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Acid test for gold
Why do people say "lifeblood" instead of "blood"?
Because it’s harder to give dramatic stress to a monosyllable. But you can put
a lot of vocal resonance into the first syllable of LIFEblood. English vowels
are clipped. We don’t eeeeeeeeelongate them for emphasis so we add a syllable
instead.
acid test test
bargepole pole
beached whale whale
bedrock rock
birthright right
bombshell bomb
brickbats (thrown by critics) brick
end result result
epicentre centre
firebrand torch
grass
roots roots
hand
picked picked
head start start
kick start start
lifeblood blood
logjam jam
loophole hole
object
lesson (from 19th century teachers basing a lesson on an
object) lesson
pipe dream dream
pitfall trap, snare, snag
plug-ugly ugly
pole/meat/fire
axe axe
pole-axed stunned
postage stamp stamp
price tag price
quagmire swamp
ramrod poker
ring leader leader
road map map
role model model
route march march
scot free (scot means free) free
sea-change mutation
sheet
anchor anchor
skyrocket rocket (What’s a skyrocket
anyway? When we set off a firework, or visit outer space, it's a rocket.)
sledgehammer hammer
soapbox crate
spearhead head
straw poll poll
trip
hammer metronome
wellspring spring
whole
heap/load heap/load
wildfire napalm
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Bee lines
