I have taken the task of grammarian of the week for my company's Toastmasters meeting. One of my duties is to come up with a (preferably uncommon, yet useful) word of the week. The stated theme for the meeting is "Measure of a Man"; I collected several nifty words before this theme was published, but none fit the bill.
Would y'all lovely linguists like a crack at it?
Z-Dub
some random quotes:
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
"Come, you are a tedious fool." - Shakepeare, Measure for Measure
"You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young; you do measure the
heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our
youth, I must confess, are wags too." - Shakespeare, Henry IV, part ii
(vaward = foremost part)
but you are looking for uncommon words; here are a couple (but of a negative nature):
degringolade - a rapid decline or deterioration; downfall
ultracrepidarian
[adj] going beyond one's proper province; giving opinions on matters beyond one's
knowledge
[n] one who ventures beyond his scope; an ignorant or presumptuous critic
maybe this will prime the pump..
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TNG/episode/68376.htmlAlthough this episode seems to actually® focus on the definition of life more than the 'measurement of man', your question does seem to focus on a general *living sense more than a gender context.
Perhaps one can be measured by what one chooses (or has fell fated to
) as a "pursuit of happiness" as this saying suggests...
"Never criticize a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins".
... implying that there is no single measure.
tsuwm: I particularly like ultracrepidarian (I guess verb form ultracrepidate) and it has already made my short list. The problem isn’t necessarily in finding a word, or even a great word, it’s choosing only one. Because of the (possibly phony) polite nature of a Southern (US) Toastmasters meeting, I may need to go with something a tad more positive.
musick: I believe (but sadly cannot be certain) that the person who chose this week’s theme meant it in a broad non-gender-specific life assessment way, rather than dimensions, quantity, or capacity as comparison with a standard of a masculine Homo sapiens sapiens.
Z-Dub
ultracrepidarian
I've seen this word before, but I've never used it except parenthetically.
I usually use the word sciolism, which leaves a little room in my mouth. I'm not sure they're synonyms, but they sound pretty close. Maybe sciolism indicates an actual attempt to mirepresent one's knowledge, whereas ultracrepidarian would subsume this definition and include also those who were speaking beyond their knowledge without being aware of their ignorance. What do you think?
k
Welcome ZDub. I need a little more info, since I don't completely understand your request: are you to choose a word and then talk about it? How does this Toastmasters thang work?
Toastmasters is a public speaking club designed to improve the members' overall conversation skills. As grammarian, I pick a single word that the other members attempt to work into their extemporaneous speeches. Because of my meticulous and obsessive-compulsive nature (and because this is much more fun than work), I am putting more thought into it than is required. This can be a good thing as it led me to this fabulous place!
eta~ Thanks for the welcome!
Z-Dub
off topic, but here is a word I've had lots of fun with in various status meetings at work: transpondine (situated on the other side of the bridge), as in "We've crossed that particular bridge so long ago that this issue has become transpondine in the extreme."
showing that some obscure words maybe aren't so worthless after all?!
How interesting. And do you make actual toasts or just ramble on about a particular subject? Do you talk in front of the whole audience or is it a one-on-one thing since it is to improve converstion skills?
That’s pretty impressive obscure word use, tsuwm. My American Heritage dictionary spells it transpontine (from latin pons; ultimately the same root as pontoon), but I’ll avoid pontificating. Interestingly, the Webster’s II New Riverside dictionary excludes the word.
belMarduk: It’s speeches in front of the whole audience (typically about 20-30 co-workers) and by conversation skills they mean one-on-one, informal toasts, formal toasts, roasts, and speeches of varying formality. Part of the club mission is to avoid aimless rambling and to always have something to say. The company likes it because it’s teaching a bunch of computer programmers to be meeting facilitators. Unfortunately, all of the experienced members of the club have the same overbearing speech patterns. I worry that sticking to the “Toastmasters” plan might rob many of us of our individual flair, but it is mostly a positive experience.
Z-Dub
>>>have the same overbearing speech patterns
Have you ever taped a meeting? I'd be interested to see/hear what you mean by the above.
> My American Heritage dictionary spells it transpontine.
and so it is -- sometimes I don't spell so swell.
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/rst.htm#transpontine(as I say in a disclaimer, "You try spell-checking this stuff!")
Transpondine sounds too much like it would refer to something involving crossing the Atlantic.
Maybe you were subliminally influenced by transponder, which, albeit a technical term, could be applied in the present context.
Is that human beans in bundles of ten?
In reply to:
Have you ever taped a meeting? I'd be interested to see/hear what you mean by the above.
belMarduk: I haven’t, they have never suggested that was allowed. It's possible the organization website may have some recordings(http://www.toastmasters.org), but I haven't seen any on the site. My beef with the speaking style is a little hard to describe. Have you ever seen/heard a speech that was too well rehearsed, too polished, so much so that it lacked passion or soul? All of the experienced Toastmasters that visit our club sound like that… even in their extemporaneous speeches. The novice speakers in our club range from stumblingly nervous to confidently exciting, but they all sound better to me than the experienced guest Toastmasters because they have a connection to their speeches.
tsuwm: I frequently have problems with spelling as well, I was just curious if it was intentional (since I only found it in one of my two work dictionaries, I though it might be a variant spelling) or unintentional. I am all too aware of the pitfalls of spell-check.
Bingley: I love the word anthropometrics! It definitely fit with the “Measure of a Man” theme. I almost went with vitruvian, but that’s even more obscure.
The meeting was this morning, and as I was out of time, I opted for the jejune word, “jejune.”
On the bright side, everyone loved the word and it had more in-meeting use than any other “word of the week” in our club chapter’s two-month history. Thanks for the help!
Z-Dub
Zdub, to use vitruvian you'd have had to bring along a transparency of da Vinci's drawing! oh, and I'd have used jej(e)unosity, but that's just me.
True. And I would probably be breaking a company policy against nude images.
Jejunosity might have been confusing for the group. As it happened, none had heard the word "jejune", and a few people misused it despite my (possibly too in-depth) description.
This board's spell check thinks "jejune" should be "jellies"Z-Dub
ZDub, meet Ænigma!
probably rather tasteless jellies
Welcome ZDub (although you probably pronounce it Zee)
Yeah! Now the board has a Zed and a Zee.
ZDub, meet Ænigma!
...that's the putative SpellChecker associated with this Board. It's immediately below the compose-your-message-here box, and it's (too) easy to click on it when what you really _meant_ to do was click on "continue." It has the occasionally-humorous habit of offering the next word in its alphabetical list when it doesn't find your word in its rather limited vocabulary.