hush puppy 29 June 2026 Hush puppy has a number of meanings ranging from types of food to a brand of casual shoes, but its most common meaning is that of a small, fried ball of corn meal. The dish is a common throughout the American South and is often served alongside
scallywag 26 June 2026 A scallywag is a disreputable person. The term is often associated with the post-Civil War South, where it was applied to white southerners who supported the Reconstruction policies of the Republican party, but the term is at least a generation older. It appears in a wide
biscuit / cookie 24 June 2026 One distinction between the British and North American lexicons is the usage of biscuit and cookie. What North Americans call a cookie, the British call a biscuit. And what Americans call a biscuit has no exact counterpart in British cuisine. American biscuits are savory and resemble a
atone / atonement 22 June 2026 As the word is generally used today, to atone is to offer propitiation to an injured party, to make amends for a wrong one has committed, and atonement is the product of that verb. But the word did not always mean this, and it has an etymology
pond / pound 19 June 2026 A pond is a small body of water. The word is actually a spelling and pronunciation variant of the noun pound, meaning of a pen or enclosure. The word probably comes from an unattested Old English *pund. We also find cognates in the Anglo-Norman ponde, punde,
pudding 17 June 2026 Pudding is a word that means different things on either side of the Atlantic, and it is also a word that has acquired additional senses over of the centuries. Pudding dates to the late thirteenth century, and its original meaning is that of a sausage, a mix
stump / stumper 15 June 2026 [Edit: 16 June 2026, clarified how the insolvable problem sense developed] The word stump has a variety of meanings. It can be a noun referring to the what is left after a tree is cut down or a limb—of a tree or a person—is amputated.
little green men / little people 12 June 2026 Before there were grays, reptilians, and other species of extraterrestrial beings that have visited earth in science fiction tales and in hallucinations, there were little green men. The phrase appears at the close of the nineteenth century but has its origins in older folklore about little people,
bleach / bleachers 10 June 2026 Bleachers are benches without backs or cover for spectators at sporting events, usually the most inexpensive seats in the venue. And the term is more generally used to refer to any uncovered seating at a sporting event. Bleacher can also refer to those who occupy those seats.
birth control 8 June 2026 Birth control is a generic term for a variety of methods to promote family planning and prevent unwanted pregnancies. While various contraceptive practices have been in place for centuries (cf. condom), the term birth control in its current sense only dates to the opening decades of the
black hole 5 June 2026 In the world of astronomy, a black hole is a cosmological object formed by the gravitational collapse of a star that is larger than about twenty solar masses. (Other mechanisms for black hole formation may exist.) The star, or remnants of the star after a supernova explosion,
