Week in Words

By ERIN MCKEAN

Sesame Streets

benne

"Benne" is what sesame seeds are called in the Lowcountry, particularly in and around Charleston, S.C.

Benne comes from the Mende word "bene," "sesame." Mende is spoken by people who live in what is now Sierra Leone, and the word and the plant were brought into English by enslaved Africans.

Doughnut Diaspora

sufganiyot

But there are plenty of other foods in the fried universe. And increasingly, doughnuts—specifically, the Hanukkah-themed filled-donuts known as sufganiyot in Israel—are spreading to America as a kind of latke alternative.

According to the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, sufganiyot (sufganiyah is the singular) take their name from a root word meaning "sponge," from a kind of spongy dough referenced in the Talmud.

Killing Machines

barrel bomb

She added that U.S. officials also are concerned about a weapon known as a "barrel bomb," which Ms. Nuland described as "an incendiary bomb" that contains flammable materials. "It's sort of a napalm-like thing and is completely indiscriminate in terms of civilians, so very, very concerning, and indicative of the regime's desperation and the regime's brutality."

The term "barrel bomb" can also be used to describe any container filled with explosives or shrapnel, or both, intended to be dropped from aircraft, especially helicopters. When filled with explosives, the devices are also sometimes called TNT barrels.

Life Begins at 140

twoosh

He used all 140 characters (which makes retweeting him a bit annoying) to send it out to his 600,000 users, which is technically known as a "twoosh."

In addition to "twoosh," other Twitter-specific jargon includes "tweeple" or "tweeps" (the people who follow you on Twitter, usually in the phrase "my tweeps"), twitterature (tweets of a literary nature, especially tweet-length versions of classics) and "dweets" (drunken tweets).