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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2000
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thanks tsuwm,
just a minor correction : Joseph Conrad
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Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>do you have an amazing memory, or an amazing (to me at least) facility w/ the Internet, or both?? well, I guess it must just be the second since I butchered Conrad's first name! 
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Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Tsuwm--
I went to the anagram server (thanks, David, for the reminder) and put in "I butchered Conrad".
Two apt ones were:
He'd don't err a cubic, and
A cherub cried don't.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
the 4th of July wwftd is: petard
don't be hoist on your own petard on this (US) holiday.
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Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
This is a night when petards go off all over my neighborhood--so many that the air is hazy!
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Joined: Jun 2000
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2000
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My favorite word is palindrome. Can anyone guess what it means? I've loved this word since third grade. It's a fun word.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Welcome, Us...! Well, let's see: palindrome, eh? Sounds like it ought to be an entertainment facility where you take your friends. So, perhaps, would rats star there? 
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Palindrome
Famous Example : Able was I ere I saw Elba
I like words that are phonetic exemplars of the things they stand for... for best effect, say them out loud :
silk
mellifluous
gregarious
opaline
limpid
shatter
glitch
and on the ugly side : hate.
wow
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#1712
04/03/2001 12:42 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
Favorite words
Last night, while pretending to read my Physical Anthropology textbook and suffering intense Wandering Mind Syndrome (I wonder if that's akin to Restless Leg Syndrome? Whoops, there I go again) I came across the word pilfer and realized that I like the way it sounds. Other words that have "p" and "f" in them came to mind as well-- piffle, puffy, perforate... I guess it's the combination of sounds that I like.
Another favorite word of mine: Praxis.
I don't know if it's a "real" word, but I like the sound of it. If I ever discover a planet, I think I will name it Praxis.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
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If I ever discover a planet, I think I will name it Praxis. You might rename Jupiter that. According to Kant, and I can't remember where or what his reasoning, the people on Jupiter have such a superior work ethic, they work 24/7--and love it! 
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 275 |
tsuwm>>what is my favorite word? pull-ease!
This is just the funniest phrase I have read so far this evening, considering where we are and what we are doing.
I met a new word last month while reading Harper's Magazine.
The word is deliquescence. The word deliquesce means to dissolve and become liquid by absorbing mositure from the air.
Michael Hitchens used it in an unusual way in this article. He wrote" Kissinger now argues, in the third volume of his memoirs, “Years of Renewal”, that he was prevented and distracted, by Watergate and the deliquescence of the Nixon presidency, from taking a timely or informed interest in the crucial triangleof Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus."
Harper’s Magazine
March 2001p.54 paragraph 1
chronist
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear wordcrazy: deliquescence is a handy word in chemistry, where something you have worked hard to make can have its appearance spoiled if you don't get it into a jar quickly.
Both sugar and salt have this problem to a minor degree.
Deliquescence is not a good fit for the disintegration of the Nixon administration, which did not become liquid from absorbing moisture, but underwent autolysis from the enzymes liberated by corruption.
Below is a link giving complete discussion.
http://antoine.fsu.umd.edu/chem/senese/101/compounds/faq/why-hygroscopic.shtml
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
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Hey wordcrazy and Bill
We learned, in Chemistry, of both deliquescence and hygroscopy. One of them referred to substances that merely absorbed moisture from air without changing form, while the other referred to substances that, effectively, sowed thesseds of their own solution... But I had always remembered hygroscopy as the latter. Shows what years away from the classroom can do, eh?
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Re:Deliquescence vs. hygroscopy
Dear Shanks: I guess my chemistry must be at least twenty five years older than yours, and my recollection of it less than half yours. I can't remember the product I made that would completely turn to liquid if left uncovered. I had totally forgotten "hygroscopy". Looking at dictionary, I now have impression that things like sugar and salt are merely hygroscopic. Deliquescence has to be rather uncommon. Link below gives complete explanation.
http://antoine.fsu.umd.edu/chem/senese/101/compounds/faq/why-hygroscopic.shtml
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#1718
04/05/2001 10:54 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
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old hand
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Bill
Do you remember an Isaac Asimov story about a substance that was so hygroscopic/deliquescent it dissolved before it actually touched the water? He used this as the base for some interesting/farcical time travel paradox stories. I think the substance was called thio-something.
Any ideas? Anyone? Google, for once, is not really helping...
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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#1719
04/05/2001 11:45 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
Got it!
"The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" - Isaac Asimov. First published in 1948.
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