Word: argot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...sudden surge in popularity? An RV is a classic '90s sensible luxury item. At the low end of the tow end, trailers start with a $3,000 folding-camper model. At the high end, $80,000 buys a luxury liner (a "fifth wheel" in RV argot) replete with mechanical slide-out rooms, ceramic kitchen tile and Whirlpool bath. And they fit nicely behind that other '90s sensible luxury item, the sport utility vehicle...
...magma cooks the rocky innards of Mount Rainier, it slowly helps turn them into unstable clay. At the same time this internal furnace corrodes the mountain from the inside, rain and melting snow have been softening it up from the outside. The result, in the surprisingly colloquial argot of the geologist, is a mountain gone "rotten." So rotten, in fact, that a mere seismic hiccup is all it would take to unleash an avalanche of mud on the homes below...
...been unable to find the right person for the job. Several of the people Reed has sounded out for help recently are holding out--for Powell. And Dole insiders wonder whether Dole would even listen to anyone new. As a senior adviser put it, in the classic campaign argot of nouns-as-verbs: "What good is a guru Dole isn't going to guru from...
...hard not to admire the professionalism of the Republican Party. It has fantastic "message discipline"--Washington argot for the ability to develop a party line ("We're not cutting Medicare, we're saving Medicare") and stick to it. Republicans are skilled at dressing plutocratic policies (such as a capital-gains-tax cut) in populist clothing. Above all, Republicans refuse to let mere principle get in the way of political victory. I'm not talking about universal principles such as truth and intellectual integrity. Both parties are adept at abandoning these trifles. But the Republicans have a special gift for putting...
...been unchanged since 1989, the first year statistics were kept. In 1979 Cowboys quarterback Roger ("the Dodger") Staubach retired after four concussions in one season, and Jets receiver Al Toon hung up his cleats in 1992 after 10 career concussions. N.F.L. players even have their own concussion-related argot. Mild blows are known as dingers or bell ringers (because players usually have a ringing in their ears), and a player who has suffered a severe hit is said to have been "sent to dreamland...