pinchbeck /pinsh-bek/. noun or adjective. An inexpensive copper alloy that looks like gold. A counterfeit or a sham. The word first appears in the 1500s referring to a miserly person, of unknown origin. But it reappears in the 1700s as the name of an alloy used by jeweler and watchmaker Christopher Pinchbeck to make inexpensive products with the appearance of gold, over time coming to be known generically as a synonym for cheap and/or spurious.
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WORD(S)
A cornucopia—a logocopia!—of awesome words.
gob
/GAWB/. noun. A lump or mouthful of something. Slang for the mouth. In mining: a seam or area emptied of valuable material and/or the waste material used to fill such an area back in.
fencing
actionable
/AC-shun-ə-bəl/. adjective. Something that can be used as the ground for legal action. More generally, something that can be acted upon or used as the basis for taking action.
Agnostic
/ag-NAW-stik/. noun. One who maintains that an answer, often to the question of the existence of God, is impossible to know with certainty.
gamification
/GAYM-ə-fə-CAY-shən/. noun. Bringing game mechanics to non-game activities and situtations.
Humble Pie
humble pie. noun. Metaphorically, the dish we eat when we have to admit we were wrong or retract a statement in humiliating fashion. I assumed the origin was humble as in not proud or of low origin, but it’s not! In fact, the humble in humble pie comes from umble pie, with umbles being the innards of an animal, usually a deer. In other words, a low-class food, allowing the punny humble pie to emerge. Umbles itself comes from the Middle English numbles (offal).
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