British Word of the Day

Japanese poppet

pop·pet

noun /ˈpäpət/
poppets, plural

A mushroom-shaped valve with a flat end piece that is lifted in and out of an opening by an axial rod


A small figure of a human being used in sorcery and witchcraft


An endearingly sweet or pretty child or young girl (often used as an affectionate form of address)

'The owner of this house kindly allows me the run of his cellars.'
She took another sip.  'He must be a poppet--I should like to meet him.'--The Little Dragon

When I was thinking over acceptable endearments this week I got the chance to read up on what terms other languages use.  They seemed rootless and weird to me until I spent a nano-second thinking on our own.  'My little cabbage' ('mon petit chou') is just another one of those crazy French-isms right up until one is modestly asked to consider 'sweetpea' or 'home skillet' or 'honeybun'.  And I love poppet.
We don't use poppet in the van Voorhees home.  We use Goob.