By ERIN MCKEAN
Getting Your Goat
wether
What kind of animal was this? A kid, wether or doeling is good. A nanny or billy goat—also called a buck—means it could be tough and gamey.
—”Cooking & Eating: Get Your Goat On,” Off Duty, Feb. 4
A wether is a castrated goat (or sheep); it’s probably related to a Latin word for “calf.” A doeling is a young female goat that has not been bred.
Sound Generation
echo boomers
One way builders have been trying to do that is by “right-sizing” their homes, or building smaller, more efficient dwellings that are more appealing to the supposedly more urban-minded and environmentally conscious young buyers, who are referred to as “Generation Y” or the “echo boomers.”
—
“Builder Economists Push Back the Bottom of the Housing Market…Again,” Developments blog, WSJ.com, Feb. 8
Echo boomers (so-called because their parents were baby boomers) are also known as “Millennials” or “Generation Next” and are usually considered to include those born in the 1980s.
Skeleton Crew
osteoclast
The drugs target a protein called RANK Ligand, which helps regulate cells called osteoclasts that break down bone.
—”FDA Panel Votes Against Expanding Use of Amgen Drug Xgeva,” WSJ.com, Feb. 8
The word osteoclast comes from Greek roots meaning “bone” and “break”—it’s the same “-clast” as in “iconoclast.” Other less-common -clast words include mythoclast (someone who destroys myths), genuclast (a medical instrument for breaking knee-joint adhesions) and bioclast (a piece of shell or a fossil in a sedimentary rock).
Winning at Squash
mirliton
That last item can be replaced by a serrano; the mirliton squash (also known as a chayote) can be swapped for bitter melon varietals.
—”Reconsider: Frito Pie: The Tailgaters’ Favorite Gone Frou-Frou,” Off Duty, Feb. 4
The word mirliton comes from a French word for a kazoo-type flute, although the squash itself is often called a “christophene” in France. It is also pronounced as “mella-ton.”
—Ms. McKean is a lexicographer and the founder of Wordnik, an online dictionary focusing on how words are used today.