park – Originally a legal term for land held by royal grant for the keeping of game animals for royals to hunt. More…
sealer, sealing – A sealer is a seal hunter and seal hunting is called sealing. More…
half-cocked – Comes from hunting; a gun at half cock is in the safety position—so it came to mean “incompletely prepared.” More…
tryst – Comes from Scottish as a variant of an old word, trist, “an appointed place or station in hunting,” and now means a “secret meeting of lovers.” More…
pastry wheel, pastry jagger – A pastry wheel or pastry jagger is a handled tool with a thin sharp wheel, used for marking and cutting rolled-out dough. More…
stocking – A white marking on the lower part of a horse’s leg. More…
on the dot – Probably a reference to the minute hand of the clock being exactly over the dot marking the given minute on the dial. More…
hilum – The scar on a seed marking the point where it was attached to its seed vessel. More…
biscuit shooter – A waitress at a lunch counter or a cook on a ranch. More…
dude, dude ranch – A dude is a city-dweller, especially one vacationing on a ranch—hence, dude ranch. More…
ranch dressing – A creamy buttermilk-based dressing with garlic and other spices and herbs, developed at Hidden Valley Ranch in Santa Barbara in the 1950s. More…
ranch – From Spanish rancho, “group of persons eating together.” More…
drey – A squirrel’s nest of twigs in a tree. More…
broom – Was first called a besom, but evolved because many of them were made of twigs from the wild broom shrub. More…
lop – The smaller branches and twigs of a tree. More…
whiskers – Originally the word for a bundle of feathers, twigs, etc. used for whisking (from “whisk”), it then came to denote the projecting hairs or bristles of mammals. More…
high court – A supreme court of justice. More…
attain – First meant “bring to justice.” More…
revenge, justice – Revenge is personal and justice is societal. More…
blind justice – The Greek statue for justice is wearing a blindfold so she cannot see the bribes being offered to her, hence blind justice. More…
allopathy, allopath, allopathist – Another word for conventional medical treatment is allopathy; an allopath or allopathist is a physician. More…
pediatrician – Comes from Greek pais/paidos, “child,” and iatros, “physician.” More…
armamentarium – The equipment of a medical institution or physician. More…
kazoo, bazooka – Dutch bazu, “trumpet,” gives us the words kazoo and bazooka, the latter originally being a form of kazoo that was a long sounding-horn. More…
jubilee – Comes from Hebrew yobhel, “ram’s horn,” which was used as a trumpet to proclaim the jubilee, a year of emancipation and restoration (every 50 years). More…
taratantara – The sound of a bugle or trumpet can be called taratantara. More…
azure stone – Another name for the lapis lazuli. More…
lapis lazuli – A sky-blue semiprecious stone, it is pronounced lap-us-LAY-zuh-lee. More…
sapphire – From Greek sappheiros, “lapis lazuli” or “blue stone.” More…
ultramarine – First a blue pigment made from lapis lazuli, imported from Asia by sea, so, in Latin, it was ultramarinus, “beyond the seas.” More…