as some of you know, I have a rather large collection of "obscure, abstruse and recondite" words. in compiling said collection, I have stumbled upon a subset of words that I have been unable to confirm anywhere. here are a few of them -- my undieing gratitude would go out to anyone (jazzo excepted) who can shed any light on any of these:
supradentulous - with a toothy grin?
catastarian - narrator? bearer of bad news??
suritorous - ?
ambigamous - will marry anything??
trobbisopdvan - huge shock caused by eating too many asparagus stalks?!
I found "catastarian" in this article - are you sure Jazz does not have a part time job in financial reporting. I thought this was too Stanley Holloway to be true - please tell me it isn't real!
In commenting on the results, Robert W. MacDonald, chairman and CEO of Life USA, said, "We believe the corner has been turned relative to sales and profitability and we are just about ready to toss out the cascarons. The recent rise in long-term interest rates appears to be just the febrifuge needed to trigger an increase in the sale of fixed annuities and confirms that our previous dacrygelosis and comments about a difficult sales environment was not simply a fimblefamble. Rising long-term interest rates are certainly our pantarbe and if they remain at current levels, we anticipate significantly increased sales for the balance of 1999. We are not being mantic, but based on strong marketing momentum and effective control of operating expenses, we expect the Company to produce solid earnings results for the balance of the year. In a way, it is too bad this activity is catastarian in nature. However, we believe that LifeUSA is well positioned to make an important contribution to the overall expansion of Allianz efforts in the American insurance market."
http://www.findarticles.com/m0EIN/1999_July_14/55153413/p1/article.jhtml
yeah, some time ago I had found an earlier reference to this quote, which explained that Mr. MacDonald made a practice of lading his annual reports with this sort of perissology. unfortunately, he has since retired (or has been retired) along with his web site; and, also unfortunately, I have found catastarian nowhere else. somewhere I got the notion that it shares some history with catastrophic (hi anna!).
< fimblefamble>
a word that should be in every annual report!
not counting myself among catastrophiles, I suggest an alternative root for catastarian: In German there is Kataster for English cadaster, and under the latter word I found:
ca·das·tre also ca·das·ter (k-dstr). n.
A public record, survey, or map of the value, extent, and ownership of land as a basis of taxation.
[French from Provençal cadastro, from Italian catastro, alteration of Old Italian catastico, from Late Greek katastikhon, register: Greek kata-, by; see cata- + Greek stikhos, line; see steigh- in Indo-European Roots.]
So it would not take much coaxing to imagine catastarian as "being in charge of (or based on) a cadaster".
...and how would you work that into Mr. MacDonald's annual report?
.. by slightly extending the meaning of cadaster to include registers or surveys of a population's mortality statistics, to be used for calculating life insurance.
mortality statistics
...which is surely not too big a leap, given such financial terms as 'mortgage'
Here's a good clue, tsuwm! This is from a list of cliches that have been disguised.
11. All articles that coruscate with resplendance are not truly suritorous.
-----------------------------------------------------------
To me, that means All that glitters is not gold, so...
Here's the site:
http://www.smu.edu/~mbonilla/stories/quotes/clichesweveheard.html
Jackie, old hand o' mine, no fair using double posts to speed your way along to the next level.
>All articles that coruscate with resplendance are not truly suritorous.
yup, that's my source all right.
but I'll be vapulated if I can find any confirmation that suritorous (or anything like it) relates to gold...
no fair using double posts
Competition's success is quite nice -
So found J thro' her winning advice.
When we gave her a hand
She thought "Ain't that just grand -
I might as well vapulate twice!"
Gee-minently, people!! One measly editing blooper,
and WHAM--this ma'am is slammed. (NOT bammed!!!!!)
tsuwm--should have figured you'd have found that'n.
Now come on, you-all--it's obvious I can't shut up, but as I said afore, there is nothing preventing anyone from out-
posting me, and I frankly wish all of you would!
no fair using double posts
What's with this "no fair" business? My children sometimes use the phrase, which I have assumed - rightly or wrongly - that they have picked up from (US?) television programs.
To me, "it's no fair" would mean the same as "it's no picnic" (i.e. hard work, not much fun), but people use it for "it's unjust" where I would use "it's not fair".
Marty, this is SO not fair of you to take my thread off on a tangent! <vbg> 8-D
What's with this "no fair" business? *shrug* American colloquial usage, I guess. It is a childish expression, which was appropriate to the context
. Maybe someone can shed light.
>"it's not fair"
Me too. I assume that to say "its no fair" you have to say it in a singalong voice and add "man".
Or is it a complaint that the travelling circus with sideshows isn't quite up to scratch?
Don't worry, Jackie, we can all make mistakes.
Don't worry, Jackie, we are all capable of making mistakes.
*with a nod to tsuwm*
It's sooo not fair to misquote, Jo, even though y'all do enjoy the extra syllable.
What we say is "no fair", often accompanied by the crossing of arms and the stomping of a foot. We do
not say "it's no fair."
Fair enough?
...but seriously, in regards to "no fair", if one wanted to be pedantic about it (but who would?), one could point out that there is an obsolete/archaic noun sense of "fair" - meaning something that is fair or fortunate <fair befall thee -Shakespeare> from which comes the idioms "for fair" and "no fair". I think the former -- e.g., "you caught me for fair" -- is a British idiom, is it not?
Fair colleagues,
Thank-you for your fairly useful responses. And fair comment, tsuwm, I will let this thread resume its fair course, but not before a parting addendum to Jackie's list of sayings, with a few from my list that didn't show up in hers:
1. A aggregation of individuals possessing expertise in culinary techniques vitiates the calefacient concoction.
2. Individuals who make their abode in vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from hurling petrous projectiles.
3. Exclusive dedication to necessitous chores sans interludes of hedonistic diverson renders John a hebetudinous stripling. (Just wanted to work that word in!)
4. Missiles of ligneous or petrous materiality may have the potential of fracturing my ossa but invidious appelations will ever remain ontogenetically innocuous, personally speaking.
5. Under no circumstances deposit your cylindrical tinted mixture of higher hydrocarbons in an environment that will result in the absorption of solar dissemination. (I'm a bit slow - need help on this one, please. Don't put your candle in the sun?)
And to end on a slightly different note (roll the music, Maestro!):
Propel, propel, propel your craft
Languidly down the solution
Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically
Existence is but an illusion.
Fair dinkum, Marty
yup, that's my source all right.
but I'll be vapulated if I can find any confirmation that suritorous (or anything like it) relates to gold...
I don't know if you're just playing with us, tsuwm, but it would appear highly likely that suritorous is a typo for auritorous. What with "s" being next to "a" on the keybosrd, I find thst I mske thst ailly aort of miatske sll the time.
Mind you, I couldn't find a listing anywhere for auritorous either, except for an astrological one (are you a Scorpio auritorous?), but I know that your word wells are deeper than mine.
Marty, I think you may be on to something (or on something) -- the sesquipedalian cliche in question would work fine substituting auriferous for suritorous... aomething reom thsn juat s opyt.
tsuwm put: <vbg>
Did that mean you took the tangent with very bad grace?
...substituting auriferous for suritorous...I'm glad it's panned out well then, tsuwm.
Since to assume is to make an ass of u and me, I will not assume that you were kidding.
<vbg> is widely used in Usenet for Very Big Grin. Other variants iclude the plain old <g>, the <bfg>, the <bsg>, the <beg>, and the less common <seg> or, rarer still, the <bfeg>
In reply to:
What's with this "no fair" business?
If it comes to that, the common "Not to worry" is also syntactically rather odd.
PS. Don't worry Jackie, I believe you. Mainly because I've also had posts unexpectedly double themselves.
Bingley
>Mainly because I've also had posts unexpectedly double themselves
Interesting. I've had the same problem too. Yet, when I tried to do a double post in this thread it wouldn't let me. I had to change the wording to get it through.
>We do not say "it's no fair."
Ah, but we say "it's not fair" to mean the same thing. I have only just realised what my daughter meant when she crossed her arms and stamped her foot and said "no fair" the other day. I, like any good mother(??!), corrected her. As we have Sky Digital TV in the house now (hold head in shame) and she watches non-stop back editions of the Simpsons and Friends I think I know from whence it came. I'll just have to look out some ancient editions of "Upstairs Downstairs" to re-programme her speech patterns. I did so love that Mr 'Udson!
Sky Digital TV in the house now
I know just what you mean. Our telly broke a few months back - Catherine and I looked at one another for a few quiet moments, and decided not to replace it. Shouts of "No fair!!" were prevalent for a while. But the way both monsters now voraciously consume books has to be seen to be believed - and last night I went to see my daughter and fellows from 4 local schools doing cut-down versions of 4 Shakespeare plays. Now that is re-programming their language! By the way, one of the schools did a wonderfully dark and astringent version of the Scottish play:
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair..."
which reminds me that the complexity of meaning of this word also encompasses a reference to a woman as 'a fair'.
By the way, one of the schools did a wonderfully dark and astringent version of the Scottish play: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair..."
By "the Scottish play", I take it you mean Macbeth? (Sorry, another Blackadder reference). You're not a thespian, are you?
not a thespian, are you?
Well Max, I guess I'll have to own up (at least partially):
Guilcup as charged, m'lud. I have done a weird & wonderful variety of jobs over the years, including some dabbled thespian tholiliqithing, and founded a small arts centre in the town where I now live.
Speaking of Macbeth, now there was a cunning plan that went turnip-shaped!
Just returning, perhaps fleetingly, to the original subject, it occurs to me that
supradentulous may be an example of a recent AWAD weekly theme "Brand names that have entered the dictionary".
Supradent is a model of dentist's chair, marketed by Sabrotech:
http://www.sabro-tech.com/prod/prod_4.htmlSo it occurs to me that "supradentulous" may be a derived adjective, probably meaning "laid-back", just as "hooverful" could describe something that
really sucks.
marty, your contribution on supradentulous was hooverful, to say the least; but it inspired me to look up the <ahem> root. it turns out that dentulous means simply having teeth, a back-formation from edentulous which means having no teeth. I'm guessing that supradentulous means having more teeth than is normal {which might lead to an excessively toothy grin :^}.
What a shame - I thought I was on something again. By the way, I note from the product Web page that the Supradent chair can be programmed to "Cuspidor Return". Having just discerned that a "cuspidor" is a receptacle for spit, I am somewhat appalled by the possible functioning of the chair in return mode.
No wonder people don't like visiting the dentist.
inspired me to look up the <ahem> root.
Well, for heaven's sake! I can't believe I did something before you did, for once. That's the very first thing I did, and for ambigamous and catastarian, too. It never occurred to me that you wouldn't have done that, or I'd've
said something. Ambi- is a word element meaning both,
around, or on both sides; -arian is a compound suffix of
adjectives and nouns; cata- is a prefix meaning down, against, or back, usually with words that came from Greek
(use just cat- if the word starts with a vowel).
But, even putting parts of the word together doesn't provide verification that the word exists.
a back-formation from edentulous
Does this mean true wisdom was attained?
>..edentulous
Does this mean true wisdom was attained?<
I am not sure at all about that. Supra.. , as opposed to
super.. generally has a distinctly spatial connotation. So "supradentulous" could just as well refer to your
upper teeth (e.g. protruding) or to having set your teeth
upon something
. -- Sorry, I grasped your pun only after I posted this.
and would a dentifrice for someone with only ten teeth be decadent?
someone with only ten teeth be decadent?
Could be, Doc! Good one! You know,
If good old King Poseidon,
Decadently went ridin',
Lost seven teeth to accident,
Then he would be old King Trident.
ambigamoustsuwm,
In light of this week's feature of John Langdon's superb and delightful Ambigrams on AWAD, does it occur to you as well as me that your unfounded word above could be yet another typo?
>yet another typo [re: ambigramous?]
with the latest batch of unfound words I have provided some manner of context; I think I'll try to revisit these in the same way (if I can).
>John Langdon's superb and delightful Ambigrams
by sheer happenstance, I am currently reading Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons", for which John developed several ambigrams including one for the title [for which see John's website]. The devilish plot for this novel includes (among other nefarious details) the branding of four(4) prominent cardinals with ambigrams for earth, air, fire and water. The protagonist is named Robert Langdon, which probably isn't a coincidence.
The protagonist is named Robert Langdon
... which ambigramously should be rendered as Bob?
Thank you for your poem, Jackie.
If , after the accident, Poseidon's seven teeth were washed Eastwards by the current, I suppose they would become occident.
here's some additions to this old thread...
xyresic - being as sharp as a razor [this one appears in the Grandiloquent Dictionary]
endochronic - related to internal time(?) [used by Asimov in a story title]
anophelosis - morbid state due to extreme frustration [from 'Pinky and the Brain' credits]
again, these are single sources which I have been unable to confirm...
the xeric one offers:
xyresic - being as sharp as a razor ...
these are single sources which I have been unable to confirm...
Well, *i* use xyresic all the time. i don't suppose i count as a credible source, though, do i??
>Well, *i* use xyresic all the time. i don't suppose i count as a credible source, though, do i??
rather... and especially considering that you probably gleaned it from the source I listed.
anophelosis - morbid state due to extreme frustration [from 'Pinky and the Brain' credits]
Q.E.D., or, to put it another way, 'narf said.