Stuff I Had To Look Up
I consume a lot of content, and I analyze things to death. As a result, I look up a lot of stuff.
For one month (August 2021), I decided to keep track of all the stuff I looked up. It came to almost 100 things. I enjoy researching and writing, so I’ve kept it up since then.
Some of these are things I had never heard of before. But a lot of them are things I “sort of knew.” I tend to figure out things from context a lot, and just fake my way through things. Many of the items below fit that category – stuff I was just faking or fudging, but finally decided to look up and settle.
If it’s just a single term, then I was looking up the definition. Its existence in the list doesn’t mean I was totally ignorant of the term, rather it means that I wasn’t totally sure I knew it, or was wondering if I had been wrong about it.
If I was trying to figure out something more specific, I have listed the more specific question answer below it.
I hope I’m smarter because of it. And I hope you enjoy it.
The Latest
- Cumberland Gap
- Method Acting
- Cement vs. Concrete
- Steeplejack
- Triptych
- Bill Of Goods
- Barrio
- Quickening
- Nimbus
- Upstate
- The Romantic Lie
- Cursor
The Entire List
- 4WD vs AWD What's the difference?
- 1976 Swine Flu Vaccine Did this vaccine negatively affect health?
- Abecedarium
- Abeyance
- Abide
- Abrogate
- Abyssinia
- Acme
- Active Ingredient
- Aerodrome
- Affordance
- Age of Exploration
- All Politics Is Local
- Amanuensus
- Ambit
- Ameliorate
- American Beauty Did this phrase precede the 1999 movie?
- Anathema
- Anglo-Saxon Why the "Saxon" part?
- Anointing With Oil
- Apéritif
- Apothecary
- Apparatchik
- Appian Way
- Arabia Is this is a specific place?
- Arabic Numbers Are these actually from Arabia?
- Arboretum
- Arriviste
- Ashkenazi Jew
- Athwart
- Attending Physician
- August (adjective)
- Autarkic
- Autodidact, Polyglot, and Polymath
- Baal
- Baba Ghanoush
- Babylon Does this still exist? What is its eschatological significance?
- Backgammon How do you play this?
- Bags or Circles Under The Eyes Why are these associated with lack of sleep?
- Barbary
- Barrel Of Oil How big is this?
- Barrio
- based (slang)
- basic (slang)
- Bauhaus
- Benighted
- Bertha How did this get associated with big things?
- Bete Noire
- Bey / Begum
- Biblical Lifespans How did people live to be that old?
- Bifurcated Needle
- The Big Dig Is it considered a success?
- Bill Of Goods Why is this considered negative?
- BIPOC
- Blackshirts
- Bloody Sunday
- Blue Laws Why are they called this?
- B'nai B'rith
- Boer
- Bohemian
- Bon Viveur
- Bonfire Of The Vanities
- Borscht Belt
- Bowdlerization
- Boys' Town
- Brain Trust
- Breaking News Why do we call it this?
- Breathing Into A Paper Bag Does this actually work?
- Bricolage
- British Control of India When did this end?
- Bucket List Did this phrase predate the 2007 movie?
- By Your Leave
- Cambrian Explosion
- Captain Bligh
- Carapace
- Carat
- Carceral
- Careerist
- Cargo Cult
- Carthage
- Cashiering
- Cassandra
- Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negroid
- Cecil Rhodes
- Cement vs. Concrete What's the difference between the two?
- Cenotaph
- Ceylon
- Chanteuse
- Charivari
- Chatelaine
- Chekhov's Gun
- Chemophobia
- Chewing the Scenery
- Cistern
- Clear and Present Danger
- Cloak and Dagger Where did this phrase come from?
- Clown Prince
- Collective Noun
- Comare
- Commando Can this refer to a group?
- Continent How is this formally defined?
- Contretemps
- Coolidge Effect
- Coordinated or Responsible Disclosure
- Copperplate
- Coquette
- Cordoba What connection does it have to Arabia?
- Corporeal
- Cosmology Isn't this just astronomy?
- Counterfactual
- Cricket How do you play this game?
- Crinolines
- Cruciferous Vegetables
- -cum-
- Cumberland Gap
- Cursor
- Dag Hammarskjöld
- Dal
- Dalmatian Coast
- Décolletage
- DEFCON Is this still a thing?
- Degree of Letters
- Démarche
- Dialectical
- Dickensian
- Didactic
- Diesel Exhaust Fluid
- Disputatious
- Disputed Books of the Bible
- Dissolving Medicine Under the Tongue Why do we do this?
- The Dolemites
- Donnybrook
- Double Blind Study
- Down the Rabbit Hole Where did this expression come from?
- Doyenne
- Duane Reade Where did these stores get their name?
- Duty Free
- Duvet
- Dyspeptic
- EBITDA How is this different from normal earnings?
- Ectoplasm
- Edify
- Elegiac
- The Emerald City Why is Seattle called this?
- Enfilade
- Ennui How do you pronounce this?
- Ethnography
- Etiology
- Euphonium
- Ex Nihilo
- Exegesis
- Exigency
- Exogenous vs Endogenous
- Extol
- Exurb
- Fast Fashion
- Fatuous
- The Fault In Our Stars Did this saying pre-date the novel and film?
- Fecundity
- Ferengi
- Festoons
- Filibuster Does this have meaning outside politics? Can it be used to refer to a general obstacle?
- Five-by-Five
- Floor Area Ratio
- Fold (Cooking)
- Fore Why do golfers yell this?
- Frank Leslie
- Freehold
- Front Range
- Gangs Of New York
- Gauls
- Genuflect
- Geofence Warrant
- Geographic Metonym
- Georgia Why do the state and country have the same name?
- The Gipper
- Gird Your Loins
- Gizzard
- God's Country Is this an actual place?
- Gonzo Journalism
- Goy
- Gravid
- The Great Firewall Is this a specific thing? And does the Chinese government call it this?
- Great White Way
- The Greedy Jewish Moneylender How did this become a stereotype?
- Green-Eyed Monster
- Grip and Gaffer What do these people do on movie sets?
- Grippe
- The Gulag Was this a specific place?
- Gun Moll
- Haberdashery
- Hagiography
- The Hague What's with the "The"?
- The Hamptons Why always the plural?
- Haole
- Harold Hill
- Head Mirror Were these real? How did doctors use them?
- Hedge Fund
- Heliotrope
- HEPA Filter
- Hepatitis Viruses Which is the really dangerous letter?
- Heroic Medicine
- Heterodox
- The Holy Spirit
- Homily
- Howard Beale
- Ides Of March
- Idiopathic
- Impecunious
- Impresario
- In Cold Blood Shouldn't this be "with cold blood"?
- In Country
- Inchoate
- India Pale Ale (IPA) Where did this name come from?
- Infantry Units What are the relative sizes of the named units?
- Insalubrious
- Inside Baseball
- Internal Medicine
- Internecine
- Interstellar
- The Interwar Period And The Lost Generation
- INTP Why do people call attention to this so often?
- Inveigh
- Inverterate
- ISBN
- ISIS vs. ISIL What's the difference?
- Jayne Hat
- "Je Ne Sais Quoi"
- Jinn
- Jodhpur
- Jot And Tittle
- Journeyman (sports)
- Juventus
- Kaftan
- Kenaf
- Kennedy Democrat
- Kenopsia
- Keynesian Economics
- La Dolce Vita
- The Levant
- Liberation Theology
- Liminal
- Limn
- The Lindy Effect
- Lodestar
- Long Term Capital Management (LTCM)
- Loupe
- The Low Countries
- Lox and Cream Cheese How did this become a Jewish tradition?
- Lyceum
- Lynch
- Macadam
- Majoritarian
- Manchuria
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl
- Matrilineal
- Megawatt How much power is this?
- Memetics
- Memphis How did a city in Tennessee get named after a city in Egypt?
- Mesofact
- Method Acting
- Metropole
- Miasma
- Middle Passage
- Midwest Is this an actual region?
- Mien
- Mise-en-Place
- Misogynoir
- Missive
- Mixed Company
- Monocoque
- Monopsony
- Morbidity vs. Mortality How are these different?
- Mordant
- Mulct
- Multiple Gunshot Suicides How common is this?
- Naif
- Narthex
- Nascent
- Neologism
- Nerd Sniping
- New Scotland Yard What does the "new" mean?
- Nickelodeon
- Nimbus
- The Noble Savage
- Nonce
- Non-Fungible Token (NFT)
- Nonplussed
- Noon and Midnight Which one is AM or and which is PM?
- Numismatics
- Objet d'art
- Oblast
- Officer of the Order of the British Empire
- On Broadway
- On Tenterhooks
- Onomatopoeia
- Ontology vs Taxonomy In terms of information science, what's the difference?
- Open Era (tennis)
- Opprobrium
- Oriental
- Orzo
- Over-the-Top (OTT)
- Overton Window
- Pacesetter Why can't runners set their own pace?
- Paean
- Panel Van Why do we call them this?
- Panko
- Parasocial
- Parfait
- Paris Commune
- Paroxysm
- Parvenu
- Pass Under The Yoke
- Passion Fruit Why is it called this?
- Paterfamilias
- Patrician
- Patronymic
- Peacock Term
- Pearls Before Swine
- Pecuniary
- Pederasty
- Pellucid
- Penthouse Why is the top-floor apartment called this?
- Peremptory
- Perihelion
- Peripatetic
- Permafrost
- Persia Is this a specific place?
- Perspicacious
- Phenotype
- Pickleball How did this sport get its name?
- Pictogram
- Pied-a-Terre
- Pilloried
- piscene
- Plebiscite
- Plenipotentiary
- Pliny the Elder
- Politic
- Port Authority Why did this organization own the World Trade Center?
- Portage
- Potemkin Village
- Pre-Hispanic Mexico
- Presbytery
- Prescient
- Preternaturally
- Prevailing Winds
- Privation
- Prohibitive Favorite
- Prussia Is this related to Russia?
- Putsch
- Quadrille
- Quickening
- Rapacious
- Rashomonic
- Reading Room
- Rectilinear
- Reformed Christianity
- Refusenik
- Regulatory Capture
- Remaster
- Repast
- Reprobate
- Reprove
- Retention Pond
- Revivalist
- Riposte
- The Road To Damascus
- Rock The Casbah What is a "casbah"?
- Rococo
- The Romantic Lie
- Ruminant
- Salad Days
- Salient
- Saltpeter Does it really reduce sex drive?
- Salud / Salut
- Salutary
- Sangfroid
- Scholia
- Scottish Highlands How much of Scotland is this?
- Scrofulous
- Scud
- Sea Change
- Seconded
- Sect Why is this a generally negative word?
- Semiotic
- Sententious
- Settlement House
- Shear Load
- Sheba Why do we associate this with women?
- Shellshock Isn't this just PTSD?
- Sherd
- Shrek Did the character exist before the movie?
- Silesia
- Simp
- Simulacrum
- Sine qua non
- Sinecure
- Sisu
- Skein
- Snifter
- Solipsism
- Sotto Voice
- Souk
- soviet
- Spaces When Alphabetizing Should you count them?
- Spotted Dick
- St. Elmo's Fire
- Stack Effect
- State University Names Why is there a "Whatever State" and a "University of Whatever"?
- Steeplejack
- The Strand
- Subaltern
- Subcontinent
- Subluxation
- Succubus
- Surfeit
- Suzerainty
- SWIFT Network
- Syzygy
- Take The Piss
- Tammany Hall
- Teamsters Who is a Teamster?
- Teapot Dome
- Tel
- Temple Mount
- Tendentious
- Third Reich Why was it the third?
- The Three World Model Why is there no Second World?
- Through the Looking Glass
- Tiger Team What's the origin of this phrase?
- Tom and Jerry Did this phrase precede the cartoon?
- Topo Gigio
- Transmute
- Triple Frontier
- Triptych
- Troubadour
- Types Of Dirt
- Upper Manhattan What neighborhoods are up there?
- Upper Manhattan What are the bounds of this?
- Upstate Is this ever used for a place other than New York?
- Useful Idiot
- Utopiansim How did this get a negative connotation?
- Vanity Fair
- Verily
- Vernal
- Vespers
- Viand
- -ville Why is this suffix so prevalent in some regions?
- vis-a-vis
- Vituperative
- Voodoo Science
- Vouchsafe
- Voxel
- Wagnerian
- Waking Surgery
- Waldo Arm
- Wicked Problem
- Wildcat
- Will Call
- Winsome
- With / Without Prejudice Which one is final?
- Wit's End
- Yahtzee What does the name mean?
- Yak Shaving
- The Yips
- Zelig
- Zion
- Zoophagy
- Zoroastrianism