sand spur
n.— «In personality profiles newspapers use what some refer to as “sand spurs,” referring to little foibles of the person that show him or her as real, rather than just the subject of PR flackery. In Troutman’s case, instead of a “sand spur” he might say it is more like a 3-inch thorn from his very first bill in the Legislature.» —“Learning Grandfather’s Lessons Well” by Bill Rufty The Ledger (Lakeland, Florida) Mar. 24, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Do you refer to your dog or cat as “somebody”? As in: When you love somebody that much, you don’t mind if they slobber. In other words, is your pet a somebody or a something? Also, for centuries, there was little consistency in the...
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...