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FAUSTIAN
PRONUNCIATION: (FOU-stee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Surrendering one’s integrity for something, such as power, money, fame, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: After the legend of Faust who sold his soul to the devil. Earliest documented use: 1876.
NOTES: The legend of Faust is based upon a real person, Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480-1540), a magician, astrologer, and alchemist. The story has been tackled countless times, from Christopher Marlow in his play Doctor Faustus and Goethe in his play Faust to The Simpsons episode “Bart Sells His Soul”.
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FAUSCIAN - expert in his field of viral diseases, and implacably devoted to the Scientific Method
FAULTIAN - blame John of Scotland
FRAUSTIAN - wife of Herr Stian
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TURVEYDROPIAN
PRONUNCIATION: (tuhr-vee-DROH-pee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Overly concerned with one’s appearance, demeanor, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: After Mr. Turveydrop, a character overly concerned with deportment, in Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, 1852. Earliest documented use: 1876.
NOTES: Mr. Turveydrop is a dance studio owner. He’s a conceited humbug, consumed with his deportment. As Dickens describes him:
He was a fat old gentleman with a false complexion, false teeth, false whiskers, and a wig. He had a fur collar.
Turveydrop laments: England -- alas, my country! -- has degenerated very much, and is degenerating every day. She has not many gentlemen left.
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SURVEYDROPIAN - like a poll that deliberately leaves out important variables
TURVEYEDROPIAN - like the treatment for keratoconjunctivitis sicca marketed by the TURV company
CURVEYDROPIAN - falling when released, but somehow not straight down
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GALLIONIC
PRONUNCIATION: (gal-ee-AHN-ik)
MEANING: adjective: Indifferent or uncaring.
ETYMOLOGY: After Gallio, a Roman senator, who refused to take action in a dispute. Earliest documented use: 1920.
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ALLIONIC - none of it polar
GALLEONIC - shipshape and majestic
GALL-IRONIC - combining sarcasm with chutzpah
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DUNCE
PRONUNCIATION: (duhns)
MEANING: noun: A person regarded as dim-witted or foolish.
ETYMOLOGY: After theologian John Duns Scotus (c. 1265/66-1308). Earliest documented use: 1530.
NOTES: John Duns Scotus was a Catholic priest and Franciscan friar (literally, brother, from French frère: brother) in the 13th century. In his time he was known as a sophisticated thinker and philosopher and given the name “the Subtle Doctor”. Protestantism came along in 1517. As these things go, they now considered his followers, known as Dunses or Dunsmen, as hair-splitting and resistant to new learning. The word was later respelled as dunce, and took on the meaning as someone incapable of learning. The word also gave rise to a dunce cap, the conical hat, formerly used to punish schoolchildren.
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DUNCEE - Scottish city, just up a grade from Dundee
DUNYE - what I'll do if ye owe me money and ye don't pay
MUNCE - city in Indana
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We have a high school here: Scotus central.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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VANDALIZE
PRONUNCIATION: (VAN-duh-lyz)
MEANING: verb tr.: To willfully damage another’s property.
ETYMOLOGY: After Vandals, a Germanic tribe who overran Gaul, Spain, and northern Africa, and in 455 CE sacked Rome. Earliest documented use: 1800.
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VAN-DYALIZE - to treat for severe kidney disease in a mobile vehicle
VINDALIZE - to marinate (usually meat) in spices, vinegar and garlic
VANDA-LIKE - harpsichord music played in the manner of Frau Landovska
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GLOSSOPHOBIA
PRONUNCIATION: (glas-uh-FOH-bee-uh)
MEANING: noun: The fear of public speaking.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek glosso- (tongue, language) + -phobia (fear). Earliest documented use: 1964.
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GLISSOPHOBIA - fear of sliding
GLOSSOPHORIA - delight in gleaming
FLOSSOPHOBIA - fear of being scolded for not following the dental hygienist's instructions
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AGATHOKAKOLOGICAL
PRONUNCIATION: (ag-uh-thuh-kak-uh-LAHJ-uh-kuhl)
MEANING: adjective: Made up of both good and evil.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek agathos (good) + kakos (bad). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kakka-/kaka- (to defecate), which also gave us poppycock, kakistocracy, cacophony, cacology, and cacography. Earliest documented use: 1834.
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AGNATHOKAKOLOGICAL - congenitally lacking a jaw, and yet bad-mouthing everything
AGATH-OAKOLOGICAL - Growing Acorns for Fun and Profit
AGATHO-KOKO-LOGICAL - full of corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative
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PENSUM
PRONUNCIATION: (PEN-suhm)
MEANING: noun: A task given, especially as a punishment.
ETYMOLOGY: In the beginning, a pensum was the amount of wool to be spun. Eventually, the word became generic and came to refer to a piece of work or task. Later, it morphed into another specialized form: a task given as a school punishment. The word is from pendere (to hang, weigh), ultimately from the Indo-European root (s)pen- (to draw, to stretch, to spin), which also gave us pendulum, spider, pound, pansy, pendant, ponder, appendix, penthouse, depend, spontaneous, vilipend, filipendulous, perpend, equipoise, pendulous, and pensive. Earliest documented use: 1667.
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PERSUM - how you pay an accountant on piecework
OPENSUM - a sub-total
WENSUM - and you lose some
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PERLAGE
PRONUNCIATION: (PUHR-lizh/lazh)
MEANING: noun: The assemblage of bubbles, in a glass of champagne, for example.
ETYMOLOGY: From French perlage, from perle (pearl). Earliest documented use: 1983.
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PER PAGE - how you pay a typist
PERIL AGE - a time filled with danger
PER LAGER - how the pub charges
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