frontage road – A smaller road that runs alongside a highway or major road. More…
highway, expressway, freeway, parkway, turnpike – A highway is a main road, while an expressway is a multilane highway; freeways, parkways, and turnpikes are types of expressways. More…
scamp – Once meant a highwayman; as a verb, it meant “rob on the highway.” More…
interstate – A highway that is part of the federal network of major roads; despite their name, some interstates do not cross state lines. More…
ledgit – A label or memo slip projecting from a book’s pages. More…
broach – Comes from Latin brocchus/broccus, “projecting.” More…
eminent – Can mean “projecting, protruding” and is based on Latin eminere, “project.” More…
eaves – Its etymological meaning is “going over the edge, projecting.” More…
rentier – A person who makes income from rent. More…
disposable income, discretionary income – Disposable income is money you have left after paying taxes; discretionary income is money left over after paying for rent, food, utilities, and life’s other necessities. More…
farm – Comes from medieval Latin firma, “fixed annual payment or rent.” More…
moment – To have a moment is to suddenly forget where you are and what’s going on; it is also called a bristlecone or a senior moment. More…
absence of mind – The failure to remember what one is doing. More…
brain cloud – The temporary inability to think properly, or to remember something. More…
souvenir – Literally French for “remember,” from Latin subvenire, “occur to the mind.” More…
bed push – A fundraising event, sometimes run by hospitals, in which a wheeled bed is pushed through the streets to raise awareness of the campaign. More…
on the wagon – Before paved roads, horse-drawn water wagons sprayed the streets to settle the dust, and anyone who had sworn abstinence from alcohol was said to have “climbed aboard the water wagon,” later shortened to “on the wagon.” More…
juggernaut – Derived from Sanskrit Jagannamacrtha, “lord of the world,” a title of Krishna, worshipped at an annual festival by the dragging of his image through the streets in a heavy chariot. More…
one-way – Came into English in 1906 in reference to travel tickets, in 1914 in reference to streets, and in 1940 in reference to windows, mirrors, etc. More…
apartheid – From Dutch apart, “separate,” and -heid, “-hood,” it is pronounced uh-PAHR-tayt or uh-PAHR-tight. More…
chaperone, chaperon – Chaperone comes from French chaperon, meaning “hood” or “cowl, head covering,” which was worn from the 16th century by ladies who served as guides and guardians; chaperon is the standard spelling and chaperone is a variant resulting from pronunciation. More…
cobra – From Portuguese cobra de capello, “snake with hood”—based on Latin colubra, “snake.” More…
hood – Etymologically, hood and hat are the same word, ultimately both meaning “head-covering.” More…
pumps – The shoes are so named for the sound they make. More…
revamp – Originally referred to shoes—vamp being the covering of the instep. More…
Brannock device – The device used to measure feet for shoes. More…
be down on your uppers – To be down on your uppers (referring to shoes) is to be scuffing along, in poor circumstances. More…
amniocentesis, amnion – Amniocentesis is formed by amnion, the innermost membrane enclosing a fetus, and Greek kentesis, “pricking.” More…
endoskeleton – Contained entirely within the body of an animal, like that of mammals. More…
pelage – The fur, hair, wool, etc. of a mammal. More…
rhinarium – The hairless, habitually moist nose of some mammals, such as the antelope. More…
Japanese garden – Often uses bamboo, mondo grasses, pine, and small pools of water containing koi. More…
pine, pinecone – Pine, the tree, is from Latin pinus, from Indo-European pei-, “resin”; pinecones were originally called pineapples. More…
pine, fir, spruce – Pine, fir, and spruce are quite different from each other, though they are all conifers; pine has clusters of long, needle-shaped leaves, spruce is a type of fir, and the only scientific difference between the two is that spruces have rectangular needles while firs have flat, needle-shaped leaves. More…
pinot – A variant of French pineau, a diminutive of pine, from the shape of the clusters of grapes. More…