We are all familiar with the sense of 'quarters' being fourth parts of something. But how do we relate this to its use as a place in which something happens. As in 'sleeping quarters', 'battle quarters', 'headquarters', 'close quarters', and the verbal use to quarter meaning to put people in to livi...

I would like to suggest the word COB . I have so far found seventeen nouns and two verbs to which this simple little three letter word attaches. To wit :- A male swan ; a short stout horse; a great man; a hazel nut; a round topped loaf of bread; a round piece of coal; a testicle; an apple dumpling; ...

It appears that the word "bootleg" has not yet been mooted for treatment. We all know roughly what it means - contraband transport of a controlled pleasurable substance usually alcoholic. Hiding something in a boot looks fairly obvious, but boots of a size appropriate ? Hardly since the Pi...

Also descended from the same tantalizing root is the term for a , usually antique, often valuable, lockable portable small rack for bottles of spirits or fortified wine. A TANTALUS could be brought to the table for the gentlemen diners to enjoy a few snifters or nips with their cigars after the ladi...

My remembrance of 'snogging', the word and the activity, dates back to the 1940's in the UK and then it meant what the US calls 'petting' - a long way short of the full monte. It went on between fourteen to sixteen year olds and was an experimental introduction to the more serious event later. Later...