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WOODSHED

PRONUNCIATION: (WOOD-shed)

MEANING: noun: 1. A place for storing firewood.
2. A place for administering punishment.
3. A place for intensive practice, especially music practice.
verb tr., intr.: 1. To practice diligently, especially on a musical instrument.
2. To punish or reprimand.
3. To coach a witness before a trial.

ETYMOLOGY: From the practice of using a woodshed for punishing a child, for intensive music practice, etc. From wood, from Old English wudu + shed, a variant of shade, from Old English sceadu. Earliest documented use, noun: 1764, verb: 1893.
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WORDSHED - where you send lazy words, to work on their meanings

WOODSHOD - dressed in sabots

WOOLSHED - store your clothing raw-materials here

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BALK or BAULK

PRONUNCIATION: (bawk)

MEANING: noun: 1. A check or hindrance.
2. A defeat or disappointment.
3. A beam or rafter.
4. A ridge; an unplowed strip of land between furrows.
verb intr.: To stop, hesitate, or refuse to proceed.
verb tr.: To thwart or hinder.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old English balca (ridge, bank). Earliest documented use, noun: 885, verb: 1393.
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BABK - a yeastcake made with cinnamon and raisins

B.A. HULK - Bruce Banner gets his college degree

BALI K - comes after Bali J and Bali Hai

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FESTOON

PRONUNCIATION: (fe-STOON)

MEANING: noun: A decorative chain or string, of flowers, leaves, ribbons, etc., hanging between two points.
verb tr.: To make or hang festoons; to decorate.

ETYMOLOGY: From French feston, from Italian festone, from festa (festival), from Latin festa, plural of festum (festival). Earliest documented use, noun: 1676, verb: 1789.
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FESTOOL - a seat of iron

WESTOON - animated show for kids, with Hopalong Cassidy and the Road Runner

FEMTO-ON - one 10^15th part of the care owed by the Japanese higher-stationed to those under them

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BIVOUAC

PRONUNCIATION: (BI-vuh-ak, BIV-wak, BIV-oo-ak)

MEANING: noun: A temporary encampment, in the open air, typically without tents or cover.
verb intr.: To take shelter temporarily for the night.

ETYMOLOGY: From French bivouac, from Swiss German beiwacht (supplementary night watch), from bei- (beside) + Wacht (watch). Earliest documented use, noun: 1706, verb: 1809.
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B. IOU A/C - Item 2 on a my list of unfinished business: I owe you an air conditioner

BIJOU AC - an electric jewel that runs on Alternating Current

BIRO UAC - the official ballpoint pen of the Unamerican Activities Committee

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SAVVY

PRONUNCIATION: (SAV-ee)

MEANING: verb: To understand or know.
noun: Know-how, practical knowledge, or shrewdness.
adjective: Shrewd or knowledgeable, especially in practical matters.

ETYMOLOGY: Via pidgin and/or creole language(s), from Portuguese and/or Spanish sabe (do you know?), from Latin sapere (to be wise). Ultimately from the Indo-European sep- (to taste or perceive), which also gave us sage, savant, savor, sapid, sapient, resipiscent, insipid, and sipid. Earliest documented use, verb: 1686, noun: 1785, adjective: 1826.
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LAVVY - smelling like a washroom

SAVY (rhymes with "Navy") - inclined to rescue things

SAVOY - theatrical, especially with light opera

SALVY - unguental

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ROSTRUM

PRONUNCIATION: (ROS-truhm, RO-struhm)

MEANING: noun:
1. A platform, stage, dais, etc., for public speaking.
2. A beaklike projection on a warship, used for ramming another ship.
3. A snout, beak, or bill of an animal.

ETYMOLOGY: In ancient Rome, a speaking platform was decorated with the beaks of captured ships. Hence the use of the term for a speaking platform. From Latin rostrum (snout, bill, beak), from rodere (to gnaw). Earliest documented use: 1542.
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FROST RUM - Baccardi on the rocks

RE-STRUM - if Sam (in Rick's Café) played the guitar instead of the piano

ROOT RUM - like Sarsparilla or root beer, only much more potent

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CARAPACE

PRONUNCIATION: (KAR-uh-pays)

MEANING: noun:
1. A hard shell on the back of animals such as turtles, crabs, etc.
2. An attitude developed as a protective measure against something.

ETYMOLOGY: From French carapace (shell), from Spanish carapacho (shell). Earliest documented use: 1835.
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CARPACE - how fast am I driving

CAT-APACE - a cheetah

CORA PACE - How are the Red Sox doing this year?

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HACKLE

PRONUNCIATION: (HAK-uhl)

MEANING: noun: 1. Hairs or feathers on the neck or back of some animals that stand up when the animal is agitated.
2. Temper; anger.
3. A comb for dressing fiber.
verb tr.: To comb flax, hemp, or other fibers with a hackle.

ETYMOLOGY: Either a variant of heckle, from Middle English hechelen (to comb flax) or from Old English hacele (coat, cloak). Earliest documented use: 900.
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AHA!CKLE - the sound you make when you finally realize why that joke is funny, after all

HACKLET - a child-sized cab

HICKLE - a singultus, barely contained

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PINNACLE

PRONUNCIATION: (PIN-uh-kuhl)

MEANING: noun: 1. The highest point.
2. An architectural ornament capping a tower, buttress, etc.
verb tr.: 1. To reach the peak of achievement, development, etc.
2. To form a pinnacle.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French, from Latin pinnaculum, diminutive of pinna (wing, feather). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pet- (to rush or fly), which also gave us feather, petition, compete, perpetual, pterodactyl, helicopter, appetence, asymptomatic, auricle, empennage, impetuous, pencel, peripeteia, petulant, propitious, pinnate, and lepidopterology (study of butterflies and moths). Earliest documented use: 1330.
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PINNOCLE - card game involving bidding and trick-taking, using a deck missing all cards from 2 to 8

PINNACHE - 1. pain in the outer ear; 2. flair, style, elan; 3. a leafy green vegetable reputed to be full of iron (it isn't) and Vitamin K (it is) and much admired by one pipe-smoking Sailor Man with very skinny upper arms

PIÑTACLE - a mystical symbol in the shape of a pineapple (alternatively, in the shape of a fifteenth-century seafaring craft)

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HIGHTAIL

PRONUNCIATION: (HY-tayl)

MEANING: verb intr.: To move quickly, especially in retreat or in fleeing.

ETYMOLOGY: From reference to animals such as cows, rabbits, and deer that raise their tails when fleeing. Earliest documented use: 1908. A synonym is skedaddle.
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NIGHT-AIL - obstructive sleep-apnea, for example

HIGHT GAIL - Who was the rich villain in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead ?

HIGH TAMIL - the Official Language of Serendip

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