Month: December 2007
Trunk monkey, wasta
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: trunk monkey n. a rear gunner in an armed vehicle, caravan, or convoy. Used among military personnel and contractors in Iraq. It’s possible that the term derives from this advertisement from Suburban Auto Group, and others in the same series which first aired in Portland, Oregon, in…
South to south
A recent interesting catchword from the Double-Tongued Dictionary is: south to south adj. arbitrary jargon used at the World Bank to indicate migration from one poor country to another. “South to north” indicates migration from a poor country to a rich one.
Calcutta wager
A recent interesting catchword from the Double-Tongued Dictionary is: Calcutta wager n. a form of gambling on a sporting event involving multiple contestants in which each contestant’s name is auctioned off to observers. At the end of the event, the high bidder for a winning contestant’s name receives a percentage of the total amount taken…
Nine months and his first Christmas.
Today was Christmas just the way we like it: get up to wrestle a happy little boy, open a lot of presents (and eat a lot of paper), have some raspberry waffles from the new waffle iron Mama bought Papa, take a nap (Papa), then spend a couple of hours in the park watching the…
All about the WOTY
I’m definitely all about WOTY (as we call “words of the year”) right now. Oct. 31. Editors at Webster’s New World Collegiate nominate “grass station” as their word of the year. Two months early and a barely used word, most people scoff at the choice. Nov. 12. Editors at Oxford University Press nominate “locavore” as…
Hero snow, PowerPoint Ranger
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: hero snow n. snow that is soft on top and firm underneath, providing excellent conditions for sport skiing. PowerPoint Ranger n. a derogatory term for a military bureaucrat or policy wonk.
Purple monkey dishwasher
Props to Matt Zoller Seitz for feeling free to use a Simpsonsism in the pages of the New York Times without explaining it: To acquire the cleverly named Book of Secrets, Ben plots to kidnap the current president…and blah, blah, blah purple monkey dishwasher. It’s basically another way of saying “blah, blah, blah,” so he’s…
Pasture puff, biological passport
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: pasture puff n. a horse or other animal that has been retired from a working life. biological passport n. a continuous record of a professional bicyclist’s drug tests.
Our big nine-month-old boy
Everyone’s favorite boy turns nine months old today! He’s now lived outside the womb just as long as he was in. Well, we technically passed that milestone a couple weeks ago since he was born a bit early, but who’s counting? In these nine months, Guthrie has accomplished a ton, including tripling his weight and…
The Real History and Origin of Woot and w00t
There’s room in any dictionary for all parts of speech, and if the amount of mail sent by interested word buffs is any indication, woot—an interjection or exclamation of celebration or revelry—is a favorite. It comes in a variety of spellings offline and on. The most common, woot, whoot, and w00t are, for our purposes,…