home — noun

A structured investment vehicle.

I think the Inland Empire needs an agricultural adjustment company. If you remember, Roosevelt recognized - I think somewhat incorrectly - that if we had to plow crops under in order to be able to raise the price of crops. ...

We need to like plow over the Inland Empire, because there's so many more homes. And the homebuilders have way too much inventory. -- Jim Cramer

humility – noun

The inability to articulate one's feelings of superiority over others.

humanitarian intervention – noun

The slaughter of tens of thousands to prevent the slaughter of thousands.

hope – noun

An idle wish that the future, contrary to the laws of induction, be less wretched than the past and present.

history - noun

1. The inertia from past events that renders the future's course inalterable.

2. Archaic A once popular branch of fiction about past events.

3. (By extension) Something not worth reading or discussing.

USAGE: That’s going back in history. I don’t remember the details of it.

heckuva - adjective

Slang Abominable, loathsome, execrable.

homeland – noun

A nation with delusions of moral, political and racial grandeur.

hero - noun

A telegenic person who becomes the protagonist in a media narrative about individual courage.

human rights - noun

1. The negotiable requests of human dignity.

2. Fundamental freedoms that are forgotten when not needed and ignored when needed.

3. Basic liberties whose public proclamation and private violation are essential to national security.

This debate is occurring because of the Supreme Court's ruling that said that we must conduct ourselves under the Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention. And that Common Article 3 says there will be no outrages upon human dignity. That's, like, very vague. What does that mean? "Outrages upon human dignity." That's a statement that is, uh, wide open to interpretation.— George W. Bush

hedge fund – noun

A charitable trust that pairs super-wealthy families with ambitious brokers seeking to be adopted.

COMMENT: An adopted broker becomes a three-and-thirty heir.

humane – adjective

Not quite human.

USAGE: Guantanamo Bay is a humane place for enemy combatants.

high value target – noun

A wanted suspect in the War on Terror whose playing card is a strong kicker in Texas Hold 'Em.

homicide bomber - noun

A person who uses an explosive device to kill n + 1 people (n being the number of people he kills other than himself).

habeas corpus - noun

Law - a writ requiring a suspect to be brought before a court, so that his torture may be legally sanctioned.

[Origin: Latin: lit., "have the body (so that it may be tortured)."]

COMMENT: As the Latin of the phrase suggests, this is an outmoded legal protocol that has fallen into disuse. The courts have ceded their authority over torture as a violation of the constitutional separation of powers and as a wartime inefficiency.