Unique words and phrases I’ve collected over the years in my reading.
like a blind dog in a meat market
- Going wild, out of control
I don’t recall where I read this phrase, but it immediately stuck because of its strong visual description. I will use it to (somewhat accurately) describe my boys at times.
I did some digging and it seems like it was in use for well over a century, but the origin is unknown.
yak shaving
- Small, tedious tasks you need to complete in order to make progress on your real project
The term Yak Shaving originated in the 1990’s, capturing the frustrating work that you need to do before you can actually do your work. This exists in all domains, but is especially relevant in programming; you follow the instructions to install something which requires installing something else, which breaks something else … until hours later you’re frustrated and have completely forgot what you were originally trying to do.
Here’s a real-life example:
My wife asks for a coffee. Of course I say yes!
Wife asks what I’m doing. “Making coffee, what does it look like!”
This might be extreme, but I find it happens frequently, so happy Yak Shaving 🙃
P.S. Here is a classic video on Yak Shaving from Malcolm in the Middle.
kayfabe
- Portraying staged events as real, especially in professional wrestling
Although this is primarily a wrestling term, I think it is a great word to bring into general use. You can read more about it on Wikipedia
It brings to mind the story of Builder.ai – a lauded AI startup that sold an AI solution for creating apps and was valued at $1.5 Billion dollars, but actually just had 700 developers in India working behind the scenes. I guess in this case another term would just be fraud.
Flâneur
- One who strolls aimlessly
- An idle, gossiping saunterer
- An affluent urban male walking the city without agenda
- Connoisseur of the street
I was introduced to the idea of a flâneur by Nassim Taleb in his book Anti-fragile (and his subsequent tweets about flaneuring around New York).
Although I am by no means a flâneur, I am trying to do this more, walking without an agenda or destination; it is quite a challenge for my type A personality.
Rat head duck neck*
- When an official group (government, corporation etc.) proclaim that one thing is the truth, despite the fact that everyone knows it not to be true.
I learned about this phrase when reading about Chinese internet slang (sadly I can’t find the article). In 2023 a student at a college in China found a rat head in the cafeteria meal, but officials announced that it was actually a “duck neck”.
This phrase is most relevant when an organization or group tightly controls the dissemination of information – so sadly, we may be using it more.
* Yes, its more than one word, but “Word of the Day” sounds better than “Word or Phrase of the Day”
Like a blind dog in a meat market*
- Running around completely out of control
I don’t recall where I heard this phrase, but it immediately stuck. I think it’s because it sometimes accurately describes my children (especially the youngest).
* Yes, its more than one word, but “Word of the Day” sounds better than “Word or Phrase of the Day”
As I read books and articles, I have a habit of saving unique words (or phrases) that I like. I’ll be sharing them here on occasion, so you too can sound smart at dinner parties.
Pettifogger
- Someone who quibbles over minor details.
I think I like this word so much because I can be a pettifogger at times. Unfortunately this is a trait my sons have inherited; if I say the time is 7:30 and its only 7:29, I will be corrected 🤦