box office – An office in a theatre for booking seats, originally from “hiring a box.” More…
in the wings – An expression from the theatre, referring to the areas on the sides of the stage hidden from the audience. More…
scenery, scenic – Scenery was originally theatrical—”a stage depiction of nature”—and it came to be applied to nature itself; scenic first pertained to the theatre and meant “dramatic, theatrical.” More…
hyponychial dirt – After an archaeology dig, you will have hyponychial dirt (under the nails). More…
gadzooks – An abridgment of God’s hooks, “nails of the cross.” More…
quick – Any tender or sensitive flesh, as under the nails, around a sore or wound, or under a hoof. More…
exungulate – To trim one’s nails. More…
hog – A pig weighing more than 120 pounds. More…
high on the hog – An allusion to the upper portions of a pig being the best for eating. More…
swine, hog, pig – Swine is the collective (and ancestral) term for domesticated pigs and hogs; a hog is 120 pounds or more and ready for market, while a pig is immature and weighs less. More…
hog on ice – Known mainly from the title of the book by Charles Earle Funk (1948); it is from the expression “as independent as a hog on ice,” in which hog refers to the stone in the game of curling when it comes to rest. More…
emollient, emolliate – Emollient is from Latin emolliere, “to soften”; to emolliate is to soften or make effeminate. More…
macerate – Meaning “to soften,” it comes from Greek massein, “knead.” More…
lenify, lenity – To lenify is to alleviate or soothe an emotion or suffering, from Latin lenire, “soften”; lenity means kindness or gentleness. More…
amalgamate – Seems to go back to Greek malagma, “softening.” More…
cabbage pounder – An inept golfer who spends a lot of time in the rough. More…
carpet knight – A knight who spends his time in luxury and idleness—knighted on the carpet at court rather than on the field of battle. More…
mouse potato – A person who spends too much time on the computer, patterned on couch potato. More…
spendthrift – One who spends the “thrift” or earnings/wealth of another. More…
rhetor – A teacher of rhetoric or a master of it. More…
climax – First described propositions in rhetoric, one rising above the other in effectiveness; it comes from Greek klimax, “ladder.” More…
demagoguery, demagogy – Demagoguery and demagogy are the practices or rhetoric of a demagogue. More…
scheme – From Greek skhema, “figure, form,” it first referred to a figure of speech, especially a figure of rhetoric, denoting a way of deviating from the ordinary use and order of words to create special effect. More…
trade name – A name with the status of a trademark. More…
trademark – A name, symbol, or other depiction identifying a product. The first trademarks were stamps and symbols used by ancient cultures to indicate who had made goods; a trade name is the name of the maker, not the product, but has the status of a trademark. More…
Ping-Pong – A trade name for table tennis, invented as an echoic term for the sound of the ball. More…
Sheetrock, drywall, wall board – Sheetrock is a trade name for drywall or wall board—pre-hardened plaster of Paris (gypsum) sold in large sheets and used as a wall surface in building construction. More…
epithalamium – A poem written to celebrate a wedding. More…
confetti – It is the plural of Italian confetto, “small sweet,” as it was originally real or imitation bon-bons thrown during a carnival or after a wedding. More…
morganatic – A survival of an ancient Germanic marriage custom, a gift on the morning after the wedding from husband to wife called morgangeba, “morning” and “give”; it now describes a marriage between people of different social status, especially a man of superior rank and woman of inferior rank. More…
nuptial – From Latin nuptiae, “wedding,” from nubere, “to marry.” More…