freeze victims
I was very amused by this headline from One Bakersfield Online today: Bills would provide $1.2 billion to freeze victims in California Turns out it's referring to money that would...
vaticination
I had originally intended this blog to focus primarily on new coinages, to be a resource for early citations for dictionary makers and such. 'Cause, y'know, I figured I already...
can of corn
In a submission, I encountered the phrase "can of corn" as a baseball term; hadn't heard it before, so went and looked it up. Apparently it refers to a baseball...
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)
Apparently the term "UFO" is out; in its place, "UAP," for "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," is gaining popularity. Jon Hilkevitch of the Chicago Tribune says: The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (the term...
grog
Sarah told me she was groggy this afternoon, and I asked "From too much grog?" and the ensuing discussion led me to realize I didn't know where the word "grog"...
double-gaited
Apparently "double-gaited" means "bisexual," according to Chapman's American Slang. I encountered it in a 1981 Elmore Leonard novel: "[...] Yeah, I think he's fucking her. I think he'd be out...
filibuster, freebooter, buccaneer, etc
This is the best etymology I've seen in months. Wikipedia on "filibuster": The term comes from the early 17th century, where buccaneers were known in England as filibusters. This term...
junglist
A "junglist" is someone who listens to jungle, of course. Turns out that "jungle" is "a style of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, techno, rare...
hustings
A recent Doonesbury strip used the phrase "hit the hustings." Turns out that (says Wikipedia) a "husting" is "the platform from which a candidate speaks before a parliamentary or other...
flaneur
I'm cheating a little, 'cause I may have heard the word "flâneur" before; but it came up twice in unrelated contexts on the same day, a month or so back,...