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GROBIAN
PRONUNCIATION: (GROH-bee-uhn)
MEANING: noun: A coarse, buffoonish person.
ETYMOLOGY: From German Grobian (boor, lout), a fictional patron saint of boorish and vulgar people, from German grob (coarse, vulgar). In Latin, Grobianus. Earliest documented use: 1621.
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GROBEAN - what Jack the Giant Killer started with
GYROBIAN - early candidate for describing Igor Sikorsky's invention
GRABIAN - describing momeraths, who possess this skill to a high degree (according to Lewis Carroll)
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SCHEHERAZADE
PRONUNCIATION: (shuh-her-uh-ZAHD, -ZAH-duh, -dee)
MEANING: noun: A storyteller, especially one who tells long, entertaining stories.
ETYMOLOGY: After Scheherezade, the wife of a king in One Thousand and One Nights. Earliest documented use: 1851.
NOTES: In One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of stories from the Middle East, the king Shahryar discovers his wife being unfaithful. He learns that his brother’s wife is unfaithful as well. He kills his wife and decides to take revenge on all women by marrying a virgin every day and having her executed the next morning so she never gets an opportunity to cheat. One day it’s the turn of Scheherezade, the vizier’s daughter, to be the bride. She asks the king if she could say farewell to her sister Dunyazad first. The king agrees and the sister, who has been prepared in advance, asks Scheherezade to tell a story. The story is engrossing and the king is awake listening. Scheherezade stops the story just before dawn saying there’s no time left to finish. The king spares her life to find out what happened. The next night she finishes the story and starts another, even more captivating story. And so it goes for 1001 nights and by that time the king has fallen in love with her beauty and intelligence and makes her the queen.
Sheherazade is the patron saint of television script writers, who decide just where to put commercial breaks in a TV show.
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SCHEHERANADE - what drunken Romeo sang to Juliet on her balcony
SCHNEE-RAZADE - a particularly beautiful ski excursion in the Bavarian Alps
SHE/HE A ZADIE - the father's biological gender was never conclusively proved
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RED QUEEN HYPOTHESIS
PRONUNCIATION: (red kween hy-POTH-uh-sis)
MEANING: noun: The hypothesis that organisms must constantly adapt and evolve in order to survive in an evolutionary arms race.
ETYMOLOGY: Proposed by the biologist Leigh van Valen (1935-2010). Earliest documented use: 1973.
NOTES: In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass the Red Queen tells Alice: “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”
Evolutionary biologist Leigh van Valen used that as a metaphor to describe how competing species must keep up with one another. For example, in a predator and prey relationship, if the prey evolves to run faster, the predator must keep up or go extinct.
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RED QUEEN HYPO THIS IS - Yoda says he uses it to shoot up a Jedi drug
RED QUEEN HYPNO-THESIS - she was under post-hypnotic suggestion when she said those irrational things in the courtroom
REO QUEEN HYPOTHESIS - I hear the Speedway group was masterminded by her behind the scenes
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RODOMONT
PRONUNCIATION: (RAH-duh-mont)
MEANING: noun: A vain boaster.
ETYMOLOGY: After Rodomonte, the boastful king in Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Boiardo and the sequel Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Earliest documented use: 1592. A related word is rodomontade.
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R.O. DUMONT - Robert Orrin Dumont, the black sheep of the family
ODO, MONT. - a town in Montana whose boundaries keep shifting
FRODO, MONT - another town, whose citizens were profoundly influenced by The Hobbit
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GLAD HAND (or GLAD-HAND)
PRONUNCIATION: (GLAD hand)
MEANING: noun: A hearty welcome or greeting, often insincere.
verb tr., intr.: To greet warmly, often insincerely.
ETYMOLOGY: From glad, from Old English glaed (bright, cheerful) + hand, from Old English hand. Earliest documented use: 1895.
NOTES: Glad-handing is typically associated with politicians, used-car salesmen, and their ilk. There’s often a hidden agenda: they are not greeting so enthusiastically because they are delighted to see you, rather they want something from you. You’d never find a dog glad-handing or glad-pawing you (cats, maybe). When they come running, tails wagging, to greet you at the front door, they mean every bit of it.
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GO LAD HAND - Cheers for Odell Beckham the rugby star
LAD HAND - the kid who helps out on the farm
GLAD HANK - Aaron after # 715
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FINGERPOST
PRONUNCIATION: (FING-guhr-post)
MEANING: noun:
1. A post with one or more signs pointing toward one or more places.
2. Something or someone serving as a guide.
ETYMOLOGY: From the resemblance of the sign to the fingers of a hand. Earliest documented use: 1738.
NOTES: A fingerpost is a post with long thin boards pointing toward various locations. These boards may look like fingers on a hand, hence the name. Sometimes these boards actually terminate in a pointing finger. The Oxford English Dictionary lists another sense of the word fingerpost: a parson or a member of the clergy. As this citation from the A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785 tells it:
“Finger post, a parson, so called, because like the finger post, he points out a way he probably will never go, i.e. the way to heaven.
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SINGERPOST - my job as resident vocal soloist
FINGERPEST - someone with a very low threshold for flipping people the bird...
GINGERPOST - an extremely tentative Facebook entry
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CHIROCRACY
PRONUNCIATION: (ky-ROK-ruh-see)
MEANING: noun: Government that rules by physical force.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek chiro- (hand) + -cracy (rule), alluding to a rule by a strong hand or a heavy-handed rule. Earliest documented use: 1677.
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CAIROCRACY - government by Egypt
SHIROCRACY - government by Hobbits
CHIROCRAZY - when your specialist in spinal manipulation claims to cure cancer, heart disease, and diabetes
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BAREKNUCKLE
PRONUNCIATION: (BER-NUHK-uhl)
MEANING: adjective, adverb
1. Without using boxing gloves.
2. Rough; unrestrained by rules or scruples.
ETYMOLOGY: From bare, from Old English baer + knuckle, diminutive of Middle Low German knoke (bone). Earliest documented use: 1883.
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BAREKNICKLE - overgrowth on the bottom of an Scottish boat
BAREN UNCKLE - my mother's brother is having a problem getting his wife pregnant
BAREK NICKLE - a five-cent coin with the likeness of Former President Obama on the obverse
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MANUMISSION
PRONUNCIATION: (man-yuh-MISH-uhn)
MEANING: noun: Release from slavery, servitude, or restraint.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin manumittere (to free), from manus (hand) + mittere (to let go). Ultimately from the Indo-European root man- (hand), which also gave us manual, manage, maintain, manicure, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, command, manure, manque, legerdemain, and mortmain. Earliest documented use: 1452.
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MAN OMISSION - concern for others, all too often
MANUFISSION - splitting by hand, as for example a log
MANY MISS ION - and without them there would be no chemistry
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FROWARD
PRONUNCIATION: (FRO-wurd/urd)
MEANING: adjective: Difficult to deal with; contrary.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English fro- (away, from) + -ward (moving or facing in a specific direction). Earliest documented use: 1340.
NOTES: If you recall the phrase to-and-fro (which is short for “to and from”), you can easily sense where froward is going. It’s the opposite of toward. Over time, the senses of the two words have shifted so they are not antonyms any more.
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UROWARD - where the bladder specialist admits patients
PRO-WARD - 1. I'm improving, and might even go on the Tour soon!
2. ...and against Roebuck
FRO-WAND - how Hobbits do magic
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LISTLESS
PRONUNCIATION: (LIST-luhs, -lis)
MEANING: adjective: Devoid of energy or enthusiasm.
ETYMOLOGY: From list (desire, inclination), from Old English lystan (to be pleasing). Ultimately from the Indo-European root las- (to be eager), which also gave us lust. Earliest documented use: 1440.
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LASTLESS - sign in shoemaker's shop: "Closed; out of materials"
LINTLESS - my belly button is quite clean
WISTLESS - not wanting for or desirous of anything
LISTLOSS - now how am I supposed to do my shopping?
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INDOLENT
PRONUNCIATION: (IN-duh-lehnt)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Lazy, lethargic, averse to exertion.
2. Painless or causing little pain; slow to develop or heal. Used in medicine, for example, indolent ulcer.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin indolent-, stem of indolens, from Latin in- (not) + dolens, present participle of dolere (to suffer, feel pain) which also gave us dolor, condole, and dole. Earliest documented use: 1663.
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INDOLANT - a six-legged creature whose biochemistry is based on indole rather than formic acid
INDY LENT - Professor Jones let his students borrow his fedora
IN DOLE NOT - Scrooge's motto
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MATRONLY
PRONUNCIATION: (MAY-truhn-lee)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Stately; dignified.
2. Characteristic of a mature, plump, unfashionable woman.
ETYMOLOGY: From matron (a married woman; a woman in charge), from Latin matrona (married woman, wife), from mater (mother). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mater (mother), which also gave us mother, material, matter, matrix, and matrimony. Earliest documented use: 1590.
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MACRONLY - how France is governed these days
MARRON-LY - the way a chestnut would
MATRON ALY - Nurse in charge of the Hospital de los Niños in Hollywood
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VALOROUS
PRONUNCIATION: (VAL-uhr-uhs)
MEANING: adjective: Courageous; brave; bold.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin valor (worth), from valere (to be well or strong). Earliest documented use: 1477.
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CALOROUS - rich [food]; will put weight on you in a hurry if you eat too much
VAPORO-US - a now-failed chain of shops selling e-cigarettes
VALOR OPUS - any long saga about the exploits of the courageous, brave, and bold
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GONGOOZLER
PRONUNCIATION: (gon-GOOZ-luhr)
MEANING: noun: An idle spectator.
ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin, perhaps from Lincolnshire dialect gawn and gooz, both of which mean to stare. Earliest documented use: 1904.
NOTES: Rubberneckers gawk at highway accidents, trainspotters spot trains, and gongoozlers goozle gons. Well, no, language doesn’t work like that. Originally, a gongoozler was a person who liked to hang out around canals watching passing boats. Over time, the word has evolved to refer to anyone who likes to stare at some activity. See also, kibitzer.
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GONGOOGLER - the search-engine-company employee isn't at her desk just now
GOING OOZLER - becoming slimy
GONGOOSLER - done for...
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HAIL-FELLOW
PRONUNCIATION: (HAYL-fel-oh)
MEANING: noun: A congenial companion.
adjective: Enthusiastically friendly.
ETYMOLOGY: Short for the former greeting “Hail-fellow well met.” Earliest documented use: 1577.
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HALL-FELLOW - patrols the school corridors while class is in session
HAIL-FERLOW - how an orthographically-challenged soldier exults over his week-end pass
HAIL (bellow) - dialog and stage directions for a bit part in Julius Ceasar
HAIR-FELLOW - tonsorial expert (Both terms have fallen from the modern vocabulary in favor of the shorter "barber".)
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CONNOISSEUR
PRONUNCIATION: (kon-uh-SUHR/SOOR)
MEANING: noun: An expert who is knowledgeable enough to pass critical judgment in a field, especially in fine arts, cuisines, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From French connoisseur (connaisseur in Modern French), from Old French conoisseor, from conoistre (to know), from Latin cognoscere (to learn or get to know), from co- (together) + gnoscere (to know), (to learn). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know), which is also the source of know, recognize, acquaint, ignore, diagnosis, notice, normal, agnostic, incognito, anagnorisis (the moment of recognition or discovery), and prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces). Earliest documented use: 1719.
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CONNOISSOEUR - it's a wise child who knows his own sister
CON - NO, I'SE SUR - It's OK, Henri, he ain't puttin' you on
CONN OISTEUR - poorly-spelled bivalve mollusk from New London, CT
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GANGREL
PRONUNCIATION: (GANG-ruhl)
MEANING: noun:
1. A vagrant or drifter. But
2. A tall, thin, long-limbed person.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English gang/gong (manner of going, way, passage), from gangen (to go). Earliest documented use: 1450.
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GANOREL - Lear's orthographically-challenged daughter
GONGREL - My dog wasn't pure-bred, and it's sad that I can't find him
GANGREN - past participle of gangrene
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VULGARIAN
PRONUNCIATION: (vuhl-GAY-ree-uhn)
MEANING: noun: A boorish, lewd, and crude person who makes a conspicuous display of wealth.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin vulgus (mob, common people). Earliest documented use: 1833.
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VULGARIAN - a boorish person from Sofia, depending on whether you're using b-de-burro or v-de-vaca
VOLGARIAN - a Russian-river dweller
VULGAR HAN - Mr Solo's un-cool alter ego
PULGARIAN - a Spaniard who's all thumbs
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SHELL-SHOCKED
PRONUNCIATION: (SHEL-shockd)
MEANING: adjective: Stunned, confused, and exhausted as a result of experiencing intense stress, such as in a war zone.
ETYMOLOGY: From shell, from Old English sciell + shock, from French choc, from choquer (to collide). Earliest documented use: 1898.
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SHELL-SHACKED - living in a "shellter" made from old oyster and clam and mussel and scallop shells
HELL-SHOCKED - much distressed after a brief glimpse of the afterlife
SHE'LL SHOO KED - the girl is going to chase away the sneaker
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HATCHET JOB
PRONUNCIATION: (HATCH-it job)
MEANING: noun: Malicious criticism meant to harm someone’s reputation.
ETYMOLOGY: From hatchet (a small, short-handled axe), from Old French (hachete), diminutive of hache (axe) + job, of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1925.
NOTES: In the beginning a hatchet job was a murder carried out by a hired Chinese assassin in the US, known as a hatchet man. Over time, the word began to be used metaphorically for verbal criticism meant to destroy someone’s reputation. Another hatchet idiom is to "bury the hatchet," meaning to end hostilities and reconcile.
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HITCHET JOB - attach the horses to the wagon
HATCHET JOY - easy work for a lumberjack
HATCHET JIB - a small sail in the prow of the boat that lets it slice through the wind
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BATTLE-AXE (or BATTLE-AX)
PRONUNCIATION:
(BAT-l aks)
MEANING: noun:
1. A broadax used as a weapon of war.
2. A typically older woman with a reputation for being sharp-tongued, domineering, and aggressive.
ETYMOLOGY: From battle, from Latin battuere (to beat) + ax, from Old English aecs (ax). It’s not entirely clear how this term came to be applied to a fierce woman. Perhaps it’s because a sharp-tongued woman could cut down someone as well as an ax, metaphorically speaking. Earliest documented use: 1380 (1896 for the figurative meaning).
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B.A. TITLE AXE - the lumberjack's tool that went to college
(see also B.A. TITLE X - ...because she could postpone having children until she wanted them
BATT, LEAH - sister of Batt, Rachel
CATTLE-AX - (I don't think I want to discuss this one)
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SMOKING GUN
PRONUNCIATION: (SMOH-king gun)
MEANING: noun: Something that serves as incriminating evidence, especially of a crime.
ETYMOLOGY: From the idea that someone holding a recently fired gun that still has the smoke coming out of the barrel would make for incontrovertible evidence that they were the one who shot the victim. Earliest documented use: 1970s.
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SMOKING GYN - you're my doctor, she said; you should know better
I'M OK-ING GUN - Here's your license to carry
AMOK-ING GUN - fires a psychosis-inducing drug instead of a tranquilizer
SUMO KING GUN - even big wrestlers sometimes have to defend themselves
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GREAT GUNS
PRONUNCIATION: (grayt gunz)
MEANING: noun: Someone or something impressive.
adverb: With energy and enthusiasm; successfully.
interjection: Expressing surprise or disbelief.
ETYMOLOGY: In the beginning, great gun referred to a large firearm that required mounting. Eventually it came to be applied metaphorically. The adverbial use started in horse races. Earliest documented use: 1430.
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GROAT GUNS - ditto for kernels of grain
GREAT RUNS - record-breaking streaks of anything
GRE AT UNS - prerequisite for admission for graduate study at the University of Nova Scotia
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FULGOR oR FULGUOR
PRONUNCIATION: (FUHL-guhr))
MEANING: noun: Splendor; brightness.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin fulgor (brightness), from fulgere (to shine). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhel- (to shine or burn), which also gave us blaze, blank, blond, bleach, blanket, flame, refulgent, fulminate, and effulgent. Earliest documented use: 1600
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FULIGOR - a zombie wrestling hold (cf. HALF-IGOR)
NUL-GOR - rated G
FOULGOR - rated XXX for violence
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INQUILINE
PRONUNCIATION: (IN-kwuh-lyn)
MEANING: noun: An animal living in the nest, burrow, or home of another.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin inquilinus (tenant, lodger), from in- (into) + colere (to dwell). Earliest documented use: 1640.
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INQUIRINE - curious
INQUININE - malaria-resistant
MINQUILINE - furry
SINQUILINE - transgressing (see also INIQUILINE)
INQUILINK - precursor of the fountain pen
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JOUISSANCE
PRONUNCIATION: (ZHWEE-sans)
MEANING: noun: Pleasure; ecstasy.
ETYMOLOGY: From French jouissance, from jouir (to enjoy). Earliest documented use: 1484.
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LOUISSANCE - regal bearing
JOUISTANCE - position taken by expert game-players
JOLUISSANCE- boxing prowess
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WORRICOW
PRONUNCIATION: (WUH-ree-kau)
MEANING: noun: A hobgoblin, scarecrow, or a person of frightening appearance.
ETYMOLOGY: From Scottish, from worry (to harass) + cow (hobgoblin). Earliest documented use: 1711.
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WORRI-CON - annual gathering of Fussbudgets
TWO RR ICON - Chessie (Chesapeake and Ohio Railway); Roxy (Long Island Rail Road)
WORRICOWL - worn by monks to indicate their bafflement over the ambiguities of this world
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HYALOID
PRONUNCIATION: (HY-uh-loyd)
MEANING: adjective: Glassy or transparent.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin hyaloides, from Greek hualoeies (glass-like), from hualos (glass). Earliest documented use: 1835.
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HOYALOID - like a Georgetown sports team
HYALOIN - by going to school in Brooklyn, Noo Yawk
HYALOIS - 1. Clark Kent's informal greeting to Daily Planet reporter Lane; 2. Newspaper daily-and-Sunday comic strip
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CORBIE MESSENGER
PRONUNCIATION: (KOR-bee mes-uhn-juhr)
MEANING: noun: A messenger who does not arrive or return in time.
ETYMOLOGY: noun: From allusion to the crow that Noah had sent out from his ark. From corbin (raven), from Old French corbin, from Latin corvus (raven, crow). Earliest documented use: 1525.
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CORBIE MESS ANGER - rage at the bad food in the Crow army
SCORBIE MESSENGER - brings word of crippling Vitamin C deficiency
GORBIE MESSENGER - ambassador from the USSR between 1985 and 1991
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LAND OF NOD
PRONUNCIATION: (land ov nod)
MEANING: noun: Sleep.
ETYMOLOGY: From a punning reference to the land of Nod in the Bible. Earliest documented use: 1738.
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BAND OF NOD - plays nothing but lullabies
LAND IF NOD - stay up in the air until I say so!
LANE OF NOD - the pavement drone induces Highway Hypnosis
LAND OF NED - the Devil's country
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APOLLYON
PRONUNCIATION: (uh-POL-yuhn)
MEANING: noun: One who destroys; another name for the Devil.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin, from Greek Apollyon, from apollynai (to destroy), from apo- (from, away) + ollynai (to destroy). Earliest documented use: 1382.
NOTES: The Bible’s Book of Revelation 9:11 introduces Apollyon as: “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”
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APOLLO-N - the fourteenth Moon mission
A POLLY-EON - the interval between crackers
A POLL-CON - fake news
CAPO LLYON - a Mafia don in FFrance
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Carpal Tunnel
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MAGDALENE or MAGDALEN
PRONUNCIATION: (MAG-duh-leen, -luhn)
MEANING: noun: A penitent woman, particularly a reformed prostitute.
ETYMOLOGY: After Mary Magdalene, a Biblical character who was a follower of Jesus. Earliest documented use: 1563.
NOTES: The name Magdalene means “of Magdala” in Greek and is derived after a town on the Sea of Galilee. The name Magdala, in turn, means a tower in Aramaic. So here we have a word coined after a person, who was named after a place, which was named after a thing. The word is also used for a home for reformed/retired prostitutes. Magdalene has given birth to another eponym, maudlin meaning “overly sentimental”.
Pope Gregory I, in a sermon delivered in 581 CE, conflated an unnamed “sinner” with Mary Magdalene. Pope Paul VI fixed the error in 1969, but the damage was done. Mary Magdalene forever remains identified as a former prostitute in popular culture. It took them 1,388 years to acknowledge the error. In comparison, Galileo got off easy. The Church took a mere 359 years to say that he was right after all.
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MADALENE -
In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines
Llved twelve little girls in two straight lines
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The smallest one was MADALENE.
-- [Adapted from Ludwig Bemelmans]
MANDALEN - a multi-stringed instrument, played by plucking or picking the strings
MAGNALEN - Bernstein's been putting on weight lately, hasn't he?
PAGDALENE or PAGDELEN - a penitent man, or reformed gigolo
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GOLIATH
PRONUNCIATION: (guh-LY-uhth)
MEANING: noun: A giant; a person or organization of enormous size or power.
ETYMOLOGY: After Goliath, a giant Philistine warrior, who was slain by David using a sling and a stone. Earliest documented use: 1607.
NOTES: “David and Goliath” has become a metaphor for an underdog facing a much larger, powerful opponent, in sports, business, politics, and beyond.
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GO LITH - cheering for Stone Academy (Connecticut)
GLIATH - a supporting structure of nerve cells in the CNS
GOLI ASH - what's left when you've lost the hockey game in a shootout and your defense is really burnt up about it
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Carpal Tunnel
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HOMILY
PRONUNCIATION: (HOM-uh-lee)
MEANING: noun: A lecture of a moralizing or admonishing nature, usually tedious and trite.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French omelie (homily), from Latin (homilia), from Greek homilia (assembly or sermon), from homilos (crowd), from homou (together). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sem- (one), which also gave us simultaneous, assemble, simple, Sanskrit sandhi (union), Russian samovar (a metal urn, literally, self-boiler), and Greek hamadryad (a wood nymph, who lives in a tree and dies when the tree dies), dissimulate, and simulacrum. Earliest documented use: 1386.
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HOMINY - 1. a specified quantity
2. What the Boston a capella group sings in perfect
HOPILY - how the rabbit family lived ever after
HO, MILTY - greetings to my favorite comedian (and Uncle)
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RAGULY
PRONUNCIATION: (RAG-yuh-lee)
MEANING: adjective: Having a row of oblique notches.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably from Old English ragg. Earliest documented use: 1660.
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RAG UGLY - an unprepossessing rag
RAGALY - like a sitar melody
RAGURY - a branch of nautical law pertaining to anger management
RAGU LYE - used to make soap from spaghetti sauce
RAJULY - the Egyptian Sun God who in mid-summer is unusually powerful (at least in the northern hemisphere)
RAOUL Y. - a Frenchman whose identity is being protected
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Lots of nice words in this category of "false adverbs." There's
- "apply," which doesn't mean "like a small program for your smartphone"
- "imply" (like one of Santa's elves)
- "reply" (like your fitness or body-building exercise -
- the minimalist "ply"
- the ambivalent "supply," which is either a false adverb or a true one (depending on how you use it)
- "surly" (they don't all have a P in them)
and so on.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,062 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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EMPANOPLY
PRONUNCIATION: (em-PAN-uh-plee)
MEANING:] . verb tr.: To enclose in complete armor.
ETYMOLOGY: From em- (in) + panoply (a full suit of armor), from Greek panoplia (a complete suit of armor), from pan (all) + hopla (arms, armor), plural of hoplon (weapon). Earliest documented use: 1784.
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ENPANOPLY - to remove half a suit of armor
EMPANOPOLY - a game involving the selection of jurors
EMPANOPLAY - kindly remove performing Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto from your next concert program
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LOGODAEDALY
PRONUNCIATION: (log-uh-DEE-duh-lee)
MEANING: noun: Skill in using or coining words.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin logodaedalia, from Greek logodaidalia, from logodaidalos, from logos (word) + daedalus (skillful). Earliest documented use: 1727.
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LOGODAEDAILY - to coin a word every day (boy, does this sound self-referential!)
LOGO-DAREDALY - like an audacious symbol
BLOGODAEDALY - a weblog consisting of only slanted or even made-up statements
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EUTRAPELY
PRONUNCIATION: (yoo-TRAP-uh-lee)
MEANING: noun: Liveliness and ease of conversation.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek (pleasantness in conversation), from eu- (well) + trapely (to turn). Earliest documented use: 1596.
NOTES: Can you talk to anyone on any topic with ease? If so, you have the gift of eutrapely, also known as eutrapelia. It was one of Aristotle’s dozen virtues.
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.EDU.TRAPELY - being shmoozed by the University fundraiser
EUTAPELY - recorded in pristine condition, with the 18 minutes intact
EUTRAVELY - the Bon Voyage you wish your departing friends
EXTRAPELY - recently out of a snare
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JACTANCY
PRONUNCIATION: (JAK-tuhn-see)
MEANING: noun: Boasting or boastfulness.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin jactantia, from jactantem, present participle of jactare (to throw about), frequentative of jacere (to throw). Earliest documented use: 1623.
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TACTANCY - of a sensitive and inoffensive nature
FACTANCY - a misrepresentation of the existing state of affairs; see "truthiness"
JACFANCY - the pumpkin has been carved into an very interesting image
(compare JACANCY, where the pumpkin is empty)
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