Words & Stuff

A "fasnacht" is a "yeast-raised potato pastry that's deep-fried like a doughnut [. . .] originally made and served on Shrove Tuesday to use up the fat that was forbidden during Lent."...

I'm certainly familiar with the concept, but I hadn't previously encountered the phrase reductio ad Hitlerum, a phrase coined in 1950 by U of Chicago professor Leo Strauss to refer...

I had heard of the band Fugazi, but I didn't know their name derived from a Vietnam acronym: "Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In." Only really, as it turns out,...

I first encountered the term "pitchblende" when I was a kid, probably in some old science fiction book or other. I knew it had to do with uranium, but wasn't...

To "ret" is to soak plant material (flax, jute, hemp, kenaf, etc) to loosen the fibers. Wikipedia notes that you can also ret by leaving the crop in the fields,...

An "ostinato" is (according to Wikipedia) a musical phrase that's played or sung repeatedly at the same pitch. (Found this word in the Wikipedia entry for "dhikr.")...

"Salawat" (also transliterated "salawaat" and perhaps other ways as well) is apparently the term for certain blessings used by Muslims, particularly the Arabic phrase "salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam" (abbreviated...

Another one from a submission. "Catchpenny" is an adjective, meaning "using sensationalism or cheapness for appeal" (sez MW11). Useful in all sorts of circumstances. Dates back to 1750. Presumably refers...

It's possible I've seen this word before, but it's a funny word, so I'll post it anyway. It turns out that the word "flock" can be a synonym for "floc."...