Official Dictionary of Unofficial English-Grant-Barrett-0071458042
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make (one’s) bones
make (one’s) bones v. to kill a person as requirement for membership in a criminal gang, especially if it is one’s first murder; to become a made man; (hence) to earn a reputation. Crime & Prisons. This term is associated with organized crime, especially the Mafia or the mob.
1969 Geoffrey Wolff N.Y. Times (Mar. 8) “Persuasive Picture of Crime’s World,” p. C4 ! Business, for Puzo’s characters, is almost everything. Vito Corleone “made his bones” (first killing) in cold blood for dollars. 1984 William Diehl Hooligans (June 1), p. 46 ! The story goes that Chevos killed his own brother to make his bones for Skeet. 1986
Timothy Harper Dallas Morning News (Tex.) (Feb. 24) “Murdoch Challenging British Unions,” p. 1D ! Shah is a 41-year-old publisher of small provincial newspapers who made his bones after winning a bitter strike against the unions that tried to shut down his northern England operation. 1986 Laura Nicholson Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) (Oct. 20) “The Race to Be 2nd—in Command Kavanagh—that’s Michael,” p. 7 ! After he suggested that Cuomo “made his political bones in Queens,” which has been rocked with scandal, he said he should have known it would set off opponents. Cuomo aides complained it was an ethnic slur, since “made his bones” is an expression usually connected with the Mafia. 1988 Larry Margasak (AP)
(Apr. 22) “FBI Agent Nearly Was Inducted into Mafia” ! They have reinstituted the requirement that before someone is made a soldier, he will have to “make his bones.” That is, he will have to kill someone.
1990 Patricia Hurtado Newsday (May 8) “Jury Considers Fama’s Fate as Judge Denies Defense Bid,” p. 5 ! He was not only going to teach Gina [Feliciano] a lesson, Mr. Fama was going to make his bones that night.... He was going to shoot someone. 2005 Doug Ireland Common Dreams (Jan. 12) “Mike Chertoff’s Dirty Little Secrets” (Int.) ! There’s a problem for Chertoff with conservative Republicans—he happens to be pro-choice. So, taking the DHS job is Chertoff’s way to “make his bones,” as they say in Jersey, and grab headlines as a hard-line persecutor of “the towel-heads” to please the right and neutralize his abortion stance.
mama put n. a small food stand or restaurant. Food & Drink. Nigeria. The etymological information in the 2001 cite is not verified.
1998 Usenet: soc.culture.nigeria (Nov. 25) “Nweke Ntioba” ! He com-
plained to everyone in the village...how the “mama-put” ladies failed to understand his refusal to pay for a not-too-hot soup. *2001
[Babawilly] Babawilly’s Dictionary of Pidgin English Words and Phrases
(Nigeria) (Int.) ! Mama-put: Road side food seller so called because customers frequently beg for extra helpings by saying “Mama abeg
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put more now.” 2002 All Africa (Feb. 15) “150 Years On—Memories of Slavery Re-Echoed in Breadfruit, Lagos” ! All around the adjoining streets...market officials, colonial clerks gather in twos and threes savouring local delicacies at mama put joints littering the streets.
2004 Sam Umukoro, Dafe Ivwurie Vanguard (Apapa, Nigeria) (May 23) “Ozekhome: A Generalissimo in Whom 72 Kings Are Well
Pleased” (Int.) ! We asked the chief...if he visits these eateries popularly called “mama put” in Nigerian parlance. His words: “Yes, even now I like eating in the bukateria. I like this mama put system where you go to the pot and point out the orisirisi (assortment of meat), the edo (liver) the saki, the ponmo and the rest.”
marbit n. a marshmallow bit found in processed breakfast cereal. Food & Drink.
1990 Marty Primeau Dallas
Morning News (Tex.) (Apr. 18)
“Low-Fiber, High-Sugar Kid’s Cereals Are Well-Advertised,” p. 4F
! While cereals aimed at healthconscious adults are packed
with whole grains and fiber, cereals for their children contain things called “marbits” (bits of marshmallows), malt syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, honey and other sugar products. 1999 T.L. Stanley
Brandweek (June 28) “Scooby Dooby Two—Halloween Promotion from Time Warner” (Int.) ! General Mills will put Scooby imagery on 4 million Count Chocula cereal boxes, and will include Scooby, Mystery Machine, Shaggy and other character “marbits” in the product. 1999
Karen Wright Discover (August) “A Charm’s Life” (Int.) ! She’s brought along a box of Lucky Charms featuring the cereal’s latest permutation: tiny marbit charms in saturated colors and substandard sizes that the company launched last March. 2004 Richard Hartel, AnnaKate Hartel
Capital Times, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisc.) (Oct. 5) “Mystery of Circus Peanuts,” p. 5D ! Circus Peanuts, and the marshmallow bits (called marbits) in Lucky Charms, are denser, grained marshmallows with some of the sugar in crystal form.
matchbook college n. a (real or figurative) school of higher learning with low academic standards. Also matchbook universit y.
Derogatory. Education. United States. [From the supposed tendency of such a school to advertise on matchbook covers. Sometimes capitalized as if it were a proper noun.]
1995 Usenet: rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc (June 4) “Re: GH: Bobbie’s (Jackie’s) Acting” ! Also Zeman is the new Sally Struthers for a “matchbook
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college,” so we know that school is for FULL FIGURED women.
1997 Greg Lucas @ Sacramento San Francisco Chronicle (Calif.)
(Apr. 6) “Enunciations of S.F.’s Most Abstruse Solon” ! Modern American politics are dominated by cheesy, simplistic sound bites. Political consultants and some politicians must believe all voters are graduates of Matchbook University’s course on Simple Minds and Short-Atten- tion Spans. 1997 Porter Bibb Ted Turner: It Ain’t as Easy as It Looks
(Sept. 1), p. 240 ! I can get an honorary degree from some matchbook college anytime I want. 2002 Roy Bragg San Antonio ExpressNews (Tex.) (Sept. 3) “PETA Isn’t Pleased, But a Millionaire’s Project to Clone Dogs and Other Pets Is Already Doing Big Business,” p. 1A
! The school, because it was a private venture and not affiliated with any established universities, was criticized by academics as a “diploma mill” and a “matchbook college.” 2004 Carol Thompson Valley News
(Fulton, N.Y.) (Nov. 20) “Taxpayers Foot Tuition Bills for County Employees” ! County funds have also paid for “internet campuses” that offer learning programs to “fit your learning style and budget” as well as online multiple choice exams that lead to a college degree. They are also referred to as “matchbook colleges.”
mayor ’s cell n. a military unit, akin to the mayoralty of a small town, that handles facilities and infrastructure at a (temporary) base. Also mayor cell. Military.
1999 Usenet: alt.folklore.military (June 23) “Gate Guards” ! The guard duty was run by the mayor’s cell on a DA6. 2000 Usenet:
alt.folklore.military (May 26) “Crashing the Party” ! The mayor’s cell served kind of as “camp counselor,” handing out keys to rooms and making sure chow was served on time. My BC turned out to be the mayor...the mayor’s cell had to deal pretty closely with the units coming in and out of theater, so that they could be sure they would have enough rooms and such.... Units would come in, and the mayor’s cell would bounce it off their schedule of arrivals. 2001 Army News Service (Aug. 14) “Area Support Group Activated in Bosnia” (in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina) ! The IC will assign and maintain billets, he said, just as the Mayor’s Cell did. 2003 Charlie Brennan Rocky Mountain News (Colo.) (Mar. 14) “9,000 Battle-Ready Soldiers Are Wards of Camp Virginia ‘Mayor,’ ” p. 33A ! The establishment of the mayor’s cell (under Putko) has improved the organization and overall quality of life in Camp Virginia, despite the recent massive influx of soldiers.
2004 Joe Operation Sandbox (Sept. 30) “The Wall Shook” (Int.) ! On Sunday night I had some extra duty called, “Mayor Cell Duty.” See our camp has a mayor. And so a group of about 20 of us had duties related to public works item. 2005
(Jan. 16) “When I Say Mission...” (Int.) ! The next thing I knew a civil-
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ian contractor showed up from the Mayor Cell (the guys who make sure that our living areas are...well...livable).
mean-mugging n. Also v. staring in an aggressive or threatening manner. Hip-Hop. Slang. United States. [From mug ‘to pout, grow sullen, mope; to make a face.’]
1991 Usenet: rec.music.funky (Dec. 29) “Interview with Del, the Fun-
kee Homo Sapien” ! Why would you want to mean-mug niggas from your car like you want to get out and beat them down? 1994 Lewis
W. Diuguid Kansas City Star (C2) (July 13) “Our $6 Million Bodies Are Losing Value on Deadly Streets” ! One of the three persons charged in the homicide said he gunned down McKay because “he was meanmugging me.” 1996 Usenet: alt.rap (Apr. 29) “Re: Chino” ! Chino plays the part of the chump with “a complex” getting played because he thinks he’s the man. How many videos have that plot? In the other scenes, it’s dark and Chino is just flippin’ his hands and mean mugging while flowing. 2004 John Fall San Francisco Chronicle (Calif.) (Aug. 15) “Decaying Park Reflects Oakland’s Problems” (Int.) ! Oakland is a town where “mean mugging,” the slang expression for looking at someone the wrong way, results in lethal exchanges of gunfire.
megarexia n. a mental condition in which one perceives one’s body as too thin and desires to be ever larger. Also megorexia. Health. The condition is also called bigorexia.
1998 Simon J. Williams The Lived Body: Sociological Themes, Embodied Issues (June 1), p. 76 ! There are also more general risks and dangers involved in body building, not least of which is the emergence of “megarexia,” a new condition in which the individual becomes obsessed with increasing the sheer muscular bulk of the body—the very antithesis of the anorexic body. 1999 Kenneth R. Servis, Jr. Business and Management Practices (Nov.) “On the Labor Front: Glory at a Price? Labor Takes a Stand On Steroids,” vol. 29, no. 6, p. 36 ! Steroid abuse can give rise to a condition called megorexia, which is a desire to get and maintain a muscular body and is characterized by overeating and a distorted body image. 2000 Rachel Solotti Waikato Times (New Zealand) (Aug. 3) “Striking a Blow for Your Average Woman” ! Men are now going to have plastic surgery, more of them are working out, there’s increasing steroid abuse, there’s megarexia (where men body build excessively). 2001 Lynette Ng
Pharmvision.com (July 19) “Dangers of Over-Exercising” (Int.) ! Overexercising...may also be due to other psychological disorders (e.g. obsessive-compulsive disorder) or to megarexia (also referred to as “bigarexia” or “muscle dysmorphia”). Megarexia is characterised by a constant preoccupation with body size and a rigid exercise routine,
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resulting in compulsive exercising and weight training even when injuries are present. 2001 Liam Rudden Evening News (Scotland) (Nov. 5) “Dangers in Weight of Expectation,” p. 20 ! A member of the body dysmorphic disorders family, muscle dysmorphia is known by many names—barbell blues, bigorexia and megarexia are all commonly used to describe a condition referred to as “inverted anorexia nervosa.” 2002 Lynne Luciano Looking Good: Male Body Image in Modern America (Jan. 9), p. 229 ! Reverse anorexia was first diagnosed in the early 1990s by Dr. Harrison Pope, a Harvard psychiatrist and a bodybuilder. In addition to Pope’s research, Dr. William N. Taylor, an expert on anabolic steroids, found that steroid users also develop distorted body images so that they perceive their reflections in the mirror as smaller than they actually are; Taylor called his discovery megarexia.
merk v. 1. to kill (someone); to verbally or physically attack someone; to defeat, to overcome someone or something, to do well; 2. to depart; to travel (to a place). Also murk, mirk. Hip-Hop. Slang.
[*1996 Nas @ song It Was Written (July 2) “Suspect” ! His moms had a stare I wouldn’t dare second look when I merk.] 1999 Usenet: rec.music.hip-hop (Feb. 17) “This Big-L Thing” ! The sad thing is, if Big-L wasn’t a rapper then niggas wouldn’t even care that he got merked. There’s hundreds of kids every day that get slain just like that in ghettos across the country. 2000 Usenet: rec.music.hip-hop
(Apr. 28) “yo! peep dis battle and vote” ! I jump at da opportunity to
ruin thee/truthfully you aint got a chance, i merk you brutally/have you in ICU and the cops persuin me. 2001 David Weiss Wilkes-Barre
Times Leader (Pa.) (Sept. 14) “Wilkes-Barre Man Charged in Killing,”
p. 21A ! “That’s when I did him,” Yenglee told a witness, according to arrest papers. “I merked (murdered) him.” 2002 Bang&Olufsen DK
Acura Legend & Acura RL Community (Apr. 16) “What Did She Say?!?!?!?!” (Int.) ! Idda just merkd out just like Thai said. “NO CON-
VERTIBLE?” “B*CH GET YO ASS OUT” SKUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-
RRRR. 2003 Fulton County Daily Report (Atlanta, Ga.) (Feb. 7) “Roebuck v. The State,” vol. 2, no. 7 ! Codefendant Gray told him that the foursome invaded the trailer to steal money and had “merked [i.e., killed] a couple of Mexicans.” 2004 [veryunlucky13] veryunlucky13 (Blacklick, Ohio) (Nov. 2) “Halo Comp Update” (Int.) ! I had schooled a kid with the sword winning 6-0. Merked a few others, and was down to Zach Myself left as unbeaten. 2004 David Weber
Boston Herald (Mass.) (Apr. 22) “Suspect: I Stood Like ‘Dummy’ as Pal Stabbed Pleading Girl,” p. 18 ! “I merked that bitch,” Bryant quoted Hampton as saying, using a slang word for “killed.” 2004 [Jasmine]
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Right On! Magazine (Oct. 9) “Guestbook” (Int.) ! Bow is my # 1 boo forever and always so all yall little busdown wannabes need to back dat azz away fa you get merked. 2004 [Jennifer Michele (jennieboo103)] Dance Like Nobody’s Watching (Rush, N.Y.) (Oct. 12) (Int.) ! Then I merked home and fell asleep. 2004 [mjvirly] Randomness (Oct. 22) “Here’s Wassup with Me” (Int.) ! I got hurted on pretty fuckin bad...i have the bruised rib cage to prove it...but dont worry i didnt get merked. 2004 [slitsthatdenote (Jimmy)] And I Know That You Say, This Is What You Get...Love Is the Answer? (Virginia Beach, Va.)
(Nov. 2) “Update...” (Int.) ! The whole party bounced to Eric’s crib and it pissed his mom off so we merked to Sals. 2004 [abuakzabu]
! We
played em for a buck a ball...n we got merked on purpose for de first game...LOLZ...n they won 15 buckz of us. 2004 [Jacob Wright]
ilXor.com (Nov. 24) “The Thread That’s Totally and Completely on Trim’s Dick” (Int.) ! I’ve spent the last month listening non-stop to both sides of the Trim Taliban white—Boogeyman, and the one over fire hydrant that’s just him methodically and comprehensively merking people. 2004 [mizraepyatt24] i <33 yOu dAnNy (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) (Dec. 9) “*22 wEekS*” (Int.) ! Danny and I were watchin Maury and this guy had a fear of clowns...And when the clowns came out he started to cry and he def. merked!...I never ever seen a grown man run that fast in my life! 2004 [feed_the_fire_1] H (Pennsauken, N.J.) (Dec. 10) “All You Need Is, All You Want Is, All You Need Is Looooooveee” (Int.) ! I merked my speech the other day, got a 95 on my persuasive speech. 2004 [ticketshomer] ticketshomer (Dec. 12) “First Day of Finals” (Int.) ! I had two finals today...I merked the Music one, Chem ehhh not so much. 2005 [Andrew (Majkut; xmajkutdiesx)] Majkuticus (Virginia Beach, Va.) (Jan. 17) “Whatchu Know About the Maj-cook?” (Int.) ! Will and I merked to Brinn’s at like 10ish and I spent the night. 2005 royaljoe33 Joes page (Clifton Heights, Pa.) (Jan. 24) “NFC Champs!!” (Int.) ! Then of course T.O. was HUGE to get not only for his on field merking of people such as ricky manning jr. 2005 [Matt (jesus_is_a_cunt)] LiveJournal for Matt (Newport News, Va.) (Jan. 30) “People Are Crazy” (Int.) ! But the girl who had invited me was the one screaming and telling everyone to get the fuck out. At that point, I’d had enough bullshit for one night. So...Me, Daniel and Perm merked. I went to Chenellos to help Chris close. 2005 Curtis Johnson Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, W.Va.)
(Apr. 21) “Witness Points Finger at Fields” (Int.) ! “He asked Justin to get him his burner, because he was going to murk that bitch,” White said. In testimony, White said “burner” was a word meaning “pistol, gun” and “murk” meant to “murder, kill.”
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met
met n. cancer that has spread beyond its point of origin. Medical. [Clipping of metastasis ‘a change in a location (in a body) of a disease; a disease that has made such a change’ or metastases, the plural form.] The plural form, mets, is sometimes used in the singular, perhaps because of a mistaken reinterpretation of mets as a clipping of the singular metastasis.
1990 Usenet: sci.med (Sept. 1) “Re: Calcium in Blood” ! Malignancy with bone mets (breast ca, myeloma, lymphoma). 1991 Usenet:
sci.med (Aug. 18) “Prostatic Cancer (Again)” ! Is it likely that I have micro-mets that are simply too small to show up on the scans? 1999
Cathy Gordon Houston Chronicle (Tex.) (Aug. 1) “When the Doctor Is the Patient,” p. 8 ! I have mets...it has metastasized to my lungs. Don’t pay for that trip to France. 1999 Usenet: sci.med.diseases
.cancer (Oct. 29) “Lung Cancer Symptoms?” ! A friend of mine who has unclear chest x-ray and feels a pain in his chest feels strongly that it may be a “mets” from his primary cancer. 2000 Tara McParland
Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) (Sept. 12) “The Gift of Small Victories,” p. C1 ! The CT scan showed mets to the lungs and the liver.
2005 Deborah Hutton Guardian (U.K.) (July 3) “Do Mention the ‘C’ Word” (Int.) ! There is no stage V. It was the worst of all news—”as bad as it can get,” confirmed the nurse at the Middlesex Hospital who rang to inform me that the CT scan had revealed mets (metastases, or spread) in my liver.
metric buttload n. a large but indeterminate quantity. Also metric ass-load, metric fuck-load, metric shit-load. Slang.
1991 Usenet: rec.games.trivia (Aug. 10) “Happy Wombat Double Video
Quiz Update” ! After a metric buttload of responses (and it isn’t even due yet. Sheesh...), I thought I’d up the ante a bit. 1993 Usenet:
alt.peeves (Feb. 18) “Yet *More* Meeting Peeves” ! Not only was his style as lively as a rotting elephant, but he could always be counted on to bring along a metric fuckload of slides to show on the overhead projector. 1993 Usenet: alt.sex.bondage (Dec. 21) “My Darling Hypnotist” ! Flora had a metric butt-load of gear she wanted to put on me.
1997 Usenet: rec.sport.pro-wrestling (Aug. 30) “Death Valley Driver Video Review #48” ! It’s been a long couple of weeks since the last time I spoke with you gentle readers and I’ve watched a metric assload of tapes. 1999 Philip Greenspun Philip & Alex’s Guide to Web Publishing (Apr.), p. 267 ! You can collect a metric buttload of data about user activity on your site without too much effort. 2000
Usenet: alt.guitar.amps (Jan. 9) “Re: Short Lord Valve (Willie) Story”
! I have bought a metric shitload (LV terminology) of stuff from LV over that past year and a half (at least a lot for me). 2003 David
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Klinghoffer Publisher’s Weekly (Mar. 24) “Friction in the Family,” p. S11
! “It was embarrassing for some customers to see a naked woman on the cover wrapped in a talis [prayer shawl], and you can see her nipple really clearly,” says Alle Hall, marketing manager of Seattle’s Tree of Life Judaica, who carried the book but felt it would be most appropriate not to display it face-out. Nevertheless, “We sold a metric buttload of those books.” 2004 Computer Gaming World (U.S.) (May 1) “Civilization III: Conquests; Queen Tom Versus El Bruce,” no. 238 ! It may be the late 15th century, but the Spanish have a ton of street cred. They are also going to have a metric buttload of treasure, because Hispaniola is founded right on a tobacco resource and adjacent to some gems. At the end of the game, I’ll have my jewelers make me a fancy victory ring. 2004 Merlin Mann 5ives (Sept. 14) “Five AssRelated Words I Think I Use a Lot” (Int.) ! metric assload n.—a lot. 2004 Matt Haughey A Whole Lotta Nothing (Oct. 10) “A Metric Assload of Journey Tunes” (Int.) (title). 2004 Maureen Johnson Bermudez Triangle (Oct. 12). p. 334 ! I got a credit card and bought a metric shitload of DVDs so that she could pick the one she wanted to watch.
microaggression n. subtle forms of racism or bias. Jargon.
1970 Chester M. Pierce The Black Seventies “Offensive Mechanisms,” p. 282 (Int.) in Journal of Negro Education (1976) LeRoi R. Ray, Jr. “Black Studies: A Discussion of Evaluation,” vol. 45, no. 4, p. 391
! Chester M. Pierce says that the society is unrelenting in teaching its white youth how to maximize the advantages of being on the offense toward Blacks. He further advances the notion that offensive mechanisms, “the small, continuous bombardments of micro-aggression by whites to blacks is the essential ingredient in race relations and race interactions.” 1992 USA Today (May 6) “Anti-Violence Public Policies Urged,” p. 7D ! Repeated “micro-aggression and micro-insults” wear down blacks, said Bell. When a white child and a black child enter a store, guards follow the black, when a black sits in first-class, flight attendants ask if he’s in the right place. 2001 Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic Critical Race Theory (May 1) (Int.) ! Social scientists call the event a “microaggression,” by which they mean one of those many sudden, stunning, or dispiriting transactions that mar the days of women and folks of color. Like water dripping on sandstone, they can be thought of as small acts of racism.
migra n. the border patrol at the shared U.S. boundary with Mexico. Mexico. Slang. Spanish. United States. [Clipped form of Spanish migración ‘migration.’] Used by Spanish-speaking undocumented immigrants as la migra. The border patrol, originally part of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, is now a part
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of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection within the Department of Homeland Security.
1950 Bill Dredge L.A. Times (May 2) “Thousands of Mexicans Illegally Cross U.S. Border Each Month,” p. 12 ! Maybe my water bottle will last and I will come to some place like San Bernardino, or to Los Angeles, and become lost there, from la migra—that is our name for the immigration. 1984 Ivor Davis @ San Ysidro, Calif. Globe and Mail (Toronto, Can.) (Mar. 31) “Nightly Ritual: Checker Game on U.S. Border with People as the Pieces,” p. P9 ! The Border Patrol, la migra to the aliens, is desperately seeking to boost its $533-million budget by $41 million. 2004 Ben Fox, Michelle Morgante @ Ontario, Calif. Kansas City Star (Kan., Mo.) (June 18) “Border Patrol Makes In-Country Sweep” (Int.) ! Alerts, often false, about “la migra” checkpoints (Spanish slang for immigration officials) have become as common as traffic reports on Spanish-language radio.
moded adj. tricked, trumped, or beaten (at a contest of wills or skill). Also moated. California. Slang. This term appears to have originated in, and is especially common in, California.
1988 Angie Cannon San Francisco Chronicle (Calif.) (Nov. 25) “Teachers in S.F. Grab Rap Music as Educational Aid,” p. B13 ! When people try to bother you,/Don’t play their game./Just think twice before you’ve exploded./Let the other guy be the one who’s moded! 1992
Kathleen Moloney, Mary McNamara L.A. Times (Apr. 26) “L.A. Speak,” p. 10 ! moated v. to trump someone, get the final word, get them in trouble. “I got Priscilla moated for capping on me.” 1992 Alfee Enciso L.A. Times (Dec. 28) “Community Essay Living Under ‘a Veil of Denial’ Bias,” p. 5 ! I asked the males in my class, “What’s the first thing you guys do when you’re together discussing a ‘freak’ or a ‘fox’? You ask, ‘Hey, what she look like?...Oh, man! She’s real fine, man. She’s light-skinned,’ ” at which the class got quiet and smiled. Then a young girl said, “He’s right...” while the rest of the students giggled, easing the embarrassment of being “moded.” 2004 Official U.S. Playstation (July 1) “They Fought the Law, and the Law Won,” no. 82
! Getting moded by the FBI: priceless. 2005 Ava Swartz @ San Francisco University High School SFUHS Update (Calif.) (Mar.-Apr.) “Sweet, Tight and Hella Stupid” p. 2 ! moded—beaten.
molecular gastronomy n. in cooking, the study and application of chemistry, physics, and other scientific principles on its processes, preparation, and materials. Food & Drink. Science. Hervé
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This writes to say, “It’s not my friend Peter Barham who gave the name ‘Molecular Gastronomy,’ but Nicholas Kurti and I, in 1988.”
1993 Hobart Mercury (Australia) (Dec. 24) “Cooking Up Christmas Storm with Science” (in London) ! A scientific experiment will take place in millions of homes on Christmas Day in research that has been dubbed “molecular gastronomy” by Dr. Peter Barham. Dr. Barham, a physicist at Bristol University, became so disenchanted with conventional recipe books that he decided to show that cooking is more than “household alchemy”—it is the application of proven principles of chemistry and physics. 2000 Mark Henderson, Adam Sage @ Paris Ottawa Citizen (Can.) (Dec. 18) “Haute Cuisine Turns to Science to Unlock Gastronomical Secrets: Chemist to Research Smell of Coffee,” p. A2 ! One of France’s most prestigious academic institutions has founded a laboratory devoted to the study of “molecular gastronomy.” The new unit at the College de France in Paris will be headed by Dr. Herve This, a research chemist.... His first new experiment will be to determine whether coffee smells different when sugar is added. He will also study the scientific principles behind the work of Michelin-starred chefs to devise better ways to prepare top-class dishes. 2004 Émilie Boyer King @ Paris Christian Science Monitor
(Boston, Mass.) (Feb. 18) “Food: His Passion, His Science” (Int.) !
Should jam be cooked in a copper pan? When gnocchi come floating to the surface of boiling water, does that mean they are cooked? Molecular gastronomy—a branch of food science that focuses on cooking and food preparation (rather than on the chemical makeup of food, as traditional food science tends to do)—has the answers. 2004
Jaime Ee Business Times (Singapore) (May 15) “Adding Some Weird Science as a Cooking Ingredient” (Int.) ! The cool thing about molecular gastronomy is that when you understand the chemical make-up of certain ingredients, you have a better understanding of what goes well with what.
Monday hammer n. jocularly, a (heavy) sledge or hammer (said to be appropriate for use on a Monday).
[1938-39 LOTJ “The Machine Shop” (in Wisc.), p. 4 ! “Monday” hammer. Light sledge.] *1938-39 Workers at 3rd Ave. and 65th St.,
carbarn @ NYC LOTJ “[pencil] Motormen and Conductors” ! Monday hammer. A 32-pound sledge hammer; means worker must have day of rest before being able to wield heavy hammer. 1965 Colin Clark Economic Journal (U.K.) (Mar.) “Review: Economics and Sociology of Industry. A Realistic Analysis of Development,” vol. 75, no. 297, p. 190
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