A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Wed Oct 1 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--analphabet X-Bonus: Nothing is illegal if one hundred businessmen decide to do it. -Andrew Young, author, civil rights activist, US congressman, mayor, and UN ambassador (b. 1932) This week's theme: Insults. analphabet (an-AL-fuh-bet) noun An illiterate; one who doesn't know the alphabet or the basics of something. [From Greek analphabetos (not knowing the alphabet), from an- (not) + alphabetos (alphabet), from alpha + beta.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "For an auto-analphabet like me, this was big news indeed. Armed with these magical tires, I'd never have to lug around a spare." Amy Gamerman; Tires -- No Pressure; The Wall Street Journal (New York); May 29, 1998. -------- Date: Thu Oct 2 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--wifty X-Bonus: One should count each day a separate life. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE) This week's theme: Insults. wifty (WIF-tee) adjective Eccentric, silly, scatterbrained. [Of unknown origin.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Kirsten Dunst is utterly charming as the doctor's wifty office assistant, idolizing her boss from afar and sharing tokes and beer with a pair of Lacuna lab techies." Steven Rea; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Knight Ridder Newspapers; Mar 19, 2004. -------- Date: Fri Oct 3 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gormandizer X-Bonus: Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so. It is not so. It is so. It is not so. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790) This week's theme: Insults. gormandizer (GOR-man-dyz-er) noun A greedy person. [From French gourmandise (gluttony). Both a gourmand and a gourmet enjoy good food, but a gourmand is one who eats to excess while a gourmet is considered a connoisseur of good food.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Was his humble name to be bandied in men's mouths, as the gormandizer of the resources of the poor, as of one who had filched from the charity of other ages wealth which had been intended to relieve the old and the infirm." Anthony Trollope; The Warden; 1855. -------- Date: Mon Oct 6 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hypergelast X-Bonus: I am a part of all that I have met. -Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet (1809-1892) With the largest vocabulary of any language, in English we have a word to describe almost everything. And when we can't find one, we're happy to borrow from another language (from German: schadenfreude, pleasure at another's misfortune), or just make one up (petrichor, the pleasant smell of rain after a dry spell). That said, let's not gloat over how many words we have. English's poverty shows in many places, for example, when it comes to words to describe relations. How useful is it to introduce the woman with you as your sister-in-law when the term could mean any number of things? This week we visit a few terms that make one say, "I didn't know there was a word for it!" hypergelast (hy-PUHR-ji-last) noun One who laughs excessively. [From Greek hyper- (over) + gelastes (laugher), from gelan (to laugh). A related word is agelast: someone who never laughs.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "America had become a laughing nation, a country of frivolists and hypergelasts, a culture dangerously out of control." Henry Jenkins; What Made Pistachio Nuts?; Columbia University Press; 1992. -------- Date: Tue Oct 7 00:01:04 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--skeuomorph X-Bonus: Journalists do not believe the lies of politicians, but they do repeat them -- which is even worse! -Michel Colucci, comedian and actor (1944-1986) This week's theme: There is a word for it. skeuomorph (SKYOO-uh-morf) noun A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary. For example, the click sound of shutter in an analog camera that is now reproduced in a digital camera by playing a sound clip. [From Greek skeuos (vessel, implement) + -morph (form).] Notes: A skeuomorph can be employed for various purposes. Since people are used to the click sound of a camera as feedback that the picture has been taken, it is now artificially-produced in digital cameras. Other examples are copper cladding on a zinc penny (for familiarity) and wood finish on a plastic product (for a more expensive look). Ventilation holes on this mixing desk are actually painted on: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/skeuomorph_large.jpg (Image credit: Chris Harris) -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "While working two months ago in South Lowestoft, Suffolk, British archaeologist Clare Good excavated a four-sided object made of the mineral jet. It closely matches a geometrically designed gold object found far away at a burial site called Bush Barrow near Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The match is so close that experts believe the black artifact is a skeuomorph, or a copy in a different material." Jennifer Viegas; Stonehenge Amulets Worn by Elite; Discovery News; Apr 6, 2007. -------- Date: Wed Oct 8 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hey rube X-Bonus: Why are so many people shy, lonely, shut up within themselves, unequal to their tasks, unable to be happy? Because they are inhabited by fear, like the man in the Parable of the Talents, erecting walls around themselves instead of building bridges into the lives of others; shutting out life. -Joseph Fort Newton, minister and author (1880-1950) This week's theme: There is a word for it. hey rube (hay roob) noun 1. A fight between members of a circus and the general public. 2. A call to rally circus members in a fight. [The term originated in the 19th century when circuses were rowdy affairs and Hey Rube was the rallying cry to call all circus people to help in a fight with townspeople. It's not clear whether Rube in this term was someone specific or simply a use of the informal term rube (shortened form of Reuben) for an unsophisticated person from a rural area.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "I said 'Shut it, Camel! I'm dealing with a situation here.' Walter says. 'What kind of situation?' says Camel. "'Jacob's messed up.' "'What? How? Was there a hey rube?'" Sara Gruen; Water for Elephants; Algonquin Books; 2006. -------- Date: Thu Oct 9 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--snood X-Bonus: Language is an anonymous, collective and unconscious art; the result of the creativity of thousands of generations. -Edward Sapir, anthropologist and linguist (1884-1939) This week's theme: There is a word for it. snood (snood) noun 1. A fleshy appendage over the beak of a turkey. 2. A net for holding a woman's hair at the back of her head. [From Old English snod.] A picture of a turkey's snood: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/snood.jpg [Photo credit: Debbie Roos, North Carolina Cooperative Extension] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "She unloaded groceries from her car one day and returned to find a tom -- caruncles* and snood ablaze in red." Clara Germani; Not Wild About the Turkeys; The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Nov 21, 2005. * https://wordsmith.org/words/caruncle.html -------- Date: Fri Oct 10 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--serein X-Bonus: Journalism is publishing what someone doesn't want us to know, the rest is propaganda. -Horacio Verbitsky, journalist (b. 1942) This week's theme: There is a word for it. serein (suh-RAN [the second syllable is nasal]) noun Fine rain falling from an apparently cloudless sky, typically observed after sunset. [From French serein, from Old French serain (evening), from Latin serum (evening), from serus (late).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "She must have caught a chill from the serein, that's all!" Raphael Confiant; Mamzelle Dragonfly; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2000. -------- Date: Mon Oct 13 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--epeolatry X-Bonus: Here lives a free man. Nobody serves him. -Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960) Today when we spell the word "color" instead of "colour" we can thank a crotchety, humorless man for saving wear on our fingers, not to mention savings on paper and those obscenely expensive inkjet printer cartridges. Oct 16 marks the 250th birth anniversary of Noah Webster (1758-1843), lexicographer extraordinaire, who compiled the American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), the first authoritative lexicon of American English. Webster believed in establishing cultural independence from Britain and as such he emphasized a distinct American spelling and pronunciation. His dictionary listed various unusual and shortened spellings of words. He would hardly have imagined how the tide would turn one day. According to reports, more British children today spell "color" instead of "colour", for example. Webster's suggestion of using "tung" instead of "tongue" didn't stick, though. Today Webster's name is synonymous with dictionaries, and the date of his birth is observed as Dictionary Day. In his honor, this week we'll present words about words. As Webster said, "the process of a living language is like the motion of a broad river which flows with a slow, silent, irresistible current." Tomorrow: Look for a fun contest with a chance to win an autographed copy of my latest book. epeolatry (ep-i-OL-uh-tree) noun The worship of words. [From Greek epos (word) + -latry (worship). The first citation of the word is from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in his 1860 book Professor at the Breakfast Table.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "I read my dictionary for a few more minutes, until tiredness eventually brought my epeolatry to an end for the day." Roger Day; Anurada Negotiates Our Wobbly Planet; Lulu; 2006. -------- Date: Tue Oct 14 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--univocalic X-Bonus: I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955) This week's theme: Words about words. univocalic (yoo-niv-uh-KAL-ik) noun A piece of writing that uses only one of the vowels. adjective Using only one vowel. [From Latin uni- (one) + vocalic (relating to vowels), from vox (voice).] Notes: Here's an example of univocalic that makes use of only the vowel e: Seventh September. The longest one word univocalic is strengthlessness. Also see lipogram: https://wordsmith.org/words/lipogram.html Contest: Imagine you are a headline writer for a newspaper back in the days when metal type was used. You have run out of all but one of the vowels in the large type size that is used for the headline. What univocalic can you come up with? Email your univocalic news headlines (real or made-up) to (words at wordsmith.org). Selected entries will be featured in the weekly compilation AWADmail and the best entry will win an autographed copy of my latest book DORD. Deadline is Friday Oct 17, 2008. (See results at https://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail329.html ) -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Most notably, [Christian Bök's] 2001 Eunoia, seven years in the making, became Canada's bestselling poetry book ever -- an incredible feat for such explicitly experimental writing. No comforting fluff here; in the main portion, each chapter employs but a single vowel (e.g., "Enfettered, these sentences repress free speech"), a univocalic constraint." Ed Park; Crystal Method; Village Voice (New York); Dec 16, 2003. -------- Date: Wed Oct 15 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--paragoge X-Bonus: There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. -Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988) This week's theme: Words about words. paragoge (par-uh-GO-jee) noun The addition of a letter or syllable at the end of a word, either through natural development or to add emphasis. For example, height-th for height. [Via Latin, from Greek paragoge, from para- (beyond) + -agogue (leader).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Henry Peacham cites the expansion of 'vile' to 'vilde' as an example of the rhetorical figure paragoge." Stephen Booth; Shakespeare's Sonnets; Yale University Press; 2000. -------- Date: Thu Oct 16 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--semasiology X-Bonus: Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them. -Francois de La Rochefoucauld, writer (1613-1680) This week's theme: Words about words. semasiology (si-may-see-OL-uh-jee) noun The study of meanings in a language, especially the study of semantic change. [From Greek semasia (meaning).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "It must be left to students of musical semasiology to account for the psychological association that exists between the spiritual concept of goodness and saintliness and the notational accident of the absence of sharps and flats in the key signature, which results in the 'whiteness' of the music." Nicolas Slonimsky, et al.; The Listener's Companion: Great Composers and Their Works; Schirmer Trade Books; 2002. "The early theories of semasiology attempted to account for meaning shifts in language." Federica Busa, et al.; The Language of Word Meaning; Cambridge University Press; 2001. -------- Date: Fri Oct 17 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cacology X-Bonus: Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched. -Guy de Maupassant, short story writer and novelist (1850-1893) This week's theme: Words about words. cacology (ka-KOL-uh-jee) noun 1. Poor choice of words. 2. Incorrect pronunciation. [From Greek caco- (bad) + -logy (word).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "The phenomena described in 1985 by Amos Joel, computer controlled digital switching system pioneer, are present realities: 'The trade press, which should know better, is party to the curtain of mysticism, clichés, and cacology around which they shroud the true technology of new products." John Buckley; Telecommunications Regulation; Institution of Electrical Engineers; 2003. -------- Date: Mon Oct 20 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--obambulate X-Bonus: The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there. -Yasutani Roshi, Zen master (1885-1973) Two years in the making, the 2008 US presidential election will take place two weeks from now. By the time the campaigns end, the candidates will have spent more than a billion dollars trying to get the job. All those bucks for a position that earns less than half million dollars a year and lasts only four years! But weighing the post by its salary is like saying that Olympic athletes sweat for years just to pocket a few hundred dollars' worth of gold. The post of President of the United States carries immense power to make decisions that affect, for better or worse, people the world over. The effects of the actions of a president last for years and eponyms (words coined after someone's name) enter the language that reflect their legacy, such as Reaganomics, teddy bear (after Theodore Roosevelt), etc. This week I have selected five words that appear to have been coined after this year's presidential candidates (Obama, Biden, McCain, and Palin). These are all 100% dictionary words -- they have been in the language even before these candidates were born. Enjoy these words, and don't forget to vote! obambulate (o-BAM-byuh-layt) verb intr. To walk about. [From Latin ob- (towards, against) + ambulare (to walk). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ambhi- (around) that is also the source of ambulance, alley, preamble, and bivouac. The first print citation of the word is from 1614.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "We have often seen noble statesmen obambulating (as Dr. Johnson would say) the silent engraving-room, obviously rehearsing their orations." The Year's Art; J.S. Virtue & Co.; 1917. -------- Date: Tue Oct 21 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bidentate X-Bonus: What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) This week's theme: Words that appear to have been coined after the 2008 US presidential candidates. bidentate (by-DEN-tayt) adjective Having two teeth or toothlike parts. [From Latin bi- (two) + dens (tooth).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Noah and his wife humorously feed all the beasts; Noah pours a pail of milk into the hippo's gaping bidentate mouth." Jon Solomon; The Ancient World in the Cinema; Yale University Press; 2001. -------- Date: Wed Oct 22 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--palinode X-Bonus: Let us enrich ourselves with our mutual differences. -Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945) This week's theme: Words that appear to have been coined after the 2008 US presidential candidates. palinode (PAL-uh-noad) noun A poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem. [From Greek palinoidia, from palin (again) + oide (song). It's the same palin that shows up in the word palindrome. Here's a palindromic web address: https://wordsmith.org/words/sdrow/gro.htimsdrow//:ptth ] The illustrator and humorist Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) once wrote a poem called The Purple Cow: I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I'd rather see than be one. The poem became so popular and he became so closely linked with this single quatrain that he later wrote a palinode: Confession: and a Portrait, Too, Upon a Background that I Rue! Oh, yes, I wrote 'The Purple Cow', I'm sorry now I wrote it! But I can tell you anyhow, I'll kill you if you quote it. It was the same Burgess who coined the word, blurb. -Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org) "The more lighthearted palinodes were more successful, such as Geoff Horton's recantation of his youthful view that a martini should be shaken rather than stirred." Jaspitos; I Take It Back; The Spectator (London, UK); Jan 24, 2004. -------- Date: Thu Oct 23 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--meeken X-Bonus: Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking. -Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794) This week's theme: Words that appear to have been coined after the 2008 US presidential candidates. meeken (MEEK-en) verb tr., intr. To make or become meek or submissive. [From meek, from Old Norse mjukr (soft, meek).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Whenever Helen sleeps, her fevered rest meekens her; hence, she re-emerges enfeebled -- her strength, expended; her reserves, depleted." Christian Bök; Eunoia; Coach House Book; 2001. -------- Date: Fri Oct 24 00:01:05 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--barrack X-Bonus: A man can't ride on your back unless it's bent. -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968) This week's theme: Words that appear to have been coined after the 2008 US presidential candidates. barrack (BAR-uhk, the first syllable is the same as in barrel) verb tr., intr. 1. To shout in support: to cheer. 2. To shout against: to jeer. [Perhaps from Northern Ireland dialectal barrack (to brag).] noun A building used to house soldiers. verb tr., intr. To provide with accommodation. [From French baraque, from Italian baracca or Spanish barraca (hut, tent).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Raphael Clarke said: Every kid wants to play for the team they barrack for." Lyall Johnson; Clarkes Praise the Saints; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Nov 23, 2003. "During the debate, then Socred leader Rita Johnston and NDP leader Mike Harcourt were barracking away at each other about corruption." Ross Howard; TV Debate; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); May 16, 1996. -------- Date: Mon Oct 27 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cleave X-Bonus: He shall mark our goings, question whence we came, / Set his guards about us, as in Freedom's name. / He shall peep and mutter, and night shall bring / Watchers 'neath our window, lest we mock the King. -Rudyard Kipling, author, Nobel laureate (1865-1936) When you SANCTION a project, do you approve of it or disapprove? Should one be commended for OVERSIGHT (watchful care) or reprimanded for OVERSIGHT (error or omission)? When you RESIGN from a job, do you leave it or re-join (RE-SIGN!) it? When a proposal gets TABLED, is it being brought forward for discussion or being laid aside? Depends on which side of the pond you're at. If the former, you're in the UK; if the latter, you're in the US. I call them fence-sitters. They sit on fences, ready to say one thing or its opposite depending on which side they appear at. I'm not talking about politicians. These are words, known by many names: autoantonym, contranym, self-antonym, enantiodromic, amphibolous, janus word, and so on. Sometimes it's a result of two distinct words evolving into the same form (cleave from Old English cleofian and cleofan) but often a single word develops a split personality and takes on two contradictory senses. All of us have a bit of yin and yang and these words are no exception. The context usually provides a clue to help us understand the right sense in a given place. Look for more such words in AWAD this week. cleave (kleev) verb tr., intr. Past tense: clove or cleft or cleaved. Past participle: cloven or cleft or cleaved To split or divide. [From Old English cleofan. Ultimately from the Indo-European root gleubh- (to tear apart) that is also the source of glyph, clever, and clove (garlic). And that's also where cleavage, cleft palate, and cloven hooves get their names from.] verb intr. past tense and past participle: cleaved To stick, cling. [From Old English cleofian.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "It now looks as though technology has cleaved the society into two." Isshaq Jumbe; Password Headache in A Fast-moving World; Business Day (Nairobi, Kenya); Sep 25, 2008. "After that debate, those who loathe Mrs Palin will still loathe her; those who cleave to her will find no new reason to be repelled." Janice Turner; Why I Love This Candy-covered Ball of Granite, Sarah Palin; The Times (London, UK); Oct 4, 2008. -------- Date: Tue Oct 28 00:01:09 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--continuance X-Bonus: What I stand for is what I stand on. -Wendell Berry, farmer, author (b. 1934) This week's theme: Contranyms, or words with an opposite set of meanings. continuance (kuhn-TIN-yoo-uhns) noun 1. The state of continuing: remaining in the same place, action, etc. 2. An adjournment of a court proceeding to a future day. [From Anglo-French continuer, from Latin continuare, from continere (to hold together), from com- (together) + tenere (to hold).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "There is abundant room for more aggressive fiscal policies, continuance -- if not expansion -- of credit, and domestic growth in consumption." Slower Boat From China; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 20, 2008. "Attorney Kevin Camp asked for a continuance earlier this month due to conflicting court dates in other districts." Law Enforcement Briefs; The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi); Oct 20, 2008. -------- Date: Wed Oct 29 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--asperse X-Bonus: What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? -Ursula K. Le Guin, author (b. 1929) This week's theme: Contranyms, or words with an opposite set of meanings. asperse (a-SPURS) verb tr. 1. To spread false and malicious charges against someone. 2. To sprinkle with holy water. [From Latin aspergere (to sprinkle), from ad- (toward) + spargere (to strew).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Then and in the war years that followed, EM Forster was a quiet but doughty spokesman for civil liberties, a fact forgotten now that it is fashionable to slight his fiction and asperse the nature of his sympathies for Britain's colonised." AC Grayling; The Last Word On - Freedoms; The Guardian (London, UK); Nov 24, 2001. "Mr. Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, called the 'true parents' of mankind by his Unification Church, aspersed the couples with water as they passed in rows to the strains of Mendelssohn's Wedding March." Paul L. Montgomery; 4,000 Followers of Moon Wed at the Garden; The New York Times; Jul 2, 1982. -------- Date: Thu Oct 30 00:01:07 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--copemate X-Bonus: Of all plagues with which mankind is cursed, ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst. -Daniel Defoe, novelist and journalist (1659?-1731) This week's theme: Contranyms, or words with an opposite set of meanings. copemate (KOP-mayt) also copesmate, noun 1. An associate or friend. 2. An opponent or adversary. [From French couper (to cut), from Latin colpus (blow), from Greek kolaphos (blow with the fist) + mate (fellow).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "I let go of [the gown's] gaping back long enough to turn around, grin and give a big OK sign to Ms. Harper's Bazaar, our copemate, our friend." Dorothy Fredericks; Breezy is Fashionable; The Seattle Times; Aug 25, 1991. "Weigh gentlemen, and consider, whether my affirmations, back'd with reason, may hold balance against the bare denials of ... my copesmate." John Milton; Colasterion; 1645. -------- Date: Fri Oct 31 00:01:06 EDT 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--quiddity X-Bonus: Conscience is the still, small voice which tells a candidate that what he is doing is likely to lose him votes. -Anonymous This week's theme: Contranyms, or words with an opposite set of meanings. quiddity (KWID-i-tee) noun 1. The essence of someone or something. 2. A trifling point. [From Latin quid (what) which also gave us quidnunc https://wordsmith.org/words/quidnunc.html and quid pro quo https://wordsmith.org/words/quid_pro_quo.html ] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Pondering this reversal of fortune, Anicius Manlius Boethius composed a soliloquy in which, queried by Philosophy as to his quiddity, he replied: 'I am a man, a rational and mortal animal.'" Alvin Moore Jr.; The Noble Traveler; Parabola (New York); Jun 1996. "Any kind of lackadaisical activity, any sort of diverting quiddity to take a person's mind off mundane, everyday, small-change troubles." Guy Friddell; Perfect Day is Fine Excuse For Lackadaisical Activity; The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia); May 27, 2004.