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This Wooden Toy Has an Eyebrow-Arching Name

salouw
/
Shutterstock

The rude-sounding word for Friday, Dec. 20, names a toy that is not quite a marionette, inasmuch as it has only a single string. But the figure's jerky movements are quite the same.

NOTE: This is the final Naughty Etymology post for 2024. Your Queen will be off Dec. 23-27 and will be back in the Radioquarium on Dec. 30 for New Year's revelry.

jacqueline.gerber@ideastream.org | 216-916-7160