Reading the entire dictionary front to back! We’re wrapping up the letter B with an odd assortment, all centered around… the brain!

We start this section with some supernatural fun. Bogey is defined as a “specter” or “hobgoblin” or a “source of fear or annoyance.” (The golf score is also included.) This is followed by bogeyman, which is “an imaginary monster used in threatening children.” That seems kind of specific, but I guess it works.

A booby is “an awkward foolish person.” There’s no other definition. Nothing else that word could mean, certainly.

Bovine is, appropriately, “having the qualities or characteristics of cows or oxen.” And then there’s bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which is just “mad cow disease.” Once again, I wonder about the meeting the editors had where they decided this absolutely had to be included.

The brain gets an unusually wordy definition, “the part of the vertebrate central nervous system enclosed in the skull and continuous with the spinal cord that is composed of neurons and supporting structures and is the center of thought and the nervous system control, also a centralized mass of nerve tissue in an invertebrate.” You’d think (heh) the “center of thought” part would be the most important, but the dictionary makes it sound like one part of a bigger brainy whole.

Brain drain is not just getting dumb, but “the departure of educated or professional from one country sector or field to another, usually for better pay or living conditions.” I don’t recall ever hearing the phrase used in this context.

Some interesting wording for broccoli, “the stems and immature usually green and purple flower heads of either of two garden vegetable closely related to the cabbage.” Is this really helpful for anyone who for some reason might want more information about broccoli?

A brownie is a small chocolate cake, a type of Girl Scout, or “a legendary cheerful elf who performs good deeds at night.” What’s odd is that this is the first definition, before the other two. I’d thought that the most common definition always comes first, but maybe the rule is the oldest comes first?

Brunette is “having brown or black hair,” as we all know, but the dictionary says this only applies to females. The male version is brunet. Is this commonly used among hairstylists and the like?

A bug is “an insect or other creeping and crawling invertebrate animal.” Somebody at the dictionary just had to get their version of “creepy-crawly” in there. But then it gets weirder with the next definition, which is “any of an order of insects with sucking mouthparts and incomplete metamorphosis.” The unspoken message on the part of the dictionary writers seems to be “aren’t bugs gross?”

I wouldn’t have guessed that bunghole would make it into the dictionary, but there it is. It’s defined as “a hole for emptying or filling a cask.” I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it used in other contexts.

The Bs conclude with Byzantine, which is either relating to the ancient Byzantium empire, or “intricately involved and often devious.” What was going in old Byzantium where it earned this kind of reputation?

Next: Let’s everybody get cartilaginous!

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