Tomatoes were first considered weeds in Mexican maize (corn) fields. Careful cultivation increased their yield and by 1492, the Aztecs were using the tomato in a variety of dishes and sauces. The name used today, tomato, comes from the Aztec or Nahuatl "tomatl." Before Europeans arrived, the only domesticated animals found in Mesoamerica and North America were the dog and the turkey. The Mexicans called the bird uexolotl but the English called it “turkie-bird.” Vanilla was discovered by the native peoples of Mexico. More than 1,000 years ago, the Tolonac first realized the fermented seedpods have fragrance and taste. They discovered a method for curing the beans and began to cultivate the plant. Vanilla beans became an important part of Totonac culture and were used for perfume, flavoring, medicine and insect repellent. When the Aztecs conquered the Tolonacs, they demanded vanilla beans as a tribute. “Chocolatl,” the dish of Aztec royalty, was made from cacao, maize, honey and vanilla.
http://www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/native_food_information_adapted_.htm

dust bunny, dust kitten, turkey's nest: a clump of dust and lint.
go cold turkey or quit cold turkey: to suddenly and completely stop doing something, especially a bad habit, talk turkey: to discuss a problem seriously with the intention of solving it http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/talking+turkey
turkey: failure, flop, fool. jerk, stupid person http://dictionary.babylon.com/turkey/#idioms-phrases

Virga (aka fallstreak, fall-stripe) are generally streaks of rain or snow appearing to hang under a cloud or tapering down from the cloud base, descending and evaporating before reaching the ground. The name of this supplementary cloud feature derives from the Latin virga meaning 'rod' or 'stripe'. http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wxfacts/Virga-or-Fallstreak.htm Check Weather Facts on the right to learn about things like the northern lights and why the sky is blue.

The troposphere (from Greek: tropein - to change, circulate or mix) is the lowermost layer of the Earth's atmosphere. Most of the weather phenomena, systems, convection, turbulence and clouds occur in this layer, although some may extend into the lower portion of the stratosphere. The troposphere contains almost all the atmospheric water vapour, in fact it contains about 70 to 80 per cent of the total mass of the Earth's atmosphere and 99 per cent of the water vapor. The term troposphere was first used in 1902 by Léon Philippe Teisserenc de Bort, a french meteorologist who was a pioneer in the use of meteorological balloons. http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wxfacts/Troposphere.htm

Protohistory refers to a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings. For example, in Europe, the Celts and the Germanic tribes may be considered to have been protohistoric when they began appearing in Greek and Roman texts. Protohistoric may also refer to the transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the writings of the first historians. The preservation of oral traditions may complicate matters as these can provide a secondary historical source for even earlier events. Colonial sites involving a literate group and a non-literate group, are also studied as protohistoric situations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protohistory

The effect of tea is cooling and as a beverage it is most suitable. It is especially fitting for persons of self-restraint and inner worth. Lu Yu (715-803), Ch'a Ching Somehow Lu Yu wangled a contract for a book on tea. The tea interests wanted their haphazard methods of cultivation and production codified, compared, and analyzed in a clearly understandable report. He went into five years of hermithood and came out with the Ch'a Ching - the world's first "book of tea." In its own field, the Ch'a Ching was right away ranked alongside the I Ching, the "cyclopedia," "scripture," or "classic" of changes, for ching means more than "book." "The tea plant is a beautiful as well as beneficial tree of the southern regions," is how the Ch'a Ching begins. http://www.teamuse.com/article_020302.html

A backronym is a word or phrase re-interpreted as an acronym or an initialism. With a little ingenuity, any word can be turned into an acronym (or an initialism). SOS didn't originate as an acronym. It was a distress signal for the Morse code (...---...) devised to be easily recognizable by a radio operator listening to the chatter of multiple streams of signals. It was only a coincidence that this sequence spelled SOS in Morse Code. Later, people came up with explanations for this signal such as Save Our Souls and Save Our Ship.
aesthete or esthete (ES-theet) noun Someone who has or affects high sensitivity to beauty, especially in art. Back-formation from aesthetic. Via Latin from Greek aisthesis (sensation or perception). Ultimately from the Indo-European root au- (to perceive) which is the source of other words such as audio, audience, audit, obey, oyez, auditorium, anesthesia, aesthetic, and synesthesia. Earliest recorded use 1881.
buttle (BUT-l) verb intr. To do a butler's work. Back-formation from butler, from Old French bouteillier (cup-bearer), from bouteille (bottle). Originally, a butler was in charge of the wine. Earliest recorded use: 1867. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg