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HOYLE
PRONUNCIATION: (hoyl)
MEANING: noun:
1. A rule book.
2. Rules.
ETYMOLOGY: After Edmond Hoyle (1672?-1769), British writer on games. Earliest documented use: 1906. The word is typically used in the phrase according to Hoyle, meaning strictly following rules and regulations.
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H. PYLE - 1) Gomer's younger brother; 2)familiar form of name of a bacterium associated with gastric ulcers
TOYLE - one-quarter of a witch's spell, along with two bubbles and some trouble
HO, YALE - Greetings, all you Eli
(alternatively, HOY ALE - what I'm drinking today in Tijuana)
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HOUDINI
PRONUNCIATION: (hoo-DEE-nee)
MEANING: noun: An escape artist.
verb intr.: To escape.
ETYMOLOGY: After Harry Houdini (1874-1926), a magician and escape artist. Earliest documented use: 1923.
NOTES: Houdini was born as Ehrich Weiss, but he admired the French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin so changed his name. His nickname Ehri became Harry. Watch a Houdini straitjacket escape in Houston, 1923: (video, 3 min.). How did he do his magic tricks and escapes? Read all about it here. In his later years, Houdini devoted his life to debunking psychics, mediums, and other fraudsters. He worked with the Scientific American magazine to expose them.
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HOUNDINI - dog-shaped pasta
HOUDING - present participle of to houd
FOUDINI - Magician/Portrait featured in the 1950s kids' TV program featurng puppets, 5 PM weekdays in the New York City area, Pinhead and Foudini. His magic word was not "Abracadabra" but "LY-CO-PO-DIUM !" accompanied, unsurprisingly, by a flash of light and a puff of smoke.
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TAWDRY
PRONUNCIATION: (TAW-dree)
MEANING: adjective: Cheap, showy, and gaudy.
ETYMOLOGY: Short for tawdry lace, a contraction of St Audrey lace. The story goes that Æthelthryth (c. 636-679 CE), also known as Etheldreda and Audrey, loved fine silk laces in her youth. She died of a throat tumor which she considered a punishment for her fondness of necklaces. She was a queen, but later became a nun, and eventually a saint. Cheap laces sold in St Audrey’s Fair in Ely, England, came to be known as St Audrey lace, and eventually shrank to tawdry lace. Earliest documented use: 1612. Also see, trumpery.
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PAWDRY - what you do for your dog after the rain
TAPDRY - get the good last drop out of the keg
T AWRY - T
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MACDONALDIZATION
PRONUNCIATION: (muhk-dah-nuhl-dai/duh-ZAY-shuhn)
MEANING: noun:
1. Standardization that focuses on efficiency, predictability, control, etc., at the expense of individuality or creativity.
2. The spread of the influence of American culture.
ETYMOLOGY: After McDonald’s, a fast-food chain started by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940. Earliest documented use: 1975. Also see McJob.
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MACDONALD IZ AT INN - the old farmer has reached the motel
MACDONALD IZ A TOON - Surely you've seen an animated Ronald MacD
MACDONALD IZ A LION - that's why he knows so much about hamburgers
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POOH-BAH
PRONUNCIATION:
(POO-bah)
MEANING: noun:
1. A person who holds a high office or has great influence.
2. A pompous, self-important person.
3. A person holding many offices or positions of power.
ETYMOLOGY: After Pooh-Bah, a government official in Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1885 operetta The Mikado. Pooh-Bah holds all the high offices of the state (except Lord High Executioner), including relating to complaints about himself. He is also known as the Lord High Everything Else. Earliest documented use: 1886.
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POOH-BAR - where Winnie goes to have a cup or two of mead
POOCH-BAH - cat-lover's dismissal
POSH-BAH - high-priced Boston drinking club
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CHUTZPAH/CHUTZPA
PRONUNCIATION: (KHOOT-spuh, HOOT-)
MEANING: noun: Shameless boldness; brazen nerve; gall.
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish khutspe, from Late Hebrew huspa. Earliest documented use: 1853.
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CHUTE, PA - Son, before I dive out of this airplane, did I forget anything?
CHUT SPA - a health resort where as a sideline they grow chutney for distribution and sale
CHUTZ PATH - a wilderness trail blazed by explorer Igor Chutz
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QUIXOTRY
PRONUNCIATION: (KWIK-suh-tree)
MEANING: noun: Absurdly chivalrous, idealistic, or impractical ideas or behavior.
ETYMOLOGY: After Don Quixote, hero of the eponymous novel by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). Earliest documented use: 1703. Also see quixotic and quixote.
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QUIXOTORY - futile
QUIXOT-RAY - an automated light-energy weapon designed to knock over windmills with a lance
EQUI-XO-TRY - striving for the same number of kisses as hugs
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BLOWZY
PRONUNCIATION: (BLOU-zee)
MEANING: adjective:
1. Having a coarsely ruddy complexion.
2. Disheveled.
ETYMOLOGY: From English dialect blowze (wench). Earliest documented use: around 1770.
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LOWZY - the worst possible letter grade
BROWZY - just looking around, to see what's here
B'LOW ZY - submerged in the ocean
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QUIDCUNX
PRONUNCIATION: (KWIN-kuhnks)
MEANING: noun: An arrangement of five objects with one at each corner and one at the center.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin quincunx (five twelfths), from quinque (five) + uncia (twelfth part). Earliest documented use: 1606.
NOTES: In ancient Rome, a quincunx was a coin equivalent to five twelfths of the coin known as an “as” or “libra”. The coin’s value was sometimes represented by five dots, four in corners and one in the middle. The number five on a die is represented by five dots in a quincunx.
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QUID-CUNX - the twelfth part of one Pound Sterling, i.e. one shilling eightpence
QUIDNUNX - old Roman gossips
QUID C? UNIX? - Don't you think it would have been more efficient to program it in UNIX?
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WHIZBANG
PRONUNCIATION: (WHIZ-bang)
MEANING: noun: 1. Someone or something extraordinarily successful.
2. Someone or something flashy, impressive, technologically innovative, etc.
3. A firework that makes whizzing sounds and loud bangs.
adjective: 1. Highly successful or talented.
2. Flashy, impressive, fast-paced, loud, etc.
NOTES: The term has its origin in the onomatopoeic representation of the sound made by a firearm or firework. It was popularized in WWI as high-speed shells were called whizbangs. It was also the name given to a rocket launcher used by the US Army during WWII.
ETYMOLOGY. Of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1881.
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PHIZBANG - how an exploding cigar does in your face
WHIPBANG - the crack of Indiana Jones' favorite weapon
WHIZBANE - a prodigy's downfall
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