flokati
A "flokati rug," also known as a "flokati," is a particular kind of Greek rug, according to MW11....
agita
I recently encountered the word "agida," though I'm no longer sure where. Turns out MW11 spells it "agita," and defines it as a feeling of anxiety. One might assume that...
pump and bomb
Kam tells me that in Spanish, firefighters are "los bomberos"; turns out that "bomba" means both "bomb" and "pump." The similarity of the two words made me wonder if they...
Uncle Mary
An "Uncle Mary" is, I gather, a gay man who works against the cause of gay rights, or who's seen as kowtowing to an anti-gay agenda. Wayne Besen's column/blog entry...
promession
Promession is a new approach to the old issue of what to do with a corpse: it involves freezing the body in liquid nitrogen, then "placing it on a vibrating...
nit
I thought I knew what a nit was (it's one of those things I'm always picking, right?), but it turns out there's another meaning: it's a unit of brightness, equal...
cushy
I'm always a little surprised to find that a common English word that I don't associate with Asia derives directly from an East Asian or South Asian root. I've known...
cran
I mentioned this in a comment in my main journal, but I figure it's worth recording here as well. The Clancy Brothers recorded an Ewan MacColl song, "Shoals of Herring,"...
snook, brouching, scraling
I usually post words here after I find out what they mean, but I just encountered three words that I can't find relevant definitions for, so I'm gonna post 'em...
scoria
Seen in a submission. "Scoria" (derived eventually from Greek "skōr," meaning "excrement") means "slag." Emphasis on first syllable. Amusingly, MW11 defines "scoria" as "slag," and defines "slag" as "the dross...