Ten Things You Might Not Know About Obscure Words-- Part 2

2.  Here's one that I can really relate to: AFTERISM:  You won't find it in many dictionaries, but the word means a clever retort that you come up with too late.  The French refer to it as "staircase wit (l'espirit de l'escaller).  (Is this where we get escalator from?)    And, I have had some REAL Good Retorts, too.  Hey, Up the Down Staircase.

3.  Auto-Carriage-Speak.  The BROUGHAM was a horse-drawn carriage-- and early automobile model with an enclosed passenger compartment and exposed driver's seat.    The PHAETON, named after the out-of-control chariot driven by the son of the Greek sun god, was a carriage or auto with or without a cloth canopy.  Not to be confused with the CABRIOLET or the DROPHEAD COUPE, two early names for the convertible.

4.  You may have wondered about the that little grooved place between your nose and upper lip.  That's your PHILTRUM.  Adolf Hitler had a philtrum mustache that also can be called a toothpaste mustache.  So did Charlie Chaplin.

I Always Called Them Ragtops.  --Cooter