Welcome to Word Soup Wednesday, in which we bring you our favorite strange, obscure, unbelievable (and sometimes NSFW) words from sitcoms, dramas, news shows, and just about anything else on TV.
BOGO
Virginia: “I’ll also be using this 20% off store coupon, which I will then combine with a BOGO.”
“The Last Christmas,” Raising Hope, December 11, 2012
BOGO is an acronym that stands for “buy one get one (free).” A synonym is twofer, “a coupon offering two items, especially tickets for a play, for the price of one.”
cliffpocalypsemageddonacaust
Jon Stewart: “Ladies and gentlemen, the fiscal cliff! It’s the subject of tonight’s cliffpocalypsemageddonacaust, our nation’s totally solvable budget problem.”
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, November 29, 2012
Cliffpocalypsemageddonacaust is blend of cliff of fiscal cliff, apocalypse, armageddon, and holocaust. For more end-of-the-world words, check out Arnold Zwicky’s apocalypse posts.
An example of champlevé
[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by John Hritz]
champlevé
Appraiser: “And while I’m on that subject, I want to point out that this is not cloisonné, as a lot of people call it, this is champlevé.”
“Corpus Christi, Texas,” Antiques Roadshow, January 14, 2013
Champlevé refers to enamelware which has “the ground originally cast with depressions, or engraved or cut out, or lowered.” According to the Antiques Roadshow appraiser, to create champlevé, artisans “scooped the brass hollow and melted the enamel into the hollow,” as opposed to to cloisonné, “where they build up the channels and then melt the enamel down into that.”
This word is French in origin, coming from champ, “field,” and levé, “raised.”
Special thanks to @RoadshowPBS for their help with this word.
coddle
Anthony Bourdain: “What is coddle?”
Guide: “It’s like a peasant food, the leftovers, things like bacon and potato and sausage. It’s pretty much mixed it all together in a stew.”
“Dublin,” The Layover, January 7, 2013
Coddle is “an Irish dish consisting of layers of roughly sliced pork sausages and rashers (thinly sliced, somewhat fatty back bacon) with sliced potatoes and onions.” The name comes from the verb meaning of coddle, “to boil gently; seethe; stew, as fruit.”
disco nap
Gloria [who was falling asleep at dinner]: “Just a little disco nap.”
“New Year’s Eve,” Modern Family, January 9, 2012
A disco nap is “a nap you take before going to a party or going out dancing.” We couldn’t find the origin of disco nap. If anyone has any information, let us know!
ghillie suit
Stephen Colbert: “I’m getting ready for that dark tomorrow when jack-booted government thugs come for our guns. That’s where this ghillie suit comes in.”
The Colbert Report, January 15, 2013
A ghillie suit is “a type of overall covered in torn cloth sheds, used as camouflage by hunters and military snipers.” Ghillie comes from the Scottish gille, “servant” or a “lad.”
The Green Fairy
[Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0 by James Vaughn]
green fairy
Nick: “That is not creme de menthe. That is the green fairy right there.”
Angie: “It’s absinthe.”
“Cabin,” New Girl, January 8, 2013
Absinthe is nicknamed the green fairy because of its “opaline-green color” and the hallucinations that result from excessive use. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, green fairy is a translation from the French fée verte.
lion’s head
Anthony Bourdain: “Or Mandarin lion’s head with brown sauce, which is not lion by the way. They’re giant pork meatballs.”
“Atlanta,” The Layover, January 14, 2013
Lion’s head is a direct translation from the Chinese, shi zi tou, and is named for the food’s resemblance to “the head of the lion and the cabbage (or other vegetables), which is supposed to resemble the lion’s mane.”
peameal bacon
Anthony Bourdain: “What is peameal [bacon]?”
Guide: “Basically pork loin that’s been rolled in cornmeal.”
“Toronto,” The Layover, December 17, 2012
Peameal bacon originated in Canada. The name comes from “the historic practice of rolling the cured and trimmed boneless loin in dried and ground yellow peas, originally for preservation reasons,” but now is “rolled in ground yellow cornmeal.”
souse
Anthony Bourdain: “And souse, something any chef would be proud to have on the menu, especially this good.”
“Atlanta,” The Layover, January 14, 2013
Souse refers to “something kept or steeped in pickle; especially, the head, ears, and feet of swine pickled.” The word comes from the Old French souz, sous, “pickled meat.”
stackable
Virginia: “I have half off from the manufacturer, which is stackable.”
Barney: “That means she can combine them with other coupons.”
“The Last Christmas,” Raising Hope, December 11, 2012
Stackable is coupon lingo, which also includes blinkie, a type of coupon distributed by a machine that blinks a light to catch shoppers’ attention; catalina, a coupon that’s printed with the shopper’s receipt, named for the company that makes the coupons; and peelie, a peel-off coupon.