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."

Thanks for connecting pawn with peon, pedestrisn, and pioneer. I would emphasize that, while the human pawn may be passive in allowing himself to be manipulated, there is usually a conscious and active, even evil, person doing the manipulation.

Used more lately as your accustomed group of friends, your gang, as it were. Webster: efinition of posse 1 : a large group often with a common interest 2 : a body of persons summoned by a sheriff to assist in preserving the public peace usually in an emergency 3 : a group of people temporarily organ...

Not necessarily, Slava. Only if the text was copied. There is a large collection of pseudepigrapha of New Testament books. Those are the ones advertised with a gasp as the "Hidden books of the Bible" and the books the church didn't want you to know about. The recent "Gospel of Judas&q...

Is the pic from James Thurber?

The etymology George posted for banns as deriving from ban, meaning proclaim suggests the word banner also came from that root.

I think one of the makn purposes of posting the bans was to prohibit poligamy. Also the reason for the cringeworthy line in old ceremonies, "If anyone can show just cause why this man and this woman should not now be united in holy matrimony, let him speak now or forever hold his peace." E...

I grew up with the resulting dish, a meal in itself, called hash. It would be sort of like a stew without the liquid, perhaps including hashed meat, potatoes, onions, etc.

Currently hashmarks or pound signs are a strong communication tool whose meaning ois dependent on context. #thanx

Thanks Slava. An excellent site.

I think George Kovac used this word recently in discussing bravo. Obviously means the relentless pursuit of a goal, but I wonder what might be turned up in a deeper explanation.

#groan...

Apprehend seems to me to involve a little more possession and a bit more emotion than comprehend. Both a subtle, but I think palpable. Anyone else?