Atmospheric River

This phrase has been popularized of late. It refers to a weather system that is bringing lots of precipitation. It's like a river of water but in the sky or atmosphere. It's what we once referred to as a rain storm or rainy weather. An extended period of rain.

Citizens in western British Columbia are concerned about flooding due to an Atmospheric River heading towards the Province.

4👍 2👎

Artisan Greens

The term "Artisan Greens" has lately been showing up on restaurant and pub menus. e.g. "Artisan Green Salad" or as an ingredient "artisan greens, pumpkin seeds..." or in place of the word salad simply "Artisan Greens". The word is primarily used as an embellishment for the word "salad" by the restaurant industry. At some point in time, the price charged for salads could no longer be justified and the industry came up with "Artisan Greens". So now , for example, "Artisan Greens" is used to convince consumers that they are getting an artistic and gourmet specialty dish prepared by a master chef that is worth the exorbitant price charged. Also, the price charged for "Artisan Greens" is often written simply as a number without the dollar sign and without zeros. e.g. "Artisan Greens - 12". This further convinces people of the gourmet and artistic nature of the dish and obscures the actual price.

Patron: " Do you have a side salad I can order?"
Waitress: "I have Artisan Greens that you can order as a side dish for 12"

Uptick

Uptick was especially popularized during the Covid era and essentially means an increase in number of a particular statistic or measure. It is often accompanied or by a graph or visual representation of the reported increase. The media, in particular, seem to be fond of using this term.

During the second wave of the pandemic there was an uptick in the number Covid cases being reported.

Best Practices

This phrase is most commonly used by larger public institutions and corporations to describe what they believe to the best way of doing a particular task or providing a particular service. The phrase assumes that there is one best way to do something all the time and in any given situation. It is unclear if "Best Practices" is based on empirical research or if it is just some employee or middle-manager's armchair theory of what works best. In short, " Best Practices" is basically someone's set of guidelines for doing something. However the term "Best Practices" sounds more professional and has an air of authority and legitimacy to it that was lacking in the word "guidelines".

Project Manager: "I have to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the CIO of our company"

Co-worker: Have you consulted the Best Practices PDF for giving PowerPoint presentations?"