"airplane flight which deprives travelers of sleep," 1968, from the red eyes of sleeplessness; earlier as a noun meaning "raw and inferior whiskey" (1819, Amer.Eng.).
by 1873 in legal cases; in modern use, generally a euphemism for "the coincidental killing of civilians," U.S. coinage, c.1968, at first generally with ref. to nuclear weapons.
1968, from commodity. Originally in Marxist political theory, "the assignment of a market value," typically to something the user feels ought not to have one.
originally U.S. basketball slang, 1980 as a noun, 1981 as a verb, though the greeting itself seems to be older (e.g. Dick Shawn in "The Producers," 1968).
"white wine and crème de cassis," 1966 (popular in U.S. 1980s), from Canon Felix Kir (1876-1968), mayor of Dijon, who is said to have invented the recipe.
"violet-blue gemstone," 1968, named by Henry B. Platt, vice president of Tiffany & Co., because the stone was discovered in the African nation of Tanzania.
1968, "in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence," named for (and by) Laurence Johnston Peter (1919-1990) Canadian-born U.S. educationalist and author, who described it in his book of the same name (1969).
in reference to the hypothetical cloud of small objects beyond Pluto that become comets, proposed 1949 by Du. astronomer Jan Hendrick Oort (1900-1992), and named for him by 1968.
1965, on model of racist, coined by Pauline M. Leet, director of special programs at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S., in a speech which was circulated in mimeograph among feminists. Popularized by use in print in Caroline Bird's introduction to "Born Female" (1968).
Cold War U.S.-U.S.S.R. nuclear weapons negotiations, 1968, acronym for "Strategic Arms Limitation Talks." The last element sometimes also is understood as treaty.
1504, in the legal sense of "one who outlives another," from survive. Meaning "one who has a knack for pulling through adversity" is attested from 1971. Survivor syndrome is first recorded 1968.
method of exercise and a fad in early 1980s, Amer.Eng., coined 1968 by Kenneth H. Cooper, U.S. physician, from aerobic (also see -ics) on the notion of activities which require modest oxygen intake and thus can be maintained.
derogatory word for "black person felt to have a 'white' mentality," 1968, black Amer.Eng., from the snack cookies, which consist of dark chocolate wafers and white sugar cream filling (hence "brown outside, white inside"). The cookies (made by Nabisco) date from 1912; the source of the name has been forgotten.
in astrophysics, 1968, probably with awareness of Black Hole of Calcutta, incident of June 19, 1756, in which 146 British POWs taken by the Nawab of Bengal after the capture of Ft. William, Calcutta, were held overnight in punishment cell of the barracks (meant to hold 4 people) and all but 23 perished.
1968, from pulse, the form on analogy of quasar. When discovered in 1967, they were thought perhaps to be signals from alien civilizations and astronomers informally dubbed them LGM for "Little Green Men."
"to quickly bow the head," late 14c., of unknown origin, probably an O.E. word, but not recorded; perhaps related to O.H.G. hnoton "to shake," from P.Gmc. *khnudojanan. The noun is first attested 1540. Meaning "to drift in and out of consciousness while on drugs" is attested from 1968.
zodiacal constellation, 1391, from L. scorpio "scorpion" (see scorpion). The meaning "person born under or ruled by the sign of Scorpio" is recorded from 1968.
trademark registered 1924 by Johnson & Johnson for a stick-on gauze pad or strip. The British equivalent was Elastoplast. Fig. sense of "temporary or makeshift solution to a problem, pallative" (often lower case, sometimes bandaid) is first recorded 1968; as an adj., from 1970.
chemical spray originally used in riot control, 1966, technically Chemical Mace, a proprietary name (General Ordnance Equipment Corp, Pittsburgh, Pa.), probably so called for its use as a weapon, in ref. to mace (1). The verb is first attested 1968.
1968, coined from work (n.) with second element abstracted absurdly from alcoholic, setting up the Rodney Dangerfield joke, "My old man was a workaholic: every time he thought about work, he got drunk."
1968, "inhalation of a marijuana cigarette or pipe smoke," U.S. slang, from earlier verb meaning "to smoke a marijuana cigarette" (1952), perhaps from Sp. tocar in sense of "touch, tap, hit" or "get a shave or part." In 19c. the same word in British slang meant "small piece of poor-quality bread," but this probably is not related.
1923, Amer.Eng., from high(way) + jacker "one who holds up." Originally "to rob (a bootlegger, smuggler, etc.) in transit;" sense of "seizing an aircraft in flight" is 1968 (also in 1961 variant skyjack), extended 1970s to any form of public transportation.
1942, child's word for "chamber pot," from pot (1). Potty-training is attested from 1958. Potty-mouth "one who uses obscene language" is student slang from 1968.
for the surname, see John. Phrase keep up with the Joneses (1913, Amer.Eng.) is from the title of a comic strip by Arthur R. Momand. The slang sense "intense desire, addiction" (1968) probably arose from earlier use of Jones as a synonym for "heroin," presumably from the proper name, but the connection, if any, is obscure.
1974, from Fr. rétro (1973), short for rétrograde, supposedly first used of a revival c.1968 of Eva Peron-inspired fashions (see retrograde). There is an isolated use in Eng. from 1768.