Hey Wordsmyths! This game looks like fun.
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the winners:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2 Ignoranus : A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxicaton : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future
6. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid..
7. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon : It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido : All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
I've read several of these lists; they're always hilarious.
SANG-FROID (taken from Anu's list of words for the week.)
F > D
SANG-DROID (pronounced
saang drwa) A cool droid that has already sung.
My all-time favorite among these, for sheer economy of expression, is
IGNORANUS - a stupid asshole
I don't know, wolfman, the emailed copy wasn't dated.
Today's word:
MELANCHOLY minus L
MEANCHOLY: Mood sublimation for people too mean to cry.
MELANCHOLY
l-->V
MELANCHOVY -- cantaloupe with fish (pesca con melon)
And in answer to my own question: It depends. Anywhere from 2008 to 2010, or maybe even 1998.
See for yourself.
No matter.
In point we might have fun creating our own changed words list using Anu's weekly words; doncha think?
Well I will nonetheless. Here's another...
SEMINAL L > T
SEMINAT : a short gnat.
SEKINAL -- a sleeping pill for the orthograhically challenged, a.k.a. Red Devil
Monday's word: SILHOUETTE
add S
silhousette: A flat house without any rooms
and I would add that it's a small house. ;¬ )
Today's word
CASANOVA
Change C to N
NASANOVA - the name of a nearby star in nova discovered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The X-rays produced by the star's exposion will reach Earth on 4-1-13 at 1:02 CDT and sterilize the Earth of all lifeforms bigger than a bug. Good-bye.
CASANORA -- Title of classic Ibsen play, when it opened in Madrid
CATANOVA - exploding felines? or just a new cat?
Today's Word:
ZANTIPPEZ > P
PAN-TIPPE: a vile, henpecking, dominating, high and mighty, loathsome, ugly, gasping, ill-tempered woman. In other words, an all-inclusive nag.
XANTHIPPY - Socrates' wife is getting a bit large in the beam, isn't she?
XANTHIPPO - an African herbivore that's large and yellow and lives mostly in the water
Todays's word:
SHRAPNEL
add E
SHERAPNEL: a powder explosive without balls.
STRAPNEL - I heard that starting next week you won't be able to buy ladies' garments any more with anything to keep them on your shoulders...
meaning they will be going topless??
Today's word:
DON JUANAdd T
DON'T JUAN - a Don Juan who lacks romantic skills.
add "U"
DONUT JUAN
a cop on break
DON YUAN -- Head of the Chinese Mafia; specialty is money laundering
or even DON JOAN -- the Maid of Orleans gets no respect
DONNA & WANDA
or
DONA & JUANA
combatants in arms in the New Military of the USA
Bill Mauldin style.
Maudlin?
Anu's Word of the Day:
OVERMORROW: the day after tomorrow
> T
OVERTMORROW: a tomorrow that will answer it all
Just a quick response to the Tsonga word Rhwe. I ran the word by a friend who is a Tsonga translator from South Africa (Tsonga is his native language). He told me he is unfamiliar with that word. So, Word.A.Day, you are correct.
AWAD 16 January: SALIVATE
>T
SALTIVATE: to go dormant while there are condiments on the table.
SALIVOTE - How mucha you gimme to picka your candidate?
SALICATE - to coat with aspirin
SALIVASE - to put salt in the flower display container
SALIRATE - No, Mr Maglie, I know you're angry but please don't bean me with that baseball!
SALINATE - to spit salt water. No, wait a minute...
Anu's Word of the Day:
FILIPENDULOUS
F > M
MILIPENDULOUS - the thinnest thread that one can hang onto, i.e. a mil.
Today's word: paresthesia or paraesthesia
PRONUNCIATION: (par-uhs-THEE-zhuh, -zhee-)
MEANING: noun: A sensation of pricking, tingling, burning, etc. on the skin.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek para- (at, beyond) + aisthesis (sensation or perception). Ultimately from the Indo-European root au- (to perceive)
____________________________________________________
Presto-Change-o
A>S
PARAESTHESIS: - a thesis on intuitive perceptions
PARENTHESIA - My Mom and Dad are so unfeeling...
BARASTHESIA - It's so cold in the bathroom I can't even feel the toilet when I sit down!
Incidentally, PARESTHESIS is actually a variant spelling for -ESIA. But I like your definition better!
Today's word:
armscye or
armseye PRONUNCIATION:(AHRM-sy, -zy)
MEANING:noun: An opening in a garment for attaching a sleeve; an armhole.
ETYMOLOGY:From arm, from Old English earm + scye (armhole), from Scottish, reanalyzed as arm's eye.
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add F
FARMSEYE: an old decrepit dog who barks bloody murder when strangers come around. And to him anything that moves is a stranger.
ARTSEYE - Undergraduates' shorthand for one of the three major branches of learning, renamed to make it comparable to the other two. Thus we have Natural Sciences (NatSci), Social Sciences (SocSci), and Art Sciences, (formerly "Humanities," now ArtSeye).
{Speaking of Barasthesia - does it work any better if we call it the outhouse instead of the bathroom?) /guffaw
Today's word: onomastics
PRONUNCIATION:(on-uh-MAS-tiks)
MEANING: noun: The study of proper names or of terms used in a specialized field.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek onomastikos (of names), from onomazein (to name), from onoma (name). Earliest documented use: 1904.
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insert -> K
ONOMASTICKS- a stack of sticks named after themselves.
Or--
ohnomastic: the instant you realize you've bitten down on something you shouldn't have. Cousin to the ohnosecond.
OBOMASTICS -- definitely NOT a Teflon President !
(Feel free to attach whatever bias appeals to you. )
OBOMASTICS: Obama's tics. - Oddly Oboma doesn't twitch when a fly lands on his face, nor does he twitch when he is telling the truth. Oboma twitches a lot.
Anu's Word of the Day:
impetuous PRONUNCIATION:
(im-PECH-oo-uhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Marked by impulsiveness or impatience.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin impetus (assault, impetus), from impetere (to attack), from in- (in) + petere (to go to). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pet- (to rush or fly).
______________________________________________
umpetuous: combining form of "um"and "petuous" i,e. hesitant but overeager.
IMPETUONS - Sub-atomic particles that behave however they want to, without thinking of the consequences. These so-called "Devil particles" function as "God anti-particles:" when an Impetuon and a Higgs Boson collide, they vanish in mutual annihilation, releasing monstrous amounts of energy...
Yes! That's it.
Who's side you on, Wolf, the devil's or the god who is anti-god?
Anu's Word of de Day: uxorious
PRONUNCIATION:
(uk-SOHR-ee-uhs)
MEANING:adjective: Excessively devoted or submissive toward one's wife.
ETYMOLOGY:From Latin uxor (wife). The feminine counterpart of this word is maritorious. Earliest documented use: 1598.
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Change O to B
UXORIBUS: Excessively devoted to one's mobile home.
etymologically speaking, that should be something like winnebagious..
Very funny, tsuwm.
And furthermore, the word winnebagious though bogus wouldn't be ambiguous.
Tuxorious
dealers in clothing to men about to wed their uxor.
EXORIOUS: refuses to accept that the divorce actually went through
UXODIOUS: so repellant as to cause vomiting
...s t r e t c h.
Word of this day:
implacable PRONUNCIATION:
(im-PLAK-uh-buhl, -PLAY-kuh-)
MEANING: adjective: Impossible to pacify or appease.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin placare (to quiet or appease). Ultimately from the Indo-European root plak- (to be flat), which is also the source of fluke, flake, flaw, plead, please, supple, supplicatory, and archipelago. Earliest documented use: 1522.
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C > Y
IMPLAYABLE: When International Business Machine's new 2013 CD player had no sales they dropped the B from their acronym because of lack of business.
Word of the day: cantankerous
PRONUNCIATION:
(kan-TANG-kuhr-uhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Difficult to deal with: ill-tempered, quarrelsome.
ETYMOLOGY:
Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Middle English contak (contention). Earliest documented use: 1736.
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insert H
CANTHANKEROUS: easy to deal with: pleasingly-tempered, thankful.
Add an M = Mantankerous
We all know one of these...
FANTANKEROUS
- - Justin Bieberite
CANCANKEROUS -- The chorus line has venereal disease ?
CANCUNKEROUS
vacationers obsessed with the same Mexican vacation spot
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg impudent
PRONUNCIATION:
(IM-pyuh-duhnt)
MEANING:adjective: Marked by offensive boldness.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin im- (not) + pudere (to make or be ashamed) which also gave us pudibund (prudish), pudency (modesty), and pudeur (a sense of shame). Earliest documented use: 1386.
_______________________________________________________
add > W
WIMPUDENT: mealy-mouthed offensive boldness.
IMPUDON'T
forbidden peccadillos (loosely translated, "Get away from here, you young scamp!")
Monday's word: pteridology
PRONUNCIATION:(ter-i-DOL-uh-jee)
MEANING: noun: The study of ferns.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek pterido (fern) + -logy (study). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pet- (to rush or fly), which also gave us feather, petition, compete, perpetual, propitious, pinnate, and lepidopterology. Earliest documented use: 1855.
______________________________________________
Insert E
PETERIDOLOGY: noun The study of Peter (singular).
petrineodology, the scuttlebutt about who will be the next Pope,
called the throne of Peter the first pope.
Today's word: knacker
PRONUNCIATION:
(NAK-uhr)
MEANING: noun: 1. A person who buys old, sick, or worn-out animals for slaughter.
2. A person who buys old buildings, ships, etc. to break them up for scrap.
verb tr.: To tire out.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably of Scandinavian origin. Earliest documented use: 1574.
_________________________________________________________
Drop the useless K, add the curvy S.
SNACKER: a sneaky fat person
knackers is also Brit-slang for testicles.
knackers is also Brit-slang for testicles.
Thanks Buffalo.
A --> O
KNOCKERS:
American slang: boobs, a pair of
Today's word: gnathic
PRONUNCIATION:
(NATH-ik)
MEANING:
adjective: Of or relating to the jaw.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek gnathos (jaw). Ultimately from the Indo-European root genu- (jawbone, chin), which is also the source of chin, prognathous , and Sanskrit hanu (jaw). Hanuman (literally, having a large jaw) is the name of a monkey god in the Hindu
pantheon. Earliest documented use: 1882.
_________________________________________________________
insert C
GNATCHIC: a gnat who is gnattily dressed.
GNASHIC
Have the qualaity of being very annoying.
GNASHIC
Have the qualaity of being very annoying.
Inspirational, RC. Why couldn't I gnaw out a clever word like "gnashic"?
Oh well I am me and you are you...damnit.
jj, I'm dead conventional - you're insperaitional: we make a great pair!
What a nice thought. Oh heck, I forgot...it's Valentine's Day.
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg: chthonic
PRONUNCIATION:
(THON-ik)
MEANING:
adjective: Of or relating to the underworld.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek chthon (earth). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also sprouted human, homicide, humble, homage, chameleon, chamomile, inhume, exhume, and Persian zamindar (landholder). Earliest documented use: 1882.
__________________________________________________________
Change C to E
EHTHONIC: an expression people use when told how to pronounce "chthonic". viz. Eh? thonic?
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg wraith
PRONUNCIATION:
(rayth)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A ghost.
2. An apparition of a person supposed to appear just before that person's death.
3. An insubstantial copy of something: shadow.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Scottish. Earliest documented use: 1513.
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Remove R
WAITH : a patient ghost.
PRAITH - commendatiion from someone with a lisp.
Nary a BRAITHleft in him,so we must bury him.
WRADITH - a small, round, sharp-tasting garden root vegetable, about an inch in diameter, red on the outside and white in the thenter.
Anu's Word: spoonerism
PRONUNCIATION: (SPOO-nuh-riz-em)
MEANING: noun: The transposition of (usually) the initial sounds of words producing a humorous result. For example:
"It is now kisstomary to cuss the bride." (Spooner while officiating at a wedding)
"Is the bean dizzy?" (Spooner questioning the secretary of his dean)
ETYMOLOGY: After William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), clergyman and educator, who was prone to this. Earliest documented use: 1900.
_____________________________________________________________
change N to K
SPOOKERISM: When a spooner-prone spook says "phoo" instead of "boo" and then wonders why no one is afraid.
SLOOTHERISM: The work of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.
SCHOONERISM - the tendency of some peopke to drink their sherry in overlarge glasses.
...how could we pass up
SPOONERISM --> SNOOPERISM - surveillance gone wild !
SOONERISM: Belief in the existence of Oklahoma
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg malapropism
PRONUNCIATION:(MAL-uh-prop-iz-ehm)
MEANING:
noun: The humorous misuse of a word by confusing it with a similar-sounding word.
For example, "pineapple of perfection" for "pinnacle of perfection".
ETYMOLOGY: After Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan's play, The Rivals (1775), who confused words in this manner. Earliest documented use: 1830.
_________________________________________________
R > T
MALAPTOPISM: a laptop manufactured by International Sewing Machine that belongs to your Ma.
MALACOPISM
a cop on the 'take'.
Freudian slip
PRONUNCIATION:(FROI-dee-uhn slip)
MEANING: noun: An error that reveals someone's subconscious mind.
For example, "I wish you were her" instead of "I wish you were here."
ETYMOLOGY: After Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, who proposed the idea that errors in speech, writing, etc. reveal what is in one's subconscious mind. Earliest use: 1959.
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DROP U
FREDIAN SLIP: a silk slip often worn between scenes by the actor who played "Freddy" in the play My Fair Lady.
FREDIAN SLIP: a silk slip often worn between scenes by the actor who played "Freddy" in the play My Fair Lady.
Fredian Lip - the way that Fred Flintstone's mouth is drawn in the cartoons.
FREUDIAN SLAP: Typical response to Freudian slip.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg :eggcorn
PRONUNCIATION: (EG-korn)
MEANING:
noun: An erroneous alteration of a word or phrase, by replacing an original word with a similar sounding word, such that the new word or phrase also makes a kind of sense.
For example: "ex-patriot" instead of "expatriate" and "mating name" instead of "maiden name".
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by linguist Geoffrey Pullum (b. 1945) in 2003. From the substitution of the word acorn with eggcorn. Earliest documented use as a name for this phenomenon is from 2003, though the term eggcorn has been found going back as far as 1844, as "egg corn bread" for "acorn bread".
____________________________________________________
G to A
e.g. acorn - a definition of eggcorn.
eggdorn
Put large quantities of gold braid on your uniform.
ergcorn: amount of work required to make one tortilla.
mondegreen PRONUNCIATION: (MON-di-green)
MEANING: noun: A word or phrase resulting from mishearing a word or phrase, especially in song lyrics. For example:
"The girl with colitis goes by" for "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes" in the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds".
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by author Sylvia Wright when she misinterpreted the line "laid him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen" in the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray".
_________________________________________________
N to L
MOLDEGREENS - collard greens past their prime.
Anyone remember Bob Cain and the Canebreakers greatest and onliest hit? No? Good, I'll sing it here to the tune of the hymn "Just a closer Walk with Thee".
Just a bowl of butterbeans,
Pass the cornbread if you please
I don't want no collard greens
All I want is a bowl of butterbeans
MOLDEPREENSwhat birds do after a bath.
mondegree - diploma from la Sorbonne
bondegreen - the rookie 007
hondegreen - Accord color "Verdant Forest" which Toyota has spent much time and money trying unsuccessfully to emuluate
wondegreen - the bread's gone moldy
yondegreen - where you'll find the flag is on the next Par Five hole, way over thar
Moodegreen - rejected title for early version of Mood Indigo
Montegreen - Montenegro in the Spring
mondegreed – global avarice.
fondegreen – entrepreneurially motivated.
Minus M
ondegreen- good golf shot in Jamaica
(thanks wolf)
Mondagreen- when Saint Patrick's Day falls on a
Monday .
Londogreen
London in spring.
Agu's Word of the Day: logophile
PRONUNCIATION: (LOG-uh-fyl)
MEANING: noun: One who loves words.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek logo- (word) + -phile (lover). Earliest documented use: 1728.
USAGE:
"I treasure my printed OED -- as a memento of my logophile grandfather."
Dictionaries: Finding Their Ideal Format?; The Economist (London, UK); Nov 22, 2012.
_____________________________________________
L > P
POGOPHILE: one who loves Walt Kelly
pogophile redefined:
a pogophile is actually a beard lover, from Gk. pogos, beard + -phile
BOGOPHILE
One who studies preserved mummies in the peatbogs of Europe.
pogophile: people who love Walt Kelly's beard.
LOGOPHITE someone who eats theit own words
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
homologous
PRONUNCIATION: (huh-MOL-uh-guhs, hoh-)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Exhibiting a degree of correspondence or similarity.
2. Corresponding in structure and evolutionary origin, but not necessarily in function.
For example, human arm, dog foreleg, bird wing, and whale flipper are homologous.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek homo- (same) + logos (word, proportion, reason). Earliest documented use: 1660.
____________________________________
L > B
HOMOBOGOUS - different day same swamp
HOROLOGOUS - like a clock
HOMOLOGONS - men signing into compter networks
HOMOZOGOUS - dwelling in the Emerald City, by the grace of Glinda
HUMOLOGOUS - funnily worded? or maybe, moistly worded?
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
hagiarchy
PRONUNCIATION: (HAG-ee-ar-kee, HAY-jee-)
MEANING:
noun: A government by holy persons. Also a place thus governed.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek hagi- (holy) + -archy (rule). Earliest documented use: 1826.
NOTES:
Two synonyms of this term are hagiocracy and hierocracy. Also, literally speaking, hierarchy is the rule of the high priest.
_________________________________________
minus Y
HAGIARCH - a rain b o w
hagiasophia
a once holy place now a museum
fagiarchy - the committee of a gay club.
wagiarchy - 1. government has gone to the dogs. 2. government by a bunch of jokers.
wagiarchy - 1. government has gone to the dogs. 2. government by a bunch of jokers.
I like this, Peter.
And so do I!
lagiarchy - government by a bunch of crooks.
(Now whch gov't could THAT be?)
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
archetype
PRONUNCIATION:(AHR-ki-typ)
MEANING:
noun:
1. The original pattern or model of something; prototype.
2. An ideal or typical example of something.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek arche- (first, original) + -type (model, mold). Earliest documented use: 1605.
__________________________________________
add i
ARCHIETYPE - the original Archie in the Archie Boy Comics
ORCHETYPE -- what Nero Wolfe is obsessed by.
archihype - over-fulsome praise of modern buildings.
ARCHIEHYPE
Listening to the rants of Archie Bunker.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg dactylography
PRONUNCIATION:(dak-tuh-LOG-ruh-fee)
MEANING:
noun: The study of fingerprints as a means of identification.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek dactylo- (finger or toe) + -graphy (writing). Earliest documented use: 1884.
_____________________________________________
less G
DACTYLORAPHY - when a rapper does that crazy handjive
AMBIDACTYLOGRAPHYleft-hand/right-handed search for clues
based on finger prints.
QUACTYLOGRAPHY - identifying water-fowl by the noise they make.
Anu's happy word of today:
gelasin PRONUNCIATION:(JEL-uh-sin)
MEANING:
noun: A dimple in the cheek that appears when someone smiles.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek gelaein (to laugh), which also gave us the words agelast (one who never laughs) and hypergelast (one who laughs too much). Earliest documented use: 1608.
USAGE:
"Gelasin is this pretty little dimple of which Martial says:
His is the face less gracious
Who has not the gelasin joyous."
Laurent Joubert; Treatise on Laughter; University of Alabama Press; 1980.
____________________________________________
add A
AGELASIN: the inability to dimple
TELASIN
-what confession's for.
"A" sin, Luke?
For me it takes hours.
Well, I guess it can be a process. You know the old proverb
something about a journey of a thousand miles begins with
a single step. Wonder how much the old confession is used
any more, the Roman Church seems to pretty much have thrown the
baby out with the bath water.
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
sprezzatura
PRONUNCIATION: (spret-sah-TOOR-uh)
MEANING:
noun: Doing (or giving the appearance of doing) something effortlessly; effortless grace; nonchalance.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Italian. Earliest documented use: 1957.
_____________________________
one Z to E
SPREEZATURA - a peccadillo indulged but with sang-froid
esprezzatura - nonchantly drinkin very stron coffee.
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
polylemma
PRONUNCIATION:(pol-ee-LEM-uh)
MEANING:
noun: A choice involving multiple undesirable options.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek poly- (many) + dilemma, from lemma (proposition). Earliest documented use: 1856. Also see trilemma, Hobson's choice, and Buridan's ass.
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Minus one L
POLYEMMA- Polylemma's decisive but simple-minded little sister Polyemma; not the happy one, that would be, Pollyanna.
POOLYLEMMA - the choice to go into the cold water one toe at a time or to jump in with a big splash and get it over with all at once...
Mar 7, 2013
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
schadenfreude
PRONUNCIATION: (SHAAD-n-froi-duh)
MEANING: noun: Pleasure derived from another's misfortune.
ETYMOLOGY:
From German Schadenfreude, from Schaden (damage, harm) + Freude (joy). Earliest documented use: 1852.
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drop E
schadenfreud- to undergo psychoanalysis to sublimate one's schadenfreude
SHADE'N'FREUDE - joy at hearing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on the lawn at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the Berkshires on a balmy summer afternoon
Nicely done Wolf
It'd take a high hatter in the Queen's box to top that.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
palimpsest
PRONUNCIATION: (PAL-imp-sest)
MEANING: noun:
1. A writing surface such as a parchment that has been reused after partially or completely erasing the original text.
2. Something reused but still showing traces of its earlier form.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek palimpsestos, from palin (again) + psestos + (scraped). Earliest documented use: 1661 Also see pentimento.
________________________________________________
minus one s
PALIMPEST - a friend who sometimes acts like a monkey
PALIMSEXT A sex-text sent to one person that goes viral.
nineteenth hole
PRONUNCIATION:(NYN-TEENTH hol)
MEANING:
noun: The clubhouse or another place, such as a bar or a restaurant, where golfers gather after playing a round.
ETYMOLOGY:
A standard round of golf has eighteen holes, so the next stop after the game, a bar or a restaurant, is called the nineteenth hole. A similar term is the fifth quarter in (American) football. Earliest documented use: 1901.
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Minus an E
NINETENTH HOLE- the walk to the tenth tee where it is considered cricket to slug whiskey as a brace for the second nine.
Wineteenth.
Same as the Nineteenth
NINETEENTH POLE - the facetiously-named "pole" 1 3/16 mile from the finish line, thus 1/16 mile BEFORE the starting line of a 9-furlong race. Refers to the position of a horse considered - usually jeeringly - to be so slow that it can't even reach the gate before the race is over.
nineteeth hole: result of taking a little nip.
Mar 12, 201 A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
suffragist
PRONUNCIATION: (SUHF-ruh-jist)
MEANING: noun: An advocate of extending the right to vote, especially to women.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via French from Latin suffragium (voting tablet, right to vote). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreg- (to break) that also gave us break, breach, fraction, fragile, fractal, infringe, irrefragable, and fractious. Suffrage? Remember, a broken piece of tile was used as a ballot in the past. Earliest documented use: 1822.
_______________________________________________
add T
stuffragist - a dealer in rags suitable for stuffing
PINETEENTH HOLEAlong around the sixteenth hole
when it's a hot and sweaty day, one longs for the shade
and a cold drink and cannot wait for the nineteenth hole.
SCUFFRAGIST A shoeshine boy.
SCUFFRAGIST A shoeshine boy.
Nice polish, Luke.
thankee
STUFFRAGIST (that's with a hard "G") -- a full-time dollmaker
aWord aDay with Anu Garg
bromide
PRONUNCIATION:(BRO-myd)
MEANING:noun:
1. A tired or meaningless remark.
2. A tiresome or boring person.
ETYMOLOGY:
From bromine, from Greek bromos (stench). Earliest documented use: 1836.
__________________________________________
E to D
bromind :
1. a tiresome or boring mind
2. a tired or meaningless remark from a tired or boring mind
bromine - my Ma's other son.
Bromaide - Eragon, in his youth
Bromaide - Eragon, in his youth
Now I like that. I have about 100 pages in book 4 left.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
tinnient
PRONUNCIATION: (TIN-ee-uhnt)
MEANING:
adjective: Ringing or tinkling.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin tinnire (to ring), of imitative origin, which also gave us tintinnabulation. Earliest documented use: 1668.
______________________________________________________
add h
thinnient - being chased by a bear
tunnientfishermen with their minds on one thing.
TINNIMENT - a substandard multi-apartment building put up by a canny slumlord
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
extraterritoriality
PRONUNCIATION: (ek-struh-ter-i-tor-ee-AL-i-tee)
MEANING: noun:
1. Exemption from the jurisdiction of local law, for example, as for diplomats.
2. The applicability of a state's laws outside its territory.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin extra- (outside) + territorium (land around a town), from terra (land). Earliest documented use: 1836.
___________________________________________________
add R
rextraterritoriality - the right of a King to rule whatever land he can coerce or conquer
All weak, but surprisingly many options:
-- HEXTRATERRITORALITY: an affiliation of Six Nations, like the Iroquois
-- EXTRACTERRITORIALITY: 1) Strip mining 2) debugging, in pretentious jargon
-- EXTRATERRITORIACITY: a vulgar claim to be a Stranger in a Strange Land
-- EXTRATERRITORIALIFY: to remove from any outside jurisdiction by converting to an independent political entity, like the Vatican City, or (discussed from time to time) Jerusalem
-- EXTRATERRITOCIALITY: an out-of-this-world experience while giving birth (compare "dystocia")
-- EXTRATERRITORIALITH: moon rock
Damn wolfman...just damn.
In the old days we called it "looseness of association." It was not meant to be a compliment.
And don't forget I didn't come up with anything at all for sprezza-whatever, or palimpsest, or even gelasin. To name just a few recent ones.
SEXTRATERRITORIALITY -going to foreign countries to sate your off-beat sexual inclinations (e.g., Brits going to Thailand.)
VEXTRATERRITORIALITY - annoying the whole populations of other countires - like Britain wishing to opt out of large parts of the European Union Agrrements.
hextraterritoriality
the curse put on you by a Leprachaun when you get too close
to his/her pot of gold.
word first used by Wofa,
but here it is a word that is spelled the same but has a
different meaning.
J-J apparently being Away From Keyboard so far this week, I'll post today's WAD:
Contranyms:
PERUSE
PRONUNCIATION:
(puh-ROOZ)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To read or examine with great care.
2. To read or examine in a casual manner.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Let's try
PERTUSE -- to spread an illness by coughing ("Pertussis" is whooping cough)
P.S. Just thinking out loud:
-- "scan" is approximately the same thing !
-- PERFUSE is already a real word
-- so is PERUKE
-- PERUE is mixed up mixed up [PUREE]
:-)
I hope these infections stay in your office
and that you are inoculated.
RERUSE
-to use the same trick twice or more.
PERUSS (puh-RUSH): to read with great care in Cyrillic, and rather quickly.
I hope these infections stay in your office
and that you are inoculated.
You want me to get an infection in my eye?
PERUSS (peh-RUSH): to read with great care in Cyrillic, and rather quickly.
Not to be confused with its near-homonym
PERUSH, (pee-rush), meaning "Ooh! Ooh! Teacher! I
really have to go to the bathroom!"
I hope these infections stay in your office
and that you are inoculated.
You want me to get an infection in my eye?
Sorry Doc, I don't speak MDese. I hope you have had what
ever shot you need so you don't get the disease you mentioned.
PEBRUSH
Toilet bowl cleaner.
r > n
penuse - the projected life of a Bic ballpoint pen less fifty percent.
"Ocular" means related to the eye, as in oculist who makes lenses, and binoculars (two lenses, one for each eye - and they also make monocles for one eye.)
Actually, "inoculate" really does mean "stick it in your eye." That's the way the first smallpox immunizations were administered. Serum was made from victims of vaccinia (a related viral disease, cowpox. As one might suspect, since ''vaca" is cow. Smallpox is "variola.") and it was instilled into the eye of the protectee after the doctor pulled the lower lid down to make a sac to drip a drop or two into. So it was literally an "in-ocul-ation," and then the word got generalized to mean any immunization against you-name-it disease, no matter where it was given.
And "pertussis" is whooping cough. ("Tussive" is coughing. RobiTussin is A H Robins' brand of cough syrup. Tussionex is somebody else's.) Pertussis is the P of the DPT shot your kids got when they were infants: Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus. Never heard of 'em? It's because the shots became almost universal, and the diseases almost unheard of. Except that whooping cough is coming back, because...but that's another story.
(Apologies for droning on. Occasionally this does somehow turn into a word Board, all our intentions to the contrary notwithstanding...)
TACTYLOGRAPHY - handwriting in Braille
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
second-guess
PRONUNCIATION:(SEK-uhnd GES)
MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To criticize an event with the benefit of hindsight.
2. To guess or predict.
ETYMOLOGY:
Probably a back-formation from second-guesser (in baseball, one who criticizes a play after the fact). Earliest documented use: 1941.
_________________________________________________
S to R
recond-guess- a recond-ed guess. As in...
Do you recond? Well, shoot, I recond.
I thought I was using 'inoculation' correctly, but only in
the sense you mention, generalization for any immunization
and I appreciate the comments. I had enough Latin to know
'oculis' is eye, but I was hoping you were protected from
all the other diseases you were specifying - and since
JJ is back I appreciate your taking up her mantle for the
time being.
SECOND-GUEST - v.i. - to wait in the car until you see someone else ring the doorbell ahead of you
A.Thursday.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
discursive
PRONUNCIATION:(dis-KUHR-siv)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Jumping from topic to topic; rambling.
2. Proceeding logically, using reason or argument rather than emotion.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin discurrere (to run about), from dis- (apart) + currere (to run). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kers- (to run), which is also the source of car, career, carpenter, occur, discharge, succor, and caricature. Earliest documented use: 1599.
_____________________________________
add T
discursitive- a meaning that can mean either extreme of diametrical opposite meanings. EX: discursive.
wishcursive when a teacher wishes handwriting were still
taught to today's button-pushing students.
miscursive what we will have when no one will be able
to sign their own names any longer: and then will have to
have barcodes on their wrists for identification purposes.
DISBURSITIVE - pertaining to the duties of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. (Sounds like a word Pooh-Bah would have used, if it existed, dunnit?)
or
DISCUSSIVE -- the language of most rappers
pisscupsive
when you get shy bladder and the nurse/probation officer is
waiting.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
impregnable
PRONUNCIATION:(im-PREG-nuh-buhl)
MEANING:adjective:
1. Incapable of being taken by force; strong enough to withstand attack.
2. Capable of being impregnated.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Old French imprenable, from in- (not) + prenable (vulnerable to capture), from prendre (to take, seize). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize, take), which is also the source of pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, pregnant, osprey, prison, and get. Earliest documented use: 1430.
For 2: From Latin impraegnaere (to fertilize, impregnate). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gen- (to give birth), which also gave birth to words such as generate, engine, indigenous, and germ.
________________________________
impegnable - to be capable of being pegged or not.
Impregnot - false positive
psychological moment
PRONUNCIATION:(sy-kuh-LOJ-i-kuhl MOH-muhnt)
MEANING:
noun: The most appropriate time for achieving a desired result; the critical moment.
ETYMOLOGY:
Loan translation of French moment psychologique (psychological moment), which itself is a mistaken loan translation of German das psychologische Moment (psychological element or factor) taken as der psychologische Moment (the psychological moment of time). The word came to French during the German Siege of Paris in 1870. Earliest documented use: 1871.
___________________________________________________
O > E
psychological mement- a pop culture fad word that goes viral. EX: viral
psychological moment - an example of psychobabble: meaingless, overblown, self-consciously pompous and needlessly complex, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. Don't like the phrase to begin with. So there.
psychological foment - stir up trouble by pushing people's buttons...
Psychological cement
clueless
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
running dog
PRONUNCIATION: (RUN-ing dog)
MEANING:noun: A servile follower; lackey.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Chinese zougou, from zou (running) + gou (dog), apparently as an allusion to a dog running to follow his or her master's commands. This term was employed in Chinese Communist terminology to refer to someone who was considered subservient to counter-revolutionary interest. Earliest documented use: 1925.
_____________________________________
D > J
RUNNING JOG- a slow run, a fast jog.
RUINING DOG -- an evil dyslexic deity
running tog: half a tracksuit.
Running Agog
Not know where you are going.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
potpourri
PRONUNCIATION: (poh-poo-REE, POH-poo-ree)
MEANING: noun
1. A mixture of dried flower petals, spices, herbs, etc., kept for fragrance.
2. A musical medley.
3. A mixture of incongruous things.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French pot pourri, literally rotten pot (loan translation of Spanish olla podrida), from pot (pot) + pourri (rotten), from pourrir (to rot). English has borrowed not only the loan translated term potpourri from French, but also the original Spanish olla podrida. It has borrowed from other languages a whole bunch of terms to describe hodgepodge or miscellany, such as, from Swedish smorgasbord, from French salmagundi, and from Hungarian goulash. Earliest documented use: 1611.
__________________________________________
P > R
ROTPOURRI - really rotten potpourri
blue blood PRONUNCIATION: (BLOO bluhd)
MEANING: noun:
1. An aristocratic or socially prominent lineage.
2. A member of such a family.
ETYMOLOGY:
Loan translation of Spanish sangre azul (blue blood). The term arose from the visible veins of light-skinned royalty. Earliest documented use: 1835.
__________________________________________
minus D
BLUE BLOO - the actual spelling and phonetic pronunciation of
blue. As in Baby Boo Boo.
glue blood
- -one of those acquaintances you wish to rid yourself of, but
cant'
blue rued
- -down in the mouth,sad,discouraged
POTPOURROI -- a feast fit for a King
(or, maybe, a sachet fit for a King)
Word.A.Day with Anu and you
deus ex machina PRONUNCIATION: (DAY-uhs eks MAH-kuh-nuh, -nah, MAK-uh-nuh)
MEANING:
noun: An unexpected or improbable person or event that saves a seemingly hopeless situation.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin deus ex machina, deus (god) + ex (from) + machina (machine), loan translation of Greek theos apo mekhanes. Earliest documented use: 1697.
______________________________________________
add S
deus'sex machina - you wish
deus sex matchina
holy dating service
debs ex machina: Stepford Wives
Dems ex machina - any two Tammany politicians
(or Deux ex machina - Richard Daley and Richard Daley Jr, if you prefer Chicago politics)
Deus en machina - the cult of Jobs
Deus ex Bachina - the B-minor Mass, or any of several other out-of-this-world masterpieces
Deus ex mochina - choco-latte (Heavenly-flavored, of course)
Pay-us ex machina - an ATM
Say-us ex machina - a "speak-your-weight" machine
Lay-us ex machina - let's not go there!
Ray-us ex machina - a sun bed
Way-us ex machina - a Sat-Nav
X-Ray-us ex machina - as used in Hospitals an Dental surgeries *at vast expense!)
play-us ex machina slot machine
magnanimous
PRONUNCIATION: (mag-NAN-i-muhs)
MEANING: adjective: Generous or forgiving, especially towards a weak rival.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin magnanimus (great-souled), from magnus (great) + animus (soul, mind). Ultimately from the Indo-European root meg- (great), which also gave us magnificent, maharaja, master, mayor, maestro, magnate, magistrate, maximum, magnify, mahatma, magisterial, mickle, and hermetic. Earliest documented use: 1547.
__________________________________________
add e
MAGNANIMOUSE- a mouse who forgives the cat's bad manners
MAÑANIMOUS - Inclined not to do today what can be put off to tomorrow...
Manama-ese
people who live in Bahrain's capital
Apr 2, 2013 A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
percipient
PRONUNCIATION:(per-SIP-ee-ant)
MEANING:
adjective: Having deep insight or understanding.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin percipere (to perceive), from per- (thoroughly) + capere (to seize). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kap- (to grasp), which also gave us captive, capsule, capable, capture, cable, chassis, occupy, deceive, gaff, caitiff, and captious. Earliest documented use: 1659.
_________________________________________
E > A
percipiant - E. O. Wilson
pencipient: just beginning to be written.
Example: "Rutherford's pencipient novel, Backyard Phoenix, promises to be a blockbuster, although only the opening sentence has been written: 'By the time the barbecue was over, half the Cu 61 had decayed to Ni 61.'"
OPERCIPIENT - knowledgable about Verdi, Puccini. etc. (viz. Milton Cross)
AWAD without Anu Garg
sagacious
PRONUNCIATION:(suh-GAY-shuhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Having keen judgment or wisdom.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin sagire (to perceive keenly). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sag- (to seek out), which is also the source of seek, ransack, ramshackle, forsake, and hegemony. Earliest documented use: 1607.
_____________________________________
less the c
sagaious - a proneness to turn a mundane event into a saga.
staygacious stick-to-it-isnous
spraygacious like unto a skunk
SAGARIOUS = amiable but given to telling long, convoluted stories. Think: Garrison Keillor
SALACIOUS = given to telling salty stories
With thee two I am reminded of the
"now you know", that's the "rest of the story" guy.
Senior Moment.
A.Word.A.Day without Anu Garg
temerarious
PRONUNCIATION: (tem-uh-RAR-ee-uhs)
MEANING: adjective: Presumptuously or recklessly daring or bold.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin temere (rashly).
Earliest documented use: 1532.
___________________________________
r > p
temparous(noun) - a really, really, temporary worker.
tetherous animals bound by 'leash laws'
With these two I am reminded of the
"now you know", that's the "rest of the story" guy.
Senior Moment.
(That'd be Paul Harvey, yes?)
TEMEROARIOUS - The players on my side had the audacity to be shouting loudly. (Also we don't spell so gude.)
A.Word.A.Day less Anu Garg
malapert
PRONUNCIATION:(MAL-uh-puhrt)
MEANING: adjective: Boldly disrespectful.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French mal- (bad, wrong) + apert (bold, insolent, clever), from Latin apertus (open). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to cover), which also gave us overt, cover, warranty, warren, garage, garret, garment, garrison, garnish, guarantee, and pert. Earliest documented use: 1400.
________________________________
change p to v
malavert verb - the act of avoiding that which is bad
Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
With these two I am reminded of the
"now you know", that's the "rest of the story" guy.
Senior Moment.
(That'd be Paul Harvey, yes?)
I used to listen daily, could see his face, and continued
to scratch my head. Finally gave up.
Paul Harvey: thanks.
malatort the act of avoiding litigation
malaport - them French pirates are coming up on our left side...
MALAPEST - an awkward poetic foot guaranteed to disrupt the scansion of any verse
lex loci
PRONUNCIATION:(leks LOH-sy, -kee, -ky)
MEANING:noun: The law of the place.
ETYMOLOGY:From Latin lex (law) + locus (place). Earliest documented use: 1832.
NOTES: Lex loci says that the law of that country or jurisdiction applies where the act was done.
_______________________________
TEX LOCI (noun) - if you wanna play music in Texas you'd better have a fiddle in the band.
Rex Loci - the set of dinosaurs equidistant from a case in point
Lex Lock - tied up in legal red tape
Lex Loki - injustice in Asgard
Lex Loca - crazy immigration policy
Lex pokey -Superman's nemesis in jail
Ooo, wofa, that's brilliant.
lex lopi: Cops! Let's run!
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
suborn
PRONUNCIATION:(suh-BORN)
MEANING: verb tr.: To induce another to perform an unlawful act or give false testimony.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin subornare, from sub- (secretly) + ornare (to equip). Other words that derive from ornare are adorn and ornate. Earliest documented use: 1534.
add n
SUNBORN- we are the stuff of stars
That's a beautiful thought, JJ.
SUBARN - where Pedro keeps the livestock
SUBORB - a bathysphere
SUBORAN - recently-identified Algerian oil reserve, as yet untapped because it lies beneath a major metropolitan area
stewbarn where food is prepared for the 'hoedown'
Anu Garg's word
mens rea
PRONUNCIATION: (MENZ REE-uh)
MEANING: noun: Criminal intent.
ETYMOLOGY:From Latin mens rea (guilty mind). Earliest documented use: 1861.
____________________________________
a -> p
mens rep - a vulgar mind
mens rec poetic scratchings on restroom stall dividers.
mens rhea = male ostrich
mens read = Playboy Magazine
mens rear = don't even go there !
And if we bend the rules j-u-u-s-t a bit, salving our guilty conscience (a real "mens rea"?) by changing both words the same way -
amens area = evangelical meeting hall
Are you sure you don't have too much time on your
hands?, he said tongue-in-cheek.
mens reap bordello
mens tea: afternoon gathering in a pub.
A.Word.A.Day with Garg
attorn
PRONUNCIATION: (uh-TUHRN)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To turn over rent, goods, etc. to another.
verb intr.: To agree to be a tenant of a new landlord of the same property.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French atorner (to assign to), from a- (to) + torner (to turn). An attorney is the person one turns to to represent oneself. Earliest documented use: 1458.
__________________________
add y
attorny : Attorney-at-law as described in a legal brief
athorn: 1. a sharp, woody spine on the branch of an oak. 2. practicing to play a brass instrument.
Anu's Word for Monday
peeping Tom
PRONUNCIATION:
(PEE-ping tom)
MEANING:
noun: Someone who gets sexual pleasure from secretly watching others; voyeur.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the legend of Lady Godiva who rode unclothed through the streets of Coventry, England to persuade her husband to lower taxes on the people. All the townfolk shuttered their windows, except for a tailor named Tom who couldn't resist and watched. Earliest documented use: 1769.
__________________________________
P --> W
WEEPING TOM - Tom after the King raised axes instead of lowering taxes
peeing tom: feline surveyor.
beeping Tom what the lady turkeys are having to put up with
at this time of the year.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
nice nelly
PRONUNCIATION:(nys NEL-ee)
MEANING:
noun: A person excessively concerned with propriety, modesty, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: A specialized use of the name Nelly, a nickname for Helen or Eleanor. Earliest documented use: 1922.
__________________________________________________
minus n
ICE NELLY - as in "Whoa Nelly!"
The night was dark the sky was blue
Down the alley the ice wagon flew
It hit a bump and somebody screamed
You shoulda heard just what I seen
___________________________________ Bo Diddley 1957
Nice Telly - Radiodiffusion Television Francaise with a Southern accent
RTF
A.Word.A.Day
nosy parker or nosey parker
PRONUNCIATION: (NOH-zee PAHRK-uhr)
MEANING: noun: An overly inquisitive person.
ETYMOLOGY:
From nosy + the name Parker. It's not clear who this person was. Earliest documented use: 1890. Also see, quidnunc.
______________________________________________________
n to c minus p
COSY ARKER Brit. - crowded but comfortable
noisy barker neighbor's dog
NOSY PORKER - truffle-farmer's greatest asset
NOSEY-PACKER - ENT specialist treating a child's bleeding schnozz
NOISY PARKER - gets his car to curbside from bumper to bumper; often seen in NYC
nosh parker: organizer of food at a potluck.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg's word
doubting Thomas
PRONUNCIATION:(DOU-ting TOM-uhs)
MEANING:noun: A person who is habitually doubtful or someone who refuses to believe something until given proof.
ETYMOLOGY: After Saint Thomas, apostle, who doubted Jesus Christ's resurrection according to the Bible. Earliest documented use: 1877.
_______________________________________
DOUBLING THOMAS - a gambling Thomas who believes in Christ's return
NOSY PORKER - truffle-farmer's greatest asset
Great Wofa!
------
Doubting Themas - posted by Martin Luther in 1517 (All-Saints Church, Wittn burg, Germany)
lazy Susan
MEANING:
noun: A revolving tray used for serving food, or a similar structure used to keep objects within easy reach.
ETYMOLOGY:
It's not clear who the eponymous Susan in this term was. Earliest documented use: 1917.
____________________________________
l > h
HAZY SUSAN - Lazy Susan after a slap from Spinning Jenny
crazy Susan lazy, hazy Susan retaliating in an angry
fashion to spinning Jenny.
bombilate
PRONUNCIATION:
(BOM-bi-layt)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To make a humming or buzzing noise.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin bombilare to (hum, buzz). Earliest documented use: 1600s.
________________________________________
minus B
OMBILATE - A Zen Monk seeking Nirvana
BOBILATE - Mr. Ray Goulding apologizes to his associate Mr. Elliott for not being there at the start of the radio program
BAMBILATE - that silly Disney cartoon fawn can't get anywhere on time either
BOMBILATTE - Starbucks has a new high-potency coffee drink
BOMBPILATE - what Jesus might have done if he'd had modern tools and attitudes
BOMBILATEX- apply generously and watch the munitions just bounce off
BOMBULATE - to walk like a dumb blonde (see also BIMBILATE)
combilate: At this hour, can't do anything with my hair.
mombilate: Soccer practice was over two hours ago.
wombilate: time for a C-section.
trombilate: I've been babysitting my grandson all day and I just got here.
Well, when you got here you got here with a bang!
You and Wolf sure can twist.
fanfaron
PRONUNCIATION: (FAN-fuh-ron)
MEANING:
noun: A boaster or a braggart.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French fanfaron, from Spanish fanfarrón (braggart), perhaps from Arabic farfar (talkative), of expressive origin. The words fanfaronade and fanfare have the same origin. Earliest documented use: 1622.
________________________________________
add Y
fanfarony - a habitual user of the words found in A.Word.A.Day
cachinnate
PRONUNCIATION: (KAK-i-nayt)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To laugh very loudly or immoderately.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin cachinnare (to guffaw), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1824.
______________________________
CACHINNYATE - a socialnet acronym LMAO
catinnate alley cat screaming all night.
brouhaha
PRONUNCIATION: (BROO-ha-ha, broo-ha-HA, broo-HA-ha)
MEANING:
noun: Noise, confusion, and excitement, especially over something insignificant.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French, of imitative origin. It has been also suggested it's an alteration of the Hebrew term barukh habba (welcome, literally, "blessed be the one who comes"). It was also used in French drama for a devil's cry as: brou, ha, ha! Earliest documented use: 1890.
__________________________________________
add T
BROUHAHAT - a silk hat made from a sow's ear
brewhaha; shindig around the ole still Virginie style.
In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus...
BRÄUHAHA - Happy Hour in Munich
MOJO
PRONUNCIATION:
(MO-jo)
MEANING:
noun: Magical power; charm.
ETYMOLOGY:
Apparently of W. African origin, akin to Gullah moco (witchcraft), Fula moco'o (medicine man). Fula is a language of West Africa. Earliest documented use: 1926.
MOJA - a Woman of Power
MOFO - (not even with a ten-foot pole, thanks)
MOXO - singular of Moxie
J -> O
MOOO - a happy or disgruntled cow
HoJo remember Howard Johnson's?
MOJITO – powerful tipple
MOJONES – the result of drinking Mojito
boondocks
PRONUNCIATION: BOON-doks)
MEANING: noun: Rough country; backwoods.
ETYMOLOGY: From Tagalog bundok (mountain). Earliest documented use: 1944.
______________________________________
minus K
BOONDOCS - country docs who still make housecalls
BOONDOCS! I love it!
LOONDOCKS - I wondered why my boat was covered with guano after I left it tied up overnight
BOONDUCKS - that lay golden eggs
BOOBDOCKS - no, not plastic surgeons, just brassieres
BLONDOCKS - my beast of burden has yellow hair!
BOONDECKS - stacked at the Casino to lure in the suckers (or to pay off the Contractors?)
loonduck naughty birdies, hybrid
gam
PRONUNCIATION:
(gam)
MEANING:
noun: 1. A leg, especially a woman's attractive leg.
noun: 2. A school of whales. 3. A social visit, especially between whalers or ship crews.
verb tr., intr.: 4. To hold such a visit; to spend time talking.
XAM = a puzzling test, sometimes solved with "ees."
(regarding definition 2 - I thought if was called a "pod" of whales. Oh well. I suppose there's no rule that there can't be two words with the same meaning.)
add A
agam eg-am - future tense active of the word "again".
MAMMONISM
PRONUNCIATION:
(MAM-uh-niz-uhm)
MEANING:
noun: The greedy pursuit of riches.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via Latin and Greek, from Aramaic mamona (riches). Mammon was personified as a false god in the New Testament. Earliest documented use: 1843.
GAMMONISM - a religious search for the use of those three extra "Kinging men" that used to come with the fifteen-piece checker set. (Never did figger out how to play that game on the back side of the checkerboard either, didja... ?)
M --> T
MAMMONIST - a communist leader after the revolution
(regarding definition 2 - I thought if was called a "pod" of whales. Oh well. I suppose there's no rule that there can't be two words with the same meaning.)
So did I, but I've seen 'gam' with regard to whales:
and the American Heritage Dict. of the English language
indicates it also means a congregation of whalers especially
at sea. So they must get together and reminisce about Ahab
after the work is done.
N -> M
MAMMOMISM - any nine letter word with five M's except Mmmmmmmmm.
MAAMONISM - excessive deference to women, especially as practiced in the Deep South
leviathan
PRONUNCIATION: (li-VY-uh-thuhn)
MEANING:noun: Something large and powerful.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via Latin from Hebrew liwyathan (whale). Earliest documented use: 1382.
__________________________
add G
LEVIATHANG - calling Levi a "thing" in Alabama
LEVIATHON - Congressional tax-raising orgy, to be held next Labor Day Weekend (without Jerry Lewis)
LEATHERATHON = S & M convention
Did we overlook LEIATHON - watching too many consecutive Carrie Fisher movies?
(Doesn't quite work -- A-->O -- but I couldn't think of anything for "Leiathan."
Han Solo would be pleased, I'm sure.
May 6, 2013
This week's theme
Terms that appear offensive but aren't
This week's words: queer street
-----------------------------------------------------
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Language is meant to communicate and offending someone is also a way to communicate, though not a very nice one. There are plenty of offensive words in a language, any language, and this week's words may appear offensive, but aren't.
They may sound, look, or feel like they have something to do with well-known distasteful words, but they don't. This similarity may cause some to take offense if the words are used in conversation. So should they be?
A dictionary meaning of a word tells only so much. A word in a dictionary is inert. It comes alive only when we use it and give it real meaning. A word can take multiple meanings depending on the speaker, listener, tone, and the context.
Take an everyday word like boy, for example. An adult man wouldn't think twice about his mother calling him a boy. But chances are he'd resent a store clerk or his boss, even an older boss, calling him thus. And that may also explain to folks who wonder, for example, why blacks use the N-word amongst themselves, yet are offended if people outside their community say it.
One might say: Words don't offend people, people offend people.
So should you use this week's terms? Technically, these are perfectly agreeable words, but technically is not how life works. It all depends on the context. For example, I'd avoid using the term queer street if I knew the person I was speaking to was gay.
What do you think? I invite you to discuss this in our online forum Wordsmith Talk.
Even though words featured this week are not offensive, email filters are not smart enough to understand that. It's possible that the filter at your organization tries to protect you from looking at this week's emails. If you find any missing emails, you can view them online.
queer street
PRONUNCIATION:(kweer street)
MEANING:noun: A state of hardship, especially financial hardship.
ETYMOLOGY:
The origin of the term is not clear. Carey Street, site of the bankruptcy court in London, has been proposed, but the court came decades after the term. It's also been suggested that traders put a query mark against customers suspected of having financial difficulties. Earliest documented use: 1811.
USAGE:
"Mike Bessey said: You can't really make a case that UK farmers are on queer street as a whole -- on average they are surviving and starting modest investment."
Caroline Stocks; £25m Aid Won't Help Struggling UK Dairy Farmers; Farmers Weekly (UK); Jan 22, 2010.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.
______________________________________Leo Tolstoy
_______________________________________________________
minus S
QUEER TREET (alt. sp.) queer treat, ex: bacon flavored ice cream
QUEEN TREAT Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee
QUEER STREPT - This bug I isolated from my sore throat patient defies classification!
QUEEG STREET - runs off Caine Street, branches into Ball Street and Strawberry Ice Cream Lane. Noted for the homes of Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, and Fred MacMurray, among others.
Two great ones, wolf.
But not me, brother.
I don't want to go down Queeg Street 'cause there ain't no comming back.
Damn drunk lawyer. . .
niggler
PRONUNCIATION:
(NIG-luhr)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A person who pays excessive attention to petty details.
2. A person who criticizes constantly or repeatedly.
ETYMOLOGY:
Origin unknown, perhaps of Scandinavian origin. Earliest documented use: 1781.
__________________________________
n --> w
WIGGLER - a corrupt political upon whom blame no one can pin.
NOGGLER - a person who overdoes the Christmas quaffing
HIGGLER - one who proclaims the Coming of the God particle
tar baby
PRONUNCIATION: (TAHR bay-bee)
MEANING: noun: Something to be avoided: a sticky situation or problem from which it's almost impossible to get out.
ETYMOLOGY: After "Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby",
How 'bout I do a different algorithm this time. Say, Spoonerize it:
BAR TABBY - keeps the mice out of the saloon
(Y'all all go right ahead and use the standard add-subtract-change routine if you like. Don't let me stop you.)
Ok wolf, you got me. I left Slasher's Bar last night without paying the tabby but you doesn't have to post it here for the whole world to see.
add S
minus B
STAR ABY - the price one must pay for being a rich and famous and beautiful person.
CAR GABBY - back seat driver
Good one, Luke.
cockshy
PRONUNCIATION: KOK-shy)
MEANING: noun:
1. The game of throwing missiles at a target; such a throw.
2. An object of criticism or ridicule.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English cocc (rooster) + shy (to throw), of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1836.
______________________________________________________
Y --> E
COCKSHE - a freemartin
i.e. a non-fertile female calf (heifer) born as a twin with a male (bull} but with a bull's manner and mindset.
BOCKSHY - an edible
Chinese cabbage
Thanks JJ.
SOCK TIE a gimmick I discovered in college, in the
Laundry, after forever losing one sock.
niggard
PRONUNCIATION: (NIG-hurd)
MEANING: noun: A mean, stingy person.
adjective: Stingy.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Middle English nigard, of Scandinavian origin. Earliest documented use: 1384.
______________________________________________________
N --> B
BIGGARD:
1. a kind, generous person
2. a bigot
PIGGARD - Captain of the Starship Penterprise
NITGARD - a sorry excuse for a bug repellant, offers lousy protection
RITGARD--competing, poor excuse for deodorant
...in a sconce, of course.
ENSCONCE
PRONUNCIATION:
(en-SKONS)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To settle firmly and comfortably.
2. To hide securely.
ENSCONE - to wrap a filing in a small sourdough wafer for serving at tea-time; cf. cannoli
ENSCONCE
add D
ENDSCONCE - to come out from hiding in a...
add P
DENSCONCE - a small hiding sconce
equivocate
PRONUNCIATION:
(i-KWIV-uh-kayt)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To be vague or ambiguous, especially in order to mislead.
EQUUVOCATE - script for Mr Ed's next speech
eguivocate
C to G
EQUIVOGATE- to mumble lies to blame other people for your own wrongdoings, such as, beating down a Bush.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
petrify
PRONUNCIATION:(PE-tri-fy)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To turn into stone.
2. To harden or deaden.
3. To stun or paralyze with fear.
verb intr.:
To become stony or callous.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin petra (rock), from Greek petra (cliff, rock). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over), which also gave us support, comport, petroleum, sport, passport, petrichor (the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain), colporteur (a peddler of religious books), Swedish fartlek (a training technique), Norwegian fjord (bay), and Sanskrit parvat (mountain). Earliest documented use: 1425.
____________________________________________________
add I
petri-FYI (see ETYMOLOGY above)
EQUUROCATE Running a horse in a circular pen for hours
PESTRIFY - to bring ants and termites, rats and mice, and other annoyances, into a hitherto pristine neighborhood. Cf. "gentrify"
pectrify - lots of upper body work
impute
PRONUNCIATION:(im-PYOOT)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To attribute, ascribe, or credit, often unfairly.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French imputer, from Latin imputare, from in- (in) + putare (to assess, reckon). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pau- (to cut, stroke, or stamp), which is also the source of amputate, compute, dispute, count, pavid, puerile, and catchpole. Earliest documented use: 1480.
________________________________________
add R
IMPUTER - a smartass computer that thinks that it invented itself.
IMCUTE - a cheap imitation fuzzy Nerml doll (see Garfield comic strip)
impate: to do or to get a hair transplant.
drop e
IMPUT - see imput.
see largely as an imp, nee Obama
Are you going to make sense one of these days, Jenny Jenny?
IMPUTER - a smartass computer that thinks that it invented itself.JJ quote
Like Al Gore? Didn't he invent the Internet?
JIMPUTER - if Capt. Kirk could run the thing without Spock.
drop e
IMPUT - see imput.
see largely as an imp, nee Obama
Hee,hee,hee
exscind
PRONUNCIATION: (ek-SIND)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To cut out or off.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin exscindere, from ex- (out) + scindere (to cut). Ultimately from the Indo-European root skei- (to cut or split), which also gave us excise, schism, ski, shin, scienter, and adscititious. Earliest documented use: 1662.
____________________________________________
i --> e
EXSCEND - a volcanic upsurge solidified after cooling.
TEXSEND-- a "bon voyage" of ginormous, humongous proportion
EXSPEND - all you can do after a really painful divorce decree
vesuvian
PRONUNCIATION:(vi-SOO-vee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Marked by sudden explosive outbursts.
ETYMOLOGY: After Mount Vesuvius, a volcano that buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum when it erupted in 79 CE. Earliest documented use: 1673.
________________________________________
V ---> X
EXSUVIAN - what SUV owners became after gas went up to four bucks a gallon.
VEAUVIAN' - veal chops, served in a French restaurant after a bit too much vin
PARNASSIAN
PRONUNCIATION: (pahr-NAS-ee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Of or relating to poetry.
ETYMOLOGY: After Mount Parnassus, a mountain in Greece, considered sacred to Apollo, the Greek god of music and poetry, and the Muses. Earliest documented use: 1565.
PORNASSIAN -- Not a leg man, or even a breast man
CORNASSIAN Cousins to the Kardassians, these live
in Iowa, the Corn State.
JARNASSIAN - an ode to a jar
I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.
It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
________________________________ Wallace Stevens
Chuckle- chortle - guffaw. This made me laugh!
PARNASSIAN
PRONUNCIATION: (pahr-NAS-ee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Of or relating to poetry.
Alternative PARNASISIAN: a nasally speaking Parisian (succumbed to winter ills ?)
chevy
PRONUNCIATION: (CHEV-ee)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To chase or annoy.
noun: A chase, hunt, or a hunting cry.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Cheviot Hills bordering England and Scotland. A battle between English and Scottish forces over a hunting expedition is described in a 15th-century ballad (The Ballad of Chevy Chase). A chase is a tract of land reserved for hunting. The name of the city Chevy Chase in Maryland has the same origin. Earliest documented use: before 1825.
_____________________________________________________
add A
CHEAVY - a portly fellows fox hunt
CHIVVY An actual word, for a change.
1
: to tease or annoy with persistent petty attacks
2
: to move or obtain by small maneuvers
Variants of CHIVY
chivy or chiv·vy
chartreuse PRONUNCIATION:(shahr-TROOZ, -TROOS)
MEANING: noun: 1. A light, yellowish green. 2. An aromatic, usually yellow or green liqueur, originally made by Carthusian monks in Grenoble, France.
adjective: Having a light, yellowish green color.
ETYMOLOGY: From mountain to monastery to drink to color -- that's the circuitous route for this word's origin. La Grande Chartreuse, a monastery got its name after the Chartreuse Mountains. The liqueur got its name because it was first made by the monks in the monastery. Finally, the color got its name from the liqueur. Earliest documented use: 1806.
____________________________________________________
add d
CHARTREUSED - screwed, blued, and sans chartreused
(what the Carthusian monks were when the French government threw them out of France in 1903)
chartreuse PRONUNCIATION:(shahr-TROOZ, -TROOS)
MEANING: noun: 1. A light, yellowish green. 2. An aromatic, usually yellow or green liqueur, originally made by Carthusian monks in Grenoble, France
------------------------------
delete e
Chartruse: A flawed satellite navigation system- featuring obsolete roading
CHARTRUSSE - a French map of the former Soviet Union
Himalayan
PRONUNCIATION:
(him-uh-LAY-uhn, hi-MAHL-yuhn)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Enormously large.
2. Relating to the Himalayas.
HIMALAYIN' : The incredulous expression uttered upon seeing an incorrectly-sexed rooster produce an egg
L -> M
HIMAMAYAN - him not Aztec
HYMNAMAYAN non-Aztec war chants
HIYALAYAN - pertaining to frontón games
HIMALATAN - simplified version of an ancient language, contains nouns of only the masculine gender
palatine
PRONUNCIATION:(PAL-uh-tyn, -teen)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Of or relating to a palace.
2. Of or relating to a palate.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: After Palatine, from Latin Palatium, the name of the centermost of the seven hills on which ancient Rome was built. Roman emperors built their palaces on this hill. The word palace also derives from the same source. Earliest documented use: 1436.
For 2: From French palatin, from Latin palatum palate (roof of the mouth). Earliest documented use: 1656.
____________________________________________________________
e -> y
palatiny:
1. of or relating to a modest palace
2. of or relating to snacks at a wine tasting promotion.
malateen- a kid up to no good.
XALATINE - pertaining to your glaucoma medicine
PALATINY - used by dwarfs to paint miniature art works
PALAMINE - a soothing lotion for when your BFF has an itchy rash
PALATINO - I'm sure you know the type !
Happy Memorial Day USA, Monday elsewhere, BUT Tuesday for us kiwis!(I had to check what day it was!). You guys are "so yesterday!"
PALIMONEY: offloading assets to close friend to avoid ex taking the lot
collier
PRONUNCIATION:(KOL-yuhr)
MEANING:noun:
1. A coal miner.
2. A coal liner.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English col (coal). Earliest documented use: 1594, 1661.
_________________________________
COLLIER
-r
collie- a silky-coated sheep dog most of 'em named Lassie
cullier-one who weeds out the unwanted in any area
COKLIER -- the inner ear of a Bostonian who kan't spell tu gud
LARES AND PENATES
PRONUNCIATION: (LAR-eez and puh-NAY-teez)
MEANING:
noun:
1. Household gods (the benevolent gods in an ancient Roman household).
2. Household goods (a family's treasured possessions).
Hmm.
Desperate times demand desperate measures:
LATES AND PILATES - Work-out first, unwind at Starbucks afterwards ?
FLARES & PENNANTS: signals from a ship
hyperbolic
PRONUNCIATION: (hy-puhr-BOL-ik)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to hyperbole.
2. Of or pertaining to hyperbola.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek hyperbole (excess), from hyperballein (to exceed), from hyper- + ballein (to throw). Earliest documented use: 1646, 1676.
______________________________
h -> t
TYPERBOLIC
1. expected excessive language
2. same old hyperbola dress
hypercholic - one really sick baby
HYPERBILIC -- the gall bladder is working overtime
HYPERBONIC - the ultimate in bacteriologic warfare; one step more virulent than Bubonic
HYPEROBOLIC - too expensive for the agora
HYPERGOLIC - no, wait, that's already a word, blast it !
debark
PRONUNCIATION:
(dee-BARK)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To remove the bark from a dog.
2. To remove the bark from a log.
verb tr., intr.:
3. To disembark.
DEBORK - to reject an undesired Supreme Court nominee
REBARK - to bake casual comments when you have a stuffed nose
DEPORK- to cut out the "other white meat" from the diet
debard: to remove all reference to the alleged author of Hamlet, Macbeth, etc.
d -> r
rebark - a remark in dog talk
DEBEARD a man's daily chore
calyculus or caliculus
PRONUNCIATION:
(kuh-LIK-yuh-luhs)
MEANING:
noun: A cup-shaped structure.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek kalyx (cup, covering).
________________________________
CalicuRus - a big box store for cups
CALOCULUS - The 200-inch telescope at Mount Palomar
CATULLUST- A forlorn man
*(by way of "how now brown cow")
SWOOPSTAKE
PRONUNCIATION:
(SWOOP-stayk)
MEANING:
adverb: In an indiscriminate manner.
SCOOPSTAKE - a utensil used to keep the ice-cream dispenser from being misplaced
(SNOOPSTAKE - kills gossiping vampires ?)
CATTLELUST- bull when cows are in heat
SWOOPSFAKE - a phoney indiscrminate manner
THEOCRASY
PRONUNCIATION:
(thee-AWK-ruh-see)
MEANING:
noun: A mixture of deities or religious forms.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek theo- (god)- + -krasia (blending). Earliest documented use: 1816.
THEOCREASY - a wrinkled old LARE or PENATE
THEOCRAZY - any religious zealot
AGREMENT
PRONUNCIATION:
(ah-GRAY-mahnt, -mahn*)
[the final syllable is nasal]
MEANING:
noun:
1. Formal approval, especially one given by a country to the proposed diplomat from another country.
2. Grace notes: notes applied as an embellishment on a piece of music.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French agrément (approval, agreement, pleasure), from Latin ad- (to) + gratus (pleasing). Earliest documented use: 1711.
AGREPENT -- the Attorney General regrets his previous malfeasances and wished to atone for them
AGREMENT
a > o
ogrement- an agreement gone so sour that -ment is not mumbled as a french nasal but phonetically pronounced MENT with the harshness that the English ment was meant to be.
JARGOON
PRONUNCIATION: (jahr-GOON)
MEANING: noun: A colorless, pale yellow, or smoky variety of zircon.
ETYMOLOGY: From French jargon, from Italian giargone, from Persian zargun (golden). Earliest documented use: 1769.
OARGOON: a state in the US Pacific Northwest, just south of Washingtoon.
CAR-GO-ON: marketer's name for the Auto-train - ship the family Buick to Florida and ride the train down with it
JarJarGoon - the clan to which Jar Jar Binks belonged.
JARGOON
o > e
JARGONE - the jargon used by a gang of thieves to indicate that someone has stolen their money jar
canorous
PRONUNCIATION:
(kuh-NOR-uhs, KAN-uhr-uhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Melodious; musical.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin canere (to sing). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kan- (to sing) which also gave us hen, canto, cantor, recant, accent, chant, enchant, and incentive. Earliest documented use: 1646.
USAGE:
"The canorous sounds ... provided a cheery moment."
Corrie Perkin; Off to an Opening in Earnest; The Australian (Sydney); Oct 13, 2008.
__________________________________
CANOROUS
add e
canoerous - the melodic sound made by a babbling brook just before a hundred foot waterfall
CANOMOUS - a new brand of tinned cat food
CANTOROUS - inclined to sing Klezmer music
MANOROUS - polite
CANOROLUS - a mixed-up Beethoven overture
CANOVOUS - a precarious tryst in a small unstable watercraft (See also "canoerous," above)
[P.S. Does "precarious" mean "eating too much sugar candy"? Only your dentist knows for sure...]
CANNIBUSBOUS - lover of marijuana
PROSAIC
PRONUNCIATION: (pro-ZAY-ik)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Dull; unimaginative.
2. Everyday; straightforward; ordinary.
3. Having the character of prose as compared to the feeling of poetry.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin prosa (prose), from prosa oratio (straightforward speech), from provertere (to turn forward). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to turn or bend), also the source of wring, weird, writhe, revert, universe, wroth, verso, conversazione, versicolor, and animadvert. Earliest documented use: 1589.
PYROSAIC - full of inflammatory language
PROMOSAIC =agents who have many actors and singers
to get the fans to notice.
Before we get too far afield - recall the original challenge:
"...take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition..."
Now I grant you that Roolz are meant to be broken, but not wildly, and preferably not all the time...
Are we speaking of the Anagrams or Anu's Word of the Day?
I don't recall the 'roolz' for the latter, but will adhere
to it, if that be so. I understand the anagrams has those
'roolz', and that does not imply two words nor hyphens.
Take a look at the
first post in this thread , [if I did that right].
We modify them as we like when it suits our purpose, of course, but this was our starting point.
PROSAIC
c>d
PROSAID - the act of agreeing with a stinkin' roolz put before the board.
I think I'll bow out from this thread at this point. I can't remember that far back. I'll check it
periodically, and if something clicks with just one letter
I may post it. Don't want to mess it up for you all.
Sorry for dem rulz...my eyes were playing tricks on me.
Damn that Catullus and his invectives.
Talyculus- a bookies little black book.
EXPANSIVE
PRONUNCIATION: (ik-SPAN-siv)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Having a wide range; comprehensive.
2. Friendly, open, communicative.
3. Having a tendency or capacity to expand.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin expandere (to spread out), from ex- (out) + pandere (to spread). Earliest documented use: 1651.
EXPENSIVE - a former spouse, when thinking very hard about filing for more child support
EXPANSIVE
add T
EXPANTSIVE - a pyschobabblelogical term for a recurring dream of attending a black-tie social affair while being naked below the waist.
Re: Just who was Woten and why did he have a day?This astrology site says,
"...there are seven days of the week and seven planets and each planet rules or is lord of one day: Sunday, the Sun; Monday, the Moon; Tuesday, Mars; Wednesday, Mercury; Thursday, Jupiter; Friday, Venus; and Saturday, Saturn...
The origin of the names of the days are explicitly planetary in medieval Latin: dies dominici (Sunday, the lord's day), die Lune, die Martis, die Mercuri, die Jovis, die Veneris, die Saturni.
In English the Teutonic equivalents of the Greek and Latin gods have been used for some of the names of the days, i.e. Tuesday is Tiw's day, the Teutonic god of war; Wednesday is Wotan's day; Thursday is Thor's day; Friday is Frigg's day..."
Not everybody likes this system, of course. Your mileage may vary.
Now if he wuz a dog instead, it would be much easier to undertand: Every dog has his day.
animadversion
PRONUNCIATION:(an-i-mad-VUHR-zhuhn)
MEANING: noun:
1. The act of criticizing.
2. An unfavorable comment.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin animadvertere (to turn the mind to), from animus (mind) + advertere (to turn). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to turn or bend), also the source of wring, weird, writhe, revert, universe, wroth, , conversazione, versicolor, and prosaic . Earliest documented use: 1535.
______________________________________
DROP
d
ANIMAVERSION- reality; the mind's version
ANIMADVERSIN -- Madison Avenue puts Greed and Pride and Sloth and Envy and (I forget the other three) into a Mickey Mouse cartoon
SEMPITERNAL
PRONUNCIATION: (sem-pi-TUHR-nuhl)
MEANING: adjective: Everlasting.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin semper (always) + aeternus (eternal). Earliest documented use: before 1475.
USAGE: "The US Postal Service might embrace sempiternal status, too, in the form of a stamp that would enable the bearer to infinitely freeze the price of first-class postage with a 'forever' stamp."
-- Kathy Stevens; Post Office Hopes 'Forever' Stamp Will Deliver; The York Dispatch (Pennsylvania); Feb 27, 2007.
---------------------
SEMITERNAL -- lasting only half a bird
Add E
SEMPIETERNAL - any word with two meanings that mean the same thing e.g. hippity-hop (hop hop) or sempiternal (always eternal}
rhizophagous
PRONUNCIATION:
(ry-ZOPH-uh-guhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Feeding on roots.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek rhizo- (root) + -phagous (feeding on). Earliest documented use: 1832.
______________________________
r > w
WHIZPHAGOUS- a budding young nerd who eats only Cheese Whiz crackers and has no social life outside of interacting with his computer.
RHINOPHAGOUS - nose-eating
RHINOPHAGOUS - drinks only German-river water passed by the Lorelei
zymurgy
PRONUNCIATION:
(ZY-muhr-jee)
MEANING:
noun: The branch of chemistry dealing with fermentation, as brewing.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek zym- (ferment) + -urgy (work). Earliest documented use: 1868.
____________________________________
ZYMURKY - when the zym needs more urgy
RYMURGY - for no particular reazon
logomania
PRONUNCIATION: (lo-go-MAY-nee-uh)
MEANING:
noun:
1. Obsessive interest in words.
2. Excessive and often incoherent talking.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek logo- (word) + -mani (excessive enthusiasm or craze). Earliest documented use: 1882.
_____________________________________________
- i
logomana - (NZ) words used by the powerful, by high authority; usually spoken with supernatural effect
ex: ---> BOO!
Isn't that eliminating 2 letters?
Just asking.
Who me? Not me Luke, I am as good as my word, most times.
I looked again and found myself innocent.
POGOMANIA - That possum with the beard should run for office! POGO FOR PRESIDENT !
POGO FOR PRESIDENT !! POGO FOR PRESIDENT !!
Quite rightly!
And I wanna dance!
What I said goes baby
I want you to hold just what you got
I want you to wind up your yo-yo
When I say pogo
I mean let that yo-yo go
I mean let the string out baby
Now go
Look at Annie yo-yo
Round 'n and round 'n round
Pogo pogo we gonna yo-yo
Round 'n round 'n round
PLUTOLATRY
PRONUNCIATION: (ploo-TOL-uh-tree)
MEANING: Excessive devotion to wealth.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek pluto- (wealth) + -latry (worship). Earliest documented use: 1891. Pluto was the god of riches
[I thought Pluto was the god of the Underground. Or else Walt Disney's dog. Live and learn.]
FLUTOLATRY - James Galway is my idol
u -> o
PLOTOLATRY - a morality play where burning a rich man at the stake is the dénouement of the plot
OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGY
MEANING: noun: The branch of medicine dealing with the ear, nose, and throat. Also known as otolaryngology.
ETYMOLOGY: The word is coined so that one is forced to use all three -- ear, nose, and throat -- to be able to pronounce it. Either that, or it's from Greek oto- (ear) + rhino- (nose) + laryngo- (larynx) + -logy (study). Earliest documented use: 1900. Also, see rhinorrhea.
* * * * *
OTORHINOLARYNGEOLOGY - In the shale I found the fossilized remains of a great lumbering beast with tiny little ears and a big horn on its nose
alternatively:
ONORHINOLARYNGOLOGY - my doctor says my tonsils hve to come out
OTO-HINO-LARYNGOLOGY - an ear, rear, and throat specialist who flunked "nose" in school and had to pick "rear" instead.
FISHWIFE
PRONUNCIATION: (FISH-wyf)
MEANING: noun
1. A coarse, vulgar-tongued woman.
2. A woman who sells fish.
FISHWIRE a metal thread for making deep-sea seines. (banned soon after its invention)
WISHWIFE - all wish no work
SKUNKY
PRONUNCIATION:(SKUNG-kee)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Mean or contemptible.
2. Having an unpleasant odor.
3. Of or relating to a skunk.
___________________________________
Phew!
exchange p for k
SPUNKY - what you are and what you gotta be after you confront a skunk
SKUNGY
PRONUNCIATION: SKUN-jee
MEANING: Offensive to eyes, nose, even skin. Not just ugly but stinky grime and slime.
Synonym (understated): Unprepossessing
[ gossamer ]
PRONUNCIATION: GOS-uh-muhr)
MEANING: noun:
1. Something light, thin, or insubstantial.
2. A soft sheer gauzy fabric, used for veils, etc.
3. A fine, filmy cobweb or its thread seen floating in the air in calm weather.
adjective:
Thin, light, or delicate.
ETYMOLOGY:
From goose + summer. The term is believed to have originated as a name for late autumn when geese are in season and then transferred to cobwebs seen around that time of the year. Earliest documented use: 1325.
_________________________________
g --> b
BOSSAMER - to dance the bossa nova but just for the summer
GOSSAMEN - what everybody does when the prayer is finished
GOSSAMOR - what you do after you go, and then you keep going
(I tried to make up something involving Henry Bessemer, but it just got too complicated)
birdlime
PRONUNCIATION: (BUHRD-lym)
MEANING: verb tr.: To ensnare.
noun: Something that ensnares.
ETYMOLOGY:From birdlime (a sticky substance made from holly, mistletoe, or other plants, and smeared on branches and twigs to catch small birds), from bird + lime, from Latin limus (slime). Earliest documented use: 1440.
_________________________________
add d
BIRDLIMED - a knock-off verson of Lullaby of Birdland from a bird's point of view (a sad lament).
BIRDLIE - [golf]: a tee-shot on a par-3 hole that lands on the green a makeable distance from the pin
chameleonic
PRONUNCIATION:
(kuh-mee-lee-ON-ik)
MEANING:
adjective: Given to quick or frequent change.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin chamaeleon, from Greek khamaileon, from khamai (on the ground) + leon (lion). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also sprouted human, homicide, humble, homage, chamomile, chthonic, disinter, inhume, exhume, and Persian zamindar (landholder). Earliest documented use: 1821.
__________________________
- h
CAMELEONIC - an unlikely breeding of a camel and a lion but then so is the strange etymology of the word "chameleonic".
SHAMELEONIC - that rare occasion when the King of Beasts is abashed
That's it, you win...this week anyway. "shameleonic" indeed.
But I must admit, Wofa, I will use your term "birdlie" on the links tomorrow, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.
And...if I make a par three green on one.
mumpsimus
PRONUNCIATION:
(MUMP-suh-muhs)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A view stubbornly held in spite of clear evidence that it's wrong.
2. A person who holds such a view.
ETYMOLOGY:
According to an old story, a priest used the nonsense word mumpsimus (instead of Latin sumpsimus) in the Mass. Even when told it was incorrect, he insisted that he had been saying it for 40 years and wouldn't change it. The expression is "quod in ore sumpsimus" ('which we have taken into the mouth'). Earliest documented use: 1530.
________________________________________________
UMPSIMUS - a short-sighted baseball umpire who calls the winning homerun "foul" and then calls the game "over" amidst the ensuing uproar.
MUMPSIMUSH - the only food a patient with bilateral swollen parotid glands can tolerate
DUMPSIMUS - the act of firing a foul-mouth early morning radio personality who won't stay fired. (CBS circa 2003)
fustilarian
PRONUNCIATION: (fuhs-tuh-LAR-ee-uhn)
MEANING: noun: A fat and slovenly person.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English fusty (smelly, moldy). Earliest documented use: 1600.
________________________
add a to elevate the disscusion
FAUSTILARIAN - a Ray Bradbury character who made a pact with himself to live forever but died the day Ray died - June 5 2012.
FUSTAMARIAN - the mostest eagerest gal, on Sadie Hawkins Day
hobbledehoy
PRONUNCIATION: (HOB-uhl-dee-hoy)
MEANING: noun: An awkward young fellow.
ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1540.
USAGE:
"Burleigh's breathless accounts of the many figures of the British peerage in the story read as though written by some overawed hobbledehoy, someone who fingers the noblemen's lamé draperies in envious amazement and wonders how much they would go for at Wal-Mart."
Simon Winchester; 'The Nation's Attic'; The Boston Globe; Jan 11, 2004.
____________________________
HOBBLDEJOY - the sheer joy of pulling down the nobleman's lamé draperies and burning them on his front lawn in celebration of the Fourth of July.
HOBBLEDAHOY -- Ahab's greeting to another ship from the prow of the Pequod
makebate
PRONUNCIATION: (MAYK-bayt)
MEANING: noun: One who incites quarrels.
ETYMOLOGY:
From make, from Old English macian (to make) + bate (contention), from Latin battuere (to beat) which also gave us abate, debate, and rebate. Earliest documented use: 1529.
USAGE:
"'You leave my ma out of this, you makebate! She always said you'd end on the gallows, and she was right.'"
Barbara Metzger; Christmas Wishes; Signet; 2010.
_____________________________________________
m -> f
FAKEBATE - American professional wrestling and the Sonny Liston /Cassius Clay Heavyweight 1962 Championship fight.
MADEBATE -- 1) tied fishing lures; 2) forced your pinochle opponent to fall short of the bid; 3) an argument discussion with your mother
bellygod
PRONUNCIATION: (BEL-ee god)
MEANING: noun: One who takes great pleasure in eating; a glutton.
ETYMOLOGY: A bellygod is one who makes a god of his belly, i.e. a glutton. From Old English belig (bag) + god. Earliest documented use: 1540.
USAGE: "Hudibras becomes the puritan bellygod par excellence:
Our knight did bear no less a pack
Of his own buttocks on his back."
Kristen Poole; Radical Religion from Shakespeare to Milton; Cambridge University Press; 2000.
_______________________________________
b -> h
HELLYGOD - a fat mephistopheles who ate all errant souls in deepest hell.
(A variation on HELLYGOD is BELLAGOD - Venus)
BELLYPOD - the new tiny music player from Apple; fits into your navel
The early worm morpheses first. bellygood - a SE Asian enunciation of
"very good" often phrased
"belly belly good" for emphasis.
poker-faced
PRONUNCIATION: (PO-kuhr fayst)
MEANING: adjective: Having an expressionless face, giving no hints of one's thoughts and feelings.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the necessity of not showing emotions in a game of poker to avoid giving other players an indication of the strength of one's hand. The origin of the term poker is uncertain. It may be from French poque (a similar card game that involves bluffing), from German pochen (to knock, brag). Earliest documented use: 1915 (for the word poker: 1832).]
__________________________________________
f>r
PORKER-ACED - to be bluffed by a low-life pig whose high card is a nine.
POWER-FAKED - feeling crushed by the surge of false hope engendered by the faint flicker of light bulbs returning after they go out during a storm...but the electricity doesn't stay on more than a few seconds
four-flush
PRONUNCIATION: (FOHR-flush)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To bluff or act in a fraudulent manner.
ETYMOLOGY:
In a game of poker, a full flush is five cards of the same suit. A four-flush, only four cards of the same suit, is almost worthless. A player pretending to have a full flush while holding only a four-flush, is said to be four-flushing. Earliest documented use: 1896.
________________________________________
f>y
YOUR-FLUSH - your four-flush hands that never, never, ever, become a full five.
FOUL-FLUSH -- My toilet just backed up and overflowed...
also consider
FOUR-FLASH - either H or EEEE, depending on how long you waited between flashes
FOUR-FLASH - either H or EEEE, depending on how long you waited between flashes
??
FOUR-FLASH - either H or EEEE, depending on how long you waited between flashes
??
penny-ante PRONUNCIATION: (PEN-ee AN-tee)
MEANING:
adjective: Trivial.
noun: A transaction involving very small sums.
ETYMOLOGY:
In poker, penny ante is a game in which the bet is one cent (or other small amount). The term is coined from penny (the smallest denomination of currency) + ante (stake, share, cost), from the stake put up by a player in poker before receiving one's cards, from Latin ante- (before). Earliest documented use: 1855.
___________________________________________________
P --> J
JENNY-ANTE (reversed pronunciation)
ont'tee gin'ee - as I'm called by my nephews and nieces
FOUR-FLASH - either H or EEEE, depending on how long you waited between flashes
It's Morse Code - "dot dot dot dot".
PEONY-ANTE - the florists' poker game
PENNE-ANTE - the pasta-lover's poker game
PENNSY-ANTE - the rail commuter's p.g.
You get the idea.
Or, on a different tack altogether:
PENNY-ANE - an old
Beatles Christmas song (no L)
standpat
PRONUNCIATION:
(STAND-pat)
MEANING:
adjective: Refusing to consider change in one's beliefs and opinions, especially in politics.
noun: One who refuses to consider change.
ETYMOLOGY:
In a game of poker, to stand pat is to play one's hand as dealt, without drawing other cards. From pat (apt). Earliest documented use: 1910.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
plus h
STANDPHAT - a once phat rapper whose jive is so yesterday but refuses to change because so is she.
STANDPA - what my father's mother has to say to my father's father because he's too deaf to hear them strike up the Star Spangled Banner
STANDPOT - the Port-a-Potty under the bleacher seats
STANDPA - what my father's mother has to say to my father's father because he's too deaf to hear them strike up the Star Spangled Banner
STANDPOT - the Port-a-Potty under the bleacher seats
Add i
SIT-AND-PAT - what Wofaholicdoc's father's father does while the band plays the Star Spangled Banner until Wofahulicdoc's father's mother gets back from the standpot under the stands.
I fold !
(It
is a poker-themed week, isn't it?!)
I fold !
(It
is a poker-themed week, isn't it?!)
Maybeso, codo, but tomorrow is Friday.
Friday is the day that your silly card is the card that becomes an unlikely leader of an inside straight.
BLUE CHIP
PRONUNCIATION:
(BLOO chip)
MEANING:
adjective: Having high value and reliability.
noun: A reliable and highly valuable asset, such as a stock, a company, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
In poker (and other gambling games), a blue chip typically represents high value. Earliest documented use: 1873.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
BLUE SHIP - I'm sorry, I know you reserved the Yellow Submarine, but unfortunately it's in drydock this week so we've given you a free upgrade
(Well, it's better than
BLUE CHAP - Commander Peary left his Long Johns home...)
BLUE SLIP - downsizing cooperations no longer give PINK SLIPS to discharged employees instead they give BLUE SLIPS to those they keep.
Reason: ---> saves paper <---
I thought it was the gals got pink slips and the guys got blue slips. No?
MENSAL
PRONUNCIATION:
(MEN-suhl)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Monthly.
2. Relating to the table.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Latin mensis (month). Earliest documented use: 1475.
For 2: From Latin mensa (table). Earliest documented use: 1440.
------------------------
MESSAL
1: In need of guidance; disorganized
2: A small meal; also, the room in which it is consumed (cf. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
MENSALE- men's ale set on a mensal at the mensal Mensa meeting for drinking by male Mensa members only. Female members were once allowed a small thimbleful but they all turned giddy and misbehaved.
MERSAL -
1. pertaining to an
antibiotic-resisant bacterial pathogen...
2. a sweet fortified Italian wine, after the third glass
Hey! Didn't we do today's word already, almost?! Like on May 13 or so?!
sconce
PRONUNCIATION: (skons)
MEANING: noun:
1. An ornamental bracket for holding candles or lights.
2. The head or skull.
3. Sense or wit.
4. A small fort or defensive earthwork to defend a bridge, castle-gate, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Latin abscondere (to conceal). Earliest documented use: 1392.
For 2, 3: Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1567.
For 4: From Dutch schans (entrenchment). Earliest documented use: 1587. ______________________________________
add D
SCONCED - a sense of wit once heard best forgotten.
SCONCEL A bit of advice once heard, best forgotten.
SCOINCE -- pronounced SOY-ince -- a Cockney's explanation of what goes on at the Royal Society in London
mortify
PRONUNCIATION: (MOR-tuh-fy)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To humiliate, shame, or embarrass.
2. To discipline (one's body) by self-denial, self-inflicted suffering, etc.
verb intr.:
1. To endure self-denial, self-inflicted pain, etc.
2. To become gangrened or necrosed.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin mortificare (to kill). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mer- (to rub away or to harm) that is also the source of morse, premorse, mordant, morbid, mortal, mortgage, nightmare, amaranth, and ambrosia. Earliest documented use: 1382.
__________________
R --> O
MOOTIFY - to use the Media to establish a public pretrial mindset to get damning evidence declared moot.
fortify- who? what? a real word?
MOSTIFY - the superlative form of the comparative MORTIFY
add L
MORTIFLY - to fly equally in fear of the jihadists and
the brown shirt goons of the NSA
Wasn't Mortifly one of the characters in "Back to the Future"?
cloaca
CLOACA
PRONUNCIATION:
(klo-AY-kuh)
plural cloacae (klo-AY-se, -kee)
MEANING:
noun:
1. An outhouse.
2. A sewer.
3. The common duct into which intestinal, urinary, and genital tracts open in birds, reptiles, most fishes, and some mammals.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin cloaca (sewer, canal), from cluere (to cleanse). Earliest documented use: 1656.
CLOAKA - the device that renders undetectable the ships of Italian Klingons
A->D
CLODCA Russian slang - a backwoods clod stomp dancing even before the vodka
CLODCA -
CLOACH - an ancient Mass Transit vehicle; holds fifty Romans
confabulate
PRONUNCIATION: (kuhn-FAB-yuh-layt)
MEANING: verb intr.:
1. To talk informally.
2. To replace fact with fantasy to fill in gaps in memory.
ETYMOLOGY:
From confabulari (to talk together), from con- (with) + fabulari (to talk), from fabula (tale). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bha- (to speak) that is also the source of fable, phone, fame, boon, and infant. Earliest documented use: 1604.
__________________________
B to D
confadulate - the use of street jive to fill in for information gaps.
MONFABULATE - to tell stories with a Caribbean accent
CONTABULATE - to count the "no" votes
CONFIBULATE - what you have to do when you can't remember a word, but it's just on the tibia tongue...
olid
PRONUNCIATION: (O-lid)
MEANING: adjective: Foul-smelling.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin olere (to smell) which also gave us an opposite of today's word: redolent. Earliest documented use: 1680.
USAGE:
"Ducks' blood smells no less olid than pig's blood."
Merilyn Oniszczuk Jackson; A Sow of Violence; The Massachusetts Review (Amherst); Autumn 2004.
___________________________________________
add S
SOLID -
1) old ma: without pretence, as in "a solid beating"
2) hippie son: as in "solid jackson" meaning right-on
OVID - a Roman writer, noted for his poetry about eggs
SOOK
PRONUNCIATION:
(rhymes with book)
MEANING:
noun: A timid or coward person; a crybaby.
ETYMOLOGY:
Probably from English dialect suck. Earliest documented use: 1933.
_____
SOONK - how the shlightly inebriated barfly described the fate of the Titanic
O -> C
SOCK
1) old ma: as in "dern it, I gotta darn some damn socks"
2) hippie son : as in "sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, let the good times roll"
soop The sound one makes when eating soup.
ZYMIC
PRONUNCIATION:
(ZAI-mik)
MEANING:
adjective: Relating to fermentation.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek zym- (ferment). Earliest documented use: 1817.
_______________________________________________________
ZYMIX - an olio of yeasts
z -> g
GYMIC
1) old ma: the smell of gym clothes that need to be washed
2)hippie son: someone who goes to the gym just to pick up chicks
meed
PRONUNCIATION: (meed)
MEANING:
noun: Reward; recompense; wage.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English med. Earliest documented use: before 900.
m --> w
WEED
1) old ma: something to rid
2) hippie son: something to get
MEEDE - a Generel in the Civil War
pica
PRONUNCIATION:(PY-kuh)
MEANING: noun:
1. A tendency or craving for eating substances other than normal food (such as clay, chalk, and dirt), common during childhood or pregnancy.
2. In printing, a unit of type size, equal to about 1/6 of an inch.
3. A type size for typewriters, having ten characters to the inch.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Latin pica (magpie, craving), from a magpie's indiscriminate feeding. Earliest documented use: 1563.
For 2, 3: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a book or church rules. Earliest documented use: 1588.
_____________________________
- A
PIC
1) old ma: a tool for digging dirt to eat
2) hippie son: a nice photo to look at while he eats
POKA - a gambling game with cards and chips, in Boston
SPICA - the grim look on the orthopedic surgeon as he puts you in a
cast from the hips down...
APICA - infant's word for a small orange-ish stoned fruit with fuzzy skin
auspices
PRONUNCIATION: (AW-spi-seez)
MEANING:
noun:
1. Patronage, support, or sponsorship.
2. A favorable sign.
ETYMOLOGY:
Plural of auspice, from Latin auspicium (divination from flight of birds), from auspex (bird watcher), from avis (bird) + specere (to look at). Ultimately from the Indo-European root awi- (bird), which is also the source of avian, ostrich, osprey, oval, ovum, ovary, egg, and caviar. Earliest documented use: 1611.
_____________________________________
E -- K
AUSPICKS - divinations by patterns of bird flights as to predicting the winners of horse races.
AUSPICES
auspices
PRONUNCIATION:
(AW-spi-seez)
MEANING:
noun:
1. Patronage, support, or sponsorship.
2. A favorable sign.
SUSPICES - What the McCormick salesman with a stutter sells. (See related
ANU-SPICES - tasteful condiments occasionally served up on this Board...)
AUSPISCES - a little-known Zodiacal constellation in the skies of the Southern hemisphere
PAPARAZZI
PRONUNCIATION:
(pah-puh-RAT-see)
MEANING:
noun: Photographers who follow famous people to take their pictures for publication.
ETYMOLOGY:
Plural of paparazzo, from the name of a photographer in Federico Fellini's 1959 film La Dolce Vita. Fellini got the name via scriptwriter Ennio Flaiano who picked it from the 1901 travel book By the Ionian Sea. The book mentions a hotel owner named Coriolano Paparazzo. Fellini claimed at another time that the name Paparazzo suggested to him "a buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging". Earliest documented use: 1961.
PAMPARAZZI - mounted photographers of the Argentine plains
PAUPARAZZI - very poor photographers
PAPARJAZZI - out-of-work hip musicians who chase photographers
hoping to get their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Just guessing what might be coming later in the week: Scissors? Spaghetti? Trousers/Pants/Knickers/Shorts? even Bloomers? Random thought: Is the noun "underwear" singular or plural?
Good questions but taboo.
How many panties is/are a pair of panties, one, two, or four?
Meanwhile a slip is just a slip.
cognoscenti
PRONUNCIATION: (kon-yuh-SHEN-tee, kog-nuh-)
MEANING:
noun: Those with informed appreciation of a particular topic, such as fine arts or literature.
ETYMOLOGY:
Plural of obsolete Italian cognoscente, from conoscere (to know). Modern Italian form of the word, conoscente, means acquaintance -- you want to use the word intenditore or conoscitore if you mean cognoscente. Earliest documented use: 1777.
____________________________________________________
add c
COGNOSCENTIC noun - a intenditore: a singular of cogonoscenti
CORNOSCENTI - the aroma of Italian popcorn
How about
CYGNOSCENTI = the smell of a newly hatched swan
( Afterthought: What's the singular of hoi polloi ? )
MORES
PRONUNCIATION:
(MOHR-ayz)
MEANING:
noun: Customs and conventions of a social group.
ETYMOLOGY:
Plural of Latin mos (custom). Earliest documented use: 1898.
MOREST - superlative form of "some"
'ORES noun : Customs and conventions of a social group
antipodes
PRONUNCIATION:
(an-TIP-uh-deez)
MEANING:
noun:
1. Two places situated on the diametrically opposite sides of the earth.
2. The exact opposite of someone or something.
3. Australia and New Zealand.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via Latin from Greek antipodes (literally, those having the feet opposite, i.e. having feet on opposite sides of the earth), plural of antipous, from anti- (opposite) + pous (foot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ped- (foot) which gave us peccadillo (alluding to a stumble or fall), pedal, impeccable, podium, octopus, and impeach. Earliest documented use: 1398.
___________________________________________
less P
ANTIODES - a jar ode written by Wallace Stevens and a urn ode written by Keats.
XANTIPODES - Socrates' wife has large feet.
What intrigues me is the pluralization rule that makes -pous into -podes. Know any other examples that crept into English? Anybody?
Edit: (My feet of clay are showing. I didn't know what you meant by jar/stevens and urn/keats, so I looked them up. Now I do. Nice!)
...the pluralization rule that makes -pous into -podes. Know any other examples that crept into English?
Answer (found by Onelooking "*podes") : Octopus --> octopodes. Also Platypus.
Ponzi scheme
PRONUNCIATION: (PON-zee skeem)
MEANING: noun: An investment swindle in which high profits are promised from fictitious sources and early investors are paid off with funds raised from later ones.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Charles Ponzi (1882-1949), a speculator who organized such a scheme during 1919-1920. He was neither the first nor the last person to float this or a similar scheme, just someone who did it on a massive scale. See the list of Ponzi schemes in history. Earliest documented use: 1920.
_______________________________________________
P -> F
FONZI SCHEME- in Episode XXV the Fonz charges $50 to set-up a date to the Prom with Betty the head cheerleader.
On Prom night 50 hot-blooded boys show up at Betty's house.
Those were not Happy Days.
FUNZI - birthday party at Chucky Cheese's
PONTI SCHEME - We'll all get shares of this Italian movie producer's empire, see, and a piece of Sophia Loren besides, and resell some more shares to eager buyers, and...
Who will it be ?
... a cheater, a traitor, a killer, a faker, and an infector.
...start with the US, then Norway, Scotland, Ukraine, and then back to the US.
Any ideas?
U S cheater = Ponzi of the Ponzi scheme
Norway traitor = QUISLING ?
Scotland killer = ?
Ukraine faker = ?
U S infector = TYPHOID MARY ?
Scotland: Black Bart?
Ukraine: Rasputin?
We'll see!
QUISLING
PRONUNCIATION: (KWIZ-ling)
MEANING:
noun: A traitor, especially one who aids an invading enemy.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Major Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945), a Norwegian army officer who collaborated (1940-1945) with the German occupying forces during World War II and ruled Norway as head of the puppet government. He was shot for treason after the German defeat. Besides a noun, his name has become a verb as well. Earliest documented use: 1940.
-------------------------------------
QUILLING - What Barquis is, according to David Copperfield
Was Jack the Ripper Scottish?
Was Jack the Ripper Scottish?
Which one? Surely one of the many Jack-the-Rippers was Scottish.
But just as surely Anu would not stoop to such a streach.
No --and you may call me surely --Black Bart was the murdering Scot.
ADD T
QUITSLING brit. slang : to stop slinging about fighting words and begin the traditional bitchslap.
...more things on heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in our phiosophies, and all that.
BURKE
PRONUNCIATION:
(buhrk)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To murder by suffocation.
2. To silence or suppress.
3. To avoid or bypass.
ETYMOLOGY:
After William Burke (1792-1829), who killed people to sell their bodies for dissection. His preferred method was smothering so as to leave the body unmarked and suitable for dissection. He was captured, hanged, and on the judge's orders, his body was publicly dissected. Earliest documented use: 1829.
USAGE:
"When Logeto came in, the killer burked him. Logeto never made a sound."
William Diehl; Hooligans; Villard Books; 1984.
(Who'd'a thunk it !)
BUBKE - a rich yeast bread made with raisins and cinnamon; mostly afflicts Ashkenaze Jews, and others of eastern and middle European extraction
B cut to L
LURKE - what Burke did while shopping for parts.
POTEMKIN VILLAGE
PRONUNCIATION:
(po-TEM-kin VIL-ij)
MEANING:
noun: An impressive showy facade designed to mask undesirable facts.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Prince Grigory Potemkin, who erected cardboard villages to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Ukraine and Crimea in 1787. Earliest documented use: 1904.
---------------------
POTEMKIN PILLAGE - what happens before the creation of the false front
POSTEMKIN VILLAGE - after the truth comes out
POKEMIN VILLAGE - a village where the pokemen are those who are poked.
Typhoid Mary
PRONUNCIATION:
(TY-foid MAIR-ee)
MEANING:
noun: A person from whom a disease or something undesirable spreads.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Mary Mallon (1869-1938), a cook in New York, who was a healthy carrier (contagious but showing no symptoms) of typhoid. She died of pneumonia. Read/watch more about her on PBS Nova. Earliest documented use: 1909.
_________________________________________
minus H
TYPOID MARY - a secretary in New York who Had an id-seated mental disorder that proHibited Her from typing the letter H.
[Her fatHer's name was Hank and Her motHer's name was Hazel ]
TOPHOID MARY - she had such bad tophi that just looking at the disfiguring lesions on her hands would give you your own case of gout !
(I won't post any pictures, but if you google "
tophaceous gout" you'll see more ugly pictures than you ever wanted...)
snowbroth
PRONUNCIATION:
(SNO-broth)
MEANING:
noun: Melted snow.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English snaw (snow) + broth (broth). Earliest documented use: 1600.
USAGE:
"Snowballs and snowmen and snowbroth boiled on our tinny fires on the beach."
Christopher Rush; On the Beach
____________________________________
SNOWTROTH -a solemn Winter promice of fidelity that evaporates with the coming of Spring
'SNEWBROTH? - two dudes greeting in the Hood
SLOWBROTH - soup made in a crock-pot
SNOWBRITH- ritual circumcision at the North Pole
(Come to think of it, how do you count eight days when the Sun never sets?!)
SNOWBOTH - a mutual deception society
SNOTBROTH - I don't want even to think about that one!
ANATOPISM
PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-NAT-uh-piz-ehm)
MEANING:
noun: The error of placing something out of its proper place; also something placed erroneously.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek ana- (against) + topos (place). Anatopism is to place what anachronism is to time. Earliest documented use: 1812.
-----------------------------
ANATOLISM - Francophilia
ANATOPRISM - an inability to look through the top of optical prism and see the bent light
quaternary
PRONUNCIATION:
(KWOT-uhr-ner-ee, kwuh-TUHR-nuh-ree)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Of the fourth order.
2. Consisting of or arranged in fours.
noun:
1. A group of four.
2. The number four.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin quattuor (four). Earliest documented use: 1450.
____________________________________________________
QUAETENARY (noun) southern us
PRONUCIATION: qwart TER nare EE
MEANING: a ner-do-well who has never had nare a quarter.
QUITERNARY - Never say die !
EQUATERNARY - I'll say it again, the Earth is FLAT !!
QUITERNARY - Never say die !
EQUATERNARY - I'll say it again, the Earth is FLAT !!
__________________
__________ funny X two, Wolf
elflock
PRONUNCIATION: (ELF-lok)
MEANING:
noun: A tangled lock of hair.
ETYMOLOGY:
An elflock is a mass of hair supposedly tangled by elves, as a mother might explain to her daughter while untangling her snarled locks after a slumber. From Old English aelf. Ultimately from the Indo-European root albho- (white), which is also the source of oaf, albino, album, albumen, and albedo. Earliest documented use: 1596.
_________________________________
SELFLOCK - dreadlocks self-imposed
EFFLOCK - can't find my @#$%^! keys !!
ELFLICK - counterpart of a chickflick, in Madrid
ELMLOCK - an unfortunate hybrid tree, hardly seen any more: afflicted by both Woolly Adelgid and Dutch Elm Disease
allochthonous
PRONUNCIATION: (uh-LOK-thuh-nuhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Originating in a region other than where it is found.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek from allos (other) + chthon (earth, land). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also sprouted human, homicide, humble, homage, chamomile, exhume, inhume, chthonic, disinter, chameleonic, and Persian zamindar (landholder). Earliest documented use: 1888.
____________________________________________
CALLOCHTHONOUS - of a mean and callous land
USAGE: A good nation may cause evil to other nations not only by its actions but by its inaction, and in either case it is justly accountable to the callochthonous nation for the injury.
___________________________________ Not John Stuart Mill
ALTOCHTHONOUS -- The Voice of the Turtle, heard in our Land, is female and low-pitched.
A Solomonic declaration, indeed.
Surprised no one took
ELFLUCK
the old pot'o gold at the end of the rainbow.
...blue!
BLUEBEARD
PRONUNCIATION: (BLOO-beerd)
MEANING: n, A man who marries and kills one wife after another.
ETYMOLOGY: After Bluebeard, nickname of Raoul, the blue-bearded main character in a fairy tale by Charles Perrault (1628-1703). In the story, Bluebeard's wife finds the bodies of his previous wives in a room she was forbidden to enter. The feminine equivalent of the word could be black widow. Earliest documented use: 1795.
------------------------------------
BLURBEARD - Five-o'clock shadow
-minus D -
BLUEBEAR - in winter what fuzzy-wuzzy was 'cause he wasn't fuzzy.
(although "BEAR" would probably have gotten the point across too)
A few weeks ago we saw baddies from the real world, and now it's time to visit the rogues' gallery from fiction. This week we'll see
a killer,
BLUEBEARD a maimer,
? a seducer,
Don Juan a petrifier,
? an evil scientist.
Frankenstein Fill it out, Wolf!
a killer, BLUEBEARD - sure
a maimer,-- Oedipus ? {"Pluck out his eyes! Apologiize!") Did someone torture people on the rack and tear their limbs out ?? a Knight of Ni ??? I give up !
a seducer, Don Juan - sure
a petrifier, ? - the Gorgon MEDUSA
an evil scientist. Frankenstein - sure
Procrustes
PRONUNCIATION: (pro-KRUS-teez)
MEANING:
noun: A person imposing conformity without concern for individuality.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Procrustes, a giant in Greek mythology, who stretched or cut his victims to make them fit his bed. He was killed by Theseus. From Greek Procroustes (stretcher). The word is more often used in its adjective form procrustean. Earliest documented use: 1581.
__________________________________
ROCRUSTES - small iron rocks
PROCRUSHES - generic wrestling hold
a seducer, DON JUAN
I suppose it could be CASANOVA, too.
In that case, Wolf, Guru Anu is more devious than we suspect.
It so happens that I knew Casanova (not in the biblical sense) and believe me, Casanova was not fictional, although some of his exploits certainly were.
Ah. I forgot this was Fiction week !
SIREN
PRONUNCIATION: (SY-ruhn)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A beautiful and seductive woman, especially one leading others into disaster.
2. Something attractive that is potentially disastrous.
3. A device that makes loud sounds, used for warning signals.
[What a great spot this would have been to introduce the word "ululating" !]
ETYMOLOGY:
After Siren, one of a group of sea nymphs, whose enchanting singing lured sailors to shipwreck on the rocks around their island. Also see femme fatale. Earliest documented use: 1340.
--------------------------------------------------
SIRENO - the male counterpart, though inclined to be nosy. A great sword-fighter, too. See Roxanne for references.
Hoist by my own petard, again! According to Wikip.,
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play is a fictionalization of his life that follows the broad outlines of it.
Cyrano was as real - and as fictionalized - as was Casanova !
Eek, eek!
My brain reels. Reality melts away.
You and Anu conspire to keep me wrong.
Please excuse me while I go plot.
You're not wrong; you were right. I was the one wrong.
Twice, even!
siren
PRONUNCIATION: (SY-ruhn)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A beautiful and seductive woman, especially one leading others into disaster.
2. Something attractive that is potentially disastrous.
3. A device that makes loud sounds, used for warning signals.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Siren, one of a group of sea nymphs, whose enchanting singing lured sailors to shipwreck on the rocks around their island. Also see femme fatale. Earliest documented use: 1340.
________________________________________________
add t
SIRENT:
1. a silent siren
2. a siren for rent
biren
A person who attracts people of either gender with seductive poetry.
GORGON
PRONUNCIATION: (GOR-guhn)
MEANING: noun: An ugly, repulsive, or terrifying woman.
ETYMOLOGY: After Gorgon, any of the three monstrous sisters Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa in Greek mythology, who had snakes for hair. They turned into stone anyone who looked into their eyes. From Greek gorgos (dreadful). Earliest documented use: 1398.
----------------------------------------
GOREGON -- Freddy Kreuger went to Portland (or Edward Scissorhands, or whoever)
>O to E <
GORGEN
1. a small gorge
2. a big feast
Getting ready to attack the day: (see how much confidence I have in you?!)
DRANKENSTEIN - what they did in the Hofbräuhaus when all the glasses were dirty
Runner-up:
FRANKENSTAIN - mustard
Dr. Strangelove
PRONUNCIATION: (DOK-tuhr STRAYNJ-luv)
MEANING:
noun: Someone who is reckless about the use of weapons such as nuclear bombs.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Dr. Strangelove, title character of the 1963 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. Strangelove, a former Nazi, is a nuclear expert and adviser to the president. Earliest documented use: 1968.
________________________________________
>remove the e <
Dr. Stranglove - the Boston Strangler whose lost glove proved he was also Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
DR ESTRANGELOVE - Who ya gonna call to cure your stalker of that irrational fixation?
(Personally. I liked "mustard" better)
APHERESIS
PRONUNCIATION:
(for 1: uh-FER-i-sis, for 2: af-uh-REE-sis)
MEANING:
noun:
1. The loss of one or more sounds or letters from the beginning of a word. For example, the change in pronunciation of knife from (k-nyf) to (nyf) or the formation of till from until.
2. A method in which blood is drawn from a donor, one or more blood components (such as plasma, platelets, or white blood cells) are removed, and the rest is returned to the donor by transfusion.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin aphaeresis, from Greek aphairesis (taking away), from aphairein (to take away), from apo- (away) + hairein (to take). Earliest documented use: 1550.
[My favorite example of this is "eleëmosynary" --> --> alms]
-----------------------
APTERESIS - The process of being turned into a wingless bird with hairy feathers, and then returned to the zoo (or at least to the B.C. comic strip)
------------------------
(too obvious? )
>add T <
APHERESIST - pronounced: hee ree sizt/ hrr ree sizt (the AP is silent )
1. he resist
2. her resist
syncope
PRONUNCIATION: (SING-kuh-pee)
MEANING:
noun:
1. The shortening of a word by omission of sounds or letters from its middle. For example, did not to didn't or Worcester to Wooster.
2. Fainting caused by insufficient blood flow to the brain.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin syncope, from Greek synkope (contraction, cutting off), from syn- (together) + koptein (to cut). Earliest documented use: c. 1400.
____________________________________________
syncoped - past tense of syncope e.g. affecting a British accent the good doctor bought a plane tickect and arrived in Wooster England instead of Worcester Mass. He syncoped.
SYNCOPY - Naughty monkey see, naughty monkey do.
And I see that eleëmosynary was syncope, not apheresis. My, my. Who'da thunk it.
ASPIRATE
PRONUNCIATION: (verb: AS-puh-rayt, noun: AS-puhr-it)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To pronounce a sound with an exhalation of breath.
2. To pronounce the h sound at the beginning of a word as (hwich) for which.
3. To inhale something (such as a fluid) into the lungs, as after throwing up.
4. To draw a fluid from a body cavity by suction.
(Don't you 5. aspirate a hot rod engine, too? Or at least a carburetor?)
noun:
1. The sound represented by h.
2. A speech sound followed by an audible puff of breath.
3. The matter removed from a body cavity by suction.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin aspirare (to breathe, blow). Earliest documented use: 1669.
-------------------------------
AMPIRATE
1. I'm an electric current and I'm angry !
2. Aargh, Matey, my name is Blackbeard, and you'd better believe it!
HASPIRATE : pronounced "whosh" ass per ate - a silent puff of air preceding the word "aspirate" so as to make the word "aspirate" onomatopoetic.
XASPIRATE - I can never get that souffle to come out right...
PROLEPSIS
PRONUNCIATION: (pro-LEP-sis)
MEANING:
noun:
1. The use of a descriptive word in anticipation of the result. Example: The word hot in hot water heater.
2. The anticipation and answering of an objection or argument before it's raised. Also known as prebuttal.
3. The representation of an event before it actually happened. Example: He lost the game even before the match began.
4. The anachronistic representation of an event before its actual time. Also known as prochronism. Example: A depiction of people talking wirelessly over long distances in 18th century.
5. A literary technique in which the author drops hints of things to come. Also known as foreshadowing.
6. The return of a paroxysm of a periodic disease before its usual time or at progressively shorter intervals.
------------------------------
PYROLEPSIS -- pre-ignition
PUROLEPSIS -- Whaddya mean you changed my oil at just 750 miles ??!!
>add A <
PAROLEPSIS- to request a release from jail before the crime is committed.
PROLEPSIS - ambitious amateur
PROLAPSIS - "How many pregnancies have you had? Your innards are going to drop out!"
agglutinate
PRONUNCIATION:
(verb: uh-GLOOT-n-ayt, adjective: uh-GLOOT-n-it, -ayt)
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.:
1. To form words by combining words or word elements.
2. To join or become joined as if by glue.
3. To clump or cause to clump, as red blood cells.
adjective:
1. Joined or tending to join.
2. Relating to a language that makes complex words by joining words or word elements extensively. For example as in Turkish.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin gluten (glue). Earliest documented use: 1541.
______________________________________________________
> N>M <
AGGLUTIMATE - an inseparable mating
WAGGLUTINATE - Twerking gone wild.
A couple who lived in New Delhi
Had to walk around belly to belly
...Because, in their haste,
...They reached for the paste
Instead of the vaginal jelly!
WAGGLUTINATE - Twerking gone wild.
A couple who lived in New Delhi
Had to walk around belly to belly
...Because, in their haste,
...They reached for the paste
Instead of the vaginal jelly!
Wofahulicodoc at his vulgarist and funniest.
KABUKI
PRONUNCIATION: (kah-BOO-kee, KAH-boo-kee)
MEANING:
1. A form of Japanese drama that includes highly stylized movements, dances, singing, and miming, and all parts are played by males.
2. Done for the show only; make-believe.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Japanese kabuki, from ka (song) + bu (dance) + ki (skill). Apparently this is a reinterpreted form of the verb kabuku (to lean, deviate, or act dissolutely). Kabuki is the popular form of the older Noh, the classical drama of Japan. Earliest documented use: 1899.
------------------------------------
(In the words of Jack Benny, "I'm Thinking!")
KABUKII
PRONUNCIATION: (kah-BOO-kee, KAH-boo-kee)
MEANING:
1. A form of Japanese drama that includes highly stylized movements, dances, singing, and miming, and all parts are played by males.
2. Done for the show only; make-believe.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Japanese kabuki, from ka (song) + bu (dance) + ki (skill). Apparently this is a reinterpreted form of the verb kabuku (to lean, deviate, or act dissolutely). Kabuki is the popular form of the older Noh, the classical drama of Japan. Earliest documented use: 1899.
------------------------------------
(In the words of Jack Benny, "I'm Thinking1")
Hit the road, Jack, I beat ya.
>
K > Y <
YABOKII-
as in shake your bootie
KABUKU - A traditional dance with nine people moving on a square stage, but with no two of them ever in the same row or column
honcho
PRONUNCIATION: (HAWN-choh)
MEANING:
noun: One who is in charge of a situation; leader; boss.
verb tr.: To organize, manage, or lead a project, event, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Japanese hancho, from han (squad) + cho (chief). Earliest documented use: 1947.
____________________________
] O > U [
HUNCHO - a community organizer who thinks with his hunches and all his hunches are bad.
LUNCHO A community organizer who thinks with his
hunches but makes sure they are always
at a diner/eatery at Lunch Time.
LUNCHO A community organizer who thinks with his
hunches but makes sure they are always
at a diner/eatery at Lunch Time.
Good thinking, Luke. With wit comes truth.
HONCHOO
1. The Boss's sneeze, and the Cockney's response, as in "Honchoo gunna say "Gesundheit, Boss?"
3. A poor transliteration of the name of the largest island of Japan
SKOSH
PRONUNCIATION: (skoash)
MEANING: noun: A small amount; a little bit.
ETYMOLOGY: From Japanese sukoshi (a little). Earliest documented use: 1955.
-------------------------------
ASKOSH, pronounced ASS-cosh --
what I call my cravat after a few too many SKOSCHes
add A
SKOSHA - South Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency
________ i.e. ten thousand American men and missiles on duty watch at ____________ the North Korean border
KAMIKAZE
PRONUNCIATION:
(kah-mi-KAH-zee)
MEANING:
noun: Someone who behaves in a reckless, self-destructive manner.
adjective: Extremely reckless, potentially self-destructive.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Japanese kamikaze (divine wind), from kami (god, divinity) + kaze (wind). Earliest documented use: 1896.
NOTES:
In Japanese folklore, kamikaze was the divine wind that destroyed a Mongol invasion fleet under Kublai Khan. In World War II, the kamikaze were suicidal attacks by Japanese pilots who crashed their planes on an enemy target such as a ship.
---------------------------------
KAMRIKAZE - what we used to use to protect our Kodak Kameras against dropping, raining, and other hazards
z>t
KAMIKATE- a famous female WWII Japanese pilot who crashed her airplanes into American aircraft carriers.*
* Correction: our records now show that there was only one plane, one carrier, and one Kate
TYCOON
PRONUNCIATION: (ty-KOON)
MEANING: noun: A wealthy and powerful person, especially in business or politics.
ETYMOLOGY: From Japanese taikun (great lord or prince), from Chinese ta (great) + kiun (prince). Earliest documented use: 1857.
NOTES: The word was used as a title for the shogun of Japan. Abraham Lincoln's aides used the word as an affectionate nickname for him. Later the word came to be applied to powerful people in business.
USAGE: "Believe it or not, you can buy a $6,000 shower curtain for your home. But why would you? Former Tyco International tycoon Dennis Kozlowski did. He also spent $2,200 on a wastebasket, nearly $3,000 on coat hangers and nearly $6,000 on sheets. ... 'The prices are not out of line, but they're off the scale when it comes to priorities,' says Bilhuber, whose client list includes ex-AOL Time Warner honcho Robert Pittman, Michael Douglas, David Bowie and his model wife, Iman, and designer Hubert Givenchy."
-- Maria Puente;s Tchotchkes of the Rich and Infamous; USA Today; Sep 27, 2002.
--------------------------------------
TOYCOON -- an animated Davey Crockett hat from the 1950s
TRYCOON -- hopeful owner of a new startup company, with visions of being the next Steve Jobs
IIIdrop O III
TYCON - as in Bernard Madoff
TYFOON – a rich, powerful, ridiculous blowhard
Let me guess...Oh my, there are so many and I know so few.
Uh...
FACTOTUM
PRONUNCIATION:
(fak-TOH-tuhm)
MEANING:
noun: A servant or a low-level employee tasked with many things.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin factotum, from facere (to do) + totus (all). Earliest documented use: 1573.
-----------------------------
FACT-TOTUM
1. a know-it-all
2. one who carries all the answers around
3. a Lorite (after Neal Stephenson)
SACTOTUM
A low-level executive tasked with delivering termination notices in a corporate downsizing.
minus F
ACTOTUM - a low level employee or servant who acts like he does all the work but does none.
FACTATUM Fan Club for either Tatum ONeal, or Tatum Channing
INTERLOCUTOR
PRONUNCIATION: in-tuhr-LOK-yuh-tuhr, -yoo
MEANING: noun: One who takes part in a conversation or dialogue, especially as a representative of an organization.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin inter- (between) + loqui (to speak). Earliest documented use: 1518.
------------------------------
INTERNLOCUTOR - representative to the Student AMA
INTERLOCUTORY - Speaker in Parliament of a British political party
ENTERLOCUTOR - Hamlet comes on stage (maybe that should be "Picard-of-Borg" comes on stage?)
And - for real - wasn't Mr. Interlocutor the man in the middle of the Minstrel Show line, the one who did all the talking?
move L
INTEROCULTOR - a raspy voice inside all of us that whispers to us;
Not to worry the Devil is dead.
INFERLOCUTOR News commentator giving their own opinion.
CONFRERE
PRONUNCIATION: (KON-frayr)
MEANING: noun: Colleague; a fellow member of a profession, fraternity, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin con- (with) + frater (brother). Other cousins of this word, derived from the same Indo-European root bhrater- (brother), are brother, pal, fraternal, and bully. Earliest documented use: 1425.
--------------------------------
CONFREE - Parole board
add i
CONIFRERE - a pine tree hugger
PROTEGE
PRONUNCIATION: (PRO-tuh-zhay, pro-tuh-ZHAY)
MEANING: noun: One who is protected, guided, and supported by somebody older and more experienced.
ETYMOLOGY: From French protégé, past participle of protéger (to protect), from Latin protegere, from pro- + tegere (cover). Ultimately from Indo-European root (s)teg- (to cover), which is the ancestor of other words such as tile, thatch, protect, detect, and toga. Earliest documented use: 1786.
---------------------------------
PROTOGE - the primordial dust cloud that coalesced into the Earth
add y
PYROTEGE - any initiate who survives the test of fire
fugleman
PRONUNCIATION:
(FYOO-guhl-muhn)
MEANING:
noun: One who leads a group, company, or party
--------------------------------------------------
A to E
FUGLEMEN -what Johnny Manziel will see tomorrow i.e.
a ///Crimson\\\ blurr converging from both flanks forcing him to run inside where 300lb linebackers wait who have been told that Johnny Football said something bad about their mothers.
BUGLEMAN - Boogie-Woogie in Company B
TRAGUS
PRONUNCIATION: (TRAY-guhs)
MEANING:
noun: The small fleshy projection at the front of the external ear, slightly extending over the opening of the ear.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek tragos (goat; hairy part of the ear), from the supposed resemblance of the tuft of hair at the opening of the ear to a goat's beard. The word is sometimes also applied to this hair growing in the ear. Earliest documented use: 1684.
------------------------------------
TARAGUS - a spiky vegetable raised on Scarlett O'Hara's farm, considered a a great delicacy if shielded from the sun so it won't turn green as it grows.
G > N
TRANUS - euphemism for the planet Uranus
TRALUS a small fence for vines to grow upon.
CHIMERA
PRONUNCIATION: (ki-MEER-uh, ky-)
MEANING: noun:
1. A fanciful fabrication; illusion.
2. An organism having genetically different tissues.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Chimera, a fire-breathing female monster in Greek mythology who had a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. From Greek khimaira (she-goat), ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter), which is the ancestor of words such as chimera (literally a female animal that is one winter, or one year old), hibernate, and the Himalayas, from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode). Earliest documented use: 1382.
-------------------------------
CHIMPERA - the Ape Age
Nice, wolf.
CHIMER - He who is in step with everyone else
AEGIS
PRONUNCIATION:
(EE-jis)
MEANING:
noun: Protection, support, guidance, or sponsorship of a particular person or organization.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin aegis, from Greek aigis (goatskin), from aix (goat). Aigis was the name of the shield or breastplate of Zeus or Athena in Greek mythology. It was made of goatskin. Earliest documented use: 1704.
--------------------------------
ACEGIS - Fantastic Footsoldiers
ALEGIS - drunk footsldiers
AREGIS - the King is gone, and there is no successor to the throne
aegis
PRONUNCIATION:(EE-jis)
MEANING:
noun: Protection, support, guidance, or sponsorship of a particular person or organization.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin aegis, from Greek aigis (goatskin), from aix (goat). Aigis was the name of the shield or breastplate of Zeus or Athena in Greek mythology. It was made of goatskin. Earliest documented use: 1704.
_________________________________________
i > g
AEGGS - "a" single egg with plural yolks "s"
CHEVRON
PRONUNCIATION:
(SHEV-ruhn, -ron)
MEANING:
noun: A pattern in the shape of a V or an inverted V.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French chevron (rafter, from the resemblance of the pattern to the shape of two rafters on a roof), from Latin caper (goat). The goat connection is not clear. Earliest documented use: 1395.
----------------------------------------
CLEVRON - the fundamental, irreducible unit of cleverness
CHEVROD - the slowest rod on the drag strip
Mmm. Clever, that one !
CHEVROD – 2. A 1,049-mile auto race from Anchorage to Nome.
CHEVLON – A company that produces tools and supplies for auto body work.
CHEVROD – 2. A 1,049-mile auto race from Anchorage to Nome.
I'd bet on the dogs but find it amazing that a race a thousand miles long could begin and end in the same State. Wow!
chagal
PRONUNCIATION: (CHAH-guhl)
MEANING:
noun: A bag, usually made of canvas or leather, used for carrying water.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Hindi chhagal, from Sanskrit chhagala (of a goat). Earliest documented use: 1909.
-----------------------------------
add N
CHANGAL - the Sanskirted girl who gave you change when you bought your goatskin of water.
... why have you never seen a "goator"?
CHAGALE - half a dance, done in a windstorm
SHIBBOLETH
PRONUNCIATION: (SHIB-uh-lith, -leth)
MEANING: noun:
1. The use of a word or pronunciation that distinguishes a group of people.
2. A slogan, belief, or custom that's now considered outmoded.
ETYMOLOGY: According to the Book of Judges in the Bible, the Gileadites used the Hebrew word shibboleth (ear of corn; stream) to identify the fleeing Ephraimites who couldn't pronounce the sh sound. 42,000 Ephraimites were slaughtered. Earliest documented use: 1382.
SHIBBOLESH - A failed Field Sobriety tesht -- oops, "test"
Sober up, Ephraimite.
Ephraimites taste best if sober before slaughtered.
O to Q SHIBBQLETH
HYPOCORISM
PRONUNCIATION:
(hy-POK-uh-riz-uhm, hi-)
MEANING:
noun
1. A pet name.
2. The practice of using pet names.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek hypokorisma (pet name), from hypo- (under) + kor- (child). Ultimately from Indo-European root ker- (to grow), which is also the source of other words such as increase, recruit, crew, crescent, cereal, concrete, crescendo, sincere, and Spanish crecer (to grow). Earliest documented use: 1850.
--------------------------------------
HYPNOCORISM - externally-induced belief that you're all heart
HYPOCOWISM - a male or female milkmaid
Etymology: [from Greek] hypo (under) cow (cow) ism (that which isem)
polysemous
PRONUNCIATION: (POL-ee-see-muhs)
MEANING: adjective: Having multiple meanings.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin polysemus, from Greek polysemos, from poly- (many) + sema (sign). Earliest documented use: 1884.
===================================================
POLYSERMOUS :
1) a religious sermon with a self-contradicting message about heaven
2) a religious sermon with a self-contridicting message about hell
3) a religious sermon that does not pertain to religion
4) a long rambling non-religious sermon covering everything from aardvark to zymurgy
POLYFEMUS - son of Poseidon and Thoosa. Had only one eye but saw many bones.
LAPSUS LINGUAE
PRONUNCIATION:
(LAP-suhs LING-gwee, LAHP-soos LING-gwy)
MEANING:
noun: A slip of the tongue.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin lapsus linguae (slip of the tongue). Earliest documented use: 1668.
NOTES: Malapropisms and spoonerisms are two examples of lapsus linguae.
------------------------------
LIPSUS LINGUAE - a fancy kiss
RAPSUS LINGUAE - Snoop Dog's explanation to the FCC as to why he rapped the word motherfucker on National TV (slip of the tongue).
PAREGMENON
PRONUNCIATION:
(puh-REG-muh-non)
MEANING: noun: The juxtaposition of words that have the same roots. Examples: sense and sensibility, a manly man, the texture of textile.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek paregmenon, from paragein (to bring side by side). Earliest documented use: 1577.
---------------------------------------------------
PAREGGMENON --
Depending on how you parse it.
1. two guys fomenting a riot (pair-egg-men-on)
Less commonly:
2. Hey, you two guys, get off my back! (pair-egg-me-non)
----------------------------
BTW - AFK for most of the weekend.
PAREGMEANON noun: The juxtaposition of two mean words that have the same mean roots. Example: mean and meaner, etc.
PETARD
PRONUNCIATION:
(pe-TAHRD, pi-)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A small bomb used to blast down a gate or wall.
2. A loud firecracker.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French péter (to break wind), from Latin peditum (a breaking wind), from pedere (to break wind). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pezd- (to break wind) which also gave us feisty, fart, and French pet (fart). Earliest documented use: 1566.
NOTES:
A petard was a bell-shaped bomb used to breach a door or a wall. Now that we have advanced to ICBMs, this low-tech word survives in the phrase "to hoist by one's own petard" meaning "to have one's scheme backfire". The idiom was popularized by Shakespeare in his play Hamlet. Hamlet, having turned the tables on those tasked with killing him, says:
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard
--------------------------------
PETYARD = a Chinese abbatoir
SETYARD = a sunny half acre filled with rocking chairs
for residents to 'set a spell' and reminisce.
add C
PETCARD - a cardboard cutout getwell card of a cute fluffy dog who looks like your own dog when he was just a little puppy given to you as you lie on a less-than-hospitable bed in pain amongst an over-abundance of incompetent doctoring.
druthers
PRONUNCIATION:(DRUTH-uhrz)
MEANING:
noun: One's own way; preference.
ETYMOLOGY:
Plural of druther, contraction of ’d rather, as in "I/he/etc. would rather ..." Earliest documented use: 1895.
-----------------------------------------------------
U to A
DRATHERS - spoken/sung lyrics of Rex Harrison's opening song in the 1959 English version of the Broadway play "Li'l Abner".
If I had my drathers,
I'd drather have my drathers
Than work any wheres at all
It ain't that I hates it,
I often contemplates it
while watchin' the rain drops fall
DUDGEON
PRONUNCIATION:
(DUHJ-uhn)
MEANING:
noun: A feeling of anger, resentment, indignation, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1380.
NOTES:
This word is often used in the term "in high dudgeon" as in "He went off in high dudgeon" meaning "He left in great anger and indignation."
---------------------------------------
DRUDGEON - a worker in a dull, boring, and repetitive job
D > F
FUDGEON - a curmudgeon who fudges. Often preceded by the companion word "nut" as in "nutfudgeon".
CABOODLE
PRONUNCIATION:
(kuh-BOOD-uhl)
MEANING:
noun: The lot, collection, or crowd.
NOTES:
The word is mostly seen in the expression "kit and caboodle" meaning "the whole lot".
ETYMOLOGY:
Perhaps from boodle (money, goods, people), from Dutch boedel (property). Earliest documented use: 1848.
-------------------------------
CABYODLE - how the Geneva Hilton Hotel doorman summons a taxi
Can it, Wolfa, you ruined my best def.
add > D CABDOODLE - doodles you draw while waiting for a cab summoned forth by a Geneva Hotel doorman's yodel.
SHRIFT
PRONUNCIATION:
(shrift)
MEANING:
noun: Confession to a priest. Also, penance and absolution that follow confession.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English scrift (confession, penance), from scrifan (to shrive: to impose penance). Ultimately from the Indo-European root skribh- (to cut, separate, or sift) that has resulted in other terms, such as manuscript, scribe, subscribe, scripture, scribble, and describe. Earliest documented use: 897.
NOTES:
The term nowadays is mostly seen in the form "to get short shrift" meaning to receive little consideration or a curt treatment. Originally, short shrift was what condemned criminals received: brief time granted to them for confession and absolution before execution.
----------------------------------------
SHRIF - charged with upholding the law in very small, laconic towns. USAGE: "The shrif cot thm tu catl rsslrs, dinnee?"
add an A
ASHRIFT geology :
A volcanic rift at the point of separation between two diverging continents i.e. volcanic ash fell back into the rift and filled it.
(see: Great Rift of Africa).
SHWIFT: A really shwell shatirisht and priesht.
furfuraceous
PRONUNCIATION:
(fuhr-fyuh-RAY-shus)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Covered with dandruff.
2. Flaky.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin furfur (bran, flake). Earliest documented use: 1650.
_____________________________________________
F > N
FURFUNACEOUS - being flaky but for fun. example:
No, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical.
______________________________Niels Bohr, physicist (1885-1962)
PURFURACEOUS - My cat says happily that she's going to make a lot of holes in that
Aha! Took a while to percolate to the surface. Did you know there is a benign skin lesion called "tinea versicolor" caused by the organism "Malassezia furfur"? Doesn't do much but make the skin give off little flakes. (Also absorbs ultraviolet light, so the affected part of the skin doesn't tan like the rest of it...)
furfurageous: wa-a-a-ay too much mink.
pediculous
PRONUNCIATION:
(pe-DIK-yuh-luhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Infested with lice: lousy; contemptible.
ETYMOLOGY:
From pedis (louse). Earliest documented use: 1540.
----------------------------------------------------
add E
PEDICULOUSE - a word with the same word meaning at both ends.
PEDICULOTUS - a flower that stands on its own little feet
xanthodontous
PRONUNCIATION:(zan-tho-DON-tuhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Having yellow teeth.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek xanthos (yellow) + -odon (toothed). Earliest documented use: 1862. Also see Xanthippe.
------------------------------------------------
add E
XANTHODONETOUS- literally : yellow-done-to-us, denoting a once free people afraid of their own government
AN ALTERNATE THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Imagine there's no countries, / It isn't hard to do,
/ Nothing to kill or die for, / No religion too,
/Imagine all the people / living life like trees.
-------------------------------- John Lennon, (1940-1980)
EXANTHODONTOUS - his teeth used to look like flowers (Greek, from anthos, flower)
(Maybe that should be "...flowers used to look like teeth." Like the DANDELION = Lions' Teeth)
pilgarlic
PRONUNCIATION:
(pil-GAHR-lik)
MEANING:
noun: A bald-headed person.
ETYMOLOGY:
Literally peeled garlic, from pill (to peel) + garlic. Earliest documented use: 1529.
---------------------------------------------
add K
PILGARLICK (Freudian psychology) - an irresistible urge to lick a bald man's head.
PILLGARLIC - "A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down" as modified for a diabetic
fustilugs
PRONUNCIATION:
(FUS-ti-lugs)
MEANING:
noun: A fat and slovenly person.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Middle English fusty (smelly, moldy) + lug (to carry something heavy). Earliest documented use: 1607.
----------------------------------------------------
F > L
LUSTILUGS - the four foot bearers of a reclining, bare or scantily-clad, Cleopatra in search of Mark Antony.
Cleo and Mark: one of your better ones. Got a good chuckle
out of it.
And Wofa, your Julie Andrews' song made me smile.
FUSTILAGS - we make the convicts bathe every June whether they need it or not
(BTW, Luke, with some medicines applesauce works better )
FUSTILAGS - we make the convicts bathe every June whether they need it or not
(BTW, Luke, with some medicines applesauce works better ) My mother, back in the day, would have said that would dilute
the medicine. But I like the idea better than sugar. Just
stay away from cinnamon. I hear it's become the "high" of
choice for some kids.
measly
PRONUNCIATION:(MEE-zlee, MEEZ-lee)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Ridiculously small or bad.
2. Infected with measles.
ETYMOLOGY:
Initially, the word measly was used to describe a pig infected with measles, which is probably derived from Middle Dutch masel (blemish) and its spelling influenced by Middle English mesel (leprous, leprosy). Earliest documented use: 1598.
-------------------------------------------------------------
m > i
EASILY - answer to the question "Can good men be fooled?" Example:
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - Eisenhower
See? Eisenhower was a nice man but without guns to fight bad men we all would be unclothed and cold and hungry.
Sneak in your opinions and get away with it.
WEASILY Weasily
PEASLY
Pease Porridge hot, Pease Porridge cold,Pease Porridge in the Pot Nine Days old,Spell me that in four Letters? I will, THAT.
MEWSLY -
1) an organic cereal, unique in that it can by itself support the growth of newborn kittens
2) extremely clever little felines
Now BranShea, be nice (maybe you are but I couldn't open your nice video) because I wern't being "weasily".
You see, BranShe, in these United States of Mississippi it is permissible to disagree with your betters even if your betters are by some strange quirk better than you.
Anu, as you saw, slipped in his Eisenhower quote and understandably only a weasily Mississippian complained.
And yet Anu, for the most part, is a good man.
You missed a cute little video. (link is in good order) So as I see you favor guns to keep off the bad man ( whoever they are) and to bring to everyone the wonderful permission to disagree with their betters ( whoever they may be)
Then you wern't being weasly but understandably only a weasly Missisippian. I really tried to understand. I don't mind being the dummy here.
ANEMIC
PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-NEEM-ik)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Lacking vitality, strength, or colorfulness.
2. Suffering from anemia.
ETYMOLOGY:
From anemia (a condition in which one has a reduced number of red blood cells or hemoglobin), from Greek an- (without) + haima (blood). Earliest documented use: 1839. The word anemious is entirely different.
----------------------------------------
AMEMIC - I can't think of anything
pronunciation:. "uh-MEEM-ick
origin: from "a-" (without), and "meme" (a unit of memory, a concept that sticks in your head)
Good one, Wolf! You are a tough act to follow.
PANENIC - an anthropologist who goes native.
Etymology: pan (all) -enic (one who studies a culture from the perspective of the culture he is studying).
SCLEROTIC
PRONUNCIATION:
(skluh-ROT-ik)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Hard, rigid, slow to adapt or respond.
2. Relating to or affected with sclerosis, an abnormal hardening of a tissue or part.
3. Of or relating to the sclera, the white fibrous outer layer of the eyeball.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek skleros (hard). Earliest documented use: 1543.
--------------------------------------------------------
SCLEROTICA - X-rated pictures of eyeballs (some people's eyes can be pretty sexy...)
Well Wolf,
your definition proves that you are slicker than me. I couldn't think of a faux word to post that combined hard and erotic without being raunchy. You did, and somehow did it with "eyes".
Good man.
There's a way you can post what you want,
even raunchy, JJ, and no one can see it,
without pushing 'open'. I, however, don't
know how to do it. You should look into
it. I'd open it, I often need a good laugh.
cancerous
PRONUNCIATION:
(KAN-suh-ruhs)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Having a harmful, uncontrolled growth.
2. Of or relating to cancer: a malignant growth or tumor.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin cancer (crab, tumor, cancer). Canker/cankerous are from the same root. Earliest documented use: 1425.
--------------------------------------------
c > d
DANCEROUS - one who thinks he can dance but can't.
cangerous - malignant marsupials
cangerous - malignant marsupials -- [like!]
CHANCEROUS - Big Box store for compulsive gamblers; pronounced "Chance-Я-Us"
Luke - and by extension J^2 - I think you mean the "Spoiler" button, the 11th on the Reply box row that starts with the smiley and ends with the little-and-then-big T for changing font size. Like this:
It's the letter S with a slash / through it. (Not the S with the _ through it; that's "strikethrough".
Love your Chance R Us.
{Don't know lots about computers: like turning R backwards}
But now I see how to hide a comment. Thanks a bunch.
Hope JJ sees it too.
pestilent PRONUNCIATION: (PES-tl-uhnt)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Deadly.
2. Infectious.
3. Harming peace, morals, etc.
4. Annoying.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin pestis (plague). Earliest documented use: 1613.
NOTES::
Here's a word that has a full range of meanings from merely annoying to deadly. But that's usually not a problem. In language,
context is king.
----------------------------------------------------------
e > u PUSTILENT -
(1)
PUSS-ee-luhnt a male who is controlled by females genitals
(2)
PUS tl uhnt the condition of a liquid flow from a point of body inflammation.
[NOTE: King Context and enunciation will determine which.]
Terrific !
I see you learned the procedure for hiding too.
Thanks to wofa, I've got it too. Now I need
to think of something raunchy.
PESTILENS - "Eliza...Where the Devil are my glasses?" (after Prof. H. Higgins) (pron. "glosses")
(Psst...Luke...I didn't know how either. But it's amazing what you can find by Googling. "Write a backwards R" and viola!)
You are sooooooooooo right about that. It is amazing what
you can find by just googling it. I sure wish it had been
around when I was growing up.
But I typed the bit about the reverse/backwards R and
about a hundred items came up which I could never absorb.
I know there is a way (which was discussed a lot of months ago)
about accessing the symbols on the numbers keypad of the
computer typeboard. But I did not save it and totally
cannot figure it out. How does it work, do you know?
tumid
PRONUNCIATION: (TOO-mid, TYOO-)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Swollen.
2. Bulging.
3. Pompous, bombastic.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin tumere (to swell). Earliest documented use: 1541.
USAGE:
"Her tumid eyes filled with tears and she began to cry."
Joseph Heller; Catch-22.
----------------------------------------
t > h
HUMID - damp
USAGE: "Her humid eyes filled with tears and she began to cry."
- Joseph Heller before rewrite
'TUPID Speech impediment for 'stupid'.
TUMOID - the curiously strong antacid, something between a TUMS and an ALTOID
U > I
TIMID - what we who write here are assuredly not.
primogeniture
PRONUNCIATION:
(pry-muh-JEN-i-chuhr, pree-, -choor)
MEANING:
noun:
1. The state of being the firstborn or eldest child in a family.
2. The right of succession and inheritance belonging to the firstborn child.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin primus (first) + gignere (to beget). Not to be confused with primogenitor. Earliest documented use: 1500.
___________________________________________________________
Add L
PRIMOGENITLURE - and the second lure is money.
PRIMOGENISURE - It's a wise first child who knows its own father (sometimes
PRIMOGENISIRE)PROMOGENITURE - an ad campaign for
www.Ancestry.com
Not to worry, Wolfman. Einstein was oft times late for a party.
But when he arrived everyone stopped and listened.
And there are plenty of sites on line to find whichever
primogenitlure is your fancy.
RECIDIVISM
PRONUNCIATION: (ri-SID-uh-viz-ehm)
MEANING: noun: Relapsing (into smoking, crime, etc.), especially repeatedly.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin re- (again) + cadere (to fall). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kad- (to fall), which is also the source of cadence, cascade, casualty, cadaver, chance, chute, accident, occident, decay, and casuistry . Earliest documented use: 1884.
----------------------------------------------
We don't need to change anything for this one!
RECIDIVISM - Falling Back again (changing from Daylight Savings to Standard Time)
----------------------------------------------
OK, OK, if you insist...
REBIDIVISM - irresistable over-optimism in a Bridge-player
add E ERECIDIVISM - united we stand
IIII divided we fall
////
decidivism – the firmly-held belief that the catheter will fall out of the arm.
MIEN
PRONUNCIATION: (meen)
MEANING: noun: Appearance, bearing, or demeanor.
ETYMOLOGY:
Probably a shortened form of demean (to conduct oneself in a specified manner), influenced by French mine (appearance). Earliest documented use: 1522.
add A
AMIEN - the close of a self-centered man's prayer
RIEN "Nothing", en francais.
Now I know how you feel, J-J ! Luke, you took the words out of my mouth! I would have tried to be cutesier, a la
RIEN - "Don't be fooled by that fancy claim, in Paris it means nothing..."
Here's Plan B:
MICEN, pronounced meissen
1) German pottery
2) Steinbeck story about two men, one mentally challenged, exploring the theme Are You a Man or a Mouse? ["Of Micen Men"]
Yes you did Wofahaulic, you did, you did mien it and you miended it well.
Of "of micen men" : Only a mien man would
punctuate Steinbeck's great novella.
AUTOCHTHONOUS
PRONUNCIATION:
(o-TOK-thuh-nuhs)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Aboriginal; indigenous.
2. Formed or originating in the place where found.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek autochthon (of the land itself), from auto- (self) + chthon (earth, land). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also sprouted human, homicide, humble, homage, chamomile, exhume, inhume, chthonic, disinter, chameleonic, and Persian zamindar (landholder). Earliest documented use: 1804. The opposite of this term is allochthonous.
(Why does it look so familiar, even in this context?)
(Because of the Word for August 16, just nine weeks ago, that's why.)
AUTOCATHONOUS ("auto-cath-in-us") - technical name for when the car mechanic puts that little tube in your tailpipe to measure emissions, so you can get your inspection sticker
When the going gets tough...dazzle with bullspit and lie.
n > m
AUTOCATHOMOUS - The autothomus C. A. Thomous who was widely unknown for being the second man to invent the American automobile.
pecksniffian
PRONUNCIATION:(pek-SNIF-ee-uhn)
MEANING:
adjective: Pretending to have high moral principles; sanctimonious, hypocritical.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Seth Pecksniff, a character in Charles Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit. Earliest documented use: 1844
-------------------------------------------------------
sniff a S
SPECKSNIFFIAN - a mother-in-law on her first visit to her daughter-in-law's house.
wonderful! may be a touphie, but you did it.
techsniffian computer geek fixing errors
necksniffian – highly effective perfume.
PEEKSNIFFIAN - that'd be your K-9 Corps bomb-searching squad in action, dog and man together...
SMELLFUNGUS
PRONUNCIATION:
(smel-FUNG-uhs)
MEANING:
noun: A habitual faultfinder or complainer.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Smelfungus, a hypercritical character in Laurence Sterne's 1768 novel, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. Earliest documented use: 1807.
NOTES:
Novelist Laurence Sterne modeled his character Smelfungus after traveler and author Tobias Smollett who complained about almost everything in his 1766 travel book Travels through France and Italy. Here's how Sterne describes Smelfungus:
"The learned Smelfungus travelled from Boulogne to Paris, from Paris to Rome, and so on; but he set out with the spleen and jaundice, and every object he pass'd by was discoloured or distorted. He wrote an account of them, but 'twas nothing but the account of his miserable feelings."
USAGE:
"And a couple of smellfungus from the Official Paper ... carped that Issel chose to jump when the schedule reached its toughest stretch."
Woody Paige; Issel is the Wrong Scapegoat in Nuggets' Mess; Denver Post; Feb 13, 1995.
-----------------------------------------
SWELLFUNGUS - growing bigger truffles
FALSTAFFIAN
PRONUNCIATION:
(fal-STAF-ee-uhn)
MEANING:
adjective: Fat, jolly, and convivial.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Sir John Falstaff, a character in Shakespeare's plays Henry IV (parts 1 & 2) and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Earliest documented use: 1809.
USAGE:
"His hair was long and scruffy, his ties ludicrous and his manner jovial bordering on Falstaffian; a board meeting, for him, was a debate, punctuated by gales of his maniacal laughter."
John Harvey-Jones; The Economist (London, UK); Jan 17, 2008.
-----------------------------------------
FALLSTAFFIAN
happily hiring extra help to rake up the leaves
(don't you just pine for a backyard full of evergreens)
HALSTAFFIAN high school hall monitors with machine guns.
[ L -> U ]
FAUSTAFFIAN - a friend of a friend of the devil.
...That'd be "a friend of a friend of a fiend"?
So right you always are, Doc.
Now please (if you will) place in proper order these three folks ...
Mephistopheles
Wolfahullic
The Devil
into this sentence...
...a fiend________ who is a friend___________ of a fiend_________.
Thanks Wolf!
milquetoast
PRONUNCIATION: (MILK-tohst)
MEANING:
noun: A timid, unassertive person.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Caspar Milquetoast, a comic strip character by H.T. Webster (1885-1952). A synonym of the word is milksop. Earliest documented use: 1932
-----------------------------------------------
MILQUEBOAST - I am a human being too.
MINQUETOAST - Here's to your new fur coat !
bumbledom
PRONUNCIATION:(BUHM-buhl-duhm)
MEANING:
noun: Behavior characteristic of a pompous and self-important petty official.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Mr. Bumble in Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist. Bumble was a fussy, self-important beadle (a minor parish officer) of the workhouse where Oliver Twist was born.
USAGE:
"We regret to record the death of Albury-Wodonga with a hyphen. ... Bumbledom in the two councils has decreed the hyphen must go from stationery and signs."
-Howard Jones; Political Doublespeak is Sad Legacy for Border Folk; (Wodonga, Australia 2007).
------------------------------------------------------
HUMBLEDOM - as in
"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all."
-Michelangelo (1475-1564)
DUMBLEDOM --> what Albus Percival Wilfric Brian wears his Wizard's Hat on
Well gang, I guess once again that wofah get's the last laugh.
Darn.
bupkis
PRONUNCIATION: BUHP-kis)
MEANING:
noun: Absolutely nothing; worthless.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Yiddish, short for kozebubkes (goat droppings), from bub/bob (bean). Earliest documented use: 1937.
--------------------------------------------------
- minus b-
UPKIS - a kiss on the upper lips
BUPKID - Halloweed treat (sorry, by dose is stuffed)
(My first thought was PUPKIS - "My doggie licked my face !" but you beat me to it)
SCHNOZZLE
PRONUNCIATION: (SHNOZ-ul)
MEANING: noun: A nose, especially a large one.
ETYMOLOGY From Yiddish shnoytsl, diminutive of shnoyts (snout), from German Schnauze (snout), which also gave us the name of the dog breed schnauzer. Earliest documented use: 1930.
---------------------------------
SCHNOTZLE - a vole cutlet
L to I
SCHNOZZIE - a too small nose on a real big man.
SCHMO or schmoe or shmo
PRONUNCIATION: (shmo)
MEANING: noun: A stupid, boring, or obnoxious person.
ETYMOLOGY: A truncated form of schmuck (an idiot), from Yiddish schmok (pen is). Earliest documented use: 1948.
NOTES: The word is also used in the phrase Joe Schmo, as a more colorful synonym for John Doe.
--------------------------------------------------
[or Tom, Dick, or Harry, for that matter]
SACHMO - a more colorful trumpet player of yore. Definitely not your average stupid, boring, or obnoxious person. Loud, maybe.
SCHMOO- a lovable mythical animal that when fried tastes like chicken when roasted tastes like pig and when barbequed tastes like prime beef.
(The whiskers make great toothpicks, too)
See
The Life and Times of the Shmoo) (published in paperback around 1949)
I guess I never got the humor. I thought they were
abominable.
Abominable?
Shoot, Luke! Try boiling them in muscadine wine and you will find them abso
Lukely wonderful. Besides, there is something very noble in bowling-pin shapped animals whose only desire is to feed mankind.
Reeks of cannibalism to me.
pogrom
PRONUNCIATION:(puh-GROM, POH-gruhm)
MEANING:
noun: An organized massacre, officially tolerated or encouraged, against a particular group.
TYMOLOGY:
From Yiddish pogrom, from Russian pogrom (destruction). Earliest documented use: 1891.
----------------------------------------------------------
POGRAM - an [OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT NOTICE] to old folks ordering their extermination so that thier benefits can be given to the po'.
POGOROM - Walt Kelly's opossum's computer Read-Only Memory chip set
dreck or drek
PRONUNCIATION: (drek)
MEANING:
noun: Rubbish; trash.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Yiddish drek (filth, dirt, dung). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (excrement) that is also the source of scoria and scatology. Earliest documented use: 1922.
---------------------------------------------
add I add T add c
DIRECKTOR DRECK - Famous Rap Singer
DRUCK - inebriated with a stuffed nose
Interesting that the week began with Bupkes and ended with Dreck, the one being minor version of the other
Kinda gives new meaning to the old drinking song:
Ach, du lieber Augustin, Augustin, Augustin, *
Ach, du lieber Augustin, alles is hin.
. Gelt ist weg, Gut ist weg,
. Augustin liegt in Dreck,
Ach, du lieber Augustin, alles is hin.
which translates loosely as
Oh, my dear Augustine, Augustine, Augustine,
Oh, my dear Augustine, everything is gone.
. Money is gone, Everything good is gone,
. Augustine is lying in the gutter. **
Oh, my dear Augustine, everything is gone.
* Because Augustine is feeling a bit green around the gills by now...
** (All right, if you insist, it means "Augustine is lying in shit." Why do you think they invented gutters in the first place?!)
josh
PRONUNCIATION:(josh)
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To make fun of or tease in a good-natured way.
noun: A teasing or joking remark.
ETYMOLOGY:
Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1845.
----------------------------------------------------------
--> J TO P
POSH - a polite word for phoney
JOBSH - The inventor of the Apple computer was often given to hyperbolic statements.
(Here's
more than you wanted to know about this branch of mathematics. Its nomenclature has a bunch of instances of taking famililar things and adding an -h to their name.)
biddy
PRONUNCIATION:(BID-ee)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A young chicken.
2. A woman, especially an elderly one, who is talkative, interfering, or annoying.
3. A cleaning woman.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1616.
For 2, 3: Short for the name Bridget. Sense 3 is from Irish maid-servants in the US. Earliest documented use: 1785.
__________________________________________
B -> D
DIDDY - the low rent section of a place in Mississippi named after the Choctaw word for love viz. "diddy-wah-diddy"
It ain't no town, it ain't no city,
But oh how they love in diddy wah diddy
BIDDAY (bid-DAY) - a bathroom fixture for cleansing your nether parts. Found more often in Europe than in USA.
Thank you, Wofa-etcetera, for explaining BIDDAY to us the unwashed. Now would you please explain to us what you mean by "cleansing our nether parts"?
GIDDY - a silly person who giggles at euphemisms like "nether parts".
harry
PRONUNCIATION:(HAR-ee)
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.:
1. To harass, attack, or annoy, especially repeatedly.
2. To raid or pillage.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English hergian. Ultimately from the Indo-European root koro- (war, host, army) which also gave us harbor, harbinger, herald, harness, hurry, and harangue. Earliest documented use: 1330.
-----------------------------------------------------
TARRY - to be slow when you harras, attack, annoy, raid, rape, and pillage repeatively.
... what you mean by "cleansing our nether parts"?
...Anything you want. It's a projective test.
HARLY - how motorcycle owners laugh
HARLY - how motorcycle owners laugh
(good one, Doc)
Remember:
Everytime your bulky Harley burns up the road belching smoke and noxious CO2 gas
a flower smiles.
HARDY - What Harley Davidson drivers need to be to upright and kickstart a Hog.
mulligan
PRONUNCIATION: MUHL-i-guhn)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A second chance, especially in golf where a player is sometimes given another shot to make up for a poor shot which is not counted.
2. A stew made from odds and ends, using whatever is available.
ETYMOLOGY:
Both senses of the word are from the name Mulligan. It's not certain who these two Mulligans were -- maybe a golf player and a chef. Earliest documented use: 1936.
---------------------------------------------------------
add I
MULLIGAIN - the duffer rule that states that if your mulligan is shorter than your first drive you are then allowed to play the best ball.
NULLIGAN - took another swing, thank you, and missed the ball completely this time too.
ADD G
MULLIGANG - an Irish street gang notorious for meeting at a local pub and mulling over plans to blow up parliament. At closing time they all go home to sober up to drink and mull and plot again tomorrow.
RUBE
PRONUNCIATION: (roob)
MEANING: noun: An unsophisticated person from a rural area.
ETYMOLOGY: Shortened form of name Reuben. Earliest documented use: 1891. Also see "hey rube."
-------------------------------------------
RUHE - original name of "All's Quiet on the Western Front" (prior to translation)
(Actually, the name was "Im Westen Nichts Neues." Nice try, doc, but not even close)
RUWE. A brand of pencil. Made by Ruwe pencil co., past CEO named Ruwe Halsey, who was grandson of Admiral Halsey of US Pacific fleet in WW II.
RUNE - a letter of the mystical German alphabet used in Scandinavia until the Middle Ages. As in:
Keeping time, time, time
In a sort of Runic rhyme
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells
__________________________________ Poe
lotus-eater PRONUNCIATION:(LO-tuhs-ee-tuhr)
MEANING:
noun: A person who indulges in idle daydreaming or leads a life of luxurious ease, instead of dealing with practical matters.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the lotus-eaters, people in Homer's Odyssey, who ate the lotus fruit that supposedly induced a dreamy forgetfulness. Earliest documented use: 1832.
-------------------------------------------------
LOCUS-EATERS - are hungry and avid readers of R A Lafferty's eclectic writings that Locus SF Magazine (the copyright owners of all of Lafferty's many books) has greedily witheld publication for three years in order to assuage an already eager market.
Since R A Lafferty was and is the most important writer of the 20th Century this is a most reprehensible act.
A spokeman for Locus has said that they will begin releasing Lafferty's short stories this month.
We shall see.
LOTUS-HATER -- if I have to go to one more Yoga class I'm going to SCREAM !!!
(contrast LOTUS-SEATER)
primrose path
PRONUNCIATION:(PRIM-rohz PATH)
MEANING:
noun:
1. An easy life, especially devoted to sensual pleasure.
2. A path of least resistance, especially one that ends in disaster.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin prima rosa (first rose). Earliest documented use: 1604.
===========================================================
PRIMROSE MATH- the new math which is easier than the old math because the correct answer is the average of all the students answers.
lily-livered
PRONUNCIATION:(LIL-ee-LIV-uhrd)
MEANING:
adjective: Cowardly or timid. ETYMOLOGY:
In earlier times, the liver was considered to be the seat of courage. Hence, lacking blood, a white liver, indicated lack of courage. Earliest documented use: 1616.
============================================================
LILY-SLIVERED - a chief ingredient of the Choctaw Black Drink usually given as; a sliver of a lily freshly cut, the left eye of the false slink, the venom of three mudsnakes extracted when angry, a pinch of the poison nightshade plant finely powered.
To drink the Black Drink was said to restore courage.
sub rosa
PRONUNCIATION:(sub RO-zuh)
MEANING:
adverb: Secretly, privately, or confidentially.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin sub (under) rosa (rose). Earliest documented use: 1654. The English term "under the rose" is also used to refer to something in secret.
============================================================
SUB PROSA - obtuse legalese used by lawyers to befuddle thier clients into believing that they know mumbo jumbo words that are magic.
PRIAMROSE PATH - The King of Troy lived in a fine palace before the War
LILY-LOVERED - Bunthorne; see
Patience, Act I
usage:
...Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your languid spleen,...An attachment a la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not-too-French French bean!...Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high aesthetic band,... If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand.(See p. 16,
here.)
SUBAROSA - a Japanese car, artfully colored pink so nobody will notice it
amaranthine
PRONUNCIATION:(am-uh-RAN-thin, -thyn)
MEANING:
adjective
1. Unfading; everlasting.
2. Of deep purple-red color.
3. Of or related to the amaranth.
====================================================
AMERANTHINE - literally America is thine
1.What Columbus told Isabella
2.What the American indians told their children
AMARANTOINE - to know Tony is to love him forever
CUTRATE'S EGG
PRONUNCIATION: (KYOOR-itz eg)
MEANING: noun: Something having both good and bad parts.
ETYMOLOGY:
From a cartoon in Punch magazine (London, UK) in which a timid curate (a junior clergy member), when served a stale egg at a bishop's table, tries to assure his host that parts of the egg are edible. Earliest documented use: 1905.
---------------------------
CUTRATE'S EGG - it has more bad parts than good parts, but at least it's inexpensive
Ha! I can't top that, Wofa.
CURATE'S LEGG - The legacy of a far-seeing man. As in Andrew Carnegie who through his Foundation built free libraries throughout America.
---------------------------------------
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.
-- Andrew Carnegie, industrialist (1835-1919)
gerrymander
PRONUNCIATION:
(JER-i-MAN-duhr)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To repartition an area in order to create electoral districts that give an unfair advantage to a political party.
noun: 1. An instance of gerrymandering. 2. One or more electoral districts, widely differing in size or population, created as a result of gerrymandering.
==============================================
JERRYMANDER - The Germans WWII attempt to redistrict the World into the shape of a globe.
GERHYMANDER
(pronounced ge-RIM-an-ter)
adj. a German verb ("rhymen") made into a present participle (ge-) made into a noun (-and) made into an adjective (-er); refers to poetry whose rhyme-scheme is aBaBcDcD.
Example:
Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium!
Wir betreten feuertrunken, himmlische, Dein Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng geteilt,
Alle Menschen werden Brüder, wo Dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
usw.
-Schiller, An der Freude ("Ode to Joy")
McCARTHYISM
PRONUNCIATION: (muh-KAHR-thee-iz-uhm)
MEANING: noun: The practice of making unfounded accusations against someone.
ETYMOLOGY: After US senator Joseph McCarthy (1909-1957) known for making unsubstantiated claims accusing people of being Communists, spies, and disloyal. Earliest documented use: in 1950 in a cartoon by Herbert Block.
-------------------------------------------
McCARTHYRISM - the orthographically-challenged strategy of returning to the region from which one was forced to withdraw temporarily (after General Douglas MacArthur, who uttered "I shall return!" when he had to leave the Philippines early in World War II. And indeed, he did.)
McCARTHYIST- a communist front man for Edgar Bergen who is famous for saying "Those who call someone a 'McCarthyite' by definition becomes one themselves."
McCARTHYISE - the 'red scare' of the era, to see
'commies' behind every tree.
Now Luke, don't paint a generation with a paranoid brush least Charlie McCarthy accuse you of being a name-calling McCarthyite.
MCEARTHISM- an ad campaign so successful that all people on Earth stop cooking and begin eating every meal at McDonalds...mostly Happy Meals.
Talk about labels.....McDonalds?
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
RUBEGOLDBERG
PRONUNCIATION: (roob GOLD-buhrg)
MEANING: adjective: Absurdly complex or impractical.
ETYMOLOGY:
After cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) who was known for his intricate drawings showing fantastically impractical contraptions to accomplish simple jobs. Earliest documented use: 1928.
---------------------------------------
RUBYGOLDBERG - a broken-off chunk of glacier floating on the ocean that looks red or yellow depending on your angle of view
CUBE COLDBERG- an iceberg concocted by Dali
*
Grrr this stupid laptop refuses to concoct a _ebra or a damn question mark.
blimp
PRONUNCIATION: (blimp)
MEANING:
noun: A pompous reactionary with out-of-date views.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Colonel Blimp, a cartoon character created by David Low (1891-1963). Blimp was a satirical look at the self-important and ultra-nationalistic attitudes of officials in the British army and government. Earliest documented use: 1934.
==========================================================
LLIMP - a llama with a llimp.
GLIMP - One quick sneak peek. If you look more than once, you use the plural, "glimps," for the brief image you see.
--------------------------------------
And...and...but...I thought the word Blimp preceded the cartoon character, that indeed the character's name was a back-derivation from the name of that other, literal, gasbag. Military barrage balloons, with no internal structure and hence "limps," came in two shapes: the round ones - A-limps - and the cigar-shaped ones we see more often - "B-limps," quickly shortened to Blimps. Is this story totally apocryphal?
felicitous
PRONUNCIATION: (fi-LIS-i-tuhs)
MEANING:
adjective: 1. Well suited. 2. Pleasing.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin felix (happy). Earliest documented use: 1641.
=========================================================
FELICITOUT - to proclaim endlessly your state of intense happiness to a person who is sad.
FELICIOUS - or, as they say in Pyongyang, "This stewed cat is yummy!"
DISPRIZE
PRONUNCIATION: (dis-PRYZ)
MEANING: verb tr.: To disdain or scorn.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French desprisier (dispraise), from Latin pretium (price, worth, or reward). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to traffic in, to sell) which also gave us praise, price, precious, appreciate, appraise, and interpret. Earliest documented use: 1480.
----------------------------------------------
DISPRIDE - that warm feeling you get after delivering an absolutely crushing insult
DISPRIZED - what you will become if you dis Jeopardy game show hostess Vanna White by saying "baby got back".
ineluctable
PRONUNCIATION:
(in-i-LUHK-tuh-buhl)
MEANING:
adjective: Impossible to avoid: inescapable.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin in- (not) + eluctari (to struggle out of), from ex- (out) + luctari (to struggle). Earliest documented use: 1623.
==========================================================
Add R
INRELUCTABLE - not afraid of being afraid
INELECTABLE -- what they called Harry Truman in 1948 and ______________ in 2016 (insert Dark Horse of choice)
MALINGER
PRONUNCIATION: (muh-LING-guhr)
MEANING: verb intr.: To feign illness in order to avoid work.
ETYMOLOGY: From French malingre (sickly). Earliest documented use: 1820.
------------------------------------
MEALINGER - after-dinner conversation
Runner-up: MAILINGER - Dead-Letter Office
UNELECTABLE -- what they called Harry Truman in 1948 and THAT WOMAN in 2016 (insert Dark Horse of choice)
Mmmm? On second thought I'd rather have a dark horse than
That Woman.
malinger
PRONUNCIATION: (muh-LING-guhr)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To feign illness in order to avoid work.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French malingre (sickly). Earliest documented use: 1820.
=============================================================
+ f
MAL-FINGER - the bad middle finger
MEALINGER - after-dinner conversation
SALINGER - a writer who was a malinger.
MAFINGER – an exclamation of surprise commonly used when attempting to drive a nail.
nimiety
PRONUNCIATION: (ni-MY-i-tee)
MEANING:
noun: Excess or redundancy.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin nimius (too much). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ne (not), which also gave us nil, null, not, never, nothing, nihilism, annihilate, and naughty. Earliest documented use: 1542.
==============================================================
NIMPIETY - the act of having too much piety; so much that you change the World. (See... Nelson Mandela}
ANIMIETY - worrying about life as depicted in a Japanese graphic novel
TIMIETY - if you're scared; say scared.
NIXIETY - the fraternity that is our current House of Representatives ? [/rant]
INOCULATE
PRONUNCIATION: (i-NOK-yuh-layt)
MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To treat with a vaccine to induce immunity against a disease.
2. To introduce an idea into someone's mind.
3. To safeguard or protect.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin in- (in) + oculus (eye; bud, referring to grafting of a bud into a plant of a different type). Earliest documented use: 1420.
[Also, referring to the first smallpox vaccine, which was administered by instilling a drop of vaccine into the eye sac - wofa]
---------------------------------------------
(I wanted to make INOCULATTE - "to get coffee in our eye because it's WAY too early" - but that's one of the original ones !)
INOMULATE - to miss your train because you meditated too long
+ t
INOCULTATE - a western member of an eastern cult who meditates while drinking latte and misses his train.
PALPABLE
PRONUNCIATION:
(PAL-puh-buhl)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Easily perceived; obvious.
2. Capable of being touched or felt; tangible.
3. Capable of being discerned by touching (as an illness or a disease).
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin palapare (to touch, caress), from palpus (palm, stroke, caress). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pal- (to touch, feel, or shake), which also gave us palpate, palpitate, feel, and sprachgefuhl. Earliest documented use: 1395.
---------------------------------------------
PAPABLE - Pope material ?
PALIPABLE - Ah, yer father's moustache !
PAMPABLE– male Argentinian livestock
PALPFABLE - a romantic fable that touches the heart.
CULLET
PRONUNCIATION:(KUHL-it)
MEANING:
noun: Scrap glass suitable for remelting.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French collet, diminutive of col (neck), from Latin collum (neck), apparently referring to a bottle's neck. Earliest documented use: 1817.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PULLET - A Christmas Story: My Gramdma Grider loved her chickens. She would sing to them everyday and when feeding them she would call each by name and they would come. One Saturday me and my cousin heard her calling to the chickens so we looked out the back window to watch. Grandma had two pullets by the neck, one in each hand.
Deftly, almost inperceptually, she gave her hands a slight twist and the chickens were dead.
The next day when Grandma called us to Sunday dinner we came imediatelly wearing our best manners. We wondered what were the names of the chickens we were eating but were too afraid to ask.
Wow, J^2, with that story you could have used CALLET, or BULLET, CILLIT, or maybe even CUTLET, with equal aplomb...
I'll have to go with
CULLEX = a genus of mossquito, known to transmit various diseases such as Wesst Nille Encephallitis and a few otherss
SKINT
PRONUNCIATION: (skint)
MEANING: adjective: Having no money; broke; poor.
ETYMOLOGY: A variant spelling of the word skinned, as in, so broke that even one's skin is shaved off. Earliest documented use: 1925.
NOTES: Most of the time we make past participle of a word by adding -ed to it (walk/walked), but sometimes we use the phonetic spelling as in today's word. Some other examples are burnt, learnt, spilt, and spoilt. By the way, the word 'past' itself is a phonetic spelling of 'passed'. The -t spellings are more common in British English.
----------------------------------
SKILT -- a small frying pan for a short-order cook in a fast-food joint
SKINZ one half a boys PhysEd class basketball team.
If your skin has been
SKINT because your money has been poorly
SPINT then for help go ask your
KINT - a kint is anyone who is by kin your kint
pratfall
PRONUNCIATION:
(PRAT-fawl)
MEANING:
noun: A humiliating failure, blunder, or defeat.
ETYMOLOGY:
A pratfall is literally a fall on the buttocks. The word is figuratively used to describe embarrassing errors or failures. From prat (buttocks, fool) + fall. Earliest documented use: 1939.
==============================================================
PRATBALL - like football but you don't tackle the guy with the ball you pat him on the butt and he is ruled down.
(like touch football except you pat instead of touch.)
Oh, Lordy, JJ, the images that connotes.
BRATFALL -when a bully gets his/her comeuppance.
So many possibilities...
PRAYFALL - what Lucifer said on his way down
SPRATFALL - that's the reason Ol' Jack has been avioding grease (and fat) for so long
PRATFILL - euphemism for "constipation." See also PRATFAIL
SPRATFALL - (see below)
Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
And so betwixt the two of them
They licked the platter clean
Jack ate all the lean,
Joan ate all the fat.
The bone they picked it clean,
Then gave it to the cat
Jack Sprat was wheeling,
His wife by the ditch.
The barrow turned over,
And in she did pitch.
Says Jack, "She'll be drowned!"
But Joan did reply,
"I don't think I shall,
For the ditch is quite dry.".
Written by: Unknown Published: 1639
descant
PRONUNCIATION:
(verb: des-KANT, dis-, noun: DES-kant)
MEANING:
verb intr.: 1. To talk tediously. 2. To sing or play a descant.
noun: 1. A comment on a subject. 2. An ornamental melody sung or played above a basic melody.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin discantus (refrain), from dis- (apart, away) + cantus (song), from canere (to sing). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kan- (sing), which also gave us hen, chant, accent, enchant, incentive, recant, cantor, and charm.
======================================================
DESCART(es) - I think therefore I am. I think therefore I am.
I think, well am I not?
DECANT - The Power of Positive Thinking.: to remove the negative from your vocabulary.
DESRANT - when an ignorant man meets a wise man how does he know it?
hebetate
PRONUNCIATION: (HEB-i-tayt)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To make dull or obtuse.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin hebetare (to make blunt), from hebes (blunt). Earliest documented use: 1574.
USAGE:
"Habit then while it hebetates our sentiments, improves our judgments of things."
Gordon M. Burghardt; The Genesis of Animal Play; MIT Press; 2005.
=========================================================
HABETATE- to build a habitat for humanity rather than a house for a man.
Why change it at all? "He who hebetates is lost!"
1) HEBERATE - to scold, loudly and publicly. Usage: "When my stupidity lost us the Foofnik contract, my Boss HEBERATE me in front of everybody for the rest of the day!"
-or-
2) REBETATE - to croak like a frog
BLANDISH
PRONUNCIATION: (BLAN-dish)
MEANING: verb intr.: To coax with flattery.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin blandiri (to flatter). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mel- (soft), which also gave us bland, melt, smelt, malt, mild, mulch, mollify, mollusk, emollient, enamel, smalto, and schmaltz. Earliest documented use: 1305.
--------------------------------------------
CLANDISH - see HAGGIS
O'Landish - an Irishman whose smiling eyes and flattering words are but blarney stone lies he wears to cage a drink.
IMPORTUNEPRONUNCIATION: (im-pawr-TOON, im-pawr-TYOON, im-PAWR-chuhn)
MEANING:
1. What the Beatles did
2. To ask someone, repeatedly or annoyingly, to do something.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin importunus, from in- (not) + portus (port, refuge). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over), which also gave us support, comport, petroleum, sport, passport, petrify, colporteur (a peddler of religious books), Swedish fartlek (a training technique), Norwegian fjord (bay), and Sanskrit parvat (mountain). Earliest documented use: 1530.
---------------------------------
IMPOORTUNE - "All That Gold," from
Amahl and the Night Visitors (
this is as close as I could get to the song, on short notice)
PIMPORTUNE - a pimp whose incessant insisiting has forced you upstairs to meet sweet Lotta Lola in room 333.
colligate
PRONUNCIATION: KOL-i-gayt)
MEANING:
verb tr. To bind or group together.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin colligare, from com- (together) + ligare (bind). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leig (to bind), which is also the source of oblige, alloy, ally, rely, lien, league, liable, ligature, and furl. Earliest documented use: 1545.
============================================================
COLDIGATE - a conspiracy by science and politicians to suppress the fact that Earth stopped warming 17 years ago.
DOLLIGATE - how you enter that
big mansion in Brentwood, Tennessee
COLLIFATE - in Spring 1928 the entire sitting math class at Dublin University was composed entirely of students (both male and female) whose first names were claimed to be "Colleen".
This incongruity (or congruity) caused the math teacher (whose name was not "Colleen"} to exclaim...
"Well, mathematically a colligate such as this is sooner or later destined to occur. But non-mathematically speaking, the odds are dead even that these names will re-occur in this same class next year".
COLLIGAZE - Lassie looks intently off into the distance, as though hearing the cry of a child fallen into a well and trapped...
COLLIGAZE - Lassie looks intently off into the distance,
as though hearing the cry of a child fallen into a well and trapped...
****** Great! Best of the Season. I didn't cry but if I hadn't laughed I would have. Thanks Doc.
lickspittle
PRONUNCIATION:(LIK-spit-l)
MEANING:
noun: A servile flatterer. ETYMOLOGY:
From lick, from Old English liccian + spittle, from old English spittan. A term with a similar idea is brown-noser. Earliest documented use: 1825.
=======================================================
D ...no!
+L
LICKSPLITTLE - to hurry forward a little lickety-split.
LACKSPITTLE -- one with no spirit or backbone; a pissant
tosspot
PRONUNCIATION: (TOS-pot)
MEANING: noun: 1. A drunkard. 2. An idiot.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the phrase to toss off (to drink rapidly). Earliest documented use: 1568.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." -Voltaire
"Is it you that you revere, Voltaire?" - answered a drunk
=========================================================
TOSSBOT- a practice baseball pitching machine that only throws balls wildly as if it were drunk.
BOSSPOT - Nice one Luke.
TOPSPOT works there, too!
TOSSPORT - finicky kind of TOSSPOT, will only imbibe one specific beverage
TOSSPOST - there's that Dead Letter Office again (see MAILINGER above, 12/5/13)
thanks
MILKSOP
PRONUNCIATION: (MILK-sop)
MEANING: noun: One who is timid or indecisive.
ETYMOLOGY: A milksop is, literally, a piece of bread soaked in milk, a diet considered suitable for babies and the sick. A synonym of this term is milquetoast. Earliest documented use: 1390.
---------------------------------
MILLSOP - Standard Operating Procedure in the factory
runnerup:
MILKSOZ - what that fake Wizard does in the Emerald City
BILKSOP Victim of a ponzi-like scheme.
ILKSOP- a set of human beings who follow standard operating procedures of being alive and never ask why.
hayseed
PRONUNCIATION: (HAY-seed)
MEANING:
noun: An unsophisticated person who comes from a rural area.
ETYMOLOGY:
Alluding to a person with straw in his clothes or smelling of hayseed and regarded as a country bumpkin. Earliest documented use: 1577.
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HAY-SPEED- in circa 1967 a one hit wonder named Mister Earl whom they often called "Speedo" was on the skids. His friends "The Drifters" wrote a question/response stage song with the refrain "Hey speed" to facilitate the re-invigoration of Speedo's fame.
The song is a wonderful hoot. I'll edit in a Youtube rendition if one exists.
HAYSEND
verb: moved quickly
gadabout
PRONUNCIATION: (GAD-uh-bout)
MEANING:
noun: One who roams around in search of amusement.
ETYMOLOGY:
From gad (to go around from one place to another aimlessly). Earliest documented use: 1817
=========================================================
GAGABOUT - a fight between Mister Gaga and Lady Gaga for dominance.
GIGABOUT: 2^30, which is 1,073,741,824, or about one billion
(the way a Meg is 2^20, which is 1,048,576, or about a million,
and a K is 2^10, which is 1,024, or about a thousand)
Edit: Oops, that's two changes. One too many. Let's try this one:
GADABOOT: to kick your prodigal son out of the house once and for all
BLEB
PRONUNCIATION: (bleb)
MEANING: noun: 1. A small blister or swelling. 2. A bubble.
ETYMOLOGY: Perhaps alteration of blob. Earliest documented use: 1607.
--------------------------------
BLEEB - censorship on the British Broadcasting Corporation
BLUB - Moby Dick's bubba who was much too fat to excape the harpoons of Ahab but yet in death he contributed tons of enlightment to mankind. Hense the term "light Blub".
jilt
PRONUNCIATION:
JILT
MEANING:
verb tr.: To end a relationship suddenly or callously.
noun: A person, especially a woman, who discards a lover.
ETYMOLOGY:
Of uncertain origin, perhaps from the name Gillian (or Jillian/Jill). Earliest documented use: 1660.
----------------------------------
JULT - 14-year-old sweetheart of Romo, whose family was having a feud with hers
TILT - Wilt Chamberlan's younger bro. He was a better shooter than Wilt but his left foot was shorter than his right foot so he couldn't run, instead he skipped.
pi
PRONUNCIATION:
(py)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A confused mixture, originally a jumble of printing types. Also spelled as pie.
2. The 16th letter of the Greek alphabet.
3. A mathematical constant (approximately 3.14159), representing the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: Origin uncertain. Earliest documented use: 1659.
For 2, 3: From Greek pi/pei, of Semitic origin. Earliest documented use: 1425.
-----------------------------------------------
PU - half a platter of American Chinese appetizers
PIUwhat I think when cleaning shoes after walk in barnyard.
-PID - a suffix added to indicate that someone is more than just plain stu.
YARE
PRONUNCIATION: (yahr or yayr)
MEANING: adjective: 1. Easily maneuverable; nimble. 2. Ready; prepared.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English gearo/gearu (ready). Earliest documented use: 888.
USAGE: "I do desire to learn, sir; and, I hope, if you have occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare."
William Shakespeare; Measure For Measure; 1604.
"She was a 'bonnie lass' in the words of her chief engineer; she was faithful, she was yare -- an unlikely compliment for a vessel without sails."
D.C. Riechel; German Departures; iUniverse; 2009.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Never confuse motion with action. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)
---------------------------------
NARE : lumbering; unprepared; obstinate; unresponsive; in short, the opposite of YARE
"Never confuse motion with action." - Benjamin Franklin
I like that.
"Never confuse motion with action." - Benjamin Franklin
I like that.
I like it too, Fahulicodo, very much. Strange. I wonder why Franklin is just now saying it?
===========================================================
Y'ARE - "Y'think therefore Y'are". A phrase often used by Descarte when addressing a group.
Y'ARE.
Good thinnking, JJ!
-----------------------------------------------------------
RUCK
PRONUNCIATION: (ruk)
MEANING: noun: 1. A large mass, especially of ordinary people or things. 2. A crease or wrinkle.
verb tr., intr.: To make a crease or to become creased.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old Norse hrukka (wrinkle, fold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to turn or bend), which is also the source of ranch, rank, shrink, circle, circa, crisp, corolla, search, ring, curb, ridge, curve, corolla, and coronary. Earliest documented use: 1225.
---------------------------------------
UNCK
what Piglet called his mother's brother
Reason for edit: two changes; disqualified
O'RUCK
1. what your Japanese friend wishes you rots of when she's feeling sardonic
2. an Irish brand of vacuem cleaner
"Never confuse motion with action." - Benjamin Franklin
Let's take it one step further:
Never confuse motion with action, or action with progress. **
("The trouble with Internet quotations is that you can't always depend on their accuracy." -- Abraham Lincoln)**Edit: A brief Googlesearch says I could/should have attributed this to "Benjamin Hemingway"...
F*CK - a written euphemism for the F-word.
...and this from the young lady who chided me for using the euphemism "nether parts"...
Ha!
Better half-said than left unsaid whereas the f-word might snigger forever in schoolboys raunchy little minds.
Don't push me. I'll say the p-word, the c-word, and words that have never been said if properly challenged.
REPLETION
PRONUNCIATION: (ri-PLEE-shuhn)
MEANING: noun: The condition of being completely filled or satisfied.
ETYMOLOGY: Via French, from Latin replere, from re- (back, again) + plere (to fill), from plenus (full). Earliest documented use: 1398.
----------------------------------------------
PREPLETION -- what a good waiter does by pouring more into your glass just before you ask for it
DEPLETION - the drain of spirit which occurs when a Culture choses excessive order over reason. Example: Nazi Germany.
REPLETION - the renewal of the human spirit after all Communist pinkos have been thrown out and freedom once again becomes enow.
PONDEROUS
PRONUNCIATION: (PON-duhr-uhs)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Having great weight.
2. Awkward or unwieldy.
3. Dull or laborious.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via French, from Latin ponderare (to ponder, weigh). Ultimately from the Indo-European root (s)pen- (to draw, to spin), which is also the source of pendulum, spider, pound, pansy, pendant, ponder, appendix, depend, spontaneous, perpend, vilipend, filipendulous, and equipoise. Earliest documented use: 1400.
----------------------------------------
PANDEROUS - a quality universally possessed by politicians
PONDERONUS - weighty obligations
PONDEROPUS - I wonder what that penguin meant?
PonderR'us - a gym chain for heavyweight lifters
QUONDAM
PRONUNCIATION: (KWON-duhm)
MEANING: adjective: Former; onetime.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin quondam (formerly). Earliest documented use: 1535.
------------------------------
QUONDAY - in old calendars, an unidentified day near the beginning of the week
(not to be ocnfused with
QUONDAE - the ice cream treat I just finished eating)
QUONDAMN adj - belonging to bad times long past ex: a quondamn lover.
QUONSAM A itty- bitty quonset.
QUONDIM – fading of old memories.
INIMICAL
PRONUNCIATION: (i-NIM-i-kuhl)
MEANING: adjective: 1. Harmful. 2. Unfriendly.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin in- (not) + amicus (friend). A few other words that share the same root are: amigo, amity, enemy, amicable, and amicus curiae. Earliest documented use: 1645.
---------------------------------------------
MINIMICAL - not very funny...
That is because you are an intellectual giant and to average folks your jokes are
INTIMICAL - a smug manner that is intimidating to others so much as to their not wanting to engage you in casual conversation.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. -Robert A. Heinlein, off-the-wall science-fiction author (1907-1988)
Anti-thought for Today
Hallelujah! The good people of America have not legislated our religious creeds into law. Instead we have enabled people of strange and odd conceptualizations to live amongst us. Yes, we are the best of a motley bunch.
ignominy
PRONUNCIATION: (IG-nuh-min-ee, ig-NOM-uh-nee)
MEANING:
noun: 1. Public disgrace. 2. Disgraceful quality or conduct.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via French, from Latin ignominia. Ultimately from the Indo-European root no-men- (name) which also gave us name, anonymous, noun, synonym, eponym, renown, nominate, misnomer, and moniker. Earliest documented use: 1540.
========================================================
GNOMINY noun
1. a growth condition particular to workers who dig dig dig under the Earth looking for treasure, ex: big head, short statue.
2. the ability to sing pithy, witty and wise sayings while digging, ex: Hi Ho!
IGNORINY - what taxi drivers in Times Square do
"Here's a fun exercise for you: find at least one person epitomizing the day's word, every day this week. With some seven billion of us around there can't be any excuse for insufficient data." -- A.G.
voluble
PRONUNCIATION:
(VOL-yuh-buhl)
MEANING:
adjective: Speaking incessantly or fluently.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via French, from Latin volvere (to roll). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wel- (to turn or roll), which also gave us waltz, revolve, valley, walk, vault, volume, wallet, and helix. Earliest documented use: 1575.
==========================================================
+e
EVOLUBLE - a quality assigned to any pre-adapted animal that can effect strings of articulated speech. So far homo sapiens sapiens is the only known species to evolve a proper language. These loquacious creatures began talking 75,000 years ago and haven't stopped since.
VOLUBE (pronounced "V.O. Lube") - to break down social inhibitions with Seagrams
INTRANSIGENT
PRONUNCIATION: (in-TRAN-si-jent)
MEANING:
adjective: Unwilling to compromise, especially from an extreme position.
noun: One who refuses to compromise.
(if you like, TRANGENTSI; read "In 'TRANSI', 'GENT'")
-------------------------------------------
INTRANSIENT - a one-night stand (maybe that should be SINTRANSIGENT?)
or, maybe
PINTRANSIGENT - (bowling): that last 7-pin that won't go down in the 10th frame, spoiling a 300-game
GINTRANSIGENTrefusing to budge from one's accustomed
drink no matter what is being served by the host.
KINTRANSIGENT Your friends you can choose but your
relatives.....
perhaps
SINTRANSIGENT Refusing to 'give up that sin' and 'sin no more"....
Tom Chamblee.
Tom Chamblee could talk the ears off a cornfield. His third grade teacher, Miss Hattie Grimes, tied him to a desk with a jump rope and taped his mouth shut with duct tape for the entire year back in 1958. Poor Hattie, She forgot to plug his ears so Tom listened real good and left the third grade thinking he was the smartest kid in Pickins County. Maybe he was. Tom grew up to become a street preacher and the town drunk. It is said that Tom can switch from preaching to cussing in a single breath without anyone knowing which is which.
INTRANSIBENT -- red-eye flight from Seattle to Atlanta seated middle isle, middle seat, between a middle lineman with the Seahawks and Oprah Winfrey.
"Both remain intransigent in their respective positions without any real effort to negotiate in a democratic spirit."
DINTRANSIGENT – refuses to turn down the stereo despite all pleas and threats.
INTRANSITENT – A Tolkien creature on his way from Fangorn to Isengard.
potentate
PRONUNCIATION: (POH-ten-tayt)
MEANING:
noun: One having great power, especially an autocratic person.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via French, from Latin posse (to be able). Ultimately from the Indo-European root poti- (powerful, lord), which is also the source of power, potent, possess, pasha, compossible, impuissance, and puissant. Earliest documented use: 1475.
========================================================
POTENTGATE - any scandal involving a powerful leader,
such as the scandal that gave us the euphemism "a monica lewinski".
PODENTATE - to have no money left after the Dentist finishes with you (but at
least you still have your teeth!)
POTENTAGE – long ago, alas.
POTENTALE – favorite quaff down at Alice's Champagne Palace.
POTENTAT – to make very strong lace.
sophist
(SOF-ist)
MEANING:
noun: One who makes clever, but unsound arguments.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin sophista, from Greek sophistes (sage), from sophos (clever). Earliest documented use: 1542. In ancient Greece, Sophists were philosophers and teachers known for their subtle, but fallacious reasoning.
USAGE:
"But this day Mansoor had turned five, and Ma used a sophist's argument to call for a celebration."
M.G. Vassanji; The Assassin's Song; Doubleday; 2007.
===========================================================
SOPHISTA- a sophist with latinate pretensions.
SOPHIET - with "Former..." and "...Union", a rough coalition of Communist countries, from the early to the late 20th Century.
"Sophiet" Brilliant! The best of novian words needed to succinctly describe a particuliar geo-situation in time.
solicitous
PRONUNCIATION: (suh-LIS-i-tuhs)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Full of concern.
2. Eager.
3. Meticulous.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin sollus (whole). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sol- (whole), which brought us solid, salute, save, salvo, soldier, catholicity, salutary, and salubrious. Earliest documented use: 1563.
USAGE:
"The staff is solicitous of its core customer; efficient with others."
Alexandra Jacobs; Dennis Basso's New Shop; The New York Times; Dec 12, 2013.
==========================================================
s>p
POLICITOUS - what a polictian is really being when he is being salicitous to us.
SOLICITOYS - turn them on and they ask you for money (compare SOLICITOTS - nursery school kids sent out to raise money from the neighbors)
On an analogous vein: SOPLICITOUS - fawning behavior, except they're is lying to you
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)
A COUNTER THOUGHT TO CONSIDER:
Ah so true, Benji. But I bet the Infinite Father wouldn't mind if we felt solace after our prayers to Him, and, if in our praise of Him, we, by emulation, become better people, then I'll bet He will be pleased if we do over-populate this- and His- beautiful blue and green Earth. (2014-etc)
stellenbosch
PRONUNCIATION: (STE-len-bosh)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To relegate someone incompetent to a position of minimal responsibility.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Stellenbosch, a town in South Africa. Earliest documented use: 1900.
NOTES:
Stellenbosch, near Cape Town, was a British military base during the Second Boer War. Officers who had not proven themselves were sent to Stellenbosch, to take care of something relatively insignificant, such as to look after horses. Even if they kept their rank, this assignment was considered a demotion. Eventually the term came to be applied when someone was reassigned to a position where he could do little harm.
Also see Peter Principle.
A similar term is coventry.
Another word derived from the name of a South African town is maffick.
============================================================
STEALLENBOSCH- a village in South Africa where people who steal are sent because in Steallenbosch there is nothing to steal.
STELLENBOTCH - a failure of astronomical proportions, such as will get you exiled to You-Know-Where
ST. ELLEN BOTCH- a botch so bad that only the Sainted Ellen knows the whereabouts of where she is at.
campanology
PRONUNCIATION: (kam-puh-NOL-uh-jee)
MEANING:
noun: The art or study of bell-ringing or making bells.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin campana (bell). From the Campania region in Italy, known for the bronze that was used to cast bells. Earliest documented use: 1847.
NOTES:
The term bell-ringing is preferred over campanology by people involved in it. In general, those in the know go with simpler terms. For example, caving over spelunking, coding over developing software, and so on. At any rate, here's an introductory video on campanology/bell-ringing that has managed to stuff as many puns as are legally permitted in a five-minute video. Did they miss any? Chime in.
=======================================================
CAMPANOOGY (kam-puh-noo-gee ) - a place on the Tennessee River where they later built the City of Chattanooga.
CAMPANALOGY: Not only are the rich richer than the poor they are also cheap. Brookie snobs in Mountain Brook consort at Mountain Brook Country Club in yesterday's styles and consider themselves very "camp chic".
CAMPANOOGY (kam-puh-noo-gee ) - a place on the Tennessee River where they later built the City of Chattanooga.
(Shouldn't CAMPANOOGY be what Boy Scouts on Jamboree do when they're acting like the Three Stooges?)
COMPANOLOGY - knowing one's business
PERSE
PRONUNCIATION: (puhrs)
MEANING: adjective: Of a grayish blue or purple color.
ETYMOLOGY: From persus (dark blue), from Latin Persicus (Persian), from Persia, former name of Iran. Why this color is associated with Persia is not entirely clear. Earliest documented use: 1387.
------------------------------------
PERSHE - a chocolate bar to be divided among the women present
P > V
VERSE - you write a line that almost rhymes but is much too terse and somewhat adverse so you curse, your face turns perse, and you almost die. Then you call a nurse who calls a hearse thinking you already dead. But worse, you write...
"
PERSHE - a chocolate bar to be divided among the women present"
[SMILE]
Anu's Quote of the Day
"There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with." -Harry Crews, novelist and playwright (1935-2012)
Maybeso, Harry Crews
"Yet the scars encoded within our brain often remain hidden." (2014-201?)
ILIAD
PRONUNCIATION: (IL-ee-uhd)
MEANING: noun:
1. A long narrative, especially an epic poem describing martial exploits.
2. A long series of miseries or disasters.
ETYMOLOGY: After Iliad, a Greek epic poem traditionally attributed to Homer. From Ilion, ancient Greek name of the city of Troy, an area now in modern Turkey. Earliest documented use: 1579.
-------------------------------------
PILIAD - after pilus, ancient Latin name for a hair-like appendage.
1. a hair-raising tale;
2. a marketing message that makes you want to tear your hair out
ILIAR – A long narrative, especially an epic poem describing events that I've totally fabricated.
GILIAD- an epic series of events surrounding a stranded salior who is further surrounded by Mary Ann and a movie star and other zany people. He is continually perplexed.
You forgot to mention that there is a palm in Giliad!
--------------------------------------------------------
DAMASK
PRONUNCIATION: (DAM-uhsk)
MEANING:
noun: 1. A reversible fabric with a pattern woven into it, used for table linen, upholstery, etc.
2. Short for damask rose.
3. The color of damask rose: grayish red or pink.
4. Short for damask steel.
5. Wavy markings on such steel.
adjective: 1. Made of or resembling damask.
2. Having the color of damask rose.
verb tr.: 1. To decorate or weave with richly-figured designs.
2. To inlay a metal object with gold or silver patterns; to gild.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Damascus, where this fabric was first produced. Earliest documented use: 1325.
-----------------------------------------------
(Is he being syrious?)
------------------------------------------------
DAMARK - 1. Fabric with a stain on both sides that no one can touch, giving rise to the phrase "being wide of Damark"
2. Copenhagen and environs, when the sun is shining
DUMASK, verb: to pose a thoughtless or stupid question.
also: DIMASK
noun: One who poses such a question.
DAMARK asked, the pickpocket answered...
"Listen, Dumask, I da pickpocket, you damark."
(futher proof there ain't no balm in Damask)
bloviate
PRONUNCIATION: (BLO-vee-ayt)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To speak pompously.
ETYMOLOGY:
Pseudo-Latin alteration of blow (to boast). Earliest documented use: 1845.
USAGE:
"All you cinephiles who like to find grand statements and social criticism in horror movies, prepare to bloviate. It's midnight at the Tribeca Film Festival."
Neil Genzlinger; Scare Me, Sure, But Also Make A Statement; The New York Times; Apr 18, 2013.
===========================================================
BLOGIATE - to swagger on the net without the world knowing that you swag without wearing any underwear.
BOVIATE
PRONUNCIATION: (BO-vee-ayt)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To speak like a cow, often crudely, sometimes with unpleasant gases issuing from the rear. Often hard to distinguish from BLOVIATE, where the gas issues from the front.
ETYMOLOGY:
Latin bos, genitive bovis, = ox, cow
skulduggery
PRONUNCIATION: (skuhl-DUHG-uh-ree)
MEANING:
noun: Underhand dealing: trickery, bribery, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
An American coinage, apparently from the alteration of Scots sculduddery (fornication, obscenity). Earliest documented use: 1867.
USAGE:
"In the 1980s [the Vatican Bank] was accused of involvement in financial skulduggery and responsibility for the still-mysterious death of a prominent Italian banker, Roberto Calvi."
God's Bankers; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 7, 2012.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A grain of poetry suffices to season a century. -José Martí, revolutionary and poet (1853-1895)
___________________________________________________________
SKILDUGGERY - high order duggery. ex: the duggery at the Vatican.
Comment on the THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
It seems the media has seasoned the 21st Century with a hatred for all things American; football, motherhood, and apple pie. - Rice Miller, bluesman and poet (1898-1963)
SKULDRUGGERY - "This is your brain on dope"
SKOLDUGGERY - dipping snuff surreptitiously.
honeyfuggle
PRONUNCIATION: (HUN-ee-fuh-guhl)
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To deceive or swindle, especially by flattery.
ETYMOLOGY:
Perhaps from honey + fugle (to cheat). Earliest documented use: 1829. Also spelled as honeyfugle.
-----------------------------------------------------------
MONEYFUGGLE - to flatter vain men for their money. Ex:
The minute you walked in the joint
I could tell you were a man of distinction; a real big spender.
Hey Big Spender! Spend...a little time with me.
[You can have the fun with HONKYFUGGLE...]
HONEYFUDGLE - cute marketing name for a new candy bar
HONKYFUGGLE - to be fleeced at a white honky tonk rather than at a black juke joint back in the thirties when both joints offered a white or black version of sweet Southern culture blues.
lallygag or lollygag
PRONUNCIATION: (LAL-ee-gag, LOL-ee-gag)
MEANING:
verb intr.:
1. To fool around, waste time, or spend time lazily.
2. To neck.
ETYMOLOGY:
Origin uncertain. Earliest documented use: 1862.
USAGE:
"I lallygagged around and when it was evident that they were not coming home to take me, I had to start off."
Margaret Mason; A Memory at Large; RoseDog Books; 2011.
------------------------------------------------------------
LALLYGAGA - the real Lady Ga-Ga who is lazy but not a lady.
LOLLYGARG - the Yang and Yin within Anu.
...a good fifty years ago.
OLLYGAG - a corny joke played on Kukla and Fran
(or on Beulah Witch, or Colonel Cracky, or maybe Fletcher Rabbit)
bumfuzzle
PRONUNCIATION: (bum-FUZ-uhl)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To confuse.
ETYMOLOGY:
From bum-, probably from bamboozle (to deceive) + fuzzle (to confuse). Earliest documented use: 1900.
============================================================
BUMGUZZLE:
1. to empty a pint of Mellow Corn whiskey with a single swallow.
2. to pour yourself an eight-ounce tumbler of your brother-in-law's pretentious eighty-nine dollars-a-bottle 1997 imported wine.
============================================================
A COMMENT ON:
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I don't trust a man who uses the word evil eighteen times in ten minutes. If you're half evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil. -Norman Mailer, author (1923-2007)
Any man who could sit with Norman Mailer for ten minutes and limit himself to only eighteen shouts of "evil" is a man not well read.
BUMFUZZIE -
That vagrant\
( Pick one )... ought to shave more often
.... That ass./
Good one, wofa.
I think of that frequently watching TV shows,
and certain folks in our Hollywood Royal Family.
SCUD
PRONUNCIATION:
(skud)
MEANING:
verb intr.: 1. To run or move swiftly.
2. In nautical parlance, to run before a gale with little or no sail set.
noun: 1. The act of scudding.
2. Clouds, rain, mist, etc. driven by the wind.
3. Low clouds beneath another cloud layer.
ETYMOLOGY:
Of uncertain origin, possibly from Middle Low German schudden (to shake). Earliest documented use: 1609.
------------------------------------
SQUD
pronounced "skwud"
verb: Past tense of "squid"
RESPLENDENT
PRONUNCIATION: (ri-SPLEN-dent)
MEANING: adjective: Shining; brilliant; radiant; splendid.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin resplendere (to shine brightly), from re- (intensive prefix) + splendere (to shine). Earliest documented use: 1440.
USAGE: "Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum."
J.K. Rowling; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Bloomsbury; 1998.
------------------------------
RESPLENDANT - taste modified with another packet of artificial sweetener (made with New Technology)
SLIPSTREAM
PRONUNCIATION: (SLIP-streem)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A stream of air (or another fluid) forced backwards by a propeller.
2. The area of reduced pressure behind a fast-moving object.
verb tr., intr.:
3. To follow behind a vehicle to take advantage of decreased wind resistance.
---------------------------
SLIPSDREAM - I've fallen in the lingerie department and I can't get up...
HEINOUS
PRONUNCIATION: (HAY-nuhs)
MEANING: adjective: Extremely wicked.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French haine (hatred), from hair (to hate). Earliest documented use: 1394.
USAGE: "You have been brought here before the Council of Magical Law ... so that we may pass judgment on you, for a crime so heinous."
J.K. Rowling; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Bloomsbury; 2000.
--------------------------
NEINOUS - rhymes with "minus" - like a German obstructionist
also
HEIROUS - next in line to inherit
HEINUS – Grooks of seventeen syllables.
SEPULCHRAL
PRONUNCIATION: (suh-PUHL-kruhl)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Relating to a grave or a burial.
2. Gloomy, serious, or sad.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin sepulcrum (grave, tomb), from sepelire (to bury). Earliest documented use: 1615.
----------------------------------
SHE-PULCHRAL - pertaining to feminine beauty
etym. from Latin pulchritudo beauty; excellence, attractiveness
HEINUS - Groooks of seventeen syllalbles
Ooh, nice one. I'd forgotten about
those ! Seventeen syllables divided into three lines of 5-7-5 syllables, of course.
It was exposure to Piet Hein that made me realize that excellence in one field does not preclude excellence in others. Obvious in, say, Leonardo, but Hein was still very alive when I discovered him in my preteens. Made all the difference.
SHE-PULCHRAL - yes!
SEPULCORAL – Burial at sea.
SEPULCHORAL – Requiem
WIGGLEDY JIGGLEDY:
what I was when I'd walk on stage at Wesley's Boobie Trap and Bait Shop back when I was a pole dancer.
...but it's Saturday! I don't recall seeing an AWAD entry on the weekend in a dog's age, if ever. I guess the fact of seven HP books was stronger than the practice of five-days-makes-a-week.
(And welcome back, Jen, we've missed you.)
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HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY
PRONUNCIATION: (HIG-uhl-dee PIG-uhl-dee)
MEANING: adverb: In a disordered or random manner.
adjective: Confused; jumbled.
ETYMOLOGY: Of unknown origin, perhaps referring to the herding of pigs. Earliest documented use: 1598.
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[contrast "Jiggery-Pokery," noun, underhanded sabotage or mischief]
[Also the paradigm for a double-dactyl, a form of doggerel poetry with particular structural rules, and beyond the scope of this post]
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WHIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY - a form of political satire, used by the Tories to cast their opponents in an unflattering light
CANKERPRONUNCIATION: (KANG-kuhr)
MEANING:
noun: 1. A source of corruption or decay.
2. Ulcerous sores in the mouth; also any of various diseases affecting animals and plants.
verb tr., intr.: 1. To corrupt or to become corrupted.
2. To infect with or be infected with canker.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English cancer (crab, tumor). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kar-/ker- (hard), which also gave us standard, cancer, and hard. Earliest documented use: 1384.
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CANYER - an Australian request, as in "Canyer bring me a
beer ?
YANKER
(1)the guy who pulls the pitcher when the pitcher can't pitch.
(2) a Yanker Diddlely Dandy.
... I don't recall seeing an AWAD entry on the weekend in a dog's age, if ever...
(...or at least not since the second week in October, 2000. YCLIU.)
GROK
PRONUNCIATION: (grok)
MEANING: verb tr.: To understand deeply and intuitively.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Earliest documented use: 1961.
NOTES: In Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein describes grok as a Martian word meaning "to drink". That's the literal meaning, however, figuratively it means to understand something in a profound way. To grok something is to be one with it in a way that the observer and the observed become merged.
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GWOK - to dwink in, to understand deeply and intuitively, provided you are Martian with a lisp
GROKE (grok-ee ) - one who groks his in-group's self-serving mantra and so loses all connection with objective reality.
WALDO
PRONUNCIATION: (WAL-doh)
MEANING: noun: A device for manipulating objects by remote control, for example, a remotely-operated arm.
ETYMOLOGY: After Waldo F. Jones, an inventor in a science-fiction story by Robert A. Heinlein. Earliest documented use: 1942.
NOTES: Modern applications of waldo as a remote manipulator are in surgery, space, and in working in hazardous conditions, such as those involving radiation.
(That's two-for-two for Heinlein...)
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WARDO - unconscionable profits made by the munitions industry during a conflict
I wonder if he'll invoke ROBOT - from Karel Capek's play (in Checkoslovakian) R.U.R, which stands for "Rossum's Universal Robots." It's where Isaac Asimov got the word. Certainly it fits the description!
from TheFreeDictionary.com: robot itself comes from Czech robota,..."servitude, forced labor," from rab, "slave..."
WALDOC - a non-intrusive examination robot to be set up in all Walmart stores designed to compete with the Doc-in-a-Box market with the base rate set at $9.98 per visit. Organ transplants are slightly higher.
tardis
PRONUNCIATION: (TAR-dis)
MEANING:
1. A time machine.
2. Something that is much bigger than it appears from the outside.
ETYMOLOGY:
From TARDIS, a time machine in the British science-fiction TV series, Doctor Who. Earliest documented use: 1969.
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TZARDIS - even if the Czar is small best not dis him... he is BIG.
MARDIS - Tuesdays in Paris
TRIFIID(tri-fi-id)- since it is semantically impossible for anyone to have three ids this word is true as well as self-explanatory in that
It clearly indicates that it is fiction.
TRAFF-ID - Gimmicky name for the little black box they'll put into your car some day, giving your location, and speed, and condition of brakes and accelerator and steering, ostensibly to help time traffic lights but eventually used to generate ticket revenue. ( They could already do this with turnpike E-Z Pass gadgets, but they don't... )
FRANKENSTEIN
PRONUNCIATION: (FRANG-kuhn-styn)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A creation that gets out of control and brings harm to its creator.
2. One who creates something that brings ruin to himself.
3. A monster having human appearance.
ETYMOLOGY: After Victor Frankenstein, who creates a monster from parts of corpses in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Frankenstein. Earliest documented use: 1827.
NOTES: In the story, Frankenstein was the creator, not the monster. We should be calling the creation "Frankenstein's monster", but it's out of the control of the novelist now, and the monster itself is called Frankenstein. The prefix franken- has been coined as an uncomplimentary moniker for artificially created things. For example, genetically-modified foods are often called frankenfoods (see frankenfish).
------------------------------
FRANK 'N STEIN - name for a hot-dog-and-beer joint. They do a monstrous business.
(Not very subtle, I'm afraid. I wouldn't be surprised to find there actually is one. Or several, for that matter.)
CRANKENSTEIN
a miserable, bitter next door neighbor who feels the
universe revolves around him/her.
FRANK 'N STEIN...
(Not very subtle, I'm afraid. I wouldn't be surprised to find there actually is one. Or several, for that matter.)
Mebbe FLANKENSTEIN, a steak-and-beer joint?
or FRACKENSTEIN, a modern-day oil wildcatters' bar, because the techique of hydraulic fracking breaks up underground stone to get at the oil ?
[FRANK EINSTEIN - the monster's smart uncle who invented the atomic bomb.
FRANKENSTHIN – A diet regimen from Minnesota.
FRANKENSTERN - what he becomes when he growls at his friend the blind man because blind men can talk and monsters can't.
EXSCUTCHEON = without a shield. (See Paths of Glory poem and film).
ESCUTCHEONPRONUNCIATION:(i-SKUCH-uhn)
MEANING: noun:
1. An ornamental or protective plate surrounding a keyhole, light switch, door handle, etc.
2. Used in the phrase: blot on one's escutcheon (a stain on one's reputation).
3. A shield or shield-shaped surface bearing a coat of arms.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin scutum (shield). Earliest documented use: 1480.
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ESCUTCHEWON - Province of Canada,
third from the left; capital: Regina; major city: Saskatoon
Escutchoon, I'd have thought.
Escutchoon, I'd have thought.
Good thought!
--------------------------
CRURALPRONUNCIATION: (KROOR-uhl)
MEANING: adjective: Relating to the leg.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin crus (leg). Earliest documented use: 1599.
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CURAL - a panacea
CRURAT – A small rodent that lives under the coxwain's seat or, some may say, on it.
CRUALL (kru all)- the word construct of Souteastern US rurals when referring to more than one leg.
ACEDIA
PRONUNCIATION: (uh-SEE-dee-uh)
MEANING: noun: Apathy; boredom; sloth.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin acedia, from Greek akedia, from a- (not) + kedos (care). Earliest documented use: 1607.
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ACEDINA - city in California, just north of Los Angeles, home of the Ose Bowl
ACENIA - I observed you in Brooklyn
ACNEDIA - a skin eruption confined to the patella; goes away after 24 hours
APEDIA – A massive online resource containing no information.
APEDIA is already upon us:
A specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less until at last he knows absolutely everything there is to know about nothing at all.
("I'm not making this up, you know." -- Anna Russell)
Good one Peter, I run into that frequently.
(My quote button is not working today)
DECANT
PRONUNCIATION: (di-KANT)
MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To pour, especially in a manner that the sediment is left behind.
2. To rehouse people while their buildings are being rebuilt or refurbished.
ETYMOLOGY: From French décanter (to settle or to clarify), from Latin decanthare, from de- (from) + canthus (spout, rim). Earliest documented use: 1633.
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DEKANT - to engage in Revisionism by systematically eliminating all mention of the Categorical Imperative and Dialectical Materialism from textbooks of Philosophy
Would have made studying one semester of
Philosophy a lot easier: great idea.
QUINARY
PRONUNCIATION: (KWY-nuh-ree)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Relating to five.
2. Fifth in a series.
3. Having five things or arranged in five.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin quinarius (containing five), from quini (five each), from quinque (five). Earliest documented use: 1598. If you have ever wondered what comes after primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary, here's your answer.
[Compare binary, ternary, quaternary]
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QINARY
PRONUNCIATION: KEE-nuh-ree (rhymes with GREENERY)
MEANING: adjective:
1. embodying the ancient Chinese natural energy flow
QUINARE -opposite of quinain't
QUINDARY – A predicament with five equally unacceptable ways out.
QUONARY - a quid with no quo.
...[like] all three of 'em !
manumit
PRONUNCIATION: (man-yuh-MIT)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To free from slavery.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin manus (hand) + mittere (to let go). Ultimately from the Indo-European root man- (hand), which also gave us manual, manage, maintain, manicure, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, command, manure, manque, legerdemain, and mortmain. Earliest documented use: 1455.
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MANUNIT - to manumit a man from slavery then put him in a totalitarian state is to turn a slave with hope into to a hopeless manunit.
MANUMIT
PRONUNCIATION: (man-yuh-MIT)
MEANING: verb tr.: To free from slavery.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin manus (hand) + mittere (to let go). Ultimately from the Indo-European root man- (hand), which also gave us manual, manage, maintain, manicure, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, command, manure, manque, legerdemain, and mortmain. Earliest documented use: 1455.
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MRNUMIT - the painless pediatric dentist's Novocaine
(pronouced "Mister-Numb-it")
chiral
PRONUNCIATION: (KY-ruhl)
MEANING:
adjective: Not superimposable on its mirror image.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek cheir (hand). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghes- (hand), which also gave us cheiromancy/chiromancy (palmistry), surgeon (literally, one who works with hands), and enchiridion (handbook). Earliest documented use: 1894.
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CHAIRAL - to sit on your hands
USAGE: Damnit Doc, don't sit your butt on your hands. You will be late with your posts and you will never be fit, and you will forever be, as I said, late and chairal.
HANDSEL or HANSEL
PRONUNCIATION: (HAN-sel)
MEANING: noun:
1. A gift for good luck given at the beginning of the new year or a new venture.
2. A first payment or installment.
verb tr.:
1. To give a handsel to.
2. To inaugurate or to do something for the first time.
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HANDGEL - the slimy stuff in a dispenser that you use to get the germs off your hands (It's gotta be more than 61% alcohol or it doesn't work)
.. or
HANGEL - a British Cupid
HANDBEL – A digital, prehensile process on the lips of some very greedy catfish.
HANDSELF - a term derived from the musical HANSEL AND GRETAL where, lost in the dark forest, a frightened Hansel tries to take his big sister's hand for comfort. Gretal sings...
Stop crying Hansel we've nothing to fear but fear itself
Button up your lip and keep your hands to yourself.
A moving moment.
mano a mano
PRONUNCIATION: (MA-no a MA-no)
MEANING:
adverb: In direct competition; head-to-head.
adjective: One-on-one; face-to-face.
noun: 1. A bullfight where two matadors compete in turn, fighting several bulls.
2. A direct or face-to-face confrontation.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Spanish mano a mano (hand to hand). Earliest documented use: 1950.
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DANO A MANGO - give Dano a mango
(from Hawaii Five O. 1976).
MANOMANO - a beloved
Muppets song (1969 !)
MANY A MANO - a big round of applause!
palmer
PRONUNCIATION: (PAH-muhr)
MEANING: noun: 1. A pilgrim.
2. An itinerant monk.
3. One who conceals a card or another object in a magic trick or in cheating in a game.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin palma (palm tree, palm of the hand). The name of the palm tree derives from the resemblance of the shape of its frond to the palm of a hand. In Medieval Europe, a pilgrim brought back a palm branch as a token of his pilgrimage. Earliest documented use: 1300. Also see palmy & palmary.
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PSALMER - a singer who sits beneath palm trees who gives balm and brings calm to the unease of all pilgrams who have ears to listen.
PALOMER - a Spanish dove, in Boston
PALYMER - friendly plastic
PALMEX - mi amigo
gallivant or galavant
PRONUNCIATION: (GAL-uh-vant)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To roam about in search of pleasure.
ETYMOLOGY:
Perhaps alteration of gallant, from Old French galer (to rejoice). Earliest documented use: 1823.
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GALLIRANT - a wandering rant. (ranting is more fun than gallivanting) .
GALLIVAUNT - pride in heroic French accomplishments (see also Charlemagne)
[b]DALLIVANT[/b – to roam among the singles bars.
vituperate
PRONUNCIATION: (vy-TOO-puh-rayt, -TYOO-, vi-)
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To use harsh or abusive language.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin vituperare (to blame), from vitium (fault) + parare (to make or prepare). Earliest documented use: 1542.
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BITUPERATE - to loudly curse someone in two languages.
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The THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)
VICTUPERATE - to dis someone you have just defeated
scrutate
PRONUNCIATION: (SKRU-tayt)
MEANING: verb tr.: To investigate.
ETYMOLOGY:
rom Latin scrutari (to examine). Earliest documented use: 1882.
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SCRULATE - To investigate after the fact.
Example: Late Christmas morning a farm boy jumped from his bed and ran to see what good Santa had brought. He finds that his Christmas stocking is filled with horse dung.
"I told you to get up early," his father said,"Santa brought you a nice pony but it ran away".
SCRUBATE - the motion used to put the worm on the hook.
alternative:
SERUTATE - like the advertised cure for constipation
SCRUMATE - the mate with whom your arm is hooked when you scrum.
distend
PRONUNCIATION: (di-STEND)
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To swell, inflate, or extend.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin dis- (away, apart) + tendere (to stretch). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which is also the source of tense, tenet, tendon, tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, tenable, tenuous, extenuate, countenance, pertinacious, and detente. Earliest documented use: 1400
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LISTEND - List, ending
MISTEND - when the sun breaks through
(compare DUSTEND - when it finally rains)
Awake, Great Star! What would thy Glory be if you had not those upon whom you shine?
DISTREND - to detach one's belief system from trendy thoughts.
For example: The last sixteen years of Global Warming hasn't warmed the World to my satisfaction.
manducate
PRONUNCIATION: (MAN-joo-kayt)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To chew or eat.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin mandere (to chew). Ultimately from the Indo-European root menth- (to chew), which also gave us masticate, mandible, and manger. Earliest documented use: 1623.
USAGE:
"Flem literally manducates, chewing over his surroundings."
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MANDULATE - the ability to pick and strum a mandolin while keeping time time time chewing Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum.
WANDUCATE – To teach at Hogwarts.
XANDUCATE -Kubla Khan's school, located on the banks of the Alph River
MA-EDUCATE- home schooling
MANDULATTE - coffee so thick and strong that you have to chew it
LANDUCATE - to chew up lands in the name of restoring a state of eco-stasis.
Example: the re-introduction of warthogs to Yellowstone National Park because they were snorting around during the Pleistocene.
POLYPHILOPROGENITIVE
PRONUNCIATION: (pol-ee-fi-luh-pro-JEN-uh-tiv)
MEANING: adjective: Extremely prolific.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek poly- (many) + philo- (loving) + Latin progenitive (producing offspring), from pro- (toward) + past participle of gignere (to beget). Earliest documented use: 1919, in a poem by T.S. Eliot.
==========================
POLYP-HILL-PROGENITIVE - making lots of coral reefs
Wow, wofa. Wow.
POLYPHILOPROGERITIVE – The life-extending quality of having many lovers after retirement.
Very clever indeed! Although possibly open to misinterpretation - I would have guessed it meant aging very fast, and prematurely ("progeria"). I offer as evidence a very old joke:
...Young cub reporter on her first Human Interest assignment goes to a Nursing Home to interview the oldest resident she can see.
"What do you owe your age to?" she ventures.
"Three things," he says. "I smoke a carton of cigarettes every day. I drink a quart of bourbon daily. I never sleep with the same woman twice...and I never go to bed alone!" comes the reply.
"Oh, my goodness," says the sweet young thing. "And just how old are you?
"Twenty-three," he says...
POLYPHILOPREGENITIVE - first you love mankind...then you have kids.
Very clever indeed! Although possibly open to misinterpretation - I would have guessed it meant aging very fast, and prematurely ("progeria"). I offer as evidence a very old joke:
...Young cub reporter on her first Human Interest assignment goes to a Nursing Home to interview the oldest resident she can see.
"What do you owe your age to?" she ventures.
"Three things," he says. "I smoke a carton of cigarettes every day. I drink a quart of bourbon daily. I never sleep with the same woman twice...and I never go to bed alone!" comes the reply.
"Oh, my goodness," says the sweet young thing. "And just how old are you?
"Twenty-three," he says...
Love it, wofa!
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY
PRONUNCIATION: (lit-l lord FONT-luh-roi)
MEANING: noun: An innocent child; also a very polite and well-dressed child.
ETYMOLOGY: From Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885). Earliest documented use: 1942.
============================
LITTLE LORD FLAUNT LEROY - The short Earl likes to boast about his "in" with King Louis XIV
LITTLE LORD FLAUNTLEROY- Leroy flaunts new knickers
(I count about 20 letters in the above definition)
ANTHROPOMORPHIZATION
PRONUNCIATION: (an-thruh-puh-mor-fy-ZAY-shuhn)
MEANING: noun: Attribution of human qualities to things not human.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek anthropo- (human) + morph (form). Earliest documented use: 1880.
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ANTHROPOMORPHINATION - a man turning into an opium den
ARTHROPOMORPHIZATION - a Kafka-esque literary device, to be used sparingly as it's full of bugs :
(as in, "Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams and found himself transformed into a gigantic insect...")
PANTHROPOMORPHIZATION - to morph all hes into shes.
BANTHROPOMORPHIZATION – Illegalization of turning aliens into humans.
TANTHROPOMORPHIZATION – Attribution of human qualities to everything under the sun.
SILK-SMOCKING DISTRICT- Harlem after work at nite.
(20 letters)
Usage:
I said Baby where you going
She said Honey I wouldn't be knowing
She had on a long smocking frock
She stopped in the street and did the Castle Rock
- Jimmy Reed 1956
SALK-STOCKING DISTRICT - where the polio-vaccine warehouses are
SILK-SHOCKING DISTRICT - the place to see a demonstration of static electricity
SECRET DE POLICHINELLE
PRONUNCIATION: (SEE-krit uv po-LISH-i-nel)
MEANING: noun: A supposed secret that's widely known: an open secret.
ETYMOLOGY: From French secret de Polichinelle. Polichinelle (English Punch or Punchinello) was a stock character in Italian puppetry. Earliest documented use: 1828.
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SECRET DE POLICE IN ELLE - She knows all the dirt about those Paris cops
Goodie, Wolfman.
DECRET DE POLICHNELLE - a decree given by a puppet
acuity
PRONUNCIATION: (uh-KYOO-i-tee)
MEANING:
noun: Sharpness; keenness.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via French from Latin acuere (to sharpen). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ak- (sharp), which is also the source of acrid, vinegar, acid, acute, edge, hammer, heaven, eager, oxygen, mediocre, paragon, and acescent. Earliest documented use: 1400.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ACULTY - to act as a cult. Ex: self-serving scientists who believe that the oceans will rise almost six inches in this Century and the sky is falling oh my!
ACUITY
PRONUNCIATION: (uh-KYOO-i-tee)
MEANING: noun: Sharpness; keenness.
ETYMOLOGY: Via French from Latin acuere (to sharpen). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ak- (sharp), which is also the source of acrid, vinegar, acid, acute, edge, hammer, heaven, eager, oxygen, mediocre, paragon, and acescent. Earliest documented use: 1400.
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AQUITY - watered stock
AKUITY=High faluttin' cat.
desuetude PRONUNCIATION:(DES-wi-tood, -tyood)
MEANING:
noun: A state of disuse.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin de- (away from) + suescere (to become accustomed). Earliest documented use: 1623.
USAGE:
"Far from being a high-tech wonder, the Earth Station had a sad, neglected air about it, a feeling of desuetude and abandonment."
Douglas Preston; Impact; Forge Books; 2010.
========================================================
DE-SUET-DUDE - de dude who makes de soap.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Art is like baby shoes. When you coat them with gold, they can no longer be worn. -John Updike, writer (1932-2009)
Yeah. That's what I thought about Rabbit Redux.
DE SUE-TUBE - used by unscrupulous lawyers to record and share videos of their court cases
TURGID
PRONUNCIATION: (TUR-jid)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Swollen; congested.
2. Pompous; high-flown.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin turgere (to swell). Earliest documented use: 1620.
----------------------------------------
STURGID - the fish that gives you black caviar when you have a stuffed nose
SURGID - nametag worn by the doctor who's about to take out your appendix
THURGID - what his friends called the lawyer who Marshalled his arguments to present Brown v. Board of Education to the Supreme Court, years before he was appointed to the bench himself
TURGRID - the congested morning traffic found in every city where the streets form a grid
==============================================================
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:It's best to give while your hand is still warm. -Philip Roth, novelist (b. 1933)
That's easy for you to say, Phillip Roth.
sciolism
PRONUNCIATION: (SY-uh-liz-uhm)
MEANING:
noun: Pretentious display of superficial knowledge.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Late Latin sciolus (smatterer), diminutive of Latin scius (knowing), from scire (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root skei- (to cut or split), which also gave us schism, ski, shin, science, conscience, nice, scienter, nescient, exscind, and adscititious. Earliest documented use: 1810.
==========================================================
SCIOLIST - he who understands that all knowledge is superficial ()
SCOOLISM - Education, for everybody! (especially spelling)
How about
SCIOLIS - a little-known Italian pastry dessert
SCROLISM - the silly flip of a finger that spins a tiny display screen past where you want to stop in poor imitation of real scrolling by a trustworthy desk-top mouse.
edacity
PRONUNCIATION: (i-DAS-i-tee)
MEANING:
noun: Greediness; good appetite.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin edere (to eat). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ed- (to eat, to bite) that has given other words such as edible, comestible, obese, etch, fret, and postprandial. Earliest documented use: 1626.
=========================================================
PEDACITY - the cheek of public teachers in forbidding little school kids to eat the food in their lunch pail dutifully prepared by their own mommies.
KEDACITY the yearning for those great Keds we wore
everywhere as kids.
EJACITY - don't even go there...
EXACITY -
1) the attitude people get when they move to the suburbs
EPACITY - a city built by the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY that bans all humans and buildings regardless of race or creed or country of origin.
Well, they
are protecting the environment, aren't they?
I dunno, Wolfdoc. Ain't we environment too?
EDAMITY– Utter cheesiness.
EXACITY -
2) Hiroshima, August 7, 1945
Not to picknick, Trombone, but would not "utter cheesiness" be better worded as "EDATITY"?
And Wofahaulic, what about poor Nagasaki? They were city too.
...what about poor Nagasaki? They were city too.
Yes, but only until August 10.
(And yes, I know my dates are the day
after their tragedies...Necessary? maybe. But still tragedies.)
EUCHREDPRONUNCIATION: (YOO-kuhr)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To cheat, trick, or outwit.
noun: A card game for two to four players usually played with the 32 highest cards in the pack.
ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from the Alsatian game of Juckerspiel as the two top trumps are Jucker (jack). The verb sense of the word arises from the fact that the failure to win three tricks is known as being euchred and results in the opponent scoring two points. Earliest documented use: 1846.
USAGE: "You got euchred. The company lied to you about its status and you foolishly bought its lie." -- Colin Barrett; A Harsh Lesson on Due Diligence; Journal of Commerce (New York); May 23, 2013.
---------------------------------------
ESCHRED - Drawn as a caricature with confusing perspective (see
here and
here and
here)
EUCHBRED - born to be outwitted
EACHRED different shades of blushing.
vole
PRONUNCIATION:(vohl)
MEANING:
noun: 1. Any of various rodents of the genus Microtus and related genera.
2. The winning of all the tricks in some card games.
verb intr.: 3. To risk everything in the hope of great rewards. Typically used in the phrase "go the vole".
4. To try every possibility.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: Short for volemouse, from Norwegian vollmus, from voll (field) + mus (mouse). Earliest documented use: 1805.
For 2-4: From French voler (to fly), from Latin volare (to fly), which also gave us volatile and volley. 1680.
========================================================
VOLED - to have tried all posibilities and yet remain envolved.
VOLET An apprentice valet.
VONE - an early German WWII bombardment rocket
VOBLE - nonsense speech without consonants; a portmanteau word made from "vowel" and "babble"
VIOLE almost a full blooming violet
Mar 26, 2014
This week's theme
Words derived from card games
This week's words
euchre
vole
house of cards
PRONUNCIATION (hous uv kardz)
MEANING:
noun: Something insecure or insubstantial that is subject to imminent collapse.
ETYMOLOGY:
Alluding to a flimsy structure made with playing cards. Earliest documented use: 1645.
USAGE:
"'We have to find a new balance,' the pope said. 'Otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards.'"
Michael Gerson; Francis the Troublemaker; The Washington Post; Sep 24, 2013.
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HOUSE OF HARDS- section of prison where dangerous hardcore criminals are housed i.e. those who spoke out against the stupidity of their government.
HOUSE OF CADS - A men's club.
A cads club?
That too, tromboner. But the real reason I'm not on the PGA Tour is because of their rule of...
NOUSE OF CARTS -
And don't quibble. Three words,ergo, three letter changes are permitted.
You can look it up.
HOUSE OF CHARDS - trendy new salad bar
JJ, you win this one hands down !
HOUSE OF CHARDS - trendy new salad bar
JJ, you win this one hands down !
Thanks Wofa. I am tired of being the
MOUSE OF PARDS.
And especially of being the
LOUSE ON BARDS of this board.
spoof
PRONUNCIATION: (spoof)
MEANING:
noun: 1. A light, good-humored imitation; parody.
2. A hoax or a prank.
verb tr.: 1. To satirize gently.
2. To fool using a hoax or a prank.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Spoof, a card game invented by the comedian Arthur Roberts (1852-1933). Earliest documented use: 1884.
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SPOOR - the scent of a woman or the scent trail of a wild animal*.
*[ [please excuse the repetition] ]
SPOTOF - any of several self-consciously upscale British beverages
usage: "Wouldn't you enjoy a Spotof tea about now?"
I am a little confused....can I ask why?
I thought we could only change one letter.
Am I misinformed, or did I misunderstand.
Or did we change the 'roolz'?
Are you thinking of the other thread, maybe?
-- In the Anagrams thread we change the most recent word by the "one letter add/subtract/change" Rool.
-- This "Mensopause" thread has us altering Anu's Word of the Day in that way, so your result and my result may end up different, but they start from the same raw material. Today's is "SPOOF". One change made SPOOF into SPOOR. A different change made SPOOF into SPOTOF.
And then occasionally we make a mistake, or flout the Roolz deliberately if it's too tempting to resist, or if we're desperate...Usually the outcome is an indulgent noticing, accompanied by a silent Ah, that's against the Roolz, and doing nothing, unless we're feeling Ho-ish like Winnie-the-Pooh (which is not uncommon), in which case we raise an objection.
Happens to the best of us, some more than others.
( s/ a not-so-infrequent offender, in both directions)
RULE #87 - spoon, don't spook.
trump card
PRONUNCIATION: (trump kard)
MEANING:
noun: 1. In card games, a suit chosen to rank above the others.
2. Something that gives an overriding, decisive advantage.
ETYMOLOGY:
An alteration of the word triumph, which was the name of an old card game. Earliest documented use: 1823.
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RUMP CARD - the card in the hole when playing Five Card Stud. An alteration of the alteration of the word "triumph".
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The mind is the effect, not the cause. -Daniel C. Dennett, philosopher (b. 1942)
ANOTHER THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The gun is the effect, not the cause. - J.J. sophist (b.19 something)
TRUMP CARED - No he didn't. Just ask Ivana.
STRUMP CARD - good for one free visit to the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
THUMP CARS - electric bumper cars that we drive around as greenies today like those we drove as kids simply to go "bump".
[
Say WDOC, this thread is at 100 pages, do ya think we oughta start it anew for expediency? Maybeso we could also re-explain the roolz for the literal minded amongst us. ]
Done, and done.
(Continued
HERE)