Word: lingo
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Wolff cited the team's need to play a tighter defense, to react faster to changes of possessions, and to take advantage of 6-on-5 penalty situations ("power plays" in hockey lingo) as some of the areas in need of improvement...
...death. "You know who's really busy making a real fortune?" Big Paul asked a crony. "(Expletive) Sparks. I don't get 5 cents when I go in there. I want you to know that. Shut the house this way if I don't get 5 cents." In Mob lingo, authorities speculate, he seemed to be warning that the restaurant would be closed if it did not start paying extortion money to the Gambino family...
Dunkin' Donuts? You betcha. The dozen students were caught up in a course on American lingo, an offering sponsored by the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program. Before their five weeks are up, those who enroll will study hundreds of words and phrases that are as easy as pie to the American on the street but off the wall to someone trained only in textbook English. Grass roots, for instance. And deejay. Far-out stuff like that...
...course concentrates on about 1,000 colloquialisms drawn from both scholarly sources (Gary Goshgarian's Exploring Language) and popular ones (Rolling Stone). It covers such categories as media talk (show biz, glitz), government lingo (lame duck, on the stump), business idioms (the fine print, three-martini lunch) and cocktail patter (networking, finger food, breaking the ice). The final exam: a mock bash at which students will knock down real cocktails, press the flesh and chat up guests...
Sandwiches even inspire a special lingo used by coffee-shop and deli personnel to relay orders to the sandwichmen behind the counter. Because pastrami can sound a lot like salami when shouted out in a busy, noisy dining room, it is known as "pistol." A "pistol with a shot" means that coleslaw will be added. If the cus- tomer wants his sandwich on rye toast, the waiter hollers "whiskey down." A pistol "dressed" indicates that Russian dressing is to be used, and anyone discovered eating pastrami that way in a New York delicatessen can expect to earn the sort...