spearchucker

From spear + chucker, in the offensive sense, alluding to a stereotype of Africans as primitive savages who use spears in hunting and war.

The other night, Jackson's on the radio asking if anybody in the area has seen two spearchuckers winging it off on foot with a pile of nigger clothes in their hands. Jesus Christ. Spearchuckers? Niggers? The guy's KKK material.

1983, Maurice Punch, Control in the Police Organization, MIT Press:

9:45 A man across the circle from me shouted, "Hey spearchuckers! Hey spearchuckers! Why don't you turn bright red! Oh!, They're not spearchuckers, they're Indians.

1991, 1990 Witness Report: Chippewa Spearfishing Season : Violence, Ineffective Law Enforcement, and Racism:

Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australian

(British, US, Australia, offensive, ethnic slur, slang) A black (African or African-American or an Aboriginal Australian) person.


craisin

Genericization of the brand name Craisin. Blend of cranberry + raisin

But the craisins I have had in the past, seem to have additional sugar.

1995 May 12, Pete Stryjewski , “How to make craisins?”, in rec.food.cooking (Usenet):

Then I threw a craisin (sweetened dried cranberry) in my mouth and it flew to the back of my throat and stuck there, choking me....

1997 April 3, Kristen Mahan-Moutaw , “Bad Moods”, in bit.listserv.cinema-l (Usenet):

I was giving him craisins and he started to stick his head in the bag looking for more.

2002 March 12, pinktrixrabbit@aol.comnospam, “Mr. Craisin Head”, in alt.pets.rabbits (Usenet):

c. 2004, Judith Moffett, "The Bear's Baby", in Gardner Dozois, ed., The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection, 2004, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 156,
Denny passed the remaining hours of daylight eating a sandwich and a packet of craisins, […]


transwell

From trans- + well, originally from the Transwell brand of inserts.

In one experiment, Pneumocystis was inoculated into transwells and treated according to the cultivation protocol for 56 days (Table 4).

2005, Melanie T. Cushion, Peter D. Walzer, Pneumocystis Pneumonia, page 655:

(medicine, microbiology) A membrane insert used for cell cultures, between agar wells.


beaverboard

en-noun

beaverboard (usually uncountable, plural beaverboards)

From beaver + board, probably from Beaver Manufacturing Company, probably from Beaver Falls (“hamlet in New York”). Originally a trademark.

1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey, 1991 LB Books edition, page 176,
Instead, he turned around and deliberately faced a sheet of what had once been snow-white beaverboard that was nailed uncompromisingly to the back of the door.

A form of fiberboard made of wood pulp compressed into sheets.


troon

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *terh₂-der.
Proto-Italic *trānts
Latin trāns
Latin trans-bor.
English trans-
Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁-
Proto-Indo-European *-os
Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os
Latin genus
Old French gendrebor.
Middle English gendre
English gender
English transgenderblend.
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *-ōm
Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm
Proto-Indo-European *-ō
Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ
Proto-Germanic *gumô
Proto-West Germanic *gumō
Old English guma
Middle English gone?
English gooney
English goonblend.
English troon
Blend of transgender + goon (“member of Something Awful”). Coined in the comedy website and internet forum Something Awful in the late 2000s.

etymon

transgender>having a gender different from one's assigned sex

blend

goon<t:member of Something Awful><id:member of Something Awful>

Coordinate term: pooner

Good Woke Boys pretending like they didn't obsessively post "troons are mentally ill" for 5 years is my favorite* part of twitter

2016 September 19, @uchimatador, Twitter, archived from the original on 2023-05-29:

When the troons speak about ‘gender neutral spaces’ ALWAYS maintain they are promoting unisex spaces.

2020 August 29, @fifyfomum, Twitter, archived from the original on 2020-08-29:

how do I wear skirts without coming off like a troon twitter no-fashion-sense transbian

2021 October 26, @coolestrogen, Twitter, archived from the original on 2021-10-26:

(anti-LGBTQ slur, Internet slang, derogatory, offensive) A transgender person; most commonly, a trans woman.


shake and bake

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-shake and bake.wav

From the brand name Shake 'n Bake, a powdered seasoning, so called because one could put it in a plastic bag with meat, then easily season the meat by shaking.

non-commissioned officer
non-commissioned officer

(US, military, slang, historical) A non-commissioned officer with little experience, qualified through a special course.


BVDs

→ Spanish: bividí

From the initials of an early manufacturer: Bradley, Voorhees & Day (founded 1876).

The dealers apparently got a big inventory and since the war all nobody seems to be buying pajamas. Learned to sleep in their ‘BVDs’ during the war years in the armed services all these young men did.

1953, Richard Bissell, “7½ Cents”, in Atlantic, Little, Brown, page 53:

Thus, the light switched on, there was Einhorn in his BVDs, wasted arms freckled, grizzled hair afly from his face that was inclined to flatness, the shrewd curved nose and clipped mustache.

1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 5, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC, pages 64–65:

We frolicked like dolphins – Graeme and I in shorts and Bob in his B.V.D.'s – and then stretched out on the ancient waveworn shingle to let the sinking sun dry and warm us.

1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York, published 2007, page 97:

(informal, initialism) Underpants; usually, men's underpants.


pron

en-noun

pron (countable and uncountable, plural prons)

Alternative form: pr0n

(Internet, leetspeak) Filter-avoidance spelling of porn.


Bambi bucket

A collapsible bucket suspended from a helicopter performing firefighting operations and used for lifting and dumping water or fire retardant chemicals.


elon

From a trade name, presumably a shortened form of the chemical name.

(photography) Synonym of metol (“p-methylaminophenol sulfate”)


Hobson-Jobson

Hobson-Jobson (countable and uncountable, plural Hobson-Jobsons)

Derived from adapting the call Hassan! Hussein! (حَسَن حُسَيْن (ḥasan ḥusayn), a lament for the grandsons of the Prophet Muhammad) to Hobson and Jobson, a pair of comic figures popular in the nineteenth century. Note that the conventional derivation from "Ya Hassan! Ya Hussein!" is incorrect.
Coined in the linguistic sense by Yule and Burnell in their dictionary Hobson-Jobson.

‘You must be moped to death in this dull place; and next week is Hobson Jobson. Can’t you throw some dust any how, in the eyes of the cat, and meet me and Philip somewhere, and so get away to the Tamacha.’

The dusky sons of Mohammed have been having a high old time down at the British India Company’s wharves during the past few days. [. . .] It was the great week of ‘Hobson-Jobson,’ as it is known out East, or the time of the Mohurram.

1903 April 8, Queensland Figaro, Brisbane, page 23, column 2:

(Anglo-Indian, slang, obsolete, dated, derogatory, offensive, religious slur) Any Indian religious observance, especially the Muharram.


jerry

(ethnic slur) Alternative letter-case form of Jerry: a German.


pardner

A local community banking co-op, often set up as an initiative for a social group unable to get formal credit or bank accounts, notably West Indians in Britain.


Casper

Alternative spelling of Caspar. The slur denoting a white person is an allusion to Casper the Friendly Ghost. The skateboarding term is named after Bobby Boyden, a professional skateboarder who was given the nickname "Casper" as a child because of his pale skin (again in allusion to the friendly ghost).

Speed is whitey's drug, from the palefaces who cook it to the Caspers who deal it to the ofay vanilla wafers who snort or spike it.

1998, Jim Goad, The Redneck Manifesto, page 128:

(offensive, slang, ethnic slur) A white person.


hunny

Eye dialect spelling of honey. (attractive woman, or as a term of affection)


ladies and gentlemen

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ladies and gentlemen.wav

There are quays there and lamps and some squares of grass; a ladies and gentlemen, and a cinema.

1941, Joyce Cary, chapter XLIV, in Herself Surprised, page 108:

(rare and euphemistic) Public toilets: a ladies' room and a gentlemen's room.


woolly-headed

en-adj

woolly-headed (comparative more woolly-headed, superlative most woolly-headed)

more woolly-headed (comparative)
most woolly-headed (superlative)

(possibly offensive) Synonym of fuzzy-headed: characterized by vague or confused thinking, dull-witted.


iz

(Geordie) Alternative spelling of us (“me”).


nappyhead

(offensive, ethnic slur) The hair of a person of Negro/African descent.


educashun

(chiefly humorous) Eye dialect spelling of education.


sarong party girl

en-noun

sarong party girl (plural sarong party girls)

(Singapore, derogatory, ethnic slur) An Asian girl who dates a non-Asian, especially a white expatriate.


froglet

(ethnic slur) A little or insignificant French person.


licker

licker (countable and uncountable, plural lickers)


Chatty Cathy

This was the trade name of a speaking doll, 1960. (See Wikipedia's article on Chatty Cathy.) The term is not attested, but may have existed, before then.


bucko

Young lad, friend, pal (used in addressing someone).


lambchop

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


goddamned

Where's the goddamned cartridge?

(often offensive) Used as an intensifier expressing anger.


dyke

A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik and dike (“ditch”), from Old Norse díki (“ditch”). Influenced by Middle Dutch dijc (“ditch; dam”) and Middle Low German dīk (“dam”). See also
ditch.

The Galloway Dyke / In southwest Scotland there is a local style of dry stone dyke that is now recognized as 'the Galloway dyke', although when this pattern of was first developed, it was simply described as 'the sheep dyke'.

2023 February 21, Nick Aitken, Dry Stone Walling - Materials and Techniques, The Crowood Press, →ISBN:

(now chiefly Scotland) A low embankment or stone wall serving as an enclosure and boundary marker.


dyke

en-verb

dyke (third-person singular simple present dykes, present participle dyking, simple past and past participle dyked)

dykes (present singular third-person)
dyking (participle present)
dyked (participle past)
dyked (past)

(transitive, Scotland) To surround with a low dirt or stone wall.


dyke

Dyke (slang)
Green's Dictionary of Slang
dyke

Uncertain. Attested since the 1940s (in Berrey and Van den Bark’s 1942 American Thesaurus of Slang) or 30s. Semantic development from dyke (“ditch”) has been proposed, and some sources from the 1890s are said to record dyke as slang for "vulva" and hedge of the dyke as slang for "pubic hair", but Green's Dictionary of Slang says this is not found in connection to lesbianism and Dictionary.com considers a connection unlikely.
Bull dyke / bulldike is attested earlier, in reference to women since at least the 1920s (the 29 July 1892 Decatur Daily Review in Illinois mentions a woman who "won the affections of Harvey Neal, alias 'Bulldyke'", whose gender is unclear); compare dike (“noun: well-dressed man; verb: be well dressed”)), bulldyker, and bulldyking, which are all attested earlier than bare dyke, e.g. in Parke's 1906 Human Sexuality, in the speech of Philadelphians, and backcountry black Americans. Compare bulldagger, attested since around the same time and used especially by black women.
Other linguists suggested that bull dyke(r) referred to strong black women who dug dikes, or derived from bull + dick, perhaps in reference to black men. It has also been suggested dyke is a shortening of morphodyke, from morphodite, from hermaphrodite, but the derivation may go in the other direction instead, with morphodyke being a blend of morphodite with the already-extant word dyke.

(slang, usually derogatory, loosely, offensive) A non-heterosexual woman.


aqualung

→ Bulgarian: аквала́нг (akvaláng)

→ Japanese: アクアラング (akuarangu)

→ Polish: akwalung

→ Portuguese: aqualung

desctree

→ Russian: аквала́нг (akvaláng)
→ Armenian: ակվալանգ (akvalang)
→ Kazakh: акваланг (akvalañ)

Aqualung was the original name for the first open-circuit SCUBA diving equipment by Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau in 1943. From aqua- + lung.

(underwater diving) A piece of equipment consisting of an oxygen tank and breathing apparatus used by divers to allow them to breathe underwater.


chocolate face

Next morning, I interview Politician who is a genuine chocolate face, no make-up

2006, Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan:

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


Zamboni

From the surname of the inventor, Frank J. Zamboni, and his brand of such machines.
Zamboni was originally (and may still be) a trademark of Frank J. Zamboni & Co. Inc.. Its use in the general sense is an example of trademark erosion.
The surname itself is of Italian origin, as a northeastern dialectal variant (possibly Venetan) of Giambono, comprised of a reduced form of Gianni (from Giovanni (“John”)) + Bono or buono (“good”). Frank Zamboni's father originated from Arsio in Trentino, northern Italy.

trademark erosion

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Zamboni.

An ice resurfacing machine used to groom skating rinks, especially for professional use.


son of a whore

Well, mon cher monsieur l'Anglais, may I inform you that you are the son of a whore?

1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 77:

(derogatory, slang) An objectionable person.


magic marker

Genericization of the brand name Magic Marker.


quarter-pounder

From the Quarter Pounder, a hamburger sold by the fast food chain McDonald's since 1971. By surface analysis, quarter + pound + -er. Now sometimes used as a genericized trademark, although the trademark remains active in many countries.

surf

"Deal. I'm hungry. Wanna grab a little snack with me? Maybe a half a dozen quarter pounders and a couple large fries?"

2011, Tom Colburn, Shattered Window, page 88:

This recipe will make 6–8 “quarter pounders” from only one pound of hamburger. Do the math. Then all you do is BBQ, fry or broil them.

2011, Michael Turney, Son of a Sea Cook Cookbook, page 140:

I've got four quarter-pounder burgers in the grill pan,
I've micro-waved some sesame seed buns,
I've got the kettle on […]
Come back in, and my quarter-pounders are a-blazing!
I turn off the heat, and quickly remove the grill pan, […]

2014, Eugene Holod, “Rock Rampant”, in Ochre Tinge, page 102:

A range of homemade food is available including original recipe minced beef and onion pie and special quarter pounder burgers, plus steaks on request (every day except Sunday). The pub is a big supporter of armed forces charities.

2018, Campaign for Real Ale, Good Beer Guide 2019:

Here plant-based versions include crispy, fried not-chicken burgers, beyond meat quarter pounders and dirty fries.

2022, Isabel Albiston, Fionn Davenport, Marc Di Duca, Lonely Planet Great Britain:

A burger weighing approximately a quarter of a pound.


post-it note

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-post-it note.wav

A small piece of paper with an adhesive strip on one side.

ورقة لاصقة

post-it (also capitalised "Post-it" as in trademark)


plasticine

en-noun

plasticine (countable and uncountable, plural plasticines)

Models; how to make paper pulp models; salt and flour models; sand models; plasticine models; chalk and pencil models.

1909, William James Sutherland, The Teaching of Geography:

Hermione Roddice suggested we should ask Gudrun to teach her to draw and to model in clay. You know Winnie is astonishingly clever with that plasticine stuff. Hermione declares she is an artist.

Picture yourself on a train in a station / With plasticine porters with looking glass ties

1967, Lennon–McCartney (lyrics and music), “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, performed by The Beatles:


pea soup

pea soup (countable and uncountable, plural pea soups)

(countable, slang, ethnic slur) A French or French Canadian person.


sheetrock

A proprietary name (originally, and also, Sheetrock); from sheet + rock.

(uncountable) A building material comprising a sheet of gypsum sandwiched between two pieces of heavy paper, used mainly for interior walls and ceilings; drywall.


underoos

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

(plural only) A set of matching briefs and top (usually a sleeveless shirt or T-shirt) themed after a superhero or other fictional character, popular with children in the 1980s.


porch monkey

"[W]e are concerned that outright harassment such as being called nigger, jungle bunny, porch monkey, boy, son, etc., is occurring entirely too much."

1983 January 14, “Racial incidents, declining sales sour Volkswagen dream”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, page 6:

“Look Jake, you need a real partner, you know what I mean, a real white partner, not that overweight porch monkey. . . ; we whites have to stick together.”

2006, Lee Kohn, Shadows of Rage, →ISBN, page 29:

(idiomatic, offensive, ethnic slur) A lazy black person.


tootsie

From tootsy-wootsy, originally a playful or nursery name for a small foot, from childish pronunciation of foot.

And a hoofer by the name of Buck Wing was gettin' ready to shake his tootsies!

1936, Curly Howard, Three Stooges, Disorder in the Court (6:43)

Swedish massage techniques applied to your feet have reflexology effects, too, and give those tootsies the break they need.

1998, Joan Budilovsky, Eve Adamson, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Massage, Penguin, →ISBN, page 216:

2006, James W. Brann, MD, Women's Healthcare Topics.com, Surviving the Joy of Pregnancy, James Brann →ISBN
Swollen tootsies can be very uncomfortable, not to mention you may not like looking at them. Toes that look like sausages? That's attractive for babies, but you aren't looking at baby's tootsies.

Babies are fascinated with their toes. Take advantage of this interest. Join in your baby's fun. Ten Little Tootsies (to “Ten Little Indians”) One little, two little, three little tootsies.

2009, Vicki Lansky, Games Babies Play: From Birth to Twelve Months, Book Peddlers, →ISBN:

So what's a gal to do when she's rushing about town in pointy-toe stilettos with no time to rest her weary tootsies?

2010, Esther Blum, Secrets of Gorgeous: Hundreds of Ways to Live Well While Living It Up, Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 26:

Take off your shoes and give those tootsies a break!

2011, Tony Ryan, Martica Heaner, Cross-Training For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

You forgot your toe warmers this morning. ... Can't have my girl's tootsies cold." "Don't say aw again," Eve ordered, anticipating. "And never say tootsies. You're wearing badges, for God's sake

2014, J. D. Robb, Festive in Death, →ISBN:

Weymouth is the place for us to paddle our tootsies like George III, but first we need somewhere to stay.

2022 October 5, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: Reading to Southampton”, in RAIL, number 967, page 57:

(informal, archaic) A foot, especially that of a woman or child.


heeb

Most of the famous and up-and-coming performers of the day […] were heebs, and the boys had the feeling that we should all stick together and not knock the big names of "our" race.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Quit Foolin’ with That Comb”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 49:

(slang, US, outdated, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Jew.


dictaphone

Early 20th century, originally a trademarked name for a type of dictation machine, presumably from dictate and -phone.


deary

Listen, deary: I'd appreciate your not talking about my son like that.

(informal) A term of address for a female.


wifey

en-adj

wifey (comparative wifier or more wifey, superlative wifiest or most wifey)

wifier (comparative)
more wifey (comparative)
wifiest (superlative)
most wifey (superlative)

She even admits herself that she lives a dual life — one where she's always acting, trying to impress people; the other when she's around me which is more settled, the more wifey sort of thing.

1955, Robert O. Blood, Anticipating Your Marriage, Free Press, published 1955, page 65:

There was talk of having her wear a wedding ring to look more "wifey" and to have her wear an apron and adopt a stage name so she would become something of a company mascot.

1997, Cary O'Dell, Women Pioneers in Television: Biographies of Fifteen Industry Leaders, McFarland & Company, published 1997, →ISBN, page 122:

Perhaps you should be a bit more "wifey" by getting out the sewing machine and knocking something up yourself, using some sequins, M&S "hi-cut" knickers and that nice "satin effect" fabric you are so keen on - and which is very reasonably priced at John Lewis.

1998, New Statesman, volume 127, numbers 4379-4391, page 25:

But it meant more wifey duties for me: weekly visits, care packages, high-ass phone bills, and making sure he got everything he needed in there.

2012, Meesha Mink, Real Wifeys: Get Money, Touchstone, published 2012, →ISBN, page 82:

Of, befitting, pertaining to, or characteristic of a wife.


clamato

en-noun

clamato (countable and uncountable, plural clamatos)

/kləˈmɑːtəʊ/

From Clamato, a blend of clam + tomato trademarked (if not coined) by Mott's.

Howard watched his wife calmly pour herself a third glass of clamato juice.

2005, Zadie Smith, On Beauty, Penguin Books (2006), page 10:

A beverage made from clam juice and tomato juice (especially this concoction as produced by Mott's) used to make Bloody Caesar cocktails.


perspex

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Any tough, transparent plastic that is used instead of glass for windows.


polaroid

Genericization of the trademark Polaroid, owned by Polaroid Corporation.

In the simplest form of this system, applicable to many microscopes, the substage polar consists only of semicircles of polaroid orientated to give respective planes of polarisation at right angles. Polaroids over the eyepieces are orientated so extinguish the inner halves of the exit pupils.

1970, Journal of Entomology: General Entomology, volume 45, page 70:

If there is no sample in the cell, and the second polaroid is rotated until it is at right angles to the first, the observer will see no light.

1999, Ted Lister, Janet Renshaw, Understanding Chemistry for Advanced Level, page 234:

Polaroids are used as window screens to regulate the amount of light entering the room.

2010, A.K. Katiyar, Narinder Kumar, Engineering Physics - I, page 357:

A sheet of plastic embedded with microscopic crystals of herapathite or similarly acting material, so that light passing through it is polarised.


heckuva

Written form of a reduction of heck of a.

They had a heckuva row over where to spend the weekend.


Speedo

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

From the name of the swimsuit company, Speedo, which first designed and manufactured swimwear in Australia that was briefer and sleeker than most other swimwear then available.

I could tell that she was a serious swimmer, because every time I saw her at the pool she was wearing a Speedo of one design or another.

She's wearing Mom's teeny-weenie black Speedo bikini, the one Mom wears to show how fit and trim she is.

2011, Gary Ghislain, How I Stole Johnny Depp's Alien Girlfriend, page 44:

These muscle-bound hard bodies are wearing Speedo Lycra bikinis which stick to a man's body like a woman's wet T-shirt.

1999, Cheryl Rilly, Great Moments In Sex, page 227:

There were dozens of girls in there - girls on the deck in bathing suits, most of them Speedos because they were racing.

2014, Norah McClintock, #3 Dead And Gone, page 12:

Ryan and I remain unmoved, standing at the edge of the water as five Speedo-clad lifeguards rush up to us.

2016, John Early, Tales of a Modern Nomad: Monks Mushrooms and Other Misadventures, page 59:

(US) A tight-fitting swimsuit, especially commonly worn by competitive swimmers and divers. Usually implies a brief or bikini style swimsuit.


old sport

"Why not let her alone, old sport?" remarked Gatsby. "You're the one that wanted to come to town."

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 7, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC:

term of endearment
term of endearment#English


spalpeen

A late 18th-century term, from Irish spailpín.

"And they stood you before the magistrates, like a spalpeen or a tinker." / "Sure the French wouldn't bring with them barrels of coppers for the spalpeens of Connaught. It is murder and bloodshed they would bring."

1979, Thomas Flanagan, The Year of the French, New York, N.Y.: The New York Review of Books:

The men were mainly evicted farmers from Connaught and West Cork, beggared spalpeens from Carlow and Waterford; a cooper, some farriers, a horse-knacker from Kerry; a couple of Galway fishermen who had managed to sell their nets.

2002, Joseph O’Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 25:

(Ireland, ethnic slur) A poor migratory farm worker in Ireland, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person.


bohunk

Probably Bohemian + Hungarian. Compare hunk, hunky, honky.

I know you're surprised that I live in a Czech neighborhood. But my father-in-law, a smart old Jew, bought investment property in this nice safe Bohunk district.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 287:

(Canada, US, ethnic slur) An immigrant from Central Europe, Eastern Europe, or the Balkans, especially one who is regarded as vain, aggressively masculine, and socially unsophisticated.


memory stick

The first step to increasing your drive space is to add a new storage device. It can be a hard drive (IDE or SCSI), but also a USB or FireWire memory stick.

2003, Jon Hall, Paul G. Sery, Red Hat Linux Fedora For Dummies, page 343:

You might be wondering at this point what dark secrets I had locked away on my phone and memory sticks and email.

2008, Cory Doctorow, Little Brother, page 56:

To do this, you can run a script on a computer periodically to check for any attached USB disk drives or memory sticks.

2009, Steve Seguis, Windows PowerShell 2 For Dummies, unnumbered page:

(computing) A portable solid-state electronic flash memory data storage device equipped with a USB (or similarly specified) plug for direct connection to a corresponding port; a USB drive, thumb drive or pen drive.

data stick

generic portable solid-state data storage device


woz

"You woz saying," said the farmer, with slow, matter of fact, New England deliberation, "ez how you guessed you woz beguiled amongst the Injins by your Mexican partner, a pow'ful influential man, and yet you woz the only one escaped the gen'ral slarterin'.

1893, Bret Harte, Susy: A Story of the Plains:

'If she woz mine' - tapping a brick - 'I'd bash 'er 'ed in!'

1894, George Egerton, Discords, page 120:

We woz robbed, Brian.

2002, Christopher Brookmyre, Country of the Blind, →ISBN, page 343:


fatherfucker

(vulgar) A generic term of abuse, similar to motherfucker.

1991, Keith Allan, Kate Burridge, Euphemism & dysphemism: language used as shield and weapon, page 134:

(neologism, literally, vulgar) One who engages in incestuous sex with their father.

She's a total fatherfucker; all of her boyfriends have been at least twice her age.

(vulgar) A woman who engages in intercourse with men much older than herself, or who has an Electra complex.


mother-fucker

(vulgar) Alternative form of motherfucker


brotherfucker

Compound of brother + fucker, after motherfucker.

This hurts like a brotherfucker!

(vulgar) Motherfucker (generic term of abuse).


sisterfucker

Compound of sister + fucker. Calque of Hindustani بہن چود / बहनचोद (bahancod).

1999, Julie Coleman, Love, Sex, and Marriage: A Historical Thesaurus, page 180:

(literally, vulgar) One who engages in incestuous sex with their sister.


teletype

From tele- (“far, distant, telegraph”) + type (“text, typewriter”), q.v. In the United States, chiefly understood as a genericization of the Morkrum or Teletype Corporation's branded teletype machines. Doublet of telotype.

prefix

(historical) An early input/output device for mainframe computers.

مُبْرِقَة كَاتِبَة

automatically translated electric telegraph


zipperhead

1960s–1970s, zipper + head. Used by soldiers during the Korean and Vietnam Wars; multiple hypotheses exist as to the specific origin. One is that if an East Asian person were shot in the middle of the forehead with a machine gun, the head would split as if being unzipped; another, that the appearance of tire tracks on a body having been run over by a military Jeep or that of tank tracks resembled a zipper.

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

(US, military slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of East Asian descent.


f--ing

"You collect every f--ing fact there is in the world!"

1959, John Knowles, A Separate Peace, Bantam Books, published 1975, →ISBN, page 169:


kalsomine

en-noun

kalsomine (countable and uncountable, plural kalsomines)

When the policeman tried to take Gunn into custody he defended himself with a kalsomine brush to the great detriment of the officer's uniform.

1884 March 21, “Kalsomining An Officer”, in The New York Times:

1840 June 27, "Domestic" section in Preston Chronicle,
The Preston Chronicle reports that Kalsomine, invented by Miss Fanny Corbaux, has "been lately introduced to public notice"

The walls and ceiling of the little hall were lined with tongue-and-groove boards that had been, mistakenly, coated with kalsomine.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 275:


duco

From a 1920s trade name for automotive lacquer.

A green four-wheel drive, its duco iridescent in the winter sunlight like the carapace of some mythical beetle come to rest there, was parked by the side of a ripple-iron tank set back from the riverbank.

2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 35:

(Australia, automotive, colloquial) Automotive paint.


Amerikkkan

Respelling of American to incorporate KKK.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Amerikkkan.

(derogatory, slang, politics, ethnic slur) An American; generally used in depicting America or Americans as fascist or racist.


Quotron

Originally a proprietary name. From quote + -tron?

(computing, finance) A computer system or service that provides stock market quotations


Pablum

Trademark name 1932, from Latin pābulum (“fodder, food, nourishment”).

bor

Remember—Pablum is the world's first precooked vitamin and mineral enriched cereal, and doctors have prescribed it for almost twenty years.

1951 July 23, LIFE, volume 31, number 4, →ISSN, page 2:

A cereal brand for infants, made from wheat, oat and cornmeal.


dacron

en-noun

dacron (countable and uncountable, plural dacrons)

polyethylene terephthalate
polyethylene terephthalate

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


microdrive

From micro- + drive. In the sense of "miniature hard disk", originally a trademark.

One-inch disks typically held about 8 to 10 GB and microdrives were either 2 or 4 GB.

2011, Geoff Varrall, Making Telecoms Work:


Russki

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

Borrowed from Russian ру́сский (rússkij, “Russian”). First attested in 1858.

bor+

I scanned the front page. "The Russkies have put up another manned satellite."
"They have, eh? How big?"
"Several times bigger than anything we Americans have."

1960 December, Dallas McCord Reynolds, “I'm a Stranger Here Myself”, in Amazing Stories:

(usually derogatory, colloquial, ethnic slur) Russian.

маска́ль

alternative term for Russian (derogatory)

(pejorative, literally means "weasel") аққұлақ (aqqūlaq)


Polyfilla

From the trade name of a brand of spackling paste.

He writes in well filled fourteeners, with individual words used not only vitally to convey the sense but also as a kind of metrical polyfilla.

1984, Gerardus Antonius Maria Janssens, Flor Aarts, Studies in Seventeenth-century English Literature, History and Bibliography:

Kierkegaard saw clearly that faith is not a kind of epistemic Polyfilla that closes the small cracks left by reason, but a mad leap across a chasm devoid of all reason.

2013 May 6, Julian Bagginni, “I Still Love Kierkegaard”, in Aeon:

(British) A metaphorical filler to minimize or obscure defects.


creamsicle

Blend of cream + popsicle, originally a trademark of Unilever.

Any of various sweet and creamy mixed drinks.


millipore

From milli- + pore, originally a trademark.

Because of its use in cloud seeding it is important to know whether millipores can detect silver iodide.

1965, Proceedings of the International Conference on Cloud Physics, May 24 - June 1, 1965, page 124:

Calcium ions are present in this fluid. The millipores within the enamel contain this electrolyte , separated by the positive and negative poles; the cathode is the outer enamel, and the anode is the internal enamel.

1984, Lloyd Baum, Richard B. McCoy, Advanced Restorative Dentistry, page 10:

a new classification of pore sizes based on a logarithmic scale was proposed, which distinguishes between nanopores, micropores, and millipores.

2019, Ulrich S. Schubert, Nicola Hüsing, Synthesis of Inorganic Materials:

Any of several filters, made from cellulose acetate membranes, capable of removing very small particles.


tivo

en-verb

tivo (third-person singular simple present tivos, present participle tivoing, simple past and past participle tivoed)

tivos (present singular third-person)
tivoing (participle present)
tivoed (participle past)
tivoed (past)

I think I'll be out to dinner when Michael Phelps goes for the gold. Oh well – I'll just tivo it.

To digitally record (a television show).


choc ice

(UK, ethnic slur) A black person considered to have assimilated into white culture; an Oreo.


f**k

f**k (third-person singular simple present f**ks, present participle f**king or f*****g, simple past and past participle f**ked or f****d)

f**ks (present singular third-person)
f**king (participle present)
f*****g (participle present)
f**ked (participle past)
f**ked (past)
f****d (participle past)
f****d (past)

(transitive, intransitive) Censored spelling of fuck.


raisin bran

A mixture of bran flakes and raisins eaten as a breakfast cereal.


chyron

Alternative spelling of ciron (“the itch-mite (Sarcoptes scabiei), which infects the skin”).


cottonoid

en-noun

cottonoid (countable and uncountable, plural cottonoids)

(uncountable) A certain absorbent material, made primarily of cotton with some felt as well, used for various purposes during surgery.


Buddyroll

Possibly originating from Boudreaux or Budreaux, a common family name in Louisiana (US).

Hey, Buddyroll, who you looking at?

(US, slang) An aggressive informal term of address to a stranger.


Blu-Tack

en-verb

Blu-Tack (third-person singular simple present Blu-Tacks, present participle Blu-Tacking, simple past and past participle Blu-Tacked)

Blu-Tacks (present singular third-person)
Blu-Tacking (participle present)
Blu-Tacked (participle past)
Blu-Tacked (past)

The power switch wasn't seated properly, and so I blu-tacked it into place.

(British, New Zealand, Australia) To fix with Blu-Tack.


roofie

From some pronunciations of Rohypnol, a brand name of flunitrazepam.

Since 17, been countin' Ms, my bank account's on Goofy / They say Cosby gave em roofies, now who know what the truth is?

2017, “Kill Jill”, in Boomiverse, performed by Big Boi ft. Killer Mike and Jeezy:


boonga

(New Zealand, slang, ethnic slur) A person of Polynesian origin.


sweetling

Darling; sometimes used as a term of endearment.


digicam

Originally a trade name, shortening of digital camera, equivalent to digi- + cam.


moke

Unknown. In the sense of a variety performer, comes from "The Lively Moke" (or "Musical Moke"), an 1860s blackface song, dance and multi-instrumental routine popularized by Johnny Thompson, William J. "Billy" Ashcroft and others.

I don't like the Minstrel folks, and I doesn't care for the endmen's jokes;
I has no use for the musical mokes, and I don't like a circus clown […]

1904, William Jerome, When Mr. Shakespeare comes to town:

(US derogatory slang, ethnic slur, now rare) A black person.


likker

We've got tae get back wi' her, Hecky. Whit mercy we didna get fou!
 We'll no touch a drap o' that likker—
 that's hard, man, ye canna deny. . . .

1921, Robert W. Service, “The Twa Jocks”, in Ballads of a Bohemian:


addressograph

From Addressograph (“trade name”), from address + -o- + -graph. It was first produced in 1893.

The Secretary of State, upon the installation of the addressograph machines, was to reduce the temporary service.

1920, New York (State). Governor, Public Papers of Governor, page 113:

The man that we are putting on for the addressograph work is for a service that has long been needed.

1942, United States Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations, Departments of State and Justice, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies, page 72:

1961-5, Metals Engineering Quarterly
Addressograph equipment was selected. This particular addressograph application utilizes a split plate.

(historical) A device for making mailing labels, used for much of the 20th century.


gurl

Damn white gurl Thought you was A1 Yet your existence a none

2012, Krystina V, A Diva's love Affair, →ISBN, page 22:

An' Lee went closer to where the gurl was waitin'. His party follered an' I follered too.... Jest whin the moosic sthopped an' the gurl looked up—thin she seen Lee.

All gurl's good fur—jist To dust an' sweep, an' scold, An' sew on buttons what yo mus't Sewin' on last week. Wush't Iwuz a boy!

2013, Karen L. Kilcup, Angela Sorby, Over the River and Through the Wood, →ISBN:

(informal, nonstandard or eye dialect) Alternative form of girl.


Ziploc

When she get what she wants / She puts the rest on a tray / In a zip-loc bag in the freezer.

1996 September 17, John McCrea, “Italian Leather Sofa”, Fashion Nugget, Cake, Capricorn Records

I basically had all my different pieces of gear in individual Ziploc bags.

Any of a range of disposable, resealable storage bags that are fastened by a pair of interlocking plastic flanges.

密實袋

disposable, resealable storage bag fastened by a pair of interlocking flanges


Kool-Aid

Trademark, presumably from cool and -ade, influenced by aid.

(US) A sweet, non-carbonated drink made with artificial flavors.


honeybunny

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

But he was still Vinnie, crying like a big baby, golden still, and still loving his honeybunny.

"Oh, honeybunny, we need to get you to Acorna right away, doll."

2003, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Anne Scarborough, Acorna's Rebels:

A term of endearment; honey, sweetheart.


minigun

From mini- + gun, so-called because General Electric designers scaled down the rotating-barrel 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon for 7.62×51mm ammunition (in order to create a weapon with a higher and more reliable rate of fire).

You know, what I'm actually thinking- is, if the deathclaw event actually happens, will the minigun on [that] Vertibird still be a minigun, or will it be something completely different?

2019 October 24, ISP, quoting iSorrowproductions, Fallout 4 But I Randomized EVERYTHING:

A machine gun with several rotating barrels, capable of firing several thousand rounds per minute.


polyfoto

Originally Polyfoto (“a commercial venture”), from poly- and photo.

(obsolete, British, photography) One of a series of 48 photographs (similar to photo booth photos) taken using a Polyfoto camera, which used a single glass plate negative, the operator turning a handle on the side to take each exposure and also move the plate.


f**ked

en-adj

f**ked (comparative more f**ked, superlative most f**ked)

more f**ked (comparative)
most f**ked (superlative)


cellosolve

From the brand name "Cellosolve", used by Union Carbide since 1924 to market ethyl and methyl cellosolves as solvents for cellulose esters such as nitrocellulose. Blend of cellulose + dissolve

Start with a 50 per cent mixture of cellosolve and water; then go directly to pure cellosolve.

1950, Robert Matheson, Medical Entomology, →ISBN, page 598:

Specifically ethylene glycol monoethyl ether


tomayto, tomahto

George Gershwin
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Uses the American English and British English pronunciations of the word tomato. Allusion to George Gershwin's song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off": "You like tomato (/təˈmeɪtə/) and I like tomato (/təˈmɑːtə/)".

"Tomayto, tomahto," she said, and Taylor laughed. So they ended on a good note.

2009, N. B. Grace, Disney High School Musical: #1: Stories from East High Bind Up #1, Disney Press, →ISBN, page 78:

“I withheld truth, but I did not lie.” “Tomayto, tomahto.”

2014, C.E. Murphy, Shaman Rises, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 282:

“Okay, then, how about Michael?” “Tomayto, tomahto.” Kacie sighed in disappointment.

2017, Cheryl Etchison, From the Start: An American Valor Novel, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 15:

(idiomatic) Used to express two similar things being exactly the same, when they are slightly different.


chain gun

A machine gun or autocannon that uses an external power source via a continuous loop of chain.


jetway

From the trademarked Jetway, a common American manufacturer of jet bridges, from jet + way.

(US) Synonym of jet bridge: an elevated corridor connecting an airport to a plane.


cat's eye

en-noun

cat's eye (countable and uncountable, plural cats' eyes or cat's eyes)

An allusion to the way a cat's eyes will appear to glow when illuminated in the dark. In mineralogy, a calque of French œil de chat.

(countable, New Zealand) A sea snail, Lunella smaragda


honeypie

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

I did call her my honeypie.

1990, David Mamet, Shel Silverstein, Oh, Hell!: Two One-act Plays:

She said, "Honeypie, I just always figured you and that cousin of yours would be together for eternity."

A term of endearment; honey, sweetie, darling.


netbook

Blend of net + notebook, a trademark registered by Psion.

2009 March 4, The net(book) effect, “Joe Brancatelli”, in NBC News:

As the line between traditional laptop computers and smartphones blurs and new ideas like netbooks arrive, business travelers face a new series of choices about what to carry on the road.

(computing) An economical notebook computer able to access the Internet.


rockfish

rockfish (countable and uncountable, plural rockfish or rockfishes)

Yet another Rockfish goes under. ¶ Young Deejion was playin some hoop with some homies by da riva, wen de backetbaw fell in da river.

2010 August 20, Jesse, “Blacks & common sense”, in uk.current-events.terrorism (Usenet):

Three nigger teenaper sows join rockfish parade. Three nigger "teens" reportedly drowned when the stolen car they were driving careened into a pond ...

2017 February 6, Rick Mathers, “Three nigger teenaper sows join rockfish parade”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

Everyone knows niggers don't surf, they sink -- like the rockfish they are

2017 October 7, Byker, “TNB: All I'm seeing is 100% negro”, in can.politics (Usenet):

(derogatory, slang, ethnic slur, US) A black person who does not know how to swim.


tray bon

“You know,” he said thoughtfully, his mind far away from the Colinqueaus, “I think that new bloke′s a bit of tray bon. The bayonet instructors would go absolutely fanti if they heard him, wouldn′t they? He sounded as mad as a maggot.[…]”

1961, John Harris, Covenant with Death, page 205:

[…]all the clerks were waving: “Au revoir, Sally.” “Mmmm, tray bon, y′all!” She flashed the peace sign again and clattered away in her ankle-strap shoes like a crack of sunshine on a foggy day.

1974, Rex Reed, People Are Crazy Here, page 79:

Eye dialect spelling of très bon; very good; all right.


azipod

A trademark, from a blend of azimuth thruster + pod

(nautical) An azimuth thruster, an engine and ships' propeller in an underslung pod that is azimuth adjustable, to replace a fixed-azimuth propeller and rudder configuration.


hidato

A trademark, from Hebrew חידאתו (ḥidató), probably from חִידָה (ḥida, “riddle, quiz”).

A puzzle game in which the player fills in boxes with numbers, attempting to fill the grid with consecutive numbers that connect either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.


Welcome Wagon

The Welcome Wagon lady, sixty if she was a day but working at youth and vivacity (ginger hair, red lips, a sunshine-yellow dress), twinkled her eyes

2004, Ira Levin with Peter Straub, The Stepford Wives, page 3:

(US) A nationwide business which contacts new homeowners after relocation, providing them with coupons and advertisements from local businesses.

The students' solution was to create a Welcome Wagon program to cordially introduce new students to their class.

2004, Beth Doll with Steven Zucker and Katherine Brehm, Resilient Classrooms: Creating Healthy Environments for Learning, page 53:

(US) Any similar approach of institutionalised welcoming.


Discman

A trademark from disc + man, modelled on the earlier Walkman.

A Sony portable personal compact disc player product line


nig-nog

A reduplicative form of nigger that became a part of the slang lexicon of people from Maine and other parts of the United States around the middle of the 20th century. It has also been applied to any persons of color, including East Asians, but this is largely exclusive to the UK.

He'll need this in a white community – He gets "Sambo" and "Nig-nog" at school already – if he's proud of himself it will be easier for him in the long run.

1977, Barbara Tizard, Adoption: A Second Chance:

We didn't touch their area before but we ran through Brixton and you couldn't see a nig-nog on the street. Any nig-nog walked on the street was dead.

2002, Vron Ware, Les Back, Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics, and Culture:

But when she turned the corner near the park, keeping her head down so that nobody would notice her, she heard someone shout: Little wog, nig-nog!

(slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of color, especially, a black person.


novocaine

novocaine (countable and uncountable, plural novocaines)

Alternative letter-case form of Novocaine


youz

(slang, eye dialect) Alternative spelling of yous


atabrine

atabrine (usually uncountable, plural atabrines)

Discoid lesions and minor subacute involvement may be controlled by freezing with carbon dioxide or a course of atabrine.

1954 February 15, Henry E. Michelson, “The Syndrome of Lupus Erythematosus”, in Modern Medicine, volume 22, number 4, Minneapolis, Minn.: Modern Medicine Publications, Inc., page 96:


minibond

From mini- + bond. The sense "credit-linked note" derives from the brand name Minibond, under which these were marketed by Lehman Brothers prior to the fall of 2008.

The Hong Kong Association of Banks confirmed that the association has stopped buying back Lehman Brothers' minibonds as the legal risk keeps increasing.

2008 December 5, “HKAB stops minibond buybacks”, in Hong Kong Standard:

(finance, chiefly East Asia) A credit-linked note.

Failing that, consideration would have to be given this fall to a minibond to address short term needs.

2000 July 7, Barry M. Siegel, “New School Board Members Upbeat”, in Port Washington News, archived from the original on 2009-01-09:

(finance) A relatively small bond issue.


Talyrond

A sphericity-measuring device, originally a trade name from Taylor Hobson.


little brown fucking machine

little brown fucking machine (plural little brown fucking machines)

Mack soon learned that this new bit of colonialist lingo stood for "Little Brown Fucking Machine." It was more convenient to abbreviate […]

And we still have soldiers who call us "a little brown fucking machine fueled by rice.

1996, Mary John Mananzan, J Shannon Clarkson, Letty Russell, Women Resisting Violence: Spirituality for Life:

What about that little brown fucking machine? She's got a nice body, a nice attitude; she takes care of herself. I figured you'd like her.

A Little Brown Fucking Machine is not unsexed by prostituting, she is "just doing what comes naturally."

1999, Kamala Kempadoo, Sun, Sex, and Gold:

After Wes forced the split between Jeri and Captain America, he started dating her and dangling a possible dalliance with the Little Brown Fucking Machine […]

LBFM is Navy speak for Little Brown Fucking Machine. They are the bar girls sailors meet in all the ports in the Orient. The term is generic for bar girls […]

(US, navy, vulgar, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Southeast Asian woman regarded as a sex object.


coonass

See Coonass article at Wikipedia for some conjectural etymologies; influenced by coon + ass and French connasse (“fool”).


magic eye

(autostereogram): From the Magic Eye books featuring autostereograms, first released in 1993, which has now become a genericized trademark.


plexiglass

plexiglass (countable and uncountable, plural plexiglasses)

The wall and door of the compartment on the corridor side are of plexiglass, fully curtained on the inside.

1960 March, G. Freeman Allen, “Europe's most luxurious express - the "Settebello"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 141:

A new concept car from Honda — a hydrogen-powered vehicle — sat inside the walls of a just-completed plexiglass tent at the corner of Seventh and Main Streets in the heart of downtown Park City, promoting the green pleasures of its energy conservation.

2009 January 17, Michael Cieply, “The Films Are Green, but Is Sundance?”, in New York Times:

polymethyl methacrylate
polymethyl methacrylate

polymethyl methacrylate (polymer of methyl methacrylate), a tough transparent plastic used sometimes in lieu of glass.


darkie

In an intolerable sweetness, a contentment so deep that he was wistfully discontented, he saw magnolias by moonlight and heard plantation darkies crooning to the banjo.

1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 22, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC:

My Dad has taught me that in England some foolish man may call me sambo, darkie, boot or munt or nigger, even.

1964 [1957], Colin MacInnes, City of Spades, London: Penguin Books, page 22:

(dated slang, offensive, ethnic slur) Alternative spelling of darkey


nigger lover

At once he said, ‘If you're not careful, Matty dear, you'll become a proper little nigger-lover.’

1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 195:

If I am speaking about racial equality, it is because ‘kikes are nigger-lovers’.

1991, Alan Morton Dershowitz, Chutzpah, page 83:

(derogatory, ethnic slur) A white person considered excessively fond towards, protective of, or considerate to blacks, especially (historical) an abolitionist as considered to be a race traitor.


botox

Meanwhile, a survey has found one in 25 Australians would rather spend their money on botox and liposuction than private school fees.

2009 January 25, Stephen Drill, “Education costs soar”, in Herald Sun:


botox

en-verb

botox (third-person singular simple present botoxes, present participle botoxing, simple past and past participle botoxed)

botoxes (present singular third-person)
botoxing (participle present)
botoxed (participle past)
botoxed (past)


anilox

(printing) A method used to provide a measured amount of ink to a flexo printing plate, involving a hard cylinder whose surface is covered in tiny cells that capture the ink.


exetainer

Originally a registered trademark (capitalized).


Stanley knife

From a brand name owned by the US tool manufacturer formerly known as Stanley Works; from Stanley (“surname”) + knife.

Hotels expect to lose ashtrays, coat hangers and towels, for me it was Stanley knives. I didn′t mind a bit! If anyone bought a ₤35 a carpet, they were more than welcome to a 50 pence knife.

1988, Dennis Sloan, The Twenty-Third Little Varmint, published 2005, page 126:

[…]the trams floating slowly down Swanston Street, paper-sellers cutting open bundles with Stanley knives, the smell of ground coffee from the downstairs cafe,[…].

2002, Guy Rundle, “Up from the Dead”, in Peter Craven, editor, The Best Australian Essays 2002, page 187:

He gripped his Stanley knife and swung open the door almost detaching it from its hinges.

2003, Anthony Hulse, Insanity Never Sleeps, Mediaworld, UK, page 30:

Manchester′s ‘golden boys’, Joy Division, had recently been devastated by the death of their singer, Ian Curtis: that good-looking, sad young man had made a spectacular exit by carving a smile on his face with a Stanley knife before hanging himself.

2004, David Bret, Morrissey: Scandal & Passion, page 34:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A type of retractable utility knife with a replaceable blade.


styrofoam

en-noun

styrofoam (countable and uncountable, plural styrofoams)

Genericized trademark of Styrofoam, from -styr- (from polystyrene) + -o- + foam.

A while ago I read your column concerning the effects of hot tea on styrofoam cups.

1988 November 4, Cecil Adams, “The Straight Dope”, in Chicago Reader:

In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter. Their densities range from that of styrofoam to iron.

2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 2013-05-09, page 184:

Expanded polystyrene foam—commonly, although incorrectly, called Styrofoam—has been the subject of a protracted battle between New York City officials and large industry players, particularly Dart.

2018 August 9, Gerald Porter Jr., Corinne Ramey, “Industry-Backed Group Keeps Fighting Foam Ban”, in The Wall Street Journal:

Expanded polystyrene foam, such as is used in cups and packaging.


niggeress

head

niggeress (plural niggeresses, masculine nigger)

Poor thing ! why whenever I thinks of that there female niggeress, and what she went through with us, it does pain me to turn my eyes back and look on it...

1864, Henry Mayhew, German Life and Manners as Seen in Saxony at the Present Day:

Myself, I think it was an albino niggeress. She had red hair and the biggest feet you ever saw. But Bumpo was no end pleased with her...

1922, Hugh Lofting, Voyages of Doctor Dolittle:

That niggeress Joann Something is pregnant and she been locked up for nine months...

1974, Folsom Prison, Echoes off the Walls:

(dated, offensive, ethnic slur) A black woman; a negress.


fleetside

Originally a brand name of Chevrolet, from fleet + side.

That pickup truck is a fleetside because the sides of the box are flat.

A pickup truck having flat bedsides (outside quarter panels). The rear quarter panels are flat and run lengthways along the wheel-well openings. Excludes both stepside and styleside truck bed styles.


Elastoplast

From the trademarked name of one brand of sticking plasters, presumably from elastic and plaster.

Tension on the skin edges is prevented by the use of several one-half inch strips of elastoplast applied directly across the wound at right angle to the suture line.

1951 February, Charles E. Gurney, Verner V. Lindgren, “Early Care of Traumatic Wounds of the Face”, in Northwest Medicine, volume 50, number 2, Portland, Ore.: Northwest Medical Publishing Association, page 93:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A sticking plaster (adhesive bandage) or medical dressing; a band-aid.


niggerism

en-noun

niggerism (countable and uncountable, plural niggerisms)

"We represent the majority of the people in Alabama who hate niggerism, Catholicism, Judaism, and all the -isms of the whole world." So said Robert Creel of the Alabama Klu Klux Klan. He also said, "I like Barry Goldwater. He needs our help."

1964, Unnamed narrator, KKK and Goldwater:

Their black support confirmed the charge of "niggerism" and helped the Democrats turn the widespread Negrophobia to their account.

1976, William Fletcher Thompson, The History of Wisconsin:

The spot quoted a Klan official saying, "In Alabama, we hate niggerism, Catholicism, and Judaism."

(uncountable, dated, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) Political support for black people.

He loved their tricks of language, loved to pick up and feel and taste new words from their rich reservoir of niggerisms.

But as it was, not until the 1940s did the industry begin to depart significantly from the stereotypes with their "insulting niggerisms"...

1975, Daniel J Leab, From Sambo to Superspade: the Black experience in motion pictures:

(countable, dated, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) Something characteristic of niggers.


cheesehead

From cheese + head, in reference to the cheese production of these regions.

(slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A German, Dutch, or Scandinavian person.


kewpie

Diminutive of Cupid; originally a brand name.

A fat little kewpie clutching a pink heart place card stood at each cover.

1914 February 22, “Dinners, Dances, and Card Parties of the Week”, in New York Times:


babycakes

Mrs. King is delighted that there are so many Tracy Austins in professional tennis these days. She refers to them as “babycakes,” and not patronizingly.

1979 July 2, Billie Jean King, quotee, “Reflection on the Seedings Fills Pause at Wimbledon”, in The New York Times:

(US, slang) Term of endearment for a young woman.


superglue

superglue (countable and uncountable, plural superglues)

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

From super- + glue, a genericized trademark held by Super Glue Corporation.

Our love is the superglue of our commitment, so we'll get by.

1986 April 12, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 17:

A very strong and instant glue, generally cyanoacrylate.


mumsy

1923 October 2, Flora Belle Jan, Going To The Dogs, in The Collegian, Republished in 2008, Fleur Yano (editor), Collected Writings of Flora Belle Jan, Xlibris, page 36,
Such are the captions in newspapers, such compose the subjects for sermons from the pulpit, and such are the problems that are annihilating poor daddies and mumsies, not merely inch by inch, but millimeter by millimeter.

Mumsy had come over to discuss the family party, which she was giving in the form of a Christmas luncheon so the children could come to it.

1938, Margaret Ayer Barnes, Wisdom's Gate, Houghton Mifflin, page 238:

"Is this good to eat, Mumsy?" she asked. Startled at the term "Mumsy" instead of the usual "Mam," Mary Joy cringed a little inside. My child is already losing her Welshness, she mourned inwardly.

2009, Lillian M. Henry, In Bristol Fashion, AuthorHouse, page 202:


bankomat

Genericized trademark. See bank and automatic, and compare English automat and German Bankomat.

automated teller machine
automated teller machine#English

(dated) Synonym of automated teller machine


technicolor

I can stand the sight of worms / And look at microscopic germs / But technicolor pachyderms / Is really too much for me

1941, “Pink Elephants on Parade”, in Ned Washington (lyrics), Oliver Wallace (music), Dumbo:

Technicolour dreams are all I see / Technicolour dreams of you and me

1968, Anthony King (lyrics and music), “Technicolour Dreams”, in Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo, performed by Status Quo:

On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene / But yours was kitchen clean / Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home

1976, Walter Becker, Donald Fagen (lyrics and music), “Kid Charlemagne”, in The Royal Scam, performed by Steely Dan:

It's so hard to be a technicolor girl in an earth-tone world.

2007 May 2, “Letters”, in New York Times:

How could the electrochemical processes in the lump of gray matter that is our brain give rise to or, even more mysteriously, be the dazzling technicolor play of consciousness, with its transports of joy, its stabs of anguish and its stretches of mild contentment alternating with boredom?

2007 November 18, Jim Holt, “Mind of a Rock”, in New York Times:

(American spelling) Extremely or excessively colourful.

(physics) Describing something in a technicolor model, a model that is similar to the Standard Model but lacks a scalar Higgs field.


technicolor

(American spelling) A process of colour cinematography using synchronised monochrome films, each of a different colour, to produce a colour print.

quantum chromodynamics
quantum chromodynamics

(physics) A collection of theories based on quantum chromodynamics


Nixie tube

Genericized trademark, from "NIX I", abbreviation of "Numeric Indicator Experimental No. 1" with diminutive -ie.

(electronics, historical) An obsolete electronic device for displaying numerals or other information by means of glow discharge.


transgenderism

transgenderism (usually uncountable, plural transgenderisms)

/ˌtɹænzˈd͡ʒɛndəɹɪsm/

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

Let us be free to debate transgenderism without being accused of 'hate speech'.

2012 May 29, Sheila Jeffreys, The Guardian:

The dispute between radical feminism and transgenderism.

2014 August 5, Michelle Goldberg, “What is a Woman?”, in The New Yorker:

“If transgenderism is true, if men really can become women, then it’s true for everybody of all ages. If transgenderism is false ... it’s false for everybody too. And if it’s false, then ... for the good of society — and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion — then transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”

2023 March 4, Peter Wade, quoting Michael Knowles, “CPAC Speaker Calls for Transgender People to Be ‘Eradicated’”, in Rolling Stone, archived from the original on 2023-03-04:

(anti-LGBTQ slur, derogatory, offensive) A purported ideology behind transgender identities, trans activism and trans rights movements; transness as an ideology.


niggerless

Dogless, niggerless, headless, what now remains for the unhappy Signora Psyche Zenobia?

The question will be, shall we give niggers to the niggerless, or lands to the landless?

1859 (Feb. 25), Sen. Benjamin Franklin Wade, Congressional Globe, 1354 passim, in American History Told by Contemporaries: Welding of the nation, 1845-1900, edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, published 1901

The Absentee Force commutes from the ticky-tacky wonderland of Massapequa to serve their time; the others retreat, in off-duty hours, to cavernous saloons, to reminisce about "niggerless" New York ball clubs

1977, New York Affairs, volume 4, numbers 2-4, page 76:

Jason Compson, now motherless and niggerless but not Benjy-less [1933], converted the old Compson place into apartments and sold it to a local man as a boarding house, renting one apartment back in which to house Benjy […]

1988, John Kenny Crane, The Yoknapatawpha Chronicle of Gavin Stevens, page 240:

(offensive, ethnic slur) Without any negroes; without black people


hydropillar

A water tower taking the form of a single high pillar, rather than an exterior truss structure.


niggerish

en-adj

niggerish (comparative more niggerish, superlative most niggerish)

more niggerish (comparative)
most niggerish (superlative)

So when I say that my Auntie's piety was not of the niggerish kind...

[T]hey should specially avoid the fanatics who […] have temporarily changed a federal republic into a sort of niggerish monarchy or empire […]

1886, Michael Magaul, Eli Robinson McCall, No-history Versus No-war or The Great Tootle Rebellion Exposed, page 261:

She told him in her native Virginia mountain-area dialect: "That's what ah said. Ah don't like these niggerish places."

1958, “Talking About”, in Jet, volume 14, number 3, page 47:

In a voice dripping with sarcasm, Bernhard related, "Mariah's been getting a little niggerish on us... she been seeing those rap stars..."

2002, Loretta I Winters, Herman L DeBose, New faces in a changing America:

(derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur, vulgar) Like or characteristic of a nigger.


niggerish

You all seem really fucked-up, talking niggerish and all--'taken care
of' means ELIMINATION thru DEADLY MEANS! SEE its POLL @ goodbuddytoil
on YAHOO.

2006 August 22, goodbu...@gmail.com, “POLLING”, in alt.music.white-power (Usenet):

But the good news is he's gonna make us all learn Spanish and
Niggerish and I figure when we are called to arms being able to tell
the Beaners and the Nappy Power Rangers what we think so they can
understand it is a good thing.

2008 November 21, Patriot Games, “FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE GEORGE W BUSH AND REPUBLICANS-FINANCIAL CRISIS IS NOT THE DEMS FAULT!”, in alt.politics (Usenet):

One boy claims he speaks “niggerish." Whatever they are speaking I do not understand, which is good.

2015, Evelyn Uddin-Khan, The Other Side of Teaching:

African-American Vernacular English
African-American Vernacular English

(derogatory, offensive, vulgar, ethnic slur, colloquial, chiefly US) African-American Vernacular English.


strim

en-verb

strim (third-person singular simple present strims, present participle strimming, simple past and past participle strimmed)

strims (present singular third-person)
strimming (participle present)
strimmed (participle past)
strimmed (past)

Back-formation from strimmer, originally a trademark.

(British) To use a strimmer/string trimmer


strimmer

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

Blend of string + trimmer, originally a trademark in the United Kingdom.

string trimmer

(British, horticulture) Synonym of string trimmer (“a powered, hand-held garden implement that uses a rotating monofilament line to cut grass, etc., without damaging other objects”)


niggerlike

en-adj

niggerlike (comparative more niggerlike, superlative most niggerlike)

more niggerlike (comparative)
most niggerlike (superlative)

[…] now he listens to mine host as he recounts the strange absence of the preacher, pauses and combs his long red beard with his fingers, looks distrustfully, and then says, with a quaintness that disarmed suspicion, "Niggerlike! — preacher or angel, nigger will be nigger! […]

1855, Francis Colburn Adams, Our World: Or, The Slaveholder's Daughter:

(derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) Resembling or characteristic of a nigger.


niggerly

niggerly (comparative more niggerly, superlative most niggerly)

more niggerly (comparative)
most niggerly (superlative)

a nice, clean, tidy, healthy little city, with a native population neither so thoroughly niggerly, nude and nidorous as it was when my lines were cast there.

1885, James Hogg, Florence Marryat, London Society, volume 47, page 289:

And again: to be niggerly is not necessarily to be niggardly. It is niggerly for instance to single out Fannie Stearns Davis for dispraise, but it can't be called niggardly to name nobody else in the world but to praise them.

He was a wild black beast who raped my mother. […] Ever since I can remember he's been in a nigger pose of agony. He is the wilderness. He speaks niggerly groveling about wanting to touch me with his black hand.

1988, Adrienne Kennedy, Adrienne Kennedy in One Act, page 10:

(derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) Niggerlike.


sakai

From Malay sakai, Semai mensakai ("work together"), which refers to the indigenous Senoi people of Malaysia and other Orang Asli tribes. In Thailand, the word Thai ซาไก (“saagai”), used for the indigenous Maniq people, means "barbarous" or "a slave".

(slang, offensive, ethnic slur) an Orang Asli person.

The word "sakai" is defined as "orang yang di bawah perintah, orang bawahan yang boleh disuruh-suruh", which translates to "a person that is ruled or a subordinate who can be commanded".

(slang, offensive, ethnic slur) an uncultured person; a fool.


mylar

en-noun

mylar (countable and uncountable, plural mylars)

The heavy use causes the mylars to develop extensive local warping […]

1996, Rangachar Kasturi, Karl Tombre, Graphics recognition: methods and applications:

In the far infrared a self-supporting layer, such as a sheet of mylar stretched over a plane circular surface, is widely used.

2003, R A Hanel, Exploration of the solar system by infrared remote sensing:

This table provides the value of alphanumeric coded ceramic, mylar and mica capacitors […]

2007, Thomas Petruzzellis, 22 Radio and Receiver Projects for the Evil Genius:


YouTube

en-verb

YouTube (third-person singular simple present YouTubes, present participle YouTubing, simple past and past participle YouTubed)

YouTubes (present singular third-person)
YouTubing (participle present)
YouTubed (participle past)
YouTubed (past)

/ˈjʉː.tʃʉːb/

Website name, from a compound of you + tube (“North American colloquial term for television”), implying that users (you) may submit their own television (tube) content.

com+

Inquiry elicited that he was a pop singer. I YouTubed him, revealing another ghastly microphone-gripping, anguished nasal wailer.

2015 April 21, Bob Jones, “Appetite for quirky fulfilled”, in Wanganui Chronicle:

If you don't know me, YouTube me, because soon the whole world is going to know me.

2017 July 20, Sammy Guevara, Impact Wrestling:

(transitive) To search for and view on YouTube.


telepersonals

From tele- + personals, probably from a 1990s trademark.

Because I spent a lot of time alone back in LA, calling the Telepersonals had turned into a habit.

Mona, whom Marty had met through the telepersonals before rejecting her as a sex mate, told him that she'd get right on it. In fact, she ignored him.

You've probably heard of or seen personal ads in the newspaper, advertisements for telepersonals on the telephone, video dating services...

2005, Erika Bukkfalvi Hilliard, Paul Foxman, Living Fully with Shyness and Social Anxiety:

She wasn't romantically interested in me, so a few weeks later at the suggestion of a friend, I picked up the phone and tried the telepersonals.

2005, Mark Linden O'Meara, The Feeling Soul: A Roadmap to Healing and Living:

Personals (advertisements by which individuals attempt to meet) placed over a distance, as by telephone or Internet.


gweipo

From Cantonese 鬼婆 (gwai² po⁴, “foreign woman”), literally "ghost woman".

bor

(derogatory) An (older) Caucasian woman.


librul

en-adj

librul (comparative more librul, superlative most librul)

more librul (comparative)
most librul (superlative)


brah

Hey, brah, do me a favor. Don't lay your guilt trip on me. Why didn't you tell her?

Alternative spelling of bra (“brother, friend”).


lazer

He had worked on the motor and run it from city to dead city, through the lands of the idlers and roustabouts, the dreamers and lazers, […]

1977, Ray Bradbury, Long After Midnight, page 10:


old skool

old skool (comparative more old skool, superlative most old skool)

more old skool (comparative)
most old skool (superlative)

(slang, eye dialect) Alternative spelling of old school


Araucanian

(offensive, ethnic slur) A member of the Mapuche people.


Eyetie

The only danger of gas from the Eyeties was when they breathed garlic on you.

We got out to sea again, but it was not long before the Eyeties were on our track again.

1944, Richard Baxter, Stand by to surface:

The Frenchies eat 'em [small birds] and so do the Eyeties.

D'you think they're Eyeties? Supposed to be great lovers...

1986, Aidan Chambers, Dance on My Grave:

'Someone give this girl the bumps! She's getting married. Ah, the good die young. What's his name again? Francesco. An eye-tie? I move for a mistrial.

(US, British, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) An Italian.


charra

Compare the less offensive char ou, which is said to derive from Hindi अचार (acār) (Urdu اچار (acār)) and Afrikaans ou. Indians in South Africa often sold spicy pickles; the combination would simply mean "pickle guy".

The fact that you call a person a ‘coolie‘ or a ‘charra‘ or a ‘curry-muncher’ doesn't, naturally, stop you looking for bargains in his shop.

1993, Jenny Hobbs, The Sweet-smelling Jasmine:

(South Africa, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) An Indian.


shegetz

From Yiddish שייגעץ (sheygets), from Hebrew שֶׁקֶץ (šeqeṣ, “abomination”).

And where is she now, that find! Hello, Pumpkin! Making some lucky shaygets a wonderful wife out there in middle America?

1969, Philip Roth, “The Most Prevalent Form of Degradation in Erotic Life”, in Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, published 1994, page 216:

(sometimes derogatory) A gentile, a non-Jewish male.


maulana

Ultimately from Arabic مَوْلَانَا (mawlānā).
The Indian slang usage of the term for any Muslim person was derived from a stereotype, especially towards Muslims who look stereotypical (beard, robes, and skullcap).

(India, Islam, Internet slang, religious slur) A Muslim person in general, especially an extreme conservative.


portaloo

From a trademark of Portakabin Ltd, based on portable and loo.

The valleys and hillsides looked pretty chewed up by all the maneuvers, portaloos dotted the landscape, but the fauna seemed to appreciate the fact that the U.S. Army—unlike the Bavarian hunters outside the box—were shooting blanks.

2009, James Der Derian, Virtuous war: mapping the military-industrial-media-entertainment network:

On what would once have been the front lawn there is now a prefabricated hut and a portaloo.


Jesus Harold Christ

Unknown or disputed. Likely a variant of Jesus H. Christ, from the Christogram IHS, an abbreviation of Ancient Greek Ιησούς (Iēsoús) Χρῑστός (Khrīstós, “Jesus Christ”). An alternate theory speculates that Harold is a mishearing of hallowed in the Lord's Prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” A third theory is that the middle name is arbitrary, used to mark the difference between profane and sacred invocations of Jesus Christ.

Since, as I mentioned, my arse is intact, I meditate first upon the pain in my balls. Jesus Harold Christ! I wonder if Monger's got some morphine kicking about. I wouldn't put it past him.

2007, David Thewlis, The Late Hector Kipling, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN, page 304:

(US, potentially offensive) An expression of surprise, contempt, outrage, disgust, boredom, frustration.


surform

From a brand name, purportedly a blend of surface and form.

This job calls for a surform.

This job calls for a surform file.

(sometimes attributive) A tool with which one grates, rasps, planes, or shaves material, especially wood, to form its surface.


Rusky

(UK, mildly derogatory, ethnic slur) Alternative form of Russki


damn it

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

(mildly vulgar) An expression of surprise, outrage, or frustration.

bon sang

an expression of surprise, outrage, or frustration


kodak

en-verb

kodak (third-person singular simple present kodaks, present participle kodaking, simple past and past participle kodaked)

kodaks (present singular third-person)
kodaking (participle present)
kodaked (participle past)
kodaked (past)

(transitive, dated) To describe or characterise briefly and vividly.


niggerese

"He speaks Spanish, but it could be niggerese." John waited until the voices fell.

1981, Maya Angelou, The heart of a woman:

His drawl lengthened into pure Plantation Niggerese, and he winced with the pain of trying not to speak that way. He knew better, he told himself.

1992, Clay Reynolds, Franklin's crossing:

These bitches would fuck a beer bottle if it was black and it could talk some niggerese.

2004, Stanley Crouch, Don't the Moon Look Lonesome:

(slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) Any dialect spoken by black people.


wogball

From wog + ball, since the game is played more by foreigners than by those born in Australia.

In Australia soccer has gone from being dismissed as wogball as some called it to a widely supported national game

2010 June 15, Richard Aedy, “From wogball to a national game: soccer and multiculturalism”, in ABC Online:

(Australia, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) soccer


kerlix

KERLIX was originally (and may still be) a trademark of Covidien. Its use in the general sense is an example of trademark erosion.


Kardex

From the trademarked name of a particular brand of card system; an alteration of card (“data recorded on durable paper”) + -ex.

(medicine) A medical-patient information system which uses forms preprinted on durable card stock; loosely, any similar system for paper-based record-keeping.


wos

She wos real good to 'em all, she wos, ma'am.

1876, Edward Everett Hale, “Phillip Nolan's Friends; or, 'Show Your Passports!'”, in Scribner's Monthly, volume XII, number 1, page 20:


segs

(Internet slang) Filter-avoidance spelling of sex (“sexual activity”).


portacabin

From the trademark Portakabin, itself from portable cabin.

It was a standard port-a-cabin, twenty by twelve feet, with two small beds at either end, two lockers, and a table and chair between them.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 55:

At least I'm not in a portacabin. Whenever I find myself heading towards a peripheral portacabin, I experience the same visceral feeling that the French aristocrats had when they rode the tumbrels to Madame Guillotine.

2007, S.A.S.: Special Ace Supply (teacher), Quick Brown Fox Publication, →ISBN, page 11:

We have done our portacabin out with balloons, paper chains and “Support troop is One Step Beyond.” It looks all Christmassy, with the snow, it is quite good.

2009, Julian Beirne, Diary of a Sapper, Julian Beirne, →ISBN, page 298:

A prefabricated hut that is transportable, often used as an office or for storage.


visco

A kind of fuse used for consumer fireworks and to create delays between firings in firework displays.


whatchoo

"I don't care whatchoo tell 'er, fo'real," he said, scooting to the end of the piano bench.

Well, whatchoo gonna do about it, Momma?

2007, Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station:

"Whatchoo want 'em for?" "It's a surprise," he says.

2008, Carolyn Chute, The Beans of Egypt, Maine:

(eye dialect, informal) What you; what do you; what are you (mostly in questions).


thumb drive

(computing) A small electronic device used to store digital data, more portable and robust than a hard drive.


pen drive

→ Portuguese: pen-drive, pen

→ Polish: pendrive (Pseudo-Anglicism)

A trademark for flash drives owned by Phison Electronics Corporation (US).

(computing) A small electronic device used to store digital data, more portable and robust than a hard drive; a flash drive.

Phison Electronics Corporation
en:pen drive


wut

(Internet slang, nonstandard, eye dialect) What, both in its standard meaning as an interjection, but especially as a response to an outrageous or unexpected statement. This phrase became increasingly popular in the early 2000s due to internet culture.


Pampers

→ Dutch: pamper

→ Indonesian: pamper

→ German: Pampers

→ Polish: pampers

→ Romanian: pampers

→ Russian: памперс (pampers)

→ Azerbaijani: pampers

→ Armenian: պամպերս (pampers)

desc

→ Thai: แพมเพิร์ส

→ Thai: แพมเพิร์ส

→ Tagalog: pampers

→ Ukrainian: памперс (pampers)

→ Walloon: pamperse

Genericized trademark of Pampers, a brand of disposable diaper, itself from pamper.

A disposable diaper brand by Procter & Gamble (P&G).


'erb

A representation of the pronunciation of herb by a speaker whose dialect renders the word [ɜːɹb] rather than [hɜː(ɹ)b].

(pronunciation spelling or eye dialect) herb


cranapple

Blend of cranberry + apple, equivalent to cran- + apple, created as a trademark by Ocean Spray.

The box lunch always contained enough for a crew of nine: three loaves of bread, a pound of American cheese, a pound of mystery meat (usually something that resembled salami), one jar of smooth peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, two dozen small bags of airline peanuts (or, occasionally, rock-hard raisins), a dozen boxes of cranberry juice (or cranapple, crangrape, or the like), condiments, and dessert.

1999, Mark A. Hinebaugh, Flying Upside Down: True Tales of an Antarctic Pilot, page 90:

(attributive) A blend of cranberry and apple.


dooty

en-noun

dooty (countable and uncountable, plural dooties)

Glad to see you back at the post of dooty.

1861, Various, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 42, April, 1861:

When we gets back to the old Laughing Lass, then we drops back into our dooty again all right and proper.

1907, Stewart Edward White, Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Mystery:

It's your dooty to do just as she tells you, and you'll do right.


dollface

dollface (usually uncountable, plural dollfaces)

(slang, often endearing) An attractive woman.


micarta

micarta (countable and uncountable, plural micartas)

Genericization of the trademark Micarta.

“Aluminum,” Chia said. “They melt old cans they dig up on the beach, cast it in sand molds. These panels are micarta. That's linen with this resin in it.”

1996, William Gibson, Idoru (Bridge trilogy; book 2), New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 45:

A composite of fabrics (typically linen or paper fabric) using phenolic resins cured under pressure and high temperature to produce laminates.


bundt

From German Bundkuchen, from Bund (“tied together”) + Kuchen (“cake”).

A baking pan with a hollow, circular, raised area in the middle.


shure

"You see, sir, quite hand in glove with Dashing Jerry; met in the same inn last night--preconcerted, you may be quite shure."

1845, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Night and Morning, Complete:

"Oh, Mr. Munro, shure here's a card for yees," handing me a lady's card.

1873, Various, Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873:

1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter VIII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:


gooky

en-adj

gooky (comparative more gooky, superlative most gooky)

more gooky (comparative)
most gooky (superlative)

From gook (“derogatory: an Asian”) + -y.

(slang, vulgar, ethnic slur, offensive) Of or resembling a gook.


passion pop

well... that is a bit expensive, but since its BYO you can save money by drinking passion pop.....

1997 May 15, julian higginson, “Vault Nightclub Sydney Australia”, in aus.culture.gothic (Usenet):

We sit there, drinking some suburban cheap-shit passion-pop alcohol she brought, and I rub my feet on the Doorman.

2002, Markus Zusak, The Messenger, page 38:

She must be used to pretty rough champagne if she can drink a glass of wiz and think it is champagne. Not even passion pop is that rough.

2005 May 23, ^Temuchin^, “OT: Not all Olympians are reluctant to give urine samples”, in aus.sport.rugby-league (Usenet):

(Australia, informal) Any very cheap, fruity sparkling wine.


Sharon fruit

en-noun

Sharon fruit (plural Sharon fruits or Sharon fruit)

Sharon fruits (plural)
Sharon fruit (plural)

Trade name, after the Sharon plain in Israel.

Diospyros kaki
Diospyros kaki#Translingual

A persimmon, Diospyros kaki, that has been artificially ripened with carbon dioxide.


sho nuff

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(sometimes) Eye dialect spelling of sure enough.

Pronunciation spelling of sure enough.
Eye dialect spelling of sure enough.


feechur

I ask you now, ain't honesty a-written on my feechurs?

1876, George Staunton Brodie, Vagrant Verses: And a Play, page 163:


speshul

en-adj

speshul (comparative more speshul, superlative most speshul)

more speshul (comparative)
most speshul (superlative)

My brother works on the Telegraph; he's a compositor and he'd give me the first pull of any speshul stuff and I could bring it to you.

1991, Frank Harris, John F Gallagher, My Life and Loves:

Theyve put me on the speshul detail. The speshul detail, Mable, is a bunch of fellos what knows more than any one else in the camp.

2005, Lieutenant Edward Streeter, That's Me All Over Mable:

(nonstandard, dialect, sometimes humorous) special


niggerhood

He had grown up in the niggerhood. Even now on some calls, white complainants asked him to go around to the back door.

1998, Patricia Cornwell, Southern Cross:

The next freeway entrance was Vernon. He'd drive up there and find it. If he didn't run across a decent location on the way, he'd just have to vacate the niggerhood and do it somewhere else.

2009, Susan Calhoun, Freeway Close, page 211:

We need a modern White version of that. They go into niggerhoods that border Human areas and patrol. Protect the Human encampments from the invading Morlocks. Do it legally, and call the police to actually grab the criminal n*gs, but be out there in force watching & filming these things.

2020, Bernd Dollinger, Holger Schmidt, Martina Althoff (editors), Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment, page 155:

(slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A neighborhood of primarily African-American residents.


benzedrine

From the trade name for the first pharmaceutical (racemic) amphetamine (1932), derived from benzyl-methyl carbinamine.

[…]who chained themselves to subways for the endless ride from Battery to holy Bronx on benzedrine until the noise of wheels and children brought them down[…]

1956, Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”, in Howl and Other Poems (Pocket Poets Series), City Lights Books, →OCLC, page 10:

Then I would be way ahead when college started at the end of September, and able to enjoy my last year instead of swotting away with no make-up and stringy hair, on a diet of coffee and benzedrine, the way most of the seniors taking honours did, until they finished their thesis.

1963, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, Faber and Faber, page 118:

The racemic mixture of amphetamine (dl-amphetamine).


vitamiser

Genericised from the trademark Vitamiser, presumably from vitamin + -ise + -er or similar.

a kitchen appliance used for reducing fruit and vegetables to liquids, a blender


rizla

From the Rizla+ brand of rolling papers, coined in 1886 from French riz (“rice”) and Lacroix, referring to the use of rice paper and the inventor's family name.

Now I was standing in the corner / I'm searching for my rizla / I had some marijuana / I needed to get higher

1992, “Searching for my Rizla”, performed by Ratpack & Freestylers:

A slight breeze picked up, sending a few loose rizlas skimming along the sand.

Answers on the back of a rizla paper to the usual address.

1998, Martin C. Strong, The Great Rock Discography:

At the front of the classroom the cadaver of a singer is laid out on a workbench cluttered with Bunsen burners, rizlas, vinyl.

2005, Matthew Fuller, Media ecologies: materialist energies in art and technoculture:


yores

"Whut business is this here of yores?"

You leave that gun alone, and lemme tell you, stranger, while we're together, that I want to buy that pup of yores.

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

Scotty, yores is the hombre on the west, ridin' the pinto.

1930, Ward M. Stevens, Kid Wolf of Texas:


Manwich

Genericized trademark, presumably a blend of man + sandwich.

An easily made sandwich of ground meat and commercially made, seasoned tomato sauce.


Miz

When he got there, Miz Meadows asked him where was Brer Fox

1988, Julius Lester, More tales of Uncle Remus: further adventures of Brer Rabbit, his friends, enemies, and others, →ISBN, page 13:

Once upon a time, when dogs barked in rhyme, there was Miz Hattie. Miz Hattie lived all alone in the piney woods.

1995, Virginia Hamilton, “Miz Hattie Gets Some Company”, in Her stories: African American folktales, fairy tales, and true tales, →ISBN, Her Animal Tales, page 15:

Miz Rowe knew, of course, that Flary was at home, and knew that she was making a hand along with the old man and the boys.

2000, Janice Holt Giles, Hill Man, →ISBN, page 159:


auto-tune

From auto- + tune, a trademark registered to Antares Audio Technologies.

(music) An audio processor that corrects the pitch of a recorded track, also used to distort vocals in electronic music.


tawk

en-noun

tawk (countable and uncountable, plural tawks)

Eye dialect spelling of talk, representing New York City English.


tawk

en-verb

tawk (third-person singular simple present tawks, present participle tawking, simple past and past participle tawked)

tawks (present singular third-person)
tawking (participle present)
tawked (participle past)
tawked (past)


sweet Jesus

(idiomatic) Used to add emphasis, particularly by Catholics.


Jesus, Mary and Joseph

From origins in prayer, reciting the names of Jesus and his saints and calling to them for intercession.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The man ran you down?"

2013, Jack O' Keefe, Survivors of the Irish Great Hunger, 1845–1850, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 8:

(idiomatic) Expletive, used to add emphasis, particularly by Catholics.


linotype

linotype (third-person singular simple present linotypes, present participle linotyping, simple past and past participle linotyped)

linotypes (present singular third-person)
linotyping (participle present)
linotyped (participle past)
linotyped (past)

From a trade name, presumably line + -o- + type.

To prepare (printed matter) using a linotype machine.


niggerization

From nigger + -ization. First use of the sense meaning dehumanization appears c. 1969 in the San Francisco Chronicle.

First, there was urgent need for indentured labour, then the need to keep this labour force permanent; the denial of education at first, and later such facilities were made available but on the condition of proselytization and indoctrination, deculturization, dehumanization and niggerization.

The basic goals of niggerization were to promote white greed and hatred […]

2008, David Hilliard, The Black Panther Party: service to the people programs:

What are the conditions under which black people will straighten their backs? How do you shake the niggerization out of black people?

2009, Cornel West, Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom:

Niggerization is a process; a degenerating progression used on anyone not just blacks.

2012, K. L. Stubblefield, American Reprobate, page 137:

(offensive, ethnic slur) The usually systematic act of dehumanizing people, especially black people.


niggerize

niggerize (third-person singular simple present niggerizes, present participle niggerizing, simple past and past participle niggerized)

niggerizes (present singular third-person)
niggerizing (participle present)
niggerized (participle past)
niggerized (past)

It's difficult to view only the addict as "sick" when a "normal" society is rotting: with racial conflict, with increasing poverty, with a school system niggerizing potentially creative minds, with obscene military spending and war aggression […]

1971, Nicholas M. Regush, The Drug Addiction Business, page 126:

If you need to niggerize, go and get yourself a passel of spades. We ain't niggers.

1973, Bartholomew Gill, Mark McGarrity, Lucky Shuffles, page 61:

We cannot niggerize half the peoples of the world.

1996, Charles Eric Lincoln, Coming Through the Fire: Surviving Race and Place in America, page 139:

The destruction of the downtrodden, Black people is an ongoing melee, when White racists have continued to niggerize Black people with their racist laws, their racist customs and racist practices.

2022, VK Ogilvie, Niggers Sing Redemption Songs: Reggae, the Heart-Beat of a People:

(transitive, ethnic slur, offensive) To subject to niggerization, (the act of dehumanizing black people, or other people in the manner of black people).

Educated with Negroes, studying and living on a social equality with them; returning to his native State and seeking to niggerize the public schools; dismissed in disgrace;

1909, Walter Hines Page, The Southerner, page 328:

And if the Angle-Saxtons was to stand fur that, purty soon they would be sociable equality. And next the hull dern country would be niggerized

1912, Don Marquis, Danny's Own Story, page 185:

Dinkins appointed a white traitor as police commisioner who has announced his top priority is to niggerize the police department by hiring more savages.

1992, The Liberty Bell - Volume 20, page 50:

"[…] to niggerize our very excellent institution,” ranted a segregationist member of St. Philip's congregation.

2007, Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism, page 177:

(transitive, ethnic slur, offensive, derogatory) To subject or expose to black people or their influence.

Instead their humor simply mocked situations without explaining them and the performers niggerized their material to please white audiences.

1975 August, Ebony, volume 30, number 10, page 124:

But if the white population continues to diminish, and become more niggerized, a more niggerized Christ will also come into being.

1993, The Liberty Bell - Volume 21, page 60:

C'mon, Foy, do it right this time. I know you're only five, but niggerize the hell out of this one.

(transitive, ethnic slur, offensive) To render someone or something to resemble the racist stereotype of a black person.


weed eater

From "Weed Eater", the name of a company founded by the inventor of the string trimmer.

genericized trademark
genericized trademark

(genericized trademark) A string trimmer.


Brannock device

en-noun

Brannock device (plural Brannock devices)

Named after its inventor, Charles F. Brannock.

A hand tool of a particular kind, used to measure a foot's length, heel-to-ball length, and width.


washlet

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

From a trademark. Calque of Japanese ウォッシュレット (wosshuretto). Blend of wash + toilet, or wash + -let.

calque

Toto doesn’t sell its washlets in big-box stores like Home Depot, preferring the showroom experience instead.

2015 November 18, Steven Kurutz, “The Cult of the Toto Toilet”, in New York Times:

(colloquial) A bidet shower, bidet seat, or similar bathroom product meant to cleanse the user.


Jesus wept

Calque of Ancient Greek ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς (edákrusen ho Iēsoûs), from John 11:35 in the Bible. See Jesus wept on Wikipedia.

cal

ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς

"Oh, Ennis, oh God Almighty, Ennis. What's the hell's got into you these last few weeks? Oh, Jesus wept, what am I going to do with you?" Major Muir wrung his hands.

1965, Anthony Burgess, A vision of battlements:


Filofax

A personal organizer comprising a calendar, address book, etc. in a compact wallet.


brillo pad

From a trademark, probably related to brilliant; the company has claimed that the name derives from a Latin word for "bright".

(offensive, slang, ethnic slur, US) The hair on the scalp of a black person.

(offensive, slang, ethnic slur, US) A black person.


pumpkin head

(slang, ethnic slur) An Asian, from being reputed to have large round heads.


cracka

(US, derogatory, ethnic slur, slang) Alternative spelling of cracker (impoverished white person)


Black and Decker

en-noun

Black and Decker (plural Black and Deckers)

Five years ago Joe Sillett picked up a bat which had been given the Black and Decker treatment in his father's garage to remove its woodworm-infested rough edges.

2006 September 21, Andrew Culf, “Woodworm changes course looking for repeat of Flintoff factor”, in The Guardian:


tw*t

en-verb

tw*t (third-person singular simple present tw*ts, present participle tw*tting, simple past and past participle tw*tted)

tw*ts (present singular third-person)
tw*tting (participle present)
tw*tted (participle past)
tw*tted (past)


p*ss

en-noun

p*ss (countable and uncountable, plural p*sses)


p*ss

en-verb

p*ss (third-person singular simple present p*sses, present participle p*ssing, simple past and past participle p*ssed)

p*sses (present singular third-person)
p*ssing (participle present)
p*ssed (participle past)
p*ssed (past)


w*nk

w*nk (third-person singular simple present w*nks, present participle w*nking, simple past and past participle w*nked)

w*nks (present singular third-person)
w*nking (participle present)
w*nked (participle past)
w*nked (past)


p**s

en-noun

p**s (countable and uncountable, plural p**ses)


p**s

en-verb

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

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


b****cks

en-noun

b****cks pl (normally plural, singular b****ck)


b****cks

en-verb

b****cks (third-person singular simple present b****ckses, present participle b****cksing, simple past and past participle b****cksed)

b****ckses (present singular third-person)
b****cksing (participle present)
b****cksed (participle past)
b****cksed (past)


w**k

w**k (third-person singular simple present w**ks, present participle w**king, simple past and past participle w**ked)

w**ks (present singular third-person)
w**king (participle present)
w**ked (participle past)
w**ked (past)


vaseline

en-noun

vaseline (countable and uncountable, plural vaselines)

Chinese:

→ Mandarin: 凡士林 (fánshìlín)

→ French: vaseline
→ Turkish: vazelin

→ Irish: veasailín

→ Polish: wazelina

→ Thai: วาสลีน (wáat-sà-liin)

Coined by American chemist Robert Augustus Chesebrough in 1872, from German Wasser (“water”) + Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “oil”) + -ine.

af

(informal) Short for Vaseline glass. or the colouring used in making it.


speedwalk

From speed + walk; in the sense of a moving walkway, originally a trademark.


malt-o-meal

Originally the trademarked name of a particular breakfast cereal made by the Malt-O-Meal Company.

A hot breakfast cereal, porridge or pudding made with farina (ground wheat) or semolina; cream of wheat.


cream of wheat

From the trademarked name, "Cream of Wheat", of a semolina product made by B&G Foods.

A hot breakfast cereal or porridge made with farina (ground wheat) or semolina; malt-o-meal, semolina pudding.


stummick

Don't make me say it, Millie--it makes me sick to my stummick.

Mind you, he was always kicking and roaring about his liver or stummick, or some of his works.

1901, Henry Wallace Phillips, Red Saunders:

If you'll shove this 'ere meat an' bread into yer stummick, we'll begin fer to make tracks."

1922, Irving Bacheller, In the Days of Poor Richard:


somer

To the examples alleged by Richardson, in his Dictionary, add the following: "I se it by ensaunple In somer tyme on trowes; Ther some bowes ben leved, And some bereth none, There is a meschief in the more Of swiche manere bowes."

1853, Various, Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853:

In Scotland, that somer, was nothing but myrth; for all yead[515] with the preastis eavin at thare awin pleasur.

1895, John Knox, The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6):


boyz

Boyz n the Hood (1991 American crime film)

Boyz II Men (American R&B vocal group formed in 1988)

eye dialect spelling of boys; plural of boy