thank-you-ma'am: M-W's Word of the Day

****************************************************************
Don't be a yutz! Check out the more than 4,000 new entries
in the Official SCRABBLE(R) Players Dictionary, Fourth Edition!
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?scrabdic.htm&3
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for August 17 is:

thank-you-ma'am \THANK-yoo-mam\ noun
: a bump or depression in a road; especially : a ridge or hollow made across a road on a hillside to cause water to run off

Example sentence:
"That night on the way home, thinking of his pleasant visit, he was suddenly shaken out of his tranquility ... when his touring car hit a 'thank-you-ma'am' in the unpaved road." (Hugh Manchester, _Centre Daily Times_ [State College, PA], August 22, 2000)

Did you know?
"Thank-you-ma'am" might seem like an odd name for a bump in the road, but the expression makes a little more sense if you imagine the motion your head would make as you drove over such an obstacle. Most likely, the jarring would make you nod involuntarily. Now think of the nodding gesture you make when you're thanking someone or acknowledging a favor. The "thank-you-ma'am" road bump is believed to have received its name when someone noted the similarity of those two head bobbing motions. It's a colloquialism particular to American English, and its earliest printed use is found in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1849 prose piece, _Kavanagh_: "We went like the wind over the hollows in the snow; -- the driver called them 'thank-you-ma'ams,' because they make every body bow."

You Are Subscribed As: [@--EMAIL--@]
To unsubscribe, change your e-mail address or to subscribe to the html
version of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, featuring audio
pronunciations, please visit:

http://www.startsampling.com/sm/wod/changeofaddress.iphtml

(c) 2006 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

Merriam-Webster, Inc.
47 Federal Street
P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102