|
Home
|
Sep 13, 2026
This week’s themeUncommon adjectives This week’s words stuporous rorid nidorous macilent breviloquent How popular are they? Relative usage over time AWADmail archives Index Next week’s theme Words that look like typos Wordsmith Games
AWADmail Issue 1263A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Tidbits about Words and LanguageFrom: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) Subject: Interesting stories from the Net ”War on Terror”: How 9/11 Changed the Language of Conflict Al Jazeera Permalink Eagles and Wolves: The Long-Lost Animals That Live on in Irish Place Names BBC Permalink From: Matthew Grierson (mattgrierson windowslive.com) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--stuporous
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it. -Edith Sitwell, poet (7 Sep 1887-1964) I was almost stuporous when one of the girls we employed for after-school work was boasting she could not read an analog watch/clock, nor could she tie shoelaces. I managed to reply, “Gloating about not being able to do something is not a reason to be proud of yourself.” Her reaction gave me the impression I would have been better off saving my breath. Matthew Grierson, Auckland, New Zealand From: pooder27 (via website comments) Subject: stupidity Thank you, Edith Sitwell, for your observation, which is even more applicable today than when you made it. Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber by Andy Borowitz covers the topic quite well. pooder27 From: Hunter Heath (calciophile gmail.com) Subject: Breviloquent Certain politicians might be described, based on their scurrilous utterances, as falsiloquent and maliloquent. They lie to achieve evil ends. Hunter Heath, Zionsville, Indiana
Email of the Week -- Brought to you by OLD’S COOL®
From: Henry M. Willis (hmw ssdslaw.com) Subject: Bloviate I used to think that H.L. Mencken had invented the term “bloviate” to describe the speeches of Warren G. Harding. I was wrong, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy his observations about Harding’s writing style:
[H]e writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me
of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line;
it reminds me of stale bean-soup, of college yells, of dogs barking
idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur
creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm (I was about to
write abscess!) of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of
posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.
Henry Willis, Los Angeles, California From: Dorrin Rosenfeld (drdorrinr gmail.com) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--breviloquent
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty. -Jessica Mitford, author, journalist, and civil rights activist (11 Sep 1917-1996) I beg to differ, in that this only has force when the guilty are capable of embarrassment. I’m thinking in particular of several current politicians. Dorrin B. Rosenfeld, Vallejo, California From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com) Subject: breviloquent and macilent  
Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California Anagrams
Make your own anagrams and animations. Limericks stuporous Five thousand bucks for my vote? That’s bribery, you wily old goat! It sure makes me stuporous Thinking what Trump will do for us To keep his corrupt ship afloat. -Patricia Michener, Midland, Canada (pmcd linktomarket.com) Because of the big meal I ate, I’m now in a stuporous state. My hosts must excuse My need for a snooze -- Their feast this Thanksgiving was great! -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) Upon waking, I feel barely there! Kind of stuporous, dazed, unaware... What’s today gonna bring? Any meaningful thing? Well, first off, let me just comb my hair! -Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com) “I make sure my appointees are stuporous; It’s not easy, because they’re so numerous,” Said Donald. His staff Is a clown car. You laugh? The reality, though, isn’t humorous. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “I just love being here in mom’s uterus, For the sounds from outside become susurrus,” Said the fetus. “I grieve That someday I must leave, For out there, those who run things are stuporous.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) rorid That day I’d arisen ere dawn. How rorid I’d found was the lawn! It thus came to pass I slipped on that grass, All semblance of dignity gone. -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) There’s a girl with a curl on her forehead, And when she is bad, she is horrid! But when she is good, And behaves as she should, My wee granddaughter makes my eyes rorid. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) nidorous What a nidorous odor, egad! I am sorry my cooking’s so bad. Over time I have learned Food stinks when it’s burned. Any chance to eat out makes me glad. -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) He walked in the house. “What’s that smell? She is cooking again, I can tell. ‘It’s like something has died,’ “ He would chide his new bride. “Such a nidorous odor!” he’d yell. -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) The horse came a-galloping, riderless; Fresh from hell it arrived, smelling nidorous. ‘Twas a stout-hearted mare Who had dropped Donald there! I said, “Rest now, brave steed, you’ve been tireless.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) macilent A macilent man was Jack Sprat. They say that he never ate fat. However, his spouse Was big as a house -- This couple was happy like that. -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) “I whip myself raw as a flagellant,” Said the friar, “and keep myself macilent. To please Him I suffer; At that I’m no duffer.” But God looked upon him in bafflement. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) breviloquent A breviloquent writer am I: To say much with few words do I try. I tend to be terse When penning this verse -- There are only five lines, and that’s why. -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) The student had won the debate. His brief use of language was great. With his arguments diligent, Pithy, breviloquent, His logic was simply first-rate. -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) Said Donald, “You’re kidding. Breviloquent? No, a two-hour ramble is imminent. You’re fired! How dare You suggest I be spare? I pronounce you an illegal immigrant!” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) Sighed Steve’s wife, “You’re so dull and breviloquent.” He replied, “Of that crime I plead innocent! Don’t you read AWADmail? From chit-chat I may quail, But with lim’ricks and puns, I’m munificent.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) Puns “Innkeeper, into our bowls would you some of your delicious stuporous?” asked Yoda. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “Doc, I wake up in the middle of the night making lion sounds.” “Ah! Zees ees classic case of rorid.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “Don’t de-nidorous Day, that the script would make a great movie for you and Rock Hudson,” said her agent. -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) “You have your choice of a firing squad, hanging, cya-nidorous-peech by Donald Trump,” said the executioner to the condemned man. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) She loved vegan cooking and made up a whole macilent-ils for dinner. -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) “Tho-macilent you ten shekels, and you never paid me back. No one else knows about it, so this proves it’s really me. Doubt your Lord no longer!” said Jesus. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “In your next film you’re going to the mo-breviloquent-in that might be dangerous!” worried Tarantino’s wife. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care
for. -Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, writer (13 Sep 1830-1916)
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
