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Editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate
Dictionary, Tenth Edition

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Dictionary Men archives

09/28/06: &#Oral’ or ‘verbal’; origin of ‘wheeling and dealing’
09/13/06: ‘Hoist by one's own petard’; ‘mad as a hatter’; ‘notions’
09/07/06: ‘red herring’; ‘penny dreadful’; ‘hightailing it’
08/31/06: ‘Wild-goose chase’; ‘fit to be tied’; ‘precipitous’
08/17/06: ‘Check’ and ‘checkmate’; ‘rostrum’ and ‘beak’; ‘precipitous’
08/02/06: ‘pull out all the stops’; ‘dog days’; ‘I couldn't care less’
07/27/06: ‘attic’; ‘all petered out’; ‘blown to smithereens’
07/20/06: ‘bigwig’; ‘hot dogs’; spelling of ‘poignant’
07/06/06: ‘bodegas’; ‘fiasco’; how pretzel got its strange name
06/22/06: #0145;hooch’; ‘get down to brass tacks’; ‘being frank’
06/07/06: ‘Davy Jones's locker’; ‘kowtow’; ‘piecemeal’
05/11/06: Origin and meaning of ‘philistine’; ‘farce’; ‘freelance’
04/27/06: Origin and meaning of ‘opt’; ‘zest’; ‘buccaneers’; ‘Garrison finish’
04/06/06: Origin and meaning of ‘Varsity ’ ‘collated’
03/30/06: ‘Gossip’ once meant ‘relative’; ‘incunabulum’; ‘poet laureate’;
03/09/06: ‘Scuttlebutt’; ‘angry’ and ‘ cross’; ‘jibe’ and ‘gibe’
02/23/06: ‘Symposium’ of drunks?; origin and meaning of ‘hallmark’; ‘doodad’ and ‘doohickey’
02/01/06: Origin and meaning of ‘woebegone’; ‘blizzard’; ‘bunk’; ‘playwright’ not ‘playwriter’
01/19/06: Origin and meaning of ‘honeymoon’; ‘rule of thumb’; ‘trans’; as a word by itself
01/10/06: Origin and meaning of ‘look things up’; ‘ingenious’; ‘syllepsis’; ‘surveillance’
12/28/05: Origin and meaning of ‘hoodlum’; ‘Everything was going fine and then I really came a cropper’; ‘with baited breath’
12/12/05: Origin and meaning of serendipity; is it ‘lounge’ or ‘longue’?; origins of ‘domino’?
11/28/05: Origin and meaning of ‘let them eat cake’; ‘cobweb’; ‘lares and penates’?
11/03/05: Origin and meaning of ‘scot free’; what is ‘perfect’ about strangers?; origins of ‘see the handwriting on the wall’?
10/11/05: Origin and meaning of ‘maelstrom’; is it ‘recurring’ or ‘reoccurring’?; origins of ‘calisthenics’ and ‘aerobics’; ‘filibuster’?
10/03/05: Origin and meaning of ‘froufrou’; longest isogram?; where does ‘neck verse’ come from?
09/22/05: Origin and meaning of ‘men of the cloth’; ‘brassiere’; ‘take a powder’?
09/13/05: Origin and meaning of ‘shunpike’; differences between ‘founder’ and ‘flounder’; ‘donjon’ and ‘dungeon’; origin and meaning of ‘babblative’?
09/01/05: Relation of ‘sass’ to ‘talk back’?; Origin and meaning of ‘car’; ‘mugwump’?
08/24/05: Origin and meaning of ‘handkerchief’; ‘nincompoop’; ‘tchotchke’; ‘gild the lily’; Are these constructions ungrammatical?
08/18/05: Comparing ‘parlous’ and ‘perilous’; Origin and meaning of ‘jackpot’; ‘thank you ma'am’?
08/11/05: Origin and meaning of ‘butterfly effect’; ‘omelet’; ‘oxymoron’?
08/04/05: Origin and meaning of ‘the tables were turned’; ‘polka dot’ vs ‘polka’ dance; ‘quarry’ in animal use as opposed to mineral; the origin and many uses of ‘laying an egg’?
07/20/05: Origin and meaning of ‘litterbug’; ‘K’ for thousand; ‘tarmac’; ‘lynch’; what is the correct usage between ‘struck’ and ‘went on strike’?
07/14/05: Comparing ‘bitter end’ to ‘bitter’ in taste; Greek god Pan to‘panic’; meaning and origin of ‘gaslight’?
06/16/05: What's the ‘real’ way to say it?; what's special about ‘The Bronx’; meaning and origin of ‘bloviate’?
06/02/05: Meaning and origin of ‘berserk’; ‘alibi’; ‘dismal’?
05/25/05: Is ‘spizzerinctum,’ a word?; meaning and origin of ‘charlatan’?
05/18/05: Meaning and origin of Italian pasta; what is proper use of ‘most’?
05/02/05: Meaning and origin of ‘macaroni’ in the Yankee Doodle song; ‘handsome is as handsome does,’; when we did start using ‘goatee’ and why?
04/19/05: Meaning and origin of ‘au pair’; ‘the buck stops here’; ‘asunder,’?
03/31/05: comparing ‘gourmet’ and ‘gourmand’; when to use ‘lay’ for ‘lie’; where did the word ‘ritzy’ come from?
03/23/05: Source of ‘kid’; where does ‘recusant’ come from?; what does ‘on the bubble’ mean?
03/10/05: Source of the nickname ‘the Big Easy’ for New Orleans; ‘happy as a clam’; grotesque or gruesome?
02/23/05: Canary Islands named for the cute little birds or for dogs?; ‘Mirandize’; ‘morph’ and ‘morphine’
02/17/05: Military ‘cadet’ and a golf ‘caddie’?; ‘madder plant’
02/09/05: ‘Red tape’; ‘glamour’ and ‘grammar’?
02/03/05: ‘Cesarean section’; ‘blue bag’ 01/27/05: ‘Nightmares’; Macadam discovered macadamia nus?; difference between ‘extemporaneous’ and ‘impromptu’
01/19/05: 'Stool pigeon'; 'last hurrah'; train depots
01/12/05: 'Aught' and 'ought'; 'he doesn't know sickum'
12/30/04: Stranded'; 'over;'; circulars are square
12/16/04: 'Derrick'; 'scales falling from their eyes'; 'anthem'
12/09/04: Sailors using 'port' and 'starboard' for 'left' and 'right'; plural of compound words
11/30/04: 'Fly off the handle'; why the words 'left' and 'right' became associated with the political connotations of 'liberal' and 'conservative'; 'review' and 'revue'
11/17/04: 'Ball the jack'; Nazis
11/11/04: 'Catachresis'; 'kick the bucket' and dying; ballots
11/03/04: 'Divers' meaning 'different'?; 'The audience brought the house down'
10/25/04: 'Notorious' as a compliment?; 'and' as first word in sentence; 'yeoman' and 'yewman'
10/20/04: 'Shaggy-dog story'; 'tawdry'; 'Shawnee'
10/12/04: 'Busted'; differences between 'iterate' and 'reiterate'; 'the rain has quite abated'
10/04/04: 'Hat trick', 'rubber game' or 'rubber match'; source of 'spin doctor'; 'trope'
09/22/04: ' Redux'; 'elan'; 'swan-neck'
09/08/04: 'Adam's apple'; 'You sure lucked out'; 'the lion's share'
09/02/04: 'King's shilling'; 'Stockholm syndrome'; 'amid the alien corn'
08/24/04: Guacamole = avocados?; 'bona fides' needs plural verb?; 'exact same' redundant?
08/17/04: 'Nosey parker'; where the question mark came from?; why 'wash' doesn't rhyme with 'cash'
08/12/04: 'Vexillologist'; 'fifth column'; 'Homer sometimes nods'
08/05/04: 'Spitting image'; 'eclectic'; 'spendthrift'
07/28/04: 'Trousers'; 'argosy'
07/19/04: 'Sourdough wit'; 'headshrinkers'; 'seventh heaven'
07/08/04: 'The proof is in the pudding'; 'Pyrrhic victory'
07/01/04: Origin of 'vitamin'; 'binnacle list'
06/25/04: 'Abnegate' and 'abdicate'; 'feet of clay'; 'difugalty'
06/17/04: 'Whinge'; 'whole cloth'
06/10/04: 'The devil to pay'; 'crack', as in 'a crack marksman'; 'the dog that didn't bark'
06/03/04: 'Surrounded on three sides'; sleuths
05/18/04: 'Of the first water'; horses and horseradish; more
05/06/04: 'Historic' v. 'historical'; 'prestigious' = 'trickery'?; 'can of corn' as sports phrase
04/27/04: Derivation of 'bozo'; 'elt'; 'spill the beans'
04/21/04: Meaning of "budget'' in the word "fussbudget''; "bleeding hearts''; "skycap''
04/01/04: "Thin red line''; "doak"; "level playing field"
03/22/04: "King Canute"; "vodka"; "Cheese it. The cops!''
03/16/04: "Carrot and stick''; "hue and cry''; Where did the term "flea market'' originate?
03/09/04: Going "haywire"; "close, but no cigar"; "mahatma"
03/01/04: "Roundheel'' and "well-heeled''; "milquetoast"; "sick as a dog''
02/26/04: "Charley horse"; "`Foolproof''; "cracker-barrel''
02/17/04: "Dunce''; titles "Mr.'' and "Mrs.''; "under the weather''
02/10/04: "Turnpike''; "dead reckoning''
02/02/04: "Mutt"; "lobby" in its political sense; "procrustean bed"
01/27/04: "Decimate"; "duende"; a dessert "junket"?
01/14/04: Is "MacGuffin" related to all the "Mac" and "Mc" words we've been hearing about recently?; "afghans" and "Afghans"; "since Hector was a pup"
01/09/04: Confused about the word "hearsay"; "Burgle"; "waiting in line" or "waiting on line"?
12/31/03: The past tense of "plead''; Is "old adage'' redundant?; Where did "lounge lizard'' come from?
12/15/03: "Ostracize" and "oyster''?; Where does the "mentor'' come from?; "jeopard''
12/02/03: "Karats'' and "carats'' — meaning of and difference between; why apostrophe in "'cello''?; "hell-bent for leather''
11/18/03: "Hoosegow,''; why the little finger is called the "`pinkie''; difference between "lady'' and "dame''
11/13/03: 'Take it on the lam'; 'decorum'; 'you look like the wreck of the Hesperus'
11/03/03: Origin of "hypnosis"/"hypnotism"; "all right" or "alright"; emote
10/28/03: "Blue plate special"; how to use "hoi polloi''; "Peck's Bad Boy''
10/20/03: Who was the person the artist who first used "silhouette" as an art form?; why are they called migraine headaches?; origin of "keep one's shirt on"
10/13/03: "Grey'' in "greyhound'' has nothing to do with the color?; "at loggerheads''
09/29/03: Where does the word "karaoke" comes from?; people or persons?; "synecdoche"
09/23/03: Using "eke'' correctly; fedora; why do we call an especially flattering biography a "hagiography''?
09/10/03: Why do we call a zero score in tennis "love''?; "biannual'' or "semiannual''?; Is there any difference between "further'' and "farther''?; dilemma of using "dilemma''
09/02/03: "Out loud'' rather than "aloud''; "pushing the envelope''; "without rhyme or reason''
08/25/03: "Cheesy''; "hold a candle''
08/11/03: "Halcyon days''; Why isn't "sacrilegious'' spelled "sacreligious''?; "red light'' and "green light'' as expression — which came first, the inaction or the signals?
08/04/03: "Votive'' candles; "cosmeticizing"; "potluck''
07/28/03: Why ‘debt’ has a ‘b’ in it; "south moon under''; why "Rx'' is used for prescriptions
07/21/03: "Romance" & "Rome"?; punching & clocks; "conversate"
07/14/03: "Lukewarm''; Where did we get the word "wig'' for a fake head of hair?
07/09/03: Why doesn't "Arkansas'' rhyme with "Kansas''? ; "Catawampus"; "Jimmie Higgins work"
06/30/03: "Foozle"; author who wrote an entire novel without using a certain letter of the alphabet?; "kith and kin"
06/23/03: "On the fritz"; "knuckle down''
06/17/03: How did "lazy Susan'' come to be used for the rotating tray?; woolgathering'' as synonym for "idle daydreaming''; "in harm's way''
06/09/03: "Clotheshorse"; a god named "Ammonia"?
05/29/03: With kid gloves; "receipt'' = "recipe''?; from soup to nuts

© 2005 Merriam-Webster Inc.

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