ATM machine
n.— «Targeting immigrants is not unique to Oakland. Last month Richmond police were called to investigate the fatal robbery of an El Salvadoran immigrant. The city’s street thugs sometimes refer to Latino and Asian laborers as “ATM machines.”» —“Wildlife Veterinarians Give Bird Feather Implants” in Davis, California KEYE-TV Feb. 13, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Mateo in Richmond, Virginia, is curious about a story he heard about the term paper tiger, meaning “something that looks fearsome or ferocious, but is actually flimsy or weak.” It’s not from Tiger, a type of German tank used during...
Silence comes in many forms. Writer Paul Goodman says there is, for example, the noisy silence of “resentment and self-recrimination,” and the helpful, participatory silence of actively listening to someone speak. • The strange story...
“ATM machine” is an incorrect
expression, regardless of whom the
speaker is, because of the obvious
redundancy: the “M” already means
“machine”. The allowable forms
are, either just “ATM” or, “AT
machine”.
-Word Wizard.