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This week's theme Animal terms This week's words running dog Kilkenny cats stool pigeon charley horse guinea pig Give a gift that ... keeps on giving, all year long: A gift subscription of AWAD or give the gift of books Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day--stool pigeon stool pigeon (stool PIJ-uhn) noun 1. A person who works as a decoy or informer, especially for the police. 2. A pigeon used as a decoy. [Of uncertain origin: apparently from the former practice of tying decoy pigeons to a stool; possibly from French estale or estal which referred to a pigeon used to entice a hawk into a net.] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. "But (David Cooper) Nelson refused to identify the mysterious third party, saying, 'I'm no stool pigeon. I'd rather die than tell on the other fellow, a nice guy with a wonderful family.'" Richard Melzer; First Man to Die in State's Gas Chamber Was Convicted by Valencia County Jury; The News-Bulletin (Belen, New Mexico); Jun 18, 2004. "It's the onerous duty of this group to assess a stool pigeon's credibility, and then decide 'if it's in the public interest' to have that person testify." Nick Pron; Should Authorities Listen to the Jailhouse Talk?; The Toronto Star (Canada); Jun 2, 2002. This week's theme: expressions derived from pet animals. X-Bonus Never vote for the best candidate, vote for the one who will do the least harm. -Frank Dane

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