deepfake 29 May 2026 A deepfake is a piece of artificially generated or manipulated media, especially a video, that is convincing. Deepfakes were among the first products of artificial intelligence to come to the attention of the general public. They started appearing in late 2017 when pornographic videos where a celebrity’
desi 27 May 2026 Desi is an adjective that refers to things of South Asian origin, and in recent decades has also come into use as a noun referring to people of South Asian descent outside of the region. The word comes from the Hindi desi (deysi in Urdu), meaning local,
x-dimensional chess 25 May 2026 Chess is considered by some to be the ultimate test of human intelligence, and multi-dimensional chess—three-, four-, five-, and even higher-dimensional versions—is a metaphor for even more complex tasks and strategies. Three-dimensional chess started out as an actual variant on the game,
lavender 22 May 2026 Lavender is a flower, a shade of purple, and a slang term associated with gay men. The slang sense is commonly seen in lavender marriage, a companionate, and often celebrity, marriage of convenience where one or both partners are gay. There is also the Lavender Scare, the
on/off the hook 20 May 2026 The phrases on the hook and off the hook have had various meanings over the centuries. Of course, there are many literal uses of the phrases, but the figurative ones extend from on the hook metaphorically meaning to be ensnared or entrapped, like a fish on an
haggard 18 May 2026 The adjective haggard today is generally used to describe someone who presents an emaciated, worn, weary, or disheveled appearance. But the original sense of the word is quite different, coming from the sport of falconry. The word was borrowed into English in the mid sixteenth century from
stay in your lane 15 May 2026 The underlying metaphor under the clichéd piece of advice to stay in your lane is rather obvious, but the use of phrase appears to have moved from the literal to the metaphorical in US military in the closing decade of the twentieth century. That metaphor is one
antifa 13 May 2026 In its present incarnation, while it is often styled in the press as a “group” or “organization,” antifa is more of a political ethos or orientation that opposes fascism and anti-democratic forces. While not inherently violent, some of those who self-identify as antifa are often
hodad 11 May 2026 Hodad is surfing jargon. Exactly what it means has shifted a bit. It started out as a deprecatory term for non-surfers, but it quickly shifted to become a general term of opprobrium. The origin of the term, like that of many slang terms, is unknown. J.
sophism / sophomore / sophomoric 8 May 2026 An argument or statement that is sophomoric is pretentious and crudely reasoned (cf. sophisticated). It is no surprise that it comes from sophomore, a word for second-year university student. And that word’s root is sophism, which brings us full circle as that word refers to
religion 6 May 2026 Religion has a straightforward etymology, but its original English meaning is rather different from how it is commonly used today. It is a late twelfth-century borrowing, partly from the Anglo-Norman religiun, and partly from the post-classical Latin religio. Its original English sense was that
