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COCKADE
PRONUNCIATION: (ko-KAYD)
MEANING: noun: An ornament, such as a rosette or a knot of ribbons, worn as a badge on a hat, lapel, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From French cocarde, from Old French coquarde, feminine of coquard (vain, arrogant), from coc (cock), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1709.
NOTES: Not sure if cockade would become ade one day, but cockroach did turn into roach because the word has a supposedly dirty four-letter combination. In reality, the word is an anglicization of Spanish cucaracha.
Unfortunately, many schools and corporations will block this issue of A.Word.A.Day and as a result readers in those places will be deprived of this essential knowledge for success in modern life.
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COCOADE - a chocolate-flavored cool drink
COCKADEE - an adult male chickadee
COOKADE - lets you use many chefs without spoiling the broth
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FALLACIOUS
PRONUNCIATION: (fuh-LAY-shus)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Based on false reasoning.
2. Deceptive or misleading.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin fallere (to deceive). Earliest documented use: 1473.
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SALLACIOUS - like this week's theme - sounds dirty, but gotcha.
FELLACIOUS - like this one. Portmento of hellacious fellas, meaning "a few good men, but all of 'em imps..."
MALLACIOUS - describing a delightful shopping place, unlike the similar-sounding but evil MALLICIOUS. Although that kind of place might have a great Food Court...
FALLA PIOUS - A religious holiday in Valencia, Spain. On March 19 Las Fallas commemorates Saint José (the patron saint of carpentry) and the arrival of spring.
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SCARAMOUCH (-E)
PRONUNCIATION: (SKAR/SKER-uh-moosh/mooch/mouch)
MEANING: noun: A boastful coward, buffoon, or rascal.
ETYMOLOGY: After Scaramouche, a stock character in commedia dell’arte (Italian comic theater popular from the 16th to 18th centuries). His Italian name was Scaramuccia (literally, skirmish) -- he was often getting beaten up by Harlequin. The word is ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut), which also gave us skirmish, skirt, curt, screw, shard, shears, carnage, carnivorous, carnation, sharp, scrape, scrobiculate (having many small grooves), incarnadine (flesh-colored), and acarophobia (fear of small insects; delusion that one’s skin is infested with bugs). Earliest documented use: 1662.
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SCARAMOUTH - souvenier of duelling (see also SCARABOUCHE)
SCARYMOUCHE - monster housefly
SCARAB-OUCH - beetle-bites sting!
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MOLOTOV COCKTAIL
PRONUNCIATION: (MOL-uh-tof KOK-tayl)
MEANING: noun: A crude bomb made of a bottle filled with a liquid fuel and fitted with a rag wick that is lighted just before the bottle is hurled.
ETYMOLOGY: After Soviet foreign minister, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (1890-1986). Earliest documented use: 1940.
NOTES: It could have been known a Skryabin cocktail. Molotov was born as Vyacheslav Skryabin, but he took the name Molotov (from Russian molot: hammer). During the Winter War between the USSR and Finland (1939-1940), when the Soviets received international criticism for the bombing of Helsinki, Molotov claimed they were delivering humanitarian aid. In response, the Finns sarcastically called those cluster bombs Molotov bread baskets.
If the Soviets were bringing bread to the party, the least the Finns could do was bring drinks. They called their makeshift incendiary devices Molotov cocktail and used them to destroy Soviet tanks.
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MOLOTOV MOCKTAIL - 1. a non-alcoholic beverage for someone trying to stay away from alcohol;
2. Russian denigration of the World's Oldest Profession
MOZL-O'TOV COCKTAIL - a glass lifted in an Irish pub as a gesture of congratulations
B-MOL "OTOV COCKTAIL" - a fanciful cantata by JSBach, written in B-flat
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ROISTER-DOISTER
PRONUNCIATION: (ROI-stuhr doi-stuhr)
MEANING: noun: A swaggering buffoon or reveler.
adjective: Engaged in swaggering buffoonery.
ETYMOLOGY: After Ralph Roister Doister, the eponymous main character of the playwright Nicholas Udall’s play written around 1552. From roister (to behave in a boisterous, swaggering manner), from Middle French rustre (boor), from Latin rusticus (rustic). Earliest documented use: 1592.
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ROOSTER-D'OISTER - two cartoon fowl, a male and his sister Pearl; second cousins to Warner Bros. character Foghorn Leghorn.
ROISTER, DO I SU'ER? - I'm asking Attorney Roister whether or not I should file an action against the woman
ROISTER, DO I STAR? - Hey there, King baby, am I the most important person in the show?
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BRAGGADOCIO
PRONUNCIATION: (brag-uh-DO-shee-o)
MEANING: noun:
1. An empty boaster.
2. Empty boasting.
3. Boastful behavior.
ETYMOLOGY: After Braggadochio, a boastful character in Edmund Spenser’s 1590 epic poem The Faerie Queene. Earliest documented use: 1594. Here’s another word that came to us from the same book: blatant.
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ABRAGGADOCIO - incantation used by the Fairy Queene
BRAGGA-DO-CI-DO - egotistical square dancer
BRAGG ADO CIA - much fuss in the North Carolina fort but you're not cleared to hear it
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I occasionally wonder - with many of this week's words - which came first, the behavior or the literary character...
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DICKENSIAN
PRONUNCIATION: (di-KEN-zee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Of or relating to Charles Dickens or his works.
2. Relating to social conditions marked by poverty, social injustice, mistreatment of children, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: After the novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870), whose works portrayed poor social conditions of Victorian England. Earliest documented use: 1881. Many of Dickens’s characters have become eponyms themselves.
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DICKENS,IVAN - Charles' Russian cousin
DICKENS I CAN - David Copperfield thinking positively
DUCKENESIAN - the nationality of Donald's South Pacific cousin [yes, that's two changes, not one]
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RASPBERRY
PRONUNCIATION: (RAZ-ber-ee)
MEANING: noun:
1. A sound, similar to breaking wind, made by pushing the tongue between the lips and blowing air through the mouth.
2. A rejection, disapproval, or contempt.
ETYMOLOGY: Rhyming slang, raspberry tart ⇨ fart. Earliest documented use: 1890. A synonym is Bronx cheer.
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RASHBERRY - a berry known to activate allergies and make your skin red and itchy
GASPBERRY - a berry that makes you either flatulent or eructative, or both, and occasionally gives you a catch in your breath for good measure
RASP BEERY - Wallace's older brother Rasputin, to his friends
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TITFER
PRONUNCIATION: (TIT-fuhr)
MEANING: noun: Hat.
ETYMOLOGY: Rhyming slang, tit for tat ⇨ hat. Earliest documented use: 1927.
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TIFFER - a spatter; one who engages in small quarrels
TITLER - one who uses a particular brand of golf ball
SITFER - what you do to have your portrait painted
TINFER - what the Woodsman's pet in Oz wears to protect it from the cold and rain
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OSCAR
PRONUNCIATION: (OS-kuhr)
MEANING: noun: Cash.
ETYMOLOGY: Rhyming slang, Oscar Asche ⇨ cash. Asche (1871-1936) was an Australian actor, director, and writer. Earliest documented use: 1917.
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[Personally, I'd have thought of Wilde before I thought of Asche]
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OS-EAR - when the auricular cartilage is calcified and rigid, like a bone
O, SCAT - what you say to chase away an exasperating cat
iOS CAR - a self-driving vehicle controlled by an iPhone
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