excoriate \ek-SKOR-ee-ayt\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To express strong disapproval of; to denounce. 2 : To tear or wear off the skin of.

"Most women would excoriate me for risking my baby's life this way. In another ...Read More

With the help of Tom Dalzell's deliciously wicked book "The Slang of Sin" (Merriam Webster, $20), let's smoke out the origins of slang terms for marijuana.

"Reefer" first appeared in the popular song "Reefer Man," ...Read More

autodidact \aw-toh-DY-dakt\ (noun) - One who is self-taught.

"It was the abstract, acidulous work of an autodidact who had previously made a series of unusual contributions to various marginal and rarefied branches of ...Read More

spoony \SPOO-nee\ (adjective) - 1 : Foolish; silly; excessively sentimental. 2 : Foolishly or sentimentally in love.

"They were real spoony on me, but I wasn't spoony on them one bit, Eliza, at least, not in my heart, ...Read More

temerity \tuh-MER-uh-tee\ (noun) - Unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger; rashness.

"Then, he had the temerity, the ivory-tower temerity, if I may be so bold, as to suggest that there are younger, and less well-...Read More

rapine \RAP-in\ (noun) - The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of another's property by force.

"Let us look again upon mankind: interest is stull the ruling motive, and the world is yet full of fraud and ...Read More