shock – An encounter between two charging hostile forces. More…
enfant terrible – Actually applies to young adults (generally male) who go out of their way to shock or embarrass but at the same time are considered talented. More…
perculsive – Describing something that gives you a shock. More…
ay, chihuahua – This interjection expresses surprise or shock—even dismay, annoyance, or resignation. More…
box social – A social event at which boxes of food are auctioned to male bidders, who win the privilege of eating and dancing with the woman who prepared the box lunch. More…
privilege, prerogative – A privilege is a right that may be extended to a group or a number of people; a prerogative is a right that, customarily, is vested in a single person. More…
munity – A granted right or privilege. More…
prerogative – Comes from Latin praerogare, “ask before others,” and came to mean “right to precedence, privilege.” More…
crust – From French crouste, from Latin crusta, “rind, shell; incrustation.” More…
pith – First referred to the spongy cellular tissue in the stems and branches of many plants, and also the spongy white tissue lining the rind of citrus fruits. More…
rind, peel – The rind is the hard or tough covering on oranges, grapefruit, and watermelon; once removed, skin or rind is usually known as peel. More…
ball, socket – On a clothing snap, there is a ball and a socket. More…
socket – From Middle English, first as “head of a spear, resembling a plowshare,” from an Anglo-Norman French diminutive of French soc, “plowshare.” More…
acetabulum – The socket of the hip bone, into which the head of the femur fits. More…
birn – The socket in a clarinet or other woodwind into which the mouthpiece fits. More…
buck teeth – Large front teeth protruding over the others; the phrase may come from buck, the adult male of some animals, such as rabbits—which have this type of front teeth. More…
hightail it – Refers to animals, such as mustangs and rabbits, that raise their tails high when fleeing danger. More…
trattles – The rounded droppings of animals like rabbits and sheep. More…
angora – As in cat, goat, and rabbit, it comes from the Turkish capital Angora (till 1930), now Ankara. More…
church key – Started out as slang for bottle opener in the early 1950s and was considered mildly shocking, even sacrilegious. More…
flagrant, blatant – Flagrant implies shocking and reprehensible, while blatant is obvious, contrived, and usually obnoxious; flagrant is a stronger term than blatant. More…
forbysen, bysen – Forbysen is an “example or parable”; bysen is a “shocking thing.” More…
tingle – From Middle English, possibly a variant of tinkle, its original meaning was “response to a loud noise” and “response to hearing something shocking.” More…
discerp – To shred or tear something apart. More…
avulse – To tear or pull away or pluck off. More…
deracinate – “To pluck or tear up by the roots,” from Latin racine, “root.” More…
dilacerate, dilaniate – To tear or rip something or someone to shreds is to dilacerate or dilaniate. More…
hovel – A conical building enclosing a kiln. More…
oast – A kiln used to dry hops or malt or tobacco. More…
battledore – Can refer to various tools, such as the paddle of a canoe or a utensil for inserting loaves into an oven or wares into a kiln. More…
china – Comes from Persian chini, for the delicate and valuable ware first made in China; the word describes pieces made from certain kinds of clay that have been glazed, usually decorated, and fired in a kiln at high temperatures. More…
aptronym – A name that fits a person’s nature or occupation, like Jane House for a real estate agent. More…
mechanical – Predates “machine” in English and has long had certain separate senses, such as “an art, trade, or occupation: concerned with manual work” and “practical as opposed to theoretical.” More…
specialization, specialty – Specialization refers to the process of becoming specialized; specialty refers to a special pursuit, occupation, or product. More…
study – Based on Latin studium, “painstaking application, zeal” (from studere, “to be zealous”), study’s earliest uses are surprising: “affection, friendliness,” an “occupation or pursuit,” and “a state of reverie or abstraction; state of perplexity.” More…