Thing I Learned Today

I always thought that the little ball on a winter hat (or the things a cheerleader shook — I mean the ones that aren’t part of her anatomy) were called “pom-poms.” Turns out that’s not quite right.

They’re really called pompons — with an N at the end and no hyphen. A pom-pom is an anti-aircraft gun, circa WWII.

(Actually, “pom-pom” goes back farther than that, but the most common use was referring to ack-acks.)