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PALLADIAN

PRONUNCIATION: (puh-LAY-dee-uhn)

MEANING: adjective: 1. Wise or learned.
2. Relating to wisdom, knowledge, or learning.
3. Of or relating to the classical architectural style of Andrea Palladio.

ETYMOLOGY: For 1 & 2: After Athena (also known as Pallas Athena), a goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology. Her name has also resulted in other words such as palladium and athenaeum. Earliest documented use: 1562.

For 3: After Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), Venetian architect. Earliest documented use: 1731.
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PALLAIDIAN - helping a buddy

BALLADAIAN - telling a story through song

PAULA DIAN - two girls' names popuiar in the Oughts

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GOMER

PRONUNCIATION: (GOH-muhr)

MEANING: noun:
1. A naive and inept trainee or worker.
2. An undesirable hospital patient, one who may be unpleasant, senile, or unresponsive to treatment.
3. A conical chamber used in guns and mortars.

ETYMOLOGY: For 1: Of unconfirmed origin, but likely after Gomer Pyle, a character in the television series The Andy Griffith Show, later in his own spin-off show Gomer Pyle, USMC, broadcast in the 1960s. Earliest documented use: 1967.

For 2: Most likely from the same origin as sense 1. It has been suggested that it’s an acronym for “Get Out of My Emergency Room”, but that may be a backronym (an acronym coined to explain a word that’s not actually an acronym). Earliest documented use: 1972.

For 3: After Louis-Gabriel de Gomer (1718-1798), French military officer who invented it. Earliest documented use: 1828.
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GNOMER - a hunter who specializes in small unpleasant garden critters

DOMER - circumlocution for "egghead" (an intellectual out of touch with the Real World)

GLOMER - a Scotsman who goes roamin' in the evening hours around sunset

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ALEXANDER

PRONUNCIATION: (a-lig-ZAN-duhr)

MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To praise or flatter.
2. To hang someone.

ETYMOLOGY: For 1: After Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) of Macedon, who never lost a war and earned widespread renown for his victories. Earliest documented use: 1700.

For 2: After Jerome Alexander (1590-1670), English judge, who was disbarred in England for misconduct and moved to Ireland where he delighted in giving death sentences. Earliest documented use: 1666.
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ALEC AND 'ER - actor Guinness and his partner

ALEXA NUDER - just imagine: Amazon's desktop assistant with no clothes

ALEMANDER - someone who enjoys square dancing, left and right; often British

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HAIL MARY

PRONUNCIATION: (HAYL MAYR-ee)

MEANING: noun: A last-ditch attempt, made in desperation, having little chance of success, but potentially resulting in a big payoff.

ETYMOLOGY: From Hail Mary, translation of Latin Ave Maria, the first two words of a prayer. Earliest documented use: 1930s.
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FAIL MARY - what the teacher did in Care of Lambs class

HAIL MART - where you buy icy precipitation

HAIL CARY - Mr Grant gets some well-due accolades

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KINGPIN

PRONUNCIATION: (KING-pin)

MEANING: noun:
1. The most important person in an organization, especially one who is the head of a crime organization.
2. The tallest, foremost, or the central pin in an arrangement of bowling pins.
3. A main bolt, for example, a large vertical bolt in an axle of a vehicle.

ETYMOLOGY: From skittles, a lawn game involving pins that are toppled by a ball, the ancestor of modern bowling. Earliest documented use: 1773.
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KING-PING - the most recent arrival in the Panda zoo

DING PIN - fashion accessory with a dent in it

KING PUN - paranomastic equivalent of Monte Python's "Killer Joke"

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WHEELHOUSE

PRONUNCIATION: (HWEEL-haus)

MEANING: noun:
1. An enclosed area on a boat or ship that houses the steering wheel.
2. In baseball, the area in which it’s easiest for the batter to hit the ball with the most power.
3. One’s area of interest or expertise.

ETYMOLOGY: The term has its origins in nautical lingo in which a wheelhouse is a synonym for a pilothouse. From water the term evolved to the land: in baseball, it’s an area of a batter’s greatest striking power. From there, the term took a broader sense. Earliest documented use: 1835.
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WHEEL HOSE - device for firemen to use so their hoses don't get tangled

WHEEL-HORSE - equine used to power an early kind of mill

THE EL HOUSE - storage yard for Chicago public elevated-transit cars

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SNOOKER

PRONUNCIATION: (SNOO-kuhr)

MEANING: verb tr.: To cheat, dupe, trap, stymie, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: Snooker is a cue sport played on a billiards table. The origins of the name are lost to history. Snooker is also slang for a new cadet. The most popular story is that the word was used by a British army officer, Neville Chamberlain (not the future PM), commenting on a fellow officer’s sub-par performance at the pool table. In a game of snooker, the word is also used as a verb for leaving an opponent in a place such that it’s impossible to take a direct shot. This usage likely resulted in the general sense of the word. Earliest documented use: 1889
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SNO-POKER - gambling game, played with cards and ice-chips

SNOODER - plays the net position in doubles tennis

NOOKER - a small recess for a display shelf, only crannier

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JUMP BALL

PRONUNCIATION:(JUHMP bawl) 

MEANING:noun:
1. A contest too close to call.
2. An undecided situation or one with no preference.

ETYMOLOGY: From the game of basketball in which, to begin or to resume play, an official throws a ball up between two opponents. Earliest documented use: 1924.
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JUMP Y'ALL - Fort Polk (LA) Drill Sergeant's command

DUMP BALL - proposed slogan of a campaign to discredit Lucy during the height of the McCarthy craze

SUMP BALL - the mechanism that triggers the device that empties water from your basement

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BALONEY or BOLONEY

PRONUNCIATION: (buh-LOH-nee)

MEANING: noun: Nonsense, such as foolish, deceptive, or pretentious talk.

ETYMOLOGY: From respelling of bologna (pronounced buh-LOH-nee), a kind of seasoned sausage, from the Italian city of Bologna (buh-LON-yuh; in Italian: bo-lo-nyah). Earliest documented use: 1928.
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BALOONEY - light, tending to float away (or at least waft in the breeze)

BOONEY - the hinterlands (fr. bunduk, a remote mountain)

BALCONEY - a rabbit or hyrax that lives on your apartment terrace

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Regarding PRECOCIOUS, at what age does one become cocious? When does cocious end and postcocious begin?

Teytonon #232419 05/24/2023 2:04 AM
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re: PRECOCIOUS - good point. Similarly - I suppose it's just about impossible to be tardy to the church service if you're PRELATE.

Some other prefixes lend themselves well to this kind of wordplay. I'm thinking of a chatboard where we came up with dozens (if not hundreds) of misreadings invoking DIS-, allegedly meaning "not." Or not.

DISASTER = remove a flower (or, if you're from Brooklyn, the flower at hand)
DISCOVER = your Frisbee is upside down

You get the idea.

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DAISY CUTTER

PRONUNCIATION: (DAY-zee kuht-uhr)

MEANING: noun:
1. In a ball game, a ball that moves close to the ground.
2. A horse that lifts its feet very little off the ground.
3. A bomb powerful enough to flatten a large area, such as a forest.

ETYMOLOGY: From daisy, from Old English dæges eage (day’s eye, referring to the flower closing at night) + cutter, from Middle English cutten. Earliest documented use: 1791.
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DAISY CURTER - she says even less than Donald

DARSY CUTTER - That would be Elizabeth ignoring her eventual swain in the first three-quarters of Pride and Prejudice

DAISY BUTTER - stupid goat keeps charging at the flowers, trying to hit them with its horns

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And PRELATE notwithstanding, I have to object to your declaration of No, not yet. If not now, when?

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SWAN SONG

PRONUNCIATION: (SWAN song)

MEANING: noun: A farewell or final performance, appearance, or accomplishment.

ETYMOLOGY: From the ancient belief that swans sang before dying. From Old English swan. Ultimately from the Indo-European root swen- (to sound), which also gave us sound, sonic, sonnet, sonata, and unison. Earliest documented use: 1596.
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SWAIN SONG - what Romeo sings to Juliet's balcony

SWANS OMG - very surprised to see the graceful white birds

SWAN'S O-NEG - he Ugly Duckling is a universal blood donor

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HAIRCUT

PRONUNCIATION: {HAIR-kuht)

MEANING: noun: A reduction in value.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old English hǣr + Middle English cutten. Earliest documented use: 1955.

NOTES: The term haircut is used metaphorically in many ways, such as when assessing the value of an asset pledged as collateral against a loan. For example, a bank might decide that an asset worth $1000 could take a 20% haircut and thus be used to secure a loan of at most $800. The term is also used for other reductions: a pay cut, a cut in benefits, a reduction in the repayment of a loan, etc.
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FAIRCUT - an equitable division

HAIR CUTE - that's a fetching new "do" you just got

"HA" IS CUT - all the humor has been removed from my production

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PICADILLY CIRCUS

PRONUNCIATION: (pik-uh-dil-ee SUHR-kuhs)

MEANING: noun: A place that is very busy, crowded, or noisy.

ETYMOLOGY: After Piccadilly Circus, a busy area in London where several roads meet. The area has tourist attractions, entertainment, shopping, and large illuminated ads. A circus here means a traffic roundabout, but what about Piccadilly? It’s named after a tailor who made a fortune selling piccadill/pickadill, a lace collar popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. The American equivalent of the term is Grand Central Station (a train station in New York City), though for look and feel Times Square (also in NYC) would be closer.
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PICK A DILLY CIRCUS - select a doozy

PISCADILLY CIRCUS - a compilation of tall tales and other unlikely yarns about the ones that got away

PICARD ILL; Y CIRCUS - Starship Captain is indisposed, and the club is is providing entertainmenet

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RUSTICLE

PRONUNCIATION: (RUHS-tuh/ti-kuhl)

MEANING: noun: An icicle-like formation of rust, as on an underwater shipwreck.

ETYMOLOGY: A blend of rust + icicle, coined by oceanographer Robert Ballard while describing such formations on the hull of the Titanic, the wreckage of which he discovered. Earliest documented use: 1986.
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RUSTICLEF - a musical symbol covered with Fe2O3

LUSTICLE - aphrodysiac

RESTICLE - what's left of my frozen sherbet on two sticks

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INFODEMIC

PRONUNCIATION: (in-fuh/foh-DEM-ik)

MEANING: noun: A glut of mostly unreliable, rapidly spreading information relating to an event, crisis, disease, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: A blend of information + epidemic, coined by the author and columnist David J. Rothkopf in a Washington Post column about the SARS epidemic. Earliest documented use: 2003.
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IN-LODE MIC - lets miners call the surface

INTO DE MIC - where the emcee wants his guests to speak

INFODERMiC - some kinds of knowledge really get under your skin

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INTERROBANG (or INTERABANG)

PRONUNCIATION: (in-TER-uh-bang)

MEANING: noun: A punctuation mark (‽) formed by a question mark (?) superimposed on an exclamation point (!).

ETYMOLOGY: Coined in the TYPEtalks Magazine in which the editor Martin K. Speckter (1915-1988), an advertising executive, selected the word interrobang from the suggestions sent by the readers. From interrogation point (question mark) + bang (slang for exclamation point). Earliest documented use: 1962.
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INTERROBONG - smoking pot makes you question everything

INTERIOBANG - keep your explosions inside you

INTER A GANG - when you lure the chasing hoodlums into an ambush and trigger an avalanche

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TULGEY

PRONUNCIATION: (TUHL-jee)

MEANING: adjective: Thick, dark, and scary.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Lewis Carroll in the poem “Jabberwocky” in the book Through the Looking-Glass, perhaps as a blend of tough/turgid + bulgy. Earliest documented use: 1871.
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THUL-GUY - native of the South Sandwich Isands

TULLEY - roaster and distributor of gourmet coffees

BULGEY - eating a bit too much, are we?

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NOBODADDY

PRONUNCIATION: (NO-buh-dad-ee)

MEANING: noun:
1. God.
2. Someone who is no longer considered worthy of respect.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined by the poet William Blake as a blend of nobody + daddy. Earliest documented use: 1793.
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ROBODADDY - artificial insemination taken to its logical extreme

NO, NO, DADDY - says the child who catches her father with his hand in the cookie jar

NOOB-O'DADDY - inept first-time Irish father

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BAROMETER

PRONUNCIATION: (buh-ROM-i-tuhr)

MEANING: noun:
1. A device for determining atmospheric pressure in predicting weather.
2. Something used as a gauge or as an indicator of change.
3. A standard for measuring something.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek baro- (pressure) + -meter (measure). Earliest documented use: 1666.
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BALOMETER - a CRAP filter; measures the reliability and amount of nonsense

BARMETER - evaluates the desirability of a drinking/socializing emporium

CAROMETER - tool for deciding on the correct angle for a bank shot

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BARONEY – like a low-ranking English lord (not early)

MALONEY – an illogical statement (see Irish bull)

BULLONEY – ditto

I posted this before I saw BAROMETER above. Quite a coincidence...

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FAVONIAN

PRONUNCIATION: (fuh-VOH-nee-uhn)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Relating to the west wind.
2. Mild; gentle; benign.

ETYMOLOGY: After Favonius (literally, favorable), the god of the west wind in Roman mythology. His Greek equivalent is Zephyr. Earliest documented use: 1656.
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AVONIAN - high-priced, of dubious use, and sold by a workforce of uncertain qualifications and quality

FAV-ONION - the vegetable I prefer over all others

FAVANIAN - coming from bean country

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AUTUMNAL

PRONUNCIATION: (aw-TUHM-nuhl)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Relating to the season of autumn.
2. Past the prime of life or maturity.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin autumnus (autumn). Earliest documented use: 1440.
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TAUTUMNAL - tensely awaiting leaf-peeping season season

AUTUMN-MAL - as opposed to this one, who's sick of raking leaves already

AURUMNAL - golden-hued

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Speaking of AURUM, could you translate Aurum virumque cano as "The Song of King Midas"?

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WEATHER VANE

PRONUNCIATION: (WETH-uhr vayn)

MEANING: noun:
1. A device having a pointer rotating on a vertical spindle, used to indicate the direction of the wind.
2. Someone or something constantly changing.

ETYMOLOGY: From weather, from Old English weder + vane, from Old English fana (flag). Earliest documented use: 1721. Since a weather vane traditionally featured a rooster on top, it’s also known as a weathercock.
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LEATHER VANE - a gadget made of tanned animal skin to tell the direction of the wind

EAT HER VANE - if you're really starving

WEATHER SANE - what we get less of as the earth's temperature rises

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HIBERNAL

PRONUNCIATION: (hy-BUHR-nuhl)

MEANING: adjective: Of or relating to winter.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin hibernus (wintry), from Latin hiems (winter). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter), which is the ancestor of words such as hibernate, hibernaculum, hiemal, chimera, and the Himalayas, from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode). Earliest documented use: before 1626.
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TIBERNAL - pertaining to a Roman river

HI BE: RENAL - pretty good grade in Kidney Function

HIM BERN, AL - Mr Gore, meet Mister Baruch

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STYMIE

PRONUNCIATION: (STY-mee)

MEANING: verb tr.: To obstruct, thwart, stump, etc.
noun: A hindrance.

ETYMOLOGY: From Scots stymie. The modern game of golf originated in Scotland from where both the game and the word stymie came to English. In golf, a stymie refers to one player’s ball obstructing another’s. Earliest documented use: noun: 1834, verb: 1857.
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STY MILE - unit of distance between here and the pigpen

STYMPIE - Manx cat, buddy of Ren, the crazy Chihuahua,

'S TYPIE - Whass'a name of that book Melville wrote before he wrote OMOO ?

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SLUICE

PRONUNCIATION: (sloos)

MEANING: noun: 1. An artificial channel, stream, etc.
2. A valve or gate to control the flow of a liquid.
3. A body of water controlled by a sluice gate.
verb tr.: 1. To let out, by or as if by, opening a gate.
2. To wash, flush, cleanse, etc.
3. To send logs, gold-bearing gravel, or other material down a sluice.
verb intr.: To flow, as if from or through a sluice.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French escluse (sluice gate), from Latin exclusa (water barrier), from excludere (to exclude), from ex- (out) + claudere (to close). Earliest documented use: noun: 1340, verb: 1593.
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SQUICE - shivers that run up and down your spine at the sound of fingernails on the blackboard

ST. LUICE - big city in Missouri

SLUIC - what they speak in Slu

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CHIRK

PRONUNCIATION: (chuhrk)

MEANING: verb tr.: To cheer.
verb intr.: To make a shrill noise.
adjective: Lively; cheerful.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old English cearcian (to creak). Earliest documented use: verb: 1000, adjective: 1789.
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CHIRAK - the physicist who first identified the Golden Ratio

CHIRK - portmanteau work combining CHUCKLE and CHOK,E produced by inhaling and exhaling at the same time

CHIRE - where Russian Hobbits live

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SKEEVE

PRONUNCIATION: (skeev)

MEANING: verb tr.: To disgust.
noun: A disgusting person.

ETYMOLOGY: Probably a back-formation from skeevy (disgusting), from Italian schifare (to disgust or to loathe). Earliest documented use: verb: 1986, noun: 1990.
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SKI EVE - schussing at night

SAKE EVE - an evening sampling various rice wines

SKY EVE - if it's red, enjoy the trip, Sailor!

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SOUSE

PRONUNCIATION: (sous)

MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To soak or steep.
2. To pickle, cook in a marinade, etc.
3. To make intoxicated.
noun: 1. Something or someone soaked.
2. The liquid used in soaking.
3. Food steeped in pickle; also such liquid.
4. A drunkard.
5. A period of heavy drinking.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French souser (to pickle). Earliest documented use: verb: 1387, noun: 1391.
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SOUSAE - more than one march

SOUME - if you don't like it, take me to court

SHOUSE - what you protect your feete with

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RADIOACTIVE

PRONUNCIATION: (ray-dee-oh-AK-tiv)

MEANING: adjective
1. Involving something extremely controversial that may rub off on others.
2. Spontaneously emitting radiation, as from an unstable atomic nucleus or in a nuclear reaction.

ETYMOLOGY: From French radio-actif, coined by Pierre and Marie Curie, from radio-, from Latin radius (beam, ray) + actif (active), from Latin activus (active). Earliest documented use: 1898.
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GRAD: IO ACTIVE - the PhD candidate found signs of volcanos on one of the moons of Jupiter

RADIO ACT LIVE - no recordings when Jack Benny appeared Sunday evenings on WJZ, 770 on your dial

RADIO-LACTIVE - why you shouldn't nurse your baby if you've been exposed to fallout

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BROAD-SPECTRUM

PRONUNCIATION: (BRAWD-SPEK-truhm)

MEANING: adjective: Effective in a wide variety of uses.

ETYMOLOGY: From broad, from Old English braed + spectrum, from Latin spectrum (appearance), from specere (to look). Earliest documented use: 1950.

NOTES: A spectrum is the range of colors that light decomposes into when passing through a prism. Over time, the word spectrum has come to refer to a range of anything...
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BROAD SPEC TRIM - remove the extra plastic form your eyeglasses

BROAD SPECTORUM - wide range of views about ghosts

BROOD-SPECTRUM - of or pertaining to the range of chickens

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HIGH OCTANE

PRONUNCIATION: (hy-AWK-tayn)

MEANING: adjective:
1. High-energy; powerful; dynamic.
2. In relation to engine fuels, having a high octane number resulting in anti-knock properties and higher efficiency.

ETYMOLOGY: Octane number is a measure of anti-knock properties of a fuel used in engines. A high octane number indicates greater resistance to engine knocking. The term octane refers to hydrocarbons with eight carbon atoms. Earliest documented use: 1931.
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HIGH OCTAVE - the rightmost thirteen keys on a piano

HIGH OCTANT - when you throw your navigation aid way up in the air

HIGH OCTASE - a condition characterized by too much of the enzyme Octase

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VIRAL

PRONUNCIATION: (VY-ruhl)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Spreading rapidly and widely from person to person, often through social media rather than traditional avenues.
2. Relating to or caused by a virus.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin virus (poison). Earliest documented use: 1948.
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VIXAL - foxy

VIRAG - the sixth tattered cloth

VIRTAL - describing a highly productive German farm

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CRITICAL MASS

PRONUNCIATION: (KRI-ti-kuhl MAHS)

MEANING: noun: The minimum amount or number of something required to initiate or sustain a process or effect.

ETYMOLOGY: From nuclear physics where critical mass is the smallest amount of nuclear material needed for a chain reaction. Earliest documented use: 1941.
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CRITICAL MISS - blowing the foul shot that would have won the NBA title

CRITICAL MAS - according to them, no girl could ever be good enough for their son

CRIPTICAL MASS - a pseudo-religious ritual that is held in a mausoleum

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BYZANTINE

PRONUNCIATION: (BIZ-uhn-teen/tyn, bi/buh/by-ZAN/zuhn-tin/teen)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Highly complex or intricate.
2. Involving scheming or intrigue.
3. Relating to the architectural or decorative style developed in the Byzantine Empire.
4. Relating to the ancient city of Byzantium or the Byzantine Empire.

ETYMOLOGY: After Byzantium, an ancient Greek city, modern-day Istanbul. Metaphorical senses are from the complex bureaucracy, palace intrigue, and elaborate art and architecture, associated with the Byzantine Empire. Earliest documented use: 1599.
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BOZANTINE - clownish

BY Z. ANY IN E? - stockbroker discussing holdings in Zillow and Eni

BYE, ANTINE - See ya later, Toni

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EREWHONIAN

PRONUNCIATION: (er-uh-WAH/WOH-nee-uhn)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Opposed to machines, automation, or technology, like a Luddite.
2. Treating disease as crime and ill people as criminals.

ETYMOLOGY: After Erewhon, a place described in the satirical novel Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler. Earliest documented use: 1897.
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WERE-WHONIAN - turning into a whon during the full moon

EREWHONICAN - a citizen of Erewhonica

ERE-PHONIAN - pre-Alexander Graham Bell and his inventing

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