flounce – Can mean a sudden fling or jerk of the body or a limb. More…
hike – As a walk, it evolved from its original meaning of “to jerk or pull” (oneself along). More…
jerk – As in jerked meat (e.g. beef jerky), it is from American Spanish and Quechua charqui, “dried flesh.” More…
weight lifting, power lifting – Weight lifting is specifically the press, the clean and jerk, and the snatch; power lifting is the bench press, squat, and dead lift. More…
elegiac – Can mean “melancholy, mournful.” More…
brown study – Gloomy meditation or melancholy is known as being in a brown study. More…
hypochondria – First referred to the upper abdomen and the organs under the ribs (liver, gall bladder, spleen)—thought to be the source of melancholy. More…
burele, burelage – A network of fine lines or dots, as on a postage stamp, is called burele or burelage. More…
network – Traceable to the early 16th century, it indicates a web of connections that link objects, institutions, and/or people. More…
limbic system – From Latin limbus, “edge,” it is the network of the brain involving areas near the edge of the cortex and controls the basic emotions and drives. More…
neural, neural network – Neural comes from Greek neuron, “nerve”; neural network can now refer to computer architecture in which processors are connected in a manner suggestive of connections between neurons. More…
stipe – A stalk or stem of a seaweed, fungus, or fern frond. More…
cranberry – First crane berry, so named because the plant grows on a stalk that looks like a crane’s neck. More…
spire – In Old English, it meant “stalk” or “stem.” More…
stalk – In a car, the flexible arm holding the mounting by which a seatbelt is secured. More…
admire – Can mean “to wonder at, to be slightly surprised.” More…
marvel – Traces to Latin mirabilia, from mirari, “wonder at.” More…
nine days’ wonder – An old term (c. 1325) for an event or phenomenon that attracts enthusiastic interest for a short while, but is then ignored or forgotten. More…
Wonder Bread – Got its name from a vice president who watched a hot-air balloon race shortly before the bread needed a name—”wonder” is how he described the event and then the bread. More…
hard sauce – Contains butter and sugar, with brandy, rum, or vanilla. More…
oak – In the flavor of wines, it comes from oak cases and is similar to coconut or vanilla. More…
vanilla – Can mean “having no special features.” More…
white chocolate – A blend of cocoa butter, milk solids and sugar and vanilla, it used in candy bars and baking and coatings; it is not technically chocolate because it contains no chocolate liqueur. More…
grammatist – A student of grammar. More…
oenologist – A “student of wine.” More…
civilian – First a student or practitioner of civil law. More…
faucet – Probably comes from French fausset, meaning “bore, tap.” More…
tattoo – In the military sense—of a signal summoning soldiers to their quarters at night—it was originally written tap-too, from a Dutch word taptoe, meaning “close the tap” (of a cask), which was told to soldiers when they were expected to return to their quarters. More…
tick, tickle – Tick, as in “sound of a clock,” “mark of correctness,” originally meant “light touch, tap,” and its modern senses are recent developments; tickle is probably a derivative of this version of tick. More…
tit for tat – Probably borrowed from Dutch tip for tap, “blow for blow.” More…
inlay card – A pamphlet accompanying a CD, film, etc., giving an introduction. More…
isagoge – An introduction to a field of study. More…
front matter – Things in the beginning of a book like an introduction and table of contents. More…
propaedeutic – A subject or course of study that is an introduction to more advanced study or to an art or science. More…