When Julius Caesar chose to cross the Rubicon River and march against his rival in Rome, he supposedly said Alea jacta est, or “The die is cast,” indicating that at that point, there was no going back. The phrase is a reference to...
An artist asks strangers to write haiku about the pandemic and gets back poetic, poignant glimpses of life under lockdown. Plus, the new book Queenspotting features the colorful language of beekeeping! Bees tell each other about a good source of...
citizen science n.— «The result is an impressively long-running example of “citizen science,” the term for projects in which amateurs gather field data for future research, making up in numbers what we lack in training and...
ghost pot n.— «The commission has purchased side-scanning radars, installed the equipment onto watermen’s boats, trained them on how to use the devices, and turned them loose in search of lost traps, also known as ghost pots...
floorplanning n.— «The move is intended to stimulate small business and consumer lending, which has dried up in the wake of the credit crisis. Most dealers finance their inventory—a process called floorplanning—through automakers or banks...
baby farm n.— «Among many of the phrases used to describe her for her despicable crime, the 33-year-old was called a “baby farm” because she appeared to deliberately increase her brood to gain more state aid.» —“Reforms hark back to...