one”)


butterscotch

en-noun

butterscotch (usually uncountable, plural butterscotches)

/ˈbʌtɚˌskɑt͡ʃ/

From butter + scotch, with the second element deriving (not from scotch whiskey or Scotland, but) from Middle English scocchen (“to score, nick, cut”), in reference to how the candy is boiled and hardened and then usually scored to make breaking it apart easier. The word is usually said to have originally been a trademark of Parkinson's, who is claimed to have invented it.

der

A hard candy made from butter, brown sugar, syrup and vanilla.


jackeen

From Jack + -een (“little”), from Jack being a common English name.

To the sellers in the market, to the barmen and barmaids, to the beggars who importuned him for a lob Mr Dedalus told the same tale, that he was an old Corkonian, that he had been trying for thirty years to get rid of his Cork accent up in Dublin and that Peter Pickakafax beside him was his eldest son but that he was only a Dublin jackeen.

1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter II, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 105:

(Ireland, derogatory, ethnic slur) Synonym of Dubliner, especially (obsolete or historical) an excessively Anglophile one.


jigaboo

Possibly an African word akin to Bantu tshikabo (“they bow the head docilely”). Alternatively, perhaps from jig, formed similarly to bug and bugaboo.

(offensive, slang, dated) Any dark-skinned person.


sweetheart

[ˈswiˌɾ(ʱ)ɑɹt̠̚]

From Middle English swete hert, swete heorte (phrase of endearment); equivalent to sweet + heart.

John married his high-school sweetheart in 1981.

Why Lambe, why Lady, fie you ſluggabed, / Why Loue I ſay, Madam, ſweeteheart, why Bride: / What not a word, you take your penniworths now, / Sleepe for a weeke, […]

c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Iuliet. […] (Second Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, […], published 1599, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

A person very much liked or loved by someone, especially when both partners are young.

حَبِيب

a person very much liked or loved by someone — see also darling, cutie

(one's lover, with possessive suffixes) kedves

(US) A female member of a college or university fraternity.


Aspirin

From the German trademark Aspirin, from acetylierte Spirsäure (“acetylated spiræic acid”); more at aspirin § Etymology.

acetylsalicylic acid
acetylsalicylic acid#English

(pharmacology) A marketed variety of acetylsalicylic acid.

aspirin

the genericized trademark meaning acetylsalicylic acid


Bantu

en-noun

Bantu (countable and uncountable, plural Bantus or Bantu)

From Proto-Bantu *bàntʊ̀ pl (“people”), as reconstructed by the 19th-century linguist Wilhelm Bleek.

(South Africa, dated, now offensive, ethnic slur) A black South African.


Doctor

The students asked to see Doctor Jones.

Doctor Smith carried out the medical procedure.

Well, Doctor, what do you think? Will he live?

They talked of the experiments of Dr. Darwin, (I speak not of what the Doctor really did, or said that he did, but, as more to my purpose, of what was then spoken of as having been done by him,) who preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case, till by some extraordinary means it began to move with voluntary motion.

1831 October 15, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, “Introduction”, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], published 31 October 1831, →OCLC, pages ix–x:

The title of an academic or medical doctor (a person who holds a doctorate); used before or instead of the doctor's name.

醫生

title of a doctor, used before the doctor's name


Doc

Nice pair of Docs you've got on there, bro!

(slang, usually in the plural) A Doc Marten shoe or boot.


Flip

One of the children beckoned to me to try it and I started forward, but before I could move Ryland grabbed my coat. "They're fucking Flips, kid. The only way to play is to be better than they are. Go all the way to the top."

1993, Gary Paulsen, Eastern sun, winter moon: an autobiographical odyssey, →ISBN:

Later, the lieutenant came up to me. “Those dumb Flips finally got the message, right? […]

2002, Henry C Allan, H-Hour Plus Three: The Saga of the US Army Amphibious Engineers in the Pacific During World War II, →ISBN, page 188:

(slang, chiefly derogatory, ethnic slur) A Filipino; a person who is of Filipino background.


Formica

Coined in 1913 as a brand name for the material and the company producing it. Formica was originally intended as a replacement “for mica”, which was then commonly used for electrical insulation.

She creamed in her jeans as he picked up her knees / From off of the Formica topped bar

1978, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Street Hassle”, in Street Hassle:


Coke

Coke (countable and uncountable, plural Cokes)

Clipping of Coca-Cola. See coke (“cola”).

(countable, uncountable, informal) Cola-based soft drink; (in particular) Coca-Cola.

The waiter came up, and I ordered a Coke for her—she didn't drink—and a Scotch and soda for myself, but the sonuvabitch wouldn't bring me one, so I had a Coke, too.

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

'You have a coke and I'll have a beer and we can talk business.'

1958, Franklin Martin, “The Trouble with Mrs. Benton”, in Venus, volume 1, number 1, Garden of Eve Publications, page 16:

(countable, informal) A bottle, glass or can of Coca-Cola or a cola-based soft drink.

(US, especially Southern US, informal) Any soft drink, regardless of type.


Friend

English surname, from the noun friend, or adaptations of it in other languages such as German Freund, Dutch Vriend, Slovene Prijatelj.

A Quaker; a member of the Society of Friends. (See also Friends.)

spring-loaded camming device
spring-loaded camming device

(rock-climbing) Brand name of a spring-loaded camming device, now used to refer to any such device, often uncapitalized, as friend.


Friend

An unincorporated community in Terry Township, Finney County, Kansas.

A minor city in Saline County, Nebraska, named after Charles E. Friend.

A ghost town in Wasco County, Oregon, named after George J. Friend.


Mace

en-proper noun

Mace (countable and uncountable, plural Maces)

* As an English surname, from the personal name Masse, probably shortened from Matthew. Compare Massey, Massett.
* As a French and Breton surname, from Macé, vernacular form of Mathieu. Compare Maze.
* Also as a French surname, from Macé in Orne, from Late Latin Macciacum, from the personal name Maccius.
* Also as a French surname, variant of Massé; see Masse.

Montgomery County
Montgomery County#English

An unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Indiana, United States.


Missus

(informal) Mrs, a form of address for a married woman.


Moose

(slang, derogatory, religious slur) A Muslim.


Hun

From Old English Hūnas, Hūne (both plural), from Late Latin Hunni, from Koine Greek Οὗννοι (Hoûnnoi), borrowed through Middle Iranian. Cognate with Old Norse húnir, Old High German Hunni. See also etymology of Xiongnu.
Compare Sogdian [script needed] (xwn), Sanskrit हूण (hūṇa), and 匈奴 (OC *hoŋ-nâ) (c. 318 BCE) > *hɨoŋ-nɑ (Eastern Han), which Schuessler (2014:264) proposes to be transcription of foreign *Hŏna ~ Hŭna. More at Huns.
As a derogatory term for Germans popularized by Rudyard Kipling, reacting to Germany's proposal that the Royal Navy be used to collect debts from Venezuela.

Doubtless the first German band to return to England will be composed of the most gentle peace and beer-loving Huns that ever visited our favoured shores.

1919, Gerald Featherstone Knight, Brother Bosch: An Airman's Escape from Germany:

(slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A German.


Mt

Mt Everest

Abbreviation of Mount (in the names of mountains)

Mt Airy

Abbreviation of Mount (in the names of cities)


Misses

Perhaps we are disposed to smile at seeing so much made of titles; but after what we have learned of Lord Timothy Dexter and the high-sounding names appropriated by many of our own compatriots, who have no more claim to them than we plain Misters and Misseses, we may feel to them something as our late friend Mr. Appleton felt to the real green turtle soup set before him, when he said that it was almost as good as mock.

1890, O[liver] W[endell] Holmes [Sr.], “The tea is sweeneted”, in Over the Teacups, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], pages 274–275:

Eye dialect spelling of Mrs; alternative spelling of Missus.


Frisbee

1957, brand name Frisbee was trademarked in 1959 by Fred Morrison, later acquired by Wham-O. From an alteration of frisbie, applied to the disk game by U.S. college students who tossed pie plates from Mrs. Frisbie's Pies, Frisbie Bakery, Bridgeport Ct., since the 1930s. From the English family name Frisby attested 1226, from the toponym attested 1086 in Frisby on the Wreak, Leicestershire, from Old Danish Frisby (“Frisian village”).

A trademarked brand name of disc-shaped gliding toy.


Nip

CHUNGKING, Oct. 10—Chinese counterblows against the Japanese offensive in south China have reeled the Nips back from two towns in the approaches to Kweilin, capital city of Kwangsi Province, today’s Chinese High Command communique announced.

1944 October 11, “Sino Counterblows Send Nips Reeling”, in The Stars and Stripes Mediterranean, Italy, →OCLC, page 1:

(dated, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A Japanese person.


Nip

(dated, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) Japanese.


Muppet

Diane Sawyer
Elmo
Jim Henson
Kevin Clash
Muppet

Coined by Jim Henson as an alteration of puppet. Henson had claimed the word was a blend of marionette + puppet, but later recanted.

One of a group of established puppet characters acting as a sort of repertory company on The Muppet Show, and/or appearing on Sesame Street.


Q-tip

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

American genericization from the brand name coined (and registered as the trademark "Q-TIPS") by Unilever; see tip. Q stands for quality.

A cotton swab consisting of short, thin, flexible plastic rods with a swab of cotton/cotton wool at each end; they are typically used for cleaning the ears and other hard-to-reach places.


Slick

That was a great move locking your keys in the car, Slick.

Don't you look good tonight, Slick!

A term of address, generally applied to males, possibly including strangers, implying that the person addressed is slick in the sense of "sophisticated", but often used sarcastically.


Telex

Central Telegraph Office
General Post Office
Telex (input method)
Western Union

From Telex Printergram, a service offered beginning 15 Aug. 1932 by the British General Post Office's Central Telegraph Office, derived as a blend of tele- (“telegraph, teletype, teleprinter, etc.”) + exchange. Subsequently branded in the United States by Western Union and then similarly genericized. In reference to the Vietnamese conventions, a borrowing of Vietnamese Telex, from French télex, from the English term.

blend

(computing) Input method for Vietnamese text based on this convention.


Tempo

Genericization of the trademark Tempo. From the name of a popular manufacturer of such structures. Clipping of temporary.

(Quebec, automotive) A type of car shelter, a temporary kit-built prefabricated steel-framed high tunnel peaked hoop house with an impermeable translucent plastic fabric cover, and flap doors.


Xerox

en-verb

Xerox (third-person singular simple present Xeroxes, present participle Xeroxing, simple past and past participle Xeroxed)

Xeroxes (present singular third-person)
Xeroxing (participle present)
Xeroxed (participle past)
Xeroxed (past)


Tabasco

Of unclear origin. The first definition listed in the 1994 Diccionario enciclopédico de Tabasco was from the Nahuatl name of the area, tlapalco meaning "(place of) damp earth"; wetlands are still extensive in the Mexican state of Tabasco. Other opinions listed were Mayan word tab-uaxac-koh, meaning "(our) lord of eight lions"; others suggest it derives from a Nahuatl word: tla-uashka-ko meaning "place that has an owner", or tlapachtli.
The tabasco pepper was popular in the Mexican state and is named for it; a hot sauce made from that pepper was eaten in the state since the 1650s, and a version was popularized in the United States and elsewhere by the McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana, beginning in the 1870s.

A spicy pepper sauce made from tabasco pepper (a chili pepper) with the addition of vinegar and salt.


Jessie

Variant of Jesse, from Ancient Greek Ἰεσσαί (Iessaí), from Hebrew יִשַׁי (Yishai).

(US, eye dialect) A male given name from Hebrew, variant of Jesse.


Zeppelin

Borrowed from German Zeppelin. Named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose surname derives from the German town name Zepelin. Doublet of cepelinas.


popsicle

From the trade name Popsicle, a blend of (soda) pop or lollipop + Epsicle (original trade name), itself a blend of Epperson (surname of the inventor) + icicle.

blend

(chiefly US, Canada) Frozen fruit juice, flavored sugar water, or the like, on a stick, of a size to be one serving.


chile

“I wants all the women and chillun and the old and the sick folks brought out.”

1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 546:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

Pronunciation spelling of child, representing Southern US and African-American Vernacular English.


San

As a synonym of Bushmen introduced into ethnology from the 1960s, from Khoekhoe saan (singular saa) "foragers; people without wealth", via back-formation from Khoisan. Occasional citation as the Nama term for "Bushmen" from the 1880s.

(regionally, offensive, ethnic slur) Any of the foraging non-Bantu ethnic groups of southwestern Africa.


guinea

→ Arabic: جُنَيْه (junayh)

→ Egyptian Arabic: جنيه (ginēh)

→ Irish: gine

→ Scottish Gaelic: gini

→ Spanish: guinea

→ Welsh: gini

From Guinea, the early modern name for West Africa, the coins originally being made of gold from the region, mostly from the 'Gold Coast' (modern Ghana) and used for African trade, and the guinea fowl being found there.

If I’m to tell the whole truth—and why not? I sure have the time!—I’ll have to start by saying I was born Richard Pinzetti, in New York’s Little Italy. My father was an Old World guinea.

(US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent.


ugli

Proprietary name, an alteration of ugly, from the fruit's often lumpy and discoloured appearance.

In a world of fruit — from apples to uglis — why is wine made from grapes?

2009, Wine Enthusiast, volume 22, numbers 8-13, page 36:

Citrus reticulata
Citrus reticulata#Translingual

Citrus paradisi
Citrus paradisi#Translingual

Citrus × paradisi, a cross between a tangerine, Citrus reticulata and grapefruit Citrus paradisi, grown in the West Indies.

نَرَنْج

cross between a tangerine and grapefruit


cologne

en-noun

cologne (usually uncountable, plural colognes)

Short for eau de Cologne (French Eau de Cologne), the name given to the original product in 1709. The success of the original Eau de Cologne inspired many imitators and it has become a genericized trademark. See Cologne.

គន្ធរស

kŏənthĕəʼrŭəh

You stink of too much cologne.

He wore some aftershave or cologne that gave him a heavy, nasty, sweet scent.

1998, Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents, HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP (2019), page 95:

A type of perfume consisting of 2-5% essential oils, 70-90% alcohol and water.


hoover

The Hoover Company
Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum
hoover

Genericized trademark of Hoover, the brand name of one of the first vacuum cleaners, which was sold by The Hoover Company. The American company was founded by William Henry Hoover (1849–1932) and his son Herbert William Hoover, Sr. (1877–1954). The surname Hoover is an Anglicized version of the German Huber, originally designating a landowner or a prosperous small-scale farmer.

"What do you do about dogs that don't like Hoovers?" […] At the first opportunity place the Hoover in the area where your dog is lying calmly, and since it is normally the noise that sends it into those fits of anger, it should be unconcerned with a silent machine. Continue to place the Hoover in those areas that your pet is relaxing until it is familiar with the Hoover being in such close proximity. […] By continuing to distract your pet each time the Hoover is switched on but stationary, you should be able to move it a little closer without causing your pet any alarm.

2006, William Houston, Party Tricks for Dogs, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN:

And the brooms lined up behind the buckets, and the dusters, dustpans, cloths and brushes, feather dusters and sweepers all lined up bravely to do battle with the thousand upright Hoovers. The Hoovers charged, engines roaring and bags fully inflated.

2011, Terry Jones, Evil Machines, Clerkenwell, London: Unbound, →ISBN:

Vacuuming the house is a very quick way of sprucing it up simply because you can use the hoover to push everything out of the way. Cleaning an average-size room is also the exercise equivalent of ten minutes on the Nordic Skier, while changing the hoover bag is the mental equivalent of doing a Rubik's cube in a dust storm.

2014, Guy Browning, How to Be Normal: A Guide for the Perplexed, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.


hoover

en-verb

hoover (third-person singular simple present hoovers, present participle hoovering, simple past and past participle hoovered)

hoovers (present singular third-person)
hoovering (participle present)
hoovered (participle past)
hoovered (past)

I need to hoover this room.

This time Robbie was dreaming about Mr Spatchley's ducks. They had all come alive and were flying around the office whilst Robbie desperately tried to hoover the floor. There were ducks everywhere, on the desk and mantelpiece and padding around on the floor, knocking things over and quacking indignantly.

2000, Tanya David, Dennis Pepper, comp., “Dogends”, in The New Young Oxford Book of Ghost Stories, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 30–31:

In the freshly hoovered living room of her house in Wokingham, Thelma Dawnton was distinctly miffed.

2006, Stella Rimington, Secret Asset, London: Hutchinson, ISBN 978-0-09-180024-6; republished New York, N.Y.: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4000-7982-7, page 210

In honour of my visit, he'd gotten rid of 'most' of the cobwebs, and washed and hoovered the walls next to the bed. Hoovered the walls? What sort of creatures were living in the gaps in the stone that would need to be hoovered out?

2009, Ariel Leve, The Cassandra Chronicles, London: Portobello, →ISBN:

After I'd eaten my dinner on Saturday, Mum said I could start earning some money by hoovering the lounge. She got the hoover out, plugged it in and said that she would come and inspect the carpet after she had finished clearing the dinner things away. […] I had started off hoovering the carpet, but after about twelve pushes I got a bit bored.

2015, Kes Gray, Daisy and the Trouble with Piggy Banks, London: Red Fox, →ISBN:

(transitive, intransitive, British, Ireland) To clean (a room, etc.) with a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.

My husband is upstairs, hoovering.

[…] she was always in trouble for not hoovering behind the bed picked up what I could of it still there after he hoovered […]

2001, Ali Smith, Hotel World, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN:

A woman from a funding agency visited the station for a meeting early one morning, and when she arrived I was doing the hoovering. My colleague introduced us and we chatted for a bit. Then she asked me what my job was and I told her 'station manager'. She looked really puzzled, and asked 'so why are you doing the hoovering?' I answered, 'because the floor was dirty.'

2005, Ally Fogg, Phil Korbel, Cathy Brooks, Steve Lee, “Money and Monitoring”, in Community Radio Toolkit, Manchester: Radio Regen, →ISBN, page 78:

Up and down the wooden stairs of the house in Cambridge large balls of dust and dog hair bounced. Toby wondered whether John Lambert III, if he'd stuck around, would have hoovered. The hoover stopped and the man wound in the cord, admiring his handiwork. The silence pounded against Toby's eardrums. It seemed that real men hoovered.

2007, Olivia Liberty, Falling, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN:

(intransitive, British, Ireland) To use a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.


frappuccino

en-noun

frappuccino (plural frappuccinos or (rare) frappuccini)

frappuccinos (plural)
frappuccini (plural rare)

French: frappuccino

Spanish: frappuccino

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Blend of frappe + cappuccino.
Genericization of Frappuccino.
From a Starbucks tradename (Frappuccino), from frappe (“a sort of milkshake”) and cappuccino.


lucifer

→ Dutch: lucifer

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Originally a brand name for matches made by Samuel Jones from 1830, soon used generically for self-igniting matches of any brand. From Latin lucifer (“bringer of light”).

1915, George Asaf, song Pack up your Troubles
While you’ve a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, boys, that’s the style.

(British, archaic) A self-igniting match, i.e. one which could be lit by striking on any surface (as opposed to safety matches which only light against the material on the side of the box).


cupcake

→ Cebuano: kapkeyk

→ Dutch: cupcake

→ Finnish: kuppikakku (calque)

→ German: Cupcake

→ Hebrew: קאפקייק (kápkeik)

→ Japanese: カップケーキ (kappukēki)

→ Korean: 컵케이크 (keopkeikeu)

→ Lao: ກັຜເຄ້ກ (kap khēk)

→ Portuguese: cupcake

→ Russian: капке́йк (kapkéjk)

→ Spanish: cupcake

→ Thai: คัพเค้ก (káp-kéek)

A small cake baked in a usually paper container shaped like a cup, often with icing on top.


haz

Our daddy waz mad! He haz a big spaceship on toppa hiz stereo speaker. Dylan an' me wanted to 'xplore new wurlds when he waz at werk, so we klimbed up da speaker (he hatez dat, too, picky hoomin!) an' tryed to go fer a spin 'round da yew-niverse while Mommy an' Daddy waz gone.

1996 June 14, Cheryl L. Rankin, “MEOW: To boldly go were no kat haz gone...”, in rec.pets.cats (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-11:

Keith ODonnell iz n0t with0ut rezpect in the hallz of the great. He haz t0lerated y0u, but d0ez n0t have t0. He d0ez s0 becauze he iz a g00d man.

2000 August 25, BARBAZZZZ!, “PH000LZ on public dizplay (what's really going on here).”, in alt.support.attn-deficit (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-11:

He haz earnt hiz success, he's been litaraly 'battlin' to get where he iz today.

2001 February 10, Ali - B, “EXTRA UK EMINEM DATE...”, in uk.local.london (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-11:


freon

freon (countable and uncountable, plural freons)

Genericization of the Chemours trademark "Freon." According to Flood, the name was formed from freeze and the arbitrary suffix -on.

(organic chemistry) Any of several non-flammable refrigerants based on halogenated hydrocarbon including R-12, R-22, and R-23.


GED

He’d had the thought of getting his GED in the back of his mind for a while.

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 138:

General Educational Development
w:General Educational Development

(US, education) Initialism of General Educational Development.


sais

'Yes,' sais I, 'what's left of me; but, good gracious,' sais I, 'you have got the 'heaves.' I hope it ain't catchin'.

1855 August, “Editor's Drawer”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume XI, number LXIII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 329 & 331 Pearl Street, Franklin Square, →OCLC, page 425:

Well, he tak some young man un he go off to Alsaroke to steal horse, un I seet roun' un watch dat woman. She watch me. Pretty soon camp was hunt de buffalo, un I was hunt Snow-Owl's woman. Every one was excite, un dey don' tak no 'count of me. I see de woman go up leetle coulie for stray horse, un I follar her. I sais, 'How do? You come be my woman. We run off to Meestar MacDonnail's tradehouse.' […] She sais she afraid.

2000, Frederic Remington, “Sun-Down Leflare's Warm Spot”, in John D. Seelye, editor, Stories of the Old West: Tales of the Mining Camp, Cavalry Troop, & Cattle Ranch, Norman, Ok.: University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 203:

Used to represent a nonstandard pronunciation of says.


kevlar

kevlar (countable and uncountable, plural kevlars)

(uncountable) (Fabric, cordage, etc made of) aramid fiber, an exceptionally strong, light, man-made fibre used to strengthen cables and sheet materials, e.g. in stab-resistant vests.

(countable, US, slang, military) A piece of personal protective equipment made from Kevlar, such as a helmet or a vest.


kaffir

kaffir (countable and uncountable, plural kaffirs)

Ultimately from Arabic كَفَّار (kaffār, “infidel”) or كَافِر (kāfir, “unbeliever”), both from كَفَرَ (kafara, “to cover, to hide”); in some (especially early) uses, via Spanish cafre, Dutch kaffer or other European languages. Doublet of kafir.

If you ask a Kaffir why he does so-and-so, he will answer—"How can I tell? It has always been done by our forefathers."

I once heard him say to the gardener, 'Come along, son.' His wife scolded him saying, 'He's not son, don't call him son, he's a kaffir.'

1971, Naboth Mokgatle, The Autobiography of an Unknown South African:

"… and today here a white man is calling me a kaffir. This term that I absolutely resented." And that, says Nofomela, is his political motive.

Monkey see, monkey do ... which in this case refers to the baboons in Rhodesia - proves just how vulnerable the whities are in the hands of the kaffirs.

2000 April 9, Squirrel, “SA Silence on Mugabe's actions”, in soc.culture.south-africa (Usenet):

(countable, South Africa, Rhodesia, ethnic slur, offensive, derogatory) A black person.


-stan

From Classical Persian ـستان (-istān), from Middle Persian -stʾn' (-estān), from Old Persian 𐎿𐎫𐎠𐎴 (s-t-a-n /stāna/), from Proto-Iranian *stáHnam, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *stʰáHnam, from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).
Compare Avestan 𐬯𐬙𐬁𐬥𐬀 (stāna), Sanskrit स्थान (sthā́na), Russian стан (stan) (< Proto-Slavic *stanъ), English stay, stand, state.

der

London + -i- + -stan → Londonistan

Dearborn + -i- + -stan → Dearbornistan

Sweden + -i- + -stan → Swedistan

Middle Easterner
Middle Easterner#English

(derogatory, ethnic slur) Used after European and American place names to emphasize that there are many Middle Easterners or Muslims there.

-स्तान

connected with diacritic -i- after consonants


kafir

en-noun

kafir (countable and uncountable, plural kuffar or kafirs)

Borrowed from Arabic كَافِر (kāfir, “denier, unbeliever”). Doublet of kaffir.

bor

In his sermon, Amir Hamza espoused extremist and segregationist views. He inferred that non-Muslims are “kafir” (infidels).

2024 August 21, “Investigation Into Bangladeshi Preacher Amir Hamza’s Sermon in Singapore on 9 August 2024”, in Ministry of Home Affairs (Singapore):

(Islam, countable, offensive, religious slur, politics) A disbeliever, a denier: someone who rejects or disbelieves in Allah or the tenets of Islam; or more broadly any non-Muslim.


hunky

From the older *hunk, probably alteration of Hungarian + -ie/-y. Compare bohunk and honky / honkey.

"All hunkies and wops, and no wonder there was seven hundred and fifty of them."

He made hunkies and cut ice-cream sandwiches.

1940, Unemployment Compensation Interpretation Service: Benefit series, page 183:

The night before I had let a hunky called Big John have a dollar's worth of chips in the poker game […]

1952, Chester Himes, Cast the First Stone, page 66:

He said, "I'm going to buy this building and turn this into a Nigger bar. I'm going to bar all you fucking hunkies."

1969, Robert Beck (Iceberg Slim), Trick Baby, page 149

On the negative side, a hunky was culturally schizophrenic, an inhabitant of crowded and ill-kept rooms and whose clothing was in poor taste, an alcoholic, intrinsically dull and stupid, an offspring of domineering parents, […]

1994, Josephine Wtulich, American Xenophobia and the Slav Immigrant: A Living Legacy of Mind and Spirit:

Like blacks, who were the only ethnic group below them on the social scale, Eastern Europeans, contemptuously labelled ‘hunkies’, were dismissed as incapable and untrustworthy.

2009, Victor Bockris, Warhol: The Biography, page 20:

(US, slang, now uncommon, ethnic slur) A Hungarian or other eastern European, e.g. a Romanian or a Slav. (Sometimes applied (like honky) to any white person.)


jeet

Clipping of pajeet (“an Indian”), the second part of which is derived from Hindi जीत (jīt, “victory, win”). Sense 2 likely stems from the fact Indian posters tended to shill low circulation crypto coins (or "shitcoins") in order to get anons on 4chan's /biz/ board to buy into them, only for the scammer to sell off at the first hint the coin was going for a downturn.

So unless Asian chicks secretly date jeets somewhere no one ever fucking notices them, it just ain't happening. Always white dudes or other asian dudes.

2024 February 4, u/fourthwallcrisis, “Anon is asianmasculinity sub user”, in Reddit, r/4chan, archived from the original on 2024-09-08:

Every job opening has 100s of jeets flooding applications so good luck getting your resume looked at. The tech industry(and especially tech depts in non-tech companies) is mutilating itself to reduce costs, and not even by that much because they could accomplish more with less people if they just hired westerners instead of jeets. The era of easy job hunting is tech is over.

2024 July 31, u/SituatiornIndividjul, “The white collar job market feels like it has been unbelievably decimated.”, in Reddit, r/redscarepod, archived from the original on 2024-09-08:

No self respecting white woman would ever marry a jeet

2024 August 31, @JamesPGoddard90, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-09-08:

Decided to give jeets a break and buy some Indian cuisine for the family.

2024 September 1, @hyperboreanakl, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-09-08:

(Internet slang, 4chan, offensive, ethnic slur) An Indian.


NOS

en-noun

NOS (countable and uncountable, plural NOSes)


coconut

coconut (countable and uncountable, plural coconuts)

→ Japanese: ココナッツ (kokonattsu)

From coco + nut. In reference to assimilated Hispanic or Black people, derived from the fruit's exotic origins and the slur that they are "brown on the outside, white on the inside". In reference to Polynesians, from the ubiquity of coconut palms in the area.

that accounts for the milk in the coconut

After that I was regarded as comic. I became a ‘coconut’—someone brown on the outside, white on the inside. I was the bleached academic—more white than the anglo professors. In my classes several students glared at me, clearly seeing in me the person they feared ever becoming. Who was I, after all, but some comic Queequeg, holding close to my breast a reliquary containing the white powder of a dead European civilization?

1982, Richard Rodriguez, “Profession”, in Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 162:

(US, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Hispanic or other dark-skinned person considered to have overly assimilated to white culture, a race traitor.

Your mum is a white whore, you coconut.

2016 June 8, “Containment”, in Cleverman, episode 2, spoken by Waruu West [speaking to half-brother Koen West]:

(South Africa, Australia, derogatory, ethnic slur) A black person considered to have overly assimilated to white culture, a black race traitor.

(New Zealand, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Pacific islander.


smartass

(mildly vulgar) Synonym of know-it-all, an obnoxious clever person or a person making obnoxious efforts to seem clever.


FedEx

⇒ Translingual: Fedexia

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Blend of federal + express; abbreviated from the company’s former name, Federal Express.

(business) FedEx Corporation, a package express company.


FedEx

en-verb

FedEx (third-person singular simple present FedExes, present participle FedExing, simple past and past participle FedExed)

FedExes (present singular third-person)
FedExing (participle present)
FedExed (participle past)
FedExed (past)

Has he considered disconnecting his modem and Fedexing it to himself overnight, as some digital addicts say they have done?

2011 March 10, Jim Holt, London Review of Books, page 11:

(transitive) To send a package or letter by FedEx, or a competitor.


Ouija

en-noun

Ouija (countable and uncountable, plural Ouijas)

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

The popular belief that the word came from French oui (“yes”) + German ja (“yes”) is a misconception. The name is taken from a word spelled out on the board when it was asked to name itself by Helen Peters, sister-in-law of Kennard Company investor Elijah Bond. It is noted in personal letters that Ouija was the name of a woman in a painting above her head at the time, who it is speculated may have in fact been Ouida.

(countable) A board, having letters of the alphabet and the words yes and no; used with a planchette during a seance to "communicate" with spirits.

وْيْجَا

a board with letters of the alphabet and "yes" and "no"


sweetie

desc

→ Kashubian: switus (Canada, United States)

"But... Do you feel better now?" "Much better, sweetie, thank you. Now I get to be a girl everyday."^([sic])

2022 April 8, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 1493 - Everyday:

(often as a term of address) A person who is much loved.


bhoy

(West Coast Scottish, Ireland) Eye dialect spelling of boy.


fibreglass

en-noun

fibreglass (usually uncountable, plural fibreglasses)

en:fibreglass composite material, elliptically

(ellipsis) A composite material made from fine fibres of spun glass held together with resin.


deep-freeze

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deep-freeze

en-verb

deep-freeze (third-person singular simple present deep-freezes, present participle deep-freezing, simple past deep-froze or (nonstandard) deep-freezed, past participle deep-frozen or (nonstandard) deep-freezed)

deep-freezes (present singular third-person)
deep-freezing (participle present)
deep-froze (past)
deep-freezed (nonstandard past)
deep-frozen (participle past)
deep-freezed (nonstandard participle past)

(transitive) To freeze at very low temperatures.


mick

en-adj

mick (comparative more mick, superlative most mick)

more mick (comparative)
most mick (superlative)

Geology is so mick - half the jocks are in it.


buttercup

When she touched my hand, what a chill I got
Her lips are like a volcano that's hot
I'm proud to say that she's my buttercup.
I'm in love - I'm all shook up.

1957, “All Shook Up”, Otis Blackwell, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley:

Listen, buttercup, you're damned good in bed. They don't come any better, but I'm really not interested in playing second fiddle to your camera or your young lovers.

1987, Joyce Brandon, Lady and the Lawman, page 346:


gweilo

From Cantonese 鬼佬 (gwai² lou²), from 鬼 (gwai², “ghost”) + 佬 (lou², “guy, man”).

She had ruffled the bed and laid a frilly nightdress on the floor because so far as the block was concerned Phoebe was the half-kwailo bastard who whored with the fat foreign devil.

1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 179:

(colloquial, ethnic slur) A white person in China, (particularly) a man; a ‘foreign devil’.


reptilian

From reptile + -ian, replacing earlier reptilious and adjectival reptile.

(figuratively) A reptilian person, especially (ethnic slur) a Jew.


Orimulsion

Originally a trade name, from Orinoco and emulsion.

An emulsion of bitumen in water, used as an industrial fuel.


Spansule

Blend of span + capsule, originally a proprietary name.

1971: Huge white spansules. I went into the men's room to eat mine. — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Harper Perennial 2005, p. 66)

(medicine) A capsule designed to release drugs at a steady rate over a period of hours; a sustained-release capsule.


nog

(offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) A dark-skinned person; nig-nog.

(Australia, dated, ethnic slur) A Vietnamese person.


terylene

en-noun

terylene (countable and uncountable, plural terylenes)

From Terylene, originated as a trademark.

I saw myself smart and clean in a white blouse and dark-red pleated terylene skirt, with blazer and gloves and a hat.

1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 268:

polyethylene terephthalate
polyethylene terephthalate

A polymer, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), used for making thread and cloth.


buddy

First appears c. 1788, in the writings of Charles Dibdin, of uncertain origin. Possibly from *bruddy, *bruthy, a child-talk alteration of brother. Alternatively, perhaps from British colloquial butty (“companion”), also the form of an older dialect term meaning workmate, associated with coal mining. Itself believed derived from 1530 as booty fellow, a partner with whom one shares booty or loot. Alternatively, compare Scots buddo, bodda (“buddy, kiddo, dear”), related to Icelandic budda (“purse"; also "short, stout person”).

unc

uncertain

cog

I found some earphones in the pocket, buddy must have been pissed.

Buddy's loaded. 'Got like three houses.

(Maritime English) A person far removed from the conversation.


jake brake

From JakeBrake, an abbreviation for the Jacobs brand name of engine braking systems.

(slang) Especially on trucks, an engine compression release braking system that opens the exhaust valves in each cylinder near the top of their compression strokes in order to slow the vehicle; an engine retarder.


Tupperware

en-noun

Tupperware (countable and uncountable, plural Tupperware or Tupperwares)

Tupperware (plural)
Tupperwares (plural)

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From Tupper + -ware. Named after American businessman Earl Tupper (1907–1983), who invented the product in 1942 and founded the company that produced it. Thus it is a genericised trademark.

named-after

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Tupperware.

A food-storage container (often plastic), or a set of such containers.


nigra

A collateral form of negro with colloquial reduction of unstressed /oʊ/, /əʊ/ to /ə/ as in fella.

She used the term nigger and its close South Carolina cognate nigra only when quoting others with disapproval.

2012, Karen Fields, Barbara J. Fields, “Authors' Note”, in Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life, Verso Books, →ISBN:

(offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.


zip code

United States Postal Service
ZIP Code
Zone Improvement Plan

From ZIP Code, a trademark of the United States Postal Service, from ZIP (“Zone Improvement Plan”), introduced 1963.

90210 was a television show popular in the 1990s about a group of high school students and their families who all lived in the zip code 90210 in Beverly Hills, California, an affluent suburb of Los Angeles.

2009, Judy Root Aulette, Judith G. Wittner, Kristin Blakely, Gendered Worlds, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 351:

(US) A postal code, especially for addresses served by the US Postal Service, consisting of a five- or nine-figure number.

For example, the foreign zip code H24 JZL is most certainly not a number.

1990, Alan Simpson, Paul Lichtman, The First Book of Lotus 1-2-3, H.W. Sams & Company, →ISBN:

Carrying the package to the stairs inside, I noticed it was addressed to Mom and me with a European zip code and stamp.

2011, Jaime Reed, Burning Emerald, Kensington Publishing Corp., →ISBN, page 46:

(Philippines) A postal code, especially for addresses served by PhilPost, consisting of a four-figure number.


taser

Jack Cover
Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle

Acronym of the science fiction story Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle. Coined in the early 1970s by the inventor Jack Cover originally as TSER, to which he later added the letter A to ease pronunciation. Genericization of the trademark Taser.

cattle prod

an electric shock device used to herd cattle

electric fence

a fixed installation electric shock barrier used to control livestock

mace

a self-defense chemical spray used to fend off attackers, similar use to personal tasers

(by extension) Any electroshock stun gun.


Cajun

An Anglicization of the Acadian French Cadien (itself an aphetic form of Acadien (“Acadian”)), reflecting the palatalization of /dj/ to /d͡ʒ/ in the Acadian dialect.

Damn Cajuns! They're all a bunch of lazy coonasses!

(ethnic slur, dated) Any uneducated poor Francophone in French Louisiana.


Segway

Brand name; according to Segway Inc., chosen for similarity to segue on notion of “a smooth transition from one place to another”, with probable influence of way.

A motorised vehicle for one person, ridden while standing, and having two wheels on one axle that balances itself using gyroscopes and tilt sensors.


hon

Shortened from honey.
The transgender slang sense derives from the supposedly abundant use of "hon" as a term of address by older male-to-female transgender people, presumably as a way to verbally affect a femininity they are otherwise perceived by some to lack (due to not passing well), and is especially associated with the cliché phrase "you look great, hon". Derogatory sense likely came about from users of 4chan's /lgbt/ board mocking the discourse on transgender forum Susan's Place.

(Southern US) A friendly term of address.

A term of endearment; Honey, sweetheart
A friendly term of address.


Pilates

Named after German physical trainer Joseph Pilates.

"Watto will spend the entire winter stretching and doing Pilates, and do a hamstring after bending down to pick up his petrol cap after dropping it filling his car at Caltex Cronulla."

2014 April 14, Matt Cleary, “What do Australia's cricketers do on holiday?”, in ESPNcricinfo, retrieved 2015-07-21:

A physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates.


muffin

→ Chinese: 瑪芬／玛芬 (mǎfēn)

→ Danish: muffin

→ Esperanto: mafino

→ Finnish: muffini, muffinssi, muffinsi

→ French: muffin

→ German: Muffin

→ Japanese: マフィン (mafin)

→ Korean: 머핀 (meopin)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: muffins

→ Polish: muffin

→ Portuguese: muffin

→ Russian: ма́ффин (máffin)

→ Swedish: muffins

→ Yiddish: מאָפֿין (mofin)

From earlier moofin, probably a diminutive of Low German Muffe ("small cake"; Muffen (plural)), from Middle Low German muffe (“small pastry”). An alternative, and phonologically less plausible theory suggests a connection to Old French (pain) moflet (“roll”, literally “soft (bread)”).

gl

"small cake"; <i class="Latn mention" lang="nds">Muffen</i> (plural)

ncog

(British) A type of flattish bun, usually cut in two horizontally, toasted and spread with butter, etc, before being eaten; an English muffin.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:muffin.

A cupcake-shaped baked good (for example of cornbread, banana bread, or a chocolate dough), sometimes glazed but typically without frosting, eaten especially for breakfast (in contrast to a cupcake, which is a dessert).

muffin

cupcake-shaped baked good, American muffin

(baseball, slang) A less talented player; one who muffs, or drops the ball.

(UK dialect, Northern England, especially Manchester) A roll, bap or cob, which may or may not be flat or toasted.

I had a charming muffin yesterday. She is engaged to be married, so don't be alarmed.

1854, Margaret Oliphant W[ilson] Oliphant, quoting Laurence Oliphant, Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant and of Alice Oliphant, His Wife, new edition, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1892, page 92:

The fair Canadians may have been too kind in accepting the name and position of "muffins" from the young Britishry; but the latter cannot say they have suffered much in consequence. A muffin is simply a lady who sits beside the male occupant of the sleigh—Sola cum solo, "and all the rest is leather and prunella."

[1865, W[illiam] Howard Russell, Canada: Its Defenses, Condition, and Resources, London: Bradbury and Evans, page 149:

A long string of two-seated sleighs, a pleasant tête-à-tête drive for many miles snugly ensconced in the buffalo robes with your "muffin" by your side, a halt at some hospitable settler's, and an impromptu dance in his barn, wTith a return journey in the crisp moonlight air, left impressions that are still vivid. ¶ The "muffin" was a social institution of those days, which may or may not have survived. Every young swain by unwritten but acknowledged law was permitted to make his choice of a partner for the season, with whom he danced exclusively, and whom he drove in his sleigh and skated with hand in hand.

1904, Arthur Griffiths, Fifty Years of Public Service, London […]: Cassel and Company, Limited, pages 52–53:

(Canada, slang, archaic) A young woman who would regularly accompany a particular man during a social season.


Squarial

(British) A flat, diamond-shaped aerial (antenna) for receiving satellite television signals; it became obsolete in the 1990s.


towelhead

(slang, ethnic slur, religious slur) A member of the Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs, and other groups that traditionally wear headdress such as a turban and keffiyeh or headscarf.


rug

Uncertain; probably of North Germanic origin; perhaps inherited via Middle English *rugge (suggested by Middle English ruggy (“hairy, shaggy, bristly”) and rugged (“hairy, shaggy, rugged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“shagginess, tuft”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwō (“long wool”), probably related to *rūhaz (“rough”), related to English rag and rough.
Cognate with dialectal Norwegian rugga (“coarse coverlet”), Swedish rugg (“rough entangled hair”), related to English rag and rough. Compare also Old English rȳhe (“rug, rough covering, blanket”).

cog

We're the motherfuckers be fightin' when the rugs [black prisoners] start wasting people around here.

1980, John Irwin, Prisons in Turmoil, page 212:

(US, slang, ethnic slur) Short for rughead.


Bible thumper

Zeal and knowledge have here a wide field ; the calm, thoughtful logician ; the cold, phlegmatic reasoner ; the cautious, pathetic pleader ; the shouting, stamping Bible thumper ; all have their mission, all have their followers and admirers...

1870, J. Ashworth, “Old Ab'.”, in Strange Tales from Humble Life, Manchester: Tubbs and Brook, page 253:

The terms "Blue Light," "Holy Joe" and "Bible Thumper" began to lose some of their venom ; religion in the army was respected.

1900 June 16, Joseph Paul, “Lord Roberts in Times of Peace”, in The Standard, volume 47, number 42, Chicago: Goodman & Dickerson, page 7:

But in spite of the antics of its Bible thumpers and its boobocracy, my father was unable to stay mad at the United States for long.

1984, Anthony West, H.G. Wells: Aspects of a Life, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, →OL, page 126:

(derogatory) A Christian fundamentalist or overzealous evangelical Christian.


redneck

Compound of red + neck. Compare rooinek. The term originally characterized farmers that had a red neck, caused by sunburn from long hours working in the fields.

Sample a look back you look and find / Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check

1989, “Fight the Power”, in Fear of a Black Planet, performed by Public Enemy:

Southern United States
Southern United States

(slang, usually derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A poor, rural, usually white, person from the Southern United States or parts of the Midwest and Northeast, especially one whose beliefs are seen as unsophisticated and backward; sometimes with additional connotations of being bigoted.

(UK, archaic, 19th and 20th centuries, religious slur) A Roman Catholic.


votator

Coined as a brand name by the Girdler Company in 1936. Perhaps related to rotate?

The Company produces dough products which are extruded from a machine called a votator. Hot cooking oil, along with flour and other ingredients, is pumped into the votator by a pressure pump.

1985, Labor Arbitration Information System, volume 2, page 303:

In the following paragraphs, the general principle of votator margarine processing (about 80% fat) is described.

1994, Frank D. Gunstone, John L. Harwood, Fred B. Padley, The Lipid Handbook, Second Edition, page 291:

The required proportions of fat and aqueous phases may be continuously stirred in a premix tank to create a loose emulsion suitable for pumping into the votator line.

2017, Ullmann's Food and Feed, 3 Volume Set, volume 2, page 836:

Margarine manufacture involves preparation of the water-in-fat emulsion, crystallization of the fat phase, and finally plasticizing in scraped surface heat exchangers (votators).

2017, Casimir C. Akoh, Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biotechnology, Fourth Edition:

A machine that cools and kneads liquid margarine etc., preparatory to packaging.


Syrette

Originally a trademark; from syringe + -ette.

A collapsible tube with a hypodermic needle containing a single dose of a medicine.


voicemail

en-noun

voicemail (countable and uncountable, plural voicemails)

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

From voice + mail, genericized trademark.

(uncountable) A computerized interactive system for storing, processing and reproducing verbal messages left through a conventional telephone network.


EpiPen

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

Originally a trademark; a marketing coinage, presumably a blend of epinephrine + pen.

Alternative form of epipen (genericized term)


baguette

Borrowed from French baguette (“stick”), from Italian bacchetta.

(ethnic slur, mildly offensive, slang) A French person, or a person of French descent.


coon

And that one looks Jewish, and that one's a coon! Who let all this riff-raff into the room?

1979, Roger Waters (lyrics and music), “In the Flesh”, in The Wall, performed by Pink Floyd:

(derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.

(Southern US, ethnic slur) A coonass; a white Acadian French person who lives in the swamps.


baby boy

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Tyrese stars as Jody, a misguided young Black man who is really just a "baby boy" finally forced to face the commitments of real life.

Says the director: "They've all been raised by women, so they're always trying to show how much of a man they are when they really are baby boys. They have nothing going for them."

2009, Craigh Barboza, John Singleton: Interviews, →ISBN, page 129:

"I have to sit in a class full of baby boys. Don't you hate baby boys?" "What're baby boys?" "Boys who don't know anything about girls," she said vaguely.

2011, Jackie Collins, DEADLY EMBRACE, →ISBN, page 207:

(derogatory) A man who is immature or infantile.


hillbilly

→ German: Hillbilly

→ Russian: хи́ллбилли (xíllbilli)

From hill + billy (“fellow”). Compare Scots chapman billie (“travelling salesman”).

cog

Thanks to the massive migration from the poorer regions of Appalachia to places like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, hillbilly values spread widely along with hillbilly people.

2017, JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, →ISBN, page 21:

(ethnic slur) A white person from the rural southern part of the United States, especially the Southeastern states.

metsäläinen

white person from the rural southern United States


damned

en-adj

damned (comparative damneder or more damned, superlative damnedest or most damned)

damneder (comparative)
more damned (comparative)
damnedest (superlative)
most damned (superlative)

damned if one does and damned if one doesn't

Damned if I know. (strong assertion that you do not know)


thermos

en-noun

thermos (plural thermoses or (rare) thermoi)

thermoses (plural)
thermoi (plural rare)

→ Dhivehi: ތަރުމޯޒު (tarumōzu)

Genericization of the trademark Thermos, from Ancient Greek θερμός (thermós, “warm”).

A bottle, flask or similar vessel having a vacuum between its inner and outer silvered walls; designed to maintain the temperature of its contents


dry ice

A genericised trademark of the DryIce Corporation of America.

Carbon dioxide frozen in the solid state, used especially as a cooling agent and for the production of fog-like special effects. It sublimes at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) at normal atmospheric pressure.

izotz lehor

carbon dioxide frozen in the solid state


simonize

en-verb

simonize (third-person singular simple present simonizes, present participle simonizing, simple past and past participle simonized)

simonizes (present singular third-person)
simonizing (participle present)
simonized (participle past)
simonized (past)

From Simoniz, a commercial polish (named after the company founder, George Simons), + -ize.

Remember those days? The way Biff used to simonize that car? The dealer refused to believe there was eighty thousand miles on it.

1949, Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman:

Night after night I had to play rummy with Dr. Lutz, and on Sundays I helped him to watch and simonize his Auburn.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 73:

(transitive) To polish to a high sheen with a wax-like substance.


adrenaline

en-noun

adrenaline (usually uncountable, plural adrenalines)

→ Catalan: adrenalina

→ Dutch: adrenaline

→ French: adrénaline

→ Spanish: adrenalina

→ Swahili: adrenalini

/əˈdɹɛnəlɪn/

From adrenal + -ine, coined by Japanese chemist Takamine Jōkichi in 1901.

coin

(biochemistry) Epinephrine, the hormone and neurotransmitter.


gramophone

[ˈɡɹæ.məˌfəʊn]

[ˈɡɹæ.məˌfoʊn]

From the trademark Gramophone, coined by German-American inventor Emile Berliner in 1887 after the invention of the first phonograph, from Ancient Greek γράμμα (grámma, “letter”) + φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”).


linoleum

en-noun

linoleum (countable and uncountable, plural linoleums)

Coined by English inventor Frederick Walton c. 1864 from Latin līnum (“flax”) + oleum (“oil”). Used as a trade name but never registered as a trademark, it was the first product whose name was ruled to be genericized.

coinage

The house seemed unfamiliar in the dark stormy light; the red and purple glass of the front door made livid bruises on the linoleum; the green chenille curtain was like a veil of seaweed.

1929, M. Barnard Eldershaw, A House Is Built, Chapter VII, Section vi:

An inexpensive waterproof covering used especially for floors, made from solidified linseed oil over a burlap or canvas backing, or from its modern replacement, polyvinyl chloride.


pp

en-noun

pp (countable and uncountable, plural pps)


Kalamazoo

Etymology of Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo, Michigan

Kalamazoo County
Kalamazoo County#English

A city, the county seat of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States.


muchacho

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

Hey there, my muchacho. How's it going?

"So you're talking about a thermonuclear explosion and adiós, muchachos." – Paul Reiser as Carter Burke in Aliens (1986)

(slang) An informal term of address, especially to a young man; similar to man, chap, dude, etc.


señorita

Borrowed from Spanish señorita. Doublet of senhorita.

I love it when you call me señorita

A young, unmarried woman in or from a Hispanophone community.

senjoriita

courtesy title for an unmarried woman in a Hispanophone country


Ali Baba

From Arabic عَلِيّ بَابَا (ʕaliyy bābā). The use of Ali Baba to designate a type of container originates from the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (see the use as proper noun below), suggesting the appearance of the oil jars in which the thieves hide in the story.

bor

عَلِيّ بَابَا

Arabic عَلِيّ بَابَا (ʕaliyy bābā)

(slang, ethnic slur, US, military) An Iraqi.


kwik

en-adj

kwik (comparative kwikker, superlative kwikkest)

kwikker (comparative)
kwikkest (superlative)


lubra

Derived from the word for wife or woman in the Nuenonne language, an Indigenous language of southern Tasmania.

At about 100 yards distant I saw a large fire and it immediaterly occurred to me that his wife was dead and that the fire was the funeral pile of his deceased wife. I asked him where his lubra was and he said lubra logerna unee (dead in the fire).

1829, George Augustus Robinson, Friendly Mission, page 61:

Mr. Foelsche's reports show how, at Port Essington, the men will barter their lubras, and everything they possess, for square gin; and, in the south, restrictions have had to be placed upon the publicans to prevent them selling drink to the few natives that remain.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 301:

We went into the house and Roy called out, “Alice, boil ’im billy, make some tea,” and a few minutes later a comely young lubra appeared, a huge teapot in one hand and a plate with a big brownie on it.

The lubras were standing up now, in a tight little circle, with their fighting sticks raised. There was another burst of argument and then first one lubra, then another struck her opponent a blow on the head.

2001, Robert Denis Whittle, One Skin For An Overlander, page 166:

As I have mentioned before, Lubra Creek derived its name from a wanton slaughter of several lubras by an enraged band of squatters whose sheep had been stolen, slaughtered and eaten by the blacks. It was usual when anything of that kind happened to band together for the squatter, and hunt for the delinquents and shoot down the first blacks they caught innocent or guilty. In the case of the Lubra Creek tragedy, it appears they could not drop across any black fellows and finding the lubras hidden in the shrub, ruthlessly shot them down.

2003, Les Hughes, Henry Mundy: A Young Australian Pioneer, page 94:

(Australia, now racially offensive, ethnic slur) A female Aboriginal Australian.


injun

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

1805–15; variant of Indian. Compare Cajun.

We'll kill ourselves an injun, and maybe two or three!

You want a problem, well I guess we got one now / I really don't know how / There's injuns over every goddamn hill

1999, “What Do You Want Me to Say?”, in Emergency & I, performed by the Dismemberment Plan:

Instead of grudgingly admitting the “Injuns” weren’t so bad after all, it actually explores the conflicted culpability of individual white Americans.

2024 February 2, Ellen E. Jones, “Beyond the pale: where are all the films about ‘whiteness’?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(US, slang, offensive) A Native American.

en:Native American name controversy#Controversial terminology


bean-eater

The sense referring to Mexicans is explained by beans being a staple of Mexican cuisine.
The sense referring to Bostonians came from a time when navy beans were a staple in Boston, especially as Boston baked beans. It is sometimes said to have originated in reference to immigrants there, but in usage it more often has referred to Boston Brahmins just as much as other Bostonians, and the assertion may well be only an ill-founded assumption.

(US, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A Mexican.


photoshop

From Adobe Photoshop, a widely-used graphics editor. This may in turn have been derived from its usage to refer to the camera room in the offset lithography process, where laid up pages could be extensively retouched before being transferred to the printing plates.


whitey

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

From white (“bright and colorless; a white-skinned person”) + -y (“forming diminutives”).

af

I can't pay no doctor bills / But whitey’s on the moon / Ten years from now I'll be payin' still / While whitey’s on the moon

1970, “Whitey on the Moon”, in Gil Scott-Heron (lyrics), Small Talk at 125th and Lenox:

She's a whitey in jeans / She's an outlaw

1970, “Outlaw”, in Outlaw, performed by Eugene McDaniels:

"Whites don't like us because they think we're niggies. And blacks don't like us because they think we're whiteys. We don't fit anywhere. That's why we've gone off alone, created a totally separate thing."

1976, New York Magazine, volume 9, number 47, page 102:

Touché, honky. So, whitey, what did you do today? Oppress a new land and make the people there Christians against their will?

1997, Dave Chappelle, “Racism Connoisseur”, in HBO Comedy Half-Hour (television production):

(especially African-American Vernacular, derogatory, ethnic slur, offensive) A white person, a person of Western European descent.


honky

Sense of “factory hand” attested from 1946. Compare hunky, bohunk.
Most likely from hunky (“Hungarian, Slav, eastern European; any white person”), an African-American vernacular shortening of Hungarian. Another possible etymon is Wolof xonq (“red, pink”), a term frequently used in African languages to describe white men.
As a term of racial abuse it was popularized by the Black Panther Party starting from 1967, who sought a rebuttal to nigger.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:honky.

(US, Canada, derogatory, ethnic slur) A white (Caucasian) person.


bobcat

From bob (short hair; with reference to its tail) + cat.

compound

In the course of a single month this year, the following news reports emanated from Florida: […]A father from East Orlando punched a bobcat in the face for attacking his daughter’s dog.

2023 March 27, Helen Lewis, “How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?”, in The Atlantic:

A North American wildcat, Lynx rufus, having tufted ears and a short tail.

чэтыушыумыш

čɛtəwušəwuməš


mother fucker

(vulgar) Alternative form of motherfucker


regarded

en-adj

regarded (comparative more regarded, superlative most regarded)

more regarded (comparative)
most regarded (superlative)

Originated on imageboard website 4chan. Popularized on Reddit beginning around 2022 in response to increasing censorship of the words retard and retarded.

/ɹɪˈɡɑː.dəd/

/ɹɪˈɡɑɹ.dəd/

Don't listen to them they're regarded

2019 June 22, u/MichaelT359, “One of the trainers at my gym has scared me from starting leg workouts. Is it too soon?”, in Reddit, r/Fitness:

Statists are very regarded

Can the mods step up and remove these garbage "pls gib MG2 discord :)" posts? Every other post to this subreddit is literally that, and it's getting kinda regarded.

2022 November 27, u/UniqueCod69, “Go find the MG2 Discord elsewhere.”, in Reddit, r/mapleservers:

45k as a certified electrician? Where, rural Africa? I work in Indiana, get paid less than I would at most places, and still make way more than that. OP is regarded.

2022 December 29, u/enoughfuckery, “anon is an electrician”, in Reddit, r/4chan:

He makes it hard to be a bull right now. For the first and probably only time, I hope and think maybe he's right 👀. Or I'm regarded and now we will see a huge bear market.

(Internet slang, euphemistic) Filter-avoidance spelling of retarded.


buckwheat

en-noun

buckwheat (usually uncountable, plural buckwheats)

Ultimately from Middle Low German bōkwête (“beech-wheat”) (so called because of its triangular seeds, which resemble the much larger seeds of the beech nut from the beech tree, and the fact that it is used like wheat), probably via Middle Dutch boecweit, boecweite. Compare German Buchweizen.
Despite the name, buckwheat is not related to wheat, as it is not a grass.

der

(derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur, US) Curly hair of a black person.


Jell-O

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

Trademarked by Pearle Bixby Wait and named by his wife, May Wait. From gelatin and jelly, following a then relatively popular trend to add “O” to the end of products.

The store brand Jell-O is just as good and one third the price.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Jell-O.

genericized trademark
genericized trademark

(genericized trademark, by extension) Any brand of fruit flavored gelatin dessert mix.


jelly bean

A small, bean-shaped, chewy candy/sweet with a firm coating and a jelly-like center, made of sugar, flavoring, coloring and sometimes starch or other thickener, and usually sold assorted in a wide variety of flavors and bright colors.


soda water

en-noun

soda water (countable and uncountable, plural soda waters)

From sodium bicarbonate, originally a constituent of soda water.

"Scotch and soda" is a mixture of Scotch whisky and soda water.

Carbonated water, water that has carbon dioxide dissolved in it and has been stored under pressure in a bottle. Usually mixed before drinking with another beverage.


cutie

Before every visit, I'm convinced that the tourists will have used all the napkins, the pigeons will have roosted beneath the chairs, the sidewalk musicians will be playing classic rock, the servers will all be high school cuties […]

2009, Sara Roahen, Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, page 239:


jook-sing

Borrowed from Cantonese 竹升 (zuk1 sing1). See jook-sing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia.

(derogatory, ethnic slur) A Chinese person, especially a Cantonese person born in the USA or Canada, who has overly assimilated to Western culture and has little or no command of any Chinese language.

竹升

Overly assimilated Chinese living outside China


ding

(Western Australia, offensive, ethnic slur) an Italian person, specifically an Italian Australian


kiddo

Okay, kiddo, I gotta run.

(US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) A close friend; especially used as a form of address.


milady

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

Partly representing a colloquial pronunciation of my + lady, partly from French milady, from English my Lady. Compare milord.

(now chiefly historical or humorous) An English noblewoman or gentlewoman; the form of address to such a person; a lady.


pickaninny

Australian Kriol: biginini

Bajan: pickney

Bislama: pikinini

Jamaican Creole: pickney

Pijin: pikinini

Tok Pisin: pikinini

Torres Strait Creole: biginini, piknini

Probably from a Portuguese pidgin, from Portuguese pequenino (“boy, child”), noun use of pequenino (“tiny”), from pequeno (“small”). In South African uses probably partly after Afrikaans pikenien.

A small white donkey glimmered into sight, and behind it a milk cart, rattling its cans, and behind that ran a small and ragged piccaninny, a child of perhaps seven years, whose teeth were rattling so loudly they sounded like falling pebbles even across the width of the garden.

1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 134:

What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies

2002 January 10, Boris Johnson, “If Blair's so good at running the Congo, let him stay there”, in The Daily Telegraph:

The pickaninny was an imagined, subhuman black juvenile who was typically depicted outdoors, merrily accepting (or even inviting) violence. The word (alternatively spelled “picaninny” or “piccaninny”) dates to the seventeenth century, […]

2011, Robin Bernstein, Racial Innocence, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 34:

(colloquial, now offensive, ethnic slur) A black child.


greaseball

From grease + ball; possibly derived from the fact that Italians and Italian-Americans are stereotyped as having greasy or greased-up hair.

(Italian)

Do you think I wanted to walk across that stage and get my diploma and look down and see that fat greaseball sitting there? […] I got into a fraternity, too. It wasn’t one of the good ones, not with a name like Pinzetti, but a fraternity all the same.

(US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent especially, but also used pejoratively to refer to people of Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, other Mediterranean, or Latin American descent.


skype

en-verb

skype (third-person singular simple present skypes, present participle skyping or skypeing, simple past and past participle skyped)

skypes (present singular third-person)
skyping (participle present)
skypeing (participle present)
skyped (participle past)
skyped (past)

(transitive, computing) To make (a telephone call) using Skype software.

(transitive, computing) To send (a message or file) with Skype.

I'll skype you tomorrow. We can skype for a couple of hours.

While spatial mobility does cause discontinuity in social relationships and result in losing the support system from their home country (Rangaswamy 2000), yet the social ties of our participants have not dissolved as they have been able to maintain supportive networks in India through physical visits, e-mails, ‘skypeing’ to contacts in foreign places.

2013, S. Irudaya Rajan, editor, India Migration Report 2013: Social Costs of Migration, Routledge, →ISBN:

‘Where’s 007? He invited too?’ ‘He’s skypeing his mum. He’ll meet us down there.’

2015, Alan Carter, Bad Seed, Fremantle: Fremantle Press, →ISBN, page 123:

And so Andy went home, still on a caffeine high, feeling excited about life as a graduate student, and instead of skypeing with Anja or going for a beer, he went online and read up on some of the relevant particle physics.

2015, Denis O’Sullivan, The Anthropist: A Curious Tale of Parallel Monogamy, Sex, Religion, Quantum Mechanics and Volleyball, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 21:

(transitive, intransitive, computing) To contact (a person) via Skype.


goombah

From Neapolitan cumpà and Sicilian cumpari (“buddy, pal”, akin to Italian compare, Spanish compadre, from Latin compater, literally “godfather”), a word often used to refer to “family friends” or friends close enough to be considered an “aunt” or “uncle”, though not related by blood.
 To an English-speaking ear, the unaspirated stops of Southern Italian dialects (especially Neapolitan) are interpreted as voiced stops, yielding goombah. Compare South American Spanish cumpa. Doublet of compadre, compeer, and compere.

doublet

(US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent (often implies the person is connected to Italian organized crime)


dago

Alteration of diego (“Spaniard”), from Spanish Diego (common Spanish name) by law of Hobson-Jobson.

And all foreigners to him were "dem bloody dagoes"—for, according to his theory, foreigners were responsible for unemployment.

1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXVIII, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC:

(UK, Ireland, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, or other Mediterranean descent.

"Matilda's making us omelettes, that all right, Miss Tomson."
"Are they going to reek."
"Dear me, I hope not. I instructed her to leave out particularly strong ingredients."
"Just so I don't leave here smelling like a dago."

1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 19:

(US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent.


wop

From Neapolitan guappo (“dude, stud”), a greeting borrowed from Spanish guapo (“bold, handsome”). Contrary to popular belief, the term isn't an acronym of without passport or working off passage, which are backronyms derived from the term.

(UK, US, Australia, slang, offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent.


jazzercise

Blend of jazz + exercise, a trademark of the 1960s.

I don't know when the hearse is gonna be ready, and Mama has her Jazzercise on Mondays.

2004, Karin Slaughter, A Faint Cold Fear: A Novel, page 107:

Probably because when she got her period, her father had been so completely freaked out he'd left her in the bathroom, bleeding onto wadded-up toilet paper, for three hours, until Sydelle returned from her Jazzercise class with a box of sanitary napkins.

2002, Jennifer Weiner, In Her Shoes: A Novel, page 136:

Denise reports that one of the members of her Jazzercise class works for City Hospital, where the nurses also are organized.

1983, Belinda E. Puetz, Linda J. Shinn, Networking for Nurses: Intra and Interprofessional Relations, page 148:

A form of aerobic exercise based on jazz dance.


Silastic

Blend of silicone + plastic. Originally a brand name.

A type of flexible, inert silicone rubber, used especially in prosthetic medicine to make devices such as shunts to control hydrocephalus, artificial heart valves and breast implants.


Rolodex

Blend of rolling + index; a brand name, originally part of a range including other items such as the Autodex and Clipodex.


't

He could not miſſe't.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 6, column 2:

Then marke th’inducement. Thus it came; giue heede too’t:

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], page 217, column 1:

(archaic or eye dialect) Contraction of it.

What was all that about?
Well, like all women, she's shoe-mad.
't’s a bit sexist, isn't it?
Do you know one woman who isn't obsessed with shoes?
No, but I only know one woman. And she just left the room shouting "THE SHOES!"

2006 February 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, season 1, episode 2:


white bread

en-noun

white bread (usually uncountable, plural white breads)

Teyshawn wanted to yell whitebreads did it—fucking whitebreads.

2006, Michael Soltys, The Grass Is Green, section 296:

evelyn. Fuck you, white bread.
vincent. Oh, I'm white?
evelyn. You don't act black.
vincent. (smiling) And yet, people still treat me like I'm black.

2011, Kathryn Grant, The Good Counselor, act I, scene ii:

(US, ethnic slur, uncommon) A white person, a person of European descent, a person who 'acts white'.


white bread

en-adj

white bread (comparative more white bread, superlative most white bread)

more white bread (comparative)
most white bread (superlative)

[Rudy] Giuliani is hedging a bit, but he's not the white-bread cop so many blacks expect him to be.

1993 November 15, Eric Pooley, “Can Giuliani Pull It Together?”, in New York, volume 26, number 45, page 53:

(US ethnic slur) Of or relating to white people.


hottie

From hot + -ie. Sense “stolen vehicle” perhaps from hot-wired.

You guys are pathetic. I'm gonna find myself a little hottie.

1999, Adam Herz, directed by Paul Weitz, American Pie, spoken by Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott):

Junior public servants in the Department of Infrastructure and Transport’s graduate program allegedly compiled a “hotties list” which rated female colleagues’ attractiveness.

2023 October 23, Elias Visontay, “Junior public servants allegedly made ‘hotties list’ that ranked female colleagues, Senate hears”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(slang, originally Australia) A physically or sexually attractive person.


werk

en-verb

werk (third-person singular simple present werks, present participle werking, simple past and past participle werked)

werks (present singular third-person)
werking (participle present)
werked (participle past)
werked (past)

The LGBT slang usage is very recent and in essence an orthographical variant. It is independent from the far older and long-obsolete alternative form which derived directly from Middle English werk.

Werk it, bitch!

(obsolete except as LGBTQ slang and eye dialect) Alternative form of work


lilo

From the name of the company which made rubberised canvas air-mattresses from the 1940s to the 1970s under the trademark name "Li-Lo" (a sensational spelling of lie low).


giaour

Borrowed from French giaour, from Ottoman Turkish كاور (gâvur), from Classical Persian گَاوُر (gāwur), a variant of گَبْر (gabr, “infidel”); see there for more. Doublet of Gheber and Gueber.

And far beyond the Moslem's power / Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour.

1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, London: John Murray, page 10:

We men are not a race of freebooters or giaours; not when our argosies are prey and food to the evil fish-of-metal whose lair is a German U-boat.

I shudder in delight when I think of two-hundred-year-old books, dating back to the time of Tamerlane, volumes for which acquisitive giaours gleefully relinquish gold pieces and which they carry all the way back to their own countries[…].

2001, Orhan Pamuk, translated by Erdağ M. Göknar, My Name Is Red:

Byron’s tale called The Giaour is supposed to be told by a Turkish fisherman who had been employed all the day in the gulf of Ægi’na, and landed his boat at night-fall on the Piræus, now called the harbor of Port Leonê.[…]The tale is this: Leilah, the beautiful concubine of the Caliph Hasson^([sic]), falls in love with a giaour, flees from the seraglio, is overtaken by an emir, put to death, and cast into the sea. The giaour cleaves Hassan’s skull, flees for his life, and becomes a monk.

2004, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, “The Giaour”, in Character Sketches Of Romance, Fiction And The Drama, volume 2, page 85:

(religious slur) A non-Muslim, especially a Christian, an infidel; especially as used by Turkish people with particular reference to Christians such as Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, Serbs and Assyrians.


twinkie

Genericization of the trademark Twinkie.

This twinkie was enveloped in an oversize parka with the hood pulled so far forward that all that could be seen of his face was a frostbitten nose and a microphone.

1994, Dana Stabenow, A Cold-Blooded Business, →ISBN, page 15:

Indeed, this unexpected emergent talent could propel Barrymore to an acting orbit adjacent to that of her Gardens co-star, Jessica Lange – who, let's remember, started out herself as a big-screen twinkie, in the 1976 King Kong, as the big ape's unwilling object of affection.

2009 January 13, Rob Salem, “Pressure of Grey Gardens Gives Barrymore the Jitters”, in Toronto Star:

Tom Ford, who said he was “a twinkie” at Studio 54 in the days when Halston hung out there with Liza Minnelli, Liz Taylor, Bianca Jagger and Warhol, was also impressed with Mr. McGregor and the show.

2021 May 7, Maureen Dowd, “Ewan McGregor: Dahling, He’s Halston!”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(figurative) An actor, actress, or public figure who is considered to be no more than eye candy.


Jesus H. Christ

Unknown. Extension of Jesus Christ with a fantastical middle initial, perhaps derived from a reading of ΙΗΣ (IĒS) (sometimes ΙΗϹ, using a lunate sigma), a Greek-alphabet abbreviation for Jesus (ΙΗΣΟΥΣ) as three initials in Latin letters. See "Christogram" at Wikipedia.
The earliest use of the phrase is unknown, although according to Mark Twain (1835-1910) it was already common in the region of Hannibal, Missouri when he was a boy.

Jake: Yes! Yes! Jesus H. tap-dancing Christ, I have seen the light!

1980 June, Dan Aykroyd, John Landis, The Blues Brothers, Universal Pictures:

Stanton Boyd: Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick. First of all... Alan Stanwyk does not own one single share of stock.

1985, Andrew Bergman, Fletch, Universal Pictures:

“I’m gonna get outta their way,” he mutters, then snorts without mirth. “All I had were jacks.” We believe him, of course. What are jacks, after all, once Beelzebub and Jesus H. Christ get involved?

2004, James McManus, Positively Fifth Street:

“Jesus H. Christ on the cross,” he said. He caught my reflected gaze and held it. “How long have you known about this?”

2004, Marsha Moyer, The Last of the Honky-tonk Angels:

(potentially offensive) Jesus Christ (expression of surprise, shock, etc.)


oreo

The young woman said, "Well, actually we do have one minority student."
The young man chimed in, "Yeah, but he's an oreo."
"An oreo?" I asked. "Please define the term oreo."
"You know," the young man said. "Black on the outside, and white in the middle."

2012, Walter B.J. Mitchell, Stories I Tell My High School English Students, page 78:


neoprene

en-noun

neoprene (countable and uncountable, plural neoprenes)

US, 1930s; genericized trademark for DuPont brand of polychloroprene. neo- (“new”) + isoprene (dropping the iso-), the latter from terpene. Originally called duprene (blend of DuPont and isoprene); the “new” is because neoprene was the first mass-produced general-purpose synthetic rubber.

A synthetic rubber, a polymer of chloroprene, commonly used in wetsuits, laptop sleeves, orthopedic braces, electrical insulation, liquid and sheet-applied elastomeric membranes and flashings, car fan belts, etc.

نيوبرين

synthetic rubber, a polymer of chloroprene, used in various consumer products


kimchi

kimchi (usually uncountable, plural kimchis)

Borrowed from Korean 김치 (gimchi), ultimately composed within Korea of Chinese-derived morphemes 沉 (MC drim, “submerged, soaked”) and 菜 (MC tshojH, “vegetable”), i.e. "fermented vegetable". Doublet of kimuchi.

How did I know the kimchis were trying to smuggle the crate out of Japan?

1994, Richard Marcinko, Rogue Warrior II: Red Cell, Pocket Books, page 238:

In the United States, Germans are sometimes called "krauts" ... Koreans "kimchis," and poor white Southerners "crackers"...

2007, Pamela Goyan Kittler, Kathryn Sucher, Food and Culture, Cengage Learning, page 5:

... he doesn't know the difference between Ping-Pongs and Kimchis.

2011, Gerald M. Weinberg, Freshman Murders, Weinberg & Weinberg:

(countable, slang, ethnic slur, derogatory) A Korean person.


rooinek

From Afrikaans rooinek, from rooi (“red”) + nek (“neck”). The term refers to South Africans of British descent, who were perceived by Afrikaners to wear headgear (such as solar topees or no hat at all) which was inadequate in protecting them from sunburn, and thus caused them to have red necks. Other theories include the term being a reference to the red collars of 19th-century British military uniforms or to the red markings that British-South African farmers painted on their imported merino sheep. Compare redneck.

Again and again the surprise was effected, not by the nation of hunters, but by those rooineks whose want of cunning and of veld-craft had for so long been a subject of derision and merriment.

1900, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War, published 2011, page 470:

“Well,” said she, “if I hadn't killed more Rooineks than that, I'd be ashamed of myself.”

1904, Sabine Baring-Gould, The White Flag:

'My father was at Bronkhurst Spruit,' he continued. 'How they shot the rooineks down that day! Our men lay in the long grass, while the redcoats stood in line on the road, and they shot them like rabbits. The fools! Their guns were in the carts.'

1906, William Henry Fitchett, Ithuriel's Spear, published 2008, page 240:

That evening […] the other, quite frankly, said that these rooineks got her down, they were all the same, they thought they owned the earth they walked on.

1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 13:

I couldn't care that the ous call me rooinek and sometimes whiterat because of my hair and face. At least I am not a hairyback I tell them.

1975, Sheila Roberts, Outside Life's Feast: Short Stories, Johannesburg: Ad. Donker, →ISBN, page 27:

(South Africa, derogatory, ethnic slur) An Englishman, or a South African that speaks English as opposed to Afrikaans.


dubonnet

dubonnet (usually uncountable, plural dubonnets)

[…] greens, and blues through deep-toned dubonnets, grays, and greens.

dubonnet:

The reddish purple colour of the apéritif Dubonnet.


reffo

From refugee + -o (“diminutive suffix”).

‘It may be like this,’ he said ‘Australians are too bloody scared to be frankly unpleasant: Most of them hate the guts of reffos and other alien intruders, especially Jews and Dagos. But they like being liked and cannot resist giving help if it is needed, except, of course, if it′s the boss who needs it.[…]’

1980, Emery Barcs, Backyard of Mars: Memoirs of the “Reffo” Period in Australia, page 73:

On the top floor behind the gabled windows, it was rumored, the reffo family slept. Mishka did not know, until he began attending the regional school in Mossman at the age of six, that he was a reffo. He was born in the Daintree. His mother before him was born in Daintree. But his grandparents had arrived as refugees from a concentration camp in 1946 and the Bartoks were still a reffo family.

2007, Janette Turner Hospital, Orpheus Lost, HarperCollins, published 2010, unnumbered page:

‘There are the reffoes,’ he said loudly. ‘Been here for over a week now and hardly been out at all.[…]’

2010, Alison Booth, Stillwater Creek, published 2011, page 56:

(Australia, derogatory, ethnic slur) A refugee who has settled in Australia.


beaner

From bean + -er. Literally "a person who eats beans".
Beans are a staple of Mexican cuisine.

You're gonna work out good, Dave. I was afraid they were gonna hire another nigger or a beaner.

1999, Gregory Alan Norton, There Ain't no Justice, Just Us, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 32:

Hey bro I'm a beaner, we ain't good at math. Jeez, dawn 'ju watch TV?

2003, Roy Yelverton, “chapter 2”, in Shovelhead Red – The Drifter's Way, archived from the original on 2007-08-04:

I'm a beaner, and I'm telling you white people, that's a bullshit number right off the bat!

(US, ethnic slur, offensive, by extension) Any Hispanic or Latino person.


Allen wrench

Allen, the name of Allen Manufacturing Company, and wrench.


slant

Late Middle English, from a variant of the earlier form dialectical slent, from Old Norse or another North Germanic source, cognate with Old Norse slent, Swedish slinta (“to slip”), Norwegian slenta (“to fall on the side”), from Proto-Germanic *slintaną. Probably influenced by aslant.

kalteva lokero

depression with sloping bottom to hold watercolors

(US, ethnic slur, derogatory) A person with slanting eyes, particularly an East Asian.


spackle

en-noun

spackle (countable and uncountable, plural spackles)

From Spackle, originally a brand name, perhaps based on spachtel which is ultimately from Latin spatula.

Any powder (originally containing gypsum plaster and glue) that when mixed with water forms a plastic paste, which is used to fill cracks and holes in plaster.

plamuur

powder that when mixed with water forms a plastic paste


greenhorn

From Middle English grene horn, which is attested for “horn of a recently killed animal” and as the name of a horse. It may also have been used of young horned animals. In all cases “green” refers to the idea of “fresh, young, recent”, taken from plants and used in Middle English for all kinds of things irrespective of their colour, e.g. wounds, leather, fish, cheese (see green cheese). Figurative use for people dates from the 17th century. Compare semantically German Grünschnabel (literally “green-beak”).

cog

She lives in New Bedford, and her dad's not around much and her mum calls her boyfriend a Portagee, a fuckin' greenhorn,

1993, Common Lives, Lesbian Lives- Issues 47-49, page 37:

(chiefly Massachusetts, ethnic slur, offensive) A Portuguese person.


celluloid

en-noun

celluloid (countable and uncountable, plural celluloids)

Former trademark of Celluloid Manufacturing Company

1894 June, Antonia Dickson, W. K. L. Dickson, Edison's Invention of the Kineto-Phonograph: Account of the Invention, article in Century Magazine, Volume 48, Issue 2,
Then followed some experiments with drums, over which sheets of sensitized celluloid film were drawn, the edges being pressed into a narrow slot in the surface, similar in construction to the old tin-foil phonograph.

"And will you now, sir, take off your celluloid collar and permit me to burn it in the candle? Thank you, sir. And will you allow me to smash your spectacles for you with my hammer? Thank you."

1910, Stephen Leacock, “The Conjurer's Revenge”, in Literary Lapses:

Any of a variety of thermoplastics created from nitrocellulose and camphor, once used as photographic film.