tarot Tarot is the name of a type of playing card which is often also used for cartomancy (i.e., divination or fortune-telling). There are a wide variety of games that can be played with a tarot deck. Over the centuries, there have been many variations in what tarot decks contain,
spitting image (paid) The phrase spitting image, used to describe someone who looks very much like another person, particularly a close family member, is a relatively recent coinage based on a much older idea. That original idea has disappeared from our collective consciousness, making the phrase a dead metaphor, one that is no
October surprise (It's no surprise that this phrase has been popping up in political commentary of late; from the archives, originally published 27 October 2020.) Political columnist and word maven William Safire defined an October surprise as a “last minute disruption before an election; unexpected political stunt, revelation, or diplomatic
strontium Strontium is a chemical element with atomic number 38 and the symbol Sr. It is a highly reactive, soft, silver-white/yellowish metal. The isotopes found in strontium ores are all stable, but nuclear fission produces radioactive ones, including strontium-90, which has a half-life of 28.9 years. Strontium-90 is a
ass / arse / donkey An ass is domesticated equine, Equus asinus, otherwise known as a donkey. But an ass, or arse, can also refer to the human buttocks. These are two distinct words that happen to be, at least in American English, pronounced and spelled the same. Both can be traced with confidence to
sanewashing redux Evidently I posted my piece on sanewashing a bit too hastily and missed an email by Ben Zimmer to the American Dialect Society listserv on earlier uses of the term. Ben has found use of the word dating to 2007. I've updated the piece here. FYI, I frequently
sanewashing Sanewashing is the portrayal of a radical or beyond-the-pale political idea as being within the mainstream of political discourse, making an insane idea appear sane. It is formed on the model of greenwashing (making an ecologically untenable idea or practice seem environmentally friendly) and whitewashing. It’s a good example
weird [I reposted an older version from the archives not too long ago, but Scott Newstok pointed me to more research on Shakespeare's use of weird/weyward, so I've added that.] Weird, as we most often use it today, is an adjective meaning strange, odd, or uncanny.
tennessine Tennessine is a synthetic chemical element with atomic number 117 and the symbol Ts. It was first synthesized in 2010 by an international team of researchers from Russia and the United States. The collaborating institutions included the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia; the Oak Ridge National
nimrod In current usage, nimrod is often used as a disparaging term for an inept or foolish person. This usage is often said to come from young viewers misinterpreting a 1940s Bugs Bunny cartoon, but that is not quite true. A Warner Brothers cartoon does play a role in the word’
Boston marriage / Wellesley marriage A Boston marriage is term for a long-term cohabitation of two women that dates to the late nineteenth century. The term allows for the possibility of the relationship being a sexual one, but it does not require it. As such it not only gave women more freedom in structuring their
tellurium Tellurium is a chemical element with atomic number 52 and the symbol Te. It is a brittle, silver-white metalloid. It is rather rare on earth, but more abundant in the cosmos as a whole. Tellurium is chiefly used in copper and steel alloys to improve machineability and in solar panels
holy mackerel / holy X “Holy mackerel” is what is called a minced oath, a phrase where an offensive term is replaced with a non-offensive one. In this case, turning a potentially blasphemous utterance into a silly or humorous one. There are a number of “holy X” ones: holy cow, holy Moses, and holy smoke
equinox / equilux The Encyclopedia of Astronomy & Astrophysics defines equinox as: An instant at which the Sun crosses the celestial equator; the Sun is then vertically overhead at the equator, and day and night have equal duration at every point on the Earth’s surface. The apparent annual path of the Sun
technetium Technetium is a chemical element with atomic number 43 and the symbol Tc. It is the lightest element with no stable isotopes and the first element to be artificially produced. The name comes from the Greek τεχνητός (technetos), meaning artificial. Technetium is used as a tracer chemical in medical testing
