Stuff I Looked Up

I feel like an idiot for this one, I really do. I’m very curious. I look up stuff all the time, and I even keep track of it all. So, the title of this book made me thinking it was about…I don’t know what? Research? Learning? Satisfying your curiosity? It’s not. This is a mainstream self-help book….

I loved the title and subtitle of this book. I was enamored with the idea of an “intellectual life.” And this is a neat thing. I mean, we have love lives and social lives and sex lives, but how many people talk about an intellectual life? I feel like I have this, but I never really had a word for…

I normally find things to research by reading books. This time I read a book because I wanted to learn more about a thing I was researching. I was writing this entry: Types of Aircraft Engines . I wanted to know more about the differences between turboprops and turbofans. So I found this book, and…

This is a pretty simple book. It tells short, chapter-length biographies of 12 people (plus one bonus person). It tries to get at the source of what made each of them special. Some examples: Shirley Temple had a strong bond with her mother who managed her career. She avoided Hollywood child actor…

Well, this is long overdue. Here’s what’s happening in general –

A list of non-tech content that I have created and sometimes maintain.

A long-form resume I keep generally up-to-date.

I am a vaccine skeptic skeptic , meaning I absolutely believe in vaccines and have little time for people who imagine negative health outcomes from them. I think there’s ample evidence that vaccines are the single greatest health advancement that Mankind has ever known, and most beliefs that…

This is a theory of adult learning, developed in the 70s and published in 1980 by a woman named Bernice McCarthy. 4mat describes the difference between two states of perceiving . Experiencing: actually seeing or reading about something Conceptualizing or “Abstracting Experience”: taking that…

The difference between four-wheel drive (4WD) and all-wheel drive (AWD) can be a little vague. I read a lot of resources, and they waffle quite a bit. In general: All-Wheel Drive requires no driver input. There’s a computer in the car that just makes it work. The car usually drives two wheels, but…

The ubiquitous roadside billboards promoting Christianity are sponsored by a group called – appropriately – Gospel Billboards , which is a subsidiary of Christian Aid Ministries . They have been erecting these billboards since 2006. Here’s a map showing all the billboard locations.

This is another name for a slaughterhouse. It comes from a French word for “to strike down.”

This is the alphabetical list of letters present in every childhood classroom, and printed on every elementary school desk: “A-B-C-D…” Technically, this is an ordered list of letters in any language, not just English. Now, you would think it’s a word formed from “ABC,” but it’s not. It’s actually a…

Something is “in abeyance” or “held in abeyance” when there is no current assignment of ownership.  A noble title is “in abeyance” when there is no one of the bloodline to claim it, for instance. By the same token, I suppose that consciousness is “in abeyance” while you’re asleep.

I always thought this just meant “obey,” but our pastor pointed out in a sermon that it actually means, effectively, “to continue obeying.” Now, this caught my eye, of course, because of The Big Lebowski where the main character says, “The Dude abides” (at 0:48 in this video ). By this, he doesn’t…

No one really knows where this came from or how it became associated with magic, but it’s been around for a long time. There are lots of theories about where it came from – most of them conflict, and none can be confirmed. The first usage of the word was in a book from the second century. It was…

This feels like a formal way to say “dissolved” or “terminated.”

Absinthe is a spirit derived from several plants and herbs, one of which is wormwood. This results in trace amounts of a chemical called “thujone.” This chemical has historically been blamed for psychosis and hallucinations. However, over the years, its effects were determined to be largely…

An ancient name for Ethopia, or the Ethiopian Empire or Kingdom, which historically included the present-day country of Eritrea. It existed from the 1200s to the mid-1970s when Haile Selassie died. Ethiopia controlled Eritrea from the 1950s to the 1990s, which is re-gained independence. Not to be…

This is an anti-police slang/acronym for “All Cops Are Bastards.” It originated in the UK in the 1920s. It’s sometimes represented by the number “1312,” referring to the numeric position of each letter.

This is a word from Ancient Greek which means “peak” or “apex.” Most people (of my generation, anyway) know it as the fictional company from the Road Runner cartoons. However, there have been many actual companies called “Acme,” many of them founded far before the cartoon made the name famous. The…

This is the ingredient in a medicine or treatment that is biologically active, meaning it has some interaction or effect on cells in the human body. Colloquially, it seems to mean “the thing in this medicine that actually does something,” as opposed to other aspects of a medicine that are related…

It means the commander or officer-in-charge of the unit. Each combat unit has a radioman (who is not the commander). That unit also has a call sign – for example, “Unit Bravo.” That call sign refers to the unit in aggregate, not any one person. The radioman would say, “This is Unit Bravo,”…

When referring to years, AD is short for Anno Domini, which is Latin for “in the year of the Lord.” It means the number of years since the birth of Jesus Christ. Sometimes, “CE” is used instead, which strips our the religious aspect by referring to “Common Era” or “Current Era.”

This is simply a place where aircraft take off and land. Most often, we call these “airports,” but aerodrome is more inclusive. A small dirt landing strip in the jungle could be an aerodrome. A patch of ocean where seaplanes launch could be an aerodrome. From Wikipedia : The term airport may imply…

Actually not a new word – I had encountered this once before in a book about why we would never completely rid ourselves of paper. The reason being that it offered “affordances” that digital screens never could. For instance, paper has the affordance of being able to be easily passed around a room…

The informal period from the 1400s to the 1700s when Europeans sailed the ocean to new lands. Here’s a list of some of the places Europeans visited (“discovered”) during this period. The western coast of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope (Portugal) A sea route to India (Portugal) Central and North…

An “agentic” process is one whereby someone else goes and does something with your approval and authority. In the world of AI, it means empowering an AI engine to do something for you. These agents are goal-seeking, adaptible, asynchronous, and have decision making powers.

Comes from the same prefix that gives us “aggression” and “aggravation.” Historically, the prefix meant “to approach” or “to attack.” (See PS below. This might be a British idiom.)

This is a portmanteau of the words “agitation” and “propaganda.” Historically, it has been used for propoganda in support of communism. I couldn’t find a definition that made it clear what the difference was between it and “regular” propoganda. The only thing is that the “agit” part of it tends…

This is literally French for “aid in the [military] camp” or “camp assistant.” It’s a title for the assistant of someone with high rank. Almost all references I saw had a military or royal context to them. The civilian title would be “administrative assistant” or “chief of staff.” The pronunciation…

Aircraft engines differ in two respects: How they are powered How that power results in thrust For the first difference, power is created either through traditional piston-powered engines or turbines. Piston engines are like you would find in an automobile, through with different configurations and…

Airsoft is like paintball, but without paint. Airsoft guns shoot rubber pellets that don’t burst and aren’t filled with anything. Obviously, in paintball, it’s obvious if you get hit. In airsoft, it’s not obvious, and you have to “call your hit.” This makes it easier to cheat in airsoft, and lots…

This is a historic name for the island of Great Britain. It might come from the Latin word for “white,” referring to the white cliffs of Dover.

This was a group of creatives that would meet for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the interwar period of the 1920s. Many of them were newspaper writers and columnists, and the subjects of their conversations were often printed in the papers of the day. Later, several actors and…

An idiom that describes the reality of staying in political office. Most politicians (especially those in Congress) are elected by a comparatively small geographic area, no matter how large their responsibilities become when in office. This means that they have to keep the voters from their…

This is soil that has been deposited by water. If, at some time in the past, an area of Earth was covered with water due to a prior river or flood, that water would deposit sediment that remained once the water is gone. This sediment is known as alluvium, and is known to be very agriculturally…

This is a quote from Roy Amara, the one-time president of The Institute for the Future. We tend to over-estimate a new technology’s impact in the short-term and under-estimate it in the long-term. It refers to the fact that technology has to mature over time. Valuable use cases for new technologies…

An ambit could be around a physical or geographic space. But it could also refer to the limits of knowledge or influence.

From the French “améliorer” which means “improve.” It seems very similar to “alleviate,” but I read one definition that implied “alleviate” means to reduce suffering, where “ameliorate” means to “make better.” That’s a subtle difference, and I really haven’t seen that reflected in usage (see the…

Yes, this is a type of rose. It’s deep pink in color. It was bred in France in the late 1800s then introduced (and renamed) in America. It was very popular during the Gilded Age of the early 1900s. Roses were a recurring motif in the movie American Beauty , though I feel like the color was…

There are 19 branches of this organization (listed below). Each branch has its own Executive Committee. You can become a member by (1) applying and being sponsored by two existing members, or (2) receiving an invitation from the Academy (issued by the Executive Committees during each spring). These…

Anarchism rejects any type of hierarchical government or authority. It believes in “free association,” which means humans coming together voluntarily to solve problems, rather than being forced by the state. I’ve always wondered how someone committed to anarchy would create a society, since…

This is a province on the southern tip of Spain. The cities of Seville and Cordoba are located here. The region has a strong Muslim history, and is the location of The Great Mosque/Cathedral of Córdoba.

The core of the word is a form of “no break,” meaning something that bends and coils but never stops.

This technically refers to the English people of the Middle Ages. Saxony is a German state. The “Saxons” of the Middle Ages were seafaring people, like the Vikings of Scandinavia. Some of them migrated to England, where they combined with the “Anglos” of that region (who had also migrated from…

This is a flowering plant that grows around the Mediterranean. It has a flavor similar to black licorice, and it often used for that specific flavoring. The flavor comes from a compound called anethole, which it shares with fennel. In my experience, the Greek liquor Ouzo is heavily flavored with…

It’s literally Greek for “less pain.” It can be used for the entire category of painkilling drugs. The word is often used to mean “things that have been deliberately toned-down to reduce stress or anxiety.”

A Biblical practice meaning someone is sanctified or set apart. There’s a great deal of information about what the practice signifies and symbolizes, but very little about any original reason for the practice. Things that are symbolic are usually rooted it some practical purpose, but I could find…

It comes from the ancient Greek word “nomos,” which means “custom” or “law.” The prefix “a-” means this is the opposite of that.

This literally means “before war” in Latin. It’s most often used to discuss the period of Southern life prior to the American Civil War. Less known is the antonym “postbellum,” which means the period after a war.

This technically means “before the Great Flood.” “Diluvial” means “related to a flood.” But, over the years, it’s become a synonym for “old” or “ancient,” when used to refer to non-historical things. “Diluvian” means “related to or brought about by a flood” and “ante” is the prefix for “before.”

This is a general term meaning “the era of Mankind,” or the period of Earth’s history where humans have existed and have had an impact on the planet. It’s often used in an environmental context to encapsulate the changes humans have had on the planet. The term is not totally accepted as a formal…

I read several lists of apéritifs, and it seems almost any cocktail counts. The point is that it’s served before the meal, so it’s kind of a “liquid appetizer.” The same thing, served after the meal, it called a “digestif,” and it’s supposedly a tool to aid digestion. (Honestly, both of these just…

This is and outdated term for a stroke. It was used to refer to someone dying spontaneously, usually due to some internal bleeding, often cerebral. As an adjective, to be “apoplectic,” is to be angry to the (figurative) verge of having a stroke. I don’t think anyone was every literally apoplectic….

This is an old name for what would be called a “pharmacist” today. I’m not saying it was a pharmacist, because usage of the name stretches back thousands of years, and we wouldn’t call what they did back then “pharmacy.” However, it filled the same basic role. Apothecaries prepared medicines, old…

It’s from a Greek word meaning the granting of God-like status on something.

This has its basis in Russian, where it was used to refer to a devoted member of the Communist Party. The party itself was referred to as “apparat,” meaning something along the lines of “The Communist Machine.” Today, it’s used to refer to anyone who is a blind or devoted follower of some…

This was a very important road in Ancient Rome. It was named after a guy called “Appius.” It was a technologically advanced road for the time (300s BC). It was paved with interlocking stones, and was crowned to run water off to gutters on the sides. It was about 350 miles long, and in one section,…

This one comes from the root of “posit” which means “to assert.” This is also where we get “position” from, as a position is essentially an “assertion of place.” The prefix is not the Greek “a” (which would mean “opposite”) but rather the Latin “ad,” which means “toward.”

This is a contiguous formation of groundwater, held within some type of geologic structure. Different underground substances hold water in different capacities. Solid rock, for example, might not have any space for water (though some rock is porous), while different types of soil are able to be…

No, not really. It is specifically not a single country. Most generally, this is the entire Arabian Peninsula, which currently includes the countries of: Saudi Arabia (most of it) Kuwait Oman Qatar United Arab Emirates Yemen The root of the word is “Arab,” which has meant all sorts of things over…

Arabic Numbers are the common, base-10 numeric system most people in the world use: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. They’re not from Arabia specifically, but they were brought to Spain in the 900s by Arabic speakers from North Africa across the Straight of Gibraltar.

This is like a botanical garden for trees. In some usages, it’s not a building or formal place, it’s just a large tract of land filled with trees that people visit specifically to view the trees.

It’s for the National Guard. Many cities have buildings that were built to house the local National Guard’s equipment (including weapons). Hence, this became known as “the armory.” In many cases, these buildings are no longer used for those purposes – the National Guard unit has moved into other…

This is a musical term which means playing the notes that comprise a chord, individually and in order. As a noun, it’s “arpeggio.”

See also: Parvenu .

This is the practice of voluntarily denying pleasure or even basic human needs, usually in order to achieve some higher spiritual awareness. This is not confined to a single religion. Ascetic practices such as fasting are common in many belief systems. A practitioner is called an “ascetic.” The…

This refers to the largest ethnic groups of Jews. (Note: there are a lot of different ethnic/racial divisions among Jews .) The Ashkenazi was a group of Jewish people who migrated North from the Middle East to Eastern Europe about 1000 BC. In turn, this group immigrated heavily to the United…

As a description of human behavior, this means to handle rigorously – to question, to interrogate, to be skeptical, to require proof, etc. An arresting and questioning police offer handles someone with asperity – your Mom doesn’t.

This seems to have a special designation for secret meetings, especially romantic meetings. An “assignation” is often implied to mean a sexual rendezvous.

This is a biological feature that reappears after being absent for sometime – usually many generations. For example, every once in a while, a human is born with a tail stump, or covered in fur. Additionally, very rarely, someone will find a whale with legs. Socially, an atavism can refer to…

This comes from the Greek “telos” which means “end” or “goal” or “purpose.” If you remove the “a” prefix, you get “telic” which means an activity which has a purpose. This is the same root we get “teleological” from, which is the argument that the world was created from an intelligent design with a…

It’s literally French for “workshop,” which comes from another word meaning “woodpile,” meaning a carpenter’s workspace.

Yes. When you are an official “athletic booster,” the NCAA prohibits you from doing certain things involving athlete recruitment. To be considered a booster according to the NCAA , you have to have done any of the following activities: Provided a donation in order to obtain season tickets for any…

There are lots of theories for why Christians believe Jesus had to die on the cross – called “the atonement” – many of which have been around for over a thousand years. Why Jesus went to his death is generally accepted in Christianity – to save Mankind from their sins and to give Mankind eternal…

A term used in teaching hospitals to differentiate students from full, practicing physicians. I spoke to a cardiologist friend who told me the term isn’t used much outside of academia. In a teaching hospital, residents often provide services to patients, but they are not those patients’ assigned…

I did find some references to “aubergine purple,” which is more specifically the color. If you do an image search for “ aubergine purple ” you get all sorts of shades, even drifting into brown. I also found Pantone 229, which someone claimed was “aubergine.” That’s the color swatch embedded at…

It’s Portuguese for “act of faith.” In most cases, it refers to a series of events during the Inquisitions of the 1500s through the 1800s. These were public punishments and executions of those believed to be heathens or witches. Prisoners were whipped, hanged, or burned at the stake in front of…

I had seen these terms all referring to sort of the same thing, or being used in the same context: to mean someone who was very smart. However, they have specific meanings Autodidact: someone who is self-taught; also used to refer to someone who is able to absorb complicated subjects with no formal…

This is any number of different conditions where the human body’s immune system attacks healthy systems – the body essentially fights itself. The descriptor “autoimmune” is a category, not a specific condition. Common autoimmune diseases include: Arthritis (the body attacks joint tissue) Crohn’s…

Yes…ish. Some of them can under some circumstances. “Autoland” is a feature on some larger airlines. But it has limits: It has to be enabled and initiated. It doesn’t just do it automatically. The airport has to be equipped for it. The plane doesn’t really “land itself” – the plane and the airport…

I’m not really sure if this is an actual thing or not. I encountered the phrase in a novel, and it was written as if it was an accepted colloquialism. But I search, and “avocado suite” seems to refer to the avocado green bathroom that was in vogue some years ago. However, it’s not just a color-noun…

This was a specific pagan god in antiquity – likely the storm and fertility god Hadad. The word means “owner” or “lord” in ancient languages of Asia. More generally, Baal is used Biblically to refer to any pagan god, or any icon or object of worship outside of the recognized Christian God.

A Lebanese food, which is essentially hummus made with eggplant, rather than chickpeas. Common ingredients are mashed eggplant, olive oil, lemon juice, and other seasonings. It is consumed in a similar way as hummus – as a dip, or spread on bread.

It is just south of present-day Baghdad, Iraq, about 50 miles, along the banks of the Euphrates. It no longer exists as a major population center, but there are significant ruins of the ancient walled city remaining. Here it is on Google Maps. Babylon was no longer a “city” by about the 900s – was…

This comes from Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry. In some context, it has a sexual subtext, used to describe and orgy or indulgent sexual performance. Humorously, one of the top search results for the word is the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas .

Backgammon is basically the original version of the modern board game Sorry! . The board is marked into four quadrants. Both players try to get their pieces around the board, then off the board. They can’t start moving pieces off the board until they have all their pieces in their final quadrant….

This was a 1917 letter from the British Foreign Secretary (their Secretary of State, basically) to a leader of the British Jewish community which expressed support for a Jewish homeland in the area of (then) Palestine. It was the first open acceptance and validation of Zionism . The letter was both…

This refers to the fragmentation of something into smaller units that are hostile to each other. So, if a country were to break down into smaller regions, all of which went to war with each other, this would be an example of balkanization. I was familiar with the term from context, and from the…

Basically, it’s a railing of some kind, like those on a balcony or open staircase. Technically, the balustrade is the horizontal part (where your hands would rest), while the vertical parts are called balusters (the balustrade sits atop of the balusters). It comes from an Italian word for the…

This is a company that owns banks, but doesn’t necessarily do banking itself. There are a lot of laws and regulation around banking. A bank holding company – a “bancorp” – operates under different rules than banks, which can make it easier for them to borrow money.

This is a bench, often padded, usually with a backrest, that is often used as seating at a table. They’re common in restaurants, and occasionally in homes. They’re often built into the wall. The word is French for “small bench.”

This comes from the Latin word barbarus meaning foreign. “Barbary” referred to foreign lands (lands not of ones own). And “barbarian” referred to the people who lived there. The northern coast of Africa was named “The Barbary Coast” by English speakers after attacks from pirates based in Tripoli…

A barrel of oil is 42 US gallons. There really aren’t any physical barrels of oil anymore – oil is transported in bulk, by tanker ship or pipeline. But the barrel measurement continues in much of the world. Back in the early days of oil exploration, they literally moved oil around in barrels. They…

It’s Spanish for “neighborhood.” In some countries, it’s used to formally define some geographic or political subdivision. Another definition is for areas of a city inhabited mainly by Spanish speakers. From Wiktionary : An area or neighborhood in a U.S. city inhabited primarily by people speaking…

This is a sculpture style where the art is mostly two-dimensional (meaning, it could be hung on a wall), but the foreground is raised slightly from the background. The design is carved into a substance. “Relief” originally meant “raised,” and “bas” means “low” in French, so the art is literally…

A slang word that’s very nebulous. It’s been defined, then co-opted by others. When used, you have to look at context, because different people use it to mean very different things. In today’s general slang environment, “based” means to be true to yourself and not care what other people think….

It means someone who is uninteresting, often due to only enjoying mainstream hobbies and interests. Some choice quotes from the Urban Dictionary : […] A person who has failed to develop their own personal tastes and therefore has adopted boring, conformist, tastes […] A person that follows the…

There are multiple contexts here, but it’s most often used to refer to a specific German art and design school which operated in the 20s and 30s, and the aesthetic which emerged from it. It was a specific organization, but has become a general movement and approach to design. The Bauhaus school and…

Thomas Bayes was a 17th century English polymath. He documented a method for statistical analysis and probability which has become core to those disciplines. In its simplest form, Bayes Theorem allows us to find the probability of an event occurring them we know the probability of multiple related…

Bebe Rebozo was a close friend, confidante, and adviser of Richard Nixon. “Bebe” was a nickname – it’s Spanish for “baby” as he was the youngest of 12 in a Cuban family. Rebozo was often suspected of criminal activity, but nothing was ever proven, other than a minor tax penalty. Rebozo was also…

This comes from “beget,” which means “something that creates something else.” Example: “violence just begets more violence.”

This seems to mean “be-nighted,” like “being in night” or “being in darkness.” Specifically, “night” seems to be intended as state of unknowing or ignorance. Another definition: If you describe people or the place where they live as benighted, you think they are unfortunate or do not know anything….

Bertha is a German name. There are two threads of history for this reference – First, Bertha Heyman was a Prussian con artist who swindled money out of men in eastern America and Canada in the late 1800s. She was a large woman – supposedly 5-foot-4-inches and 245 pounds. There are references to…

It literally means “black beast” in French. The first word is pronounced “bet.” In several definitions, I found the word “bugbear.” A bugbear is a random, scary mythical creature, the name of which also means something to be avoid, or a pet peeve.

There are lots of versions of poker, but the general idea is this: some cards of dealt – either community cards or your own private cards – and you evaluate what hand you can make, then bet based on how strong your hand is. At any time, there are three places money can be: In your own private stack…

“Bey” is the male form of this word, “begum” the female. It’s the equivalent of the English “Lady” or “Dame.” Spellings are all over the map here. The male form can be spelled any which way: Beigh, Beg, Bek, Bey, Baeg or Begh. Informally, Muslim men will sometimes use “begum” to refer to their own…

A “pale” is a pointed stick. It’s used as part of the word “impale” and “palisade.” (It’s from a French word meaning “stick.”) As a verb, to “pale” an area meant to drive sticks into the ground to represent the boundaries of it. So a “pale” is sometimes used as a noun to mean a confined, delimited…

There doesn’t seem to be a consistent definition for this. It’s not an organized denomination. From Got Questions: Bible churches are those which profess to adhere to the Bible as their standard of faith and practice. However, they are of no particular Christian denomination (non-denominational),…

In the Old Testament, several people are stated to have lived almost 1,000 years. Is this literal, figurative, or a mistake? One theory says that a simple translation error caused months to be counted as years. If someone was said to have died at 950 years, it was really 950 months , which is 79…

It’s literal French for “well thinking” or “good thinking.”

This is literally French for “of course,” which isn’t interesting, but I’ve never seen it used in an English context before.

A special type of needle used specifically to deliver smallpox vaccine. It has two small prongs on the end, and it’s just deep enough to puncture the skin multiple times and deliver the vaccine to the correct depth. It was used heavily in the worldwide campaign to eradicate smallpox in the 1960s…

The Big Dig was the largest highway project in American history. It was conceived in 1987, broke ground in 1991, and wasn’t completed until 2007. Costs rose from $2.3 billion to $14.8 billion. When the loan is paid off in 2038, the total cost will have been $24 billion. Four workers died during the…

A “bill of goods” is essentially a receipt. When you buy something, you get a bill of goods to prove that you paid for it. However, you should also receive the merchandise , in addition to the receipt. If you buy a car, you get two things: (1) the receipt (the “bill of goods”), and (2) the car…

This is a large, Gilded Age home in Ashville, North Carolina. It was built by the Vanderbilts in the early 1890s. It would technically be the largest private residence in the United States at 135,000 sq. ft., but it’s been a museum since the 1950s. It’s owned by a private company, open to the…

The NY Times, in an article entitled Where Did BIPOC Come From? claims this tweet is the first usage: Shout out to @EricPride @ToTNG @MissHC @Aim_4_Greatness & @headonist Thanks for supporting/following us #GrindToronto #BIPOC #Toronto The article quoted a journalism professor: “The black and…

This a French word to describe a creamy soup. It used to refer to shellfish-based soups: crab bisque, lobster bisque, etc. But it can also refer to any soup with a cream base. Etymology is disputed. Some sources claim it refers to the Bay of Biscay, which is the water north of Spain and west of…

This is another name for what we call “asphalt” in the United States. It’s the very sticky component or petroleum. It occurs naturally. Most of it is used to construction and road-making, but it can be refined to form crude oil. The “oil sands” of Alberta and North Dakota are naturally occuring…

This is a computer programming term. It refers to operations that are performed on sequences of bits, in aggregate. A byte is made up of eight bits, which can be 0 or 1. So a byte might look like this: 00011011 A bitstring (or bitpattern) is any sequence of bits – not necessarily an entire byte. A…

In the context I decided to investigate, it refers to the starting defense of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. To differentiate players during practices in the 1960s, the Nebraska coach put his defenders in black jerseys, and the name stuck. When Nebraska keeps opponents to a low score, it…

This categorizes the surface of red blood cells present in blood. Different blood types have red blood cells with different surface receptors. The profile of these receptors cause the body to recognize or reject cells as “belonging.” If it rejects them, the body will fight off the foreign red blood…

Lots of people have been killed on Sundays, and the phrase is used to describe lots of mass killings. Wikipedia shows 20+ events that are connected to the phrase. The most recent event and the one most clearly associated with the phrase from this generation is a 1972 shooting of protesters in…

Blue laws are regulations that attempt to restrict activities or the sale of specific goods or services for religious reasons. The most common in the United States is the restriction of selling alcohol on Sundays in some municipalities. Rumor has it that the laws were originally printed on blue…

This is a Jewish non-profit service organization founded in 1843 that promotes Jewish rights and identity, and fights antisemitism. It’s pronounced “bi-nay brith” (like “breath”, but with an “i” sound). The name comes from the Hebrew “benē brīth,” which means “Sons of the Covenant.” From their…

Defining what actually constitutes an individual “plane” can be hard. In each case, there is a basic airframe (ex: 737), but there are sometimes dozens of variants of it (100 through 900, as well as MAX versions 7 though 10). Some common changes: Lengthening the body (you can’t increase it in any…

The more modern term in use today is “Afrikaners,” though their are subtle differences.

There are lots of ideas for etymology listed on the Wikipedia page but none is definitive.

“Bohemia” was an actual place – it was the western end of the current Czech Republic, though it’s not technically named this anymore. The word “Bohemian” has come to refer to a carefree, counter-cultural, often traveling lifestyle. This usage comes from a French reference to the Romani people of…

This refers to either: A means of quick escape (a “hole” through which a human or animal can “bolt”) A hidden refuge I’m not sure if the correct spelling has a hyphen. I’ve seen it both ways.

This is “reconstituted” leather. It’s leather that’s been shredded, then mixed with glue (and sometimes paper or rubber), and molded into textured sheets. It’s the leather equivalent of particle board. Clearly, it’s not what most people would consider leather, and there’s some debate whether…

A “vanity” is some physical object that’s considered sinful or promoting of sinfulness (e.g. alcohol, pornography). So a “bonfire of the vanities” is a burning of these objects as a symbolic act to promote holiness and rid the world of temptation. The original “bonfire of the vanities” was an…

A series of mountain resorts in the Catskills of Upstate New York which catered largely to Jewish families. They were popular because they were within train distance from New York City at a time when air travel was new and expensive, and antisemitism was sill prevalent, which caused Jewish families…

This is a style of music that originated in Brazil in the 1950s. The phrase literally means “new talent” or “new way” in Brazilian Portuguese. It’s a variation of samba, which is a musical style which originated in Brazil. Musical styles are hard to explain, but – to me – this feels like a laid…

This phrase appeared in an infamous 2017 column in The Philadelphia Inquirer, entitled Paying the price for breakdown of the country’s bourgeois culture written by Amy Wax and Larry Alexander. In the column, Wax and Alexander complained that a move away from the traditional values and culture of…

This is the French word meaning “stock exchange” or “merchant exchange.” It comes from a historic word meaning “meeting of merchants.”

It was named for Thomas Bowdler. In the 1800s, he published The Family Shakespeare , which was a version of Shakespeare’s plays which he felt were more suitable for families. Wikipedia has some examples of his changes. In Hamlet, the death of Ophelia was called an accidental drowning, not a…

Boys’ Town is a notable Catholic orphanage started in Omaha in 1917. It moved from downtown Omaha to the “outskirts” of the city in 1921. The city grew to encapsulate it, and it technically sits in the village of Boys’ Town, Omaha, which is an enclave at 144th and Dodge Street. Boys’ Town has…

A group of advisers or experts. It’s usually used to refer to a group of people supplying advice to another person – so they are a brain trust to someone else. Specifically, three professors at Columbia were known as “the Brain Trust” to FDR during his 1932 presidential campaign.

The etymology traces back through the word “braze” in Old French, meaning “to boil or burn.” The definition is very wide. It could refer to anything from a fire pit to a grill.

This term will go away when traditional TV goes away, because it means that news is so important that the TV networks “break” into normal programming

This is a supposed treatment for hyperventilation. Hyperventilation is when someone starts breathing rapidly due to stress. It’s become a common trope to represent a character reacting unfavorably to something. For most people, this is rare. When someone breathes too rapidly, this lowers the carbon…

This is a old-style cap with a flat top, a band around the bottom, and a visor. They might also be called a “fisherman’s cap,” a “mariner’s cap,” and they might remind some people of a train conductor’s cap. I even saw a reference to a “John Lennon cap,” since he famously wore one. Vladimir Lenin…

This can also mean “a piece of a brick used as a weapon,” but that would seem to be a strange usage.

This is a term from the arts which means creating a mixed media work out of whatever materials you can find. However, it’s been expanded to mean assembling something – anything – together from disparate parts. It’s borrowed from the French bricoler which means “to tinker” or “to putter” and…

It’s historically Italian for “mettle”, “fire,” or “life.” As of today, it translates directly as “liveliness.”

The British had been involved India since the 1600s, when the East India Company set up trading operations there to import silk, cotton, and spices. The company slowly took control of large parts of the country through economic means, until they exerted de facto control of India in the mid-1700s….

Several time periods in British history are named for the first names of reigning monarchs of those times: Elizabethan: the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from 1558 to 1603 Georgian: the reign of King George I from 1714 to 1837 Victorian: the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901 Edwardian: the…

This is the extreme western region of France. It’s mostly a peninsula that extends into the Atlantic. The largest city in the region is Rennes, with about 750,000 in its metro area. (Interestingly, the two other large cities are named Vannes and Nantes, which points to some common etymology.)…

Apparently it comes from the same root as “broccoli.”

Yes. It’s a hybrid vegetable, formed by mixing broccoli and a leafy Asian vegetable called Gai Lan.

Technically, a bromide is a scientific noun, referring to some part of the chemical compoud Bromine. Historically, a common usage of bromides is as a sedative. It was commonly used as an anesthetic before modern discoveries. Hence, a “bromide” in speech or writing is something so meaningless or…

This is just another name for “bear.” It was a name of a bear in a Dutch children’s fable from the 12th century. Most people know this as the name of two major sports teams: the UCLA Bruins in college sports, and the Boston Bruins in NHL hockey. The UCLA team is very prominent with the bear…

A “bucket list” is a list of things you want to do before you die (“kick the bucket”). It’s become an ingrained American idiom, and I’ve also heard it in other parts of the world. I became aware of the term because of the 2007 movie The Bucket List . But surely that film didn’t invent the phrase,…

This is a configuration for a firearm where the handgrip is in front of the breech. This tends to make for a shorter weapon overall, while preserving barrel length and muzzle velocity . No one quite knows or can agree where the name “bullpup” originated. It might have something to do with the…

This is both a common and a proper noun. Commonly, it’s literally German for “bunch,” but also extends to be “union” or “group.” As a proper noun, it’s refer to several different historical groups, both for and against the Nazis. The most prominent of which (for Americans at least) was The German…

This was fashion trend consisting of a pad or solid frame worn under a woman’s skirt which served to fill out her backside, sometimes comically so. It was popular in 1870s and 1890s. The goal was clearly aesthetic : The bustle was a fashion accessory in Victorian Europe’s upper-class society…

These are laws that govern the transportation of goods from two points within the same country . These laws normally dictate that this transportation has to be done by a carrier “from” that country (in quotes because this is subject to wide interpretation). The biggest usage is in shipping. In the…

Historically, this was an Indian chief in Latin America. More recently, it’s become known as the name for a “political boss” in local politics, and, more generally, anyone in Latin American culture who is locally powerful and well-connected.

No one quite knows, it seems. Many historians state that the “correct” ancient symbol for medicine is the Rod of Asclepius, which is a single serpent winding around a staff. Asclepius was a diety associated with healing. Myth states that he used snakes in his healing rituals. The caduceus is a…

Often, the stones were a burial mound, containing a body and intended to keep it away from predators or scavengers.

Calculus is the hard substance that plaque turns into if it’s not removed – otherwise known as “tartar.” This is the stuff that the dental hygenist is scraping off your teeth during your visit. It can also refer to a hard mass of some kind, often one in the kidney or the bladder. The name comes…

The Cambrian Period was an evolutionary timeframe occurring about 541 million years ago, and lasting for about 55 million years. It was named for the Latin name for Wales (“Cambria”), which is where considerable fossil evidence was discovered. The Cambrian Explosion was an event during that period….

This is the precise placing of actors in a film scene. It’s a rehearsal process where actors decide and plan where they will be at each point in the scene, and where they will move during the scene, in relation to the camera. It’s important because an actor has to be in frame, usually facing the…

This is one of the organized crime groups in Italy. In the United States, we speak of “the mafia” to refer to organized crime, but this is very general term for a branch of organized crime in this country. The “American Mafia” has its roots in a crime organization in historical Sicily. In…

It has to do with the transition from two-letter to three-letter codes. Originally, airport codes were just two-letters. In Canada, they decided to use the same code as the Morse code for the corresponding Canadian railway station. Eventually, it became important to know if an airport had a weather…

In it’s strictest terms, this is simply a physical element that’s only connected to a large structure at one end, so the other end “hangs out in space.” Architecturally, a cantilever is a building structure that protrudes into open space, such as a balcony. A great example is The Guthrie Theater…

This is an economic model used to reduce carbon emissions. A government sets a “cap” on the total amount of emissions to be allowed, and they sell “permits” or “certificates” or “credits” which allow organizations to emit a certain amount against that cap. The goal is to slowly reduce the cap every…

William Bligh was the (purportedly) ruthless and cruel captain of the HMS Bounty , the crew of which famously mutinied in 1789. Bligh and his loyalists were set adrift in a small boat, and the Bounty continued on to the Pitcairn Islands , where the mutineers settled with some Polynesian women they…

This is a physical word that was used in an emotional context.

A unit of mass, commonly used to measure gemstones. Technically it measures weight , though it’s often used to refer to size. However, weight and size increase together, so it’s roughly the same thing. It’s 200mg or a very small fraction of an ounce (less than 1/100). It was standardized in 1907….

This is an expense that an organization can incur to “offset” their carbon emissions. If a company outputs 100 tons of CO2 each year, they can give money to organizations that theoretically enable the removal of that same amount of C02, thus “making up for their sins,” in some sense. Carbon…

This word doesn’t actually exist: rather, it’s an invented form of the word “carbuncle,” which is a cluster of boils or infections.

Apparently the Latin word for prison is “carcer.” This is where we get the word “incarcerated.”

This seems to be a vaguely pejorative term to mean someone who is trying to advance their career by any means necessary, even those unrelated to work performance. I found various definitions consistent with that: Careerism is the propensity to pursue career advancement, power, and prestige outside…

This refers an action performed to achieve some result, without any understanding of the mechanics of how it works, or even if it does work. But Action X is mentally associated with Result Y, and someone believes the causation exists, so they keep performing Action X. A literal “cargo cult”…

In general, this refers to something that can be linked back to Rene Descartes, the French scientist, famous for uttering the phrase, “I think, therefore I am.” There are several scientific, mathematical, and philosophical branches that are named for Descartes: Cartesian geometry Cartesian…

This was an ancient city near the modern city of Tunis in the country of Tunisia on the northern coast of Africa. It lay directly across the Mediterranean from Italy, and was often at war with the Roman Empire. The African Muslim populated drove the Romans out of Africa when they laid siege to and…

She was a Greek woman who was cursed by Apollo to know and foretell true prophecies which no one would believe. She would often predict calamities (like the fall of Troy) that were disregarded. The name is sometimes used to refer to someone who predicts doom or future problems (though whether or…

This is from the literal Latin. It’s related to the “just war doctrine,” meaning it refers to an act in which war is a (subjectively) justified response.

This is from the Greek “kataraktes,” which means “downrush.” Clearly, most people know “cataract” from the disorder of the mammalian eye. So, how did that get named for a waterfall? Wikipedia has some theories : As rapidly running water turns white, so the term may have been used metaphorically to…

It came from the novel – it’s a phrase invented by Joseph Heller for his 1962 novel of the same time. It did not exist prior to the novel, and took on a life of its own after the novel as an idiom to describe a frustrating loop where two choices are both prevented by the other. “You mean there’s a…

It may stem from a Turkish word to describe an ancient ruling dynasty. Marco Polo used the word quite often when describing his travels.

These three terms are disputed, and many consider them obsolete, and even offensive. They refer to what some people considered the three “base races” in the world: In simple, cultural terms: Caucasian: White people Mongoloid: Asian people Negroid: Black people One of the original theories of race…

In its strictest definition, this simply means “horseman” or “horse soldier,” from the same root and etymology as “cavalry.” However, it has a cultural definition as a knight or upper class man – often one who escorts a woman to a social event. It also has a negative image of someone who disregards…

A British businessman and politician who operated mainly in Southern Africa in the late 1800s, where he moved as a child. Rhodes is known for several things: One of the governors of the main British imperial presences in Southern Africa – the Cape Colony (now South Africa) Creator of the De Beers…

Cement is the base aggregate. It’s limestone, silica, and some other things. It’s a very fine powder. Cement, when mixed with other things, makes concrete. You mix it with sand, rocks, and water. So, the sidewalk in front of your house is technically concrete , not cement. Cement is just one…

It’s literally Greek for “empty tomb.” Many times, it’s a monument to a group of people who died, made in the form of a tomb to memorialize them. There’s a vague, blurry line between a cenotaph and a regular memorial. Linguistically, “cenotaph” is considered a hyponym or subtype of “monument.”

No. This is a very vague title that basically means “a group of people who share information about a skill.” Wikipedia even comes out and says: Due to its broad usage and vague legal precedent, a “center of excellence” in one context may have completely different characteristics from another. The…

These two terms are categories of ammunition, not brand names. Any cartridge is either centerfire or rimfire, not both. The name refers to where in the casing the primer is located. Primer is what ignites after being hit by the firing pin. It, in turn, ignites the gunpowder, that creates the…

This was the original name of the current country of Sri Lanka. It was named Ceylon until 1972. I couldn’t find any specific reference to where “Ceylon” came from. The Portuguese used it when they occupied the island in the early 1600s, and it carried forward. It was finally rejected as a “slave…

It’s simple French – “chanter” is “to sing” and “-euse” is the feminine suffix. In many definitions its specifically stated to mean a “concert” singer or a “nightclub” singer. I think it generally refers to a female singer that is not part of a group or a background singer – so, a singer who is the…

This is a larger plate that goes under the actual dinner plate in a formal dinner service. A charger plate is decorative, but also protects the linen from spillage, and helps insulate the dish from the table – ostensibly keeping it hot or cold for longer.

This is a when a wrongdoer is humiliated by being “paraded through the streets.” From Wikipedia : A European and North American folk custom in which a mock parade was staged through a community accompanied by a discordant mock serenade Occasionally, the actual wrongdoer is not used, but rather…

Here’s the simple definition, from Wikipedia : A chatelaine is a decorative belt hook or clasp worn at the waist with a series of chains suspended from it. Each chain is mounted with useful household appendages such as scissors, thimbles, watches, keys, vinaigrette, and household seals. However,…

A principle of fiction that says every story element has to matter to the overall plot, and if something doesn’t further the plot, it should be removed. The principle is often stated as: If a gun appears in Act One, it better go off in Act Three. The original reference was by the Russian playwright…

I could figure this one out from the word structure, but here’s the interesting thing about this – this is always irrational, because everything is chemicals . We tend to think “chemical” means something artificial, created in a lab. But water is a chemical. Everything is a chemical. It is not…

Neither. Both the actor and the city were named (indirectly) for a medieval English hunting ground. The actor, who was born in 1943, is actually named Cornelius Chase. “Chevy” is a childhood nickname. (Apparently, he was also indirectly named after the English land, not the city.) The city in…

This an idiom for when an actor is earnestly overacting. From TV Tropes : A common term for a scene where an actor’s acting so damn hard that they’re picking bits of scenery out of their teeth for days. Sometimes scenes can actually require this, but more often the actor and/or director just has…

Not surprisingly, it’s beef. Specifically, it’s “cube steak,” which is round or sirloin that’s flattened by pounding it with a meat tenderizer. So it’s not a “natural” cut of beef – it’s processed a bit (and then, of course, it’s breaded…).

It’s literally from the French word for “nape of neck,” so it clearly implies a specific location. The pronunciation sounds vaguely Asian: “sheen-yong”

The etymology on this goes back to the root word for “bile,” which supposedly – by the reasoning of ancient medicine – led to an excess of anger. It’s the same root from which we get “cholera.”

From the Greek word “khthon” means “beneath the Earth.” This is likely the root of “Cthulhu.” From Wikipedia : Invented by Lovecraft in 1928, the name Cthulhu was probably chosen to echo the word chthonic (Ancient Greek “of the earth”), as apparently suggested by Lovecraft himself at the end of his…

Very simply, this is some receptacle that holds water. Generally speaking, they are immovable – a bucket could be a cistern, but that’s not how the word is used. A cistern is usually considered to a be a built-in feature of a building. A cistern is filled, either by water delivery or by rainwater…

Before this was a Tom Clancy novel (1989) and subsequent film (1994), it was a phrase taken from a landmark Supreme Court decision. In 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote an opinion for a unanimous court in Schenck vs. United States . Two people were arrested for distributing pamphlets…

This is the root word of “inclement,” which is usually always used to refer to bad weather. So “clement weather” means nice, sunny, and mild conditions. It comes from “clemen” which is Latin for “mild, placid, or gentle,” and is the same root from which we get “clemency.”

This is an idiom that refers to situations involving secrecy and intrigue. In ancient times, assassins or thieves would wear cloaks which hid their weapons, often a dagger. This enabled the classic scenario of someone pulling a knife from beneath their robes and killing someone, which I suppose…

This has both a literal and symbolic definition. Literally, a cloister is a covered walk forming the perimeter of a building’s open central square. It’s from the Latin word for “enclosure.” Symbolically, “cloisters” refers to a separated religious life. To be “in cloisters” is to life a monastic…

This is an idiom with no settled meaning. Some people consider it an insult, others a term of endearment. The most common usage is by the character of The Joker in the Batman universe. He describes himself as “The Clown Prince of Crime.” But did it predate that? According to a Google NGram search ,…

Refers to the noun used to describe groups of things: A herd herd of cows A flock of sheep A swarm of bees This is an actual noun – you can refer to “the herd” or “the flock” or “the swarm.” I assume that most singular nouns have a collective equivalent? If it doesn’t, do you default to “group”?…

Broadly speaking, this is an artist who applies or manipulates the color of media. In comic books, the original drawings were done in black-and-white, and a colorist then applied color to them. So the lines of the drawing and the color were done by two separate artists. (See a good example on the…

This is the colloquial name for a mobster’s mistress. It’s slang, pronounced “goo-mah” when using a heavy Italian-American accent. It’s a weird word, because that’s an American pronunciation of an Italian word, and it has a different meaning in America. And the English spelling is sometimes…

Yes. An older usage of the term refers to a group of soldiers, not a single soldier as we generally understand today. Wikipedia explains : Originally “a commando” was a type of combat unit, as opposed to an individual in that unit. In other languages, commando and kommando denote a “command”,…

This is short-term, unsecured debt, issued by corporations to fund day-to-day activities. It’s normally effected by selling promissory notes at a discount. To “issue” commercial paper means to ask for a loan, basically. Most buyers of commercial paper are banks and other financial institutions. So…

This is an accordion-like musical instrument, meant to be played between the hands. It has buttons on either side, but, unlike an accordion, it does not have a keyboard.

This refers to who has physical control of a vessel at any particular time. To “have the conn” means you are in final control of the navigation of a seagoing (or spacefaring) vessel. The captain of a ship assigns the conn. They can give it to a junior officer and take it back at their discretion….

When firefighters attack a wildfire, they first “draw a border” around it. Their primary goal is to create containment lines around the fire to prevent it from spreading. Then they can try to put it out within the containment lines, or they can just let it burnout. A containment line is an area of…

Well, it’s not formally defined, really. A continent is a “large landmass” on Earth, but opinions on the specifics vary. In the United States, we’re taught that there are seven continents, but not everyone agrees. In different places and different time periods, the count has changed. Many countries…

This is a vague term, and it’s not a single thing. You can speak of a continental divide, not the continental divide. In most contexts, it refers to a hydrological divide, which is a point where water flows to different oceans. This means that most continents will have a north-south divide and an…

From Latin for “counter time.” Though I’m not sure how that specifically applies.

This is a just a formal term for a meeting, usually in academic or ecclesiastical contexts. It comes from an Old English word for “to call together.” In usage, I get the feeling that it means a group of people convened for an event or occasaion, not just a meeting.

This specifically refers to a biological phenomenon in animals where males will have sex more often if they are presented with a variety of partners, rather than the same partner over and over again. The source is humorous: The President and Mrs. Coolidge were being shown [separately] around an…

This is a (presumably) mildly racist term mean to describe a low-paid member of the working class of a race other than the speaker. In most cases, the speaker is White, and the worker is either Black or Hispanic. Wikipedia specifies Asians: is a term for a low-wage laborer, typically of South Asian…

This is a cybersecurity practice or policy which promotes the disclosure of security vulnerabilities to the affected vendor first , before public disclosure. If a software or hardware vulnerability is announced publicly before a fix is available, then bad actors (“hackers”) will learn about it, and…

This is a style of writing. It’s like calligraphy, but it uses a pointed instrument, rather than a flat-bladed instrument. You can make fine strokes with the point, or press harder for broader strokes. The etymology seems murky. A “copper plate” is literally a plate of copper which is etched to…

Technically, an equivalent male is a “coquet,” but you don’t see that word much. Perhaps unfortunately, “coquet” is a diminutive form of “cock” in French. One assumes that the usage here is because a rooster “flirts” with a bunch of hens. That would fit a male in this situation, and “coquette” is…

This is a city in Spain. However, it was formerly the Islamic capital of Spain, and it was ruled by Muslims from the 700s to the 1200s. At one point, it was the largest Islamic city in the world. It’s still home to The Great Mosque of Cordoba.

This means relating to a physical thing – usually a human body – in some way. It’s from the Latin “corpus” which means “body.” This is also the basis of “corporal,” which we often see in two contexts: The military rank. However, Merriam disputes this etymology: The noun corporal […] traces back not…

A branch of astronomy that deals specifically with the origins and chronology of the universe. Physical cosmology deals with the actual origins of the physical universe, while religious or mythical cosmology deals with the purpose and reason for the universe. It comes from the Greek “kosmos” which…

This is the southeastern coast of France, also called the French Rivera. The name translates to “Coast of Azure” or “Coast of Blue,” referring to the color of the Mediterranean. The French Riviera ends at the Italian border in the east, but where it starts in the west is up for debate. Some sources…

The dry definition of this is “contrary to fact,” which makes sense given the word structure. But more commonly, a “counterfactual” is speculation about “what could have been” under different circumstances. Someone engaging in counterfactuals is saying, “if things were different, this is how…

This refers to a natural environment that seems idyllic, but which prevents the growth of complex societies over time. It was original used to describe the Amazon in South America. The phrase comes from a 1971 book: Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise . Betty Meggers argued that the…

This is literal French for “cry from the heart.”

This is hard to describe in words. You sort of have to watch it visually. Here are two great videos (literally the first two results when searching YouTube for how to play cricket ): How to Play Cricket (2:00) How to play cricket: The Basics (7:06) It’s tempting to compare this to baseball, because…

A hoop skirt. This is the classic dress from the 1800s that billows out from the waist.

This is a dance style, popularized by the Crips gang of Los Angeles. Technically, it involves pivoting on the balls and heels of the feet to spell out C-R-I-P. Often, the hands are held high, sometimes pointing at your feet. An authentic gang member might make gang signs with their hands during the…

A family of vegetables. The most common members are: Cauliflower Cabbage Kale Broccoli Brussels sprouts Arugula These are “true vegetables,” unlike other foods such as corn, potatoes, and peas which people think are vegetables but actually fall into other categories (grains, tubers, and legumes,…

This is just raw vegetables served as an appetizer. Things like carrot sticks, celery, radishes, etc. It’s French for “raw things.”

This is a creature that some people theorize exists, but for which no scientific evidence exists. Think Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster.

This was a political movement in China in the late 1960s. Chairman Mao Zedong had lost power due to the failure of the The Great Leap Forward, and he was concerned that he was losing his grip on the Communist Party. He began the Cultural Revolution by stirring up fears that capitalists had…

This is any structure that moves water past an obstacle. Most often, a culvert is a pipe through the Earth. If a drainage ditch runs down the side of the road, and a driveway has to obstruct that ditch, the culvert is the opening (invariably a pipe) through the dirt that is piled in the ditch so a…

This is a prepositional phrase from Latin which means “with.” So “X-cum-Y” means “X with Y.” Incidentally, this is where the degree honors come from: cum laude: “with praise” magna cum laude: “with great praise” summa cum laude: “with highest praise”

This is a pass through the Appalachian Mountains. It’s located at almost the exact point where Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia come together. It is depressed between 600 and 900 feet from the peaks on either side of it. It used to have a highway, but that was dangerous, so a tunnel under the…

This is a general term for “placeholder.” Here’s how we got to this definition, from Wikipedia : In computer user interfaces, a cursor is an indicator used to show the current position for user interaction Cursor is Latin for “runner.” A cursor is a name given to the transparent slide engraved with…

The larger concept here is the U.S. Navy’s “hull classification system.” The Navy needs to keep track of its ships, so each one has a “hull number.” This is a code for the type of ship, then a number. No two hull numbers repeat for ships in active service. Some common hull type designations: BB:…

This prefix comes from the field of cybernetics, which is the study of the command and control of groups and beings (yes, it’s very vague). It’s usage in that field dates to the 1940s. That name came from the Greek “kubernetes” for “steersman” or “governor.” Sometime in the 1980s, this morphed into…

This generally means “massive.” Obviously, it comes from the root of Cyclops, the monster from Greek and Roman mythology. “Cyclops” means “round eye” which was used to describe a giant creature with one eye. The word seems to be common masonry industry, to refer to stonework done with large stones….

This refers to “banditry” or “theft,” mainly in Asia. It’s an anglicized form of the Hindi word meaning “armed robbery.” “Dacoit” is the noun form.

He was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, and is considered one of the greatest diplomats in world history. He served from 1953 to his death in 1961. He was killed in a plane crash in Congo. There are conflicting reports of the cause, and it was still being investigated into the…

This was the predecessor to the modern photograph. It dated from the 1840s and 1950s, when it was super-ceded by better methods. Daguerreotypes are the classic “old style” of photograph, which appear to be shot through a sepia or silver filter.

The literally definition is “large land,” referring to the fact that these Lords were landowners

This term seems to have originated in early baseball or cricket, referring to a ball that travels low across the ground – either a cricket bowl or a baseball hit. Presumeably, the name comes from the idea that the ball was low enough to “cut daisies” as it traveled. From there, it morphed into…

The Asian name for split legumes, or for soups made from these. Split pea soup, for example, is a form of dal. You can make a dal from any split, boiled legume.

This is the western coast of the Balkan Peninsula, against the Adriatic Sea. It’s dominated by Croatia spreading southward, with the exception of a tiny sliver of Bosnia poking through to the ocean. In addition to the mainland coast, there are hundreds of small islands. The name comes from the…

It’s Latin for “from the beginning” or “anew.”

This is method of navigation that doesn’t rely on external waypoints or input. If starting from a known position, with known speed and direction at all times, you can theoretically look at a map and figure out where you are. It’s like a pirate map that says something like, “Walk 40 paces north from…

These are two terms you mostly hear in programming (when used together), but which apply to a lot of other things as well. You need to consider their roots: Declare: “Get me this thing” Prescribe: “Here is how to get this thing” In programming, “prescriptive code” specifies exactly how to do…

There’s a good etymology here: it comes from the French word décollet , which literally means no (“de”) collar (“collet”) to represent “low neckline.” In one type of usage, décolletage is also known, more simply, as cleavage.

This is a colloquial expression referring to a musical track not normally heard on the radio. The track might not have been released as a single, so it’s not in normal rotation, and the deejay (assuming there was one) “cut deep” through the album track list to select it. I’m wondering how the…

Yes, this is still a thing. DEFCON is short for “defense condition,” and it refers to the general state of readiness and alert for the American military. It’s actually in reverse order: DEFCON 5 is the most relaxed, and DEFCON 1 is almost at war. The levels were established in 1959: DEFCON 1:…

Usually, when a university confers an honorary degree (often to a commencement speaker) the degree is a “Doctorate of Letters” or “Doctorate of Humane Letters.” It’s usually claimed that the degree is granted due to the recipient’s lifelong contribution to the arts. But what does “letters” mean in…

More specifically, this is a term often used for the killing of Jesus Christ. It can be used as a antisemitic pejorative. From an article entitled “ The origins of anti-Semitism ”: Some important thinkers in early Christianity offered a dangerous allegation: that Judean Jews had handed Christ over…

This is a vague word that generally means a request or statement of position from one government to another. When a government makes a request or a demand of another government, it is in the form of a démarche. (How each country specifically defines that word varies.) From Protocol for the Modern…

This is a bra that only covers half the breast, leaving the upper portion exposed for… dramatic (?) effect? The opposite of a demi bra is a “full bra”, which has cups that go up and over the entirety of the breast mass. “demi” is a prefix meaning “half” or “partial.”

I found a few reasons for this: Doctors and dentists have just been historically separated from each other. They train in different schools, and practice in different locations. Health insurance started in the 1920s and 1930s at hospitals, with doctors who practiced there. Since dentists never…

The word “detroit” is French for “narrow strip of water” or “strait.”

This is an accented character, which you mostly see in languages other than U.S. English. French, for example, uses several diacritics, like in “façade” and “café”. Vietnamese uses accented characters in almost every word.

It means something related to the works of Charles Dickens, but is usually used to refer to depressing circumstances, as Dickens often told stories of the poor of Victorian England. From The Free Dictionary : Of, relating to, or reminiscent of the works of Charles Dickens, especially with regard to…

The word seems vaguely condescending – to be “didactic” is to be a bore that lectures and moralizes at every opportunity.

In narrative story-telling, diegesis refers to things that are experienced by the characters within the story. Non-diegesis refers to things that are experienced by the audience, not the characters. Example, if watching a movie: Background music coming from a band playing in a bar as part of the…

This is a solution that’s injected into the exhaust of diesel engines to reduce emissions.

Dionysus was the Greek god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theater. All very pleasure-oriented things. This phrase is a lot like Bacchanal .

This is the phonetic sound that results when two vowels are next to each other: “ai” and “ea” and “ou,” for example. It’s pronounced “diff-thong.”

There are dozens of books, chapters, and gospels that were once included in the Hebrew Bible, or that various scholars believe should be included. Some of these books have questionable attribution, or were written by groups that eventually came to be considered heretical. Others are accepted only…

This is literally from a Latin word meanin “daily.” It refers to something that generally follows a daily cycle, or occurs once per day.

This presumably refers to a person who has wealth equivalent to a billion U.S. dollars (as opposed to a billion units of some other currency). I went looking for some validation of this, but I didn’t find any explicit definitions. What I did find were a lot of contextual quotes indicating this was…

A mountain range in Italy. They’re named for the type of rock they’re formed of. Also known as The Southern Alps. The mountains are located at the Northern Edge of Italy, towards Austria. This is where you ski in Italy, apparently. Unbeknownst to me, the winter scenes of For Your Eyes Only – one of…

Donnybrook was a town in Ireland (now a district of Dublin) which was home to the Donnybrook Fair. That event became legendary for alcohol consumption and subsequent fist fights.

It’s a cycle where problems lead to more problems and a situation spirals into destruction. From Investopia : A doom loop describes a situation in which one negative action or factor triggers another, which in turn triggers another negative action or causes the first negative factor to worsen,…

It’s German for “double-walker.” Historically, it has some spiritual component. Seeing your doppelganger was a bad omen, or it involved a haunting of some kind. The concept of a sinister doppelganger is common to many languages and cultures. In modern English, it’s generally used simply to mean…

This is just a specific species of mouse. The name comes from the fact that it hibernates (is “dormant”) for half the year.

The origin of this goes back to “dote,” which is Old English for “to act foolishly.” This is where we get the verb form of “to dote,” which means to lavish foolish levels of attention on someone. It’s also where we get “dotage,” which is someone’s old age where they experience mental decline…

In the scientific method, each experiment should have two groups: The Experimental Group: this is the group on which a new variable is added The Control Group: this is the group where nothing changes – it is missing the variable introduced to the experimental group The goal is that the variable…

This is an excessive forward curvature of the spine in older people, often older women. It’s caused by a combination of genetics, aging, and behavioral factors, such as chronic poor posture. A “dowager” is a widow who holds property from a deceased husband (a dowry). It’s sometimes used to refer to…

It came from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland . The very first chapter is entitled “Down the Rabbit-Hole.” A white rabbit appears to Alice on a riverbank, says “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!,” then disappears down a hole in the ground (the “rabbit-hole”). Alice follows him, thereby starting a…

The word “downs” is actually a geographical feature: low grassy hills. The word comes from the Gaelic “dun,” which means “hill.” The North and South Downs in England were so-named, and they were used mainly for pasture. This is likely where the usage comes from: “downs” became a way to refer to…

This is a general term to refer to a category of music.

This is the feminine version of the more rare “doyen,” which means: the senior member of a body or group a person considered to be knowledgeable or uniquely skilled as a result of long experience in some field of endeavor “Doyen” is Old French for “dean” which vaguely means leader.

This is sometimes used as a predecessor term to “cavalry,” though in my research, it mostly referred to foot soldiers who were transported to battle on horseback. The name comes from a common weapon in 17th Century Britain – a musket called the “dragon” – which was carried by these troops. Today,…

This is an outdated term, but it used to refer to stores that sold goods that did not contain liquid (meaning they have an indefinite shelf life), or that were measured with a dry unit (pounds, for example). It was a popular term for clothing, and eventually morphed into what we know today as a…

This is a chain of drugstores in New York City. They’re a competitor to Walgreens and CVS. They were so-named because their original store was between Duane and Reade Streets in Lower Manhattan. Those two streets are named for American politicians, not related to the business.

This is an economic phenomenon where a drastic improvement in one part of country’s economy leads to a decline in other parts. Specifically, it refers to the rise in the valuation of the Dutch guilder when a large oil field was discovered in the late 1950s. This caused exports to be more expensive,…

This is a purchase made at a shop in the international terminal of most airports which is free from taxes. Since some goods – like alcohol and cigarettes – are highly taxed, this can result in a steep discount on these items. There are three separate concepts at work: If you have checked in and…

This is a down blanket with a removal cover. Technically, the blanket itself is the “duvet,” and the cover that comes off is the “duvet cover.” It comes off so you can wash it easily (I’m assuming there are also options to swap out styles). A “bedspread” is a heavy top cover like a duvet, but…

There are several scientific definitions of this in different disciplines, but they all basically describing two individual things, regarded as a single pair. The Greek word for “two” is “dio,” from which we got “duo” and “dyas” which means “group of two.”

This comes from the word “dyspepsia,” which refers to digestive problems like heartburn and acid reflux. Presumably, people suffering from dyspepsia are known to be irritable.

It’s an acronym for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.” By definition, this will always be larger than “normal” earning figures, which subtract those four things. EBITDA measures the health of a company’s operating business , meaning the things it actually produces to…

This means “behold the man” in Latin. It was used by Pontius Pilate when presenting Jesus to the crowds just before his execution. This moment has become common in art, as a depiction of Jesus with a crown of thorns. Colloquially, it’s become a phrase which represents sacrifice, humility, or the…

In common usage, this is an imaginary substance that psychics and mediums excrete that forms itself into semi-physical things. The idea is that a medium who is talking to someone in the afterlife will somehow manifest ectoplasm, and this circulates in the air and forms the apparition of the dead…

This refers to the outside-most defensive players that rush the quarterback in American football. In a 4-3 set-up, it’s the defensive ends In a 3-4 set-up, it’s the outside linebackers Those players are on the “edges” of the defensive line scheme – the edges of whatever format is expected to rush…

For some reason, I thought this mean “feminine,” but it comes from the word meaning “no longer fruitful.” I was once used to refer to animals no longer capable of producing offspring.

It’s a form of “elegy,” which is “a poem of serious reflection, usually a lament for the dead.”

This is the “official” nickname of Seattle. I quote “official” because I’m not sure the city government ever voted on it, but rather it was a name selected from a contest sponsored by the Seattle Convention and Visitor’s Bureau in 1982. The winner apparently wrote an essay for her submission, but I…

This is someone who influences or controls a public figure behind-the-scenes. In 17th century France, Cardinal Richelieu was known as “The Red Eminence,” because of his position in the church and his red robes. However, many thought he was heavily influenced by an assistant who who different…

This is an Arabic word. It comes from “emir,” which refers to any person holding authority, be it a monarch or an officeholder. Technically, an “emirate” means “a land governed by an emir.” However, the concept of “emir” has become a little vague over the years, given that most Arab lands have…

When an actor appears at the end of the credits prefixed by “and” or “with,” this is called “end billing.” It’s usually reserved for bigger name actors who have smaller parts. For example, in beginning of the movie True Lies , Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis are the main stars of the…

This is the idea or belief that the end of the Cold War and the fall of Communism was the last great threat to basic democracy, and what would flourish in its place was democracy all over the world. “History” has been a long period of the evolution of political ideas, which have finally culminated…

This is a military term that means weapons can be fired down the longest axis of an enemy formation. If you’re at the flank of a firing line, you can fire down the entire line. If you’re in a plane flying along the length of a trench, you can fire entire the trench, following its line.

This is related to a couple other words: convince and invincible. They come from the Latin root which means “to vanquish” or “to win” (as in, win an argument).

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was a Dutch theologian and philosopher in the 1500s.

This word has been used in many contexts. It’s originally related to mathematics, but has been repurposed in several domains. Generally, it means that a system which appears to be chaotic will eventually return to a previously-known state. So, if we consider one combination of all variables in a…

This geographic feature normally happens due to a fault line or erosion.

This is where a freshwater river meets the ocean. The main feature of an estuary is that the water becomes “brackish,” which is a salinity halfway between freshwater and the ocean – so, “half salty,” basically. An estuary can be a simply river delta, or a large ecosystem of marshes and barrier…

This is a method of studying cultures. I always thought this was anthropology, but it turns out that this is a subdivision. It’s also a little vague. Wikipedia explains : While, traditionally, ethnography has relied on the physical presence of the researcher in a setting, there is research using…

In particular, “medical etiology” concerns discovering the causes of diseases or conditions, however the word can refer to research into the cause of anything. I got to wondering if the word “etiologist” is an actual thing (note: according to the spellcheck in the editor in which I am writing now,…

This is a brass instrument that looks a lot like a French horn (to me, someone with no musical instrument experience).

From the definition (and the word itself), this feels pejorative (no one wants to be “trash”). Urban Dictionary has some fun with it . A person, male or female, from Continental Europe who spends most of the time partying and jet-setting around the globe in the most conspicuous (sometimes rude)…

This is a trend of documenting the items that someone carries on their person every day to be prepared for situations that might arise. The concept of carrying a specific set of items every day isn’t new, of course, but there’s a burgeoning trend of documenting and celebrating this. An ecosystem of…

A person who engages in this is an “exegete.” Not to be confused with exigency .

I sort of knew what this meant, but I wanted to clarify that it was not the same as exegesis (it is not).

These terms refer to the origin of an actor or phenomenon – did it come from inside the body or network, or from outside? “Endo” means “within,” so an endogenous actor is something that originated from inside some larger construct. “Exo” means “outside,” so an exogenous actor is something that…

It’s somewhat similar to “extermination,” but I couldn’t see how they had any common etymology.

This is a noun that refers to anything that “oozes” out of a wound. It’s the noun form of the verb “exuding.” It can come from animals or trees and plants. Sap that oozes out of a cut in a tree, for example, is exudate.

It’s a portmanteau of “extra” and “urban.” The Brookings Institution published a report in 2006 that identified three criteria: Economic connection to a large metropolis. Low housing density: bottom third of census tracts with regard to housing density. In 2000, this was a minimum of 2.6 acres…

There are actually two conditions at work: Swelling or “bags” under the eyes Dark circles under the eyes Both are associated with being tired, for some reason. The “bags” are just fat deposits. They grow a bit with age, and the muscles can’t support them as well, so they drop and appear more…

In examples on the web, I found it used to describe both George Santos and Alex Jones (in addition to the Trump reference below), so it’s definition seems pretty obvious by context.

It’s often used to mean “overly simplistic.” Someone who has a “facile solution” is not thinking about the problem hard enough.

This is sort of like a “life manager” or personal assistant or majordomo. A factotum assists someone by performing whatever tasks they need. The word is Latin for “do all.”

In various definitions, I saw the words: “hodgepodge,” “mish-mash,” “haphazard,” “non-sensical,” etc. It comes from a Latin word for a mixed grain that was fed to cattle. Any grain that didn’t measure up to human standards, became a “farrago” for cattle.

This is an aggregate term meant to describe several different phenomenon which came together in the early part of the 2000s to drastically (1) increase the rate at which the average consumer buys clothes, and (2) decrease the length of time a style is considered fashionable and desirable. There are…

Sounds kind of like “facetious,” but has no relation.

This is a line from Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar : The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Cassius is trying to explain to Brutus that their current lives were not due to fate (“not in our stars”).

“Feck” means “effect” in Scottish. It’s loosely related to “effect.” So, to be “feck-less” is to be without effect.

Another word for “fertility.” It also means someone with great creative output.

Can we balance the U.S. budget solely by enacting spending cuts?

It means “foreigner” in Persian (Iranian) , and is used throughout Asia.

This is an argument/statement that posits: given the size and scale of the universe, it’s almost certain that there are other intelligent lifeforms out there, yet we still don’t have any credible evidence of any of them. Enrico Fermi was a physicist who was engaged in a conversation with some…

As a verb, “festoon” means to hang something in a decorative fashion, or just to decorate in general, as if for a party or celebration.

This refers to a feeling or obligation from a child to their parent. “Filial respect,” for example, is the respect one pays to their parents. It comes from the Latin words for son or daughter.

In politics, a filibuster is when a legislator makes a long speech or takes some other action meant to delay and therefore prevent the adoption of legislation. It’s basically a rules loophole, that lets one person prevent a measure from passing. Here’s a general definition : the use of irregular or…

This is a recent phenomenon in the United States where people record video in a public space. When confronted about their right to do so, they claim their (legitimate) First Amendment right and “audit” whether or not this right is upheld by the authorities and the public. Of course, the “auditing”…

This is military slang meaning “all good.” It comes from how they used to measure radio signal (1) strength and (2) clarity on a scale of 1 to 5. So, a strong signal that was distorted would be “five-by-one” and a weak, clear signal would be “one-by-five.” A strong clear signal would be…

This is a zoning code formula that compares the total floor size of a building (all floors together) to the lot size it’s built on. There are rules around this number. For example, if I want to build a 100-story building with each floor having 20,000 square feet of space, that’s a total of 2…

This is the process of combing two fluid substances of different thicknesses together my inserting a spoon into the bottom of the heavier mixture, pulling some to the top and over the lighter mixture. I found an article which explained it: Folding is a very precise term in cooking and baking. It…

No one agrees where this came from. One story: there was a person that waited down the driving range to see where the ball landed. This caddy was known as a “fore-caddy.” Yelling “Fore!” was a way of warning the fore-caddy that a ball was on the way. However, there are other origin stories. Here’s…

This is the front of a ship’s deck, essentially. If you’re standing on the deck of a ship – meaning, the topmost floor surface not part of a superstructure – then walk towards the front of a ship, you’re on the forecastle. On a sailing ship, it’s considered the area of the desk forward of the…

To own land permanently. This refers solely in immovable property – literally land , not the structures on it. To have “freehold” title to land, means you hold it free of any liens or mortgages.

This is a method of forcibly moving someone, roughly defined as them being carried, face-down, with a person holding each limb. Apparently the London police came up with the phrase “frog’s march,” which is how they handled drunken criminals. The term has evolved to mean the general forcing of…

This is technically a specific mountain sub-range in the Rockies. However, it’s used as a general descriptor for area on the Eastern side of the Rockies.

Fu Manchu was the villain in a series of Sax Rohmer novels in the first half of the 20th century and continuing into films. In popular culture, he is considered an archetype of a “supervillain.” Generally depicted as Asian, with a mustache that extends downwards from the corners of his mouth. (The…

Something that’s “fulsome” has a lot of some characteristic. It can also mean “overdone,” and is commonly used to mean “too much praise.”

This is a Japanese term for “foreigner.” There’s debate as to whether it’s an insult or not (I imagine it could go both ways, depending on context or usage).

There’s an Old English interpretation of “gain” as meaning “against.” So, “gainsay” is to literally “say against.”

This was originally a book written in 1928 about the gangs operating in New York during the 1800s, prior to the Italian Mafia. Most people of this generation know this as the 2002 movie Gangs of New York starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz. That film was loosely based on…

This is just an Old English spelling of “jail.” It’s literally pronounced the exact same way. It’s a little confusing because it sort of looks like “gallow” and it’s often used in the same context (“go to the gaol” works with both “gallow” and “jail”).

These were the people of Europe in the centuries immediately BC. They settled around France and Germany. They were Caucasian in appearance. They had no central government, but operated as a series of tribes, and were connected by a common language. They were mainly labeled as the “Gauls” by the…

This is a pseudo-scientific practice of assigning numbers to letters, and then manipulating those numbers to reveal supposed secret codes or messages embedded in texts. The most popular instance of this is the so-called “Bible Code,” which was published in 1997. It purported to find secret messages…

This is a religious term, as there are several specific religious practices around it. However, it’s more known as an idiom or shorthand to mean “defer.” An alternative definition : To be servilely respectful or deferential; grovel. I’ve interpreted it from context quite often to mean, “obviously…

A “geofence” is like a border. The term has digital roots – if you drag a series of lines around a map so they enclose an area, you have “geofenced” that area. A “geofence warrant” is when law enforcement defines such an area and then asks tech companies for all digital evidence that occurred in…

George Soros was born in Hungary. He moved to London then New York City, eventually making billions of dollars as a hedge fund manager. He currently has a net worth of approximately $7 billion. He is almost 94-years-old (as of this writing). He has many homes around the world, but seems to live…

This is probably just a coincidence. The U.S. State of Georgia is very clearly named for King George II. It became a colony in 1732 while he was in power. The country of Georgia is one of the former Soviet republics, located north of Armenia, between the Black and Caspian seas. Where it got its…

This a period of American history at the end of the 19th century. Opinions differ on when it started – certainly post-Civil War, but various accounts have it starting in the 1860s or 1870s and running through the end of the century. The period was characterized by enormous post-bellum economic…

George Gipp was a football player at Notre Dame in the late 1910s. His nickname was “The Gipper.” He died of an infection during his senior year. In the 1940 film, Knute Rockne, All-American , he was portrayed by Ronald Reagan. In his deathbed scene, Reagan implores his teammates to “…win just one…

“Gird” means to prepare for action or danger. Back in Biblical times, men wore tunics that hung very low, not allowing them freedom of movement for battle. To “gird your loins” was to bundle your tunic up and tie it through your legs and around your waist like a pair of shorts so that you can fight…

This is an organ found in birds and some other creatures. It’s a type of “pre-stomach” that grinds food, since birds don’t have teeth. Some birds actually swallow stones which stay resident in their gizzards to help break food down. They are prepared as food all around the world. They are a tough,…

This is business acronym for Gallery, Library, Archives, Museum, and Performing Arts. It refers to any business entity in the arts or humanities. It’s usually used to define a market segment. For example, a software vendor might advertise their software as “an ERP for the GLAMP space.” Employees…

No, it’s not a specific place. An informal label, usually used to refer to rural beauty and idealism. It implies that God has a favored geographic location that He imbued with special beauty or tranquility. There is no specific meaning, in a geographic sense, but the word has been used in media,…

Yes, this phrase predates Season 3, Episode 2 of Friends , entitled The One Where No One is Ready , which first aired on September 26, 1996. As slang, the phrase “going commando” to refer to not wearing underwear has been dated back to the 70s. Its exact origins are murky. It might refer to the…

Yes, it’s actual gold. This is gold that’s been hammered down to be a flat, tissue-thin layer, which can be applied to surfaces for artistic reasons. Applying gold leaf to surfaces is known as “gilding,” and it’s where we got the term Gilded Age to refer to an American period in the late 1800s….

This is a style of journalism in which the author’s opinion and perspective is injected into the story. It abandons notions of objectivity and dispassion, and tells stories from a clear perspective, often highly stylized and biased. From an article at MasterClass : Gonzo journalism is an…

This is Yiddish for a non-Jew. The plural is “goyim.” It’s disputed as to whether the word is a Semitic slur – a word that Jewish people use to pejoratively refer to non-Jews. Wikipedia has a list of Yiddish phrases where “goy” is meant to refer to something trivial, frustrating, or pointless. The…

The Grammys have confusing award names. They’re named in a way that might have made sense 50 years ago, but doesn’t make sense today. There are four “general” Grammy Awards, meaning those open to any genre of music. One of them is “Best New Artist,” which is self-explanatory and appropriately…

This is technically French for “great puppet,” but it usually refers to a theater in Paris called Théâtre du Grand Guignol (“The Theater of the Great Puppet.”) It was known for its realistic, gruesome horror shows. Each performance would be several short plays. Here’s a description from a 1957 New…

For no particular reason, I searched Google Trends for “gravid” and found an interesting correlation – a large percentage of searches for the term come from southern US states. Do Southerners use this term more often, or do are they just less likely to know what it means and therefore have to…

In geometry, a “great circle” is a flat plane that cuts through the middle of a sphere. Essentially, it becomes the longer line that was drawn around that sphere. In aviation navigation, a “great circle route” is the shortest path between two points, and is achieved by finding the great circle that…

No, it’s not a specific thing. According to Wikipedia : The Great Firewall is the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People’s Republic of China to regulate the Internet domestically. So it’s not just software – it’s the combined effect of laws and implied threat of…

The Great Reset was an initiative proposed by the World Economic Forum in June 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic. In an article announcing its formation , the WEF urged the world to “rebuild” in ways that are more sustainable. The Great Reset agenda would have three main components. The first…

Clearly, Broadway in New York City is an example of this. However, I suppose it could apply to any “entertainment district” of a city – even a couple blocks Phillips Avenue in downtown Sioux Falls. Wiktionary just has this for etymology: So called from its brilliant illumination at night.

This is a phrase commonly known to mean “jealously,” but I’m having trouble figuring out why it means this. Shakespeare used the phrase at least twice. In Othello : O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on. In The Merchant of Venice : How all…

This is a spellbook – a mythical textbook of magic. The etymology is not clear.

A grip is responsible for setting up the camera equipment, especially when the camera is doing something odd, like traveling on a track or elevating. The “key grip” is – as the name would indicate – the manager of the grips. A “best boy” is the assistant to the key grip. A gaffer is responsible for…

This is an old word for the “flu.”

These are a series of museums – existing, closed, or planned – which were funded by the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim was a wealthy patron of the arts whose family made its fortune in mining and gold exploration. He died in 1949. Guggenheim created the foundation that bears his name in…

No, this wasn’t a specific place. It was technically the name of the Soviet agency that managed the forced labor camps of the Lenin and Stalin eras. In the Western world, the term “gulag” came to refer to the generic Soviet system of camps, regardless of where they were. There were hundreds of…

A “moll” is a girlfriend or prostitute of a male criminal. Various etymologies state that it’s a shorthand for “Mary” or “Molly,” which was also used to indicate a prostitute. To be a “gun moll” specifically implies a level of active participation in crime.

It comes from the Latin word for “circle.”

Generally, men’s clothing. In British English, it can mean “small wares,” usually things like buttons, ribbons, zips, handkerchiefs, etc. – things used in sewing. However, in most commercial usage, it refers to mens’ clothing stores or people who sell men’s clothing (a “haberdasher”). I have seen…

Lots of churches are named “Hagia Sofia,” it turns out. The phrase is Greek for “holy wisdom,” which can apply to a lot of things. The Hagia Sofia is a mosque in Istanbul. It was originally an orthodox church, then a Roman Catholic church, then a museum, and now (very recently) it’s a mosque. When…

This refers to things that are allowed under Islamic law. This is the opposite of haram .

This idiom is often used when referring to childhood or youth Halycon is an ancient name for the Kingfisher bird. In ancient times, it was believed the gods had given the bird the power to calm the seas during the time when she laid her eggs. Shakespeare used the phrase as the contemporary idiom in…

This is a colloquial name for the shiny, baggy pants made popular by MC Hammer in the early 1990s, typified by his U Can’t Touch This music video. I searched for “hammer pants” on Amazon , and several results were labeled “Harem Pants.” The chief characteristic was both bagginess, and a crotch that…

A Hawaiian name for a white person, someone from the mainland who moved to Hawaii, or something not culturally or natively Hawaiian. It may or may not be derogatory, depending on usage and…venom? It’s pronounced “howl-lay” or “who-lay.”

This is used to describe anything outlawed by the Quran. It’s the opposite of halal .

This is genre of science fiction that’s concerned with scientific accuracy, with explaining how something might actually work in the real world. For example, The Martian was hard science fiction. It presented an example of what an astronaut might actually do if stranded on Mars. A lot of Daniel…

My first mistake here is that Harlem is not a full-fledged borough, it’s just a neighborhood in Manhattan. It’s the upper boundary of Manhattan, north of 110th Street, which is the top boundary of Central Park. It extends north to the Harlem river, which cuts diagonally from northwest to southeast….

This is a stock character originating in Italian theater of the 17th century. It’s generally the equivalent to the court jester – a Harlequin is often a servant, known for quick wit, comedy, and getting themselves into complicated situations. The Harlequin is usually depicted in a diamond-patterned…

This was the main character of 1957 the musical The Music Man . Hill is a conman who takes money from townspeople with the promise to create a youth band, but intends to abscond with the funds.

There are technically eight islands…but not really. There are four islands with any notable population. Hawaii or “The Big Island” is the largest physically, by far; all the other islands could fit inside of it, with lots of room to spare Maui is the next biggest, but it’s just 18% the size of the…

This is an informal, traditional method of money transfer which started in India and is common in Africa and the Middle East. In its simplest form, a Hawala network operates as a set of promises: “Can your friend Bob give my friend Ted some money?” There are four parties to a Hawala transaction:…

These are the stereotypical headgear worn by doctors in the past. A band goes around the head, and a circular mirror is attached to it. When it’s worn like this, it’s actually being stored, not used. To use it, the doctor would position it over one of their eyes. The mirror had a small hole in the…

This is basically a device that moves heat around. It’s installed outside your home, like an air conditioner. It takes heat from the air or the ground, and pumps it inside your home. There are different ways they acquire heat. Air: heat is extracted from the air (I feel like this would only work…

They are related, but they are separate languages. Hebrew is the more historical and traditional of the two. Yiddish is sort of a regional dialect/creole of Hebrew. Yiddish was spoken by European Jews. It’s a mixture of Hebrew, German, and other Eastern European languages. Hebrew is a language born…

This is a chain of islands off the northwestern coast of Scotland. Not truly north, like the Shetland or Faroe Islands, but what is essentially the northern most part of the west coast of the island of Britain. The Hebrides are directly north of Ireland.

This is a pooled investment fund where a group of people contribute money, and the total funds are invested with returns to be distributed. Shares in the fund can also be bought and sold. In these senses, it’s no different from a mutual fund. But there are some key differences: Mutual funds are…

This is a plant (usually a flower) that turns itself to face the sun as it moves across the sky. “Helio” is Greek for “sun” and “trope” is derived from the Greek word for “turn.” However, the effect is more accurately known as “phototropism,” because the flowers are actually tracking light , not…

This is an acronym. The HE stands for “High Efficiency,” but the PA could mean a number of things: High-Efficiency Particulate Air High-Efficiency Particulate Absorbing High-Efficiency Particulate Arrestance Basically, it means “very good air filter.” Weirdly, there are many standards for (1) the…

Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C are the dangerous versions. Hepatitis is generally defined as inflammation of the liver. It can be caused two ways: Behavioral and environmental factors, like chronic alcoholism and some medications Several virus strains, including those denoted by letters (five of them;…

This is just a submarine sandwich by another name, it turns out. This seems to be a regional New York term, dating from the 1930s (the same thing is referred to as a “Hoagie” in Philadelphia). It’s not related to what’s in the sandwich, just the general concept of a long, cylindrical roll.

This was an era of medicine in the 1700s and 1800s where physicians performed extreme treatments on their patients in an attempt to “shock” them out of whatever condition ailed them. Treatments such as bloodletting, purging, and sweating were common. These very likely caused more deaths than they…

I read in some places that “dox” is a suffix meaning “opinion,” which clearly explains the “hetero” prefix. The opposite is not “homodox” (that’s not a word), but rather “orthodox.” The prefix “ortho” means “true, correct, proper.”

A rule, tool of evaluation, or method of thinking that someone uses to solving a problem or frame an issue. From the Greek “heuriskein” which means “to discover.” Heuristics can be anything from a simple rule of thumb (“still water is likely to be dangerous to drink”) to a pernicious stereotype…

This was a Dutch painter from the 1400s and 1500s. He was famous for several triptych works which depicted scenes of heaven and hell.

Everyone knows what this means, but no one is really sure of the etymology. The word “high” is easy, in the sense that it just amplifies what comes after it (“high fashion,” “high crime”). But what does “jinks” mean? It was a dice game at one time, and it’s been used as slang to mean “to move…

This is the British equivalent of “Main Street.” It’s meant to refer to the central or most important road in a metro, or the retail shopping district.

This is roughly the Northern half of Scotland. It’s very mountainous and sparsely populated and known for the production of Scottish whisky (“scotch”). (Trivia: The Scottish spelling of “whisky” specifically omits the “e”. It’s a very big deal .) Historically, the Highlands were home to “clans” –…

This is German for “land in back of.” It’s often used to refer to land inland from a coast, but is always used to generally mean “the area away from the center of something.”

This is the discipline of studying history. It doesn’t refer to the actual study of history, but rather to the practice, process, and tools that we use to study history. Wikipedia makes an interesting point: The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic by…

This is an informal geographic term – it seems to be slang or patois for “hollow,” but some resources reject that and claim it has a definition all its own. It’s an Appalachian term for valley. The University of South Carolina defines it as: A small, sheltered valley that usually but not…

In Christian doctrine, the Trinity says that God exists in three parts: The Father: the omniscient being that created all things The Son: the physical form in which God came to Earth to witness to humans The Holy Spirit: God existing within a human that has accepted him as Lord So, the Holy Spirit…

I feel like this word gets used more in Catholic religious contexts that others. Wikipedia says this: In Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches, a homily is usually given during Mass (Divine Liturgy or Holy Qurbana for Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, and Divine Service…

This is literally a small human being. This was originally thought to actually exist in sperm cells – so every sperm cell contained a tiny human, which…grew, I guess. From there, the definition spread a little. Today, it’s often used as a representative of the self when discussing the human brain…

It’s a bar where the activity is centered around smoking from communal hookahs. My problem was that I didn’t really know what a hookah was. Turns out, it’s a lot like a bong or a waterpipe, but uses hoses to smoke from, rather than smoking directly from the device. This means that you can connect…

This is the traditional Jewish wedding dance where the married couple is lifted up in chairs and the guests lock arms and dance in a circle around them. It’s often performed to a song called the Hava Naglia.

A slave in the antebellum South could be a “field negro” or a “house negro.” The former worked as a laborer in the fields, the latter worked as a servant in the house, and usually had an easier workload and better working conditions. However, to work in the house, a slave had to be compliant and…

People often talk about “stage right” and “stage left” in the theater. I know from play production class that this is from the perspective of the performer facing the audience, so it’s the opposite of what the audience sees – “stage left” would be the audience’s right. It turns out there’s an…

Howard Beale is a character in the 1976 film Network . He’s a news anchor who is troubled by the poor state of the world. At one point, while on the air, he is overcome with anger, and tells his watchers to open a window and scream into the night, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it…

This is a vague word, generally meaning the studies of things centered around human beings, their culture and condition. The opposing field is science, including social sciences like law and economics. A review of several sources produced this list of fields of studies that can fall under the…

…maybe? The Huns were a nomadic civilization in Eastern Europe. They’re mainly known for their King Atilla (“Atilla the Hun”). The area in which they roamed and ruled very closely corresponds to the area of modern-day Hungary. The Huns were active in 300-400 AD. The country of Hungary was declared…

The best way to describe this is that it’s the ancient Chinese version of a tarot card deck. The I Ching is a divination tool which dates back to perhaps as early as 1,000 BC. It consists of a table of 64 “hexagrams,” which correspond to an ordered combination of six lines which are either broken…

This is an acronym for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. “Intercontinental” means it has to have a range of at least 3,400 miles. Turns out there are other categories: Short Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBMs) go up to 600 miles Medium Range Ballistic Missiles (MRBMs) go up to 1,900 miles…

This is the formal name for the “Jesus fish.” It’s been dated back to the 2nd century. Historians speculate that it was used by Christians to safely identify each other during periods of persecution. The etymology of the word is disputed, but one fascinating theory is that the acronym for the Greek…

This is a relatively new track-and-field event. It’s a multi-event – like the decathlon and heptathlon – where athletes compete in multiple disciplines over two days for a combined score. There are 20 events (it’s sometimes called the “double decathlon”). They appear to be held in quick succession,…

This is March 15. “Ides” was part of a Roman method of keeping a calendar. Rather than number the days, the Romans had three points in the month, and they simply compared the current day to those points. The points were Nones (the 5th or 7th; it depended on the month), Ides (the 13th or 15th), and…

Essentially, a disease or disorder that just happens for no reason:

“Pecuniary” means something related to money or wealth. The “im” prefix means “the opposite of.”

This is something like a TV or film producer, but for live performances, like plays, concerts, or operas.

This is Latin for “let it be printed.” After the printing press was created, it came to be printed on the inside cover of a book to show who had given approval for the book to be distributed. I found lots of pronunciations, mostly differing on the third syllabus: “im-prim-MAY-tor” “im-prim-MAH-tor”…

When we hear the phrase “in cold blood,” it’s often connected to murder: “He shot the man in cold blood.” This breeds confusion. Shooting someone results in blood, so whose blood are we talking about? The shooter or the victim? It’s the shooter. “Hot blood” means you’re angry and looking for…

Some really interesting etymology here : Inchoate derives from inchoare, which means “to start work on” in Latin but translates literally as “to hitch up.” Inchoare was formed from the prefix in- and the noun cohum, which refers to the part of a yoke to which the beam of a plow is fitted. The…

This refers to printed material from Europe prior to the 1500s. (It’s the plural form; the singular is “incunabule.”) The etymology is from a Latin word meaning “swaddling clothes,” which refers to the “infancy” of printing during this period. (Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1430s.)…

Simply put, it’s lighter in appearance than other beers (especially the popular porters), and the British shipped a lot of it to India during the 1800s. The presence of lots of hops allowed the beer to survived the six-month trip trip to India relatively unscathed, unlike the heavier beers popular…

It varies from service to service, country to country, and era to era, but I found this listing of U.S. Army unit sizes (PDF) in the late 20th century: Army: 100,000 Corps: 30,000+ Division: 15,000+ Brigade: 4,500 Regiment: 1,500 Battalion: 700 Company: 175 Platoon: 40 Squad: 10 Note that “an Army”…

This is the tendency for other people’s decisions to affect our decision. When a group of people is faced with a choice, and they make their decision sequentially, and people making the decision later can see what earlier decision-makes decided, will tend to make the same decision. This is a form…

This is the opposite of “salubrious” which means “favorable to or promoting health or well-being,” but I doubt that gets used as often.

This is an idiom which refers to a discussion about subject involving highly specialized terms and understanding which would only be known to experts in that subject. People not having a deep, experiential knowledge would be excluded. The term feels like “inside joke,” meaning some people are on…

It’s French for “not anxious”

It’s a negation of the French word “soucier,” which means “to bother or trouble.”

When considering ages or eras of history, framing is very important. The first thing you need to understand is that these time periods are wildly imprecise, for a couple reasons: (1) they naturally overlap, and (2) you need to decide the “altitude” from which you’re going to consider them. At the…

This is a medical specialty, but it’s really vague. Here’s the definition from Wikipedia : Internal medicine or general internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of internal diseases. That could mean anything . I know an internist at church. I…

The word literally means “between reigns.” If a ruler died, the interregnum was the period of time until a new ruler was crowned. It can be used in general to refer to a gap in something otherwise continuous.

This is usually used to mean “outer space” in general, but it technically means “between stars” or “between solar systems.” Most things whizzing through space are in an orbit of some kind. They’re either orbiting a planet (like a moon) or a star (like the planets around our sun). Something that is…

As the name would suggest, The Interwar Period are the two decades from 1919-1939, between the end of World War 1 and the beginning of World War 2. The Lost Generation refers to adults in their early 20s during the First World War (born in the last 1800s or so) who spent their early adulthood…

The Myer-Briggs Personality Test identifies 16 different personality types. One of these is labeled “INTP” which stands for “Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Prospecting” (yes, the “intuitive” uses the letter “N” for some reason). It’s defined as: These flexible thinkers enjoy taking an…

Clearly, the “in” prefix here means “not,” and “utile” is Latin for “useful.”

A noun derivative of this is “invective,” which is the actual protest or complaint.

I know this mainly from the phrase “inveterate liar.” I knew it was a adjective that implied amplification, but I wasn’t sure in what sense. Did it mean someone told big lies? Someone told lies without remorse or shame? Turns out that it’s from the Latin word “vetus” which means “old.” It’s mildly…

This stands for “International Standard Book Number.” It’s meant to uniquely identify a printing of a text. These are issued from the International ISBN Agency . They are sold through resellers, specific to each country. The number has grown: The 9-digit British “SBN” was created in the late 60s….

Both are outdated names. The group that most people called “ISIS” is actually official simply know as the “Islamic State” or “IS.” It has been known by a lot of other names in the past, but the three most common are: ISIS : Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIL : Islamic State of Iraq and and the…

From the Greek “isos,” which means “equal to,” and the Greek “morphe” which means “shape.”

This is a large peninsula into the northern Adriatic sea. It’s mostly Croatian, with some parts in the north being Slovenian and Italian. Curiously, I have driven across Istria (without knowing what it was called). I attended a conference in Opatija, Croatia in late summer 2023. When I was leaving,…

Technically, this was a political party during the French Revolution. But I don’t think it gets used in that sense much. Today, it seems to just mean “political radical,” particulary from the Left. In fact, an American socialist magazine is named Jacobin. The name comes from their first…

A knitted stocking cap with flaps that hang down over the ears terminating in strings that can be tied together under the chin (but rarely are). This type of hat appeared the TV show Firefly , worn by a character named Jayne Cobb. It become known as “Jayne’s Hat.” The name was presumably shortened…

This is an acronym for “Japanese Domestic Market.” It refers to cars that were built to be sold in Japan and not the rest of the world, or particular, not the United States. Some JDM cars are considered rarities in car culture. The most famous example is the Nissan Skyline GT-R , which went through…

French for “I don’t know what.” It means some quality that you find appealing, but cannot describe in words.

This is a editing of the Bible by Thomas Jefferson. It extracted all of the “life advice” of Jesus Christ from the traditional Bible, but excluded any mention of the supernatural or divine. It essentially distilled the Bible down to secular teachings about morality and behavior. He described this…

It’s from a Latin word meaning “hungry” or “empty of food.” The current definition problem stems from some concept of “lacking in substance.”

Formally called “The Society of Jesus,” the Jesuits (“JEZ-sue-its”) is a subdivision of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1540 in Spain by St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Society of Jesus is only open to men. There is a formal membership process which can last for many years. Once accepted into…

Superficially, this means “having to do with the Jesuits ” (for example: “a Jesuitical education”). However, there’s a deeper, more pejorative meaning to it. Dictionary.com includes this definition : practicing casuistry or equivocation; using subtle or oversubtle reasoning; crafty; sly;…

Jet is semi-precious stone that comes from fossilized wood. Not surprisingly, it’s black in color. References to jet have been found for hundreds of years. Thus, a very, very black color is described as “jet” or “jet black.” Note that the usage of “jet” meaning “a force ejected as thrust” has…

There seems to be several reasons for this, all inter-related. First, throughout history, Jewish people have, on average, been wealthier than non-Jewish people. The most obvious and likely explanation is that the Jewish culture traditionally emphasizes education and hard work. From a book about…

This is the Arabic word for “genie,” but is used to refer to a large category of supernatural creatures. It seems to be used more often in a negative context. From Wikipedia : Jinn are often mentioned together with devils. Both devils and jinn feature in folklore and are held responsible for…

This is the name of a city in India, but it’s often used to refer to clothing related to horse riding. The city and region Jodhpur was once famous for its horses. “Jodhpur breeches” are tight pants which are cuffed at the bottom and used when riding horses. “Jodhpur boots” are riding boots with a…

This is a type of personality test or therapeutic methodology for a group setting. The subject selects a list of adjectives that they think describe them. The other members in the group then also select a list of adjectives that they think describe the subject. The adjectives are organized into a…

These are two markings in written Hebrew. They are very small – a jot is the smallest letter, and a tittle is just an accent. It has come to signify something very small, or every last detail of something.

You see this word used a lot in sports to describe an average to slightly above-average player that was played for many teams, never been a star, but has provided a competent background presence. In fact, the athletic reference to “journeyman” has its own Wikipedia page : In American English, a…

In it’s most generic sense, this is just a celebration, usually an anniversary of some kind. It’s from a Latin word meaning “to shout for joy.” It’s the same root from which we get “jubilant.” However, it’s usually used to describe an anniversary of a monarch taking the throne. That monarch…

This is food preparation technique that cuts food into very thin slices – kind of like shoestring potatoes, or very thin french fries. I couldn’t find any consensus on etymology. Some resources says it was likely named for a chef who pioneered or championed it. I did find one specific claim: It is…

This is the peninsula that extends into the Baltic Sea on the northern coast of Germany. Most of it forms the mainland of Denmark, and there is some debate about how far south it extends. Some consider “Southern Jutland” to extend down into Germany and encompass the major city of Hamburg. Jutland…

The Roman goddess of youth and rejuvenation. Juventus (the “J” is silent) means “youth” in Latin. It is the name of many soccer teams, particularly Juventus F.C. based in Turin. That club was founded in the 1800s as Sport-Club Juventus, which likely translates to something like “Youth Sports Club.”…

These are the long robes commonly worn by men and woman in Asia, especially the Middle East and Africa.

This is an industrial plant, used for creating materials. The fiber of the plant can be used to make rope, insulation, and coarse cloth. The full name is Hibiscus Cannabinus, which is interesting because the plant bears a striking resemblance to marijuana.

This means a conservative Democrat, by today’s standard. Of course, political standards change all the time, but John F. Kennedy really would have been a Republican by most measures today: He favored tax cuts He didn’t like racial quotas He was strong on defense He was strongly anti-communist There…

I don’t think this an official word, but rather one that was invented and has become well-used. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows defines it as: The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet – a school hallway in the evening, an unlit…

John Maynard Keynes was a British economist. He had a lot of theories about economics, but it basically boils down to this – The government has to intervene in the economy . In a rescission, government has to increase spending to increase demand. During a boom, the government needs to reduce…

This is a type of thin, soft leather made from goat hides – the “kid” in the name.

“Kill” is a borrowed word from Dutch. In that language it means “body of water” or, more often, “creek.” Thus, names like Fresh Kills, West Kill, Peeksill, Fishkill, usually refer to a nearby body of water. This usage is common in Upstate New York. Oddly, the Catskill Mountains might be a…

Like most countries in that region of the world, Taiwan is actually a chain of 168 islands. The biggest island – and the one most people think of when they think of “Taiwan” – is called Formosa, and it comprises 99% of the total land area of the chain. The largest city, Taipei, is located here, as…

This is a low heel – the opposite of a stiletto or platform heel (although, technically “stiletto” refers to the narrowness of the heel, not the height, so a kitten heel could be considered a type of stiletto). They also tend to have a slight curve to the heel.

This is the name of a service club founded in 1915. The name is supposedly from a Native American word meaning “to make oneself known,” but this is highly debated. Every source I found said “allegedly” before the definition. There is a “Kiwanis Avenue” in Sioux Falls. I did some searching for…

This is Catholic men’s order devoted to community service. It was founded in 1882. It donates and provides services to people and organizations in alignment with Catholic principles. In addition to providing membership, the Knights is a life insurance company, available to members of the order and…

This is a type of a plant – a climbing vine that tends to cover other objects, including other plants. It’s considered an invasive species, because it’s hard to stop. However, I’ve heard it mostly as an idiom. I went looking for this, and found surprisingly little on it. Here is a definition of a…

This is a traditional Jewish toast which means “to life.” It’s a lot like Salud / Salut is for the Italians. It’s sometimes used as a noun to mean: A toast, in itself. You can offer “a l’chaim” A celebratory party, like a wedding or a graduation. You can attend “a l’chaim.” In English, it’s…

It’s Italian for “the good life” or “the sweet life.” However, it most often refers to a 1960 Italian movie about a photographer living among high society in Rome.

It’s a Latin word meaning “hole” or “pit.”

This is an abbreviation you hear in hip hop occasionally. It can stand for: “Long Beach, California” “Long Beach City” “Long Beach (and) Compton” “Long Beach Crip” (referring to a specific street gang)

This is a term most closely aligned with the Catholic church of the Italian renaissance. A legate was a representative of the church with decision-making powers, since geography and transportation at the time prevented easy communication with a central authority. Several definitions compared it to…

This seems to be a compliment used to describe something that embodies all the positive qualities of a lion. “Leo” is Latin for lion, but I couldn’t find any references to this being used to discuss actual lions. It seems to only be used to relate other things to the qualities of a lion.

An ancient term referring to a region of the Middle East roughly straddling the Sinai – from Turkey in the north, wrapping around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, down to Egypt in the south. “Levant” means “rising” in French, referring to the where the sun rises – east of France. This is the…

These are supposed “lines of energy” that connect some great monuments and important locations of the world. To be clear, it’s mythology – they’re not a scientific fact. From How Stuff Works : And maybe if ley lines were nothing more than that – imaginary lines that seemingly connect two important…

This is an interpretation of Christian doctrine that believes the Christian faith should primarily be a tool to liberate oppressed people, and that sin is manifested in unjust social structures. The name comes from a 1971 book entitled A Theology of Liberation by Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez….

This means a comfortable life, free from worry or anxiety. No one seems to agree on where it came from. It dates to the early 1900s. Later, there was a radio show, a TV show, and a couple of movies that used the title.

Technically, “limen” is the threshold for perception. So, a liminal thing is something occurring at the minimum threshold for perception. For example, a liminal sound is one that you can just barely hear – it’s right at the edge of what is perceptible and what is not. (Something that does not cross…

Some definitions describe the literary usage as “archaic.” (Though I encountered it in a modern context – see below.) It’s somewhat derived from “illuminate” in Old English.

A theory that says the older a non-perishable thing is, the more likely it is to survive into the future. Put another way, long-lived things live for a longer time; recent – and therefore short-lived – things are much more likely to “blow over” or “flame out.” It was named for a deli in New York…

“Lode” is Middle English for “course.” So, literally, it means “a star that shows the course.”

It’s a common noun, but it seems that a specific location is well-known that it has “captured” it as a proper noun. The term “loess” refers to a specific geological phenomenon. “Loess” is German for “loose or crumbly.” From Wikipedia : Loess is a periglacial or aeolian (windborne) sediment, defined…

No, nothing official. “Loft” used to refer to the upper floor of a building – the area under the roof; the “attic.” It comes from a Middle English word meaning air (the same root as the German word for air: “luft”). I suppose these were often converted for residential usage, so “loft apartment”…

This is a view of history that attempts to paint the Confederacy and its role in the American Civil War in the best possible light. It emerged sometime after the war, when southerners were trying to recover from the damage of the war and rationalize why it was fought. The “lost cause” means that…

This is a small magnifying glass used for close-in work, like examining gems, watch-making, or surgery. They’re sometimes handheld and sometimes affixed to glasses.

Technically, lox is brined salmon which is not cooked, but it’s mostly used to refer to smoked salmon, eaten for breakfast in Jewish communities. It’s often eaten on a bagel with cream cheese and some other toppings. There is nothing inherently Jewish about lox, other than the name (it’s Yiddish…

This was a hedge fund founded in 1994. It performed well initially, but had a catastrophic year in 1998, losing almost $5 billion. It was an early example of a potential financial contagion that threatened to cascade through the markets, so it was bailed out by a consortium of banks organized by…

It’s from a Latin word “ludere” which means “to play.” The word “ludicrous” comes from the same root. The word was coined by psychologists in the 1940s.

According to Karl Marx, this is the lowest class. This is the working class – the classic Proletariot – but so ignorant that they’re not even aware of their situation, and don’t care about any class warfare. They have either accepted their fate, or simply aren’t aware that they are being exploited….

The word comes from “lute,” which was an early guitar.

This is: a type of facility, like a gymnasium or hall a type of education institution or program The name comes from the Ancient Greek name of a gymnasium in Athens. Lyceum is often used to refer to that type of physical location. However, the word is also used to refer to a variety of educational…

A “lynching,” or “to lynch someone,” is an illegal killing by a group. So when a mob executes someone, that’s called a lynching, regardless of the method. We often associate lynching with hanging, as that’s very common, but it’s not required. It’s also not technically required to be related to…

A type of road construction. A definition : to construct or finish (a road) by compacting into a solid mass a layer of small broken stone on a convex well-drained roadbed and using a binder (such as cement or asphalt) for the mass In my reading, it appears that this is the type of road where layers…

This is a value commonly used to describe the speed of an aircraft. It’s not a constant value. It represents the speed of sound in whatever air is being used at the time. The speed of sound changes with elevation and air density. Also, “speed of sound” is kind of a misnomer. What’s really being…

“Mad cap” literally means “crazy head.” It dates to the 1500s, and used to literally mean a person suffering from mental illness.

This is channel through the bottom tip of South America. It’s between the mainland and the island of Terra Del Feugo. In addition to being shorter, it’s considerably safer because it avoids the perilous journey around Cape Horn, which is known for bad weather and icebergs. It was named for…

This is a specialized public school that’s targeted to a specific type of student or course of study, such as math, science, etc. A magnet school “draws in” students from other areas (you know, like a magnet).

This is the singular form of “magi.” These were priests of a pre-Islamic religion in Iran: Zoroastrianism They were also known as the “wise men of the East” who came to visit the infant Jesus in Matthew 2:1-12 . The “east” or “direction of the rising sun” in those times would have been the kingdom…

These labels are very subjective, vague, and overlapping, but, in general, it’s a spectrum between liberal and conservative Protestant Christianity. An evangelical Christian believes that: The Bible is the inerrant word of God Salvation can only be achieved by personally accepting Jesus Christ as…

The definition above is actually for “majoritarianism,” which appears to be the simple belief in using a majority to decide things. A “majoritarian view” would – I think – be a view that someone believes is held by the majority.

Here’s one definition from How Spies Think : Misinformation: Something that someone thought was true, but isn’t Malinformation: Something that is true and is revealed for effect; telling someone’s secrets to get them in trouble Disinformation: Something that is not true but is presented as true for…

This is exact opposite of “benefactor.” The root of the word is “mal,” which is Latin for “evil.” It’s the same root from which we get “malevolent.” “factor” means “to do.”

Thomas Malthus was an English economist in the 1700s. He pointed out that there are two critical variables when discussing humankind: The current population and its rate of growth, which is exponential (more humans leads to more humans; 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) The current rate of food production and…

The historical name for a region of Eastern Russia, Northeast China and Eastern Mongolia. This was never an official country or territory, just an informal name – like, “the Midwest.” The area referred to as “Manchuria” has been occupied by both China and Russia. It comprises the extreme Eastern…

A label for a increasingly common stock character in recent film and fiction. [Manic Pixie Dream Girls] are usually static characters who have eccentric personality quirks and are unabashedly girlish. They invariably serve as the romantic interest for a (most often brooding or depressed) male…

This specifically refers to the mix of spices in Indian food. However, there is also idiomatic usage meaning “mixture” or “co-mingling.”

Given that every human is necessarily the product of a male and female human, every step in our ancestry forks. Every person has a mother and a father. Each of their mother and father also has a mother and father, etc. Every generation is a fork. “Matrilineal” means tracing ancestry through the…

This was a theory that devised a way the Second Law of Thermodynamics might be circumvented. That law says that heat energy cannot be created, it can only be transferred. In 1847, James Clerk Maxwell came up with this idea – Say you had a box with two sides, separated by a gate. A demon would watch…

This is a portmanteau of the words “mechanical” and “electronic.” It can refer to two related things: A general multidisciplinary approach to fields where robotics and electronics intersect The specific study of automation – both physical tooling and their control systems (for instance, on a…

It’s a lot. But it gets complicated, because energy exists in two dimensions: As a rate at any particular instant in time (“megawatt”) As a sustained, aggregated amount delivered over a period of time (“megawatt hour”) So, “a megawatt” is an amount of power being delivered at a singular moment. If…

This is the study of how information, culture, and ideas propagate through a population through a perspective of evolution, comparing information to gene mutations. Richard Dawkins coined the word “meme” in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene to describe a unit of information that propagates from mind…

I consulted quite a few opinions, and the difference is pretty subjective. An autobiography is a factual account of someone’s life, whereas as a memoir is…murkier. Here’s one opinion : The difference between a memoir vs. an autobiography is that a memoir focuses on reflection and establishing an…

Well, no one knows, really. What people agree on is that Memphis, Tennessee was named after Memphis, Egypt. The Egyptian Memphis is now just ruins, in the southern part of Cairo. It was long-abandoned in 1819, when the Tennessee city was founded. But, during it’s heydey in the millennia BC, it was…

A “mendacity” can be a single thing someone says, or it can be a quality they possess.

A fact or truth or opinion that evolves very slowly, to the point where you don’t notice that it’s changed over a period of time. This is not a traditional word. I think it was invented about a decade ago, first in this Boston Globe article: Warning: Your reality is out of date When people think of…

There are five conditions which are very common among people who are generally unhealthy. They are: High blood sugar Low levels of HDL (“good” cholesterol) High levels of triglycerides Large amount of abdominal fat High blood pressure If you have three of these conditions, that is considered to be…

“The Method” is a style of acting that was popularized by the Russian actor Konstantin Stanislavski. It was made much more popular in the United States by Lee Strasborg. The basic idea of The Method is that the actor should believe they are the character that they’re playing. They should “lose…

For example, if often takes the form of a place name being used to refer to (1) a significant event that happened at that place; or (2) an organization, institution, industry, or concept associated with that place. Examples: “The White House” to refer to a presidential administration “Wall Street”…

When a country spreads beyond its immediate borders, the source or center of its power becomes the “metropole.” London, for example, was the metropole of the British Empire. It’s from the word “metropolis,” which is Greek for “mother city.” Though, where metropolis has become generic to mean any…

The adjective form “miasmic” refers a general dirtiness or foulness.

During the 1700s and early 1800s, slaves were transported from their homes in Africa to plantations in the American south in three phases, or “passages.” The First Passage was overland from their homes in the African interior to ports on the West African coast The Middle Passage was the trip across…

Technically, this is an official census region of the United States. It stretches from the Dakotas in the west to Ohio in the east, and from the northern border down to Missouri’s southern tip. It’s these 12 states: Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Dakota Ohio…

This is someone who sets-up, manages, and maintains factory equipment. The more modern term is “industrial mechanic.” A “wright” is someone who builds something. The term had it origins in the milling industry.

The name comes from an Old English word for “monastery,” and it technically requires that the church have a monastery, but has since been used to refer to churches without one.

From context, this usually means externally obvious happiness – laughing, dancing, etc. It might be more accurately described as celebration . It’s from the Old English word for “merry.”

French for “putting in place,” it refers to the physical workspace of a craftsman. It was popularized as a term for a chef’s work area, arranged and organized for maximum productivity, but now refers to the general idea of optimizing one’s physical – and increasingly virtual – environment for work….

A new word, coined in 2008 by Moya Bailey , it means a prejudice or dislike of Black women specifically. She wrote : I was looking for precise language to describe why Renisha McBride would be shot in the face, or why The Onion would think it’s okay to talk about Quvenzhané the way they did, or the…

From the Latin “missivus” which means “to be sent.” It’s often defined as a physical letter, but increasingly is used for digital communications.

This is an idiom that generally means “in the presence of people who might be offended by something.” There’s no precise definition, but the “mixed” refers to a mix of people whom you intend to hear something, and those whom you do not intend to hear something. Breaking it down a little further,…

This is a Jewish man trained to give ritual circumcisions.

This is commonly considered to be a pagan God from the Old Testament. (Note: the spelling is quite variant.) Leviticus 18:21 Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. 1 Kings 11:7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon…

This was the 1939 agreement between Hitler (Germany) and Stalin (Russia) where they agreed to non-aggression and to divide Poland between them. (It was named for the Foreign Ministers of both countries.) The areas of Poland that were invaded ended up with Russia after the war, and are now in…

The name is French for “single shell.” This is a type of vehicle where the main load-bearing structure is an enclosed shell, rather than behind (1) body-on-frame, or (2) unibody. A unibody vehicle has panels which are fastened together to provide structure. However, a true monocoque is…

This is opposite of a monopoly. In a monopoly, there is a single seller and lots of buyers, allowing the seller to control the market. In a monopsony, there is a single buyer , which allows the buyer to control the market. For example, if you manufacture trigger mechanisms for nuclear warheads, you…

Used to describe diseases or health conditions. Morbidity is the rate of people who have a condition. Mortality is the rate that the condition kills people. Something with a high morbidity means it’s very prevalent through a population. Things like: Heart disease Diabetes Hypertension Something…

This is pronounced “more-ays,” as in “social mores” (that sounds different when you say it out loud…) It’s Latin, and it’s from the same root word from which we get “morality.” However, the word doesn’t imply the moral rightness or wrongness of anything, it just refers to what’s normally accepted…

There are two common definitions for this: A morning walk The first visit to the bathroom in the morning There seems to be a geographic distance between those two terms. British English assumes the first; American English assumes the second. Technically, “constitutional” means “something done to…

This might have been the first recliner. It was invented by a guy named Morris in the late 1800s, and consists of a padded chair with a back that reclines, and high, wooden armrests. It’s been widely copied over the years.

I believe it’s literal French for “right word.”

This a model of probability and statistics where multiple exclusive options are available, pursued, each one having an individual probability of success. The player must decide if they should continue using a single option, or switch to a new option in the hopes of getting a better output. The name…

In a 1996 study , it was found that 5 of 138 (3.6%) studied gunshot suicides involved two gunshots to the head. Reliable incapacitation is based on physiological effects (tissue disruption) and can only be achieved by decreasing the functioning capability of the CNS. This can be accomplished by…

Mummification just means a corpse that has been preserved without rotting. This can happen a number of different ways. Some mummification is intentional, like the famous Egyptian mummies. Their bodies were preserved by drawing out all the moisture with salt. This, combined with the natural dryness…

This was the region of Asia that eventually became Russia. It was named for the Moskva river, which borders the area to the west. From that grew the city of Moscow, which became the center of Grand Duchy of Muscovy. It was first mentioned in the 1200, and they fought off the Mongols in the 1300s.

As a general rule, long guns lead to higher bullet speeds. This is because with a long gun, the explosion is contained for a longer period of time – the propulsive force has no choice but to expand down the barrel and give the bullet a longer “push.” With a handgun, the barrel is quite short, so…

This is literally the noun form of “naive.” Both words come from the French word for “native,” which was used to mean “simple.”

Basically, the “lobby” of a Christian church. From Wikipedia: […] the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church’s main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper. There was a specific…

From the Latin “nasci,” which means “to be born.”

It’s Latin for “no more beyond,” meaning, “there is nothing greater than this thing.”

An acronym for “Not in Employment, Education, or Training.” Essentially, someone who is eligible to be employed, but is not.

This is an “Asian style” suit jacket. It’s longer than a traditional jacket, and has a collar that stands up around the neckline. The buttons might be hidden. It was named for Jawaharlal Nehru, an Indian politician and social activist, who made the style popular.

This term has a long historical context, first being used in France in the 1800s. It seems to have switched sides many times, and been flexed and twisted to mean a lot of different things. In contemporary Western politics, it mainly refers to the resurgence of conservative (yes, conservative )…

A new word, coined to explain a new thing or phenomenon, but that hasn’t been totally accepted by the mainstream yet.

This is slang for posing some question or problem that a “nerd” can’t help but solve, to the detriment of everything else they need to do. It comes from the concept of “sniping,” shooting someone at long distance who dies before they even know what happened. To “nerd snipe” someone is to give them…

This is an interpretation of the Bible that says the relationship between God and Man was fundamentally changed after the death of Jesus. We moved from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant at that time (some believe it was at the moment of the Last Supper). Luke 22:20: In the same way, after the…

It’s a building. Scotland Yard is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police of London. It was named this because the public entrance was on a street called Great Scotland Yard. “Scotland Yard” has become a nickname for anything involving the London police. New Scotland Yard is a specific building…

The first indoor movie theaters in the United States. They charged five cents for admission, and played short movies silent and newsreels continuously. They flourished in the early 1900s. “Odeon” is the Greek name for a public auditorium for performances. (A European movie theater chain is called…

Nihilism is the idea that there is no grand control or purpose to anything. Fatalism is the idea that you should just surrender yourself to what’s inevitably going to happen to you. (Key point: the word doesn’t come from “fatal,” as it’s easy to assume. It comes from “fate.”) So, in some ways, the…

“Nimbus” means “cloud” in Latin.

Nitrates are all over the place – especially in vegetables. However, we’re warned to stay away from processed meat because it contains nitrates. Why this particular warning? Nitrates are generally used as a preservative in meat. This is why “processed meat” – like sliced deli meat – tends to be…

It’s not very significant, honestly. Getting nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize is quite a bit easier than you’d think. According to the Nobel Foundation, here are the groups of people who can nominate someone (my numbering and summarization): Members of national governments; elected or appointed…

This is a theory that humans are inherently peaceful and are corrupted by modern society and economic systems. It’s mainly attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who wrote in his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality : …nothing is so gentle as man in his primitive state, when…

This is an expression that roughly translates to “obligation of the noble.” It refers to the belief that the privileged people in society are obliged to assist others through charity. While sounding benevolent, in usage, it tends to imply a level of faux altruism, and gives justification for their…

This is an inter-related set of proof points to prove a hypothesis. It’s a little hard to grasp, but it basically means “a mountain of related evidence.” From Oxford Reference : A lawful pattern of interrelationships that exists between hypothetical constructs and observable attributes and that…

This is a weird one, because it’s an invented form of the name of John Cage , who was an experimental composer in the 20th century. Cage was known for using strange and unique musical instruments and styles. He might be most known for 4′33″ , which is a 1952 musical “composition” consisting of four…

“Non-Euclidean Geometry” is the field of geometry as applied to non-flat surfaces and non-straight lines. Euclid was an ancient mathematician who published a work called The Elements . This laid out the basic, common principles of geometry that we know today. However, Euclid only dealt with flat,…

At its most basic level, an NFT is some digital data that can be uniquely distinguished from any other data. This seems simplistic, but it enables up a lot of interesting secondary effects. Understand that in digital terms, true uniqueness of data is rare. Normally, a byte on a hard disk and an…

In linguistics, a fake word invented to fill a specific, immediate language need. One envisions a child making up a word to refer to something her or she doesn’t know the actual name of. “for the none” is Middle English for “for this one time.” The term is also used in programming to refer to a…

There are two definitions for this, one more recent than the other, and seemingly at odds with each other. To be “nonplussed” means you might be: Confused Uninterested Originally, “nonplussed” was Latin for “no more” or “no further,” meaning the person was so confused there was nothing else that…

Common convention says that “12:00 AM” is midnight, and “12:00 PM” is noon. But this is technically not official. AM refers to the period after midnight and before noon, and PM refers to the period after noon and before midnight. Therefore, these times are neither AM nor PM, and the style of “12:00…

This is the collective state of human reason and knowledge. Everything we know, understand, and can reason about as a species is the noosphere. It is constantly expanding as we learn more and more. The name comes from the Greek “noos” which means “mind” or “thought.” The noosphere is an informal…

This is a geographic “notch” of Minnesota that pokes up into Canada. It contains the northernmost point in the contiguous United States. What’s unique about this place is that it mostly consists of the Lake of the Words in the southern portion, which cross the entire span, from east to west. At the…

New Zealand has two anthems, it turns out. They are equally official, and used for different reasons: “God Defend New Zealand” is most commonly known, and is used to generally promote New Zealand sovereignty and national identity. There are five verses, though usually only the first verse is sung,…

Technically, I wasn’t looking this exact phrase, I was looking up the acronym “OBE.” From context, I was pretty sure that the “BE” was “British Empire,” but I wasn’t sure of the “O” or of the specifics. OBE is a title that the Queen grants. There are five “classes,” in order from least prestige to…

Curiously, it’s not object (with a “c”), it’s objet . It’s French for “object or art” or “art object” or “work of art.” The Wikipedia page notes: The term is somewhat flexible, and is often used as a broad term for “everything else” after major categories have been dealt with. The key is “object.”…

This is the Slavic name for a country subdivision – what other countries call a “state” or a “province.” The former Soviet Union used the word, and it’s used by many former Soviet republics – Ukraine, Belarus, etc. It literally translates from Russian as “region.” There are 46 oblasts in…

It’s literally French for “work.” So, to discuss “Picasso’s oeuvre” is to simply discuss Picasso’s work. It’s pronounced differently in English and French, and, honestly, I got a lot of different opinions on it. The two most popular: One syllable, rhymes with “swerve” (take away the “sw”) Two…

“Piste” is French for trail or track. So, “off piste” is a skiing term for backcountry skiing, meaning to ski in areas that are not groomed slopes at ski resorts. As an idiom, “off piste” could mean to do something unexpected or outside the ordinary.

Chicago’s largest airport is named for Edward “Butch” O’Hare. He was a Naval aviator during World War II. He’s most known for single-handing attacking nine bombers who were threatening his aircraft carrier. He shot down five of them. O’Hare was awarded the Medal of Honor. He was shot down by the…

Yes, calling a beer “an Oktoberfest” denotes a style of beer usually served during the traditional German Oktoberfest season. Outside of Germany itself (where the term is interpreted very specifically and with great debate), the Oktoberfest is a type of Märzen beer, which is beer brewed in March…

This is a description or name applied to any painting from an known painter in Europe before “about 1800,” according to Wikipedia . Merriam-Webster says: a work of art by an established master and especially by any of the distinguished painters of the 16th, 17th, or early 18th century But what’s an…

They’re actually very similar - in both cases, government power is effectively concentrated in a small group, but for different reasons and levels of formality. Plutocracy: This is where government power is held by the wealthy. However, it seems that this is informal – the wealthy are powerful…

This related to the size and location of the theater. Broadway : a theater of greater than 500 seats in the theater district of New York. Off-Broadway : a theater of between 99-500 seats, not necessarily in New York Off-Off Broadway : pretty much anything else

A “tenter” is a frame to stretch clothing to dry. A “tenterhook” is the hook that attaches to the clothing to stretch it. Thus, to be “on tenterhooks” means to be stretched to the point of tension. (I’m assuming “tenter” means “a thing that tents something,” like a verb. In this sense, “being on…

This means to keep something secret, but no one really knows why. “QT” is considered an abbreviation of “quiet.” …but why? There aren’t a lot of answers. Moreover, its punctuation and capitalized a variety of ways: on the QT on the qt on the Q.T. on the q.t. The last two are particularly baffling,…

For example: “Bang!” or “buzz” or “hiss.” Saying the word also makes the sound.

There are four major arguments for the existence of God. This is the hardest one to grasp and the easiest one to forget. This is the only argument of the four which is based strictly on logic, rather than observation. In its simplest form, it boils down to this: because we can imagine God, He must…

This is confusing, because a taxonomy is a thing that can be implemented in an ontology. An onotology is the description of the structure of entities and their relationships A taxonomy is grouping or organization of entities that are somehow related For example, if I was going to catalog all the…

Until 1968, professionals were not allowed to compete in the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments: the Australian Open, the French Open, the U.S. Open, and the British Open (Wimbledon). These four tournaments were reserved for amateur players, to make them “fair” to players who could not devote their…

This generally means the main political movement that is not in power at any given moment. If Party A is running a country, then Party B is the “opposition” or “opposition party.” I couldn’t find a formal definition for this – most definitions just mentioned vaguer terms like “political…

O’Hare is built on what used to be an airfield complex called “Orchard Field.” It served a Douglas manufacturing plant and an Air Force service depot. That’s where the “ORD” comes from: “Orchard.” When the city of Chicago needed more capacity than the original airport (now Midway), they purchased…

The Orient technically means anything east of Europe – basically, Asia. It comes from the Latin “oriens” which literally means “east.” In the Western world, we have traditionally associated it with the Far East (again, relative to Europe) counties, such as Japan, China, and Southeast Asia.

The two words are basically the same thing. As for which is more correct, the shorter form of “oriented” seems to win out. From Writing Explained : Although there is no real difference in meaning or function between the two words, there is clearly a better choice, and that is oriented. Oriented is…

It’s a “pasta pellet” – pasta, shaped into what looks like a large grain of rice.

This is an emerging acronym in tech, which generally means “streaming to a dedicated device” without infrastructure beyond the Internet itself. This means anything that goes around the established cable, satellite, and wireless providers can be considered “over-the-top.” This is mainly used in the…

This is a combination of dungeon and torture device from the Middle Ages. It was a small room or shaft where someone was confined and left to die. It seems slightly different from a dungeon, though the words are often conflated (indeed, the Wikipedia page even redirects). Whereas a dungeon was a…

It’s an actual genre. The “outlaw” part comes from the fact that it was pioneered by artists that worked outside of Nashville, mainly in the 70s. From an article at Holler : The term was potentially coined in an article by music critic Dave Hickey, to describe artists who opposed the commercial and…

This is a range of things that are considered acceptable to society or an organization at any point in time. Things in the “middle” of the Overton Window are very mainstream. As policies or customs get more esoteric, they might get to the edges of the Overton window, in which they’re considered…

I had a conversation with my friend Ben about this. Ben (and his son) was a competitive runner in college: Me: In a running race, what’s the purpose of a pacesetter? Ben: The pace setter helps make sure the pack of runners doesn’t get out too fast or slow. This is often used when some runners are…

A “pageboy” was traditional a young male attendant. Since then, a “pageboy” haircut is a short cut where the hair curls under towards the face.

What the Anglo world knows as “paisley” is actually an Asian design motif called the boteh or buta . This is the common teardrop-ish shape that’s repeated in a pattern. Scholars differ on where the shape design originated. It might represent something in nature, or be a symbol of life. The Anglo…

This is a covered litter – essentially an enclosed chair or couch suspended between poles which is carried by at least two humans, while they walk. It’s either carried on the shoulders, or by hand at the waist. Historically, it was used to carry people of importance in Eastern Asia.

This refers to a material that has been written over many times, such as a parchment that has been cleaned and reused, or a painting canvas that has layers of paint because the painter reused it. Parchment was rare and expensive, and made of animal skin, so it was very durable. Oil canvases are…

The most common usage is in reference to a valuable metal used in electronics and catalytic convertors. It was discovered in 1803. However, an idiomatic usage is for something that affords protection. It comes from “Pallas,” which was another name for the Greek goddess Athena. A statue of Athena…

I saw this on two different menus as the name of a drink. On one, the ingredients were pomegranate (it was called a “Poma Paloma”), tequila, mezcal, grapefruit, and pink peppercorn. On the other it was Hornitos Reposada (a brand of tequila), lime and grapefruit juice, with salt. Clearly, one of the…

The source is from an ancient Greek word meaning something like: “large assembly to honor a god.”

This is not an official word, but one that every seems to agree refers to a van of SUV that has no windows behind the B-pillar. So, the rear area of this vehicle is enclosed and hidden from view. I couldn’t find any history on the usage of “panel.” One can assume it’s because the sides are made of…

A very crispy type of bread crumb from Japan. It’s made from bread cooked by electrical current so that it has no crust. In North America, we know panko as breadcrumbs to coat other foods. When a recipe says “panko,” it’s assumed this is the meaning.

The idea behind this is to refer to someone who follows the Pope (“papal”) more than God or Jesus Christ.

This is a loaded term, because sexual desire is very personal, and how does someone define “atypical.” There’s an Overton Window at play here – what used to be atypical, might not be in the future. Wikipedia has a list of paraphilias which runs from Abasiophilia (sexual arousal to people with…

A recent word to describe a pseudo-relationship that a viewer feels with a public performer. This is an increasing phenomenon given the unprecedented access that social media has given us to the lives of public figures. There used to be a clear separation between viewer and performer, but that has…

In the American usage, it’s a layered dish, served in a tall glass, so the layers are visible. A yogurt parfait is usually layers of yogurt, fruit, and granola An ice cream parfait is ice cream, fruit, and whipped cream In France, there’s another usage for a frozen custard dessert (no layering)….

This was a communist government that seized control of Paris for two months in 1871. France was concluding the Franco-Prussian War at the time, and the only reason the uprising succeeded is because the army was outside of Paris. In fact, when the war concluded, the army marched back to Paris and…

For most everyone, there probably is no difference – the terms are likely interchangeable. But, in a strict sense: Parkour is about efficiency – moving from point A to point B in the least amount of time Freerunning is more artistic and incorporates acrobatic movements for style alone The word…

In medicine, a “paroxysmal attack” is when someone’s previously manageable symptoms suddenly intensify, like a coughing attack, or difficulty breathing.

This is literally the exact same definition as ~arriviste.

A yoke is the harness that gets put across the backs of horses or oxen so they can pull a wagon or plow. As a symbol, it’s representative of work or subservience. A horse is “broken” when it will accept the yoke without fighting. In ancient times, when an army would win a battle, they sometimes set…

It has nothing to do with love, it turns out. From Wikipedia : Around 1700, the name was given by missionaries in Brazil as an educational aid while trying to convert the indigenous inhabitants to Christianity; its name was flor das cinco chagas or “flower of the five wounds” to illustrate the…

All passports seems to be the same size and format, which is interesting because they’re issued by different countries. Turns out there’s an international board that standardizes things like this: the International Civil Aviation Organization . This is a special agency of the United Nations, based…

I’ve known this word to be used pejoratively, to imply that an artist or creator has nothing new to say and just copied inspiration from elsewhere. But in my reading, it seems to be considered a legitimate form of art. I went looking for content on the “pejorative-ness” of the word, and I found an…

Clearly, this is a combination of “paternal” and “family.”

It’s French, pronounced “PAT-twah.” There’s a blurry line between what is a patois and what is an entirely different language. A common example is Jamaican English – is this a regional dialect, or a form of creole? Also murky is where the line sits between a “accent” and a “dialect” or patois. This…

The “patricians” were the ruling class of ancient Rome, as compared to the “plebeians” or “plebes,” who were the lower class.

This is a general concept in use around the world. However, it’s most known to European and American people as a common convention for Scandinavian naming. In historical Scandinavian tradition, one’s last name was formed from the father’s first name. Commonly, in English countries, this has caused…

“Pax” is Latin for “peace.” It’s been used as a prefix for a lot of things: Pax Americana (“American Peace”) Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”) Pax Brittanica (“British Peace”) Pax Americana generally refers to peace among the developed nations of the Western Hemisphere – North America and Europe. The idea…

This is a complimentary or promotional term or phrase without any attribution. For example: Accomplished actress, Tara Reid… The word “accomplished” has no attribution, therefore it’s considered “puffery” or “peacocking.” (Also, with Tara Reid, it’s highly debatable. If the subject was Meryl Strep,…

This is a Biblical reference, from Matthew 7:6: Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Both hunger and irritability were mentioned in definitions for this, which means this might be a formal-ish word for the slang “hangry.” It comes from the root “peck,” meaning what a bird does when they eat. It could be that this represents that the person is just slightly hungry – they don’t want…

This refers to a sexual relationship between an adult male and a pubescent or adolescent male. It’s different than pedophilia, as that specifically refers to a pre-pubescent male or female. The difference seems to hinge on age.

Originally, “penthouse” referred to a small building on top of another building. From the French word apentis for “attached building.” The penthouse was literally on the roof, set back from the walls of the building. Thus, the person occupying the penthouse got the benefit of usage of the flat…

“Ambulate” means walk. “Per” is a prefix meaning “through.” So to perambulate something is to walk through it. And I suppose people often walk through something to inspect it.

It’s from the Latin root for “to throw away, to destroy.”

It’s similar to “preemptory,” which is an actual word, and what I thought this was. To “preempt” means to “cut in line,” which sometimes also fits the context. But peremptory is an entirely different word, it turns out.

It comes from Latin. “fides” means faithfulness, and the prefix “per-” means “to the detriment of.”

What is called the “Pericope Adulteræ” are the versus from John 7:53 to John 8:11. In this section, John recounts the story of Jesus saving an adulterous woman from stoning, telling the angry crowd, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (A more common…

This is more commonly known as a “parable” – it’s a story or anecdote from a scriptural text which forms a thematic whole, even if it’s non-contiguous. Appropriately, it’s ancient Greek for “cutting out.”

When a body is orbiting around another body, the perihelion is the moment in that orbit when it becomes closest to its subject. The Earth is at its perihelion to the Sun in early January. The opposite of perihelion is “aphelion,” which is when the body is the furthest from its subject.

If it’s capitalized, then it refers to followers of Aristotle, since he liked to teach while walking around.

This is earth/soil that stays frozen. Dirt has moisture in it, and when it gets cold, that water freezes and becomes hard like concrete. Often this is a few inches below the surface. The dirt on the surface is exposed to the sun that it will thaw in the summer, but under that is dirt that gets no…

It’s an alternative name for Iran. The term “Persia” is considered a relic of ancient times by most, and usage of it usually implies a historical reference to Iran. In 1935, the reigning shah announced that the country would henceforth be referred to by its modern name of “Iran.” This wasn’t…

This is an idiom of organizations that says a person will be promoted to the point where they become incompetent. Over time, this means that many people will be incompetent at their jobs. If Bob occupies Position A and is competent at it, he will be promoted to Position B which has more…

This is the set of observable characteristics of an organism, includes it’s physical properties, how it develops, it’s behaviors. Essentially, this is the set of markers that make Thing A different from Thing B. This things may be caused on genetic makeup (the “genotype”), or they may be caused by…

This is a form of the name Philistines, which were a people who lived in what is now Southern Israel in the iron and bronze ages. They may have been formed by seafaring Greeks – several civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean record being attacked by “sea people.” They were portrayed negatively…

This is a discredited “science” that studied the shape of a human’s skull, believing it could reveal aspects of their personality or mental makeup. There was a slight racial component, in that the skulls of different races have subtle, yet consistent, shape differences, leading some to believe…

This is a historic Spanish coin, but most people probably know it as the name of a New Orlean’s newspaper: The Times-Picayune . It paper was so-named because it originally cost one Picayune. (Though mostly associated with the French, New Orleans was owned by the Spanish in the late 1700s. It was…

This sport was founded by three guys on an afternoon in 1965. They were trying to find something for their kids to do, but couldn’t find all the equipment for their badminton set. Two theories on the name: It was named for one of the founder’s dog “Pickles” It was named by one of the founder’s…

This is a drawing where simplified images are meant to symbolize real-world things to tell a message. The most common example are street signs – like the green “walking man” symbol on traffic lights. This is a simplified rendition of a human walking, used to convey the message that now is the…

French for “foot on the ground.” For example, a wealthy hedge fund manager might have a house out in the Hamptons, but have a pied-à-terre in the city to stay overnight during the week. A retired couple might keep a pied-à-terre in a larger city and live there part-time. Lately, these types of…

A “pillory” were the classic “stocks” in the town square in Old England where criminals would be locked so people could ridicule them and throw fruit at them. No one does that anymore, so “pilloried” is figurative now.

This is usually a sleeveless dress worn over another dress or shirt. It can be considered a “wearable apron.” In some cases, they are open at the back, like a hospital gown. It traditionally didn’t have buttons, and was “pinned” to the “fore” (front) of other clothes, hence the name.

This is slang for someone who leans Left, politically, but not all the way to socialism or communism. A communist or socialist sympathizer. The reasoning is that pink is a shade of red, but not all the way to the red associated with communism.

This is used in food descriptions a lot. Something that is “piquant” has a sharp taste to it. A person or statement that is “piquant” is something aggressive or provocative – something that stands out. It’s from the French word for “prickly.”

I knew that “piscis” was an astrological sign ( its symbol is a fish ), but it didn’t occur to me that the word was simply Latin for “fish” and would be the root of other words.

This is a South American liquor made from distilled grape juice.

It’s both. As a general term, a “plague” is a sickness that affects a wide area of people, more accurately called an epidemic or a pandemic. However, plague is also an infection resulting from a specific bacteria. The most well-known variant is bubonic plague which infects the lymph nodes. This was…

This is a national referendum or vote. In usage, it seems to refer to direct votes (not representative votes) associated with national determination – for example, to vote whether to secede from or merge with another country. Some people have referred to the 2016 “Brexit” vote as a plebiscite. In…

From the Latin “plenus,” which means “full.”

This commonly refers to a diplomat that has the full signing power and authority of their government. They can agree to treaties with other nations. This position/title was more important before instant communication. Before long-distance, real-time communication was possible, the foreign…

This is a big, sculpted stone, onto which you would put a smaller sculpture or bust. It’s often used in the context of ancient architecture, but you can buy plinths at many home improvement stores .

A Roman naturalist, historian, and researcher. He’s often credited with writing the first encyclopedia. His full name was “Gaius Plinius Secundus.” He adopted his nephew who became known as Pliny the Younger.

This is one of those words that means a lot of different things, depending on the specific domain. But the general definition – as the word would imply – is “more than one.” Consider that the Wikipedia page is basically just disambiguation for all the different ways it might be used. You get:…

“Pogrom” refers to general violence against an ethnic or religious group of people – often Jewish – usually in an effort to persuade them to leave an area. Whereas genocide is systematic killing, pogrom seems to refer more generally to violent harassment. It can sometimes culminate in killings or…

This was a coded slang used by gay men in the United Kingdom in the early 20th century, when homosexuality was still considered illegal. It allowed gay men to discuss their experiences without people from outside the community being aware of the content of the discussion. It comes from the Italian…

One would assume this is where “politics” comes from, in the sense that politics should be a series of good, sound decisions.

A Port Authority, in general, is a “transportation department” at a lower level of government, like a city. Wikipedia says: In Canada and the United States, a port authority (less commonly a port district) is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority for a special-purpose district…

Technically the act of carrying something, but commonly used to refer to locations where watercraft are carried over land, which is extrapolated to refer to the place where watercraft are put into the water.

I had known this as the definition of when two words were combined into one: Reagnomics, frenemy, etc. However, I encountered it in book to describe luggage. That got me to the original definition, which is a suitcase that opens up into matching sections. The usage of it to describe grammar comes…

This is a philosophy. (What’s important to note is that almost every resource I read about postmodernism started with a warning along the lines of, “Post-modernism is really hard to define.” If all of the following seems vague and interpretive, then you just might have a perfect understand of…

This refers to a flimsy facade erected to impress someone. In the late 1700s, Russian official Grigory Potemkin was in love with Catherine II. Potemkin was working to develop the Crimea region. When Catherine traveled there in 1787, Potemkin allegedly erected fake villages along her traveling route…

“Hispanic” means relating to Spain. So, “pre-hispanic” means “before Spain showed up.” Another word for this is “pre-Columbian,” which means “before Columbus came over to the New World.” (Those aren’t technically the same thing, but they roughly coincide.) Spain conquered the Aztec empire in the…

It’s the French word for “precise.”

Technically, this refers to the time prior to the Original Sin – Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit. That was the “lapse,” and therefore we speak of the “pre-lapse.” Colloquially, this means “before things got bad.” Something that is “prelapsarian” represents youthful bliss, ignorant of a…

Competing definitions for this. interesting, attractive, or impressive; as in “He wasn’t a very prepossessing sort of person” ( Cambridge dictionary ) an attitude, belief, or impression formed beforehand; as in “ a prepossession against technology” ( Merriam Webster )

“Presbyter” is an honorific title for a single Christian clergy. This comes from a Greek word for “old man.” It might be the root for the word “priest.” A pastoral staff considered as a group is a “presbytery.” The word is sometimes used for location: the home of a priest or a section of the church…

To be “prescient” means to have “prescience” which is simply the combination of “pre-” and “science” (knowledge).

I suspect this is very dependent on state law, but in general, I’ve not found that “pressing charges” is a legal concept, for a citizen, anyway. In most states, the District Attorney decides whether or not to file charges against someone. They can make this decision alone, no matter if the claimed…

I can’t quite figure out how this is different from “supernatural.” After some research, as near as I can tell, “preternaturally” means something extraordinary or explainable, but still within the bounds of physical possibility and reality. It’s often used to describe a high level of skill….

This refers to the general wind direction for a particular region. Wind blows in all directions, but over time, one direction generally “prevails” for a region. A region is largely defined by distance from the equator. In the United States, we’re used to winds moving east. This is why most weather…

In some cases, this is just another way to say “lie.” In other cases, it’s just heavily implied that someone is leaving out important information or being specifically misleading. It comes from a Latin word meaning “to talk crookedly” or “to straddle.” Reminds me a bit of mendacity .

Well, first we have to establish that there are a lot of “pride flags,” and there’s no “official” flag. There’s no governing body that certifies these things. The original pride flag was designed for a parade in San Francisco in 1978. It had eight stripes. Since then, dozens of variations have been…

This is interesting, because it comes from the Latin “privare,” which means “to deprive, to strip, to remove.” But we also use “de-prive.” That sounds like “taking away privation,” which would mean…giving something? My question seems to be about root “priv.” What does that mean? Is that the state…

To be so favored to win something as to discourage other people from entering a competition – their participation “prohibits” other competition. It’s often used in the context of electoral politics, where someone is so favored to win a party’s nomination that no other candidate contests the race.

This is another word for “prose” as opposed to something more artistic like poetry or art.

The word is one of two combinations: PROducer and conSUMER PROfessional and conSUMER The former definition is someone that both produces and consumes a commodity. The most common example I found is home solar power generators who consume electricity, but also send excess back to the gird. I…

Proteus was a Greek god of the sea. The word comes from the mutable, variable characteristic of the sea.

Prussia was originally an independent European kingdom dating back to the 1500s, and then became a state within Germany in the late 1800s. It was very large, occupying most of Northern Germany along the Baltic Sea, extending into what is now modern-day Russia. Prussia no longer exists. It was…

This is just another name for the Psalms. “Psalter” is often used to refer to a bound collection of the just Psalms – so a small book of the Psalms.

Ptolemy was an ancient Greek scholar. As an idiom or adjective, his name has become synonymous with wisdom or education. (I found an entire page explaining how to use “Ptolemy” in a sentence in different contexts.)

In British slang, this is usually meant to refer to someone who gambles – who places bets with a bookmaker. There are some other usages: someone at a bar or a prostitute’s client.

It’s a German word, and it might come from an Old Germanic term for “blow” or “strike.” The “u” sound is like “put” not “putt.”

These are the mountains between France and Spain. It’s neatly self-contained – running across the border, not quite reaching the Channel in the north or the Mediterranean in the south. The country of Andorra is on the border, right in the middle of the Pyrennes. (Which, I maintain, was the model…

This is a formal, group dance from the early 20th century performed by four couples. It was popular in Europe and in the Gilded Age of the late 1800s and early 1900s in the United States. Here’s a video. There’s a very regimented series of moves, with a great deal of “partner passing” and…

This is a generic term for someone in the LGBT community. All it means is “not CIS/straight.” It’s a catch-all way of saying, “everything else.” I got the definition from a friend at work who is queer and non-binary. They said: Queer is a big old blanket term that basically means “part of the…

It’s a French phrase literally meaning “Long live who?” Guards and sentries would ask unknown people this question, looking for a specific answer (presumably “long live the king,” though one wonders how this didn’t simply become common knowledge). The practical definition and usage eventually…

This is the point in a pregnancy when the mother can feel the fetus move. It’s used to denote the first time this happens, so it’s the quickening, meaning it’s a singular event that either has or hasn’t occurred. Wikitionary states that an archaic definition of “quick” is “alive.” Before the advent…

This is an undesirable state in computer programming when two separate logical processing threads complete tasks in an unpredictable order. If a computer program only has one thread of execution, a race condition cannot happen. However, when a second thread is introduced, the two threads might…

It’s from the base word “rapine,” which means “to seize” in Latin. A few words in Latin that being “rap-” have similar meanings. rapina: robbery rapere: to snatch rape: forcible sexual contact

This comes from the title of the famed 1950 movie Rashomon in which a murder takes place, is witnessed by four people, and they provided four contradictory accounts of what happened. “Rashomon” is the name of a gate in at least two Japanese cities. The plot of the film takes place under this gate….

The U.S. rate of gun violence is not more than every other country, but certainly far, far more than other developed, stable countries. I found this NPR article which summarizes statistics from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. After removing gun deaths…

This is a vague term, with no exact definition, but which has become associated with one particular organization. Technically, it refers to a “room for reading,” but is often used to mean a reference library, which is a repository of books that may not be checked out – they have to be read…

This is the usage of images to make a word or sentence when spoken phonetically or representationally. For example, a picture of: A human eye A heart The letter “u” This would be interpreted as “I love you.”

It comes from a Latin word meaning “to conceal.” When I read the definition, I thought to myself, “That sounds like ‘esoteric.'” Then I checked a synonym guide, and the first synonym suggested was “esoteric.”

The word seems to be heavily used in architecture and engineering.

“Reductionism” is the basic idea of “reducing” an argument or problem to a simpler analogy. So, a “reductive argument” would be the reduction of a complex argument down to an easier set of facts. Sometimes, this is a genuine attempt to make it easier to understand. However, often, this is the same…

Indirectly, they’re named after a man: H.B. Reese. He founded a company in 1923, the H.B. Reese Candy Company. They made all sorts of things, but hit it big with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in 1928. Reese died in 1956. Hershey purchased his company in 1963, but retained his name in the branding…

This is a Christian Protestant denomination, also called Calvinism, after its founder, John Calvin. The Reformed church was one of the results of the Protestant Reformation. It’s name is coincidentally related to the Reformation itself. The Catholic church referred to the denomination as…

This is a colloquial name given to people who were denied permission to leave the Soviet Union and had to remain living there against their wishes. Many were Jews who wanted to move to Israel (this was finally allowed in the 1970s).

This depends on the context, but it normally means a person who rules or reigns. More specifically, it can mean: Someone who rules in the absence of the actual ruler. If a king dies and the royal line leads to a child, for example, then a “regent” was often appointed to govern until the child comes…

The “reg” comes from “regal.” It’s unclear whether this specifically refers to assassination, coup, or execution. The Wikipedia page uses examples of all three.

This is a phenomenon where companies “capture” the regulations used to govern them. They do this by installing “friends” in public service positions (sometimes temporarily) to get laws or regulations rolled back. This process is informally known as the “revolving door” – business people from the…

The Reichstag was the building that housed the German parliament in 1933. It was set on fire in 1933. A single Dutch communist who acted alone was likely responsible for it. He was convicted and executed for the crime. The significance of the event is that Adolf Hitler claimed it was an organized…

In media, a “master” is the definitive copy of some work – a song or a movie. This was an important concept in the days before digital storage. While today we have perfect digital recordings of everything across thousands of devices, media recordings used to be on physical media – like magnetic…

This refers to a set of enzymes from the stomach of young ruminant animals. It coagulates milk, turning it into a solid (some form of cheese). It causes milk from the animal’s mother to coagulate in the animal’s stomach and digest more slowly. Rennet is harvested from the stomachs of unweened…

It’s the name of a 20th century truck. When the band was forming, one of the members came across the name in a college course. The “REO Speedwagon” was a truck produced by the founder of Oldsmobile. “REO” were his initials, pronounced “Reo” back then, though the band used periods at one time to…

“Reprove” means to scold or express disapproval of someone. A “reprobate” is technically someone on the receiving end of that disapproval.

Not a modern word. I can’t say I’ve ever heard this outside of a biblical reference.