Ving, Vang, Vong
In an editorial subtitled "The Pleasures of a New Vocabulary," Verlyn Klinkenborg beautifully describes the thrill of picking up unfamiliar words while acquiring a new skill. Who knew that "scandalize" was a sailing term? (Okay, besides sailors.) It means "to make a sail smaller," and is an alteration of "scantelize," which may have something to do with "scant."
posted by Martha at 7:11 AM
1 Comments:
There actually was something called a "VingCard", which was a rectangular piece of brown plastic, about 1 1/2" x 2 1/2", with an irregular group of small holes in it (about 1/4" diameter).
Can you guess what its purpose was? It was used as a hotel room key, before the era of magnetic ones. I don't know how it worked.
I just googled and found that the VingCard apparently still exists by that name, though whether in a new form or not I don't know: See http://www.resortdata.com/RDPWin/newmodules/RoomKeyInterface/Room%20Key%20Interface%20Overview.htm .
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