What better way to kick off 2015 than with a fresh batch of buzzworthy words? This week: a mutant flu virus, another kind of coffee, and an anonymous vigilante group, care of Harry Potter.

drifted virus

“Pharmacologist and Forbes.com writer David Kroll argues that the worry about ‘drifted viruses’ is overblown.”

Scott Pham, “The Nation is in Flu Epidemic But California is Doing OK,” NBC Bay Area, January 2, 2015

A drifted virus is a virus that has gone through genetic drift, or “random fluctuations in the frequency of the appearance of a gene in a small isolated population” due to chance rather than natural selection.

There has been concern recently about flu strains that have mutated and become resistant to this year’s vaccine. However, according to the CDC, “vaccination can still provide protection and might reduce severe outcomes such as hospitalization and death.” In addition, only 305 out of about 28,000 available samples have been tested and categorized, says Kroll, “a relatively small sample of viruses.”

flat white

“Starbucks is trying to win you over with its new offering, the ‘flat white,’ a foam-topped concoction that originated in Australia.”

Danielle Kurtzleben, “What is a ‘flat white,’ and why is Starbucks selling it?” Vox, January 2, 2015

A flat white is, to put it simply, espresso and hot milk “with a bit of foam on top.” Its Wikipedia entry claims that it originated in Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s, although the Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest citation is from 1971: “Bob: I asked her if she’d have a coffee with me… So we went to an expresso in South Ken. Ted: And held hands over two flat whites?”

So what’s the difference between a flat white and a latte or cappuccino? Vox says a flat white is similar to a latte in that it’s a combination of steamed milk and espresso, but that it’s “less milky,” like a cappuccino. The real distinction, however, seems to be the foam. In Australia, the flat white is set apart by microfoam, “a smoother, less-dry foam than Aussies tend to serve on a cappuccino,” which is “more evenly distributed through the drink.”

For even more coffee terminology, check out our caffeinated blog post.

mouseburger

“Brown, who fought her own way up from a childhood of poverty in the Ozarks, tailored her advice to ‘mouseburgers’ like her: women who are ‘not prepossessing, not pretty, don’t have a particularly high I.Q., a decent education, good family background or other noticeable assets.’”

Jennifer Szalai, “The Complicated Origins of ‘Having It All,’” The New York Times, January 2, 2015

Mouseburger, “a woman of no particular intellect or attractiveness,” was coined by Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown in 1970: “If you’re a little mouseburger, come with me. I was a mouseburger and I will help you.”

The OED describes a mouseburger as someone who, despite her unexceptionalness, can “achieve professional and personal success through determination.”

Mouseburger is a play on mousy, “quiet; timid; shy,” which originated around 1812. The combining form –burger refers to hamburger variations (eg, turkeyburger, veggieburger, etc.) or to people (eg, nothingburger, cheerfulburger, psychoburger).

Operation Death Eaters

“Cases such as those levied against Epstein are central to a growing response by online activists, who under the banner ‘Operation Death Eaters’ seek to expose ‘pedosadistic’ men of influence and the political powers activists claim help shield them from prosecution.”

Dell Cameron, “Prince Andrew and the rise of Operation Death Eaters,” The Daily Dot, January 2, 2015

Operation Death Eaters is an anonymous online group that “hunts down pedophiles.” The name originates from  the Harry Potter universe in which the Death Eaters were followers of Lord Voldemort, as well as “radical pure blood supremacists, who practised the Dark Arts with reckless abandon.”

Death Eaters were so-called perhaps because of Voldemort’s mission to achieve immortality. Operation Death Eaters might be named with the idea of taking down powerful evil men, like Voldemort and his followers.

positive assortative mating

“Scientists have a term for this: positive assortative mating. (It’s negative assortative mating when opposites attract.)”

Matthew Huston, “You’re Just Like Me!” The Atlantic, December 28, 2014

Positive assortative mating refers to selecting a partner similar to oneself. In a recent study with 291 newlyweds, spouses were found “to be closer in values, religiosity, and political attitudes than would be predicted by chance.”

Among animals, the purpose of this mating strategy may be to “increase genetic relatedness, which can facilitate communication and altruism,” while negative assortative mating “reduces genetic relatedness between family members.”

[Photo via Flickr, “Flat White Coffee,” CC BY 2.0 by Russell James Smith]

An iguana and kitten get kleptothermic.

Happy (almost) New Year! We’re closing out 2014 with our latest favorite buzzworthy words. This week: appropriating culture; the darkness of anonymity; and one way to get toasty this winter.

Columbusing

“Columbusing is a word that can be used to describe the reappropriation or perhaps misappropriation of African-American culture — for instance, various slang terms that get appropriated by a white mainstream audience.”

“Die-In, Vortex, Selfie Stick: What’s The Word Of 2014?” NPR, December 28, 2014

“You guys, I discovered an incredible new dish: it’s called ramen!”

Such is an example of Columbusing, the “discovery” of “something that’s existed forever,” says NPR, the way that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America although it existed long before he set foot on its shores.

While the term mainly applies to the “discovery” of something outside one’s own culture, nationality, race, or neighborhood, we’d argue Columbusing could be applied to the “discovery” of anything not new (eg, “Have you guys heard of this show called The Walking Dead?”).

cousin planet

“Mars is our brother planet and Venus is our sister planet, but what the heck is a cousin planet? Hint: we don’t have one, because our Sun is an only child.”

Becky Ferreira, “Astronomers Found Jupiter-Sized ‘Cousin’ Planets for the First Time,” Motherboard, October 1, 2014

Cousin planets are, according to WIRED, “a pair of planets each orbiting a different twin star.” For example, WASP-94A and WASP94B are twin stars, or a binary-star system, around which two Jupiter-sized extrasolar cousin planets orbit.

The Earth doesn’t have a a true cousin planet (an Earth “cousin” that was discovered earlier this year is referred to as such because of its similarity to Earth) since the Sun is an “only child,” as Motherboard says, and doesn’t have a twin.

dark money

“Advocates of undisclosed ‘dark money’ spending, concerned that they are losing ground, are falsely representing themselves as the voice of mainstream business, hoping to sway companies away from their better instincts.”

Bruce F. Freed and Charles E.M. Kolb, “U.S. companies shine sunlight on ‘dark money,’” The Washington Post, December 29, 2014

According to The Washington Post, dark money refers to “anonymous political donations from individuals or companies.”

Such a practice can be harmful in a number of ways. It could damage a company’s reputation “if a political payment is exposed as conflicting with its stated values or business objectives”; if donations are secret, “a politician can quietly shake down a company”; and when a company “‘outsources’ its politics through payments to a third-party advocacy organization, it can lose control over the funding.”

dark web

“It’s referred to as the ‘Wild West’ of the Internet: Underground websites—often called the ‘dark web’—that sell illegal drugs, guns and stolen credit cards.”

Josh Lipton, “’Dark Web’ Market for Illegal Guns and Drugs Grows,” NBC News, December 18, 2014

The dark web, according to BBC, refers to “anonymous, virtually untraceable global networks used by political activists and criminals alike.” It seems to part of the Deep Web, a general term for “the portion of World Wide Web content that is not indexed by standard search engines.”

While some deem much of the content of the Deep Web to be “innocuous,” a recent study found that over 80 percent of visits to the dark web relate to pedophilia.

Dark web and Deep Web seem to differ from yet another term, Dark Internet, which “refers to any or all network hosts on the Internet that no-one can reach.”

kleptothermy

“There’s a specific term for this warmth-sucking behavior – kleptothermy.”

Brian Switek, “Science Word of the Day: Kleptothermy,” National Geographic, December 29, 2014

Sure, that iguana and kitty snuggling together is darned cute, but the ectothermic iguana might have an ulterior motive: stealing the kitty’s heat.

Kleptothermy is when an animal cuddles up to another animal to take its warmth. For instance, says National Geographic, a cold-blooded snake may curl up in a seabird burrow, and as a result raise its temperature from a chilly 89 degrees to a toasty 99.

The word kleptothermy comes from the Greek word kleptein, “to steal,” and the Greek thermos, “hot, warm.”

(H/t Matt Baldwin.)

[Photo via National Geographic]

Happy Word Buzz Wednesday! It’s that time when we round up five buzzworthy words we’ve noticed in the news recently. This week: a next generation hipster; what not to spread on the subway; and an Australian word of the year.

cutester

“Because cutesters are up on the latest technology, they are good at adopting hipster fashions — much in the manner that a cuckoo learns to mimic the call of the bird whose nest he has usurped.”

Richard Godwin, “The cutester: meet London’s latest social stereotype,” London Evening Standard, December 16, 2014

You heard it right. Not only do we have the hipster to deal with — now we have the cutester.

Richard Godwin at the London Evening Standard describes the cutester as the hipster’s “younger sibling,” a “juvenescent” who is “unwilling to give up childish things such as Nintendo games, Halloween costumes and breakfast cereal,” but at the same time is more “technologically minded.”

The word cutester is a combination of cute and –ster, a suffix that means “a person who…” The Online Etymology Dictionary says -ster was once used primarily as a “feminine agent suffix” (e.g., spinster).

The word cute was originally a shortened form of acute meaning keen, perceptive, or quick, and came to mean pretty or attractive around 1834, coming from U.S. student slang. Cutesy meaning artificially or annoyingly cute is from 1968.

manspreading

“It is manspreading, the lay-it-all-out sitting style that more than a few men see as their inalienable underground right.”

Emma G. Fitzsimmons, “A Scourge Is Spreading. M.T.A.’s Cure? Dude, Close Your Legs,” The New York Times, December 20, 2014

Manspreading refers to a style of sitting, primarily by men, on subways and other public transportation in which the sitter spreads his (or her) legs very wide, taking up more than his (or her) fair share of seat space. The MTA of New York has begun putting up posters requesting manspreaders to please “stop the spread.”

However, manspreading isn’t the only form of bad subway etiquette. There’s leaning, pole hugging, and many others. Gothamist also makes the distinction between horizontal and vertical spreading.

Panic Saturday

“Black Friday was followed by Panic Saturday as shoppers thronged town centres preparing to spend an estimated £1.2bn on last-minute gifts before Christmas Day.”

Ashley Cowburn, “Retailers report a shopping bonanza on ‘Panic Saturday,’” The Guardian, December 20, 2014

Panic Saturday is, as Quartz says, “the last major shopping day before everything shuts down and Christmas kicks in with full force.”

Other popular shopping days in Great Britain include Boxing Day, Black Friday (despite the fact that Brits don’t celebrate Thanksgiving), and Cyber Monday. An immensely popular shopping day in China is Singles Day.

paper bag party

“We see it too in the ‘​paper bag parties’ held by some upper-class black people who wouldn’t let anyone in who was darker than a paper bag.”

Alexis Barnes, “Artist Nate Hill’s New Website Asks Users to Judge Skin Color,” Vice, December 12, 2014

The brown paper bag principle is related to colorism or shadism, which is discrimination within a race based on the darkness of one’s skin.

This kind of discrimination began during slavery times, say historians, because “light-skinned blacks, often the children of slaves and their white masters, got better treatment.”

Later, lighter skin became associated with privilege and beauty, and light-skinned blacks even began forming exclusive clubs. For instance, Blue Vein societies only accepted members who were light enough to show blue veins through their skin.

shirtfront

“When Prime Minister Tony Abbott pledged to ‘shirtfront’ Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit over the MH17 tragedy, it set the scene for an epic showdown between the two leaders.”

Judith Ireland, “‘Shirtfront’ wins Australian National Dictionary Centre’s word of the year award,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 10, 2014

Shirtfront, the Australian National Dictionary Centre’s word of the year, is an Australian Rules football term that means “a fierce tackle, usually delivered by the shoulder to the chest of an opponent,” or “the act of delivering such a tackle.” Shirtfront is also a term in cricket that means “a pitch that is easy to bat on.”

In recent years, says the Australian Broadcasting Company, shirtfront in Australian Rules football has become less popular, being replaced by “the less colourful term, ‘bump’.” A synonym for shirtfront might be body check.

[Photo via Flickr, “Sailor Girl,” CC BY 2.0 by Lorena Cupcake]

Buzz, buzz, it’s that time again! Our picks for most buzzworthy words of the week. The latest: what to call a big rainstorm in NorCal; how not to react to macadamias; and what not to name your PR firm.

cromnibus

“And with Capitol Hill again scrambling to find a way to fund the government before leaving town for the rest of the year, the cromnibus is the country’s best hope of avoiding a shutdown.”

Andrew Rafferty and Luke Russert, “Washington Speak: What Is the ‘Cromnibus’?” NBC News, December 9, 2014

The cromnibus is, as NBC News puts it, “the love child of a ‘continuing resolution’ (CR) and ‘omnibus’ spending bill,” D.C. terms for “measures Congress has approved to keep the government funded” and avoid a government shutdown.

A continuing resolution is an appropriations bill that sets aside money for “specific federal government departments, agencies, and programs.” An omnibus spending bill — where omnibus translates from Latin as “for all” — packages many smaller appropriations bills into “one larger single bill that could be passed with only one vote in each house.”

This recent legislation was nicknamed cromnibus, says NPR, because “it combines the traditional sweeping scope of an omnibus spending bill with a continuing resolution,” in this case for the Department of Homeland Security, which “would only be funded through February, in a move that seeks to limit President Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration.”

Also, don’t miss Fritinancy’s write-up on this Washington-esque word of the week.

hellastorm

“Even though it’s still raining, the worst of #hellastorm is over. While many Bay Area residents lost power or the will to work yesterday, we didn’t lose the ability to find humorous aspects of the storm.”

Ann-Marie Alcantara, “The Most Bay Area Images from #Hellastorm,” The Bold Italic, December 12, 2014

Hellastorm refers to severe rainstorms that hit much of northern California late last week. Hella is a slang intensifier meaning “a lot” and seems to have originated in the Bay Area in the 1970s although the Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest citation is from 1987 in the Toronto Star: “The horse went hella whoopin’ down the trail, trailing 50 feet or more of the best Berkley Trilene Monofilament line.”

Last week’s hellastorm was a result of the Pineapple Express, the “jetstream and accompanying strong, moist airflow from the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands” — home of the pineapple industry —  to the U.S. west coast. It’s also a marijuana strain and “stoner action comedy.”

Also last week Scotland suffered a weatherbomb, a storm which originated in the Arctic “where it had rapidly developed in strength in a process known as explosive cyclogenesis.” Lightning struck areas of Scotland 5,000 times (also known as hella lightning although that’s not the technical term).

nut rage

“‘Nut rage,’ as it was soon dubbed, seemed a truly remarkable tale of arrogance and entitlement, the story of one first-class passenger with powerful connections inconveniencing more than 200 others over a bag of nuts.”

Adam Taylor, “Why ‘nut rage’ is such a big deal in South Korea,” The Washington Post, December 12, 2014

Nut rage refers to an incident in which former Korean Air vice-president Heather Cho berated an airline employee for serving macadamia nuts “incorrectly” and forcing “the taxiing plane to return to the gate so that the chief flight attendant could be kicked off.” He was also apparently forced to kneel “to apologize for the transgression.” Cho has since resigned and apologized.

Other types of rages — or bursts of anger often out of proportion with the “transgression” — include road rage, air rage, and roid rage.

Strange Fruit

“That seems to be the lesson of ‘Strange Fruit Public Relations,’ an Austin, Texas-based PR firm that has committed to rebranding after being informed—or reminded—that it takes its name from a famous 1930s song about African-American lynchings.”

Zach Schonfeld, “Twitter to ‘Strange Fruit PR’: Maybe Don’t Name Your PR Firm After a Song About Lynchings,” Newsweek, December 9, 2014

Billie Holiday first recorded the song Strange Fruit in 1939. Written as a poem by teacher Abel Meeropol, it “protested American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans.” The “strange fruit” of the song refers to the hanging bodies of lynched African Americans.

Strange Fruit PR — which recently changed its name to Perennial Public Relations — was aware of the name’s troubling historical associations, says The Root, but thought the 1939 song would not “be top of mind in the public consciousness.”

white marriage

“Sarah’s decision to enter into what is known in Iran as ‘white marriage’ would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.”

“Can Iran ‘control’ its cohabiting couples?” BBC News, December 9, 2014

A white marriage in Iran refers to a couple living together before marrying. As BBC News says, “in a country where strict Islamic laws mean shaking hands with the opposite sex is illegal, cohabitation is a crime that risks severe punishment.”

White marriage — not to be confused with mariage blanc or a white wedding — is so-called “because of its association with the western world.”

[Photo: “Angry Squirrels,” CC BY 2.0 by Asta Adamonyte]

Welcome to the latest installment of Word Buzz Wednesday, in which we bring you the latest words that have caught our eye. This week: a troubling policing policy; a shaky method for cyber-security; and a fishy commute.

broken windows

“‘Broken windows’ is an order-maintenance strategy that encourages cops to enforce quality-of-life laws on the grounds that, essentially, nits breed lice.”

Justin Peters, “Loose Cigarettes Today, Civil Unrest Tomorrow,” Slate, December 5, 2014

The broken windows theory suggests that “conspicuous signs of social disorder, such as graffiti and vandalism, create a climate of neglect in which serious crime can flourish,” says the Oxford English Dictionary.

The theory was put forth by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in a 1982 article for The Atlantic: “One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.”

This theory, says Slate, “presumes that a disorderly environment where small laws are broken with impunity leads to bigger problems,” which was “the mindset that led the police to approach [Eric] Garner for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes.” While the NYPD commissioner is a “big proponent” of this type of policing, “there’s no evidence that the policy is effective in reducing violent crime.”

die-in

“Demonstrators staged a ‘die-in’ in Brooklyn, New York, late Thursday. They lay in the middle of Atlantic Avenue. An eerie silence descended as the protesters, who had cardboard coffins, stopped chanting.”

Dana Ford, Greg Botelho and Ben Brumfield, “Protests erupt in wake of chokehold death decision,” CNN, December 4, 2014

A die-in, says the OED, is “a political demonstration in which people play dead.” The term first referred to demonstrations specifically against “nuclear and other fatal weapons,” and seems to have originated in 1970.

Die-in plays off of sit-in, “an organized protest demonstration in which participants seat themselves in an appropriate place and refuse to move,” and originally “designating a communal act of protest by African Americans against racial segregation in the United States,” according to the OED.

Recent die-ins have been demonstrations against the decision by a grand jury not to indict the police officer who put Staten Island man Eric Garner in an illegal chokehold, causing his death.

marsala

“The color specialists at Pantone, a subsidiary of color-science group X-Rite Inc., have announced that ‘marsala,’ a reddish brown, will be the color of the year in 2015.”

Meghan DeMaria, “‘Marsala’ is Pantone’s 2015 color of the year,” The Week, December 3, 2014

Marsala, in addition to being a Sicilian city, a kind of wine, and something, like chicken, cooked with that wine, is also now apparently a color. But not just any color: marsala is the “it” color of 2015.

A reddish-brown, we’re assuming the color is named for the sauce of the same name.

[Image via Jessica Yu]

patch and pray

“Nonetheless, at every level, there has been an awakening that the threats are real and growing worse, and that the prevailing ‘patch and pray’ approach to computer security simply will not do.”

Nicole Perlroth, “Hacked vs. Hackers: Game On,” The New York Times, December 2, 2014

A patch in computer science is “a piece of code added to software in order to fix a bug, especially as a temporary correction between two releases,” while to patch as a verb means to insert such a fix. The patch and pray method refers to continually implementing ad hoc fixes — rather than making design decisions based on “known properties and and well-understood analyses” — and hoping for the best.

upstreamer

“There are two types of upstreamers. The opportunists time their rides backward so they still catch the same train they would have caught had they waited. The die-hards, meanwhile, ride back and catch a later train, trading time for comfort.”

Libby Rainey, “BART’s ‘upstreamers’ chase rare commodity: an open seat,” SFGate, December 1, 2014

Upstreamers, like salmon swimming against the stream, ride the BART in the opposite direction of rush hour traffic, as well as their destination. Their goal, however, isn’t to spawn and die but to snag an empty seat before the cars fill up. BART calls this backriding.

Welcome to the latest installment of Word Buzz Wednesday, in which we bring you five buzzy words in the news. This week: a dehumanizing descriptor; throwing password caution to the wind; and when pigs (don’t) fly.

demon

“To Wilson, who stopped and scuffled with the 18-year-old on the morning of Aug. 9, 2014, Brown was a ‘demon,’ a monster with terrible resilience and incredible strength.”

Jamelle Bouie, “Michael Brown Wasn’t a Superhuman Demon,” Slate, November 2014

A demon is “an evil supernatural being; a devil.” The word is very old, originating in the 13th century from the Greek daimōn, “divine power,” says the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Dehumanization of African Americans has a long history, says The Washington Post, “from slavery to the Constitution’s three-fifths clause to aspects of race relations today.” However, “another type of dehumanization persists as well — one in which people see blacks not as subhuman, but as more than human.”

Other meanings of demon include “a persistently tormenting person, force, or passion,” and “one who is extremely zealous, skillful, or diligent.”

digital nudist

“The digital nudists were well represented. At least one of every 10 users chose a name or a name plus a year for his password. Two of every thousand passwords were the word ‘password.’”

Ian Urbina, “The Secret Life of Passwords,” The New York Times, November 19, 2014

Digital nudists are people who adopt “intentionally insecure passwords,” says Urbina, having “given up on the whole notion of online security.” A keepsake password is one associated with personal significance, whether a “motivational mantra, a swipe at the boss, a hidden shrine to a lost love, an inside joke with ourselves, a defining emotional scar.”

(H/t Nancy Friedman.)

emotional support pig

“The 29-year-old woman who was escorted off a US Airways flight after her ’emotional support’ pig started defecating on the floor and squealing uncontrollably has been identified by MailOnline.”

Sophie Jane Evans and Wills Robinson, “The woman who found out her pig CANNOT fly,” Daily Mail, November 30, 2014

An emotional support animal is “a companion animal that provides therapeutic benefit” to those with psychiatric disabilities. These type of animals are usually cats and dogs but may include others.

The emotional support pig’s owner had gotten permission to take her animal onto the plane “for ’emotional support’ based on guidelines released by the Department for Transportation,” says Daily Mail. Before take-off, however, the pig “started screaming ‘three times louder than a child’ as his owner coaxed him down the aisle with her feet because he struggled to move on his own.”

sideshow

“Police and Alameda County Sheriff’s officers raided a large sideshow event Wednesday on Maritime Street in Oakland. More than 100 vehicles were trapped when law enforcement blocked both ends of the street, preventing vehicles from escaping.”

“Over 100 vehicles caught after sideshow in Oakland,” SFGate, November 27, 2014

A sideshow in this context refers to “an informal and illegal demonstration of automotive stunts.” Sideshows are often held in vacant lots or public intersections, and are apparently common in the San Francisco East Bay.

A sideshow also refers to “a small show offered in addition to the main attraction, as at a circus,” as well as, figuratively, “a diversion or spectacle that is incidental to a larger set of circumstances or a bigger issue of concern.”

webrooming

“They found that ‘webrooming’ — the process of looking at a product online and then buying later at a store — is actually the more popular way to shop.”

Taryn Luna, “‘Webrooming’ shoppers research online, then buy in stores,” The Boston Globe, November 28, 2014

The word webrooming plays off showrooming, which is when “customers whip out their smartphones in the middle of a store, check the Internet to match an item right in front of them, then buy it online at a better price.”

The original meaning of show room is “a large room in which merchandise is displayed.” The verb showroom implies using a brick-and-mortar store as a display for merchandise only while purchasing the items for cheaper elsewhere. Webrooming is the opposite: researching online and then purchasing in a store.

[Photo via Daily Mail]

It’s that time again: Word Buzz Wednesday — which, as Wordnik founder Erin McKean pointed out, is perfectly fine to read on a Thursday or any non-Wednesday, um, day — in which we round up five buzzworthy words from the news.

This week: Derby slang; the James Bond of weather phenomenon; and a dope word of the year.

ay up me duck

“Speaking at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Angelina Jolie said: ‘It is my privilege to present the New Hollywood award to the least Hollywood artist I know, straight from Derby, ay up me duck, Jack O’Connell.’”

“Angelina Jolie baffles Hollywood with ‘ay up me duck’,” BBC News Derby, November 18, 2014

The phrase ay up me duck is an example of dialect from East Midlands, England. According to the BBC, ay up is a typical greeting “used in the North of England and the Midlands instead of hello”; me means “my”; and duck is a term of endearment.

According to historian Steve Birks, duck as a pet name has nothing to do with the water fowl. Instead it  comes from the Saxon ducas, a term of respect. The Oxford English Dictionary cites Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream as the earliest usage of duck as a hypocorism: “O dainty duck, o deare!”

text neck

“Over time, researchers say, this poor posture, sometimes called ‘text neck,’ can lead to early wear-and-tear on the spine, degeneration and even surgery.”

Lindsey Bever, “‘Text neck’ is becoming an ‘epidemic’ and could wreck your spine,” The Washington Post, November 20, 2014

Text neck refers to the way people bend their heads “forward and down” when looking at their smartphones. The equivalent is apparently “carrying an 8-year old around your neck for several hours per day.”

To remedy text neck, says the chief of spine surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, look down at your device with just your eyes and don’t bend your neck, and do neck exercises such as moving your head from left to right several times. (Also may we suggest taking a break from looking at your phone.)

Check out this list for more occupational hazards.

thundersnow

“Thundersnow. It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie, and the rare weather phenomenon that occurs when thunder and lightning combine with a snowstorm can be a dangerous adversary.”

Thomas M. Kostigen, “It’s thunder. It’s snow. It’s thundersnow!” USA Today, November 22, 2014

Thundersnow is like a thunderstorm, only instead of rain you get snow. It occurs when you have “a mass of cold on top of warm air, plus moist air closer to the ground,” says USA Today. Besides lightning and a lot of snow, thundersnow also brings “ice pellets larger than hail.”

UKIP

“By the same token, UKIP’s rise is further evidence of a trend that has been under way for years: the Europeanization of British politics.”

Simon Nixon, “Is the U.K. Heading for a Grand Coalition?” The Wall Street Journal, November 23, 2014

UKIP is an anagram stands for the UK Independence Party, a right-wing political party in the United Kingdom. Their policies include Euroscepticism, or opposition to “the process of political European integration”; a “limited, controlled” stance on immigration; and support for same-sex civil unions.

UKIP recently won a second seat in the British parliament.

vape

“Yet ‘vape’ is only the tip of the linguistic iceberg, at least when it comes to marijuana.”

Jessica Bennett, “‘Vape’ Joins Pot Lingo as Oxford’s Word of the Year,” The New York Times, November 21, 2014

Vape, Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year, is short for vapor or vaporize. To vape means to smoke an electronic cigarette or marijuana.

The legalization of marijuana has given rise to new pot lingo, says The New York Times. There’s ganjapreneur, a ganja entrepreneur; cannabigotry, “bias against stoners”; and cannasseur, a cannabis connoisseur.

[Photo: “Baby Ducks,” CC BY 2.0 by Jeffrey Bary]
[Illustration via Washington Post]
[Photo: “Cinematic Smoker,” CC BY 2.0 by Sodanie Chea]