Category Archives: Word Soup

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Obamacare Soup

Confused about all the terms flying around as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling today? Here’s a roundup of 10 key words and terms.

Affordable Care Act

“One of the main goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is to extend coverage to millions of Americans who can’t obtain insurance today. These are typically people with preexisting medical conditions or limited incomes whose employers don’t offer health benefits.”

“’Obamacare’ insurance exchanges: Let’s get going,” The Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2012

According to Investopedia, the Affordable Care Act, short for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is:

A federal statute signed into law in March 2010 as a part of the healthcare reform agenda of the Obama administration. Signed under the title of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the law included multiple provisions that would take effect over a matter of years, including the expansion of Medicaid eligibility, the establishment of health insurance exchanges and prohibiting health insurers from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

Check out this guide from The Atlantic regarding which provisions of the ACA were approved by the Supreme Court today.

Commerce Clause

“Can the federal government require Americans to buy health insurance? Well, yesterday, a federal judge in Virginia said no, that that part of the health care overhaul law is unconstitutional. The legal argument hinges on the powers given to Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The clause is a short one. It says that Congress has the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes.”

“Health Mandate Fight Hinges On Commerce Clause,” NPR, December 14, 2010

The Commerce Clause relates to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in that “Congress claims authority from the Commerce Clause,” and therefore “is authorized to require citizens to purchase health insurance from the private market, known as the individual mandate.”

death panel

“Democrats are right that offering an on-demand counseling session is hardly the same as establishing a ‘death panel’ to determine which senior lives or dies. To equate the two, as Sarah Palin has done, is to utter, in Obama’s term, ‘outlandish rumors.’”

Amity Shlaes, “Death Panel Needed for Health-Debate Hypocrisy,” Bloomberg, August 10, 2009

A death panel is “a supposed committee responsible for allocating healthcare and promoting euthanasia to reduce costs.” In 2009 former Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin stated:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

According to the Washington Post, Palin was referring to a provision “that would provide funds to physicians or other health care providers to help counsel patients on end of life planning issues such as how to create a living will or advanced directive.”

individual mandate

“If there were no individual mandate included in the legislation, this would create a situation where people would be likely to wait until they had a health problem diagnosed before they applied for insurance. That would cause premiums to increase and make coverage increasingly unattractive to people who are young and healthy.”

Brendan Borrell, “Individual mandate: A sticking point in the healthcare debate,” The Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2010

Individual mandate is “a requirement by law that certain persons purchase or otherwise obtain a good or service.” The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act “imposes a health insurance mandate,” which would “fine citizens without insurance,” says the L.A. Times.

Medicaid

“Retirees who expect to end up on Medicaid, Mr. Kotlikoff says, might want to skip this. Medicaid, which is based on financial need, ‘will end up taking the additional money that comes in.’”

Jeff Opdyke, “How to Game Social Security,” The Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2010

Medicaid is “a program in the United States, jointly funded by the states and the federal government, that reimburses hospitals and physicians for providing care to qualifying people who cannot finance their own medical expenses.” Medicare is “a program under the U.S. Social Security Administration that reimburses hospitals and physicians for medical care provided to qualifying people over 65 years old.” See how Medicaid will be affected by today’s ruling.

Obamacare

“Democrats in Congress are upset that Republicans are using the term ‘Obamacare’ — the pejorative term for the Affordable Care Act — in taxpayer-funded congressional mass correspondence.”

“Super Committee Democrats Announce What They’ll Eventually Cave On,” The Huffington Post, October 26, 2011

Obamacare refers to reforms in the U.S. healthcare system proposed by the Obama administration. See Affordable Care Act.

preexisting condition

“I thought of Brown as the Obama administration announced this week that it would cut premiums for people with preexisting conditions who seek coverage under federal programs created as part of the healthcare reform law. The programs are intended to serve as a stopgap until 2014, when insurers will no longer be permitted to turn people away because of illness or a preexisting condition — that is, if the provision survives legal challenges.”

David Lazarus, “Falling through the cracks with a preexisting condition,” The Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2011

A preexisting condition is a “medical condition that occurred before a program of health benefits went into effect.”

Romneycare

“Santorum comes back and uses the word ‘Romneycare‘ and lists the flaws of Romney’s plan, calling it ‘top down, big government’. This is the best criticism of Romney’s Massachusetts healthcare package – which was very similar to the Obama reforms – that anyone has made so far.”

Richard Adams, “GOP presidential debate in Las Vegas – as it happened,”  The Guardian, October 19, 2011

Romneycare refers to the  Massachusetts health care reform law, which was “enacted in 2006” and  “mandates that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a state-government-regulated minimum level of healthcare insurance coverage and provides free health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level.” The health legislation was signed by Romney, who was governor at the time.

SCOTUS

“Some cameras-in-the-courts detractors say that’s why it’s useless to broadcast SCOTUS hearings live: Under this questioning, even for lawyers it’s often impossible to tell whose side the adversarial judges are really on until they rule.”

James Poniewozik, “The SCOTUS With the Mostus,” Time, December 1, 2000

SCOTUS is an acronym that stands for the Supreme Court of the United States. POTUS stands for the President of the United States, while FLOTUS is the First Lady of the United States.

socialized medicine

“Socialized medicine is a system in which the government owns the means of providing medicine. Britain is an example of socialized system, as, in America, is the Veterans Health Administration. In a socialized system, the government employs the doctors and nurses, builds and owns the hospitals, and bargains for and purchases the technology. I have literally never heard a proposal for converting America to a socialized system of medicine.”

Ezra Klein, “Health Reform for Beginners,” The Washington Post, June 9, 2009

Socialized medicine refers to “a government-regulated system for providing health care for all by means of subsidies derived from taxation.” Some examples of countries that practice socialized medicine are Australia, Canada, Finland, and the United Kingdom. Socialized medicine differs from single-payer health care, says Ezra Klein, in that:

[single-payer health care is] a system in which one institution purchases all, or in reality, most, of the care. But the payer does not own the doctors or the hospitals or the nurses or the MRI scanners. Medicare is an example of a mostly single-payer system, as is France. Both of these systems have private insurers to choose from, but the government is the dominant purchaser.

Canada has socialized medicine and a single-payer system (newsflash to those with moving plans).

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Orwellian Soup

On this day in 1903, British novelist and journalist George Orwell was born. While Orwell “wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism,” he was best known for his novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

In celebration, we’ve rounded up 10 of our favorite Orwellianisms, words that Orwell coined or popularized.

Big Brother

“My, how you’ve changed, Big Brother. What happened to the sourpuss in ‘1984,’ George Orwell’s grim novel about a thought-controlled future? Gone are the piercing eyes and the perennial threat: ‘Big Brother is Watching.’ You’ve had quite the fashion update. I like how you dress in T-shirts and sweats, just like the proles. I like your boyish grin. No longer a tyrant without a name, you’re now Facebook’s founder and supreme leader, Mark Zuckerberg.”

Froma Harrop, “Big Brother is ‘sharing’ on Facebook,” The Seattle Times, February 10, 2012

Orwell coined the term, Big Brother, in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, referring to “the nominal leader of Oceania,” the novel’s version of London. Big Brother is now also any “authoritarian leader and invader of privacy.”

crimethink

“What bothers me about this kind of secularism is that it sounds so much like ‘1984’ with its ‘Big Brother is Watching You’; inspections of people without warning; superior ruling group (The Inner Party), whose numbers are limited to six million; ‘The Ministry of Plenty,’ which actually inflicts starvation; the denial of human passion and the notion it would be ‘crimethink‘ for a couple to even dream about a third child.”

“1984 World,” The News-Dispatch, December 2, 1971

Crimethink, “the crime of having unorthodox or unofficial thoughts,” is another word Orwell coined in his dystopian novel: “All words grouping themselves round the concepts of liberty and equality, for instance, were contained in the single word CRIMETHINK, while all words grouping themselves round the concepts of objectivity and rationalism were contained in the single word OLDTHINK.”

doublespeak

“Robert Denham, director of English programs for the Modern Language Association in New York, says doublespeak contains a fair amount of propaganda, too. ‘We’re trying to hide what the real truth is about a situation by masking it behind some gobbledygook,’ he says. Many forms of the lingo are innocent but some are downright dangerous, he says.”

“Doublespeak terms not based on reality,” The Palm Beach Post, June 21, 1988

While often attributed to Orwell, he didn’t coin the word doublespeak, “any language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity.” Also known as double talk, doublespeak was coined in the mid-1950s, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, modeled on Orwell’s doublethink.

doublethink

“So we’re left with the Orwellian concept of Doublethink: Holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says he will not reactivate offshore processing on Nauru because it won’t break the people-smugglers’ business model. . . .Yet in the same breath he says it is too harsh . . .As Orwell wrote: ‘To know and not to know.’”

“Doublethink on asylum seekers won’t fool anyone,” The Australian, June 7, 2011

Doublethink is “thought marked by the acceptance of gross contradictions and falsehoods, especially when used as a technique of self-indoctrination.”

duckspeak

“Duckspeak, of course, is the language celebrated in George Orwell’s ‘1984.’ Characterized by mindless invocation and the repetition of slogans, it was the highest form of speech in Orwell’s nightmare demolition of the English language, Newspeak.”

Christopher Ketcham, “George W. Bush, the doubleplusgood doublespeaker!” Salon, February 10, 2004

Duckspeak, “thoughtless or formulaic speech,” is imitative of a duck’s repetitive quacking.

newspeak

“As in ‘1984,’ today’s agents of Newspeak play on the fears of concerned citizens over what’s ‘out there.’  The future, multiculturalism and anybody-not-like-us are presented as reasons for the nation’s apparent race toward political and cultural ruin. Newspeak’s high-priests present topics as black and white, right and wrong, liberal and conservative, in a manner leaving little room for any objective discussions of issues.”

Edward Dwyer, “Speaking Newspeak,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 14, 1994

In Ninety Eighty-Four, Newspeak is “the fictional language devised to meet the needs of Ingsoc,” or English Socialism, and is “designed to restrict the words, and hence the thoughts, of the citizens of Oceania.” In contrast is Oldspeak, which refers to standard English. By extension, newspeak is, in general, “deliberately ambiguous and contradictory language used to mislead and manipulate the public.”

Newspeak also gave us the combining form –speak, which can “indicate the language or special vocabulary of a group,” says World Wide Words. Examples include geekspeak, lolspeak, and adspeak. (More –speak words.)

Orwellian

“Critics on the left hear Orwellian resonances in phrase like ‘weapons of mass protection,’ for nonlethal arms, or in names like the Patriot Act or the Homeland Security Department’s Operation Liberty Shield, which authorizes indefinite detention of asylum-seekers from certain nations. Critics on the right hear them in phrases like ‘reproductive health services,’ ‘Office of Equality Assurance’ and ‘English Plus,’ for bilingual education.”

Geoffrey Nunberg, “Simpler Terms; If It’s ‘Orwellian,’ It’s Probably Not,” The New York Times, June 22, 2003

Orwellian means “of, relating to, or evocative of the works of George Orwell, especially the satirical novel 1984, which depicts a futuristic totalitarian state,” and is an eponym, a word derived from the name of a person.

prole

“Anyway, pureblood prole that I am, I was alarmed to find myself teetering on the verge of poshness because I know what prosecco is.”

Suzanne Moore, “Me, a pureblood prole, one of the new posh?” The Daily Mail, June 5, 2010

Orwell popularized this back-formation of the word proletariat, “the class of wage-workers dependent for support on daily or casual employment; the lowest and poorest class in the community,” which was coined around 1853 and came from the French prolétariat. Before proletariat was proletarian, coined in the mid-17th century. Prole is attested from 1887.

thoughtcrime

“British citizens will be extradited for what critics have called a ‘thought crime’ under a new European arrest warrant, the Government has conceded. Campaigners fear they could even face trial for broadcasting ‘xenophobic or racist’ remarks – such as denying the Holocaust – on an internet chatroom in another country.”

Philip Johnston, “Britons face extradition for ‘thought crime’ on net,” The Telegraph, February 18, 2003

A thoughtcrime is “a crime committed by having unorthodox or unofficial thoughts.” Thought police, “a group that aims to control what other people think,” originated around 1946, before Nineteen Eighty-Four was published, and was originally in reference to “pre-war Japanese Special Higher Police.”

unperson

“Nikita Khrushchev has become an unperson. For a week now there has been no public indication in the nation he long dominated that such a man ever existed. His picture has disappeared from public places. His books are no longer heaped in display in stores.”

“Khrushchev Is ‘Unperson’ In Own Nation,” Lawrence Journal-World, October 23, 1964

Orwell coined this term which means “a human who has been stripped of rights, identity or humanity.”

For even more things Orwellian, check out his essay on new words in English, and these lists, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Newspeak.

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Word Soup Wednesday

While the television show The Soup brings you “the strange, obscure and totally unbelievable moments in pop culture, celebrity news and reality TV,” Word Soup brings you those strange, obscure, unbelievable (and sometimes NSFW) words from talk shows, sitcoms, dramas, and just about anything else on TV.

assassitunity

Jon Stewart: “Remember when you oversaw the killing of Osama bin Laden? You must have known this photo would go viral. You had to think of it as an assassitunity.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, June 13, 2012

Assassitunity, a blend of assassinate and opportunity, refers to using the assassination of Osama bin Laden as a PR opportunity. See other opportunity portmanteaus, disadvertunity, hobbyturnity, and talk-portunity.

Baba-Nyonya

Anthony Bourdain: “The Baba-Nyonya are descendents of the original Chinese merchants who settled [in Penang] hundreds of years ago. Over time they took on a lot of flavors and ingredients of their new environment. The resulting cuisine is a truly unique mutation, a fusion of local southeast Asian ingredients and taste preferences with Chinese technique and preparation.”

“Penang,” No Reservations, June 4, 2012

The Baba-Nyonya are also known as Peranakan or “descendents.” The word Baba-Nyonya translates as “men-women,” where baba refers to men and is a “Persian loan-word borrowed by Malaysian,” and nyonya, referring to women, is “a Javanese loan-word honorific.”

balitong

Anthony Bourdain: “What is it about the food here that makes it so damned magical, beyond the incredible mix of influences? The ingredients. Case in point, these cute little sea snails, somewhere between a periwinkle and a whelk, called balitong.”

“Penang,” No Reservations, June 4, 2012

Balitong, which may come from the name of a Javanese king, is also known as the obtuse horn shell; in Malay, siput sedut, which translates as either “snail suction” or “snail breathe”; and, in Hokkein, chut-chut, imitative of the sound of sucking out the snail from its shell.

dressage

Stephen Colbert: “But folks, the image of Romney as a privileged princeling ends today, because now Mitt is just your average blue-collar fan of dressage. Of course that word may sound high-falutin’, but don’t worry, it also goes by the street name ‘horse ballet.’”

The Colbert Report, June 12, 2012

Dressage is “the guiding of a horse through a series of complex maneuvers by slight movements of the rider’s hands, legs, and weight,” and comes from the French dresser, “to set up, arrange, train.” More horse-related words.

free lunch

Stephen Colbert: “But sadly folks, one public union recently scored a major victory, and that brings us to tonight’s word: free lunch. . . .These unionized lunch lady thugs now have the right to free expired cafeteria food, and given the quality of cafeteria food, expired is an improvement.”

The Colbert Report, June 13, 2012

A free lunch is “something acquired without due effort or without cost,” and was originally a mid-19th century term, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, that referred to free food “offered in bars to draw in business.” Related is the phrase there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, sometimes abbreviated as TANSTAAFL, which seems to have originated in the 1930s or 1940s.

gaffestronomist

Jon Stewart: “All that remains is the bloody gaffe carcass to be picked over by our nation’s most esteemed gaffestronomists, who will measure the gaffe using the exact science of gaffestronomy.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, June 11, 2012

Gaffestronomist is a play on gastronomist, also known as gastronomer, “one versed in gastronomy,” or “the art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food.” Gaffe, “a foolish and embarrassing error, especially one made in public,” may come from the French gaffe, “clumsy remark” which originally meant “boat hook.” The sense connection may be, says World Wide Words, “because the emotional effect [of a blunder] is like being gaffed,” or pulled by a hook.

hot tooth

Joan: “Are you under the weather?”
Don: “I’ve got a hot tooth.”

“The Phantom,” Mad Men, June 10, 2012

A hot tooth is “a painful tooth” in which “the nerve is alive, but badly inflamed.”

kill list

News announcer: “The New York Times reports that the president has given himself the final word in a top secret nominating process to place terror suspects on a kill list.”
Jon Stewart: “Obama has a kill list? Assuming this goes with a marry list and a fuck list.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, June 13, 2012

The marry, fuck, and kill lists are presumably in reference to the “game,” Marry-Fuck-Kill, or MFK, in which players list people they would marry, fuck, or kill.

laksa

Anthony Bourdain: “Every time I come to Malaysia, there’s one thing I gotta have: laksa. It’s everything I love in one bowl.”

“Penang,” No Reservations, June 4, 2012

Laksa is a spicy noodle soup. The word laksa may come from the “Hindi/Persian lakhshah, referring to a type of vermicelli, which in turn may be derived from the Sanskrit lakshas. . .meaning ‘one hundred thousand’ (lakh),” or else from the Chinese word “meaning ‘spicy sand’ due to the ground dried prawns which gives a sandy or gritty texture to the sauce.”

otak-otak

Anthony Bourdain: “But [the Baba-Nyonya] cuisine is in danger of disappearing as so many of the ingredients are difficult to source, and because dishes like this, otak-otak, a fish custard wrapped in banana leaf, are so labor-intensive to prepare.”

“Penang,” No Reservations, June 4, 2012

Otak translates from Malay as “brain.” Otak-otak seems to have gotten its name from the fish custard’s resemblance to brains.

selenium

Aasif Mandvi [regarding picture of two-headed fish]: “What is causing that?”
Marv Hoyt: “It’s the selenium in the water.”
Aasif Mandvi [after spit-taking a glass of water]: “Selenium is a toxic byproduct of phosphate mining, and in southeast Idaho, one company loves mining phosphate.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, June 14, 2012

Selenium is a “a toxic nonmetallic element related to sulfur and tellurium.” The word comes from the Greek selēnē, “moon.” The company referred to here is Simplot, “one of the largest privately held agri-business companies in the world.”

tostilocos

Javier Plascencia: “You know Tostitos, right? The border culture has made something crazy. They call it tostilocos, which is tortilla chips, nuts, cucumber, salsa, and uncooked pig skin.”

“Baja,” No Reservations, May 28, 2012

Tostitos are a brand of tortilla chips, presumably a blend of tortilla and Frito or Dorito, while loco is Spanish for “crazy.” Border culture refers to culture at the U.S.-Mexico border.

walk back

Jon Stewart: “But of course as surely as winter follows fall, a full-grown gaffe must someday be walked back.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, June 11, 2012

To walk back means “to withdraw or back-pedal on a statement or promise; retract.” Walk back may also take on a noun form, walk-back: “Welcome to the walk-back — a strained, three-act political exercise of speaking candidly, then shamelessly buckling under pressure.”

xenomorph

Stephen Colbert: “But nation, I’m not just annoyed, I’m terrified, because if [astrophysicist] Neil deGrasse Tyson points out everything inaccurate in movies and this was the only mistake he found, that can mean only one thing: everything else in Prometheus is true! The xenomorphs are coming for us!”

The Colbert Report, June 11, 2012

Xenomorph may refer to the extraterrestrial creatures in the Aliens movies, a monstrous creature in general, a strange form, or an allotriomorph, “a mineral that did not develop its otherwise typical external crystal form because of late crystallization between earlier formed crystals.” Xeno comes from the Greek xenos, “a guest, stranger, foreigner,” while morph comes from the Greek morphe, “shape, form.”

That’s it for this week! Remember, if you see any Word Soup-worthy words, let us know on Twitter with the hashtag #wordsoup. Your word and Twitter handle might appear right here!

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Word Soup: James Joyce

This Saturday, June 16 is Bloomsday, an annual celebration of Irish writer James Joyce and his novel, Ulysses.

Want to join the festivities? Follow in Leopold Bloom’s footsteps and take a walking tour of Dublin. Learn about the Irish capital through an app that “maps the locations of James Joyce’s modernist novel.” Attend a readathon with “more than one hundred Irish writers [reading] consecutively over 28 hours,” or listen to BBC Radio 4’s “five-and-a-half-hour adaptation of the novel.” Read Ulysses in its entirety (finally) at the Irish National Library. Or just enjoy this roundup of ten of our favorite Ulyssesean and Joycean words.

honorificabilitudinitatibus

“Like John o’Gaunt his name is dear to him, as dear as the coat and crest he toadied for, on a bend sable a spear or steeled argent, honorificabilitudinitatibus, dearer than his glory of greatest shakescene in the country.”

James Joyce, Ulysses

Honorificabilitudinitatibus means “the state of being able to achieve honors.” According to World Wide Words, Joyce borrowed it from Shakespeare, “who in turn borrowed it from Latin”:

I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon.

Love’s Labor Lost

But Shakespeare didn’t coin the word. Its first appearance, “in the form honōrificābilitūdo” was “in a charter of 1187 and as honōrificābilitūdinitās in a work by the Italian Albertinus Mussatus about 1300.” The word was also used “by Dante and Rabelais and turns up in an anonymous Scots work of 1548, The Complaynt of Scotland.”

inwit

“Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit. Conscience. Yet here’s a spot.”

James Joyce, Ulysses

Inwit, meaning “inward knowledge; understanding; conscience,” was coined in the 13th century, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, and comes from in plus wit. World Wide Words goes on to say that the word “had gone out of the language around the middle of the fifteenth century” and “would have remained a historical curiosity had not Joyce and a few other writers of his time found something in it that was worth the risk of puzzling his readers.”

The phrase agenbite of inwit echoes Ayenbite of Inwyt, a Middle English “confessional prose work.” Ayenbite or agenbite is “literally ‘again-bite’, a literal translation of the Latin word meaning ‘remorse’,” says World Wide Words.

monomyth

“At the carryfour with awlus plawshus, their happy-ass cloudious! And then and too the trivials! And their bivouac! And his monomyth! Ah ho! Say no more about it! I’m sorry! I saw. I’m sorry! I’m sorry to say I saw!”

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

Monomyth, a word that Joyce coined, is “a cyclical journey or quest undertaken by a mythical hero,” and today is most famously applied to Joseph Campbell’s concept in his writings about heroes, stories, and myth.

Mr. Right

“Be sure now and write to me. And I’ll write to you. Now won’t you? Molly and Josie Powell. Till Mr Right comes along, then meet once in a blue moon.”

James Joyce, Ulysses

Mr. Right refers to “a perfect, ideal or suitable mate or husband,” and, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, first appeared in Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922. However, we found Mr. Right in this context (not as someone’s name) in what appears to be a song from around 1826:

Mr. Right! Mr. Right!
Oh, sweet Mr. Right!
The girls find they’re wrong when they find Mr. Right
There’s some love the young, and the young love the old,
There’s some love for love, and some love for gold.
Many Pretty young girls get hold of a fright,
And all their excuse is – I’ve found Mr. Right.

If anyone has any additional information on the origin of Mr. Right, let us know!

poppysmic

“Florry whispers to her. Whispering lovewords murmur, liplapping loudly, poppysmic plopslop.”

James Joyce, Ulysses

Poppysmic refers to the sound “produced by smacking the lips.” The word comes from the Latin poppysma, says World Wide Words. The Romans used the word to refer to “a kind of lip-smacking, clucking noise that signified satisfaction and approval, especially during lovemaking,” and that “in French, it referred to the tongue-clicking tsk-tsk sound that riders use to encourage their mounts.”

pud

“For your own good, you understand, for the man who lifts his pud to a woman is saving the way for kindness.”

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

A pud is a “a paw; fist; hand,” but is also apparently meant as slang for penis, says the Online Etymology Dictionary. Pud is short for pudding, which originally referred to “minced meat, or blood, properly seasoned, stuffed into an intestine, and cooked by boiling,” also known as sausage. Pudding gained the slang sense of penis in 1719.

quark

“— Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he hasn’t got much of a bark
And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.”

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

Quark is a nonsense word that Joyce coined in his novel, Finnegans Wake. Physicist Murray Gell-Mann, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, applied quark to “any of a group of six elementary particles having electric charges of a magnitude one-third or two-thirds that of the electron, regarded as constituents of all hadrons.”

schlep

“Across the sands of all the world, followed by the sun’s flaming sword, to the west, trekking to evening lands. She trudges, schlepps, trains, drags, trascines her load.”

James Joyce, Ulysses

While Joyce didn’t coin the word schlep, which comes from Yiddish shlepn, “to drag, pull,” its first known appearance in English seems to have been in Ulysses.

Ulysses

“In ‘Ulysses,’ Joyce follows Leopold Bloom, an advertising salesman, around Dublin through the course of one day in 1904 – June 16, a date that is now annually celebrated by Joyce scholars and admirers as ‘Bloomsday.’”

Herbert Mitgang, “Joyce Typescript Moves to Texas,” The New York Times, June 16, 1990

Ulysses is the Latin name for Odysseus, in Greek mythology, “the king of Ithaca, a leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War, who reached home after ten years of wandering.” The Odyssey and Odysseus gave us odyssey, “an extended adventurous voyage or trip”, or “an intellectual or spiritual quest.”

Ulysses contract

“The new paper takes precommitment strategies much further, advocating, for example, a ‘Ulysses contract’ — or a ‘commitment memorandum’ that spells out what to do when the markets move 25 percent up or down.”

Jeff Sommer, “The Benefits of Telling the Ugly Truth,” The New York Times, April 30, 2011

A Ulysses contract, says The Wall Street Journal, is a promise

not to act hastily in volatile markets. Just as Ulysses had his crew tie him down so he could resist the Sirens’ deadly song, Prof. Benartzi…would have investors promise not to overreact to sharp market moves in either direction.

Erin McKean says that Ulysses’s wife, Penelope, “also lends her name to a number of objects, including Penelope canvas (used for needlework), and to the verb penelopize, ‘to pull work apart to do it over again, in order to gain time.’”

Still jonesing for more Ulysses words? Check out this list and this one, and for more nonsense words like quark, check out this one.

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Word Soup: Mad Men

From ricmeyers.com

Say it isn’t so! The season finale of Mad Men is right around the corner. While some have been on anachronism watch, we’ve been keeping our ears open for words that we like. From slang to advertising lingo to words of the time, we’ve gathered our favorites here, even managing to notice one out-of-place term (see sicko). Ben Zimmer would be so proud.

UPDATE: Sicko may not be an anachronism after all. Thanks to Ben Zimmer for the detective work!

bitchin’

Peggy [holding up Michael’s work]: “Have I lost my sense of smell or is this good?”

Stan [laughs]: “That’s bitchin’.”

“Tea Leaves,” April 1, 2012

Bitchin’ is slang for “excellent; first-rate,” and originated as “teen/surfer slang” in the 1950s. The word apparently plays on the verb sense of bitch, to complain, “in some inverted sense.”

calice

Megan [upon realizing Don’s surprise party has been spoiled]: “Calice.”

“A Little Kiss,” March 25, 2012

Calice is a Québécois French swear word which, according to Slate, “has its origins in Roman Catholic ritual—it’s the communion chalice.” Other French-Canadian swear words, says Slate, include “Calvaire! (Calvary), Ciboire! (ciborium—the container in which communion wafers are stored), Ostie! (communion wafer), or Tabarnak!” Tabarnak is the Québécois equivalent of fuck and comes from tabernacle.

consumerism

Megan [to Don]: “I didn’t think [the play] was such a strong stand against advertising as much as the emptiness of consumerism.”

“Christmas Waltz,” May 20, 2012

The word consumerism, which was coined in 1944, originally meant “the movement seeking to protect and inform consumers by requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising, product guarantees, and improved safety standards.” Around 1960, it came to refer to “the theory that a progressively greater consumption of goods is economically beneficial,” and by extension an “attachment to materialistic values or possessions.” Here Megan is referring to this last meaning of consumerism.

fresh

Betty [to Don]: “I wanted to know if you’d have any problem with me strangling Sally. I’m not joking. She’s fresh. And I prefer to not have her sourpuss ruining our trip.”

“Commissions and Fees,” June 3, 2012

Fresh in this context means “verdant and conceited; presuming through ignorance and conceit; forward; officious.” This sense originated in 1848 as U.S. slang, probably from the German frech, “insolent, cheeky,” which ultimately comes from the Old English frec, “greedy, bold.”

go ape

Hanson/Handsome: “Billy Josephs and I were supposed to join up, but my dad went ape.”

“Signal 30,” April 15, 2012

To go ape means “to become wildly excited or enthusiastic,” and is attested from 1955. “I Go Ape” is a 1959 hit song from Neil Sedaka. To join up means “to enlist or enroll,” and originated around 1916.

grabass

Don: “Now knock off the grabass and give me some lines.”

“The Other Woman,” May 27, 2012

Grabass means “horseplay; play fighting, wrestling.” We couldn’t find an exact date of origin but the term has been in use at least since the mid-1940s, perhaps beginning as military slang. Also playing grabass.

half-assed

Peggy [to Don]: “You didn’t want to rehearse. You ran through it one time half-assed.”

“Lady Lazarus,” May 6, 2012

Half-assed is slang for “not well planned or executed” or “incompetent.” The word originated around 1932 and may be “a humorous mispronunciation of haphazard.”

Hare Krishna

Mother Lakshmi: “Hare Krishna, Harry.”

“Christmas Waltz,” May 20, 212

Hare Krishna refers to “a chant to the Hindu god Krishna”; a “member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), founded in the United States in 1966”; and “the society itself.” Hare translates from the Hindi as “O God!”

hep

Pete: “[The New York Times is] doing some literary profile on hip agencies.”

Bert: “Hep.”

“Dark Shadows,” May 13, 2012

Hep, first recorded in 1908, is slang for “aware, up-to-date.” However, with the rise of hip in the 1950s, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, “the use of hep ironically became a clue that the speaker was unaware and not up-to-date.” The speaker here is Bertram Cooper, and his use of hep is made even more ironic as he corrects Pete on his “hipper” language.

line

Don: “What’s the line?”

Peggy: “Doesn’t need one.”

“Dark Shadows,” May 13, 2012

Line is an advertising term that may be short for tagline or strapline.

mad money

Don: “Car fare, in case it doesn’t work out.”

Joan: “Mad money? Thank you.”

“Christmas Waltz,” May 20, 212

Mad money is “a sum of money, often relatively small in amount, kept in reserve to use for impulsive, frivolous purposes.” The term is attested from 1922, playing on the mad meaning of “wildly or recklessly frolicsome.” In this scene, the mad money is a from Don Draper, a “mad man,” with mad referring to Madison Avenue, slang for “the American advertising industry,” but also recklessness, derangement, or rage.

RFP

Roger [to Lane]: “A little bird told me you had an RFP from Jaguar.”

“Signal 30,” April 15, 2012

RFP stands for request for proposal, which “is issued at an early stage in a procurement process, where an invitation is presented for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service.” Part of that proposal may be an SOW, or statement of work.

shakedown

Harry [to Mother Lakshmi]: “If this is some kind of shakedown, let me stop you right there. I know you’re trying to recruit me.”

“Christmas Waltz,” May 20, 212

Shakedown is slang for “extortion of money, as by blackmail,” and “a thorough search of a place or person.” When the word came about around 1730, it originally meant “a temporary bed made by shaking down or spreading hay, rushes, or the like, or also quilts or a mattress, with coverings, on the floor, on a table, etc.” The “extortion” meaning is attested from 1872, and “thorough search” from 1914, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, “both probably from the notion of measuring corn.”

sicko

Michael [to Peggy, Megan, and Stan gawking over gory pictures]: “You know what? You’re sickos.”

“Mystery Date,” April 8, 2012

A sicko is “a deranged, psychotic, or morbidly obsessed person.” The word plays off sick in the way weirdo plays off weird. But while weirdo originated in 1955, sicko didn’t come about until 1977, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. Therefore, sicko is a likely anachronism in this episode, which takes place in 1966. However, Ben Zimmer pointed out a Los Angeles Free Press movie advertisement dated April 16, 1965:

LARRY MOYER’S “THE MOVING FINGER”
Winner “Best Director” Award
San Francisco Film Festival
SEE…Freakos…wierdies (sic)…sickos…corrupt fuzz…faggots…wasted youth…smut…

The episode takes place in 1966 so sicko may not be an anachronism after all. Thanks, Ben!

square

Megan [to Don]: “You’re so square, you’ve got corners.”

“Tea Leaves,” April 1, 2012

Square is slang for “a person who is regarded as dull, rigidly conventional, and out of touch with current trends.” The word originated around 1300, says Online Etymology Dictionary, and came to mean “honest, fair,” in the 1560s; “straight, direct” around 1804; and “old-fashioned” in 1944 as “U.S. jazz slang, said to be from shape of a conductor’s hand gestures in a regular four-beat rhythm.” Squaresville originated around 1956.

A 1771 word, square-toes, has a similar meaning to square: “a precise, formal, old-fashioned personage,” from “a style of shoes then fallen from fashion.”

turn on

Sandy: “I say we postpone this conversation until after we turn on.”

“Far Away Places,” April 22, 2012

To turn on means to “get high, stoned, or drugged,” and seems to come from the phrase popularized by American psychologist Timothy Leary, turn on, tune in, drop out. Leary first used the phrase at a press conference in New York City on September 19, 1966, urging “people to embrace cultural changes through the use of psychedelics and by detaching themselves from the existing conventions and hierarchies in society.”

U-2

Pete: “I know. Because he hovers over your desk like a damned U-2. You think he’s looking at your breasts? He’s looking at my calendar!”

“A Little Kiss,” March 25, 2012

A U-2 is “a single-engine, very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).” It was nicknamed the Dragon Lady and first developed in the mid-1950s.

What are some of your favorite words from the series?

[Photo: Mad Men Season 5, from ricmeyers.com]

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Word Soup Wednesday

While the television show The Soup brings you “the strange, obscure and totally unbelievable moments in pop culture, celebrity news and reality TV,” Word Soup brings you those strange, obscure, unbelievable (and sometimes NSFW) words from talk shows, sitcoms, dramas, and just about anything else on TV.

Aegishjalmur

Hank: “What the hell is that thing on his face?”
Nick: “It’s called the Aegishjalmur, the helm of awe. It’s a symbol the Vikings wore for invincibility.”

“The Woman in Black,” Grimm, May 18, 2012

Aegishjalmur may translate literally as “terror helm.”

beefsquatch

Linda: “He’s just mad because he thinks Gene beefsquatched all over his special moment.”
Bob: “Don’t use that as a verb.”

“Beefsquatch,” Bob’s Burgers, May 20, 2012

The Beefsquatch is a character that Gene developed for his father’s television cooking segment, in which he dons an ape mask and gorges himself on hamburgers. Beefsquatch is a blend of beef and Sasquatch, another name for Bigfoot, which comes from Halkomelem, “a native language of the Pacific Northwest.” To beefsquatch means to ruin something, perhaps reminiscent of squash or quash.

copera

Cop: “Love is not admissible evidence! I’m working on a cop opera.”
Everyone: “Copera!”
Pierce: “Policial!”

“First Chang Dynasty,” Community, May 17, 2012

Copera is a blend of cop and opera. Cop originated in 1704 as a northern British dialectecal meaning “to seize, to catch,” which may have ultimately come from the Latin capere, “to take.” Policial is a blend of police and musical. Cop Rock was a musical police TV drama that aired in 1990.

cryptozoologist

Hank: “Both were self-described cryptozoologists.”
Renard: “Meaning?”
Nick: “Big Foot hunters.”

“Big Feet,” Grimm, May 11, 2012

A cryptozoologist is one who studies crytozoology, “the study of creatures, such as the Sasquatch, whose existence has not been substantiated.” Crypto, meaning “secret” or “hidden,” comes from the Greek kryptos, “hidden, concealed, secret.” Zoologist and zoology come from the Greek zoion, “an animal.”

crap attack

Linda (to Tina): “Don’t you tell me not to have a crap attack! I’ll have a crap attack anytime I want!”

“Bad Tina,” Bob’s Burgers, May 13, 2012

A crap attack is the act of overreacting to something perceived as minor. Synonyms include spaz attack, where spaz is a shortening of spastic or spasm; conniption fit; to have kittens; and to have a cow.

deanelganger

Cop: “Of course. The head of security of Greendale Community College has kidnapped the real dean and replaced him with a deanelganger.”
Jeff: “Well, when you say it that way, it sounds ridiculous.”
Troy: “The word we used was doppeldeaner.”

“First Chang Dynasty,” Community, May 17, 2012

Deanelganger is a blend of dean and doppelganger, a double or apparition of a living person. Doppelganger translates from the German as “double-goer.” Sometimes doubleganger.

A deanelchanger, a blend of dean, doppelganger, and Chang, is a bell that Chang rings to summon the fake dean. Changer may be a play on clang, “a loud, sharp, resonant, and metallic sound,” and clanger, a British English word meaning “a blunder.”

folk racing

Anthony Bourdain: “The idea? Survive two laps on mirror ice. No snow tires or chains.”

“Finland,” No Reservations, May 14, 2012

Finnish folk racing is “a mixture of rally racing and demolition derby.”

GILF

Helen Cho [reading a suggestion from a fan]: “Have a grandma cook for you.”
Anthony Bourdain: “Get working on a GILF.”
Cho: “A GILF?!”
Bourdain: “A Grandma I’d Like to Feed Me.”

“Finland,” No Reservations, May 14, 2012

GILF plays on MILF, a “mother found sexually attractive; an attractive middle-aged woman.”

granny slippers

Anthony Bourdain: “I don’t even know what this shot was about, though it’s called granny slippers, disturbingly enough. Salmiakki vodka and Irish cream? Sure, why not?”

“Finland,” No Reservations, May 14, 2012

Granny slippers in Finnish is mummon tohveli.

nerf herder

News announcer: “Security cameras caught the getaway van heading west toward Manhattan.”
Liz [recognizing her boyfriend’s hot dog van]: “Nerf herder!”

“What Will Happen to the Gang Next Year?” 30 Rock, May 17, 2012

Nerf herder is a variation on Liz’s usual “swear word,” nerds, and is also a reference to the insult hurled by Princess Leia to Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back: “Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking… Nerf herder!”

pocket warmer

Sammi Yaffa [on koskenkorva, a Finnish vodka]: “It’s made out of rye. They call it the pocket warmer because everyone walks around with a half drunk warm bottle of koskenkorva. This stuff is usually better when it’s pocket-warm.”

“Finland,” No Reservations, May 14, 2012

Koskenkorva is “the most common clear spirit drink in Finland,” and “is a small village. . .in Finland that translates as ‘(area) by the rapids.’”

sauna

Anthony Bourdain: “What is it with saunas in this country? Everyone says, number one answer, what you should do in Finland.”
Sammi Yaffa: “It’s a Finnish word.”

“Finland,” No Reservations, May 14, 2012

Sauna came into English around 1881.

snorgasm

Tammy: “Tina, no offense but this tour is giving me a snorgasm.”

“Bad Tina,” Bob’s Burgers, May 13, 2012

Snorgasm is a blend of snore and orgasm, and means a feeling of intense boredom.

twist

Bartender [to Emily]: “Want a twist? The hero and the villain are actually the same person. Get it?”

“Legacy,” Revenge, May 9, 2012

Twist here has a double meaning: “a sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.” as well as “an unexpected change in a process or a departure from a pattern, often producing a distortion or perversion.” On the show, Emily is both the hero and the villain.

Wildermann

Monroe: “[Wildermann are] smart loners. Like the woods, cabins, campfires, hiking. You know, back to nature eco-warrior types. Thoreau, Emerson, Abbey.”

“Big Feet,” Grimm, May 11, 2012

Wildermann translates from the German as “savage (wilder) man (mann).”

Woge

Monroe: “Woge. It roughly translates to the wave that overtakes one. You know, the change, the surge, the massive hormonal jolt.”

“Big Feet,” Grimm, May 11, 2012

Woge translates from the German as “wave” or “surge,” and refers to the change that Vessen experience when changing from human to animal form.

That’s it for this week! Remember, if you see any Word Soup-worthy words, let us know on Twitter with the hashtag #wordsoup. Your word and Twitter handle might appear right here!

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Word Soup Wednesday

While the television show The Soup brings you “the strange, obscure and totally unbelievable moments in pop culture, celebrity news and reality TV,” Word Soup brings you those strange, obscure, unbelievable (and sometimes NSFW) words from talk shows, sitcoms, dramas, and just about anything else on TV.

alpha gay

Kurt: “You don’t know what it’s like being your boyfriend. You are the alpha gay. Even Rachel wanted to make out with you. I used to get solos every week. Do you know how many times I’ve had to sit on a stool and watch you perform?”

“Dance With Somebody,” Glee, April 24, 2012

Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and refers in general to “the first; the beginning.” It also means “being the highest ranked or most dominant individual of one’s sex,” and is “used of social animals.” Alpha gay means being the most dominant individual of a group of gays.

backslide

Schmidt: “Jess, first of all, you’re never gonna be old, humans are going to be immortal by 2026. Second of all, give me your phone. You have backslider written all over you.”

“Backslide,” New Girl, May 1, 2012

To backslide means “to slide back, in a figurative sense; apostatize; turn from the faith.” In this context, it means “to regress; to slip backwards or revert to a previous, worse state,” specifically, back to a bad relationship.

crapture

Homer [upon seeing Bart’s empty bedroom]: “Bart’s been raptured! And his crap’s been craptured!”

“A Totally Fun Thing Bart Will Never Do Again,” The Simpsons, April 29, 2012

Crapture is a blend of crap and rapture. Crap refers to Bart’s crap or stuff, while rapture is “the transporting of a person from one place to another, especially to heaven.”

Hat tip to 4ndyman.

fundemic

Cruise Director Priddis: “While the world deals with their pandemic, we’re having a fundemic!”

“A Totally Fun Thing Bart Will Never Do Again,” The Simpsons, April 29, 2012

Fundemic is a blend of fun and –demic, which comes from the Greek demos, “people.” Pandemic, which means “widespread” as well as “a pandemic disease,” comes from the Greek pandēmos, “of all the people.” Epidemic comes from the Greek epidēmos, “prevalent.”

funishment

Cruise Director Priddis: “You stand accused of letting down your team during music trivia. Your funishment: eight hours in the penal conga line.”

“A Totally Fun Thing Bart Will Never Do Again,” The Simpsons, April 29, 2012

Funishment, a blend of fun and punishment, is punishment through an activity that is supposed to be fun. Related is forced fun, “fun” activities (such as parties and outings) one is forced to do with one’s co-workers.

Geölter Blitz

Monroe: “My people know the [Murciélago] as Geölter Blitz, literally, bat out of hell. It’s a legendary liminal being.”

“Happily Ever Aftermath,” Grimm, May 4, 2012

Geölter Blitz, which is German, is actually not “bat out of hell” but “greased (geölter) lightning (Blitz).” The term figuratively means something very fast, like a bat out of hell. The German word for bat is Fledermaus (also the name of a well-known German opera).

humorsexual

Stephen Colbert: “These gay sitcom characters, or humorsexuals, are a menace to society. They seduce us into thinking gays are just like us. Normal people with relationships based on love and mutual respect. It is disgusting.”

The Colbert Report, May 7, 2012

Humorsexual is a play on homosexual. Colbert’s tongue-in-cheek commentary refers to Vice President Joe Biden’s statement that married gay couples deserve the same rights as heterosexual married couples, and that the sitcom Will and Grace “probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s done so far.”

Hundjäger

Narrator: “The Verat enforcers were identified as Hundjäger, from a race so tenacious and vicious, it is said they are birthed by consuming their own mothers from inside the womb.”

“Cat and Mouse,” Grimm, April 20, 2012

Hundjäger translates from German as “hound (hund) hunter (jäger),” that is, one that is a hound and hunts, not one who hunts hounds.

insatia

Prince of Persuasia: “Step three: brag. Not lying, but close. Make up a story about how you single-handedly murdered a wild animal. Your story’s going to release a hormone deep inside her body called insatia. It makes women ovulate – for sex!”

“Dr. Yap,” Bob’s Burgers, April 29, 2012

Insatia comes from insatiable, “incapable of being satisfied or appeased; inordinately greedy: as, insatiable desire.” The name Prince of Persuasia is a blend of Prince of Persia and persuasion.

jabroni

Meredith [to Andy singing during a formal dinner]: “Hey, jabroni, show some class.”

“Fundraiser,” The Office, April 26, 2012

Jabroni is “professional wrestling slang for one whose main purpose is to make the better-known wrestlers of the organization look good . . . by losing to them,” and may be a mock-Italianized form of jobber. Jabroni also refers to losers in general.

jerk-gate

Reporter: “Ms. Knope, I have a follow up to what I’m now deciding to call jerk-gate. Are there any other deceased members of Bobby Newport’s family that you’d like to attack?”

“Bus Tour,” Parks and Recreation, May 3, 2012

Jerk-gate, in which Leslie Knope called someone recently deceased a jerk, is a play on Watergate, “a series of scandals occurring during the Nixon administration in which members of the executive branch organized illegal political espionage against their perceived opponents and were charged with violation of the public trust, bribery, contempt of Congress, and attempted obstruction of justice.” Adding –gate to a word signals a scandal or controversy. See boobgate, nipplegate, and Weinergate.

Hat tip to Fritinancy.

Lauffeuer

Rosalie: “Have you heard of the Lauffeuer?”
Monroe: “The Lauffeuer? You mean, the resistance?”

“Cat and Mouse,” Grimm, April 20, 2012

Lauffeuer translates from the German as “wildfire.”

lesbian bed death

Kurt [to Rachel]: “Have you ever heard of lesbian bed death? I read about it online. It’s when two lesbians date for long enough they become like sisters. And Blaine and I are like an old married couple.”

“Dance With Somebody,” Glee, April 24, 2012

The term lesbian bed death was coined by “sociologist Pepper Schwartz in her 1983 book American Couples.” Schwartz claimed that “lesbian couples in committed relationships have less sex than any other type of couple, and they generally experience less sexual intimacy the longer the relationship lasts,” a claim which “has been criticized by the lesbian community and some psychologists as popular myth.”

Murciélago

Nick: “At the murder site there were broken light bulbs and mirrors. Could that be a Murciélago or Geo-whatever?”

“Happily Ever Aftermath,” Grimm, May 4, 2012

Murciélago, which translates from the Spanish as bat, is a bat-like creature with “the ability to produce a sonic shriek that is fatal to humans.”

Rominee

Jon Stewart: “We’re talking about Mitt Romney who will be the Republican Presidential nominee, or as I now call it, the Rominee. That’s trademarked.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, May 2, 2012

Rominee is a blend of Romney and nominee.

sanitipsy

Stephen Colbert: “Our kids are getting sanitipsy.”

The Colbert Report, May 7, 2012

Sanitipsy is a blend of sanitizer and tipsy, and is based on a report that teens drink hand sanitizer to get drunk.

smell-check

Reggie: “I should be back at my restaurant smell-checking the meats.”

“Moody Foodie,” Bob’s Burgers, May 6, 2012

Smell-check is a play on spell check, which refers to “an application within most word processing programs that checks for spelling errors in documents.” To smell-check means to check if something has spoiled by smelling it.

voir dire

Benjamin: “Juror number three, Ann Woodbury for instance. In voir dire, she presented as open, impartial. But based on her physical reactions to the prosecution’s evidence, it’s likely she’ll vote to convict.”

“Justice,” Revenge, April 25, 2012

Voir dire is legal term meaning “a preliminary examination of prospective jurors or witnesses under oath to determine their competence or suitability.” The phrase translates roughly from the Old French as “say (dire) the truth (voir).”

That’s it for this week! Remember, if you see any Word Soup-worthy words, let us know on Twitter with the hashtag #wordsoup. Your word and Twitter handle might appear right here!