Lexical Compendium
Wait... what is this? Sometimes I come across a word, phrase, idiom, quote, reference, bit of slang, person of interest, etc that either I don't know or I find amusing, interesting, etc. This is a collection of those items so that I can refer back to them in emails, texts, etc.
Recent Entries:
- 01 Jun 2025: Overton window
- 24 May 2025: 86
- 22 May 2025: habeas corpus
Tag Cloud
"There's nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?"
"...an effective plot must be 'unexpected but inevitable'..."
I came across this quote in the television series Mythic Quest. In that show, it was attributed to Aristotle, but I haven't been able to confirm this.
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References:
Date Added: Unknown
"Focus on the things that make your beer taste better"
A quote from Jeff Bezos during the 2008 YC Startup School.
Bezos made an analogy between AWS and breweries, at the turn of the 20th century when electricity had just been invented. These early breweries started generating their own power to leverage machines that ran on electricity. Soon, utility companies came along. Newer breweries that were able to just use electricity from the utility companies didn't have the capital expenses of the older breweries and were able to beat them.
I heard of this analogy from the Acquired podcast.
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References:
- YouTube: Footage from the '08 Startup School
- Acquired: The Playbook: Lessons from 200+ Company Stories
Date Added: Unknown
Date Modified: 29 May 2024
"...and she stepped on the ball."
My favorite line in the movie "Trading Places" is a reference to a joke in another movie called "Aunti Mame." In that movie, a rich and condescending woman tells a story about a ping pong game in which she "stepped on the ball."
In "Trading Places," this exchange takes place as Louis Winthorpe III, now disgraced, jobless and homeless, enters his tennis club in in hopes of getting help from his rich friends. As Louis enters the scene, we hear the end of a story being told by one of these friends to the rest of the gang, "...and she stepped on the ball." Louis, of course, discovers that his friends and even his fiancée want nothing to do with him.
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References:
- What do Kimmy Schmidt, Trading Places, & Auntie Mame have in common - Reel Memorable blog entry
- IMDB: Trading Places
Date Added: Unknown
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!"
From Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," a poem in "Through the Looking Glass."
The poem was about the capture and killing of a creature called the "Jabberwock" and is filled with many other nonsense terms.
The word "jabberwocky," itself, has come to mean something meaningless in writing.
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References:
Date Added: Unknown
"I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal, you sockdologizing old man-trap."
"I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal, you sockdologizing old man-trap" was delivered just before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 in the play Our American Cousin. The audience’s laughter at the joke provided the cover John Wilkes Booth needed to fire his shot.
Sockdologizing is 19th-century slang for something decisive, final, or conclusive, often referring to a telling blow in an argument or a finishing move.
The humor in the line comes from its exaggerated insult, aimed at a male character but framed in absurdly feminizing terms, culminating in man-trap, a term for a woman who ensnares men. To a 19th-century audience, this mix of ridicule and bombast landed as a sharp comedic moment.
I came upon this line while watching Manhunt.
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References:
- The context behind the fatal punchline that obscured the Lincoln assassination - Washington Post Op-ed
- Definition: sockdologer
- IMDB: Manhunt
Date Added: Unknown
Date Modified: 03 Feb 2025
"Mice lie and monkeys exaggerate."
Mice lie and monkeys exaggerate.
-- David B. Weiner, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Chair, Gene Therapy and Vaccine Program, CAMB Co-Leader Tumor Virology Program, Abramson Cancer Program University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine
Dr. Weiner coined this aphorism while musing on the use of NHP (nonhuman primates) in HIV vaccines studies at a conference in 2008. In essence, animal models aren't necessarily predictive of how drugs will work in humans.
The phrase is often used in research papers and by science journalists. I can't recall where I first heard it, but I thought of it recently when a friend shared a blurb about how rapamycin is purported to have anti-aging benefits in humans. Though there is no evidence for this in humans, there have been studies with the drug on mice that have found that they live ~12% longer.
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References:
- Transient rapamycin treatment can increase lifespan and healthspan in middle-aged mice
- Of Mice and Mike—An Underappreciated Ebola Virus Disease Model May Have Paved the Road for Future Filovirology
- Swine as biomedical animal model for T-cell research...
- Bluesky: @inmice.bsky.social - posts about scientific and news articles about medical results, IN MICE
- Twitter: @justsaysinmice - tweets about scientific and news articles about medical results, IN MICE
- AIDS vaccine researchers STEP up to the challenge
Date Added: 03 Oct 2024
Date Modified: 11 Dec 2024
"This sounds schemey. Redolent of thwart."
Something that the character Tom Wambsgans says in the television series "Succession," in Season 2, Episode 8.
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References:
Date Added: Unknown
Date Modified: 22 Jan 2025
"What ho! She bumps!"
I came across this bit of old-timey slang in the television show "The Artful Dodger." It means something like, "Wow! It works!"
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References:
Date Added: Unknown
Floyd Hole
In the Venture Bros episode "Perchance to Dean," Dr. Venture introduces Dean to progressive rock (including one of my favorites, King Crimson!). He leaves Dean and comes back later to find that he's fallen unconscious. Dr. Venture screams, "He's fallen into a Floyd Hole!"
The term "Floyd Hole," now refers to the act of losing track of time while consuming media.
For example, "It's already 4PM?? I fell into a Floyd Hole watching YouTube!"
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References:
Date Added: 05 Sep 2024
Date Modified: 12 Feb 2025
devour feculence
Devour feculence is a "big word" way of saying eat shit.
The phrase was used in S2E9 of the Apple TV+ show Severence. Earlier in the show, the character Mr. Milchick receives a performance review that criticizes him for "using too many big words." The character, played by Tramell Tillman, is black and works for Lumon Industries. Lumon is operated like a cult and, as such, it is a very oppressive environment for most employees. Tensions between Mr. Milchick and Mr. Drummond grow to a head and upon being asked to apologize for his use of large words, he replies with "devour feculence."
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References:
- IMDB: Severence
- Severence Wiki: Lumon Industries
- Definition: feculent
- Screen Rant blog on "devour feculence"
Date Added: 25 Mar 2025