float
n.— «Ms. Trujillo, who wears a leather holster belt holding a rock hammer, and geologist’s compass, tells them that if they find “float”—the term for loose fossils individually scattered over the ground by water erosion—they should look up the slope to find the possible source and tie a ribbon there.» —“Dinosaurs are gone, but their bones are all about” by Don Hopey in Rock River, Wyoming Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania) June 24, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, though, suffrage isn’t about “suffering.” It’s from a Latin word that involves voting. Plus: military cadences often include...
Ribbon fall. Gallery forest. You won’t find terms like these in most dictionaries, but they and hundreds like them are discussed by famous writers in the book Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape. The book is an intriguing collection...