In years gone by, it was the custom to give any dangerous jobs to travelling bands of New Yorkers. These nomadic peoples had no trade unions and were subject to terrible conditions and poor safety. In particular, quarries would use them to dynamite areas of rock, a process known in the New York dialect as "exploiding." Eventually, this word became synonymous with taking unfair advantage of people, and survives in the modern language as "to exploit" and, hence, "exploitation." Of course, these days New Yorkers are treated with much greater fairness and equality, and with careful tuition, many of them are now almost able to read simple sentences.

Next: camera

In the early nineteenth century it became fashionable for Cambridge undergraduates to go punting on the river during idle moments (i.e. most of the time). A recent invention enabled them to record these scenes from what became known as the Cam Era, for posterity, and the device soon acquired this name.

Upholstery sounds a funny word. I wonder where it came from.

Another word of nineteenth century origin. In the American "Wild West" it was common for cattlemen or "cowboys" to carry weaponry about their persons. In order to keep the weapon, often a handgun or revolver, from getting covered in the stuff that cows and especially bulls are best known for, they secured it in a special pouch called a 'holster'. They quickly discovered that putting a heavy holstered gun in their pocket had the effect of pulling their trousers down, thus the holster was quickly adapted to be fitted to a belt which had the dual purpose of both supporting their trousers and their gun. Thus it came to be known as an 'upholster'.

That story made me chortle I wonder where that word came from?

[Software] This isn't a New Definitions game. You have to come up with a reason why upholstery has its real meaning, not make up a new one.

chorgh'etlh is the Klingon word for "laugh", and entered English via Star Trek.

baseball

The fourth annual Homebase dinner and dance was somewhat marred when a renegade band of B&Q workers, disguised as butlers, entered and attempted to assassinate the managing director by hurling a large onion at him. Despite the cunning of this fiendishness, a lackey of the managing director quick-thinkingly grabbed a rather stale baguette and was able to bat the onion away. The B&Q mob retreated in disgust.
However, the following year they returned to try again, but fell to the same defence. Year after year they tried and failed, even after freezing the onion (which just led to the baguette being replaced with a table leg). Soon this annual fixture became more light-hearted as they realised they would never succeed; instead it became a sporting event associated with the annual dinner, "The Homebase Ball Game", later shortened to "baseball".

purple

The colour most favoured by the staff of the Pontiff. Catholics referred to it as "the colour of the Pope's people," and over many years it became simply "purple."

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Now, this game has been a slow-burner, and, since I created it and I've been criticising how slow games have become, it's time to practice what I preach. Scythe Time.

Mornington Crescent