corn salad – A name given to several species of annual herbs sometimes used for salad. More…
fruit cocktail, fruit cup, fruit salad – Fruit cocktail (1922) is a mixture of sliced or diced fruits, and it is synonymous with fruit cup (1931); fruit salad (1861) is a salad composed of fruits. More…
salad days – Those when one is green in judgment, young and inexperienced. More…
salad – A shortened version of Latin herba salata, “salted vegetables,” from Latin sal, “salt.” More…
rector – First was a ruler or governor, now it is generally a person conducting a religious service. More…
sultan – Comes from the Arabic word for “ruler,” from Aramaic shultana, “power.” More…
Inca – A Quechua word meaning “king, lord, ruler.” More…
rule – One of many words from Latin regula, “straight stick, ruler.” More…
horrible, horror, horrid – Horrible, horror, and horrid are from Latin horrere, “stand on end” (hair) or “tremble, shudder,” and the original sense of horrid was “bristly, shaggy, rough.” More…
horrific, horrendous, horrible, horrid – In decreasing degree of horror: horrific, horrendous, horrible, horrid. More…
pant – The shock that makes you “gasp” is behind the word pant, from Latin phantasiare, “gasp in horror.” More…
terror, horror – Terror is stronger than horror, though it usually lasts for a shorter time. More…
ply – From Latin plicare, “fold,” a thickness or any of the layers of a multilayer material, such as plywood. More…
disk – The layers of cartilage and pulp between vertebrae. More…
Neapolitan ice cream – Gets its name from its layers resembling the Italian flag. More…
delaminate – To separate into layers. More…
catechism, catechumen – Catechism comes from Latin catechismus, “instruction by word of mouth,” and is literally a series of questions and answers; a catechumen is a young Christian preparing for confirmation. More…
disciple, discipline – Disciple comes from a Latin word meaning “learner” and discipline comes from one meaning “instruction, knowledge.” More…
document – First meant “instruction” or “evidence,” whether written or not. More…
lore – Originally meant “the act of teaching” or a “piece of instruction, lesson.” More…
vidiot – An undiscriminating viewer of television or video recordings. More…
gaffer – In television and film, the senior electrician. More…
sixty-four dollar question, sixty-four thousand dollar question – The sixty-four dollar question on the U.S. radio quiz (1942) became the sixty-four thousand dollar question on television (1955). More…
square eyes – Used to describe someone addicted to television. More…
action potential – A brief electrical signal transmitted along a nerve or muscle fiber following stimulation. More…
carpal tunnel syndrome – Describes a compression of a nerve over the carpal bones (eight small bones of the wrist) through a passage (tunnel) at the front of the wrist. More…
obdormition – Numbness caused by pressure on a nerve, as when a limb is “asleep.” More…
funny bone – A nerve, not a bone; the name is a pun on the humerus, the arm bone that gets strange tingles when it is bumped. More…
across the board – An allusion to the board displaying the odds in a horse race. More…
rubble – Comes from Anglo-Norman robel, “bits of broken stone,” from earlier French robe, “loot, odds and ends stolen.” More…
ironic – Something is ironic if the result is the opposite of what was intended; an ironic event is an incongruous event, one at odds with what might have been expected. More…
odds and ends – The first official odds and ends were found in lumberyards—odds were pieces of board split irregularly by the sawmill, ends were pieces trimmed from boards that were cut to specific lengths. More…
top note – The highest in a piece of music or in a singer’s vocal range. More…
paramount, tantamount – Paramount means “primary, top,” and tantamount means “equivalent to, same as”; paramount first meant “highest in jurisdiction.” More…
prime – Unusual since it can have virtually opposite meanings: “preliminary, basic” or “lowest”—as well as “finest” and “highest.” More…
supreme – Ultimately from Latin supra, “above,” which begat supremus, “highest.” More…
litotes – From Greek litos, “simple, single,” it refers to an ironical understatement (e.g. no small amount) or two negatives used to make a positive (e.g. it was not unsuccessful); it is pronounced lie-TOH-teez, LEYED-uh-teez, LID-uh-teez, or leye-TOHD-eez. More…
set point – One’s set point (for happiness) is a genetically determined level of happiness, to which one returns after positive or negative emotional experiences. More…
Positive, comparative, superlative – Positive is the ordinary form of a word, with comparative conveying a sense of greater intensity of the adjective and superlative reflecting the greatest intensity of the adjective. More…
acceptable face – The positive or reasonable side of something. More…