One year in seminary I had a roommate from London. One evening he looked up from his desk and asked, " do you Americans use the word outhouse? "I asked what he meant, and he replied that he was speaking of buildings around a farmhouse for example. I told him we did use it that way, but mos...

My dentist told me the secret to root canal is taking antibiotics a few days ahead of time. It clears out the infection, which is the source of the tenderness.

Warning! As a Philosophy major who followed that up with three girls in a seminary studying theology, I could discuss this for hours. I will try to limit myself to two points: 1 - Doc's discussion was excellent, however it is extremely difficult to pin down what existentialism mean in a particular c...

I have never understood how the word baroque can be used both in music and in architecture and furnishings. Rather than rococo , Baroque music seems to me clean and simple, the opposite of the clutter effect that so often shows up in a room designed to be rococo (or Baroque). Under "decimate &q...

Jerry, I think you are referring to retch wihthout the W. In some parts of the religious world, Calvinism is making a strong comeback. One of its basic tenets is "total depravity" based on the concept of original sin being inherited. In some of their postings, usually quoting 19th century ...

That struck me too, Slava.
I married a Vivian, too.

Where would "clump" come in here?

From Quartz, an excellent discussion of slang use of ghost as a verb.
https://work.qz.com/1318573/people-are- ... g-history/

And then there is the emesis basin, one of those platic jobs they stick you with (in the sense of foisting on you willy-nilly) in the hospital.

Hooligan has been discussed informally as you can see by typing in the word in the search blank at the top. But I don't find it as a word of the day. I did find a discussion today in a Quartz news release about soccer. They trace the term to Irish names, either Hoolihan (Hot Lips?) or O'Hoolihan. At...

Yes, welcome janedoe. I've never got Greek coming up automatically. On what device?

Thanks. Both are great articles. A lot I didn't know. But no one has yet dealt with the change in spelling from mike to mic, both from microphone, of course. I believe I've seen the word used in other amplified speech settings besides dropping it.

I was going to suggest this as a good word, since I am seeing it so frequently, but Doc has already done it well twice. So I'm commenting to bring it to the top in case someone else needs reassurance of its usage. With the current bitcoin fad, I wonder whether we will find that specie fungible with ...

I saw it again today, this time on Jeopardy. The form "mic" showed up for "mike" as short for microphone. For the last year or two, that spelling has been popping up more and more, perhaps popullarized by the expression "drop the mic," which seems to mean finishing. Any...

call_copse, Around here school has become a slang verb meaning to teach someone a lesson. It's often used in athletics to refer to an excellent player demonstrating his skill at outplaying another. "Our all-conference goalie schooled our opponent's high scorer today so he got zero points."