I get funny looks when I say I have a "cat in my throat" instead of a "frog in my throat" like English people say.

Years and years ago a French girl complained to me that 'my nose is sinking'. I looked at her blankly. It was some time before we worked out that the French use the same verb (couler? help me out, bel!) for a sinking ship and a running nose...

And I've been dying to say "Did you hear about the Wombat? All it does is eats roots and leaves."

Can't you Striners make up your own? The definition of a Kiwi is one who eats roots shoots and leaves ...

>I posted about that, Dr. Bill?? Good heavens, I have NO memory of that whatsoever!

well, might as well bring it back here:
Blush! Ah, me. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

The definition of a Kiwi is one who eats roots shoots and leaves ...
No argument here, my friend!

Special to doc_comfort: is there a word for someone who defends the underdoc?

When I was a kid, every summer carnivals would come to town. Like a circus without the animals, just dozens of games of chance, merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels, and onther rides. One game of chance was trying to win a cigar by pounding with a sledgehammer on a circular steel plate that caused a weight to go up a vertical track towards a gong at the top, entitling contestant to a prize of a cigar. Macho musclemen would try to impress their dates. It was rumored that the proprietor could keep the weight from going all the way to the top, but I never found out how he could do it, until he wanted somebody to win, to attract more contestants.
His sales pitch was to bellow when a contestant failed was: "Close, but no cigar!" Followed by more chatter to tempt other suckers to try to impress their girls. When there were no suckers waiting, he would with one hand swilng the sledgehammer to make the weight ring the bell, so easily it confirmed my suspicion that his apparatus was rigged.

>"infracaninophile"

I can find "infracaninophile" on the web, and in web word-lists. However, Robert said he found his word "paging through a dictionary", and I can't find "infracaninophile" in any website for a published dictionary.

Could this be a word that's been coined, but has never made it into a recogized published-on-paper dictionary?

from the earlier thread, it was coined by...

Christopher Morley, in the preface to "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" [of Conan Doyle]:

"What other man led a fuller and heartier and more masculine life? [it was another age]
Doctor, whaler, athlete, writer, speculator, dramatist, historian, war correspondent,
spiritualist, he was always also the infracaninophile -- the helper of the underdog."

not all dictionaries are on the web just yet, nor do I have all dictionaries in hard copy (it only seems that way), but I do have it in print in two actual books: as quoted above and in Charles Harrington Elster's "There's a Word for it!" perhaps Mrs. Byrne has it in her dictionary also, but I don't have that to hand at the moment.

(it seems highly probable that Morley coined this as a nonce-word, but there is still time to get it into the OED if only enough of us get... on top of it.)

EDIT: Mrs. B. indeed covers the word, but she cites Morley for it, indicating that she also found it in none of her lexicographical references. :)

While we're at it, who can say how root came to mean to loudly express support for someone?

Re: Robert said he found his word "paging through a dictionary"

I wondered about the fact that infracaninophile is rarely in dictionaries. I'm actually not so sure infracaninophile is the word I saw. I think I would have remembered that one because of the roots. Wouldn't it be neat if it has a synonym?! It would almost be worth while to spend a few days (weeks?) looking through the dictionary! The dictionary I saw it in (I think) is at my parents' home. I'll at least look up infracaninophile to see if it is there.

Robert

the proprietor could keep the weight from going all the way to the top, but I never found out how he could do it

I read somewhere a while back that there was a lever or foot-pedal the carnie could press that subtly altered the tension of the wire going up to the bell. If the wire was taut, the projectile ascended to the top smoothly and easily. If it was loose, the energy of the strongest hammering was easily dampened, and inadequate for the task...

...would that be incurable romantic? How about Polly Purebred, then?

I would have said "a 1950's Brooklyn Dodgers fan" (sniffle). It was always "wait 'til next year," and then the year Next Year finally came, they up and left town. :-( That's gratitude for you! (Some of us never got over the insult, as you can see!)

Then we had to become Mets fans...at least we knew how!

Can't you Striners make up your own?

Evidence, CapK... Which came first, the wombat or the Kiwi?