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OK Boomer (paid)

  • Dave Wilton

Dave Wilton

26 Nov 2025 • 2 min read
Internet meme featuring the image of the Doge dog with the label “OK Boomer”

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B&W photo of 5 young men measuring the length of a bridge by having one of them lie down while the others mark the distance

smoot

I usually don’t write up novelty words, but smoot has a neat ironic twist that is impossible to ignore. A smoot is a unit of linear measure equal to 1.7018 meters (5 feet, 7 inches). It is named after Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. (b. 1940). The smoot grew
26 Nov 2025 1 min read
Stylized image of a 1940s newspaper newsroom with the words “Wordorigins.org: Words in the News”
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Google Trends This Week

25 Nov 2025 3 min read
B&W photo of two men looking out the window of a airliner cockpit, one in a pilot’s uniform, the other holding a pistol

terror / terrorism / terrorist

Terrorism is not simply a modern phenomenon; it’s existed since time immemorial. But it wasn’t until the French Revolution that it was given its name. Its root, terror, dates to the fifteenth century in English use. It is a borrowing from the Anglo-Norman terrour and the Latin terror,
24 Nov 2025 6 min read
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