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quash
Pronounced: kwash, verb Notes: To my surprise, this didn’t mean what I thought it meant Yesterday’s phrase The phrase Scarborough warning means “a very short notice or no notice” First usage Our phrase came into English in the mid-1500s Background / Comments Our phrase is named after the UK coastal town of Scarborough, although it…
Scarborough warning
Pronounced: SKAR-buh-ruh war-ning Notes: A phrase I didn’t know Yesterday’s word The word per contra means First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1500s Background / Comments Our word comes from Italian, where it means “by the opposite side of the ledger”. A Franciscan friar and mathematician named Luca Pacioli (a friend of…
per contra
Pronounced: purr-KAHN-truh, adv Notes: I didn’t know this word, but you may be able to guess the meaning Yesterday’s word The word mensch means “a decent, upright, honorable person” First usage Our word came into English in the 1910s Background / Comments Our word is a Yiddish word; it comes from mentsh (man, human being),…
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Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 