Double-Tongued Dictionary Recent Citations

Citation Queue These are recently added citations for catchwords that have not yet been researched or incorporated into a full dictionary entry. There is also a date-sorted archive which includes all citations, whether used in a full entry or not, as well as the full entries themselves.

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recycled pulsar n. Astronomers have long theorized that these superfast stars share their orbit with a companion star from which they leech extra material. The material settles around the pulsar’s middle in a so-called accretion disk. As material from the disk falls onto the surface of the pulsar, it imparts enough angular momentum to spin back up into what scientists call a ”recycled pulsar.” “We mean it in the same sense as recycling your plastics,” Archibald said. “These pulsars have died and become invisible and useless to us, but they get brought back to life by getting fed from a companion.” (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

fasthole n. Fasthole—\ˈfast—hōl\ (noun): Someone who thinks they’re better than another runner simply because they are faster. In my group of running friends, we use the name as a term of endearment. But we do reserve the right to identify someone as a “true fasthole” if they exhibit any of the following behaviors:—Making fun of slower runners for being slower—Refusing to support their friends/teammates that are slower than them—Complaining about slower runners degrading the true nature of the sport. (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

fosh n. Roger Clemens just started doing the “Fosh” and he’s already got another pitch to make batters” knees bend. Tom Gordon thinks the fosh may be his newest out pitch. Like a dance craze that sweeps the nation, the “Foshball” is all the rage in the Red Sox clubhouse. [...] It’s held like a fastball, except the fingers are spread slightly apart. It works like an off-speed split-fingered fastball, or a changeup that breaks. Fosh, by the way, is an acronym for the unprintable feeling you get when you watch one go by. The “F” stands for “full,” the “O” is for “of”; the rest Nipper would rather not say. (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

stand and sue v. phr. There is no question that your managing director’s actions give employees a number of potential claims, not least of which is constructive and unfair dismissal—but are employees going to walk out of a job when there aren’t many for them to walk into? Possibly a bigger risk is that employees work under protest or “stand and sue” as it is sometimes known. This is where the employee continues to work but makes clear (usually in writing) that he or she is unhappy with the pay cut and does not accept the employer’s unilateral actions. (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

scrumping n. Generally, the more vulnerabilities a bot can scan and propagate through, the more valuable it becomes to a botnet controller community. The process of stealing computing resources as a result of a system being joined to a “botnet” is sometimes referred to as “scrumping.” (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

viz n. For divers, all that silt obscures almost everything. “I always say, gimme a foot of viz”—visibility—“and that’s a great day,” says the NYPD’s John Drzal. “Even with a light, you can see just enough to gauge how much air you have left.” (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

relay n. There are millions of hard-shell clams on the harbor bottom, but pollutants and bacteria can make the shellfish dangerous to eat, especially raw. Some are okay for “relay,” a process whereby tainted shellfish are moved to a clean spot for a few weeks so they purge themselves and can be safely consumed. Most high-end suppliers and restaurants shy away from such clams, but because they’re much cheaper, some establishments inconspicuously serve them. (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

Hudson River alligator n. The quaint wooden pilings you see at the edge of Manhattan, the ones that trace the outlines of long-gone piers, are a hazard in the making. When a storm knocks one of them loose, the resultant floater—a “Hudson River alligator”—becomes a twenty-foot battering ram. (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

blipster n. So just what is a black hipster—a “blipster” or “alt-black”? Like many recent cultural trends, this one straddles race, politics, fashion and art. For the purposes of discussion, we’ll stick with men (though I have seen some Flock of Seagulls-looking black females out and about of late). As Lauren Cooper, a Howard University graduate who admits to an indie lifestyle, puts it, “It’s probably easier to pick out a black male ‘blipster’ than a female.” Simply put: The racial archetypes that had defined the last 15 years of masculine street style have given way to a radically new aesthetic. Gone are the extra-long T-shirts, saggy jeans and Timbs long favored by young black men. They haven’t swapped them for the mopey, emo tees once favored by young whites. Rather, urban youth of all colors now rock snug pants, bright, oversized graphic tees, spotless vanity sneakers and hats with brims flatter than Kansas. (May. 22, 2009) [full citation…]

skin tenting n. There is a simple way to tell if you are dehydrated, Rodriguez said, and it is a technique called “skin tenting.” In this technique, pinch and lift up the skin on the back of the hand to form a tent, then quickly let it go. The amount it stretches is an indication of its extensibility. The faster it returns to normal, the more hydrated you are. The slower it returns indicates you may be dehydrated. (May. 19, 2009) [full citation…]

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