Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 2 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

CORDILLERA

PRONUNCIATION: (kor-duhl-YER-uh)

MEANING: noun: A chain of mountains or mountain ranges.

ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish cordillera, diminutive of cuerda (cord), from Latin chorda (cord), from Greek khorde (gut). Earliest documented use: 1704.
______________________________

CORD ILL SERA - inoculants against umbilical cord disease
see also CORD ILLER - mine is sicker than yours

COR DILL SERA - inoculants against pickled heart

COR-DRILLER - a cardiologist who practices TMR (Trans-Myocardial Revascularization)

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

BONDIEUSERIE

PRONUNCIATION: (bon-DYOO-zuh-ree)

MEANING: noun: A piece of banal religious art, devotional object, ornament, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: From French bondieuserie (religious knick-knack), from bon (good) + dieu (god). Earliest documented use: 1941.
_______________________

BLONDIE USER, I.E. - someone who takes advantage of Dagwood Bumstead's wife, I mean to say

BON-DIEUSE RITE - ritual of Benign-Goddess worship

BOND E.U. SERIES - Ian Fleming also wrote of his debonair agent's adventures on the Continent

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

PAREDOLIA

PRONUNCIATION: (per-eye-DOH-lee-uh)

MEANING: noun: The tendency to see a specific pattern or meaningful images in random stimulus.

ETYMOLOGY: From German Pareidolien, from Greek para- (along) + eidolon (image), from eidos (form, idea). Ultimately from the Indo-European root weid- (to see), which also gave us wise, view, supervise, wit, eidetic, eidos, vidimus, previse, hades, guy, invidious, and vizard. Earliest documented use: 1962.
___________________________________________

PRE-IDOL IA - Des Moines before the Beatles' visit

PARSE "I DO," LIA - Lia, take apart that short sentence for me and tell me the meaning and function of each word

PARED ELIA - Charles Lamb has been peeled

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

AKRATIC

PRONUNCIATION: (uh-KRAT-ik)

MEANING: adjective: Characterized by weakness of will that results in acting contrary to one’s better judgment.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek akretes (powerless), from a- (without) + kratos (power, strength). Earliest documented use: 1896.
_____________________________

AGRA TIC - I get a twitch every time I see the Taj Mahal

AKMATIC - nickname of a Russian-made 7.62mm semi-automatic rifle

ARRATIC - unpredictable

OKRATIC - full of gumbo

PAKRATIC - given to collecting and saving useless baubles

UKRATIC - the British Public's expectations of Brexit

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

SATYAGRAHA

PRONUNCIATION: (suh-TYAH-gruh-uh, sut-YAH-gru-ha)

MEANING: noun: The policy of passive nonviolent resistance as a protest against injustice.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) in India’s freedom struggle, from Sanskrit satyagraha, from satyam (truth) + agraha (determination, insistence), ultimately from the Indo-European root ghrebh- (to seize or reach), which also gave us grasp and grab. Earliest documented use: 1920.
__________________________

SATYAGRAHAM - the silent struggle to market a new cracker

SATYR! AGRA! HA! - A bordello next to the Taj Mahal? Who knew?!

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

MOON SHOT

PRONUNCIATION: (MOON shot)

MEANING: noun:
1. A mission to the moon.
2. A highly ambitious, unlikely project with great potential impact.
3. In sports, an act of hitting or throwing a ball very high.

ETYMOLOGY: From moon + shot, from Old English sceot/gesceot. Earliest documented use: 1949. Also, there’s an earlier citation from 1873, in the sense, lit by moonlight.
________________________

MOOR SHOT - Oh, no! Othello's been assassinated!

NOON'S HOT - If you don't like it, stay out of Arizona!

MORON SHOT - 0.5 cc of this stuff injected will turn you into a gibbering idiot

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

LIGHT-YEAR

PRONUNCIATION: (LYT yeer)

MEANING: noun:
1. A unit of length equal to the distance traveled by light in one year in a vacuum, about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion km.
2. Very far, in distance or time.

ETYMOLOGY: From light, from Old English leoht + year, from Old English gear. Earliest documented use: 1888.

NOTES: A light-year is a unit of distance -- there’s no such unit as a heavy-year (nor is there a dark-year). To get a light-year’s worth of frequent-flier miles you’d need to travel between New York and Moscow only a little over a billion times.
_________________________

MIGHTY EAR - what it takes to hear a pin drop

FLIGHT-YEAR - how long a trip to Mars in an elliptical orbit would take

EIGHT-YEAR - a long-term car lease

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

ROCKET SCIENCE

PRONUNCIATION: (ROK-it sy-uhns)

MEANING: noun
1. The science of rocket design, construction, and flight.
2. Something requiring advanced knowledge and intelligence.

ETYMOLOGY: From Italian rocchetta, diminutive of rocca (spindle, distaff) + science, from Latin scientia, present participle of scire (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root skei- (to cut or split), which also gave us schism, ski, shin, adscititious, conscientious, exscind, nescient, scienter, and sciolism. Earliest documented use: 1931.
__________________________

RACKET SCIENCE - for the very best in tennis equipment

POCKET SCIENCE - specialized knowledge possessed by pool hustlers

SOCKET SCIENCE - a wrenching field of study

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

LIFT-OFF

PRONUNCIATION: (LIFT-of)

MEANING: noun:
1. The action of being airborne, such as that of a rocket, aircraft, etc.
2. The launch of a project, an initiative, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old Norse lypta, from lopt (air) + off, stressed variant of the word of. Earliest documented use: 1907.
________________________________

LIFT ORFF - to adapt music from The Planets and claim you wrote it

LIFE TOFF - born with a silver spoon, and still rich and elegant

SIFT-OFF - the finals of the Pillsbury Flour contest

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

SPACE CADET

PRONUNCIATION: (SPAYS kuh-det)

MEANING:\ . noun:
1. A trainee astronaut.
2. A person who behaves strangely or appears to be out of touch with reality.

ETYMOLOGY: From Robert Heinlein’s 1948 novel Space Cadet. Why the second sense of the term? The book inspired TV and radio shows and comics and the term became popular. Eventually, the meaning shifted and now a space cadet is one who is spaced out or has their mind in space, probably as a result of drug use. Earliest documented use: 1948. Other words coined by Robert Heinlein that have become words in the English language are grok and waldo.
__________________________

PACE CADET - Freshman in a New York city university (it also has a campus in Westchester)

APACE CADET - energetic, bustling trainee

SPACE CARET - editors' symbol for "insert a two-en quad here"

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

PYTHAGORIZE

PRONUNCIATION: (puh-THOG-uh-ryz)

MEANING: verb intr.: To philosophize or speculate in the manner of Pythagoras or the Pythagoreans.
verb tr.: To convert (a person or thing) into another.

ETYMOLOGY: After Pythagoras, Greek philosopher (c. 570-495 BCE). Earliest documented use: 1603.

NOTES: Pythagoras is best known for the Pythagorean theorem, although it was widely known before him. Pythagoras was ultimately a philosopher with wide interests and had many followers. He also believed in the transmigration of the soul which resulted in the second sense of the word pythagorize.

Did you know there’s a Pythagoras Day? It doesn’t occur every year. Last one was on 8/15/17 (8² + 15² = 17²). Next will occur on 12/16/20 (12² + 16² = 20²). Start planning the celebrations now!
______________________

MYTHAGORIZE - to sort out the shenanigans of the denizens of Mount Olympus

PYTHAGONIZE - to be in great distress over the white part of an orange rind

PHTHAGORIZE - to spread tuberculosis through the Greek marketplace

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

MALAPROP

PRONUNCIATION: (MAL-uh-prop)

MEANING: verb intr.: To misuse a word by confusing it with a similar-sounding word, producing a humorous effect. For example, “pineapple of perfection” for “pinnacle of perfection” (from the play The Rivals).

ETYMOLOGY: After Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan’s play, The Rivals (1775), who confused words in this manner. The name Malaprop is coined from French “mal à propos” (inappropriate). Earliest documented use: 1959.
__________________________

MAULAPROP - when you run your outboard motor in water that's too shallow
(see also MAILAPROP - to order a replacement from Sears-Roebuck)

MAL A PREOP - sick, and scheduled for surgery

GALA PROP - an easel with the sign pointing you to big party

wofahulicodoc #229556 08/21/2019 10:35 AM
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Restorize- create and maintain a state of peace and easy feeling

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

Welcome, Littldrop, nice to have you with us!
________________________

NESTORIZE

PRONUNCIATION: (NES-tuh-ryz)

MEANING: verb tr.: To fill someone with the idea of being very wise.

ETYMOLOGY: After Nestor, king of Pylos, who was the oldest and wisest of the Greeks and served as a counselor in the Trojan War. Earliest documented use: 1612.
_______________________

NEST PRIZE - for building the bestest place ever for a birdie to lay eggs !

ONE-STORIZE - to divest of all branch stores

NEXTORIZE - nosy neighbors (say it out loud!)

wofahulicodoc #229565 08/22/2019 3:49 PM
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Dewitt

Do witt - motivational remark

De mitt! - nursery acceptable language

Pew it- tactical theatrics


😊 thank you, wofahulicodoc

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

DEWITT

PRONUNCIATION: (di-WIT)

MEANING: verb tr.: To kill by mob violence.

ETYMOLOGY: After brothers, Johan and Cornelius De Witt, Dutch statesmen, who were killed by a mob on Aug 20, 1672. Earliest documented use: 1689.

NOTES: Today’s word has a better-known synonym: lynch. While the word lynch is coined after the perpetrator of such extra-judicial killing (Captain William Lynch), the word dewitt is coined after people who were the object of such violence.
_____________________________

DEWI TIT - after frolicking in the morning grass, the tiny songbird is wet

DE WIDT - side-to-side dimension, analogous to the up-and-down dimension (de hite)

DEE ITT - another cousin in the Addams Family

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

ALADDINIZE

PRONUNCIATION: (uh-LAD-uh-nyz)

MEANING: verb tr.: To magically transport or transform someone or something.

ETYMOLOGY: After the title character of the story Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. Earliest documented use: 1848.
__________________________________

A LAD: DIN, IRE - prize-winning ultra-short story about a noisy boy who makes everybody angry

SALAD DINIZE - eat only lettuce and tomato and cucumbers

GAL, ADD IN IZE - ya gotta use yer peepers better to communicate yer feelings

wofahulicodoc #229568 08/24/2019 3:14 AM
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Paladdinize- knightly constitutional

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2


Paladdinize - knightly constitutional

wink

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,971
Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,971
Likes: 3
Do you mean Bret or Bart the Maverick bros?


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Originally Posted by wofahulicodoc


Paladdinize - knightly constitutional

wink


Non linear thinking:
Paladin- knight
101 Dalmatians- evening constitutional
UK- Cockney rhyming slang
Knight- evening/night
Bo Peep- sleep
Ize- eyes/peepers

I usually check my word sites at night

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

ERE

PRONUNCIATION: (air)

MEANING: conjunction: Before (earlier in time).

ETYMOLOGY: From Old English aer (earlier). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ayer- (day, morning), which is also the source of early and erst (as in erstwhile). Earliest documented use: 822.
_______________________

MR. E. - a puzzlement

R. R. E. - a mechanical model of the Solar System

T. R. E. (preferably with a German accent) - a hypothesis, or (after a while) the best explanation we have for a set of observations

RE - That's about it.

Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Ere

LRE- lesson, ready-to-educate. A self-contained, individual school ration.

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,971
Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,971
Likes: 3
Puer Caeruleis oculis.


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

ECCE

PRONUNCIATION: (EK-ay, ECH-ay, EK-see)

MEANING: interjection: Behold! (used to call attention to someone or something).

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin ecce (see, behold). Earliest documented use: 1598.
__________________________

ECCH - What, me worry?

'ENCE - elsewhere, in medieval English-with-a-Cockney-accent. Ex: "Get thee 'ence"

DECCE - many Italian record companies (cf. lira, pl. lire)

Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Pinim- "stick it to the man"

Vinim- mini sized vitamin

Linim- an ocean in a drop

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

MINIM

PRONUNCIATION: (MIN-uhm)

MEANING: noun:
1. The least amount of anything.
2. In music, a half note.
3. A unit of liquid measure, equivalent to 1/60 of a fluid dram (about one drop of liquid).
4. In calligraphy, a short vertical stroke, as in the letters i, m, n, u.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin minimus (smallest, least). Earliest documented use: 1440.
______________________

MINT I.M. - intramuscular flavoring

MR NIM - champion at taking-away game

MINI-MD - Doogie Howser

Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Mumdrum- mother's heartbeat for newborns
Wurdrum- white noise shusher machine
Purdrum- kitten noise maker with attached, fine grit, sandpaper tongue
Hurdrum- countless sheep jumping over the moon, comes with flokati
Surdrum- good knight, fast asleep
Nurdrum- logo maniac

Last edited by littldrop; 09/01/2019 2:08 PM. Reason: March to the beat of your own drum
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

MURDRUM

PRONUNCIATION: (MUR-drum)

MEANING: noun:
1. A murder, especially in secret.
2. A fine paid for a murder.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin murdrum (murder), from Old French murdre (murder). Earliest documented use: 1290.

NOTES: Before England went around colonizing the world, they were colonized/conquered by Romans, Angles/Saxons/Jutes, Vikings, and Normans. The locals vented by killing their new lords. So the law came down that any murder of a Norman was to result in a heavy fine for the whole village. On the other hand, if the person killed was an Englishman or an Englishwoman: pas de problème. This fine was known as murdrum.
____________________________

CURD-RUM - a beverage made from fermented milk

SUR DRUM - the cymbal on top of the Bass Drum in l'Orchestre de Paris

MUR DEUM - the Sacred Wall in Rome

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

UNBIRTHDAY

PRONUNCIATION: (uhn-BUHRTH-day)

MEANING: noun: A day other than one’s birthday.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) in Through the Looking-Glass (1871). Earliest documented use: 1871.

NOTES: Today is a very special day. Most of our readers (about 99.7% of you) have their unbirthday today. A very happy unbirthday to you! How are you celebrating your unbirthday?
And if you happen to have your birthday today, well, a happy birthday to you!
_________________________

SUNBIRTHDAY - the Winter Solstice

UNMIRTHDAY - April 15, for most of us, the day U.S. Income Tax returns are due

UNGIRTHDAY - I just lost 40 pounds!

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

RUNCIBLE

PRONUNCIATION: (RUHN-suh-buhl)

MEANING: noun: A utensil that is a combination of a fork and spoon. Also known as a spork.
adjective: Shaped like a combination fork and spoon.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined as a nonsense word by the poet Edward Lear (1812-1888) in 1871.

NOTES:A runcible or spork is the love child of a spoon + fork, but that’s not what the word meant in the beginning. Edward Lear coined the word in the poem “The Owl and the Pussycat”:
...They dined upon mince, and slices of quince
Which they ate with a runcible spoon...

What runcible meant was left to the imagination of the reader. Lear later used the same word to describe other things: cat, hat, goose, and wall. Eventually, the word took the sense of a spoon that can do the job of both a fork and a spoon
_______________________________

RUN BIBLE - The Compleat Guide to Marathon Racing, by Alberto Salazar

RUNNIBLE - a long solid suit of cards in Bridge

RUNCI BLUE - a distinctive color popularized by Italian designer Giacomo Runci

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

CHIRALITY

PRONUNCIATION: (ky-RAL-i-tee)

MEANING: noun: The property of not being superimposable on its mirror image: dissymmetry.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by physicist, engineer, and mathematician William Thomson, Baron Kelvin, also known as Lord Kelvin (1824-1907). 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.
___________________________

CHORALITY - singtogetherableness (see also CHOIRALITY)

CHIRALITE - an ore of meteoric origin

CHIRA LAITY - non-clergy in a Latin American city

CHI REALITY - there is a 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet

Last edited by wofahulicodoc; 09/04/2019 2:29 PM. Reason: one more!
wofahulicodoc #229615 09/05/2019 4:15 PM
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Chireality-
1) falling inn love (totally stolen from movie on Netflix)
2) creative tension

"To explain the creative tension concept further, Fritz came up with a metaphor. Imagine yourself stretching a rubber band between your right and left hand. Your right hand represents your ‘vision’ and your left hand represents your current reality. The greater the gap between them, the greater your creative tension will be."

(https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/what-creative-tension-and-how-could-it-help-you)


Chairality- a libation of one part chai and one part espresso taken before battle, inducing a signature call. (Xena's war cry)


Last edited by littldrop; 09/05/2019 7:02 PM.
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

ESEMPLASTIC

PRONUNCIATION: (es-em-PLAS-tik)

MEANING: adjective: Having the capability of molding diverse ideas or things into unity.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), apparently inspired by German Ineinsbildung (forming into one). From Greek es- (into) + en, neuter of eis (one) + plastic, from Latin plasticus (related to molding), from Greek plastikos, from plassein (to mold). Earliest documented use: 1817.
__________________________

'E'SEMI-PLASTIC - 'e'll deform, but only if you pull 'im slowly

EJEMPLA STIC - a long skinny piece of wood, for example

ESTE M-PLASTIC - this Spanish explosive compound

Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Esimplastic- Lucy at the plastic factory

¡Esemplistic!- Ricky Ricardo's way of saying, "She's Nuts."

littldrop #229619 09/06/2019 1:45 PM
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Gonzo-[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/kzyo90D2ZAA[/video]




Last edited by littldrop; 09/06/2019 1:50 PM. Reason: ...
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

GONZO

PRONUNCIATION: (GON-zo)

MEANING: adjective: Having a bizarre, subjective, idiosyncratic style, especially in journalism.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Bill Cardoso, journalist and author, in 1971. It was first used in a published work by Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author (1939-2005). Perhaps from Italian gonzo (simpleton) or Spanish ganso (dull or fool, literally a goose). Earliest documented use: 1971.
__________________________

GOON ZO - a zany old-time radio show featuring Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine.

GONZOO - the Ardastra Gardens, Zoo and Conservation Centre in Nassau (Bahamas), alas, after recent Hurricane Dorian

GONDO - the guy who leers from a pole-propelled boat in Venice, singing "Santa Lucia"

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Online: Content
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,063
Likes: 2

EUSTRESS

PRONUNCIATION: (YOO-stres)

MEANING: noun: A positive, beneficial form of stress.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by the endocrinologist Hans Selye (1907-1982). From Greek eu- (good) + stress, from shortening of distress or from Old French estressei (narrowness or oppression), from Latin strictus, from stringere (to bind tight). Earliest documented use: 1950s.

NOTES: Eustress is happy stress. Some examples of eustress are excitement at starting a new job, an upcoming wedding, etc. In general, mild stress works as eustress, bringing motivation and spurring action. Too much stress results in distress.
__________________________

EDUSTRESS - the SATs

EUSTLESS - of no value whatsoever

EUSTRUSS - what to do if you get a hernia

Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
stranger
stranger
Offline
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 16
Seustress- Whoville whodo

Thanks for the giggle

wofahulicodoc #229629 09/10/2019 12:44 AM
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,453
Likes: 9
Pooh-Bah
Pooh-Bah
Offline
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,453
Likes: 9
Originally Posted by wofahulicodoc
Too much stress results in distress.

Or should that be 'dystress'? wink

Page 2 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2025 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 8.0.0