It’s time for another installment of Word Soup Wednesday, in which we bring you some weird, funny, and interesting words from recent TV.

l’affaire est ketchup

Anthony Bourdain: “Across town [is] another thing entirely, the younger, wilder L’Affaire Est Ketchup, which I am reliably informed means ‘everything’s cool’ in local idiom.”

“Quebec,” Parts Unknown, May 5, 2013

We couldn’t find the origin of l’affaire est ketchup, which seems to mean everything from “everything’s okay,” to “it’s going to work,” to “it’s all good.” If anyone knows, please add it in the comments.

beavertail

Anthony Bourdain: “Beavertail, on the other hand, is not actually beaver at all, rather a quick spoonbread type of thing that in our case goes somewhat awry during an inadvertent inferno.”

“Quebec,” Parts Unknown, May 5, 2013

The beavertail is a kind of fried-dough pastry shaped like a beaver’s tail. BeaverTails are “a Canadian-based chain of pastry stands” founded in 1978. It’s unclear which came first, the pastry or the chain.

crackles

Dr. Turner [listening to Sister Bernadette’s lungs]: “Crackles on both sides.”

Episode 6, Call the Midwife, May 5, 2013

Crackles refer to “clicking, rattling, or crackling noises” in the lungs as a result of respiratory disorders should as pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis, acute bronchitis, or, as in this episode of Call the Midwife, tuberculosis. Crackles were originally known as rales, French for “rattles,” a term developed by French physician René Laennec.

embarrassment of boobies

Zeke: “It’s an embarrassment of boobies!”

“Carpe Museum,” Bob’s Burgers, May 5, 2013

An embarrassment in this case is a mock collective noun, “a noun that denotes a collection of persons or things regarded as a unit,” in this case, “boobies.” Other collective nouns include a blush of boys, a superfluity of nuns, and a glaring of cats.

FARC

Anthony Bourdain: “Until recently most of the news coming out of this part of Colombia was not good. It was a front line in the War on Drugs, for lack of a better term, and Colombia’s long struggle with the FARC, a Marxist guerilla force financed by drug trafficking, kidnapping, and covert assistance from Venezuela.”

“Colombia,” Parts Unknowns, April 28, 2013

FARC stands for Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or in English, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The FARC is “considered a terrorist organization by the Government of Colombia.”

Glühenvolk

Rosalee: “When I was a kid, we used to think [Glühenvolk] were these beautiful, magical creatures that glowed in the dark. It was supposed be really good luck to see one, like the leprechaun legend.”

“Endangered,” Grimm, April 30, 2013

Glühenvolk translates from the German as “glow people.” Their bulbous heads, bioluminescence, and penchant for mutilating cows to obtain the ovaries for pregnant females (see also alien cattle mutilation) have led people in this episode to think they’re aliens.

orrery

Appraiser: “And this is what’s called a planetarium, or an orrery.”

“Rapid City,” Antiques Roadshow, May 6, 2013

An orrery is “a mechanical model of the solar system,” and was named “after Charles Boyle, Fourth Earl of Orrery (1676-1731), for whom one was made.”

pastagate

Anthony Bourdain: “So I was going to talk about the whole history of French Quebecois identity. A separatist movement, but I have to get right to the pressing matter of the day, pastagate. “

“Quebec,” Parts Unknown, May 5, 2013

Pastagate, as Bourdain says, “refers to an incident where local authorities [in Quebec] notified an Italian restaurant that they were in violation of French laws because they used the word ‘pasta’ which is Italian.”

Pastagate plays off Watergate, a scandal which occurred during the Nixon administration “involving abuse of power and bribery and obstruction of justice.” The suffix –gate has come to signify any scandal.

prom-posal

Stephen Colbert: “These days there’s something even more glamorous and expensive than the prom itself, the prom proposal, or as some zeigeist watchers are calling it, the prom-posal, which of course is a combo of the two words, pro and mposal.”

The Colbert Report, May 7, 2013

A prom-posal is the act of asking someone to the prom. “According to The New York Times,” says Colbert, “prom-posals have gotten so elaborate that teens are bringing in event planners, like the Heart Bandits, which charge $400 for orchestrating custom promposals.”

push the boat out

Mrs. Clark: “They didn’t even have a famous judge, which is where I thought we ought to push the boat out.”

Episode 5, Call the Midwife, April 28, 2013

Push the boat out is a British English idiom meaning to do something extravagantly, especially in regards to a celebration. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest citation is from 1920 and is also Navy slang for “to buy a round of drinks.”

The phrase seems to have originated from the once common practice of helping to push a beached boat into the water, which was considered an act of generosity.

snowball

Trixie: “Just a rather naughty version of eggnog. When you mix it with fizz, you get something called a snowball.”

Episode 5, Call the Midwife, April 28, 2013

A snowball refers to a variety of cocktails. The one in this episode could include a “generous measure of Advocaat” as Trixie has stashed a bottle of that drink under Jenny’s pillow.

spirit lamp

Sister Bernadette: “We struggle with these spirit lamps. They’re so old-fashioned and so fragile.”

Episode 5, Call the Midwife, April 28, 2013

A spirit lamp is “a lamp that burns alcohol or other liquid fuel,” where spirit refers to alcohol.

sugar shack

Anthony Bourdain: “The tradition of the cabane a sucre, or sugar shack, is as old as maple syrup here in Quebec, where 70 percent of the world’s supply comes from.”

“Quebec,” Parts Unknown, May 5, 2013

The sugar shack is a building where maple sap is collected and boiled down to make syrup. It’s also known as a sugar house or sugar shanty.

tablescaping

Linda: “One of our kids is actually participating in something. We’re going, even if it’s table setting.”
Gene: “It’s tablescaping, and it’s the most exciting competition on four legs.”

“Boyz 4 Now,” Bob’s Burgers, April 28, 2013

Tablescaping, as Gene says, “combines accurate table setting placement with creative themes and costumes.” The word is a blend of table and landscaping. Xeriscaping is landscaping for deserts while manscaping is the practice of trimming men’s facial and body hair.

tejo

Anthony Bourdain: “But I’m not really here for the climate. I’m here for tejo. It involves alcohol and explosives.”

“Colombia,” Parts Unknowns, April 28, 2013

Tejo, which translates from Spanish as “disc” or “hopscotch,” is a game in Colombia which involves throwing a metal disc at a board with a metal ring, or bocin, surrounded by “two to four triangular folded paper packets, called ‘mechas,’ which are filled with gunpowder-like material that explodes on impact.” The goal of the game is to “lodge the tejo puck inside the bocin, strike the mechas in order to create an explosion, and ultimately score the most points.”

tyromancy

Franklin: “You ever heard of tyromancy?”
Dr. Lecter: “Divination by cheese.”

“Sorbet,” Hannibal, May 9, 2013

Tyromancy is telling the future by reading the coagulation of cheese, specifically “the shape, number of holes, pattern of the mold and other characteristics,” according to this blog post recapping an episode of The Splendid Table.

Village maidens would “write the names of their prospective suitors on separate pieces of cheese and the one whose name was on the piece of cheese where molds grew first was believed to be the ideal love mate.” Another technique was related to myomancy, divination by mice, in which the possible answers to a question were written on pieces of cheese and placed in a cage with a mouse. Whichever piece the mouse ate first was the answer to the question.

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by sylvar]

Vintage Televisions

Welcome to Word Soup Wednesday, in which we bring you some weird, funny, and interesting words from recent TV.

blood eagle

Jimmy: “Vikings used to execute Christians by breaking their ribs, bending them back, and draping the lungs over them to resemble wings. They used to call it a blood eagle.”

“Coquilles,” Hannibal, April 25, 2013

The blood eagle is “a method of Viking ritual execution” mentioned in skaldic poetry and Norse sagas. Whether or not such a practice actually took place is disputed.

Not surprisingly, Blood Eagle is also the name of a band, specifically “a heavy rave trash duo.”

catarrh

Mr. Gillepsie: “If I don’t smoke, I can’t clear my catarrh.”

Episode 3, Call the Midwife, April 14, 2013

Catarrh is an “inflammation of a mucous membrane, especially of the air-passages of the head and throat.” The word comes from the Greek katarrein, “to flow down.”

Cigarettes were once advertised as having a variety of health benefits, including the “temporary relief of paroxysms of asthma.”

co-POTAL

Selina: “We’re going co-POTAL.”

“Midterms,” Veep, April 14, 2013

Thanks to Nancy Friedman, aka Fritinancy, for pointing out this Word Soup-worthy word. As per Nancy, co-POTAL relates to a “shared presidency,” and comes from POTUS, President of the United States.

folie à deux

Abigail: “Can you catch somebody’s crazy?”
Dr. Bloom: “Folie à deux. It’s a French psychiatric term. Madness shared by two.”

“Potage,” Hannibal, April 18, 2013

Folie à deux is “a condition in which symptoms of a mental disorder, such as the same delusional beliefs or ideas, occur simultaneously in two individuals who share a close relationship or association.” The terms seems to have first appeared in English around 1913, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Some real life cases.

gestictionary

Gary: “Those signals took years! I can’t just tear up the gestictionary and come up with new codes like that.”

“Signals,” Veep, April 21, 2013

Another hat tip to Fritinancy! A gestictionary is a “guide to coded gestures,” what Gary and Selina, the Vice President, have devised to allow Selina to signal when she, for instance, wants an early departure from an undesirable situation. The word is a blend of gesture and dictionary.

han

Anthony Bourdain: “To take a peek into the dark heart of the Korean psyche, maybe it helps to get familiar with han. It’s a concept that for non-Koreans can be difficult to fully grasp.”

“Los Angeles (Koreatown),” Parts Unknown, April 21, 2013

Han is a “concept in Korean culture” that “denotes a collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of overwhelming odds,” and “aspects of lament and unavenged injustice.”

The concept may have arisen from “Korea’s history of having been invaded by other neighboring nations, such as the Khitans, the Manchu/Jurchens, the Mongols, and the Japanese,” as well as “class system strictures, such as the distinction between the elite Yangban class and the peasants.”

Han’s cognates in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese translate simply as “hate.”

locavore

Anthony Bourdain: “What do you do if you’re a locavore in L.A.? You look around. What’s local and delicious?”

“Los Angeles (Koreatown),” Parts Unknown, April 21, 2013

A locavore is someone “who tries to eat only locally grown foods.” The word combines local and the –vore ending of such eating words as carnivore, omnivore, etc. -vore ultimately comes from the Latin vorare, “to devour.”

Locavore was coined in 2005 by “a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius,” and was the Oxford American Dictionary’s 2007 word of the year.

Lowrider Wynwood

low riding

Anthony Bourdain: “Few things embody that particularly southern California Latino street culture than low riding.”

“Los Angeles (Koreatown),” Parts Unknown, April 21, 2013

Low riding is the chiefly U.S. “practice of driving a low rider,” says the OED,” or “the (youth) culture associated with this, esp. that originating amongst the male Chicano and Hispanic populations of southern California.” A low rider, or lowrider, is “a customized car whose springs have been shortened so that the chassis rides close to the ground, often equipped with hydraulic lifts that can be controlled by the driver.”

(And now the Low Rider song is stuck in our heads. And now it’s stuck in yours. [You’re welcome.])

mohinga

Anthony Bourdain: “Mohinga? This I must have. Correct me if I’m wrong [but] if there’s a national dish, a fundamental most beloved dish, would it be this?”

“Myanmar,” Parts Unknown, April 14, 2013

Mohinga is a Burmese dish of rice noodles in fish soup and is “usually eaten as breakfast.” More fish soups.

shrike

Abigail: “Why do they call him the Shrike?”
Freddie: “It’s a bird that impales its prey, harvests the organs to eat later.”

“Potage,” Hannibal, April 18, 2013

A shrike is a type of carnivorous bird that has “a screeching call and a strong hooked bill with a toothlike projection.” It often impales “its prey on sharp-pointed thorns or barbs of wire fencing.” The word shrike may come from an Old English term that may have generally been used for birds with shrill cries, says the OED. Also known as the butcher bird.

terroir

Roy Choi: “For me I don’t see mustard plants and sheep grazing. I see barbed wire and telephone poles. I see puddles, and all of that stuff contributes to the flavor of the food. It’s truly what I call a terroir, a regional food.”

“Los Angeles (Koreatown),” Parts Unknown, April 21, 2013

Terroir, which is French in origin, refers to “the complete set of local conditions in which a particular wine or family of wines is produced, including soil-type, weather conditions, topography and wine-making savoir-faire.” The word also now applies to foods. Choi is referring to his Kogi Korean BBQ cuisine, a blend of Mexican and Korean flavors unique to L.A.

For even more about this concept, check out Rowan Jacobsen’s American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields.

thanaka

Anthony Bourdain: “But [what] they all seem to have in common, however, is thanaka, a face paint and sunblock made from tree bark that masks many of their faces.”

“Myanmar,” Parts Unknown, April 14, 2013

Thanaka, used often in Myanmar and neighboring countries such as Thailand, is a sunblock paste made from the ground-up bark of thanaka and theethee trees. Thanaka is also thought to remove acne, promote smooth skin, and act as an anti-fungal.

tourist triangle

Anthony Bourdain: “It should be pointed out that we are still within the confines of the tourist triangle, areas permissible for travel. Whole sectors of this country, much of it in fact, are off limits.”

“Myanmar,” Parts Unknown, April 14, 2013

The tourist triangle of Myanmar refers to the route of Yangon, Mandalay, and Pagan. The Golden Triangle is an opium-producing area of Asia while the Bermuda Triangle is “an area in the western Atlantic Ocean where many ships and planes are supposed to have been mysteriously lost.”

That’s it for this installment!

[Photo Credit: “Vintage Televisions,” CC BY 2.0 by Tiffany Terry]
[Photo Credit: “Lowrider Wynwood,” CC BY 2.0 by Phillip Pessar]

When you've had a Horlicks of a day...

Welcome to Word Soup Wednesday, in which we bring you those weird, funny, and interesting words from recent TV.

baby boom

Jenny: “We’re in the middle of a baby boom.”

Episode 2, Season 2, Call the Midwife, April 7, 2013

A baby boom is “a sudden large increase in the birthrate,” especially referring to the one that occurred starting in the early 1940s through the early 1960s in the United States. The post WWII-baby boom in the United Kingdom was shorter, “peaking in 1946.” A baby boomer is someone born during these years.

The earliest use of baby boom is from 1880, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

beard

Reporter [to Angela]: “A question for the Senator’s beard.”

“Stairmageddon,” The Office, April 11, 2013

A beard, according to the OED, is someone who pretends to be “in a heterosexual relationship with a homosexual person in order to help to conceal that person’s homosexuality.”

This seems to come from an earlier meaning from the gambling world: someone “who performs a transaction or (in later use) other action on behalf of another in order to conceal the identity of the principal,” perhaps from the idea of wearing a beard as a disguise.

bread and circuses

Abed: “Placating students with a fun event. Classic bread and circuses. In ancient Rome the emperor would distract the populace from their problems by allocating money for free bread and circuses.”

“Herstory of Dance,” Community, April 4, 2013

Bread and circuses refers to “offerings, such as benefits or entertainments, intended to placate discontent or distract attention from a policy or situation,” and comes from a 1914 translation of the Roman poet Juvenal’s Latin phrase, panem et circenses.

Juvenal is referring to the “Roman practice of providing free wheat to Roman citizens as well as costly circus games and other forms of entertainment as a means of gaining political power.”

cabochon

Appraiser: “What you do have is a really nice example of a cabochon moonstone that’s really clean and really clear. And if you move it, you can actually see the light go through it.”

“Cincinnati,” Antiques Roadshow, April 8, 2013

Cabochon is “a polished but uncut precious stone,” as well as “a convex style of cutting gems.” This word comes from the French caboche, meaning “head,” which also gives us cabbage.

dead flight

Stephen Colbert: “What is the cause of death [of Detroit]?”
Charlie LeDuff: “It’s a lot of things. White flight, black flight, business flight, job flight. We even have dead flight.”

The Colbert Report, April 9, 2013

White flight, a term that originated in the late 1960s, is “the migration of white people from inner-city areas (esp. those with a large black population) to the suburbs,” says the OED.

Dead flight is, according to journalist and Detroit-native Charlie LeDuff, the exhumation of dead bodies from inner-city cemeteries to those in the suburbs. “People who grew up in Detroit and now live out in the suburbs and are afraid of it,” says LeDuff, “have gone and got Grandma, exhumed her, and brought her out to the suburbs to visit her.”

duppy

Trick: “Lisa is a duppy, a Fae spirit that lives in the earth.”

“Adventures in Fae-bysitting,” Lost Girl, April 1, 2013

The duppy is, in Caribbean folklore, a ghost or spirit, often said to be malicious in nature.

growler

Pierce: “I’m gonna go take a growler.”

“Intro to Felt Surrogacy,” Community, April 11, 2013

Growler is slang for a type of defecation. It also refers to a small iceberg, named for the sound the iceberg makes when it plunges deeper into the water, and a container used for carrying beer, again perhaps coming from the sound it makes, in this case being pushed across a bar.

guinea worm

Jimmy Carter: “If you drink a [guinea worm] out of a filthy water hole. . .you drink the Guinea worm eggs and in a year’s time it grows into a worm about 30 inches long.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, April 9, 2013

The guinea worm is a long threadlike parasitic worm found in tropical Asia and Africa. “It stings the inside of your skin,” says Carter, “and creates a big sore and it emerges. It takes 30 days to come out and destroys muscle tissue and leaves you a cripple.”

Horlicks

Chummy: “With any luck, we’ll be back in time for Horlicks.”

Episode 1, Season 2, Call the Midwife, March 31, 2013

Horlicks is a hot malted milk drink, often taken before bedtime, and named for the drink’s manufacturer. In the mid 1970s, according to the OED, it gained the slang sense of “a mess; a disordered or spoiled state of affairs,” often used in the phrase to make a Horlicks of.

Nailsea glass

Appraiser: “That style of all this white glass like little dots in the green, that’s generally referred to as Nailsea glass.”

“Cincinnati,” Antiques Roadshow, April 8, 2013

Nailsea is a town near Bristol, England, once “an industrial centre based on coal mining and glass manufacture,” now “replaced by service industries.” The name may come from the Old English for Naegl’s island.

nigger-rig

County Commissioner Jim Gile: “I guarantee it would be the same if you go to nigger-rigging it.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, April 11, 2013

Jim Gile, County Commissioner of Saline County, Kansas, used the term nigger-rigging “in a study session with his fellow commissioners.” Nigger-rig is an offensive term meaning to create or repair in a makeshift or haphazard manner.

Gile went on to say that he is “not a prejudiced person” as he has built “Habitat [for Humanity] homes for colored people.” Describing African Americans as “colored” is also offensive.

Pachira tree

Manny: “It’s a Pachira, a Taiwanese symbol of good financial fortune. It’s also known as a money tree.”
Jay: “That makes two of us.”

“Flip Flop,” Modern Family, April 10, 2013

The Pachira, or Pachira aquatica, is a tropical tree that grows in swamps. The origin of how it came to be associated with good financial fortune is unclear. The “legend” is that “a poor man prayed for money, found this ‘odd’ plant, took it home as an omen, and made money selling plants grown from its seeds.”

Another story is that in the mid-1980s a Taiwanese truck driver was the first to cultivate the trees, which became popular as ornamentals first in Japan then the rest of East Asia.

A money tree also refers to a source of seemingly inexhaustible funds, as well as “a kind of holy tree believed to bring money and good fortune.”

shandy

Shivrang: “Who fancies a shandy?”
Winston: “What the hell is that?”
Shivrang: “It’s a drink.”

“Bachelorette Party,” New Girl, April 9, 2013

Shandy, short for shandygaff, is beer and lemonade mixed together. The origin of the word is unknown although an earlier meaning of shandy is “wild, boisterous,” and gaff can refer to a fair, “any public place of amusement,” and “humbug, nonsense,” says the OED.

Southern strategy

Jon Stewart: “For the last 50 years, the Republican Party has embraced a craven political calculation known as the Southern strategy.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, April 11, 2013

In a recent speech at Howard University, a historically black college, Republican Senator Rand Paul asked, “How did the party that elected the first black US Senator, the party that elected the first 20 African American Congressmen become a party that now loses 95% of the black vote?”

The answer, said Jon Stewart, is the Southern strategy, a Republican party tactic to get votes in the South by “appealing to racism against against African Americans.” The Southern strategy started in the late 1960s during the Presidential campaign of Richard Nixon, who said in 1970: “The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are.”

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Duncan Verrall]

Decca Colour Television ( 1973 )

Every week we watch tons of TV for weird and interesting words. Here are our latest selections.

AHLTA and VistA

Jon Stewart: “The Defense Department uses a medical tracking program called AHLTA while the VA uses a generally superior program called VistA, and those two programs are unable to communicate with each other.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, March 27, 2013

AHLTA, or the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, is “the electronic medical record (EMR) system used by medical providers of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).” VistA, the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, is the system used by the Veterans Health Administration, the medical system of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

The systems are not entirely compatible, causing major backlogs in the processing of veterans’ disability claims.

arabber

Andrew Zimmern: “Starting in the late 1800s, arabbers were a common sight in east coast cities, markets on wheels, bringing fresh produce to people before there were neighborhood supermarkets and offering a living to African Americans who were barred from taking jobs traditionally offered to whites.”

“Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay,” Bizarre Foods America, March 25, 2013

An arabber is “a street merchant who sells fruits and vegetables from a colorful, horse-drawn cart.” The term seems to come from street arab, an obsolete and now offensive term for “a homeless vagabond in the streets of a city.” (Fans of The Wire will remember that arabbers played a part in several seasons of that show.)

autopsy

Jon Stewart: “Last week the Republican party released its report on what went wrong in the 2012 election, and how the Republican party can reverse its fortune in the future. It’s a document of idealism, principle, and hope.”
Newscaster: “Officials are calling it an autopsy.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, March 26, 2013

An autopsy is the “examination of a cadaver to determine or confirm the cause of death.” The word comes from the Greek autopsiā, “a seeing for oneself.” An analysis of a finished event is also often referred to as a postmortem, which is Latin for “after death.”

beagling

Andrew Zimmern: “They’ve invited me along to try a very particular kind of rabbit hunting, better known as beagling.”

“The Ozarks,” Bizarre Foods America, April 1, 2013

Beagling is hunting with beagles. The word beagle may come from the Old French bee gueule, “loudmouth.” More on dog words.

dirk

Appraiser: “Now, dirk is basically a fancy name for a type of a dagger or a knife that evolved really from a utilitarian item to something that became very important to ceremonial purpose for the Scottish military.”

“Cincinnati,” Antiques Roadshow, April 1, 2013

A dirk is a dagger in general but refers especially to “the long and heavy dagger worn as a part of the equipment of the duniwassal, or gentleman, among the Celtic Highlanders of Scotland.”

flimflam

Mawmaw: “The man said he’d bring the oil to the house, but I was flimflammed.”

“Mother’s Day,” Raising Hope, March 28, 2013

To be flimflammed means to be swindled or cheated. The origin may be Scandinavian, possibly coming from the Old Norse flim, “a lampoon.”

fuchsteufelwild

Nick: “Its stomp can cause the earth to shudder beneath him. Its muscles secrete a highly concentrated acid allowing him to burn and slice through their victims.”
Hank: “Sounds like our guy. That is one ugly fuchsteu – whatever.”
Nick: “Fuchsteufelwild.”

“Nameless,” Grimm, March 29, 2013

A fuchsteufelwild is a creature, or Wesen, in the Grimm universe that can transform between human and goblin-like form. The word translates literally from German as “fox devil ferocious,” and idiomatically as livid or very angry.

The fuchsteufelwild in this episode refers to himself as “rage.”

mandola

Appraiser: “The mandola is related to the mandolin the same way a viola is related to a violin.”

“Myrtle Beach,” Antiques Roadshow, March 23, 2013

A mandola is “an older and larger variety of the mandolin.” Mandolin is a diminutive of mandola, which means “lute” in Italian.

nerd glaze

Jon Stewart: “I have people who work here, in this office, who disappear for days on Game of Thrones jags, and they just come back with that sort of, ‘Can’t wait – ‘”
Peter Dinklage: “Nerd glaze.”
Jon Stewart: “You just coined something, sir. If somebody doesn’t have nerdglaze dot com right now, you have to register that.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, March 25, 2013

Nerd glaze is a term coined by Games of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage on a recent episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It seems to refer to an expression of daze and awe as a result of binge-watching a favorite TV show, or awe-struck fandom in general.

Nerdglaze.com has indeed been registered.

tikbalang

Tamsin: “Tikbalang. They’re forest creatures. I hunted them in the Philippines.”

“Delinquents,” Lost Girl, March 25, 2013

The tikbalang is “a creature of Philippine folklore said to lurk in the mountains and forests of the Philippines.” It’s a “tall, bony humanoid creature with disproportionately long limbs” and “the head and feet of an animal, most commonly a horse.” More Asian mythical creatures.

Trojan horse

Cam: “I hide what I want in something bigger and more expensive. Then when she rejects that, we ‘compromise’ on what I wanted all along. I call my method the Trojan horse. You know how I got Lily? I asked Mitchell for triplets.”

“The Wow Factor,” Modern Family, March 27, 2013

The Trojan horse is, in classical mythology, “a large hollow wooden horse built by Greek soldiers besieging Troy during the Trojan War, and left as a ‘gift’ when they pretended to abandon their seige.” The horse “was taken into the city by the Trojans, and Greek soldiers concealed inside came out and opened the gates to the city, enabling the capture of the city by the Greeks.”

Trojan horse has many figurative meanings, including “a subversive person or device placed within the ranks of the enemy”; in computing, “a malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software”; and in business, “an offer made to lure customers, seeming like a good deal, that has the ultimate effect of extorting large amounts of money from the customer.”

[Photo: “Decca Colour Television ( 1973 ),” CC BY 2.0 by Andy Beez]

Every week we watch tons of TV for weird and interesting words so you don’t have to. Here are our latest selections.

Delicious Cheese

affineur

Andrew Zimmern: “He’s also an affineur, a master in the art of aging cheese, a process that’s integral to the creation of world-class fromage.”

“Wisconsin,” Bizarre Foods America, March 11, 2013

Affineur, one responsible for aging cheese, is French in origin. Related is affine, “to refine (metal).”

bumper

Casteau: “Why the shit are you maggots not prepping!”
Archer: “Wait, are you doing a bumper?”

“Live and Let Dine,” Archer, February 28, 2013

A bumper is, in broadcasting, a pause between a television show and a commercial, often including voiceover and a dramatic clip from an upcoming segment. A bumper may also be a recurring theme music or an eyecatch, a recurring scene or illustration, often used in anime programs.

Changnesia

Dr. Kedan: “Changnesia is a fascinating and extremely rare disease on the forefront in psychological landscape.”

“Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,” Community, March 14, 2013

Changnesia is, according to Community, “the complete loss of memory caused by sudden trauma that was, itself, also forgotten.” It’s also known as “Kevin’s Disease” and comes from the Greek amnēsiā, “forgetfulness,” and the Chinese surname, Chang.

conclave

Samantha Bee: “Conclave is Latin for ‘with key.’ It describes the closed door meeting [to elect the new pope].”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, March 7, 2013

In addition to “the meeting held to elect a new pope,” conclave refers to a secret meeting in general, “the private rooms in which the cardinals meet to elect a new pope,” a private apartment, and “the body of cardinals.”

defenestrate

Mindy: “Sam was helping out around my apartment, and he was defenestrated.”
Danny: “You threw a soldier out a window?”

“The One That Got Away,” The Mindy Project, February 26, 2013

Defenestrate means to eject out of a window and is a back-formation of defenestration, which partly comes from the Latin fenestra, “window.”

electrocutioner

Louise: “I’m going to tell everyone the truth about Edison, the electrocutioner!”

“Topsy,” Bob’s Burgers, March 10, 2013

The word electrocutioner, “an executioner who uses electricity to kill the condemned person,” has been around at least since the late 19th century. (The earliest citation we found was from 1890.)

The Electrocutioner is also DC Comics character whose “costume possesses circuitry that allows him at will to either stun or kill his victims with a bolt of electricity.”

Gorn

Stephen Colbert [regarding President Obama’s mixing up Jedi mind trick and Vulcan mind meld]: “Do you even know what planet Yavin 4 is? That’s a trick question. It’s not a planet, it’s a moon. You are such a Gorn.”

The Colbert Report, March 4, 2013

A Gorn is a humanoid reptile from the Star Trek universe.

hooligan fish

Anthony Gastelum: “These are hooligans. These come from the Stikine River.”
Andrew Zimmern: “Hooligans are smelt, very rich in oil, preserved by smoking them.”

“Alaska,” Bizarre Foods America, March 11, 2013

The hooligan fish is also known as the eulachon or candlefish, a type of smelt rich in fat and oil. Eulachon-oil was “made to serve as a natural candle by inserting in it the pith of a rush or a strip of bark as a wick,” hence the name, candlefish.

Eulachon comes from Chinook jargon, “a pidgin trade language of the [U.S.] Pacific Northwest.” Hooligan is an alteration of eulachon. Other alterations include oolichan, oulachon, and uthlecan.

MacGuffin

Dean Martin: “Assisting in Kevin’s recovery has put a financial strain on the school. That’s why we are appealing to the MacGuffin Neurological Institute for this $40,000 grant, so we can continue to fight this terrible disease and hopefully one day pay for this documentary.”

“Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,” Community, March 14, 2013

A MacGuffin is “a plot element or other device used to catch the audience’s attention and maintain suspense, but whose exact nature has fairly little influence over the storyline.” The MacGuffin in this episode of Community seems to be the making of the documentary or the need for the grant money.

The first recorded usage of the word may been by Alfred Hitchcock in 1939.

snowquester

Stephen Colbert: “The word snowquester is a combination of the word snow and the sequester. I think this is fantastic and ridiculous. Or fantasticulous.”

The Colbert Report, March 6, 2013

Colbert suggests naming all weather events “after what kind they are plus whatever people are talking about on television at the time,” such as blizzardashian, a blend of blizzard and Kardashian, and drone-cicle, a blend of drone, a pilotless aircraft, and icicle.

subsistence living

Andrew Zimmern: “People like Anthony Gastelum, Ruth Demmert, and Steve Rose put a lot of time intro training a new generation in the art of subsistence living.”

“Alaska,” Bizarre Foods America, March 11, 2013

Subsistence living depends upon subsistence farming, “in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families.” In rural Alaska, subsistence living is often protected over “commercial or recreational fishing and gaming.”

Van de Graaff generator

Teddy: “In high school my buddies and I built a Van de Graaff generator. You know, to get girls.”

“Topsy,” Bob’s Burgers, March 10, 2013

A Van de Graaf generator is an electrostatic generator invented in 1929 by American physicist Robert J. Van de Graaf. Touching a Van de Graaf generator makes one’s hair stand on end, due to the machine’s “static-producing qualities.”

wilding

Al Madrigal: “Now if you guys [Puerto Rico] become a state, you’re not gonna have that parade anymore. . .Montana doesn’t have a parade.”
Woman: “If we don’t have the parade, I guess we have less wilding opportunities. [laughs manically] Because you know my peeps can go a little crazy sometimes.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, March 6, 2013

Wilding is slang for “the act or practice of going about in a group threatening, robbing, or attacking others.”

The term was coined in the late 1980s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and made its first appearance in an April 22, 1989 article of The New York Times regarding the Central Park Jogger case: “Some of the 20 youths brought in for questioning had told investigators that the crime spree was the product of a pastime called ‘wilding’. ‘It’s not a term that we in the police had heard before,’ the chief said.”

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Chris Buecheler]

Every week we watch tons of TV for weird and interesting words so you don’t have to. Check out our latest selections.

The Catfish's Eye, by Michael Bentley

catfish

Stephen Colbert [regarding fake MTV and BET Twitter hacks]: “Yes, we were totally catfished. They made us fall in love with the fact that we were duped by vertically integrated platform synergies.”

The Colbert Report, February 21, 2013

Catfish “refers to a person who creates a fake online profile in order to fraudulently seduce someone,” and comes from the movie of the same name in which a man discovers the woman with whom he’s had an online relationship isn’t young and single but in her 40s and married. For even more on catfishing, check out Ben Zimmer’s piece in The Boston Globe.

crotcherazzi

Mindy: “You’ll have to get to know bodyguard, Denelle. And there might be crotcherazzi.”

“Mindy’s Minute,” The Mindy Project, February 19, 2013

Crotcherazzi, a blend of crotch and paparazzi, refers to photographers who capture, whether by design or mistake, crotch shots of female celebrities (usually going commando) as they awkwardly get out of vehicles and inadvertently flash whoever might be watching.

The origin of go commando is obscure. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase may have to do with “commandos‘ reputation for action, toughness, or resourcefulness rather than to any specific practice.”

dash cam

Newscaster: “Motorists have turned to dash cams for self-protection, visual proof to fend off charges from possibly corrupt police officers and from insurance scammers who often stage accidents like this one captured here.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, February 19, 2013

A dash cam is a video camera that sits on the dashboard of one’s car. According to Wired, “a combination of inexpensive cameras, flash memory and regulations passed by the Interior Ministry in 2009 that removed any legal hurdles for in-dash cameras has made it easy and cheap for drivers [in Russia] to install the equipment.” Enjoy the craziest Russian dash cam videos of 2012.

diaper pattern

Appraiser: “And then it’s all beautifully engraved with these diaper patterns, every inch of it. This thing was a very complicated method of manufacture. What they used to do was build up one layer of lacquer, then they had to let it dry under ideal conditions. And then they polished it, and it was another layer, and another layer, and another layer, and another layer.”

“Myrtle Beach,” The Antiques Roadshow, February 25, 2013

A diaper pattern is a repeated pattern of squares, rectangles, or lozenges. Diaper in this sense comes from the Old French diaspre, “ornamental cloth; flowered, patterned silk cloth.” The sense of “underpants for babies” originated around 1837, says the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Jabot

jabot

Appraiser: “Well, it’s a beautiful French Art Deco brooch. I would date it circa 1925. And it’s called a jabot.”

“Myrtle Beach,” The Antiques Roadshow, February 25, 2013

A jabot is “an ornamental cascade of ruffles or frills down the front of a shirt, blouse, or dress,” often held in place with a pin or brooch, evidently also referred to as a jabot. Jabot may come from the French meaning of the word, “crop of a bird.”

jaternice

Andrew Zimmern: “A Czech sausage with a funny name – jaternice – combines some of my favorite flavors and makes great use of a few underappreciated parts of the pig.”

“Iowa,” Bizarre Foods America, February 25, 2013

Jaternice is a Bohemian style liver sausage, and translates from Czech as “pork sausage.”

jookin’

Stephen Colbert: “For the people out there who are not as hip or fly as I am, what is jookin’?”
Lil Buck: “We call it Memphis jookin’ because it’s a dance that originated almost 30 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee. It started with a line dance called the gangsta walk. . . .It was like a really confident line dance. . . .Gangsta walkin’ evolved into jookin’.”

The Colbert Report, February 21, 2013

According to the book Jookin’: The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture by Katrina Hazzard-Gordon, the origin of the word jookin is obscure. It seems to be the same jook, or juke, as in jukebox or juke joint, where juke means to play dance music, to dance, or “to deceive or outmaneuver a defender by a feint.” The word may come from the Gullah word juke or joog meaning “wicked, disorderly.”

Gangsta walking is also known as g-walk, buck jump, rollin, and buckin.

Lupercalia

Stephen Colbert: “The true meaning of Valentine’s Day is all about the L-word. Lupercalia! The mid-February Roman fertility feast that St. Valentine’s Day is based on. As I’m sure you know, Lupercalia is named for Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled Rome’s twin founders, Romulus and Remus.”

The Colbert Report, February 14, 2013

Lupercalia is an ancient Roman festival celebrated in the middle of February. According to the Century Dictionary, the origin of the festival “is older than the legend of Romulus and the wolf,” and “was originally a local purification ceremony of the Palatine city, in which human victims were sacrificed.”

Later “the victims were goats and a dog, and the celebrants ran around the old line of the Palatine walls, striking all whom they met with thongs cut from the skins of the slaughtered animals.” This was “reputed to preserve women from sterility.”

maquette

Appraiser: “These are in fact the maquettes for posters. These are the original artwork that was done from which posters would have been created.”

“Myrtle Beach,” The Antiques Roadshow, February 18, 2013

A maquette is “a usually small model of an intended work, such as a sculpture or piece of architecture.” The word is French and comes from the Italian macchietta, “sketch.”

plein air

Appraiser: “This painting is done in a plein air style. It’s impressionistic. He used a heavy brushstroke in his compositions.”

“Myrtle Beach,” The Antiques Roadshow, February 18, 2013

Plein air, which in French means “(in) the open air,” is “a style of painting produced out of doors in natural light.”

secessionist

Larry Kilgore: “I ran for Senate in 2008 on a secessionist platform and received 225,000 votes.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, February 21, 2013

The word secessionist originally referred to, in U.S. history, “one who took part in or sympathized with the attempt of the Southern States, in 1860–65, to withdraw from the Union,” and now refers to anyone who favors secession, the act of separating or withdrawing from a religious or political organization.

Larry Kilgore is “one of the most prominent supporters of Texas secession,” and during his Senate run in 2007, “advocated the death penalty for abortion and adultery, and flogging for vulgar language and transvestitism.” He also “believes that Abraham Lincoln was the American equivalent of Hitler.” Kilgore legally changed his middle name from Scott to SECEDE (all caps his) in 2012.

tramp art

Appraiser: “The tramp art frame itself is fantastic. They made these out of little thin pieces of wood, as you know… could have been cigar boxes. And tramp art. . .weren’t necessarily made by tramps, they were just made by anonymous people.”

“Myrtle Beach,” The Antiques Roadshow, February 25, 2013

Tramp art is art made from “discarded materials, especially cigar boxes, in the period following the American Civil War through the 1930s.” Tramp art wasn’t necessarily made by tramps or hobos but by “untrained, mainly poor artists from a broad range of nationalities, using meager tools.”

[Photo: “The Catfish’s Eye,” CC BY 2.0 by Michael Bentley]

[Photo: “Jabot,” Public Domain by Dan Rusch-Fischer]