Word: argot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...return to the raw purity of the early, "primitive" machine. On the other hand, motorcycle design in the '80s and '90s--especially in Japan--tended to enclose the machinery in baroque, forward-raked shells, bodywork that "floats" above the wheels and is loaded with sexual suggestion. Hence the argot for them: crotch rockets. What began as a proletarian vehicle (cheap transport for folks who couldn't afford a car) has turned into an expensive, deliberate body metaphor. The car may be your wife/husband, but the bike is your Fatal Lover, and there's no way around that: if it weren...
...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...