Greetings:
I have enjoyed reading messages in the various forums, and am submitting my contribution.
Guide Word Phrases
from Webster’s II, New College Dictionary, 2001 (Houghton Mifflin)
ancillary—anesthesia: a rubber mallet in case the drugs don’t work.
burglar—bursary: where it seems a lot of our taxes go.
census—centripetal force: trying to keep track of the kids while going around in circles.
convergent evolution—convulse: reaction to the realization that god didn’t make every little thing just so.
crystal ball—cud: seeing that the future will be the same old thing.
deductible—defense: tax write-off for the bombs and tanks.
ecstatic—editor: one who receives perfect copy on a scoop.
floral—fluctuate: changing the plants in the window box.
gemütlich—generosity: happily giving everything away.
hoggish—holiday: New Orleanians keeping a fun thing all to themselves.
holier-than-thou—Holy Week: for the ones who don’t approve of fun things.
howling—humanity: the crowd at Starbuck’s (coffee house) at 7:50 a.m.
inferiority complex—inflorescence: coming out of your shell.
intentional—interface: deliberately allowing communication to actually take place.
jailbird—jaunt: got only as far as the road.
kiwi—knobkerrie: a small club to squash birds or fruit.
ladies’ man—Lamarckian: like father, like son.
melodramatic—Mendelian: wringing your hands while waiting to find out if yours will be the one in four.
misanthropic—misfortune: being shipwrecked on a desert island, with the all of the ship’s passengers and crew.
mukluk—multiped: shoeing the dogsled team.
nicotinic—nihilism: nothing matters anyway so why not smoke.
outlive—outspend: what the kids are going to do.
personal computer—pervasive: indeed!
perverse—petition: the so-called “Defense of Marriage” act.
plastic—platoon: those green toy soldiers.
preschool—presidential: INDEED!
quag—quantum: It’s just one thing after another.
quintuplet—quoth: wa-wa-wa-wa-wa
Received Pronunciation—reciprocity: I say, you pronounce my wuds the way I like, and I’ll pronounce yoors the way you like. Cheerio.
renewedly—repel: what you keep doing to that blasted fly.
resegregation—resistance: no, we are NOT going back to that.
retroactive—revelation: god meant “celebrate” not “celibate.”
revelatory—revisionism: June 1978, OK, blacks CAN join the Mormon priesthood after all.
sacramental—safe sex: god didn’t mean go forth and overmultiply. . .
sentient—septum: the nose knows.
slipped disk—slow: if you have one, you will be.
slow burn—slush fund: what you do when you find out they have one.
slut—smeary: <oh yuk, but I couldn’t resist>
subjective—subordinate: stop worrying, you only think you’re inferior.
superlunary—suppliant: now you want the stars, too?
takedown—tales: a wrestler’s stories.
tequila—ternary: three strikes and you're out.
Triple Crown—trivia: stats for the last 20 years.
unconquerable—underclothing: the medieval chastity belt.
unintelligent—universality: everyone else “out there.”
variant—vasectomy: using scissors instead of a scalpel.
verdict—vernier: what the scales of justice need sometimes.
wraparound—write: when there’s no more room at the bottom of the page and you start up the side.
xanthene—x-ray tube: <I tried. . . YOU think of something>
yokel—yuck: what the city folk think of the country folk.
zodiacal light—Zr: A faint and hazy cone of light; lustrous, strong, and grayish-white.
rainbow
