...restarting because our alphabetical spammer has posted in Mensopause II, and Moderatrix can't delete if the post has been replied to... ______________________________________________________
SAMSON
PRONUNCIATION: (SAM-suhn)
MEANING: noun: A man of extraordinary physical strength.
ETYMOLOGY: After Samson, a judge in the Old Testament, known for his great strength. From Hebrew Simson (man of sun). Earliest documented use: 1565
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SANSAN - a tiny piquant-tasting lozenge for freshening the breath of Japanese gentlemen
MEANING: noun: A long lamentation, mournful complaint, or a prophecy of doom.
ETYMOLOGY: After Jeremiah, a Hebrew prophet during the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, who prophesied the fall of the kingdom of Judah and whose writings are collected in Lamentations in the Old Testament. Earliest documented use: 1780. Also see jeremiah.
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JEDEMIAD - A long lamentation, mournful complaint, or a prophecy of doom, regarding the return of the Empire for three more episodes...with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford, plus younger versions of same
PRONUNCIATION: (meh-THOO-zuh-luh) MEANING: noun: 1. An extremely old person. 2. An oversized wine bottle holding approximately six liters. ETYMOLOGY: After the biblical figure Methuselah, who is said to have lived 969 years. Earliest documented use: 1390. -----------------------------------------------------
METHUSER-AH - ah, O Saki, it is said that the meth user will be dead within 969 days. That, O Saki, is a lie. A meth user is dead on the first day.
PRONUNCIATION: (laz-uh-RET-o) MEANING: noun: 1. A medical facility for people with infectious diseases. 2. A building or ship used for quarantine. 3. On a ship, a space between decks used as storage. ETYMOLOGY: From Italian lazzaretto, a blend of lazzaro + Nazareto. Lazzaro is the Italian version of the name Lazarus, the name of a beggar covered in sores as described in the New Testament (Luke 16:20). Nazareto was the nickname of a hospital, after Santa Maria di Nazareth, the name of the Church on the island where it was located. Earliest documented use: 1549. USAGE: "The Council House was a frame building, away from the rest, that had been built in the old, wilder days as a lazaretto for surly drunks." Kurt Vonnegut; Player Piano; Charles Scribner's Sons; 1952.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun. -Katharine Hepburn, an actress who had fun for 96 years (1907-2003) ________________________________________________________
LAZYRETTO - a mental hospital for purposeless people who don't know that just being alive is fun.
PRONUNCIATION: (BUHMP-shuhs) MEANING: adjective: Self-assertive in an obnoxious way. ETYMOLOGY: Probably a blend of bump + fractious or a blend of bump + presumptuous. Earliest documented use: 1803. _________________________________________________
BUMTIOUS - the attribute of having a shapely bum. As in the song: I can't dance I can't talk The only thing about me Is the way I walk
UMPTIOUS - making wild and arbitrary calls at the plate, throwing people out of the game for no reason - in short, acting like a spoiled and overindulged baseball referee. A combination of "RAMBUNCTIOUS" and ... oh, you get the point.
SHIMSY - borogoves that twerk (a combination of shimmy and mimsy, as in "Mimsy were the borogoves." I know it's true, because I read it in Jabbewocky.)
And then there's SLIMSTY, a resort for pigs on a diet
PS: Has anyone proposed that "twerk" is a combination of "Twist" and "Jerk"?
A ditty-wah-ditty about Slim and a waterfall in Mississippi
Me and Slimsy were climbing atop a waterfall in Mississippi. Suddenly Slimsy slipsy and then slidsy and slamsy into the slime pool below. Slimsy can't swimsy but that didn't matter. The highest waterfall in flat Mississippi is measured in inches.
PRONUNCIATION: (STIK-shuhn) MEANING: noun: The frictional force that must be overcome to set one object in motion when it is in contact with another. ETYMOLOGY: A blend of static + friction. Earliest documented use: 1946.
USAGE: "Thom watched the nurse's backside as she left the low gravity and the stiction in her shoes made her suggestive." R.E. Wilder; Captain Thom and Orions Thunder; Dog Ear Publishing; 2009. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: When you re-read a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in yourself than there was before. -Clifton Fadiman, editor and critic (1904-1999) ________________________________________________________
TICTION (TICK-shuhn ) - The frictional force that must be overcome to set one object in motion when it is in contact with another.
WUZZY - the politically incorrect term "muzzy" in the 1728 folkpoem cited below* was changed to "wuzzy" in 2008 because it was feared that it might offend the world's wild-eyed radical Muslims. Instead the word "wuzzy" offended the wild-eyed radical feminists of the world regardless of their creed, race, color, or lack thereof.
*Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy was she?
PRONUNCIATION:(o-FEE-lee-uhn) MEANING: adjective: Displaying madness, suicidal tendencies, and similar characteristics. ETYMOLOGY: After Ophelia, a character in Shakespeare's Hamlet, who is driven to insanity and kills herself. Earliest documented use: 1903. USAGE: "She had an Ophelian streak of potential craziness that he had, since day one, deemed wiser to steer clear of." Jean-Christophe Valtat; Aurorarama; Melville House; 2010.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. -Lorraine Hansberry, playwright and painter (1930-1965) ---------------------------------------------------
OPHELLIAN (adj.) - the L added to emphasize the depths of Ophelia's madness and pain.
PRONUNCIATION: (BEN-i-dikt) MEANING: noun: A newly married man, especially one who was previously thought to be a confirmed bachelor. ETYMOLOGY: From alteration of Benedick, character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Earliest documented use: 1821. USAGE: "Columbus Moise, the old bachelor lawyer, who is soon to be a benedict, answered the toast." Miguel Antonio Otero; My Life on the Frontier, 1882-1897; 1935.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:**** A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)
BENEDIT (BIN-et-it) - heavy-handed editing as with an axe.
ETYMOLOGY: Shakespeare's drinking companion, Ben Jonson, edited several of Shakespeare's plays, mostly with spleen and spite. After reading a yet-unnamed play Ben scrawled in big letters across the cover, THIS IS MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. The bard set down his drink and said "Rightly so, Ben" Then smiled.
BENEVICT - a movement to evict Bums, Elves, and Ne'er-do-wells who live their lives in public buildings where government people work...or, uh...don't work.
PRONUNCIATION:(HAM-lit) MEANING: noun: 1. An apprehensive, indecisive person. 2. A small village. ETYMOLOGY: For 1: After Hamlet, the prince of Denmark in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The opening of Hamlet's soliloquy "To be, or not to be" is among the best-known lines in literature. Earliest documented use: 1903. For 2: From Old French hamelet, diminutive of hamel (village), which itself is a diminutive of ham (village). Ultimately from the Indo-European root tkei- (to settle or dwell), which also gave us home, haunt, hangar, and site. Earliest documented use: 1330.
NOTES: The idiom "Hamlet without the Prince" is used to refer to an event or a performance taking place without its main character. USAGE: "With some he is a Hamlet, a divided man who is always questioning himself." John S. Dunne; Time And Myth; University of Notre Dame Press; 2012.
"The Baroness was right on one point: he was a Hamlet; his soliloquy might have run, 'To be married or not to be married / That is the question.'" Herbert Leibowitz; "Something Urgent I Have to Say to You": The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; 2011. =======================================================
SHAMLET - 1) a Potemkin Village 2) Hamlet without the Prince
MEANING: adjective: Having a red complexion, especially a red nose.
ETYMOLOGY: After Bardolph, a character in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor, who was noted for his red nose. Earliest documented use: 1756. Another character from these plays who has become a word in English is Falstaff.
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BARDOLPHIN - a lawyer with a white hat (to distinguish itself from the sharks)
PRONUNCIATION: (bar-DOL-fee-uhn) MEANING: adjective: Having a red complexion, especially a red nose. ETYMOLOGY: After Bardolph, a character in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor, who was noted for his red nose. Earliest documented use: 1756. Another character from these plays who has become a word in English is Falstaff. =======================================================
PRONUNCIATION:(po-LO-nee-uhn) MEANING: adjective: 1. Abounding in aphoristic expressions. 2. A native or inhabitant of Poland.
ETYMOLOGY: For 1: After Polonius, a courtier and the father of Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, known for his moralistic apothegms. Earliest documented use: 1847. For 2: From Latin Polonia (Poland). Earliest documented use: 1533. NOTES: Some of Shakespeare's best-known quotations come out of Polonius's mouth. As his son Laertes heads for France, Polonius advises:
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend."
"This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
At another time, he says: "Brevity is the soul of wit." As happens with quotations, some of his words have become simplified and sharpened with time, such as from the original "For the apparel oft proclaims the man." to "Clothes make the man." USAGE: "A few Polonian precepts can do something to indicate whether or not a scientist is cut out for collaboration." P.B. Medawar; Advice To A Young Scientist; Harper and Row; 1980. ==============================================================
POOLONIAN - a press pool reporter whose reportal wit comes entirely from the book "Zippy Words of Awesome Cliches for the Dull".
PRONUNCIATION (rep-ri-HEND) MEANING: verb tr.: To disapprove or to reprimand. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin reprehendere (to hold back, to censure), from re- (intensive) + prehendere (to seize). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize or to take), which is also the source of pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, pregnant, osprey, prison, get, impregnable, impresa, and prise. Earliest documented use: 1382. USAGE: "The false quotation was therefore one of those flashy worthless attempts at wit that I so much reprehend in others." Patrick O'Brian; The Truelove; W.W. Norton; 1993.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Never cut what you can untie. -Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824) ===========================================================
REPREHEN - to scold the chicken who ate the corn but didn't lay an egg. Scold her twice before she doesn't lay another egg because some chickens are dim-witted.
PRONUNCIATION: (GRAV-i-tas) MEANING: noun: Seriousness, dignity, or weightiness. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin gravis (serious). Earliest documented use: 1924. USAGE: "To some early critics, Mr. Büsser's playful choice lacked gravitas." Victoria Gomelsky; Iconic Names for Iconic Watches; The New York Times; Feb 24, 2014.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false. -Lawrence M. Krauss, theoretical physicist (b. 1954) ----------------------------------------------------------
GRAVITASK - a chore of utmost import to mankind's understanding of everything i.e. since no one has ever seen a wave or a particle it is only by faith that we conceptualize the existence of matter.
PRONUNCIATION:(LANG-gwid) MEANING: adjective: 1. Lacking vigor or vitality. 2. Lacking interest. 3. Pleasantly lazy and calm. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin languere (to languish). Earliest documented use: 1595. USAGE: "Tahiti today is not the calm South Seas paradise depicted in Paul Gauguin's paintings of languid Polynesian women." South Sea Bubble; The Economist (London, UK); Nov 11, 2004.
[See more usage examples of languid in Vocabulary.com's dictionary]
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) ----------------------------------------------------
PRONUNCIATION: (puhr-FYOOZ) MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To spread over as a liquid, color, light, aroma, etc. 2. To force a liquid, such as blood, through an organ or tissue. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin perfundere (to drench), from per- (through) + fundere (to pour). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gheu- (to pour), which is also the source of funnel, font, fuse, diffuse, gust, gush, geyser, and infundibuliform. Earliest documented use: 1425. USAGE: "The heady aroma of strong coffee perfused the cozy kitchen." Olivia Cunning; Hot Ticket; Sourcebooks; 2013. __________________________________________________________
SERFUSE - items set aside for use by serfs only. Examples: hoe, rake, shovel, etc.
Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door? Isn't that what Jack Nicholson said after axing the door?
PRONUNCIATION:(no-EE-sis) MEANING: noun: 1. Cognition; perception. 2. The exercise of reason. ETYMOLOGY: From Greek noesis (thought), from noein (to think, to perceive), from nous (mind). Earliest documented use: 1881. USAGE: "The noesis of the fact that tigers roamed these areas since there were no boundaries, nor fences in this forest, didn't jab much at me." Vishal Gupta; A Bittersweet Nostalgia; Strategic Book Publishing; 2012. "In an attempt to recollect the former few days, flashes of noesis pervaded my concentration." Jane E. Hill; So, Here I Stand; AuthorHouse; 2010.
[See more usage examples of noesis in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.]
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. -Ben Hecht, screenwriter, playwright, novelist, director, and producer. =======================================================
KNOESIS - the perception that you know something when you don't
PRONUNCIATION: (SUHL-fuhr-uhs, suhl-FYOOR-uhs) MEANING: adjective: 1. Relating to or resembling sulfur. 2. Pale yellow. 3. Fiery; hellish. 4. Hot-tempered. 5. Profane, blasphemous. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin sulfur. Earliest documented use: 1530. USAGE: "And like a screeching harpy screaming up from the sulfurous depths of Hell, Kim Kardashian has sensed our happiness and seeks to destroy it..."
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved, the inquisition might have let him alone. -Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet (1840-1928) =========================================================
SULFURIOUS - to be mad as Hell at folks in Heaven.
MEANING: noun 1. A substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without changing itself. 2. Someone or something that causes an event or change to happen. ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin, from Greek katalusis, from kataluein (to dissolve), from kata- (down) + luein (loosen). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leu- (to loosen, divide), which is also the source of forlorn, lag, loss, solve, analysis, and resolute. Earliest documented use: 1902. USAGE: "Doctoroff had seen how the Games served as a growth catalyst for host cities -- Tokyo expanded its subway system, Atlanta transformed its downtown." Ken Auletta; After Bloomberg; The New Yorker; Aug 26, 2013.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. -Allen Ginsberg said in his book "Madness Sells". (1926-1997) --------------------------------------------------------
CAVALYST - a caver who instigates others to go down while he remains on top
MEANING: adjective: 1. Relating to or containing acid. 2. Having a sour or sharp taste. 3. Bitter or cutting (e.g. a remark).
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin acidus (sour), from acere (to be sour). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ak- (sharp), which is also the source of acrid, vinegar, acute, edge, hammer, heaven, eager, oxygen, and mediocre. Earliest documented use: 1868.
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ACIDISC - a Frisbee painted with a psychedelic pattern; watching it spin after you throw it will disrupt your thought processes
ACIDICK - what you get when you cross a donkey with a white whale
MEANING: noun: 1. Sulfur. 2. Fiery rhetoric, especially one filled with references to hell. 3. An ill-tempered, overbearing woman.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English brynstan, from brinnen (to burn) + stan (stone). Earliest documented use: 1300.
NOTES: The Bible has many references to fire and brimstone pointing to burning in hell. Accordingly, the term "fire and brimstone" is used to refer to speech involving strong language, condemnation, damnation, etc., for example: a fire and brimstone preacher.
USAGE: "One of the things that makes Alan Clark so compelling a writer is the whiff of brimstone that comes off him, what Mr Cornwell describes as his 'potential for evil'." Old Nick Rides Again; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 1, 2009.
"Under all that fire and brimstone, you're an old softy at heart." Michael Morpurgo; War Horse; Scholastic; 2010.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths. -Aleksandr Pushkin, poet, novelist, playwright (1799-1837) -----------------------------------------------------------
BRIMSTORE - place to go for the best prices on fire and brim
RIMSTONE - Rimstone dams form where there is some gradient, and hence flow, over the edge of a pool. Crystallization begins to occur at the air/water/rock interface. The turbulence caused by flow over the edge of the building dam may contribute to the outgassing or loss of carbon dioxide from water, and result in precipitation of mineral on this edge.
PRONUNCIATION:(dis-POZ-i-tiv) MEANING: adjective: Relating to or bringing about the settlement of a case. ETYMOLOGY: From dispose, from Old French disposer, from Latin disponere (to arrange), from dis- (apart) + ponere (to put). Ultimately from the Indo-European root apo- (off or away), which is also the source of pose, apposite, after, off, awkward, post, puny, apposite, and apropos. Earliest documented use: 1483. USAGE: "The Justice Department subsequently asked the National Academy of Sciences to re-examine the Dictabelt evidence and it concluded it was not dispositive, which naturally led to years of debate among forensic acoustic experts." Ron Rosenbaum; Seeing Zapruder; Smithsonian (Washington, DC); Oct 2013.
"Marilyn Yalom supplements her summaries of love in French culture with lively, if hardly dispositive, anecdotes from her own encounters with France and the French. How the French Invented Love; The New Yorker; Feb 4, 2013. -------------------------------------------------------------
DISPOSILIVE - to resurrect a contention that was thought to be setttled
PRONUNCIATION: (HOL-uh-graf) MEANING: noun: 1. A document handwritten by its author. adjective: 2 Handwritten by the author. noun: 3. A hologram: a three-dimensional image created using laser. ETYMOLOGY: For 1, 2: Via Latin, from Greek holographos, from holos (whole) + -graphos (written). Earliest documented use: 1623. For 3: From holography, which was coined from hologram on the pattern of photography, from Greek holos (whole). Earliest documented use: 1968 ------------------------------------------------------------
HOLYGRAPH - a contrived hockey stick graph that end-of-worlders cite as gospel that seas are rising, Earth is burning, and earthlings can only be saved by buying carbon credits from governments.
***Bull Hockey! And I have some ocean front property you can buy in Colorado. ***
MEANING: noun: 1. Rule by the wealthy. 2. A wealthy ruling class.
ETYMOLOGY: The Greek biographer Plutarch (c. 46-120 CE) has no connection with this word. Rather, it's Ploutos, the god of riches in Greek mythology. The word (and its synonym plutocracy and the word plutolatry) are derived from Greek pluto- (wealth) + archos (ruler), from arkhein (to rule). Earliest documented use: 1643.
USAGE: "Boston's upper crust made sure that they had an unfair advantage over their less fortunate neighbors, an advantage intended to perpetuate plutarchy and a socially stratified society." Keith Krawczynski; Daily Life in the Colonial City; Greenwood; 2012. --------------------------------
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French reprover (to criticize), from Latin reprobare (to disapprove), from re- (opposite) + probare (to approve), from probus (good). Earliest documented use: 1375.
USAGE: "The nuns have continued to insist on their right to debate and challenge church teaching, which has resulted in the Vatican's reproof." Laurie Goodstein; Nuns Weigh Response to Scathing Vatican Rebuke; The New York Times; Jul 29, 2012.
Now Bazro, I don't mean you no reproof. But you'd best move out of that flimsy tent and get you a nice sturdy doublewide. Then when the next gale visits, you won't have to... (drop p)
REROOF - to put up a new roof where your old roof used to stay
PREPROOF - what it takes to convict you of preprehension (see 5/26/14, above)
Right on, Mister Wolfdoc, the term PREPROOF is a logical oxymoron; a contrived semantic construction used despairingly by those who practice pseudo science so as to preclude logical thought.
You know, like the Flat Earthers and Global Warmists.
MEANING: noun: 1. One who is devoted to an activity, person, institution, etc. noun: 2. One who has taken vows to a religion, such as a monk or nun. adjective: Bound by a vow or relating to a vow.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin votum (vow), from vovere (to vow), which also gave us vow, vote, and devote. Earliest documented use: 1546.
USAGE: "The issue has been a matter of debate with strong votaries on both sides." Road to Basel; Financial Express (New Delhi, India); May 4, 2012.
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LOTARY - a game of chance where even the word is dodgy.
MEANING: noun: A group of confidential scheming advisers.
ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish, diminutive of cámara (chamber), from Latin camera (room), from Greek kamara (an object with an arched cover). Earliest documented use: 1839.
USAGE: "In China ... successions to a bureaucratic collective leadership are managed by a tiny camarilla in a self-declared one-party state." Simon Sebag Montefiore; In Russia, Power Has No Heirs; The New York Times; Jan 11, 2009.
MEANING: noun: 1. A lively Spanish dance in triple time. 2. A piece of music for this dance. 3. A foolish or silly behavior, act, or thing.
ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish, of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1766.
USAGE: "Going through this ridiculous fandango of chicken and blackmail again is the height of irresponsibility." Norman Ornstein; Extending Debt Limit Past Elections is Right Path; Roll Call (Washington, DC); Jul 27, 2011.
PRONUNCIATION:(PUNG-uhl) MEANING: verb tr.: To make a payment; to shell out. ETYMOLOGY: Alteration of Spanish póngale (put it down), from poner (to put), from Latin ponere (to put). Ultimately from the Indo-European root apo- (off or away) that is also the source of after, off, awkward, post, puny, apposite, apropos, and dispositive. Earliest documented use: 1851. USAGE: "Congress pungled up $700 billion for a bailout." Steve Rubenstein; 2008 in Review; San Francisco Chronicle; Dec 30, 2008. ---------------------------------------------------
MEANING: noun: 1. A rogue, thief, or pirate. 2. A pirate ship. verb intr.: To act as a pirate.
ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish picarón (scoundrel), from picaro (rogue). Earliest documented use: 1624.
USAGE: "I don't like bank stocks or banksters -- especially the big-city picaroons who have less conscience than a fox in a henhouse." Malcolm Berko; Some OK Banksters and a Primer on Scripophily; Creators Syndicate (Los Angeles); Dec 14, 2011.
MEANING: noun: A narrow, steep-sided watercourse, usually dry except after rain.
ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish arroyo, from Latin arrugia (mine shaft). Earliest documented use: 1845.
USAGE: "A wooden bridge took us across an arroyo and into a grassy area." Gene Sager; In Touch With Nature; Natural Life (Toronto, Canada); Jan/Feb 2014.
MEANING: adjective: 1. Restless, jumpy, nervy. 2. Odd or crazy.
ETYMOLOGY:
Why do we consider a squirrel squirrelly? Well, it's either their unpredictable running around or we think they are nutty because of their preference for nuts. The word came to us via French and Latin from Greek skiouros (shadow-tailed), from skia (shadow) + oura (tail). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ors- (buttocks) which also gave us ass, dodo, and cynosure. Earliest documented use: 1925.
USAGE: "'It's indicative of how squirrelly the market is,' Christopher Dixo said, adding that investors are skittish about any degree of negative news." Sallie Hofmeister; Diller's Internet Empire Takes a Hit; Los Angeles Times; Jan 7, 2003.
MEANING: noun: The common people; the masses; riffraff.
ETYMOLOGY: From French canaille (villain, rabble), from Italian canaglia (pack of dogs, rabble), from cane (dog), from Latin canis (dog). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kwon- (dog), which is also the source of canine, chenille (from French chenille: caterpillar, literally, little dog), kennel, canary, hound, dachshund, corgi, cynic, and cynosure. Earliest documented use: 1676.
USAGE: "The gang in the alley was not canaille; fine gentlemen from the court were raging here." Isak Dinesen; Last Tales; Random House; 1957.
ETYMOLOGY: After monkey + shine (a caper). A similar term is monkey business. Earliest documented use: 1832.
USAGE: "Senator Fritz Hollings opened in his usual direct fashion: Let's cut out the monkeyshines and get down to business." Mary McGrory; Amtrak Melodrama; The Washington Post; Jun 30, 2002.
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MONEYSHINE - when you hold cash in your wallet for too long you get this..
MEANING: noun: A dark red or brownish purple color. adjective: Of this color.
ETYMOLOGY: From French puce (flea), from Latin pulex (flea). Earliest documented use: 1778. Other terms coined after the flea are flea market, a direct translation of French marché aux puces and ukulele (from Hawaiian, literally leaping flea, perhaps from the rapid motion of the fingers in playing it).
USAGE: "An increasingly puce Mr Farage complained about Britain's loss of sovereignty." The Third Man; The Economist (London, UK); Mar 29, 2014.
MEANING: noun: A person who flatters or tries to please someone to gain favor. verb intr.: To behave as a toady.
ETYMOLOGY: From shortening of toad-eater. In times past, a quack employed an assistant who ate (or pretended to eat) a poisonous toad and was supposedly cured by the quack's medicine. From there the word extended to a person who would do anything to curry favor. Earliest documented use: 1827.
USAGE: "Klein and the rest of Mission Control want a bunch of yes men and toadies." Martin Shoemaker; Murder on the Aldrin Express; Analog Science Fiction & Fact (New York); Sep 2013.
MEANING: noun: A very old-fashioned person or one holding extremely conservative views.
ETYMOLOGY: From the idea that someone is old enough to have moss grow on his back. Old aquatic animals, such as turtles, do develop mosslike growth on their backs. Earliest documented use: 1865.
USAGE: "Here, Markowitz deals with ... moldy old mossbacks in English departments who won't teach writing by women." Miriam Markowitz; Here Comes Everybody; The Nation (New York); Dec 9, 2013.
MEANING: noun: One who dislikes people in general.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek misanthropos, from misos (hatred) + anthropos (man). Earliest documented use: 1683.
USAGE: "Consider both an avid cocktail party hostess with hundreds of acquaintances and a grumpy misanthrope, who may have one or two friends." Infectious Personalities; The Economist (London, UK); May 12, 2010.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek autodidaktos (self-taught), from autos (self) + didaktos (taught). Earliest documented use: 1534.
USAGE: "Tom didn't do particularly well in school because of problems with attention disorder, hyperactivity, and even a streak of mischievousness. Instead, he became an autodidact, using his intense interest in reading to educate himself." Sharon Salyer; He Was the Love of Her Life; The Herald (Everett, Washington); May 7, 2014. _________________________________________________
ETYMOLOGY: Earlier magnifico was an honorary title applied to Venetian noblemen. From Italian magnifico (magnificent), from Latin magnus (great). Ultimately from the Indo-European root meg- (great), which is also the source of magnificent, maharajah, master, mayor, maestro, magnate, magistrate, maximum, magnify, mickle, mahatma, magnanimous, and hermetic. Earliest documented use: 1573.
USAGE: "All the magnificos emerge looking banally ordinary." Peter Schjeldahl; Beasts: The Art World; The New Yorker; May 17, 2010.
(1) government doublespeak for the " Federal Insurance Contributions Act" which is not a contribution but a tax on all American workers (Federal government employees exempted) .
Guaranteed Effective All-Occasion Non-Slanderous Political Smear Speech" from Mad magazine (WebCite). It has gems such as:
"His female relatives put on a constant pose of purity and innocence, and claim they are inscrutable, yet every one of them has taken part in hortatory activities."
Well, election season is coming up and so we give you a fresh set of words to help you write your own non-slanderous smear speech. Even if you don't plan on contesting an election, why not sprinkle these words in your office memos, research reports, or term papers?
This week we'll see five words that sound dirty, but aren't.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin hortari (to urge). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gher- (to like or want), which also gave us yearn, charisma, greedy, and exhort. Earliest documented use: 1586.
USAGE:"Of course, the book has its morals, just not hortatory ones." More Than Just a Phunny Phellow; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 15, 2010.
"There are hortatory slogans painted along the architrave." Will Self; Real Meals; New Statesman (London, UK); Oct 25, 2013.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. -Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (1907-1988) ______________________________________________________
HORTATOR - a whore; nice to visit but chancy to marry.
MEANING: verb intr.: 1. To crawl like ants. 2. To swarm with ants.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin formicare (to crawl like ants), from formica (ant). Earliest documented use: 1854.
USAGE: "Again, again, again, until you reach the inevitable conclusion of sky-rises, nuclear submarines, orbiting satellites, and Homo sapiens formicating the Earth." Laird Barron; Shiva, Open Your Eye; Fantasy & Science Fiction (Cornwall, Connecticut); Sep 2001.
MEANING: noun: The use of words with same or similar vowel sounds but with different end consonants. Example: The o sounds in Wordsworth's "A host, of golden daffodils."
ETYMOLOGY: Via French, from Latin ad- (to) + sonare (to sound), from sonus (sound). Ultimately from the Indo-European root swen- (to sound), which also gave us sound, sonic, sonnet, sonata, and unison. Earliest documented use: 1728.
USAGE: "The passage offers many beauties: the nearly incantatory repetition, the assonance (define and confine, streets and treat, space and faces), the homophones (rains and reins -- but not reigns?), the pun (no sign of motorway)." Kevin Dettmar; Less Is Morrissey; The Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington, DC); Dec 9, 2013.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin inspissare (to thicken), from spissus (thick). Earliest documented use: 1603.
USAGE: "These are flavors that have been inspissating in some timeless tandoor for hours, days -- decades." Brad Leithauser; And an Outpost on Rodeo Drive; The New York Times; Mar 5, 1995.
INSWISSATE - gorged myself at the Lindt/Sprüngli store
INSPISSAUTÉ - first you lant it, then you cook it in a small amount of fat over high heat so it "jumps" above the surface of the pan
INSPISSTATE - piss-poor government
(INSPISSATE is a fairly common word in medicine, btw. Fluids that are inspissated are thick and viscous and generally not a good thing to find or to have. If they're lung secretions, for example, they're hard to cough up, and difficult to penetrate with antibiotics. It's pronounced "IN-spi-sate" in this context.)
INSPISSTATE - a short state in height but thick in the middle like Tennessee and unlike the three states under it which are narrow states, Georgia, Alabama, and the one that is hard to spell...ISSPPISSATE
MEANING: verb tr.: To pamper or spoil. noun: A breed of small spaniel dog.
ETYMOLOGY: For verb: Of obscure origin. Earliest documented use: 1499. For noun: From the use of such dogs in hunting of birds such as woodcock. Earliest documented use: 1811.
USAGE: "Parents, by humouring and cockering them when little, corrupt the principles of nature in their children, and wonder afterwards to taste the bitter waters, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain." John Locke (1632-1704).
CROCKER - any cheerful, wholesome, rosy-cheeked, full bodied woman who excels in baking cakes, pies, and in pleasing her man in artfull ways... whose first name happens to be "Betty".
ETYMOLOGY: A variant of visor, from Anglo-French viser, from vis (face), from visus (sight), from videre (to see). Ultimately from the Indo-European root weid- (to see), which is also the source of guide, wise, vision, advice, idea, story, history, previse, polyhistor, invidious, hades, eidos, and eidetic. Earliest documented use: 1555.
USAGE: "The birds wear floor-length costumes, and Princess Victoria actually comes from the Veneto, bearing a vizard (the beaked plague-doctor's mask)." The ABC of Fabulous Princesses; Kirkus Reviews (New York); Dec 15, 2013.
VISAID - 1) snake oil peddled as a way to let you see better without needing glasses 2) additional identification with your picture on it to prove you are the rightful owner of a credit or debit card 3) reply to the question, "What did you say was the Roman numeral for five? I couldn't hear you."
MEANING: noun: A coarse fabric of silk, combined with mohair or wool, and often stiffened with gum. ETYMOLOGY: From French gros grain (large or coarse grain). Another fabric from the same origin is grosgrain. Earliest documented use: 1562. USAGE: "Instead of putting her still-thick, white hair into its usual twist, she'd tied it back at the nape of her neck with a black, grogram ribbon." Nancy Desrosiers; Stay a Little Longer; Tate Publishing; 2011. ____________________________________________________________
MEANING: adjective: Relating to the release of a substance from a cell, gland, or an organ.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin secernere (to distinguish), from se- (apart) + cernere (to sift). Ultimately from the Indo-European root krei- (to sift or to discriminate), which also gave us crime, crisis, certain, excrement, secret, critic, garble, hypocrisy, and diacritical. Earliest documented use: 1692.
USAGE: "The secret behind such organised societies is communication through the use of around 20 pheromones, emitted by ants' secretory organs." Wisdom of Crowds; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 8, 2009.
SECRESTORY - entomoligists have known for a long time that ants talked in smells but thought it best not to tell anybody.
EXAMPLE: "The secret behind such organised societies is communication through the use of around 20 pheromones, emitted by ants' secretory organs." Wisdom of Crowds; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 8, 2009.
Quote without comment: From Anu's weekly newsletter - [qupte] From: Peirce Hammond (peirceiii yahoo.com) Subject: Proem
There is a little known category of words that get confused with the words that get confused with well known words. So today's word, proem is readily confused with poem. But consider the word preom,[E.A.] easily taken to be a typo when one surely intended to write proem. That, however, would be an error when one was referring to the technique of rapid free association to clear one's mind just prior to meditation -- preom. Peirce Hammond, Bethesda, Maryland [/quote]
MEANING: adjective: 1. Relating to Bohemia, its people, or languages. 2. Living an unconventional life. 3. Leading a wandering life.
noun: 1. A person (such as a writer or an artist) who lives an unconventional life. 2. A vagabond or wanderer. 3. A native or inhabitant of Bohemia. 4. The Czech dialects spoken in Bohemia.
ETYMOLOGY: From French bohémien (Gypsy, vagabond), because Gypsies were believed to come from Bohemia or entered through Bohemia. Bohemia is a region in central Europe, now a part of the Czech Republic. Earliest documented use: 1579. --------------------------------------------------------
MEANING: noun: 1. A variety of small plum (Prunus insititia) or its fruit. 2. A dark purple color.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin Prunum Damascenum (plum of Damascus), perhaps because it was first cultivated in Damascus or because it was introduced into Europe from Syria. Two other words coined after Damascus are damask and damascene. Earliest documented use: 1398. ______________________________
DRAMSON - a little something you ask your friendly barkeeper to pour
JAMSON - let's BOOGIE !
DAMSOX - the expected September fold came in July this year
MEANING: noun: 1. A place where couples elope to to get married. 2. Such a wedding.
ETYMOLOGY: After Gretna Green, a village in Scotland on the English border. English couples who had not reached the age of majority eloped to Gretna Green where such a wedding was permitted. A wedding was typically performed by a blacksmith in his shop. Earliest documented use: 1813. _____________________________________________
GRETNA GREED - a fishhouse just ouside the Union County line in Mississippi where calculating young ladies can marry rich old men without being designated "gold diggers".
MEANING: noun: The British government or the British Civil Service.
ETYMOLOGY: From Whitehall, a street in London, on which many government offices are located. The street gets its name from the Palace of Whitehall. Earliest documented use: 1827. _________________________________________________________
WHITEHAIL - Nazi salute
SHITEHALL - "Whitehall" as termed by guest fanatics.
MEANING: adjective: Big or strong. noun: Someone or something that is large.
ETYMOLOGY: From Roncesvalles, a town at the foot of the Pyrenees. It was the site of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 in which Roland, a commander of Charlemagne's army, was defeated by the Basques. Over time the story turned into a legend and giant bones of prehistoric animals discovered there were claimed to be those of heroes slain at the battle. Earliest documented use: 1570. _________________________________________________
MEANING: noun: One that foreshadows the approach of something. verb tr.: To signal the arrival of something.
ETYMOLOGY: Originally, a harbinger was a host, a person who provided lodging. With time the sense changed to a person sent in advance to find lodging for an army. From Old French herbergier (to provide lodging for), from herberge (lodging). Ultimately from the Indo-European root koro- (war, host, army) which also gave us harbor, herald, harness, hurry, harangue, and harry. Earliest documented use: 1175.
USAGE: "It is hard to elude the suspicion that it is a harbinger of further things to come." Colby Cosh; Trigger Warnings are Easy to Ridicule; Maclean's (Toronto, Canada); Jun 2, 2014. ---------------------------------------------------------
HARBINDER - a harbinger past that binds future thinking (see below)
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong. -Karl Popper, philosopher and a professor (1902-1994)
MEANING: adjective: Behaving in an ingratiating or servile manner.
ETYMOLOGY: Earlier the word meant obedient or dutiful, with no connotations of fawning. Over time it has taken a negative turn. From Latin obsequiosus (compliant), from obsequi (to comply), from ob- (to) + sequi (follow), which also gave us obsequy. Earliest documented use: 1447.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle French rester (to remain), from Latin restare (to remain standing). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sta- (to stand), which is also the source of stay, stage, stable, instant, establish, static, system, stet and nihil obstat. Earliest documented use: 1549.
NOTES: Earlier the word meant refusing to go forward, as in a restive horse. Over time the word shifted in meaning and now it means the opposite. Instead of "unable to advance", now it means "unable to remain still". ------------------------------------------------------
PRONUNCIATION: (GAHR-buhl) MEANING: verb tr.: To distort a message, document, transmission, etc. noun: An instance of garbling.
ETYMOLOGY: Originally the word meant to sift, for example to remove refuse from spices. With time its meaning became distorted to what it is now. From Old Italian garbellare (to sift), from Arabic gharbala (to select). Earliest documented use: 1483. ===========================================================
GARBILE - angry words so vile they are unintelligible
PRONUNCIATION: (PAB-yuh-luhm) MEANING: noun: Bland intellectual fare: insipid or simplistic ideas, entertainment, writing, etc. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pabulum (food, fuel, fodder), from pascere (to feed). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pa- (to protect or feed), which also gave us food, foster, fodder, forage, pasture, pantry, and companion. Earliest documented use: 1661.
NOTES: Originally pabulum was something that nourished. During the 1920s, three Canadian pediatricians developed a bland, soft infant formula that was later marketed under the brand name Pablum and eventually the words pabulum/pablum came to refer to things simplistic or banal.
MEANING: noun: A conical column on the floor of a cave, formed by minerals in dripping water.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek stalaktos (dripping), from stalassein (to drip). Earliest documented use: 1681.
NOTES: A similar tapering structure hanging from the roof of a cave is called a stalactite. It's easy to remember which is which. Ground: stalaGmite; Ceiling: stalaCtite. ----------------------------------------------------
STALAGMIT9 - a special underground Hell where the National Spleological Society sends careless people who break off stalagmites and stalactites.
stroppy PRONUNCIATION: STROP-ee) MEANING: adjective: Bad-tempered, belligerent, or touchy.
ETYMOLOGY: Possibly from shortening of obstreperous. Earliest documented use: 1951. --------------------------------------------------------
ASTROPPY - the theory that all the dark matter in the Universe has entropyzed. Some say that this assumption is self-evident because our inability to detect dark matter proves that all of it is gone.
PRONUNCIATION: (PET-ee-fog-uhr) MEANING: noun: 1. A petty, unscrupulous lawyer. 2. One who quibbles over trivial matters.
ETYMOLOGY: From petty (small) + fogger, perhaps after Fuggers, a Bavarian family of merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries. Earliest documented use: 1564. -------------------------------------------------------
PETRIFOGGER - a student who manipulates the findings found in a Petri Dish simply to gain favor with his biology teacher who is a jerk.
MEANING: noun: A shrewd lawyer, one who is adept at exploiting legal technicalities.
ETYMOLOGY: The term is said to have been inspired by Philadelphia-based Andrew Hamilton's successful defense of the New York printer John Peter Zenger from libel charges. This decision helped establish the idea that truth is a defense in a libel accusation and affirmed the freedom of the press in America. Though the incident took place in 1735, the earliest documented use unearthed so far is from 1788.
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THOUGHT FOR TODAY: No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi, magician and skeptic (b. 1928)
MEANING: noun: A person's area of expertise or interest.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English bailliwik, from bailie (bailiff), from bail (custody), from Latin baiulare (to serve as porter) + Middle English wick (dairy farm or village), from Old English wic (house or village), from Latin vicus (neighborhood). Ultimately from the Indo-European root weik- (clan), which is also the forebear of vicinity, village, villa, and villain (originally, a villain was a farm servant, one who lived in a villa or a country house), ecumenical, and ecesis. Earliest documented use: 1460.
USAGE: "Ms. Sarah Palin took the extraordinary step Tuesday of filing an ethics complaint against herself, making the matter fall within the bailiwick of the personnel board. Her lawyer Mr. Van Flein then asked the Legislature to drop its inquiry." Peter S. Goodman and Michael Moss; Alaska Lawmakers to Seek Subpoenas in Palin Inquiry; The New York Times; Sep 6, 2008.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY Pick a flower on earth and you move the farthest star. -Paul Dirac, theoretical physicist (1902-1984) ------------------------------------------------------
PRONUNCIATION: (in-VAY-guhl, -VEE-) MEANING: verb tr.: To get something or to persuade someone to do something by deception or flattery.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French aveugle (blind), from Latin ab- (away from) + oculus (eye). Earliest documented use: 1513. ----------------------------------------------------------
SINVEIGLE - to get someone to do your will by taking off your clothes.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin emancipare (to set free), from ex- (out) + mancipium (slave), from manus (hand) + capere (to take). Earliest documented use: 1605.
USAGE: "But the larger picture is to urgently emancipate women from the clutches of poor self-esteem. The more they are encouraged to view violence against them as unacceptable, the more they can contribute to ending this social scourge." Violence Against Women Posts Disturbing Numbers; Gulf News (Dubai); May 20, 2014.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated. -Edith Hamilton, educator and writer (1867-1963) ----------------------------------------------------
REMANCIPATE - to purge your thoughts of vogue words that seem to relate to a reality - but don't.
MEANING: verb intr.: To cease resisting; surrender.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin capitulare (to draw up under headings [the articles of agreement]), from capitulum (little head, chapter), from caput (head). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kaput- (head), also the origin of head, captain, chef, chapter, cadet, cattle, chattel, achieve, biceps, mischief, and occiput, (but not of kaput). Earliest documented use: 1537.
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MAPITULATE - Apple and Google are still arguing about whose App to use to find places, but Google had a head start
CAVITULATE - you REALLY need to have the dentist take care of this
CAPITOLATE - the Senate session lasted until 11 PM, then they all had dinner
MEANING: verb tr.: To instill something into the mind of a person by repetition.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin inculcare (to tread on), from in- (in) + calcare (to tread), from calx (heel). Earliest documented use: 1559.
USAGE: "The Hong Leong Foundation also hopes to inculcate an appreciation of the arts within the group and its employees." Long Service Awards; The Business Times (Singapore); Jul 17, 2014.
See more usage examples of inculcate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy. -John Galsworthy, author, Nobelist (1867-1933) ---------------------------------------------------------
KINCULCATE - to teach a hardheaded kid that the beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy. Did you hear me? I said that the beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy. Don't make me get a stick...I said: The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.
MEANING: verb tr., intr.: 1. To think deeply upon. 2. To chew the cud.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin ruminare (to chew the cud), from rumen (throat). Earliest documented use: 1533. USAGE: "It's like having little wormholes to slip into and ruminate humanity before being slapped out by the sharp turns of the plot." Human/Being; Tehelka (New Delhi, India); Jun 18, 2012.
See more usage examples of ruminate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character. -Walter Scott, novelist and poet (1771-1832) ----------------------------------------------------------
DRUMINATE - to drum the Party's shibboleth into the lowinfo voter's little mind until he marches in step with the right drummer.
MEANING: noun: A sense that something is going to happen, especially something bad.
ETYMOLOGY: From French pressentiment (premonition), from pressentir (to have a premonition), from Latin pre- (before) + sentire (to feel). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sent- (to head for or to go), that is also the source for send, scent, sense, sentence, assent, consent, and ressentiment. Earliest documented use: 1663.
PRESENDIMENT – The feeling, just a nanosecond before the finger descends upon the mouse button to release an email, and too late to stop it, that it's a really, really bad idea.
Actually this is a great word, fraught with possibilities. Unlike many of last week's words, which were limited and constricting. (When's the last time you saw "fraught" used in a conversation? )
PRONUNCIATION: (FUHN-juh-buhl) MEANING: adjective: Interchangeable. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin fungi (to perform in place). Earliest documented use: 1765. NOTES: When you lend someone a dollar bill, you don't care if he returns the same bill or a different one because money is fungible. Same with things such as gold, a cup of sugar, etc. However, if you lend someone your cell phone, you wouldn't be pleased if he returned a different phone even if it's exactly the same model. That would be an example of something nonfungible.
USAGE: "Forbidden to own land for most of our two millennia of exile, we gradually became experts in accumulating capital, which is portable, easily inheritable, fungible, and expandable." Ellen Frankel; Taking Stock; The Jerusalem Report (Israel); May 19, 2014.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all. -Ogden Nash, poet (1902-1971) ===========================================================
JUNGIBLE - hippies, Eastern mystics, and Carl Jung
PRONUNCIATION: (PLAN-juhnt) MEANING: adjective: 1. Loud and resounding. 2. Sad or mournful.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin plangere (to beat the br- east, lament). Ultimately from the Indo-European root plak- (to strike), which also gave us plague, plankton, fling, and complain. Earliest documented use: 1666.
USAGE: "When the two horns answered each other's plangent calls from opposite sides of the vast auditorium the effect was electrifying." A Majestic Canon; The Economist (London, UK); Sep 4, 2003.
"Enthrallingly told, beautifully written, and so emotionally plangent that some passages bring tears." Amanda Vaill; A Luminous Novel of Children in War ("All the Light We Cannot See"); The Washington Post; May 6, 2014.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Creative minds are uneven, and the best of fabrics have their dull spots. -HP Lovecraft, short-story writer and novelist (1890-1937) -------------------------------------------------------------
MEANING: noun: The manner in which one conducts oneself in public.
ETYMOLOGY: From French déportement, from Latin deportare, from de- (away) + portare (carry). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over), which also gave us support, comport, petroleum, sport, passport, colporteur (a peddler of religious books), rapporteur, Norwegian fjord (bay), and Sanskrit parvat (mountain). Earliest documented use: 1601.
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DETORTMENT - clearing of civil wrongdoing
DEPOSTMENT - closing postoffices to save money, and the public convenience be damned
DEFORTMENT - you get the idea
DEEPORTMENT - building an offshore shiploading facility over the Marianas Trench
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French puissance (power), from Latin posse (to be able). Ultimately from the Indo-European root poti- (powerful, lord) which also gave us possess, power, possible, posse, potent, plenipotentiary, Italian podesta, and Turkish pasha (via Persian). Earliest documented use: 1420
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P.U. -ISTANCE - the event "scent horizon" around a black skunk. (If you get any closer you're doomed!)
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin recapitulare (to sum up), re- (again) + capitulare (to draw up under headings), from capitulum (little head, chapter), from caput (head). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kaput- (head), also the origin of head, captain, chef, chapter, cadet, cattle, chattel, achieve, biceps, mischief, and occiput. Earliest documented use: 1551.
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PRECAPITULATE - the fix is in
RECAPITULANTE - throw good money after bad; keep playing Poker when you're deep on the hole
REDCAPITULATE - the Baggage-Handlers' Union has agreed to a new contract
MEANING: verb tr.: To taste or savor appreciatively.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin degustare (to taste), from de- (completely) + gustare (to taste). Ultimately from the Indo-European root geus- (to taste or choose), which also gave us choice, choose, gusto, ragout, and disgust. Earliest documented use: 1623.
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DOGUST (rhymes with August) - the hot sultry days of summer
DEGAUST - removed residual magnetism
DEBUST - 1) post someone's bail; 2) what the Amazons did to themselves so they'd be better archers
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To discontinue a session of something, for example, a parliament. 2. To defer or to postpone.
ETYMOLOGY: From French proroger (to adjourn), from Latin prorogare (to prolong or defer), from pro- (before) + rogare (to ask). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule), which is also the source of regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, and surge. Earliest documented use: 1419.
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PRE-ROGUE - young scamp (cf. PRIOROGUE)
PYRO-ROGUE - arsonist
UPROR-OGUE - that Victoria's Secret sales brochure is so offensive, people everywhere are complaining loudly
verb tr.: 5. To lay at rest. 6. To place confidence in someone or something. 7. To put something somewhere.
ETYMOLOGY: For 1-5: From Latin repausare (to cause to rest), from re- (intensive prefix) + pausare (to rest), from pausa (rest). Earliest documented use: 1450. For 6-7: From Latin reponere (to store up), from ponere (to put). Ultimately from the Indo-European root apo- (off or away) that is also the source of after, off, awkward, post, and puny. Earliest documented use: 1440.
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REPOSSE - Saddle up yer hosses one more time, boys, we got to chase down and ketch them varmints agin
REPOSY (ant. of LACKADAISICAL) - replace the missing flower
MEANING: noun: 1. Agreement or accord. 2. A combination of sounds pleasing to the ear. 3. The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the ends of words, such as st in the phrase first and last.
ETYMOLOGY: Via French, from Latin con- (with) + sonare (to sound), from sonus (sound). Ultimately from the Indo-European root swen- (to sound), which also gave us sound, sonic, sonnet, sonata, and unison. Earliest documented use: 1430.
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CONSONANCE - all the letters but A E I O and U (the "identity" transformation)
COINSONANCE - random noises that happen to sound nice together
RONSONANCE - the click made by an old cigarette lighter
CONSONACE - that little squeak at the poker table made by a pair of bullets in the hole as you gently open them into view
MEANING: noun: 1. An embankment made to prevent flooding. 2. An embankment around a field that is to be irrigated. 3. A landing place; a quay. 4. A formal reception.
ETYMOLOGY: For 1-3: From French levée, past participle of lever (to raise). Earliest documented use: 1718. For 4: From French levé, variant of lever (rising from bed), from lever (to rise). Originally, a levee was a meeting held on a royal's rising from bed. Earliest documented use: 1700.
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LEVET - where you bring LE DOG to get LE RABIES-SHOT
MEANING: noun: 1. The front of a ship or a boat above the water; the bow. 2. The projecting front part of something, as a building. adjective: 3. Valiant.
ETYMOLOGY: For 1-2: From Middle French proue, from Old Italian dialect prua, from Latin prora. Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (forward), which also gave us paramount, prime, proton, Czech prám (raft), German Frau (woman), and Hindi purana (old). Earliest documented use: 1555. For 3: From Middle French prou, from Old English prud. Earliest documented use: 1350.
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(since we're talking of words with more than one meaning...)
PHROW 1. a line-up of chemicals arranged in order of their acidity (sometimes written pHROW) 2. a scam email trying to sell you a fake German wife
MEANING: noun: 1. A mechanical or unthinking way of doing something. 2. The sound of surf. 3. A medieval stringed instrument or Celtic origin. Also known as crowd or crwth.
ETYMOLOGY: For 1: Of obscure origin. Earliest documented use: 1325. For 2: Perhaps of Scandinavian origin. Earliest documented use: 1610. For 3: From Middle French rote. Earliest documented use: 1330.
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ROTEL - first win the crew race, then make sure everybody knows about it pronunciation: row-TELL
MEANING: noun: 1. A thick gruel. 2. Mire; mudhole. 3. An assistant to a ship's surgeon. 4. A pine tree with long needles and strong wood (Pinus taeda). 5. An evergreen, loblolly-bay (Gordonia lasianthus).
ETYMOLOGY: Apparently from lob (an onomatopoeic word representing the sound of bubbling while boiling) + lolly (an English dialectal word for broth, soup, etc.). The use of the word for mire or a mudhole is from the porridge-like consistency of the contents of mire or mudhole. The word came to be used for a medical assistant because he fed the patients. The trees received this name from their prevalence in swamp lands. Earliest documented use: 1597.
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1. a. LOB/LOWLY - Throw me a slow one so I can hit it out of the infield! b. LO/BLOWLY - How the boxer was hitting, which got him disqualified and lost him his bout
MEANING: verb tr.: To convince someone not to do something.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin dissuadere (to advise against), from dis- (away) + suadere (to advise), from suavis (sweet). Ultimately from the Indo-European root swad- (sweet, pleasant), which also gave us sweet, suave, hedonism, persuade, Hindi swad (taste), suasion, and incunabulum. Earliest documented use: 1535.
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DISQUADE - to make fun of one or more party arrivals (either gender) trying to look cool and sexy (see here)
DISSUEDE - to remove the soft leather from your jacket or shoes; more broadly, to discard any leather products in your possession
ETYMOLOGY: From the phrase 'it may hap', from Middle English hap, from Old Norse happ (luck, chance). Earliest documented use: 1533. ___________________________________________
MAYHARP - stringed instrument for use while dancing around a pole
MATHAP - it does adding and multiplying and algebra and calculus on your telephone
MEANING: adverb: In truth, indeed, truly, certainly.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English verraily, from verrai/verray (very), from Old French verai (true), from vulgar Latin veracus, from Latin verax (truthful). Earliest documented use: 1303.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French par cheance (by chance), from Latin per (by, through) + cadentia (fall), from cadere (to fall). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kad- (to fall), which is also the source of cadence, cascade, casualty, cadaver, chance, chute, accident, occident, decay, recidivism, and casuistry. Earliest documented use: 1350.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English leof (dear). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leubh- (to love or to care), which also gave us love, belief, and leave (permission). Earliest documented use: 897.
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IIEF - Institute of Industrial Electronics Engineering [IIEE], The Next Generation
LIEA - my dyslexic Star Wars heroine (not to be confused with my dyslexic spouse, or WIEF)
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish, from Hebrew gannabh (thief). Earliest documented use: 1920. __________________________________
GANER - a Bostonian who doesn't have a long time left to live
GANFF - a national park in Canada, renamed after being renovated to attract tourists with clubs and balls to be hit into holes in the lowest possible number of strokes (see GALEF)
MEANING: noun: An onlooker who offers unwanted advice or criticism, for example at a card game.
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish kibitsen, from German kiebitzen (to look on at cards), from Kiebitz (busybody, literally pewit or lapwing, a shorebird with a bad reputation as a meddler). Earliest documented use: 1927.
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KIBUTZER - a dweller in an Israeli collective community
KOBITZER - someone who offers unwanted advice from the sidelines about how to raise prime Japanese beef
KIBITER - a rare insect that gnaws on the ebonies and the ivories on your piano
SKIBITZER - an enterpreneur who sells chic frills and furbelows and other doodads ("bitz") for your skis
MEANING: adjective: 1. Lecherous. 2. Salacious. 3. Shifty or tricky. 4. Smooth and slippery.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin lubricus (slippery, smooth). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sleubh- (to slide or slip), which also gave us slip, slop, sloop, sleeve, and lubricate. Earliest documented use: 1584.
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LUBRICITOUS - specializing in in grease-and-oil jobs for your upscale car
RUBRICIOUS - tending - overpedantcally - to classify everything
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin diffidere (to mistrust), from dis- (not) + fidere (to trust). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bheidh- (to trust), which also gave us abide, abode, fiancé, affidavit, confide, confident, defiance, fidelity, defy, and infidel. Earliest documented use: 1598.
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DIFFIDONT - and D if I do, too...
DAFFIDENT - One of the flowers in by bouquet is damaged, but I don't want to make a fuss (compare LACKADAISICAL)
Greek-mythology-derived words? This is going to be one tough week!
ODYSSEY
PRONUNCIATION: (AH-duh-see)
MEANING: noun: A long eventful journey or experience.
ETYMOLOGY: After Odysseus, whose 10-year wandering after the fall of Troy is described in Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. Earliest documented use: 1886.
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CODYSSEY - Buffalo Bill wandered around the Old West for ten eventful years before reaching home
Good to have you along, T - it's hard for one person to keep this up all by hisself.
I liked the onethreefiveyssey !
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CIMMERIAN
PRONUNCIATION: (si-MIR-ee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Very dark or gloomy.
ETYMOLOGY: After Cimmerians, a mythical people described in Homer's Odyssey, who lived in perpetual darkness at the entrance of Hades. The historical Cimmerians, who lived in Crimea, were unrelated. Earliest documented use: 1594.
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C-IMMERSIAN - a believer that the only valid baptism is in the ocean
CIMMELIANS - a mythical people who changed their skin color to blend in perfectly with their surroundings (pronounced with a hard C)
I've been been otherwise busy, with rehearsals and performances of Les Misérables for the past several weeks, one more rehearsal and four more performances this week. Hope to be more active here again.
Fun! Vive les gendarmes! __________________________________
NARCISSIST
PRONUNCIATION: (NAHR-si-sist)
MEANING: noun: Someone with excessive self-interest or self-love.
ETYMOLOGY: In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a hunter and a young man of exceptional beauty. He spurned the nymph Echo. One day he saw his reflection in water and fell in love with himself. Not realizing it was himself and unable to leave, he eventually died. Earliest documented use: 1917.
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NARCASSIST - a spy planted by the DEA
ANARCISSIST - someone who wants to topple the government, so there'll be no interference with his right to gaze raptly at his reflection in the water
NARCINSIST - now you see why they call him "pusher"
MEANING: noun: 1. A person who supports a great burden. 2. A book of maps, charts, tables, plates, etc. 3. The top vertebra of the backbone, which supports the skull. 4. A size of drawing paper 26x33 or 26x34 inches. 5. An architectural column in the shape of a man. (Plural: atlantes. Another word for this is telamon. The female equivalent is caryatid.)
ETYMOLOGY: After Atlas, a Titan in Greek mythology, who was condemned by Zeus to support the heavens. A book of maps is called an atlas because early books of this kind depicted Atlas on the cover holding the earth on his shoulders. Earliest documented use: 1589.
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ANTLAS - a deer's horns, as described by a Bostonian
ATTAS - a quadripedal fighting machine, designed by a dyslexic Star Wars illustrator
ATLA - where my flight to Hollywood is arriving (see also ATLAX)
ETYMOLOGY: After Charon, the old man who transported the souls of the dead across the rivers Styx and Acheron to Hades. In some cultures a coin was put in the mouth of the dead to pay for the ferry ride. Also see psychopomp. Earliest documented use: 1522. ________________________________________
CHORON - the fundamental particle of group singing
ICHARON - the Headless Weasley
CHAROL - a Christmas tune sung by the cleaning lady
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Bonus Word: PSYCHOPOMP - the high-falutin' jargon of the counseling industry, akin to PSYCHOBABBLE
MEANING: noun: A vertical piece of stone, wood, metal, etc., dividing a window or other opening.
ETYMOLOGY: From transposition of sounds of Middle English moniel, from Anglo-Norman moynel, from Latin medius (middle). Ultimately from the Indo-European root medhyo- (middle), which is also the source of middle, mean, medium, medal (originally a coin worth a halfpenny), mezzanine, mediocre, Mediterranean, moiety, and Hindi madhya (middle). Earliest documented use: 1556.
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MULTI-ON - 1. the main switch on a multi-switch light board that sends power to all the circuits simultaneously 2. descrbing a Japanese honored with many, many obligations
MULLIGON - a closed geometric figure with mulli sides
MEANING: noun: A scramble or struggle. verb intr.: To scramble or struggle.
ETYMOLOGY: From Scottish sprattle, from switching of sounds in spartle (to scatter). Earliest documented use: 1500
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SPRATTLEE - 1) a mist descending upon the former Prime Minister 2) on the sheltered side of the little fish
SPATTLE - a small tiff
SOPRATTLE - a singer with a frog in her throat
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Aside: do Spoonerisms count for purposes of this week's theme? Think "sideburns" (sported by Civil War General Burnsides) and butterfly (from "flutterby'" which evocatively describes what they do).
MEANING: adjective: Cheap and showy. noun: Something that is counterfeit or of inferior quality.
ETYMOLOGY: After Brummagem, a dialectal alteration of Birmingham, UK, where counterfeit coins were produced in the 17th century. Brummie is a nickname for someone from Birmingham. Earliest documented use: 1637.
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BUMMAGEM - What I was when, with no money, no home, no friends, I had to hit the road agaim
Speaking of sights along the road -
That Shaving Cream / We Used To Sell / It's Modern Now / Called BRUMMAGEL!
MEANING: noun: A taking or receiving of rent, profit, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From Anglo-French pernance, by switching of sounds of prenance (taking), from prendre, from Latin prehendere (to seize). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize or to take), which is also the source of pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, osprey, prison, reprehend, impregnable, impresa, and prise. Earliest documented use: 1626.
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PERGNANCY - garvidity
PERRNANCY - the quality that makes one a Spanish dog
PERINANCY - Sluggo and Aunt Fritzi Ritz and those guys
MEANING: noun: A repetition of words or an idea in a reverse order. Example: "To fail to plan is to plan to fail."
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek antimetabole, from anti- (opposite) + metabole (change), from meta- (after, along) + bole (a throw). Earliest documented use: 1589.
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ANTIMETABLE - what the grammatically-challenged child might use to learn multiplication
ANATIMETABOLE - that new Medical School course where you learn not just the parts of the body and their relationships but also their biochemical pathways
ANDIMETABOLE - what else happened after I was screaming down the road on my motorcycle, and lost control, and ran into a tree
MEANING: noun: The use of a word to refer to two or more words, especially in different senses. Examples: "He caught a fish and a cold" or "She lost her ring and her temper."
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin zeugma, from Greek zeugma (a joining). Ultimately from the Indo-European root yeug- (to join), which is also the ancestor of junction, yoke, yoga, adjust, juxtapose, junta, junto, syzygy, jugular, and rejoinder. Earliest documented use: 1589.
NOTES: There's a similar term, syllepsis, but the two are more or less synonymous now. You could say zeugma is joined with syllepsis. Or the distinction between zeugma and syllepsis has lapsed now.
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[I would have pronounced it "TSOYG-ma"]
Other (non-original) examples, 50 years old at least (Thanks, Paul!): "Are you going to New York or by bus?" "Is it cooler in October or at the seashore?"
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ZEUGOMA - a German cheekbone
ZEUSMA - Rhea
ZENGMA - the inflexible principle of Enlightenment
MEANING: noun: A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole or vice versa. Examples: "head count" to refer to the count of people or "the police" to refer to a police officer
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin synekdoche, from Greek synekdokhe, from syn- (together) + ekdokhe (interpretation). Earliest documented use: 1397.
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SKYNECDOCHE - a small city in the Hudson River in New York State, just west of Albany; home to Union College
SYNECLOCHE - a special French churchbell that rings only on New Year's Eve
MEANING: noun: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated after intervening text. Example: "The king is dead, long live the king!"
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek epanalepsis, from epi- (upon) + ana- (back) + lepsis (taking hold). Earliest documented use: 1584.
USAGE: "What's it called if a word that appears at the beginning of a sentence is repeated at its end? Epanalepsis. Think of Brutus's speech at the funeral of Julius Caesar (in Shakespeare's revision, of course): 'Hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear: Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe.'" -- Bryan A. Garner; For the Word Lovers; ABA Journal (Chicago); May 2013.
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IPANALEPSIS - toothpaste used at the beginning of the day and at the end
MEANING: noun: A figure of speech in which two words joined by a conjunction are used to convey a single idea instead of using a word and its modifier. Example: "pleasant and warm" instead of "pleasantly warm"
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin hendiadys, from Greek hen dia duoin (one by two). Earliest documented use: 1589.
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HEN DIARYS - what we used to call gossipers' blogs
ETYMOLOGY: From French dragoman, from Italian dragomanno, from Latin/Greek dragoumanos, from Arabic tarjuman, and Aramaic, from Akkadian targumanu (interpreter). Earliest documented use: 1300s. Akkadian is a now-extinct Semitic language once spoken in ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and written in cuneiform. Earliest documented use: 14th century.
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DRANOMAN - It's SuperPlumber!
DRAGONMAN - how to describe a long, tedious translation (two pronunciations)
DRACOMAN - Crabbe or Goyle's informal address to young Master Malfoy
DRAWOMAN - what Leonardo did with Mona Lisa ____________________________
MEANING: noun: 1. A place or occasion of great suffering. 2. A burial place.
ETYMOLOGY: After Golgotha, the hill near Jerusalem believed to be the site of Jesus's crucifixion. From Latin, from Greek golgotha, from Aramaic gulgulta, from Hebrew gulgolet (skull). The hill was perhaps named from the resemblance of its shape to a skull. Earliest documented use: 1597.
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GOLGOTCHA - a cry of unexpected glee after a successful prank
GOLOTHA - rain-covering for one shoe, as described by a lisper
GOLGOTTA - the capital of West Bengal, and seventh-largest city in India (pop. about 4.5 million)
MEANING: noun: 1. A member of one of nine ranks of public officials in the Chinese Empire. 2. A powerful government official or bureaucrat. 3. A member of an elite group, especially one having influence in intellectual or literary circles. 4. Capitalized: the official language of China. 5. A citrus tree, Citrus reticulata, that is native to China.
adjective: 1. Of or relating to a mandarin. 2. Marked by refined or ornate language.
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MACDARIN - Bobby, Scottish singer of popular songs in the 50s and after, including one notable one about MacHeath, the Knfe
MANDATIN' - Goin' around givin' orders, often without providin' funds to comply
MANNARIN - often used to determine a divorce settlement, to keep the "spouse in the mannarin which she has been accustomed"
MEANING: noun: 1. A special anniversary of an event, especially a 50th anniversary. 2. Rejoicing or celebration.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French jubile, from Latin jubilaeus, and Greek iobelaios, from Hebrew yobel (ram, ram's horn trumpet). Traditionally a jubilee year was announced by blowing a ram's horn. Earliest documented use: 1382.
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BUBILEE - champagne
QUBILEE - what comes after P and before R, William
MEANING: noun: A seductive woman who works as a spy.
ETYMOLOGY: After exotic dancer Mata Hari, a stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (1876-1917). She was a Dutch woman, who took a Malay name, allegedly spied for the Germans, and was executed by the French. Her stage name Mata Hari means sun, literally "eye of the day", from Malay mata (eye) + hari (day, dawn). Earliest documented use: 1936.
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MAMA HARI - the mother of all spies
MANA HARI - I'm late, I'm late, For a very important date, No time to say Hello, Goodbye, I'm late I'm late I'm late !
MEANING: adjective: Relating to, resembling, or arranged like tiles.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin tegula (tile), from tegere (to cover). Ultimately from the Indo-European root (s)teg- (to cover), which is also the source of thatch, deck, detect, tog, and protege. Earliest documented use: 1828.
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TEGULARK - this floor tiling pattern is for the birds!
STEGULAR - roofed with armor plate
TEQULAR - of or pertaining to a strong Mexican alcoholic beverage, distilled from blue Weber agave. Drinking too much of it will make you go blind. (...no "I"s)
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English woned, wont (accustomed), past participle of wonen (to be used to, dwell). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wen- (to desire or to strive for), which is also the source of wish, win, Venus, overweening, venerate, venison, and banyan, venial, and ween. Earliest documented use: 1408.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English ambages (equivocation), taken as a plural and the singular ambage coined from it. From Latin ambages, from ambi- (both, around) + agere (to drive). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ag- (to drive, draw, or move), which also gave us act, agent, agitate, litigate, synagogue, ambassador, agonistes, axiomatic, cogent, incogitant, exigent, exiguous, intransigent. Earliest documented use: 1656.
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AMBIGIOUS - what Shakespeare said Marc Antony said Brutus said Caesar was, sort of
AMEBAGIOUS - transmitted by a simple one-celled organism
SAMBAGIOUS - describing a South American dancer in the throes of ecstasy
MEANING: noun: Social relations based on personal ties, affection, kinship, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From German Gemeinschaft (community), from gemein (common) + -schaft (-ship). Earliest documented use: 1937.
NOTES: The counterpart of Gemeinschaft (community) is Gesellschaft (society), that is, social relation marked by impersonal ties, such as duty to society or to an organization.
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DEMEINSCHAFT - what sie bringen der Coal up to der Surface through
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To attack with machine-gun fire or bombs from a low-flying aircraft. 2. To criticize severely. noun: 1. An attack from a low-flying aircraft. 2. A severe criticism.
ETYMOLOGY: From the German slogan "Gott strafe England!" ([May] God punish England!) during WWI. From German strafen (to punish). Earliest documented use: 1915.
MEANING: noun: The forced standardization of political, economic, and cultural institutions, as in an authoritarian state.
ETYMOLOGY: From German gleichschalten (to bring into line), from gleich (same) + schalten (to switch, turn). The term was used by the Nazi regime for totalitarian control. Earliest documented use: 1933.
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GLEICHSCHALTING - put an end to this coerced uniformity !
GLEICHSCHALTUNA - a Collective with a deep-sea fishing boat
MEANING: noun: A period of war marked by little or no active hostilities.
ETYMOLOGY: Modeled after German blitzkrieg, from sitzen (to sit) + Krieg (war). Earliest documented use: 1940.
NOTES: In Sep 1939, France and Britain declared war on Germany, but didn't launch a major ground offensive until the next year. This phase, from Sep 1939 to May 1940, came to be known as sitzkrieg or the sitting war. It has also been called by other names, such as the Phony War, the Twilight War, and the Bore War (a pun on Boer Wars). Sitzkrieg needs Sitzfleisch.
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SITZKLIEG - a spotlight so big you have to sit in a seat to use the controls (see AWAD June 2004, here )
MEANING: noun: A recurrent theme in a piece of music or literature, situation, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From German Leitmotiv (lead motif), from leit- (leading) + Motiv (motive). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leit- (to go forth, to die), which also gave us lead, load, lode, and livelihood. Earliest documented use: 1937.
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NEITMOTIF - my recurring dreams are all recognizably similar
FLEITMOTIF - the airline is having an image makeover
LEIMOTIF - signature theme of the Hawaiian Islands
GEDANKE-EXPERIMENT - Let's have a community meal, both our colony and the indigenous folk, to show appreciation for our good fortune and our good harvest - and see if anything comes of it
SOLON And then he added, "It's been good to know ya!"
PRONUNCIATION: (SOH-luhn)
MEANING: noun: 1. A wise lawgiver. 2. A legislator.
ETYMOLOGY: After Solon (c. 638-558 BCE), an Athenian lawmaker who introduced political, economic, and moral reforms and revised the harsh code of laws established by Draco. Earliest documented use: 1631.
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NOLON - the Emperor's new hose
SOLOS - a set of Crab Canons for unaccompanied Achilles. They sound the same played forwards or backwards.
ETYMOLOGY: After either Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661) or his niece, Duchess Hortense Mancini (1646-1699). Why this color is associated with them is not entirely clear. Earliest documented use: 1684
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MIZARINE - hiding inportant details in plain sight. After Mizar, the second star from the end of the Big Dipper's handle...which is (if your vision is good enough) a double star
MANZARINE - like an apple
MAZANINE - where Ma sits when she goes to the movies
MEANING: adjective: 1. Relating to Plato or his ideas. 2. Relating to a love free of sensual desire. 3. Confined to words or theories, and not leading to action.
PELATONIC - undistinguished, lost amidst the throngs of the mediocre; see pelaton as used by bicyclists
PLUTONIC - the ultimate loss of status, as in being demoted from the smallest and slowest and coldest of a set of nine, to being thrown out of the group entirely...
MEANING: noun: A form of investment in which participants pool their money into a common fund and receive an annuity. Each person's share increases as members die until the last survivor takes the whole.
ETYMOLOGY: From French tontine. Named after Lorenzo Tonti, a Neapolitan banker, who started the scheme in France. Earliest documented use: 1765.
NOTES: A tontine was also used a way to raise money for the state, often for fighting wars, as the fund went to the crown after the last person died. Crown funding via crowdfunding. As there was a perverse incentive to hasten the demise of other members of a tontine to increase one's share, eventually it was made illegal. Tontine has been used as a plot device in many works of fiction
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TINTINE - a naive whose adventures were chronicled first in French comic strips and more recently a movie. Any wealth she garnered during her escapades went toward the wellbeing of her out-of-wedlock daughter, poignantly described by Victor Hugo
MEANING: adjective: Relating to the view that population increases faster than its means of subsistence resulting in disaster, unless population is checked by natural calamities or by people exercising control and having fewer children.
ETYMOLOGY: After economist and clergyman Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), a proponent of this idea. Earliest documented use: 1805.
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MALT-HAUS-IAN - of or pertaining to a Bavarian brewery
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin cor (heart). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kerd- (heart), which also gave us cardiac, cordial, courage, record, concord, discord, and accord. Earliest documented use: 1651.
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From the sublime to the ridiculous:
CORDANTE (1) - the theme of The Divine Comedy
CORDARTE - Cupid's Arrow
CORDATA - EKG, echocardiogram, stuff like that
CORDANTE (2) - playing your heart out at the poker table
MEANING: noun: A person employed to take dictation or to copy manuscripts.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin servus a manu (slave at hand[writing]), from manus (hand). Ultimately from the Indo-European root man- (hand), which also gave us manual, manage, maintain, manicure, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, command, manque, legerdemain, manumit, and mortmain. Earliest documented use: 1619.
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WAMANUENSIS - Would you believe there was a time when the very thought of a female taking dictation or copying manuscripts could be the subject of feeble attempts at humor?!
AMANUNSIS - proud declaration to her sibling, by a pious novice home from the Convent for the first time
MEANING: plural noun: Baggage, supplies, or equipment related to an activity or expedition, especially when regarded as slowing one's progress.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin, plural of impedimentum, from impedire (to impede), from im-/in- (in) + ped- (foot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ped- (foot) which also gave us pedal, podium, octopus, impeach, antipodal, expediency, peccadillo (alluding to a stumble or fall), impeccable, and peccavi. Earliest documented use: 1600.
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IMPADIMENTA – Your apartment is really full of stuff, man.
MEANING: noun: 1. An abdominal organ serving to clean blood. 2. Bad temper.
ETYMOLOGY: From French esplen, from Latin splen, from Greek splen. Earliest documented use: 1300.
NOTES: In earlier times it was believed that four humors controlled human behavior and an imbalance resulted in disease. According to this thinking, an excess of black bile secreted by the spleen resulted in melancholy or ill humor. Also, spleen was considered to be the seat of emotions. To vent one's spleen was to vent one's anger. _______________________________
an excess of black bile...resulted in melancholy
An interesting thought, that, since "melancholy" is exactly the Greek translation of "black bile:" melan- as in melanin or melanoma, and chole- as in cholecystitis = bile-sac-inflammation, i.e. of the gall bladder, which stores bile. Too much bile was also thought to cause cholera. ________________________________
Be all that as it may -
SCLEEN - Arright, you can stop scrubbing it now
SPLAEN, pronounced "splane" - 1. verb: to make clear, as in "You don't have to splaen it to me any more..." 2. adjective: clear, as in "...It's splaen as day now!"
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin mansuescere (to make tame: to accustom to handling), from manus (hand) + suescere (to become accustomed). Ultimately from the Indo-European root man- (hand), which is also the source of manual, manage, maintain, manicure, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, command, manque, amanuensis, legerdemain, and mortmain
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MARSUETUDE - oxymoron: a meek god of war
MANSUEDUDE - one guy takes another guy to court
MANSETUDE - it's not just a house, it's a whole estate
MEANING: noun: 1. Anything requiring blind sacrifice. 2. A massive relentless force, person, institution, etc. that crushes everything in its path.
ETYMOLOGY: From Hindi jagannath (one of the titles Krishna, a Hindu god, has), from Sanskrit jagannath, from jagat (world) + nath (lord). A procession of Jagannath takes place each year at Puri, India. Devotees pull a huge cart carrying the deity. Some have been accidentally crushed under the wheels (or are said to have thrown themselves under them). Earliest documented use: 1638.
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JUGGLERNAUT - an entertainer who throws Indian clubs into the air and catches them again, all the while riding on a surfboard
JUGGERNUT - a fantastically devoted wind instrument player from the Ozarks
JUDGERNAUT - Prithee, do not impose your values upon that woman; she is not worthless.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin scandere (to climb). Ultimately from the Indo-European root skand- (to leap or climb), which also gave us ascend, descend, condescend, transcend, echelon, and scale. Earliest documented use: 1682.
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SCARDENT - poignant reminder of a long-ago duel between two men who loved the same fair maid
SANDENT - what you do before you patch it
SCANDONT - Regulations pertaining to Protected Health Information preclude our copying the Outside Hospital report into your Electronic Medical Record here
AZYMOLOGY - the study of the works of Isaac Asimov, who in 1953 described in The Caves of Steel feeding the burgeoning world population with a yeast-based food he called "zymoveal"
ZYMOOGY - a fermented beverage made from cows' milk
ETYMOLOGY: In modern times dogs may be pampered, but historically a dog's life wasn't much to bark about. Hence a dog's chance is a small chance. Earliest documented use: 1890.
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DOG'S CHANCRE - the French Poodle has a venereal disease (though in Paris they would say the English Bulldog has a venereal disease)
MEANING: noun: An agreement that's based on honor and not legally binding.
ETYMOLOGY: From the idea that a gentleman (a civilized man of good standing) will honor an agreement he has entered. Earliest documented use: 1821.
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De-emphasized by Anu is that the agreement often involved the unspoken understanding that you would not sell your house, or admit into your club, or whatever other activity you wanted to keep exclusive, any Jew, or Negro, or Catholic, or whatever other group you preferred not to associate with. The theme was explored at some length in the 1947 novel and movie by that name. See here.
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GENTLEMEN'S ARGUMENT
PRONUNCIATION: (JEN-tl-manz uh-GREE-muhnt)
MEANING: noun: A disagreement that's based on honor and not legally binding.
MEANING: noun: 1. A children's game in which a string is wrapped around one player's hands in complex symmetrical patterns and transferred to another player's hands to form a different pattern. (video) 2. Something elaborate or intricate, especially when without an apparent purpose.
ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1768.
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CAST'S CRADLE - where the actors take their power nap
MEANING: noun 1. A reference work containing concise biographical sketches of well-known people. 2. Well-known people in a particular profession, region, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: The first Who's Who was published in the UK in 1849. Now the term is in wider use and there are thousands of specialized Who's Whos publications, for high school students, for Nebraskans, and for the dead (Who Was Who). There's even a Who's Who in Hell. Earliest documented use of the generic use of the term is from 1917. ________________________________
WHO'S WHOM - a compendium of pseudo-intellectuals, like the lady in Sinclair Lewis' Main Street who referred to the common folk as "wa pollwa" because she had once read the term "hoi polloi" and thought it was French
ETYMOLOGY: From the Aesop's fable in which the lion claimed all of the spoils instead of sharing with other animals who took part in the hunt. Earliest documented use: 1790.
MEANING: noun: 1. The point on the earth’s surface directly above the focus of an earthquake. 2. The center or focal point of an activity or event, especially something unpleasant.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin epicentrum, from Greek epikentros, from epi- (upon) + kentron (needle, pivot point for drawing a circle). Earliest documented use: 1887.
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EPICINTER - they buried the last copy of The Ten Comandments (starring Yul Brynner and Charlton Heston)
ERICENTER - Mr Idle comes onstage
SPICENTER - where to satisfy all your condiment needs
MEANING: noun: 1. A quantity or amount. 2. A portion. 3. A large amount. 4. The smallest amount of something that can exist independently.
adjective: 1. Large. 2. Relating to the quantum theory.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin quantus (how much or how great). In physics, a quantum jump or quantum leap is usually a small change, while in popular usage the term is used to mean a significant change. Earliest documented use: 1567.
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QUANTUS - the Australian airline, which speciaizes in carrying passengers who are afraid of flying (the airline's motto is Quantus Tremor est Futuris ("There Will Be Much Fear and Trembling")
QUALTUM - the description or characteristics of something, down to the teeniest detail possible
MEANING: noun: 1. A set of propositions used to explain some aspect of the natural world, one that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed and widely accepted. For example, Einstein’s theory of relativity or Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. 2. The body of principles belonging to a field. For example, music theory. 3. A speculation.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin theoria, from Greek theoria (contemplation), from theoros (spectator), from theorein (to consider, look at), which also gave us theorem and theater. Earliest documented use: 1597.
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THEERY - belief that it's all about you (compare OTHERY, the belief that it's all about them)
SHEORY - after I've consumed enough of it, my speech impediment doesn't bother me so much
THE WORY - concern that some new observation may show your favorite hypothesis to be incomplete, or (worse yet) wrong
MEANING: noun: 1. A measure of the disorder in a system. 2. The natural tendency of things to decline into disorder. 3. Disorder, randomness, or chaos.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek en- (in) + trope (transformation). Ultimately from the Indo-European root trep- (to turn), which also gave us troubadour, tropic, contrive, and tropism. Earliest documented use: 1868.
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TENTROPY - too many dang lines holding down the teepee
ENGROPY - tending to scratch oneself in public
ZENTROPY - the ultimate prize for world-class nirvana
MEANING: noun: An argument in anticipation of a criticism; a preemptive rebuttal.
ETYMOLOGY: A blend of pre- + rebuttal, from rebut (to refute), from Old French rebouter (to push back), from boute (to push). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhau- (to strike), which also gave us refute, beat, button, halibut, and buttress. Earliest documented use: 1996.
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PREPUTTAL - the routine of estimating the slope, testing the wind, kneeling, analyzing the grass, picking out the pebbles, standing up again, lining up the stroke, shushing the crowd, all before poking a piece of gutta-percha into a hole in the ground
MEANING: noun: A test used to make sure that a human is using a system, not a computer program. The test typically involves reading distorted text.
ETYMOLOGY: An acronym of Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. The Turing test is named after Alan Turing, a mathematician and computer scientist, who proposed that a computer could be considered intelligent if, while interacting with a human and a computer, someone could not tell which is which. A captcha is a kind of reverse Turing test. Earliest documented use: 2001.
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CAPTCHAT - a web-based Bulletin-Board for high-ranking naval officers
CAPECHA - a hybrid Flamenco/Caribbean dance
CAPTCHAI - a very small amount of Russian tea with milk and sugar and spices (or, depending on usage, the the maximum allowed amount)
MEANING: noun: The geological period marked by a significant human impact on climate and the environment.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek anthropo- (human) + -cene (denoting a geological period), from Greek kainos (new). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ken (fresh, new, or young) which also gave us recent and Sanskrit kanya (young girl). Earliest documented use: 2000.
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ANTHROPOGENE - that bit of DNA that makes a human human
ARTHROPOCENE - the Age of Insects, post-apocalypse
ANTIROPOCENE - We don't want to see the likes of you hanging around here, or, No noose is good noose
MEANING: noun: A long and dull passage in a work of literature.
ETYMOLOGY: From French longueur (length), from Latin longus (long). Ultimately from the Indo-European root del- (long), which also gave us lounge, lunge, linger, longitude, long, belong, and along. Earliest documented use: 1791.
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LONGUEUE - World's Longest Pigtail
TONGUEUR - an adept trumpet-player (Honi soit qui mal y pense)
(also called, "Becasue the author said so, that's why...") _________________________________________________
PERIPETIA or PERIPETEIA
PRONUNCIATION: (per-uh-puh-TEE-uh, -TIE-uh)
MEANING: noun: A sudden or unexpected change of fortune, especially in a literary work. A classic example is Oedipus learning about his parentage.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek peripiptein (to change suddenly), from peri- (near, around) + piptein (to fall). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pet- (to rush or fly), which also gave us feather, petition, compete, perpetual, pterodactyl, helicopter, pterodactyl, propitious, pinnate, pteridology (study of ferns), lepidopterology (study of butterflies and moths), pencel (flag at the end of a lance), and impetuous. Earliest documented use: 1591.
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PERIPETELA - around the kneecap
HERIPETIA - whatever you say, he'll say it again right afterwards
MEANING: noun: An author of literary or critical works.
ETYMOLOGY: From French littérateur, from Latin litterator (teacher of letters, grammarian, critic), from litterae (letters, literature), from littera (letter). Earliest documented use: 1806.
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LITTERATOUR - See the junkyards of the world!
LITTERANTEUR - Templeton, the rat from Charlotte's Web for whom "a Fair is a veritable smorgasbord." Portmanteau word, from "litter" and "restauranteur."
LISTERATEUR - shared a combined Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work on germ theory and antisepsis. (Or would have, if there had been a Nobel Prize when they were active) _________________________________
Strange how many of this week's words are of European origin. English for all its richness is not yet the language of the Arts...
MEANING: verb intr.: To bask in the sun. verb tr.: To expose to the sun.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin apricari (to bask in the sun). Earliest documented use: 1691. Despite a similar spelling, the word apricot has a different origin. It’s from Latin praecox (early-ripening).
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CAPRICATE - to turn into a goat
AGRICATE - to combine a whole bunch of little worthless swamps into one large farm
MEANING: adjective: 1. Relating to the number six. 2. Having sixth rank. 3. Having six parts or things.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin senarius (consisting of six). Ultimately from the Indo-European root s(w)eks (six), which also gave us semester, siesta, and Sistine (named after Pope Sixtus IV). Earliest documented use: 1661
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SENARMY - Who are all those guys marching this way with swords and armor?
SENALY - what you'll need at your side to help you fight them off
SEA NARY - where and when you'll find me in my fresh-water boat
MEANING: noun: A person whose job is to taste food or drink before it’s served.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pre- (before) + gustare (to taste). Ultimately from the Indo-European root geus- (to taste or choose), which also gave us choice, choose, gusto, ragout, and disgust. Earliest documented use: 1670.
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PREGUSTAMOR - Love At Sea, until the wind hits
PREGUESTATOR - the one who cleans the house before the party starts
PYREGUSTATOR - person who arranges the fiery public celebration of a death
MEANING: adjective: Giving opinions beyond one’s area of expertise. noun: One who gives opinions beyond one’s area of expertise.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin ultra (beyond) + crepidarius (shoemaker), from crepida (sandal). Earliest documented use: 1819.
NOTES: The story goes that in ancient Greece there was a renowned painter named Apelles who used to display his paintings and hide behind them to listen to the comments. Once a cobbler pointed out that the sole of the shoe was not painted correctly. Apelles fixed it and encouraged by this the cobbler began offering comments about other parts of the painting. At this point the painter cut him off with “Ne sutor ultra crepidam” meaning “Shoemaker, not above the sandal” or one should stick to one’s area of expertise.
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ULTRACREPITARIAN - old and crinkly
YULTRACREPIDARIAN - the shoes worn by the King of Siam
ULTRACREEPIDARIAN - New York City rush-hour traffic
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And why, if I may be so bold, is the Greek painter of the story speaking to the Greek cobbler in Latin?
MEANING: noun: One having a tendency to exaggerate or lie. adjective: Having a tendency to exaggerate or lie.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek mythos (myth) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze). Earliest documented use: 1954.
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[Why do I keep trying to pronounce that " mith-OM-in-ee" ?? ] ___________________________________
MYTHOMiNE - a lisper's love song to his girlfriend
MYTHOMAINE - any of several Tall Stories about a stereotypical taciturn, sardonic, dry-humored inhabitant of the North-Eeasternmost U.S. state. Typical of the genre is -- Texan, tryng to impress visiting Maine resident: My ranch is...well, let's just say I can get in my truck and drive all day, and all night, and all the next day, and still be on my own land. -- Our Hero: Ayup. I used to have a truck like that, too.
MYTHOMOLE - The "abominable snowman-like" mole in my back yard. Must be a gopher. His tracks are virtual mounds of epic proportions, now frozen and I trip over them.
MEANING: noun: A person who is morally unrestrained. adjective: Unrestrained by conventions or morality.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin libertinus (freedman), from liber (free). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leudh- (to mount up or grow), which also gave us liberty, livery, and deliver. Earliest documented use: 1384.
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GLIBERTINE - a smooth-talking Don Juan
LIBORTINE - playing fast and loose with currency transactions
LABORTINE - the ultimate status of a pregnant adolescent (compare ABORTINE, a formerly-pregnant adolescent)
MEANING: noun: 1. A diminutive human being. 2. A fully formed, miniature human being that was earlier believed to be present in a sperm or an egg.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin homunculus (little man), diminutive of ho-mo* (man). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also gave us allochthonous, autochthonous, chameleonic, chthonic, disinter, and inhume. Earliest documented use: 1656. _____________________________
ROMUNCULUS - a tiny model of an Italian city on the Tiber river, small enough to build in a day
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And as an aside - does anyone else find it strange that in Latin, to go from "-US" to "-I" is to change from singular to plural, but in English "US" to "I" changes plural to singular?
does anyone else find it strange that in Latin, to go from "-US" to "-I" is to change from singular to plural, but in English "US" to "I" changes plural to singular?
Maybe we should invoke the mathematical-logic concept that "-" means "not". Then we can say that -I means "not I", and -US means "not US", and we've changed singular to plural and vice versa...so the equivalency to Latin is restored.
MEANING: adjective: Mean or contemptible. noun: A disease caused by vitamin C deficiency, characterized by swollen and bleeding gums, bleeding under the skin, and weakness.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English scurf, probably from Old Norse. Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (cut), which also gave us decorticate, excoriate, hardscrabble, incarnadine, scrobiculate, and caruncle. Earliest documented use: 1529. ________________________________
MEANING: adjective: 1. Extremely angry. 2. Relating to or affected by apoplexy (stroke).
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin apoplecticus, from Greek apoplektikos (relating to a stroke), from apoplessein (to disable by a stroke). Ultimately from the Indo-European root plak- (to strike), which also gave us plague, plankton, fling, and complain. Earliest documented use: 1625.
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APPLECTIC - can't read the instructions on my little downloaded smartphone program
MAPOPLECTIC - @#$%^"# navigation program directed me straight into a swamp!
MEANING: adjective: 1. Exhibiting prejudice from envy or resentment. 2. Having jaundice: a disease that makes the skin, white of the eyes, etc., to be yellow, caused by an increase of bile pigments in the blood.
ETYMOLOGY: from Old French jaunice (yellowness), from jaune (yellow), from Latin galbinus (yellowish), from galbus (yellow). Earliest documented use: 1640. __________________________
FAUNDICED - showing the symptoms of a Pandemic
JAUNDICTED - subjected to inflammatory discussion by a yellow journalist
JAUNEDICED - cut into tiny little yellow cubes, viz.
ETYMOLOGY: In the Bible, Nimrod was a hunter and Noah’s great-grandson. It’s not clear how the sense of the word transferred from a hunter to a stupid person, but the new sense was popularized in the Bugs Bunny cartoons when Bugs Bunny called rabbit-hunting Elmer Fudd as “Poor little Nimrod”. Earliest documented use for sense 1: 1933, for sense 2: 1623. Even earlier, the first recorded use in English is from 1548, in a now-obsolete sense as a tyrant.
MEANING: noun: A distressing journey or experience.
ETYMOLOGY: After the route believed to have been taken by Jesus on his way to Calvary. From Latin via dolorosa (painful path), from via (path) + dolor (pain). Earliest documented use: 1878.
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VIAND OLOROSA - spoiled meat (you can tell because it smells)
VIA DONOROSA - Sir Orosa lives on this street
VIDOLO ROSA - a sweet red onion, not sharp at all, originally sold only in the Vidolo Farmers' Market in Toombs County, Georgia, USA (See here - it's not even Wikipedia!)
MEANING: noun: One blamed for another’s wrongdoing. verb tr.: To blame someone for another’s wrongdoing.
ETYMOLOGY: As sometimes happens with ancient books, this term arose as a misreading of a word as Hebrew ’ez ’ozel (goat that departs) for what was, in fact, the proper noun Azazel, apparently a name for a demon. The explanation given in Leviticus 16:8 is that one casts one’s sins on a goat and lets it escape into the wilderness. Earliest documented use: 1530.
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SCAREGOAT - a mannikin meant to frighten other animals out of the vegetable patch
SCAPEMOAT - a hybrid protective feature surrounding a castle, meant to help the inhabitants swim away
MEANING: noun: An instance or a place of suffering.
ETYMOLOGY: In the New Testament, Gethsemane was a garden near the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and the scene of Jesus’s agony and betrayal. Via Latin and Greek from Aramaic gat samne (oil press). Earliest documented use: 1901.
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GETS E-MANE - grows a lot of electronic hair on the head and neck
METH SEMANE - Amphetamine Week in Paris
GET HISEMANE - be awarded the trophy for "Best College Football player for the Year"
MEANING: noun: A person who voluntarily helps others in distress. Also used as: good Samaritan.
ETYMOLOGY: From the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37 in the New Testament where a Samaritan stopped to help a man who had been injured and robbed, while others passed by. The word Samaritan is from Latin Samaritanus (a resident of Samaria), ultimately from Greek Samareia, Samaria. Earliest documented use: 1000.
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SAMARIAN - one who gives recapitulations of what has gone before
SAMOARIAN - a devotee of a confection made from toasted marshmallows, chocolate, and Graham crackers (see recipe)
MEANING: noun: A renewed activity after a period of dormancy.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin recrudescere (to become raw again), from re- (again) + crudescere (to get worse), from crudus (raw). Earliest documented use: 1665.
MEANING: noun: 1. Strong criticism. 2. Public disgrace
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin opprobrium (reproach), from ob- (against) + probrum (infamy, reproach). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bher- (to carry), which also gave us bear, birth, barrow, burden, fertile, transfer, offer, suffer, euphoria, and metaphor. Earliest documented use: 1656. _______________________________________
COPPROBRIUM - what's going on in Ferguson, MO these days
OPPROBARIUM - in favor of GI X-ray studies with contrast material
COPPR O'BRIUM - one member of the Dublin police force
ETYMOLOGY: From French comportement (behavior), from comporter (to bear), from Latin comportare (to transport), from com- (with) + portare (to carry). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over), which also gave us support, petroleum, sport, passport, colporteur, rapporteur, deportment, Swedish fartlek, Norwegian fjord, and Sanskrit parvat (mountain). Earliest documented use: 1605. ____________________________________
COMPORTMEN - those who would teach you how to behave in polite society; style coaches
OOMPORTMENT - carrying yourslf like a brass band
COMPOSTMENT - the manufacture of organic fertilizer
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin sollus (whole), ultimately from the Indo-European root sol- (whole), which brought us solid, salute, save, salvo, soldier, catholicity, salutary, and salubrious + citus, past participle of ciere (to arouse), ultimately from the Indo-European root kei- (to set in motion), which also gave us cinema, kinetic, excite, and resuscitate. Earliest documented use: 1412.
PARTHENON-GENESIS - D'ya think we might build a great big building in Rome with our spare time and extra slaves. People could come and pray to Athena. (Not to be confused with PARTHE-NONGENESIS - Nah, it's probably just a waste of money, and they'll only tear it down in a couple of years anyway....)
PART-HEMOGENESIS - bone marrow that makes only red cells, not white cells or platelets
PARASTRATAL - Referring to one or both of the castes on either side of us, unless we happen to be in the the very highest or very lowest, in which case just the one.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin de- (away from) + fervere (to boil, to be hot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreu- (to boil or to bubble), which is also the source of brew, bread, broth, braise, brood, breed, barmy, and perfervid. Earliest documented use: 1721.
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DETERVESCENCE - apply a surfactant and avoid the bubbles
DECERVESCENCE - emptying your glass of Dos Equis cerveza
DEFERVESCENE - reduce the emotional overlay in a confrontation
ETYMOLOGY: From contraction of Latin phrase in primis (among the first), from in (among) and primus (first). The word was originally used to introduce the first of a number of articles in a list, such as a will, an inventory, etc. Earliest documented use: 1465.
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JIMPRIMIS - King James the First
IMIPRIMIS - old tricyclic anti-depressent brand name that never caught on
ETYMOLOGY: From French poltron (coward), from Italian poltrone (lazy person), from Latin pullus (young animal). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pau- (few, little), which is also the source of few, foal, filly, pony, poor, pauper, poco, and catchpole. Earliest documented use: 1529.
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POLTOON - a political cartoon, like Doonesbury
POLTROOP - bussed-in voters
POLTRODON - a small dinosaur with teeth like a chicken's
MEANING: noun: A humorous, pseudo-biographical verse of four lines of uneven length, with the rhyming scheme AABB, and the first line containing the name of the subject.
ETYMOLOGY: After writer Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), who originated it. Earliest documented use: 1928. Here is one of his clerihews:
Sir Christopher Wren Said, “I am going to dine with some men. If anyone calls Say I am designing St. Paul’s.” __________________________________
CHERIHEW - I cannot tell a lie, Fathler, I did cut down the tree.
CLERIHEM - to shorten priestly robes
CLERIHEE - half of a chuckle, upon reading a humorous short verse with lines of uneven length (see also CLERIHAW)
MEANING: noun: A short witty saying, often in verse.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin epigramma, from Greek epigramma, from epigraphein (to write, inscribe), from epi- (upon, after) + graphein (to write). Other words originating from the same root are graphite, paragraph, program, and topography. Earliest documented use: 1552.
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EPIGLAM - Beauty is only skin deep
EPI-RAM - a Shofar (ram's horn)
PI-GRAM - a message sent by wire next Saturday morning at 9:26 (that'd be 3/14/15 9:26...)
MEANING: noun: A humorous, often risque, verse of three long (A) and two short (B) lines with the rhyme scheme AABBA.
ETYMOLOGY: After Limerick, a county in Ireland. The origin of the name of the verse is said to be from the refrain “Will you come up to Limerick?” sung after each set of extemporized verses popular at gatherings. Earliest documented use: 1896.
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GLIMERICK - the duration of an average sighting of the Loch Ness Monster; also, its appearance
LIVERICK - typical child's response to being served fried organ meat (with or without bacon)
MEANING: noun: 1. Comic verse that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme especially for burlesque or comic effect. 2. Trivial or bad poetry.
NOTES: Here’s poet John Skelton (c. 1463-1529) defending his doggerels: For though my rhyme be ragged, Tattered and jagged, Rudely rain-beaten, Rusty and moth-eaten, If ye take well therewith, It hath in it some pith.
ETYMOLOGY: Dogs have a bad rap in the language (see dog’s chance, dogsbody) and the word doggerel reflects that view. The word is apparently a diminutive of the word dog. Earliest documented use: 1405.
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DAGGEREL - (diminutive) a small dagger; a snickersnee
DODGEREL - the elevated subway line that brings you to Ebbets Field
If, with the literate, I am Impelled to try an epigram, I never seek to take the credit; We all assume that Oscar said it.
You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think.
Edit by Jackie May, I don't want to take anything away from what you did, but I got a notification that not only did your link to the image not show an image, it was so long that it made the screen go wide. I Copied your link to Google and got the image shown in my test post below, so I have deleted your long link and replaced it. If this is not the image you intended, I apologize. J.
MEANING: adjective: Self-restraining, especially in eating or drinking.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin abstinere (to hold back), from ab- (away) + tenere (to hold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which also gave us tense, tenet, tendon, tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, pertinacious, detente, countenance, distend, extenuate, and tenable. Earliest documented use: 1839.
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ABSENTIOUS - chronically truant
NABSTENTIOUS - having a tendency to arrest suspects, with very weak evidence
MEANING: adjective: Of or relating to the arteries or a main road or channel.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin arteria, from Greek arteria (windpipe, artery). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to raise or lift), which is also the source of air, aira, aura, and meteor. Earliest documented use: 1578.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin aereus/aerius, adjectival form of aer (air). Earliest documented use: 1594.
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Ooh, lots of options here. And interestingly most of the changes could go equally well in front of the A or between the A and the E, with opposite definitions.
AERIOUS - nesting in high places (the "Identity Transform")
Hi, Luke! First I tried simply Copying and deleting the long link and Pasting it into a new Image setup window. That didn't work, so then I Pasted the link into a Google search box, and this picture is what I got, along with some other things on the page. I clicked on the button that read View Image. That took me to a page that had ONLY the picture. Then I Copied that URL and Pasted it into a new Image setup window. I hope this is the pic she intended to be seen.
Thanks Jackie, but I can't put tab A into slot B. I appreciate it, but it makes little sense. I don't understand View Image, etc. Am grateful for your attempt to 'teach' me.
MEANING: noun: 1. A native; an aborigine. 2. Something, as a rock, formed or originating in the place where found.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek autochthon (of the land itself), from auto- (self) + chthon (earth, land). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also sprouted human, homicide, humble, homage, chamomile, exhume, inhume, chthonic, disinter, chameleonic, and Persian zamindar (landholder). Earliest documented use: 1538. The opposite of this term is allochthon.
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AUTOHTHON - the Daytohna 5000
AUTOCHRHON - a self-winding watch
AUROCHTHON - (obs) a prolonged race of ancient cattle-like creatures, exhausting them so severely they became extinct. (That was the end of the race of ancient cattle-llke creatlures)
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English laecedom (medicine, healing), from laece (physician). The word for the bloodsucking parasite has a different origin. Earliest documented use: 900.
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LECHDOM - Poland under President Walesa
LETCHDOM - oily and offensive sexual innuendo
LEECHDOME - where bloodsuckers play football
LEACHDOM - the practice of Septic Tank maintenance
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin Saturninus (of Saturn). From the ancient belief in astrology that those born under the planet Saturn’s supposed influence had its characteristics. Since Saturn was the farthest known planet at the time, it was believed to be the slowest and coldest. The planet received its name after the Roman god of agriculture. Earliest documented use: 1433.
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SATIRNINE - SNL is going to move a few hours earlier
SATURNIZE - associate with brethren over the weekend (the night before we would have said "fraternize")
SAMURNINE - two more have joined the Magnificent Seven
MEANING: adjective: 1. Fickle; volatile; changeable. 2. Animated; quick-witted; shrewd. 3. Relating to the metal, planet, or god Mercury.
ETYMOLOGY: After Mercury, Roman god of commerce, thievery, eloquence, communication, etc. The planet is named after the god and in ancient astrology those born under the supposed influence of Mercury were ascribed his qualities. Earliest documented use: 1300.
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MEA-CURIAL - pertaining to my own personal division of the church
MER-BURIAL- Dumbledore may have seen a few of there underwater interments in some untold tales
MERC-URINAL - My Grand Marquis is so well equipped it comes with its own, er, facilities
(Did you say Powell Books? 10th and Burnside? Portland?) ________________________
JOVIAL
PRONUNCIATION: (JOH-vee-uhl)
MEANING: adjective: Cheerful; good-humored.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin jovialis (of Jupiter), from Jov- (Jupiter). The word Jupiter is from Latin Jovis pater (father Jove). The planet Jupiter is named after the Roman god Jupiter and those born under the influence of this planet were supposed to be good-humored. Ultimately from the Indo-European root dyeu- (to shine) that is also the source of diva, divine, Jupiter, Jove, July, Zeus, and Sanskrit deva (god). Earliest documented use: 1590.
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DOVIAL - avoiding conflict; peace-loiving
JORIAL - Superman'e Kryptonian father with hiccups
JOVINAL - a barbiturate that makes you feel Godike
MEANING: verb tr., intr.: To walk through; to roam.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin perambulare (to walk through), from per- (through) + ambulare (to walk). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ambhi- (around), which is also the source of ambulance, alley, preamble, bivouac, and obambulate. Earliest documented use: 1450.
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OPERAMBULATE - The Magic Flute has already started; too bad you walked in late
PERAMBULATTE - a cup of coffee to be consumed as you walk
PERAMBULANTE - what you pay to begin the walking game
MEANING: noun: 1. A note at the end of the book giving information about its production: font, paper, binding, printer, etc. 2. A publisher’s emblem, usually on the spine or the title page of the book.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin colophon, from Greek kolophon (summit, finishing touch). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kel- (to be prominent; hill), which also gave us colonel, colonnade, column, culminate, excel, and hill. Earliest documented use: 1628
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ECOLOPHON - the school's PA system
COLOPHONY - the wordless campfire scene from Blazing Saddles
COLOTHON - the annual alumni fund-raising campaign, compressed into 24 hours (pronounced CALL-a-thon)
MEANING: noun: The front of a leaf, the side that is to be read first.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin recto folio (right-hand leaf), from rectus (right). Ultimately from the Indo-European reg- (to move in a straight line, lead, or rule) that is also the source of regent, regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, surge, arrogate, abrogate, regent, and supererogatory. Earliest documented use: 1789.
NOTES: In languages that are written left-to-right, such as English, recto is the right-hand page. In languages written right-to-left, such as Arabic, recto is the left-hand page. The other side is called verso.
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RECITO - Latin for "I'm talking now, dammit, and don't you interrupt!"
ERECTO - early name considered for sildenafil (Viagra) until A C Gilbert Company put the kibosh on it
RECTOZ - what the Wicked Witch of the East and her minions would gladly have done of Dorothy had let them
MEANING: adjective: Having or showing little emotion; dull; impassive.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin stolidus (dull, stupid). Ultimately from the Indo-European root stel- (to put or stand), which is also the source of stallion, stilt, install, gestalt, stout, and pedestal, stele, and epistolary. Earliest documented use: 1600.
MEANING: noun: 1. A mouth or an orifice. [plural ora] 2. A bone. [plural ossa]
ETYMOLOGY: For 1: From Latin os (mouth). Earliest documented use: 1859. For 2: From Latin os (bone). Earliest documented use: 1400.
NOTES: It also appears as an abbreviation in many fields, including Chemistry: Os - symbol for the element osmium Computing: OS - Operating System Medicine: OS - left eye (from Latin oculus sinister) Linguistics: OS - Old Saxon
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OZ: 1. a surgeon who got a TV show and started endorsing products of dubious value 2. abbreviation for "ounce" 3. magical land, site of many L. Frank Baum stories 4. vernacular for "Australia"
ON: 1. opposite of "off" 2. a debt of honor, in Japan
OB: 1. a physician who practices Obstetrics, delivering babies 2. an obligation (see ON above)
ETYMOLOGY: From Hawaiian aa (to burn). Earliest documented use: 1859.
NOTES: Aa is one of the two kinds of lava typically found in Hawaiian volcanoes. The other kind is pahoehoe, one with a smooth, ropy surface.
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Xa:
1. a clotting factor, after which was named the anti-coagulant Xarelto, of TV advertising notoriety fame. That's pronounced "Ten-a," 'cuz it's a Roman number
2. half of a Latin American dance (if you make it Greek ("Cha") instead of Latin as above)
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish shadkhan, from Hebrew. Earliest documented use: 1890.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong. -Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (11 May 1918-1988)
MEANING: noun: 1. A gun-carrying criminal. 2. A tramp’s young intimate companion.
ETYMOLOGY: Alteration of the Yiddish genzel (gosling) influenced by the word gun. Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghans- (goose), which also gave us goose, gosling, and gander. Earliest documented use: 1914.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that. -Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, preacher, journalist, and activist (1802-1861)
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HUNSEL - His fairy-tale stepmother took him to the forest to losehim, buthe savedhimself by letting down his golden hair
MEANING: noun: 1. A comedian, social director, or entertainer who encourages an audience or guests to participate in entertainment activities. 2. One who incites others to action. 3. A lively, mischievous man.
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish tumler (one who makes a racket), from tumlen (to make a racket), from German tummeln (to stir). Earliest documented use: 1930s.
NOTES: Catskill resorts in the Catskill Mountains in New York State were a popular vacation destination for Jews during the last century. They were known as the Borscht Belt, after borscht, a type of beet soup popular with Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. Tummlers were a standard fixture in these resorts.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: How simple life becomes when things like mirrors are forgotten. -Daphne du Maurier, novelist (13 May 1907-1989)
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THUMMLER - an expert and enthusistic text-messager
MEANING: noun: A drunkard; alcoholic liquor. adjective: Drunk. verb intr.: To drink or to get drunk.
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish shiker, from Hebrew shikkor, from shakar (to be drunk). Earliest documented use: 1892.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence. -Hal Borland, author and journalist (14 May 1900-1978)
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SHTICKER - a drunk Borscht Belt comedian with a clichéd routine
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish heymish (domestic), from Old High German heim (home). Ultimately from the Indo-European root tkei- (to settle or dwell), which also gave us home, haunt, hangar, site, situate, and hamlet. Earliest documented use: 1964.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I feel fairly certain that my hatred harms me more than the people whom I hate. -Max Frisch, architect, playwright, and novelist (15 May 1911-1991) ______________________________
HEIMLISCH - a composer of popular songs, known as much for getting obstructing foreign objects out of people's throat as for putting words and music into their mouth
MEANING: verb tr., intr.: To transfer or be passed (duties, rights, powers, etc.) on to another. verb intr.: To deteriorate or degenerate.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin devolvere (to roll down), from de- (down) + volvere (to roll). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wel- (to turn or roll), which also gave us waltz, revolve, valley, walk, vault, volume, wallet, helix, and voluble. Earliest documented use: 1420.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (18 May 1872-1970)
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DEVOLE - remove those pesky Varmints from the lawn
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To use an initial asset to achieve something more valuable. 2. To gamble an initial stake and winnings on a subsequent bet, race, contest, etc. noun: A bet that uses the earlier bet and its winnings as the new bet.
ETYMOLOGY: An alteration of paroli (staking the double of the sum staked before), from French, from Italian paroli, plural of parolo, perhaps from paro (equal), from Latin par (equal). Earliest documented use: 1828.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues. --Honore de Balzac, novelist (20 May 1799-1850)
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To adopt or support a cause, idea, belief, etc. 2. To take as spouse: marry.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French espouser, from Latin sponsare (to betroth), from sponsus (betrothed). Ultimately from the Indo-European root spend- (to make an offering or perform a rite), which is also the source of sponsor, spouse, respond, and riposte. Earliest documented use: 1477.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: In words as fashions the same rule will hold, Alike fantastic if too new or old; Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. -Alexander Pope, poet (21 May 1688-1744)
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin acerbus (bitter). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ak- (sharp), which is also the source of acrid, vinegar, acid, acute, edge, hammer, heaven, eager, oxygen, mediocre, paragon, acuity, and acidic. Earliest documented use: 1657.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (22 May 1859-1930) (put into the mouth of Sherlock Holmes)
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[I see several comments about why "acerbate" should mean the same thing (almost) as its apparent negation "exacerbate." Isn't there a usage of some prefixes as intensifiers, rather than negation? Think about "flammable" and inflammable."] __________________________________
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French politesse (cleanness, polished state), from Italian politezza (polish, smoothness), from Latin polire (to polish). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pel- (skin or hide), which also gave us pelt, pillion, and film. Earliest documented use: 1683.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (25 May 1803-1882)
MEANING: noun: 1. The practice of noninterference in the affairs of others. 2. The economic policy allowing businesses to operate with little intervention from the government.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally “allow to do”. Earliest documented use: 1825.
MEANING: adjective: Required by fashion, custom, or etiquette.
ETYMOLOGY: From French de rigueur (literally, of strictness), from Latin rigor. Ultimately from the Indo-European root streig- (to stroke or press), which also gave us strait, strike, streak, strict, stress, and strain. Earliest documented use: 1850.
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Compassion is not weakness and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism. - Hubert Humphrey, US Vice President (27 May 1911-1978) ___________________________
DERRIGUEUR - a small pocket pistol, easily concealed; a "must-carry" for today's stylish rogue
ETYMOLOGY: From French soi-disant (self-styled, so-called) from soi (oneself) + disant (saying). Earliest documented use: 1752. _______________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. -William Pitt, British prime minister (28 May 1759-1806) _______________________
SO I.D. ISN'T - and therefore no on can tell who I am...
ETYMOLOGY: From French laisser-aller (to allow to go). Earliest documented use: 1842. _______________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. -John F. Kennedy, 35th US president (29 May 1917-1963) _______________________
BLAISSER-ALLER - Thank Goodness he's going
LAISSER-ALTER - take it to the tailor, it needs to be let out a little across the shoulders
LA KISSER-ALLER - 1. (French) Loves 'em and leaves 'em 2. (English) promiscuous
MEANING: noun: A position in which one is paid for little or no work.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin beneficium sine cura (a church position not involving caring for the souls of the parishioners), from sine (without) + cura (care). Earliest documented use: 1662.
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: War is merely the continuation of policy by other means. -Carl von Clausewitz, general and military theorist (1 Jun 1780-1831 ______________________
SEINECURÉ - the priest in Notre Dame cathedral
SHINECURE - fighting depression with high-gloss shoes
MEANING: noun: A biography that focuses on the negative.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek patho- (suffering, disease) + -graphy (writing). In the beginning, pathography was a description of a disease. Then the word came to be applied to the study of an individual or a community as relating to the influence of a disease. Now the term mostly refers to a biography focusing on the negative. Earliest documented use: 1848. __________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things. -Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet (2 Jun 1840-1928)
MEANING: adjective: Relating to a statement that functions as an action by the fact of its being uttered.
NOTES: Some examples of performative utterances are I promise, I apologize, I bet, I resign, etc. By saying I promise a person actually performs the act of promising.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French parfournir, from par (through) + fournir (to furnish). Earliest documented use: 1922. ____________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: There is nothing more dangerous than a government of the many controlled by the few. -Lawrence Lessig, professor and political activist (b. 3 Jun 1961) ____________________________
MEANING: verb intr.: To make a shrill creaking noise by rubbing body parts together.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin stridere (to make a harsh sound). Earliest documented use: 1838.
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience...Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference. -Robert Fulghum, author (b. 4 Jun 1937)
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STRIDULANTE - to make a shrill creaking noise by rubbing together a few chips as you throw them onto the poker table to start the next pot
STRIPULATE - what you may be told when you're tardy at the nudist camp
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin mala fide, from malus (bad) + fides (faith). Earliest documented use: 1561. _______________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I'm sometimes asked "Why do you spend so much of your time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men?" I answer: "I am working at the roots." -George T. Angell, reformer (5 Jun 1823-1909) _______________________
MAILAF.I.D.E. - send a letter to the World Chess Federation
MEANING: noun: A piece of covering placed over the back or arms of a seat to protect from hair oil, dirt, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From anti- (against) + Macassar oil (a hair oil), said to be made from ingredients from Macassar (now spelled as Makassar), a city in Indonesia. Earliest documented use: 1852.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The memory of most men is an abandoned cemetery where lie, unsung and unhonored, the dead whom they have ceased to cherish. -Marguerite Yourcenar, novelist (8 Jun 1903-1987)
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ANTIMACATSAR - against selecting an Irishman to be the ruler of all Russia
ETYMOLOGY: Podunk is the name of a river and a native tribe in Connecticut. Over time the name came to be used for several small towns including a mythical small and insignificant town. Earliest documented use: 1657.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director. -Cole Porter, composer and songwriter (9 Jun 1893-1964) ___________________________
MEANING: noun: One making false claim to having a certain expertise; a fraud or quack.
ETYMOLOGY: From French charlatan, from Italian ciarlatano, from cerretano (an inhabitant of Cerreto). Cerreto is a village in Umbria, Italy, once known for its quacks. Another etymology pins the origin of the term on the Italian ciarlare (to chatter), of imitative origin. Perhaps the word charlatan is a blend of the two, as charlatans are known for chattering. Earliest documented use: 1607.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and only later works like a bookkeeper. -E.O. Wilson, biologist (b. 10 Jun 1929)
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CHARLOTAN - a brown spider who weaves words into her web
MEANING: noun: 1. A submissive or fawning person. 2. Any of several breeds of small to medium-sized dogs with long drooping ears and a silky coat.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French espaignol/espaigneul (Spanish dog), from Hispaniolus (Spanish), from Hispania (Spain). Earliest documented use: 1386.
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, -- light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful. -John Constable, painter (11 Jun 1776-1837)
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SPACI-EL - Superman's ditzy teenage sister, on Krypton
MEANING: noun: A phenomenon in which a visitor to a holy place suffers from religious psychosis, such as believing him- or herself to be a messiah.
ETYMOLOGY: After Jerusalem, Israel, where the phenomenon was first described by the psychiatrist Heinz Herman. Earliest documented use: 1987. _____________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: No one has ever become poor by giving. -Anne Frank, Holocaust diarist (12 Jun 1929-1945) _____________________
PERUSALEM SYNDROME - the sense of knowledge, empowerment, and righteousness one gets from sufficiently assiduous study of the Holy Writ
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French tenebreus, from Latin tenebrosus (dark), from tenebrae (darkness). Earliest documented use: 1420.
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter. -Euripides, playwright (c. 480-406 BCE) _______________________________
DENEBROUS - Something like a Star
ENEBROUS - drunk and vomiting (compare "inebrous")
MEANING: noun: An area of land cleared for farming by slashing and burning the vegetation.
ETYMOLOGY: A variant of Northern English dialect swithen (to burn), from Old Norse svithna (to be singed). Earliest documented use: 1868.
USAGE: “Some headed out to the charred earth of their swidden gardens to tend crops of manioc, bananas, and sweet potatoes.” Chip Brown; Kayapo Courage; National Geographic (Washington, DC); Jan 2014.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The [Nobel] prize is such an extraordinary honor. It might seem unfair, however, to reward a person for having so much pleasure over the years, asking the maize plant to solve specific problems and then watching its responses. -Barbara McClintock, scientist, Nobel laureate (16 Jun 1902-1992)
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SLIDDEN - past tense of "slide;" compare "hide."
USAGE: "The runner slidden to second base ahead of the throw, and the umpire called "Safe!"
MEANING: adjective: 1. Unclear; opaque. 2. Dark or dense, as smog or clouds. 3. Confused or muddled.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin turba (turmoil, crowd). Earliest documented use: 1626. Not to be confused with turgid.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right. -Igor Stravinsky, composer (17 Jun 1882-1971)
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SURBID - Eight spades !
TOURBID - Couldja drive me around town this afternoon and show me the sights for $500?
TURBED - Go away! It's seven in the morning. I said not to wake me up until eleven! Didn't you see the sign I hung on the doorknob? [ "Do Not Disturb"]
MEANING: noun: A critical, introductory discussion, especially an introduction to a text.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek prolegómenon, from prolegein (to say beforehand), from pro- (before) + legein (to say). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leg- (to collect, speak), which is also the source of other words such as lexicon, lesson, lecture, legible, legal, legend, select, alexia, cull, lection, ligneous, lignify, subintelligitur, and syllogistic. Earliest documented use: 1600. ______________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. -Paul McCartney, singer-songwriter, composer, poet, and activist (b. 18 Jun 1942) ____________________________
PRO-LEGO-MELON - in favor of cantaloupe made of many small brightly-colored interlocking plastic blocks
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin fructus (fruit), from frui (to enjoy). Earliest documented use: 1382. ____________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (19 Jun 1623-1662) ____________________________
FRICTUOUS - rough, scratchy
FRUSTUOUS - like a pedestal with a flat top and slanted sides
MEANING: adjective: 1. Resembling a precipice, a cliff with a nearly vertical overhanging face. 2. Extremely steep. 3. Abrupt, rapid, or hasty (applied to a worsening situation).
ETYMOLOGY: From obsolete French précipiteux, from Latin praecipitare (to cast down headlong), from prae- (before) + caput (head). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kaput- (head), also the origin of head, captain, chef, chapter, cadet, cattle, chattel, achieve, biceps, mischief, occiput, recapitulate, and capitation. Earliest documented use: 1646.
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Him that I love, I wish to be free -- even from me. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author and aviator (22 Jun 1906-2001) ______________________________
PRECIPITONS - what you use to help you climb a nearly vertical overhanging face
MEANING: verb tr.: To call in question; to contradict; to dispute.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin oppugnare (to fight or oppose), from ob- (against) + pugnare (to fight), from pugnus (fist). Ultimately from the Indo-European root peuk- (to prick) which is also the source of point, puncture, pungent, punctual, poignant, pounce, poniard, impugn, pugilist, and pugnacious. Earliest documented use: 1435. _____________________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: It's like, at the end, there's this surprise quiz: Am I proud of me? I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth what I paid? -Richard Bach, writer (b. 23 Jun 1936) ____________________________________
OMPUGN - a meditating Buddhist with a short fuse
OPPUGNU - the hybrid offspring of a small southeastern US marsupial and a wildebeest
MEANING: verb tr.: To deprive of strength or vitality. adjective: Deprived of strength; Weakened.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin enervare (to weaken), from ex- (out) + nervus (sinew). Earliest documented use: 1603.
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (24 Jun 1842-1914) _____________________________
ENERVOTE - the Big Oil lobby
ENERGATE - the Enron affair was a Federal conspiracy
ETYMOLOGY: From spleen, from French esplen, from Latin splen, from Greek splen. Earliest documented use: 1398.
NOTES: In earlier times it was believed that four humors controlled human behavior and an imbalance resulted in disease. According to this thinking an excess of black bile secreted by the spleen resulted in melancholy or ill humor. Also, the spleen was considered to be the seat of emotions. To vent one's spleen was to vent one's anger.
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. -George Orwell, writer (25 Jun 1903-1950) _________________________________
SPLENETHIC - unyielding grouchiness; the moral underpinning of current US politics
MEANING: verb intr.: 1. To remove the entrails; to disembowel. 2. To deprive of essential parts; to weaken or to destroy.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin eviscerare (to disembowel), from ex- (out) + viscera (internal organs), plural of Latin viscus (flesh, internal organ). Earliest documented use: 1607. ________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood, and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand, and touch another person. -Virginia Satir, psychotherapist and author (26 Jun 1916-1988) _________________________
EVISCERANTE - That's my last chip; if I don't win this pot I'm flat broke
EVI'S CRATE - the used car Evi just bought
ELVISCERATE - Madame Tussaud's Waxworks has a new statue of The King, in his Graceland studio
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin connasci (to be born with), from com- (with) nasci (to be born). Earliest documented use: 1641. ______________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (29 Jun 1900-1944) ______________________
CONMATE - any utterance for the specific purpose of getting laid (see FOREPLOY) (with acknowledgement to the Washington Post Style Invitational contest)
CONNANTE - sitting down to a poker table in Hartford CT
CONNAVE - 1. partner in crime 2. an adjacent set of pews, in which church dissidents sit apart from the affirmers
MEANING: verb intr.: 1. To take up and hold by absorption. 2. To take up and hold by adsorption.
NOTES: So what’s the difference between absorption and adsorption, besides a turned-around letter b? Absorption is when a substance is completely assimilated by another while in adsorption the substance deposits on the surface of another.
ETYMOLOGY: Back-formation from absorb, from Latin absorbere, from ab- (away) + sorbere (to suck). Earliest documented use: 1909. ____________________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Life is a jest, and all things show it, / I thought so once, and now I know it. -John Gay, poet and dramatist (30 Jun 1685-1732) _________________________________
MEANING: verb intr.: 1. To talk in an aimless manner. verb intr.: 2. To walk in an aimless manner. noun: A leisurely, sometimes lengthy walk.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably from Middle Dutch rammelen (to wander about in heat, used of animals). Earliest documented use: 1443. _________________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard. -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1 Jul 1742-1799) _________________________________
RAMABLE - like a bumper-car
RAMBLUE - the color of my new Dodge truck
RAMBYE - the St Louis football team has the week off
ETYMOLOGY: -- From Old French fardel, diminutive of farde (package, burden), from Arabic farda (piece, pack). Earliest documented use: 1300. ___________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. -Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President (1743-1826) ___________________________
FARDEN -- a very distant herbarium with beautiful floral displays
MEANING: noun: 1. The fundamentals of any subject. 2. The branch of grammar dealing with inflections of words. 3. A book of fundamentals of a subject.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin accidentia (from Latin accidens), from accidere (to happen), from ad- (toward) + cadere (to fall). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kad- (to fall), which is also the source of cadence, cascade, casualty, cadaver, chance, chute, accident, occident, decay, recidivism, perchance, casuistry. Earliest documented use: 1434. _______________________
OCCIDENCE - fundamentals of Western thought
ACCEDENCE - capitulation (pron.. ak-SEED-ence)
ACCIDENCH - Judi the Woodcutter
ACCIDUNCE - 1. unintended stupidity; 2. the latest Darwin Award winner
One of my all time favorites as well, so much in it, so many terrific scenes. Kathy Bates sets the table, hubby comes home picks up chick and goes to watch he game: so stereotypical. Et. al.
MEANING: adjective: Whole or entire (referring to time).
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English leof (dear, used as an intensifier) + lang (long). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gleubh- (to tear apart), which is also the source of cleve, glyph, clever, clove (garlic), cleave, dermatoglyphics, lief, and lubricious. Earliest documented use: 1450. ________________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. -Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (7 Jul 1907-1988) ________________________________
MEANING: adjective: 1. Custom-made. 2. Relating to custom-made products.
ETYMOLOGY: Shortening of bespoken, past participle of bespeak (to speak for, to arrange), from Old English besprecan (to speak about). Earliest documented use: 1755. __________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings. -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, psychiatrist and author (8 Jul 1926-2004) ___________________________
BESTPOKE - any of several zingers by Larry or Curly or Moe
BESPORE - to dust with fern seeds
BESPOK - 1. to overwhelm with logic; 2. to bestow the Leonard Nimoy Award
MEANING: noun: The study of interacting surfaces in relative motion and associated issues, such as friction, lubrication, and wear.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek tribos (rubbing), from tribein (to rub). Earliest documented use: 1966.
NOTES: Usually words are coined on the streets of language, but here is one instance where a word may be considered to have been synthesized in a lab, if there could be such a thing as a word lab. In 1965, a group of lubrication engineers decided they needed a name for what they did and contacted the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary for help. Out of this came the word tribology, suggested by one C.G. Hardie of Magdalen College. So even though it looks like the perfect word for it, tribology is not the study of tribes. A related term is triboelectricity: electricity generated by friction. _______________________________
Triloboggy- a bog filled with trilobites Triloboogie- earliest recorded music of the Early Cabrian period. Trilobogeyman- an imaginary, prehistoric monster used to frighten misbehaving arthropods into good behavior. "And they died!"
MEANING: noun: 1. An intellectual. 2. One having a deep interest in the arts, especially in classical music. 3. A male with long hair, especially a hippie. 4. A cat having long hair.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English lang + haer. Earliest documented use: 1893. _________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: If life had a second edition, how I would correct the proofs. -John Clare, poet (13 Jul 1793-1864) _________________________
LONCHAIR - what you sit on to watch Lawn Tennis
LONGHAIN - what you get from a 65-yard pass-and-run play (the H is silent)
MEANING: noun: 1. One who works while other workers are on strike. 2. A swindler, especially in games such as gambling. 3. One of various diseases of plants or cattle.
ETYMOLOGY: It’s unclear how the term came to be employed for a strikebreaker. Earliest documented use: 1722. ______________________
CLACKLEG - playing the spoons on your prosthesis; sounds like castinets
BLANKLEG - a clean cast for your friends to sign
BACKLEG - what a dog marks his territory by raising
ETYMOLOGY: From the former belief that a lack of vigor or courage was from a deficiency of bile which showed in a light-colored liver. Earliest documented use: 1546. Also known as lily-livered. ______________________________
WHITE-LIKE-RED - famed cardiologist enjoys wine with his meat
MEANING: noun: One who mindlessly agrees with an idea or opinion.
ETYMOLOGY: After callers on the talk radio program Rush Limbaugh Show who often unquestioningly agree with the radio host. The word began as a term to describe listeners to the show who would agree with the previous caller’s effusive praise of Limbaugh with the word “ditto”. From ditto (same, likewise), from Italian (Tuscan dialect ditto) detto (said, above-mentioned), from Latin dictus (said), from dicere (to say). Ultimately from the Indo-European root deik- (to show, to pronounce solemnly), which also gave us judge, verdict, vendetta, revenge, indicate, dictate, paradigm, diktat, fatidic, hoosegow, interdict, retrodiction. Earliest documented use: 1989.
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DITTOHEAR - an "earworm;" a song you can't get out of your mind
MEANING: m adjective: 1. Relating to the dwarf planet Pluto. 2. Relating to Pluto, the god of the underworld in the Greek mythology. 3. Relating to the underworld.
ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin from Greek Plouton (Pluto, the god of the underworld). Earliest documented use: 1604. ____________________________________
BLUTONIAN - thuggish (from a character in Popeye)
PNUTONIAN - classical physics (the P is silent, like the pee in "pswimming")
PLUTONIN - Anais' little brother, disinherited a couple of years ago. New pictures of him have recently appeared, taken by some fly-by-night outfit.
MEANING: noun: A persistent or multifaceted problem that presents a new obstacle when a part of it is solved.
ETYMOLOGY: After the many-headed monster Hydra in Greek mythology. When its one head was cut off, it sprouted two more. It was ultimately slain by Hercules. From Latin Hydra, from Greek Hudra (water snake). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wed- (water, wet), which also gave us water, wash, winter, hydrant, redundant, otter, and vodka. Earliest documented use: 1374. ____________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead. -Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (21 Jul 1899-1961) _____________________________
HI, DRA - Crabbe and Goyle being unacceptably familiar with young Malfoy
HYBRA - an uplifting undergarment preferred by Madonna
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin, from Greek Kerberos. Earliest documented use: 1386.
NOTES: Cerberus (also Kerberos) was the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades, the infernal region in classical mythology. Ancient Greeks and Romans used to put a slice of cake in the hands of their dead to help pacify Cerberus on the way. This custom gave rise to the idiom “to give a sop to Cerberus” meaning to give a bribe to quiet a troublesome person. Cancerbero (from Spanish can: dog) is one of the Spanish terms for a goalkeeper in fútbol (football). Kerberos is the name given to an authentication protocol for computer networks. _______________________________
ACERBERUS - given to tossing out sharp-tongued witticisms
CARBERUS - pertaining to old-time fuel-injection systems
CURBERUS - Big-box chain of stores that sell Pooper-Scoopers and other pick-up-after-your-dog supplies
MEANING: adjective: Relating to, happening, or active at night.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin nocturnalis (of the night), from nox (night). Earliest documented use: 1485.
NOTES: Pluto’s moon Nix is named after Nyx, the ancient Greek goddess personifying night. In Roman mythology she’s known as Nox. The Latin word for night, nox, also appears in such words as equinox (equal day and night) and noctambulation (sleepwalking). _____________________________
NOCHURNAL - sorry, we're all out of butter
NOCTURINAL - gets up at night to empty the bladder
MEANING: adjective: 1. Dark or gloomy. 2. Hellish. 3. Unbreakable or completely binding (said of an oath). 4. Relating to the river Styx.
ETYMOLOGY: In Greek mythology Styx was a river in the underworld over which souls of the dead were ferried by Charon (after whom Pluto’s largest moon is named). Styx was also the river by which oaths were sworn that even gods were afraid to break. The word is from Latin Stygius, from Greek Stygios, from Styx (the hateful). Earliest documented use: 1566.
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STYGIANT - Alpha-boar
STYLIAN - prepare a new outfit for James Bond's author
STAYGIAN - You will join us for dinner, won't you, Mr. Menotti !?
MEANING: noun: 1. A huge or monstrous creature. 2. Something large and powerful, as an organization.
ETYMOLOGY: From Hebrew behemoth, plural of behemah (beast). Earliest documented use: 1382. Behemoth is a huge beast mentioned in the Book of Job 40:15-24.
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BE THE MOTH - You too can flit around near lights...but don't get too close!
BEHEMONTH - Just what is Julius Caesar? or is it Augustus?
ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin from Hebrew liwyathan (whale). Earliest documented use: 1382. _________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. -Robert Quillen, journalist and cartoonist (1887-1948) _________________________
LEVIATHON - an all-day fund-raiser for the benefit of the Save-the-Whales foundation
MEANING: noun: An unexpected help, benefit, or advantage.
ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin and Greek from Hebew man (manna). In the Bible manna was the food supplied to the Israelites by the heavens during their wandering in the desert. Earliest documented use: mid 5th century. __________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. -Henry Ford, industrialist (30 Jul 1863-1947) __________________________
MANUA (pron. ma-NOO-a) - organic fertilizer made in Boston
MANNAX - prohibits transporting chopped-down trees across state lines
MEANING: noun: 1. Hell. 2. Any place of extreme torture or suffering.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin gehenna, from Greek Geenna, from Hebrew ge-hinnom (hell), literally, the valley of Hinnom, or from ge ben Hinnom (valley of the son of Hinnom). It’s not clear who this Hinnom fellow was. In the Bible, the valley was known as a place of child sacrifice. Ultimately, this word is from the same Semitic root that gave Arabic jahannam (hell) which, in Hindi, became jahannum. Earliest documented use: 1594.
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GO HENNA ! - the cheer of the University of Natural Red-brown Dye Coloring
GESENNA - aphasic response to a sneeze
GE-THENNA - past participle of the Greek goddess of reason, intelligent activity, and arts
"Matisyahu's lyrics are mostly English with more than occasional use of Hebrew and Yiddish."
I was playing with ideas for a bakery (placebo effect) and was looking up marijuana slang when I found ghana. Then I started a wiki journey....sort of comes back around to Hebrew and yiddish (akeda and ayeka).
I think I'm supposed to use Jahman instead of ya, man.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin micturire (to want to urinate), from meiere (to urinate). Ultimately from the Indo-European root meigh- (to urinate), which also gave us mist, thrush, and mistletoe. Earliest documented use: 1842.
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MICTURANTE - start a pot to piss in
M.I. CURATE - tells you just how bad your heart attack was
I was perusing the word curate when I found "take the mickey" at the end of the following blog post. Curious, often to a fault, I wanted to see what it meant.
To me the Mickey one takes is a Mickey Finn, 1920s slang implying knockout drops placed in someone's drink unperceived,,as in "slip him a Mickey." Elliott Paul once wrote a mystery titled "The Mysterious Mickey Finn" - a very funny mystery too, I might add).
Taking a MIckey, meaning mocking or indicating disrespect, is a wholly different use.
And to call something "Mickey-Mouse" the adjective is disparaging, implying cheap and impromptu and perhaps fragile (and short-lived) construction. I don't know whether it came from Disney's mouse (who was originally "Steamboat Willie," as I recall; the mouse name didn't come until later) or the other way 'round...
[Oh, btw, congratulations on your promotion - you are now officially no longer a Newbie ! ]
MEANING: verb tr.: To kiss. verb intr.: To touch or to bring together.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin osculatus, past participle of osculari (to kiss), from osculum (kiss; literally, little mouth), diminutive form of os (mouth). Ultimately from the Indo-European root os- (mouth), which also gave us usher, oral, orifice, oscillate, os, and ostiary. Earliest documented use: 1656.
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OSCULITE - butterfly kisses
OSCURATE - a bloviating clergyman, who habitually runs on at the mouth
OBSCULATE - an excuse meant to hide why I didn't get home until 3AM
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To bring up undigested food through the mouth. 2. To repeat something without understanding it.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin regurgitare (to overflow or flow back), from re- (again) + gurgitare (to flood), from gurges (whirlpool). Earliest documented use: 1578.
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REGURGILATE - symptom of heavy-metal poisoning; you don't feel bad until many hours after ingestion. Watch out for it at the company picnic if they serve lemonade out of a galvanized iron trash can, even if it's never been used before (the acid in the lemonade dissolves the zinc coating on the can...and you drink it)
REGURGITAT - a cruel fraternity prank: a tattoo with special ink that makes you toss your lunch
REGUGGITATE - to form a new art conglomerate by merging a famous NYC museum with a renowned London gallery
MEANING: verb tr., intr.: 1. To chew. 2. To reduce to pulp by crushing and grinding.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin masticare (to chew), from Greek mastikhan (to gnash the teeth). Earliest documented use: 1562. A synonym of this word is fletcherize.
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MASTICASTE - Brahmin
MASSICATE 1. wholesale drying 2. a very dry Catholic religious service
MASTICALE 1. vegetables grown in the Crow's Nest 2. this beer tastes like glue
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin inter (among) + alius (other). Earliest documented use: 1665. __________________________
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly. -Ogden Nash, poet (19 Aug 1902-1971) __________________________
INTERALIAS - a death in the Witness Protection program
INTERALGIA - the blessed pain-free interval between labor contractions
INTERNALIA - a orgy of first-year medical residents
ETYMOLOGY: In German legend Lorelei was a nymph who sat on a rock of the same name on the Rhine river. Her songs lured sailors to their destruction on the rock. Earliest documented use: 1878. Also see siren, Mata Hari, and Circe. ____________________
LOBELEI - two of them. ( Lobelia /lɵˈbiːliə/ is a genus of flowering plants comprising 415 species, with a subcosmopolitan distribution primarily in tropical to warm temperate regions of the world, a few species extending into cooler temperate regions. (Wikipedia) )
LOSELEI - I can't find the flower garland they gave me on Oahu!
- An expletive used when your Survival matches get wet
p.s. the echo of the day~ Allumette (Echo Park), a restaurant that closed last year, served a drink by the name of Poire Little Rich Boy; a funny play on words.
MEANING: verb tr.: To protest by refusing to buy a product or to deal with a person, organization, nation, etc. noun: The practice or an instance of this.
ETYMOLOGY: After Charles C. Boycott (1832-1897), an English land agent in Ireland, who was ostracized for refusing to lower rents during a time of poor harvest. Earliest documented use: 1880. ___________________________
BOYNOTT - Bruce Jenner
BOBCOTT - a lynx with a Caribbean accent
BOSCOTT - what you get if you cross a Bosc pear with a Grampa Ott morning glory
MEANING: noun: The belief in the superiority of one’s country, group, gender, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: After Nicolas Chauvin, a legendary French soldier in Napoleon’s army, noted for his fanatical patriotism. The figure of Nicolas Chauvin was popularized in the play La Cocarde Tricolore by the Cogniard brothers. Earliest documented use: 1870 ____________________________
ACHAUVINISM - belief in sneezing
COHAUVINISM - belief in doing things by halves, knowing that two halves makes a whole
CHAVINISM - belief in potato soup ____________________________
I sure hope Anu doesn't pick "Gerrymander" for tomorrow's word...
Lovemace- Aurignacian stone tool used primarily in mating ceremonies, often accompanied by hair pulling into the cave
Lovemace #9- potion derived from the Aril of nutmeg
LoveMACE- the telescope will be the second-largest gamma ray telescope in the world and will help the scientific community enhance its understanding in the field of love
ETYMOLOGY: After Robert Lovelace, a dissolute character in Samuel Richardson’s novel Clarissa (1748). Earliest documented use: 1751. Other eponyms with similar senses are Casanova, Don Juan, and Romeo. ____________________________
LOVELACK - a licentious literary character's underlying motivation, often
LOVERACE - a licentious piano player and showman from 1950s TV - "Where's my candelabra?"
LOVELUCE - a not-particularly-licentious TV sitcom from the same era
MEANING: verb intr.: To act in a wasteful or frivolous manner. verb tr.: To fritter away. noun: A wasteful or frivolous person or thing.
ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of frivol (to behave frivolously), from Latin frivolus (worthless). Earliest documented use: 1610. _______________________________
FRABBLE - a board game for wordlovers with a speech impediment
FIBBLE - a small falsehood
FRIBBLE® - trademarked name for a large, thick milkshake-like cold drink, sold by the Newport Creamery company (and for a while by the Friendly's chain: drink three, get a fourth one free!)
Wish my Russian was good enough to understand the writing in the bar.
I don't know anything about any of you. It's difficult to know how to write with anything but imagination.
I took "tatting" and bumped into a big eye....that, combined with "wofa" inspired "the big, bad wolf." It seemed to have a "connection" to the "theme." Anyway....little boat from tatting.
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To catch sight of. 2. To discover or detect.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French descrier (to cry out), from crier (to cry), from Latin critare, from quiritare (to cry out). Earliest documented use: before 1400. A shortening of the word descry resulted in scry. ________________________
DECRY - to take out the lachrymal glands
DESCARY - to make less frightful
DESPRY - 1. to render no longer lithe or limber 2. to remove the shortening
MEANING: verb tr.: To pamper. noun: A pet; a spoiled child.
ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin, probably from Old English cotsaeta (cot sitter or cot dweller). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sed- (to sit), which is also the source of sit, chair, saddle, assess, sediment, soot, cathedral, tetrahedron, sessile, surcease, assiduous, and eyas. Earliest documented use: 1579 ______________________________
COSHET - a small blackjack (for knocking out midgets)
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To surround with troops. 2. To beset with difficulties.
ETYMOLOGY: From Dutch belegeren (to camp around), from be- (around) + leger (camp). Ultimately from the Indo-European root legh- (to lie or lay), which also gave us lie, lay, lair, fellow, and laager. Earliest documented use: 1589. ____________________________
B LEAGUER - not quite good enough for the majors
BENE AGUER - a disease that afflicts its victims with fevers and aches that paradoxically are good
MEANING: noun: Someone who is unrealistic, naive, chivalrous, idealistic, etc. to an absurd degree.
ETYMOLOGY: After Don Quixote, hero of the eponymous novel by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). Earliest documented use: 1644. The adjectival form is quixotic. ____________________________
QUIKOTE - new fast-drying paint
QUIQUOTE - the Faster Bartlett
QUIXOSE - an enzyme that digests QUIX (whatever that is)
MEANING: noun: A companion or sidekick, especially one who joins another in an adventure.
ETYMOLOGY: From Sancho Panza, the squire of Don Quixote. Sancho’s common sense contrasts with Don Quixote’s idealism. Earliest documented use: 1870. _____________________________
Did you know that Sancho sang a lot during his adventures with Don Quixote? SANCHO LANZA
No, no, not the tenor, the basso of that Enchanted Evening. SANCHO PINZA
And he became very pious and holy after the Don passed away - SANCTO PANZA
Years later he was reincarnated as the sidekick of the son of that Computer Network equipment magnate -- you know, the Cisco kid. PANCHO
ETYMOLOGY: From Dulcinea del Toboso, the mistress of Don Quixote. The name is derived from Spanish dulce (sweet) from Latin dulce (sweet) which also gave us dulcimer (a musical instrument), billet-doux (love letter), and dolce (softly, as in music direction). Earliest documented use: 1748.
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DUNCINEA - stupid emphasis added
SULCINEA - grooves in the National Endowment for the Arts
P.S. Dulcinea was never a sweetheart or mistress, more the unattainable ideal that inspired Don Q to do Noble and Valiant and Worthy Deeds. Plenty of unilateral declaration of unswerving loyalty and devotion, but no mutual interaction.
MEANING: noun: A man who indiscriminately seduces women.
ETYMOLOGY: While the word was popularized after Lothario, a character in the play The Fair Penitent (1703), it first appeared in Don Quixote in which nobleman Anselmo tests his wife’s fidelity by recruiting his friend Lothario to seduce her. Earliest documented use: 1756. _________________________
NOTHARIO - a would-be Don Juan who's lost his touch
Rasinante- the grapes of wrath (post hoc ergo propter hoc)
P.S. Cool! I read Grapes of Wrath over 25 years ago in high school. I had no idea rocinante had any connection to Steinbeck. I was playing with raisin, grape and latin.
ETYMOLOGY: From Rocinante, the name of Don Quixote’s horse. Don Quixote took four days to think of a lofty name for his horse, from Spanish rocín (an old horse: nag or hack) + ante (before, in front of). Earliest documented use: 1641.
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ROSSINANTE - what Gioachino was called until he wrote the William Tell Overture and became famous May - that's basically the same principle as yours !
ROSINANTE - what the poker game did when the stakes went up
ROSINANCE - how a violin bow makes such a luscious, rich, beautiful sound
ETYMOLOGY: From Rocinante, the name of Don Quixote’s horse. Don Quixote took four days to think of a lofty name for his horse, from Spanish rocín (an old horse: nag or hack) + ante (before, in front of). Earliest documented use: 1641.
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ROSSINANTE - what Gioachino was called until he wrote the William Tell Overture and became famous May - that's basically the same principle as yours !
ROSINANTE - what the poker game did when the stakes went up
ROSINANCE - how a violin bow makes such a luscious, rich, beautiful sound
Ha! Those damn tourne potatoes and Escoffier. Years ago at JW I got in trouble for turning Boccoli Polonaise into broccoli alla May. Ah, to be a Rosinante or a Rossini....
ETYMOLOGY: From French doryphore (Colorado beetle, a potato pest), from Greek doruphoros (spear carrier). The author Harold Nicolson brought the word to English in its current sense. Earliest documented use: 1952.
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PORYPHORE - any member of the second phylum of the animal kingdom
DORYPHONE - part of the communication system on a lifeboat
MEANING: verb intr.: 1. To sprout or breed. 2. To swarm or teem. 3. To increase rapidly.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pullulare (to sprout), from pullulus, diminutive of pullus (chicken, young animal), from Latin pullus (young animal). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pau- (few, little), which is also the source of few, foal, filly, pony, poor, pauper, poco, puerile, poltroon, punchinello, and catchpole. Earliest documented use: 1602. ____________________________
PULLUWATE - do at least your share
PULLULATER - Sorry, kids, we can't go sledding until this afternoon
PULLUPLATE - remove stuck dentures; can refer tp uppers or lowers, depending on how you pronounce it PULL-U-PLATE or PULL-UP-LATE
MEANING: noun: A periwinkle, any of various mollusks with a spiral shell. verb tr.: To extract with effort or difficulty.
ETYMOLOGY: For noun: Of uncertain origin. For verb: From the process of extracting a periwinkle from its shell with a pin for eating its meat. Earliest documented use: 1585. ____________________________________
MEANING: noun: 1. A playful leap: caper. 2. A leap made by a trained horse involving a backward kick of the hind legs at the top of the leap.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle French capriole (caper) or Italian capriola (leap), from Latin capreolus (goat), diminutive of caper (goat). Earliest documented use: 1580.
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APRIOLE - what's left when you remove the pit from the fuzzy orange fruit
MEANING: noun: A figurative, usually compound, expression used to describe something. For example, whale road for an ocean and oar steed for a ship.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old Norse kenna (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know), which is also the source of know, recognize, acquaint, ignore, diagnosis, notice, normal, prosopagnosia, gnomon, anagnorisis, and agnosia. Earliest documented use: 1320. Kennings were used especially in Old Norse and Old English poetry. ___________________
iKENNING - Scottish computer knowledge
K-INNING - 1. when the pitcher strikes out the side in baseball 2. a VERY long cricket match
MEANING: noun 1. An English word borrowed into Spanish, often given a Spanish form or spelling, such as mopear (to mop) instead of trapear or limpiar. 2. American customs, attitudes, etc., adopted by a Hispanic in the US and perceived pejoratively by his compatriots.
ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish pocho (discolored, faded). Earliest documented use: 1944.
NOTES: Pocho is a derogatory term used by a Hispanic for a fellow countryman living in the US who is perceived to have lost his culture and adopted American attitudes, and speaks Spanglish (Spanish heavily influenced by English).
MEANING: noun 1. The use of an epithet or title for a proper name, for example, the Bard for Shakespeare. 2. The use of the name of a person known for a particular quality to describe others, such as calling someone brainy as Einstein. Also known as eponym.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin, from Greek antonomazein (to name differently), from anti- (instead of) + onoma (name). Earliest documented use: 1589. ____________________________
AUTONOMASIA - speaking without thinking
ANTONOMARIA - West Side Story in a nutshell
GANTONOMASIA - uneasiness about a Cuban port (and prison)
MEANING: verb intr.: 1. To work hard; to toil. 2. To churn. verb tr.: To make wet or muddy. noun: 1. Hard work. 2. Confusion or turmoil.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French moillier (to moisten), from Latin mollis (soft). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mel- (soft), which also gave us malt, melt, mollify, smelt, enamel, and schmaltz. Earliest documented use: 1611.
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HMOIL - electronic messaging in the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand
MEANING: noun: The threads that run across the width of a woven fabric and are interlaced through the warp (threads that run lengthwise).
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English wefta (weft). Ultimately from the Indo-European root webh- (to weave; to move quickly), which also gave us weave, webster, waffle, wave, waver, and wobble. Earliest documented use: 725. _________________________
WEET - what bred is made from
WET - what it used to be made from
WEPT - what they did to the crumbs on the floor after the bred was all et
MEANING: noun: 1. A large seabird known for catching fish by diving from a height. 2. A greedy person.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English ganot. Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghans- (goose), which also gave us goose, gosling, gander, and gunsel. Earliest documented use: before 1000. Gannets’ reputation for being greedy isn’t deserved though.
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GARNET - a bird that swears mildly when it misses the fish it's diving for
GRANNET - a hard stone composed of little grains
RANNET - 1. sent up the flagpole (but no one saluted); 2. a small frog
MEANING: noun: 1. Any of various long-billed birds inhabiting marshy areas. 2. A shot from a concealed position.
verb intr.: 1. To shoot from a concealed position. 2. To criticize in a harsh and unfair way, especially anonymously.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably of Scandinavian origin. The shooting sense comes from the practice of snipe hunting. Earliest documented use: 1325. _____________________________
SNILE - 1. the longest river in SAfrica 2. an ambivalent facial gesture, combining a sneer and a smile
STIPE - infinite reimbursement (payment without end)
MEANING: noun: 1. An extinct, flightless bird from Mauritius, related to the pigeon but of the size of a turkey. 2. Someone or something that is old-fashioned, ineffective, or outdated. 3. A stupid person.
ETYMOLOGY: From Portuguese doudo/doido (silly, fool). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ors- (buttocks) which also gave us ass, cynosure, and squirrel. Earliest documented use: 1628
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DONO - what a physician should avoid before all other things (before "harm")
CODO - 1. work together; see also DIDO 2. last word in an arbitrary line in an arbitrary fisherman's sea chanty
DONDO - singular of DONDI, an extinct, flightless orphan from a 60-year-old comic strip
MEANING: noun: 1. Any of various birds, typically having a long tail and black-and-white plumage; also various other birds that resemble a magpie. 2. A chatterer. 3. A person who indiscriminately collect things, especially things of little value.
ETYMOLOGY: From Mag (a nickname for Margaret) + pie (magpie), from Latin pica (magpie). The use of the name Mag is from the stereotypical association of women with chattering. Magpies have a (rather undeserved) reputation for chattering and hoarding, but they are some of the most intelligent animals. Two other words coined after them are pied and pica. Earliest documented use: 1589. ________________________________
NAGPIE - an inveterate collector of things of little value who won't stop chattering about it
MANGPIE - a baked dessert made from a sweet aromatic tropical fruit
MAGPINE - a conifer that attracts iron
MAGNIE - any object that looks larger that it really is
MEANING: noun: 1. Any of various plovers breeding in mountainous areas. 2. Someone who is easily duped.
ETYMOLOGY: From dote (to be weak-minded from old age), from Middle English doten (to be foolish) + -rel (diminutive or pejorative suffix), as in doggerel and wastrel. The metaphorical sense of the word derives from the apparently unsuspecting nature of the bird. Earliest documented use: 1440. __________________________________
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin ambitus (going around), from ambire (to go around), from ambi- (both, around) + ire (to go). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ei- (to go), which also gave us exit, transit, circuit, itinerary, obituary, adit, and arrant. Earliest documented use: 1398. ___________________________________
AMBILT - completed in not just a day, but in a single morning. Unlike Rome.
AMFIT - a proclamation of one's excellent physical condition
AMOBIT - like he used to love, sorta, like, in Old Rome
MEANING: verb tr., intr.: To steal or misuse money or property entrusted to one’s care.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pecu (cattle, money). Ultimately from the Indo-European root peku- (wealth), which also gave us fee, fief, fellow, peculiar, impecunious, and pecuniary. Earliest documented use: 1715.
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PERCULATE - mispronunciation of an old-style coffee pot
MEANING: noun: A person having or affecting high power. adjective: Powerful; grand.
ETYMOLOGY: From Dutch hoogmogend (all powerful), from Hooge en Mogende (high and mighty), honorific for addressing States General (legislature) of the Netherlands. Earliest documented use: 1639.
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HOGEN-MOGEN - a sweet-wine-flavored ice cream, the antithesis of the complementary DOS-DAVID flavor
HOGEN-MOVEN - the pigs are going into a different sty for the winter
HOGER-MOGER - underhanded clandestine activity in the Hague (worth reading if you've never come across Elliot Paul before)
MEANING: noun: Establishing or reestablishing of cordial relations, especially between nations.
ETYMOLOGY: From Dutch toenadering (advance, approach), from toe (to) + nader (closer). Earliest documented use: 1920.
NOTES: The term is typically seen in South Africa, but it’s worth adopting everywhere. The French equivalent is rapprochement. _______________________________
(Oh? And the English equivalent is "entente" ?)
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TEENADERING - campaigning to improve safety on the golf course
TOENAGERING - a gang of adolescents with foot fetishes
TOKENADERING - a diplomatic ploy, in which a minority caucus agitates to pledge support to its allies, and then gives them a mere pittance
ETYMOLOGY: From Dutch dialect pappekak (soft dung) or poppekak (doll’s excrement). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kakka-/kaka- (to defecate) which also gave us cacophony, cacography, and cucking stool. Earliest documented use: 1852.
MEANING: noun: 1. A sweetheart or mistress. 2. An afterbirth formerly believed to be gotten by Dutch women by warming themselves on stoves. 3. Something imperfect or unsuccessful.
ETYMOLOGY: Apparently from Dutch zoet (sweet). Earliest documented use: 1530.
Och = Dutch for Alas Poppycock inspired Alice in Wonderland. I pass the following images daily at school. I take credit for none. Oh, I guess, we just finished soups, too.
MEANING: adjective: 1. Relieving pain; soothing. 2. Bland or insipid: not likely to provoke or offend. noun: 1. Something that soothes or comforts. 2. A medicine that relieves pain.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin anodynos, from Greek anodynos, from a- (not) + odyne (pain). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ed- (to eat, to bite), which also gave us edible, comestible, obese, etch, fret, postprandial, esurient, and edacity. Earliest documented use: 1543. _______________________________
ANUDYNE - a fragment of the force that keeps this Board going
ANODYE - what gives anodized metal its color
ANOMYNE - 1. (pronounced "ANN-o-mine") - the girl Raggedy Andy sings lovesongs to when he's a bit under the influence and feeling maudlin 2. (pronounced "a-NOM-in-ee") - a candidate for political office
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin salax (lustful, fond of leaping), from salire (to leap). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sel- (to jump), which also gave us salient, sally, sauté, assail, assault, exult, insult, result, somersault, resile, desultory, and saltant. Earliest documented use: 1661. ___________________________________
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin probus (upright, good). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (forward), which also gave us paramount, prime, proton, prow, German Frau (woman), and Hindi purana (old). Earliest documented use: 1425.
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PROBRITY - in favor of England
PROBITH - what one doth (or should) before one jumpith to conclusions
MEANING: noun: 1. Moral uprightness. 2. Correctness. 3. Straightness.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin rectus (right, straight). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule) that also gave us regime, direct, rectangle, erect, alert, source, surge, recto, abrogate, arrogate, incorrigible, interregnum, prorogue, regent, regnant, and supererogatory. Earliest documented use: 1425. ________________________________
REACTITUDE - a hair-trigger temper
RESTITUDE - just the opposite: slow to respond, verging on torpor
MEANING: adjective: Soothing or softening. noun: Something that sooths or softens.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin emollire (to soften), from ex- (intensive prefix) + mollire (to soften), from mollis (soft). Ultimately from the same Indo-European root mel- (soft) as words such as malt, melt, mollify, smelt, enamel, schmaltz, and moil. Earliest documented use: 1643
MEANING: verb tr., intr.: 1. To belch: to expel gases from the stomach through the mouth. 2. To emit violently, fumes from a volcano, for example.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin eructare (to vomit, belch, discharge). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reug- (to vomit, to belch, smoke, cloud), which also gave us reek and German rauchen (to smoke). Earliest documented use: 1666. __________________________________
KERUCT - Yer right!
RERUCT - belch again
ERUNT - (v) they were to have been; (n) even more runty than a D-runt
MEANING: adjective: Relating to the camel or its hump.
ETYMOLOGY: From camel, from Latin camelus, from Greek kamelos. Ultimately from the Semitic root gml (camel), which also gave us jamal and gamal, the Arabic and Hebrew words for camel. Earliest documented use: 1902.
MEANING: adjective: 1. Coming from outside: not inherent or native. 2. Happening by chance. 3. Appearing in an unusual or abnormal place.
ETYMOLOGY: A variant spelling of adventitious, from Latin adventicius (coming from without), from advenire (to arrive), from ad- (toward) + venire (to come). Earliest documented use: 1633.
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AVENTIOUS - without a window
ADVERTIOUS - unfavorable
ADVENTIONS - national meetings of marketing professionals
MEANING: adjective: Impressive in a dignified or inspiring manner; stately; grand.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin major (greater), comparative of magnus (large). Ultimately from the Indo-European root meg- (great), which also gave us magnificent, maharajah, mahatma, master, mayor, maestro, magnate, magistrate, maximum, magnify, hermetic, magisterial, magnanimous, magnifico, mahatma, megalopolis, and mickle. Earliest documented use: 1685.
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MATESTIOUS - studying very hard to pass the examen for entry into the lycée
MEANING: adjective: Relating to a question or topic for debate or discussion.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin quodlibetum, from Latin quod (what) + libet (it pleases), meaning “whatever pleases”. Earlier the term referred to a mock exercise in discussion or debate. Earliest documented use: 1581.
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QUIDLIBETAL - a Member of Parliament who is quite free with spending other peoople's money
QUODLOBETAL - pneumonia that doesn't care which part of your lung it infects
MEANING: noun: A mark made by someone falling backward in the snow.
ETYMOLOGY: From German sitzen (to sit) + mark. Earliest documented use: 1935. Two related words are sitzfleisch and sitzkrieg.
USAGE: “He’d practically worn a sitzmark in the concrete there, so fond was he of that particular fishing hole.” Marthanne Shubert; A Woman to Blame; Uncial Press; 2009. _____________________________
HITZMARK - is well and truly aimed
SITZMART - the best place in Berlin to buy chairs
SPITZMARK - how junk mail to a champion Olympic swimmer is addressed
MEANING: noun: An employee who works as an entrepreneur within an established company, having the freedom to take risks and act independently.
ETYMOLOGY: A blend of intra- (within) + entrepreneur, from French entreprendre (to undertake), from Latin inter- (between) + prendere (to take). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize or to take), which also gave us pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, osprey, prison, impregnable, impresa, pernancy, and prise. Earliest documented use: 1978.
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INTRAPRETEUR - a translator so my multiple personalities can understand each other
INTRAPYRENEUR - a Basque businessman with customers in both France to the North and Spain to the South
ISNTRAPRENEUR - a risk-aversive would-be innovator. See also AINTRAPRENEUR [substandard]
MEANING: adjective: 1. Sluggish or inactive. 2. Apathetic. 3. Dormant, as when hibernating.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin torpidus (numb), from torpere (to be stiff or numb). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ster- (stiff), which also gave us starch, stare, stork, starve, cholesterol, and torpedo. Earliest documented use: 1613.
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PORPID - dolphin-like
TORNID - my driver's license is torn up
TOROID - horny, like a bull (What, you were expecting something doughnut-shaped?)
MEANING: adjective: 1. Excessively fond of drinking. 2. Highly absorbent.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin bibere (to drink). Ultimately from the Indo-European root poi- (to drink), which also gave us potion, poison, potable, beverage, and Sanskrit paatram (pot). Earliest documented use: 1676. ________________________
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French gramaire (grammar, book of magic), from Greek gramma (letter). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gerbh- (to scratch), which also gave us crab, crayfish, carve, crawl, grammar, program, graphite, glamor, anagram, paraph, and graffiti. Earliest documented use: 1320.
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GRAMAREYE - what it takes to be a good editor and proofreader
GRAMPARYE - the ancestor of all blended whiskey
GAMARYE - a very short, high-energy wave studied by Australian physicists
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin jaculare (to dart), from jaculum (dart, javelin), from jacere (to throw). Earliest documented use: 1623. _________________________________
JACULATTE - last season's pumpkin-flavored drink from Starbucks
MACULATE - a mis-conception
JACKULATE - what Jackie said to JFK when he didn't show up on time
MEANING: verb tr.: To perceive; to understand; to know.
ETYMOLOGY: Back-formation from cognizance, via French from Latin cognoscere (to learn). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know), which is also the source of know, recognize, acquaint, ignore, diagnosis, notice, normal, anagnorisis (the moment of recognition or discovery), and prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces). Earliest documented use: 1659. _________________________________________
COIGNIZE - to turn a corner; to place the keystone in an arch; to insert two stepped wedges to fill up space
COGNITE - a word in a foreign language that comes from the same origin as Austrailian word
CYGNIZE - a fancy word meant to hide the fact that you're calling something ugly (like the Ugly Duckling)
ETYMOLOGY: From from Old French plainte (complaint, cry), from Latin planctus (lamentation), from plangere (to beat one’s breast). Ultimately from the Indo-European root plak- (to strike), which also gave us plaintiff, plague, plankton, fling, complain, apoplectic and plangent. Earliest documented use: 1225.
MEANING: verb tr.: To assuage: to make something unpleasant less severe.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin suavis (sweet). Ultimately from the Indo-European root swad- (sweet, pleasant), which also gave us sweet, suave, hedonism, persuade, and Hindi swad (taste). Earliest documented use: 1400. ___________________________________
SUARE - utter an oath
SQUAGE - past tense of SQUEEGE, to dry a pane of glass by scraping across it with a flexible rubber straightedge
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To congratulate. 2. To express joy at the sight of something or someone.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin gratulari (to congratulate), from con- (with) + gratulari (to show joy), from gratus (pleasing). Earliest documented use: 1567. ___________________________
GYRATULATE - composed of many small particles going around in circles
GRATUIATE - tipsy
GRABULATE - Personal Foul, loss of 15 yards from the point of the infraction, automatic First Down
MEANING: noun: 1. A rich and spicy fish stew or soup. 2. A mixture of incongruous things.
ETYMOLOGY: From French bouillabaisse, from Provençal bouiabaisso, from Latin bullire (to boil) + bassus (low). Earliest documented use: 1855. ____________________________________
BOOILLABAISSE - a special soup served at a Halloween party
BOUILLABAISTE - or use it to moisten your turkey as it roasts
BOULLABAISSE - first or second or third sack at a Yale baseball game
BROUILLABAISSE - the ultimate in before-dinner beers, rich and spicy
ETYMOLOGY: From French réchauffé (reheated, rehashed), from chauffer (to warm), from Latin calefacere (to make warm), from calere (to be hot) + facere (to make). Other (some hot, some not) words derived from the Latin root calere are chafe, nonchalant, calefacient, and chauffeur (literally, a stoker, who warmed up the engine in early steam-driven cars). Earliest documented use: 1778. _________________________________
PRECHAUFFE - eaten unwarmed, like biftek tartare or cold pizza
MEANING: adjective: Excessively sweet, sentimental, or ingratiating.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin saccharum (sugar), from Greek sakkharon, from Sanskrit sarkara (gravel, sugar). Earliest documented use: 1674.
NOTES: The name of the synthetic sweetening compound, saccharin, is derived from the same Latin word as today’s term. The compound was first produced in 1879, but the usage of the word saccharine goes much earlier. For example, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1841: “One might find argument for optimism in the abundant flow of this saccharine element of pleasure in every suburb and extremity of the good world.”
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin farrago (mixed fodder). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhares- (barley), which also gave us barn, barley, and farina. Earliest documented use: 1637. ____________________________________
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin farrago (mixed fodder). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhares- (barley), which also gave us barn, barley, and farina. Earliest documented use: 1637.
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FARRAGNO - an Incredibly Hulking actor from Boston
ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps it’s a variant of the word quiz which has a similar meaning. Or maybe the word quiz is a variant of quoz. It’s all very quizzical. Or quozzical. Earliest documented use: 1780. __________________________________
QUON - a hybrid particle, combining the qualities of a quark and a muon
IQUOZ - the intelligence of the Wizard
SQUOZ - pluperfect subjunctive for what you shouldn't do to the Charmin'
MEANING: noun: 1. An attested copy of a document. 2. An official inspection.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin vidimus (we have seen), from videre (to see). Ultimately from the Indo-European root weid- (to see), which also gave us guide, wise, vision, advice, idea, story, history, vizard, videlicet, prudential, previse, and invidious. Earliest documented use: 1436.
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OVIDIMUS - We have written a poem in Latin
VIDIPUS - Oedipus before he plucked his eyes out, so he could still see
MEANING: adjective: Counterfeit or spurious. noun: An alloy of zinc and copper, used as imitation gold in jewelry.
ETYMOLOGY: After watchmaker Christopher Pinchbeck (1670-1732), who invented it. It’s ironic that today his name is a synonym for something counterfeit, but in his time his fame was worldwide, not only as the inventor of this curious alloy, but also as a maker of musical clocks and orreries. The composition of this gold-like alloy was a closely-guarded secret, but it didn’t prevent others from passing off articles as if made from this alloy... faking fake gold! _________________________________
PINCHBACK - what you should do to the rhododendrons after they finish blooming (see "deadheading")
PINCHNECK - a Vulcan maneuver to disable one's opponents without causing permanent harm
PUNCHBECK - what a kid does in a Brooklyn schoolyard when someone hits him
MEANING: noun: 1. A robber. 2. A native or resident of Kansas.
ETYMOLOGY: Originally, a Jayhawker was a member of antislavery guerrillas in Kansas or Missouri during the US Civil War. It’s not clear why they were called Jayhawkers. Earliest documented use: 1860.
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JAYHAWKERY - the downfall of Panem and its Hunger Games; selling the Revolution to the outlying provinces
JOYHAWKER - 1. G-d Rest Ye Merry, Merchants, May you make the Yuletide pay (Tom Lehrer) 2. It's the old Dope Peddler, with his powdered happiness (also Tom Lehrer)
JAYHAWSER - (nautical) a rope one grade thicker than an I-hawser
MEANING: adjective: Awakening or arousing. noun: A drug or other agent that awakens or arouses.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin expergefacere (to awaken), from expergisci (to become awake) + facere (to make or do). Earliest documented use: 1821. __________________________________
EXPURGEFACIENT - laxative
EXPERGEFACIEST - the best pepper-upper in the whole wide world !
EXPERTEFACIENT - it'll teach you everything in just six quick lessons
MEANING: noun 1. A sequence of words used as a formula, a charm, etc. 2. A continuously moving endless elevator that goes in a loop. 3. The Lord’s Prayer; one of the certain larger beads in a rosary on which the Lord’s Prayer is said.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pater noster (our father), opening words of the Lord’s Prayer in Latin. Earliest documented use: before 900.
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PASTERNOSTER - our local parish priest, who can't spell
MEANING: noun: An official order to commit someone to prison.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin mittimus (we send), the first word of such an order, from mittere (to send). Earliest documented use: 1443. _________________________________________
MEANING: noun: A convivial gathering or merry-making of students at a college or university.
ETYMOLOGY: From the students’ song “De Brevitate Vitae” (On the Shortness of Life) whose first word is gaudeamus (let’s rejoice). Earliest documented use: 1823.
MEANING: noun: A certificate acknowledging a debt.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin debentur (they are due/owing), the first word in early certificates of indebtedness. From Latin debere (to owe), ultimately from the Indo-European root ghabh- (to give or to receive), which is also the source of give, gift, able, habit, prohibit, due, duty, adhibit, and habile. Earliest documented use: 1455. ____________________________________
DEBENTIRE - the Compleat Devorah
DEVENTURE - withdraw from a dubious enterprise
DECENTURE - Of course my clothes are on, some on in!
MEANING: noun: 1. The hymn of the Virgin Mary in Luke, 1:46-55. 2. An utterance of praise.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin magnificat (magnifies), the first word of the Latin version of the hymn that opens with “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” (“My soul magnifies the Lord”), from Latin magnus (great). Ultimately from the Indo-European root meg- (great), which is also the source of magnificent, maharajah, master, mayor, maestro, magnate, magistrate, maximum, magnify, mickle, mahatma, magnanimous, magisterial, magnifico, majestious, and hermetic. Earliest documented use: before 450. ____________________________________
MAGNIFICT - an epic lie
MAGNITICAT - Rub it against a glass rod and it'll stick to the wall
MEANING: verb tr.: To gather and publish someone’s personal information, such as phone number, address, email messages, credit card numbers, etc., especially with a malicious intent. noun: Personal information about someone, collected and published without permission.
ETYMOLOGY: Phonetic respelling of docs, short for documents, from Latin documentum (lesson, proof, specimen), from docere (to teach), which also gave us doctor and docent. Earliest documented use: early 2000s.
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DROX - black and white cookie, often enjoyed with cold milk, competitor of Reo, but it doesn't really matter 'cause they're both owned by the same company. YCLIU.
DOXU - the latest Star Wars villian
GOX - phonetic respelling of GOKS, acronym of God Only KnowS. You hope your doctor never has to tell you "You have GOKS Disease;" there's no cure.
MEANING: verb tr.: To remove someone from one’s list of online friends.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin de- (from, away) + friend, from Old English freond. Ultimately from the Indo-European root pri- (to love), which also gave us free, Friday, and Sanskrit priya (beloved). Earliest documented use: 2004.
NOTES: The first use of the word ‘defriend’ in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 2004. In contrast, the first use of the word ‘befriend’ goes all the way to 1559. It took us another 100 years to ‘unfriend’ someone -- 1659. The verb ‘to friend’ goes way back to 1225. Finally, the noun ‘friend’ is attested in Old English (c. 450-1150).] ______________________________
DEFIEND - exorcise
DOEFRIEND - Bambi's momma
DERRIEND - horse's a** can't make up his mind whether he's French or English
MEANING: noun: A feeling of malaise accompanied by lack of motivation, dissatisfaction, feelings of guilt, especially among wealthy young people.
ETYMOLOGY: A blend of affluence + influenza. Both words are from Latin fluere (to flow). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhleu- (to swell or overflow), from which flow words such as influence, fluctuate, fluent, fluid, fluoride, flush, flux, reflux, superfluous, fluvial, and profluent. Earliest documented use: 1973.
USAGE: “When Ethan Couch was 16, he was spared prison after killing four people in a drink-driving accident because a judge found that he suffered from affluenza ... “Couch’s blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit and there were traces of Valium and marijuana in his system when he took seven friends for a high-speed ride in his pick-up truck on June 15, 2013. He ploughed into a broken-down car at over 70 mph, killing four people who were working on it. Two of his friends were critically injured and one was left paralysed. ... “Couch’s defence hinged on a psychologist’s evidence that the boy could not understand the consequences of his actions because he had been raised by ‘profoundly dysfunctional’ millionaire parents who encouraged his bad behaviour. ‘Instead of the golden rule, which was -- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you -- he was taught ‘We have the gold, we make the rules,’ Dick Miller [a psychologist hired by the defense] testified.” Ben Hoyle; Boy Who was Too Rich for Jail Goes on the Run; The Times (London, UK); Dec 18, 2015.
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ARFLUENZA - my dog is sick, I can tell just from hearing him bark
WAFFLUENZA - a pathological inability to make up one's mind
Onedrous- David Bowie, "a divinely inspired and purposefully lived life"
Rolling Stone's contemporary review of Hunky Dory considered that "Changes" could be "construed as a young man's attempt to reckon how he'll react when it's his time to be on the maligned side of the generation schism".[8] -Wikipedia
MEANING: noun: A state marked by apathy, lethargy, and inactivity.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin torpere (to be stiff or numb). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ster- (stiff), which also gave us starch, stare, stork, starve, cholesterol, torpedo, and torpid. Earliest documented use: 1607. ___________________________________
TORMOR - rent into smaller pieces
TORPORK - spareribs, eaten without benefit of cutlery
TORROR - mortal fear of getting a run in one's stockings
MEANING: noun: 1. A confused mass; a jumble. 2. A state of upheaval. verb intr.: 1. To roll, writhe, or toss. 2. To lie soaked in something, such as blood.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle Dutch welteren or Middle Low German weltern (to roll). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wel- (to turn or roll), which also gave us waltz, revolve, valley, walk, vault, volume, wallet, helix, devolve, and voluble. Earliest documented use: 1400.
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BELTER - 1. an inhabitant of Ceres (or any other asteroid) 2. Ethel Merman
BWELTER - someone trying to portray a loud, evil laugh (BWA-ha-ha-ha...)
WEBTER - the best dictionary to use if you have a speech impediment
MEANING: noun: An insulting or abusive criticism or expression.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin invehi (to attack with words), from invehere (to carry in). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wegh- (to go or to transport in a vehicle), which also gave us deviate, way, weight, wagon, vogue, vehicle, vector, envoy, trivial, and inveigh. Earliest documented use: 1430.
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INVESTIVE - 1. pertaining to the ascension to a new position of power, reponsibility, and respect 2. placing assets where they will grow
INSECTIVE - encouraging the spread of arthropods
SINVECTIVE - dramatic exhortation against evil and transgression
MEANING: - noun: A reluctance to express one’s thoughts and feelings.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin reticere (to be silent), from re- (again, back), from tacere (to be silent). Earliest documented use: 1603. _____________________________
RELICENCE - obtain a new permit
RETICENSE - make a new macrame holder for the aroma-spreader in church
ARETICENCE - awareness of the purity and the virtue and the goodness of the ideal world
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Apparently he was a chess player. I have no idea, in answer to your question. I don't play, nor do I follow chess. I just combined The Reti Opening with Gabriel Oaks poor luck at the beginning of Far From The Madding Crowd. Coincidence I watched the movie on Thursday or Friday (HBO) and thought it went well with the quote by Sir Alan Bates.
Fact checking, I just now noticed that he, too, died of cancer at age 69. Strange enough for this week.
MEANING: noun: 1. A coarse cloth of jute, flax, etc., used for making sacks. 2. A garment made of this cloth, worn to express remorse, humility, grief, etc. 3. An expression of penitence, mourning, humility, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From the Bible in which wearing of sackcloth and sprinkling of ashes is indicated as a sign of repentance, mourning, humility, etc. Earliest documented use: before 1400.
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Is "epithet" when one word is almost always associated with another, like "rosy-fingered / dawn" in Homer? I've never heard of "Sackcloth" when it wasn't followed by "and ashes"... _______________________________________
SACKCLOTH - 1. Hoity-toity name for sheeets
and in the same vein (so to speak) SACKCLOTS - pulmonary thromboemboli from too much bed rest and SACKSLOTH - major-league couch potato
BACKCLOTH - what the shirt is made of that I'd give you off mine
MEANING: adjective: Excessively strict, rigid, old-fashioned, or prudish.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English streit (narrow), from Old French estreit, from Latin strictus, past particle of stringere (to bind, draw tight) + laqueus (noose). Earliest documented use: 1630. __________________________________
MEANING: noun: 1. An extreme radical republican during the French Revolution. 2. A radical or revolutionary.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally, without knee breeches. In the French Revolution, this was the aristocrats’ term of contempt for the ill-clad volunteers of the Revolutionary army who rejected knee breeches as a symbol of the upper class and adopted pantaloons. As often happens with such epithets, the revolutionaries themselves adopted it as a term of pride. Earliest documented use: 1790. ___________________________________
SASS-CULOTTE - hot pants
SAN OSCULOTTE - Valentine, the Kissing Saint
SANS-CURLOTTE - just donated all her ringlets to Locks of Love
MEANING: verb tr., intr.: To make, sell, or transport something illegally. noun: Something illegally made, sold, or distributed. adjective: Made, sold, or distributed illegally.
ETYMOLOGY: From the practice of concealing a liquor flask in the leg of a boot. Earliest documented use: 1889. ____________________________________
BOOTLUG - the nut used to keep the trunk of a British vehicle locked
BOATLEG - one part of a sailing race
BOOTLOG - the daily entries of a German U-boat commander
MEANING: adjective: Characterized by thievery or trickery.
ETYMOLOGY: From Autolycus, the son of Hermes and Chione in Greek mythology, who was skilled in theft and trickery. He was able to make himself (or things he touched) invisible, which greatly helped him in his trade. Shakespeare named a con artist after Autolycus in A Winter’s Tale. Earliest documented use: 1890. __________________________________
AUTOGLYCAN - a long chain-like molecule that forms out of a soup of small sugar molecules without need of a catalyst
MEANING: adjective: 1. Requiring extraordinary strength or effort. 2. Having great strength or size.
ETYMOLOGY: From Hercules, the son of Zeus and Alcmene in Greek mythology. Hercules performed many feats requiring extraordinary strength and effort, such as cleaning the Augean stables. Earliest documented use: 1594. _____________________________
FERCULEAN - made of iron and copper
HERCLEAN - Mr Clean's wife
HERCULEXAN - an extremely strong clear plastic to form into storm windows and doors (see also "Gorilla Glass")
MEANING: noun: A person, organization, or thing of great strength, size, or achievement.
ETYMOLOGY: From Titan, any of a family of giant gods in Greek mythology who were overthrown by Zeus and company. Atlas was a titan. Earliest documented use: 1412. ________________________________
TIXAN - along with chiggers, what you get camping out if you aren't careful
MITAN - 1. what the three little kitans lost; 2. a graduate of an engineering school in Cambridge, MA
MEANING: noun: An enticing appeal that ultimately leads to disaster.
ETYMOLOGY: From Siren, one of a group of sea nymphs, whose enchanting singing lured sailors to shipwreck on the rocks around their island. Also see femme fatale. Earliest documented use: 1568. ____________________________
STIREN' SONG - a real tear-jerker
SIRE NO SONG - words from the Jester with laryngitis
SIREN BONG - too many smokers at once really make it wail
ETYMOLOGY: From Bacchus, the god of wine in Roman mythology. His Greek equivalent is Dionysus who gave us the word dionysian. Earliest documented use:1699. _____________________________
BATCHANT - one of a small army of six-legged arthropods
BACCHIANT - simultaneously smoking and drinking cheap wine from a straw-wrapped bottle
ETYMOLOGY: A variant of uncouth, from uncuth, from un- (not) + cuth (known), from cunnan (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know), which also gave us know, recognize, acquaint, ignore, diagnosis, notice, normal, agnosia, anagnorisis, prosopagnosia, cognize, gnomon, and kenning. Earliest documented use: 1410. ____________________________________
UNCOA - 1. the Other Aluminum Company ("Aluminium," if you prefer) 2. 7-Up's Christmas ad campaign (no L)
MEANING: noun: 1. A long narrative of heroic exploits. 2. A long detailed report.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old Norse, literally (narrative). Originally, a saga was an Old Norse or Icelandic prose narrative dealing with historic or legendary figures. Earliest documented use: 1709.
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SHAGA - a parasitic disease caused by a trypanosome, endemic to Mexico, Central and South America
SPAGA - a large hunk of pasta; a little one is a Spaghet, pl. Spaghetti
SANGA - Funiculi, Funicula emerging from a bar in Milan
MEANING: noun: A period of 24 hours. adjective: Lasting 24 hours or having a 24-hour period.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin dies (day), which also gave us adjourn, diary, diet, circadian, journal, journey, quotidian, and sojourn. Earliest documented use: 1934. _____________________________________
DO-EL - Christmas with a very stuffed nose
DIELA - the one who turns over the cards in a Boston casino
DIXEL - a single element in a double-density computer-generated image
MEANING: noun: A man (in plural, persons of either sex). verb tr.: To make fun of; ridicule.
noun: A rope to steady, guide, or secure something. verb tr.: To steady, guide, or secure something with a rope.
ETYMOLOGY: For set 1:After Guy Fawkes (1570-1606), a conspirator in the failed attempt to blow up England’s Parliament in 1605. Earliest documented use: 1874.
For set 2: From Old French guie (guide), from guier (to guide). Ultimately from the Indo-European root weid- (to see), which is also the source of guide, wise, vision, advice, idea, story, history, polyhistor, invidious, hades, eidos, eidetic, previse, vidimus, and vizard. Earliest documented use: 1375. ______________________________________
QUY - what you use to unlock the door to the pagoda
AGUY - feelng like you're coming down with the flu
MEANING: adjective: 1. Prudish; outdated; exaggeratedly proper; hypocritical. 2. Relating to the period of the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). 3. Relating to ornate architecture, furnishings, etc., characteristic of the period.
ETYMOLOGY: After Queen Victoria of the UK (1819-1901). Earliest documented use: 1839.
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VICTO-RICAN - pertaining to the capture of a pirate ship full of plunder
VICTOURIAN - being taken around a famous old London theater
VECTORIAN - 1. having both a magnitude and a direction 2. pertaining to the spread of disease via an intermediate species
MEANING: noun: An affected literary style marked by intricate language and elaborate figures of speech.
ETYMOLOGY: After Spanish baroque poet Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627). Earliest documented use: 1813.
NOTES: Some Gongorisms from Luis de Góngora y Argote: • La vida es ciervo herido, que las flechas le dan alas. (Life is a wounded stag in whom the fast-stuck arrows function as wings.) • A batallas de amor, campo de pluma. (Feathers are love’s most fitting battle-ground.) ____________________________________________
GOGORISM - Disco music beat
GONGPRISM - a special piezo-sonic crystal that reverberates when white light shines through it
GONORISM - combining a venereal disease with an ineffective contraceptive method
ETYMOLOGY: After Joseph Addison (1672-1719), English essayist and poet. Earliest documented use: 1789.
NOTES: Some aphorisms by Addison: -- What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. -- Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. -- Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honor is a private station. __________________________________ [This definition applies to the Addison of Addison and Steele, the two pioneering journalists of the Tatler and the Spectator. These days the eponym is more likely to be associated with Dr. Thomas Addison, who "...first described the clinical presentation of primary adrenocortical insufficiency (Addison disease) in 1855 in his classic paper...". Even as a cardiologist I know Addison's Disease and Addisonian Crisis. If your adrenal glands don't make hydrocortisone, you're in BIG trouble, believe me. -- Wofahulicodoc] _______________________________________
ADDASONIAN - adopt a male child into your family
DADDISONIAN - Patriarchal
EDDISONIAN - figured out by the inventor AFTER he received his Doctorate in Education
ETYMOLOGY: From misreading of in as m in the word migraine. From French migraine, from Latin hemicrania (pain in one side of the head), from Greek hemi- (half) + kranion (skull). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ker- (horn or head), which also gave us unicorn, horn, hornet, rhinoceros, reindeer, carrot, carat, and cerebrate. Earliest documented use: 1440. ________________________
MEANING: adjective: Happening after someone’s death, but relating to something done earlier. For example, a book published after the death of the author, a child born after the death of the father, an award given after the death of a person.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin posthumus, alteration of postumus, superlative of posterus (coming after). The word literally means “subsequent” but since it was often used in contexts relating to someone’s death, people began associating the word with humus (earth) or humare (to bury) and amended the spelling. Earliest documented use: 1608. _________________________________
ETYMOLOGY: This fabric has nothing to do with a lute string. The word is a corruption of French lustrine, from Italian lustrino, from Latin lustrare (to make bright). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leuk- (light), which also gave us lunar, lunatic, light, lightning, lucid, illuminate, illustrate, translucent, lux, lynx, pellucid, lucubrate, limn, levin, and lea. Earliest documented use: 1661. ______________________________________
LUTESTRINE - the latest contraceptive
LURESTRING - what your well-dressed Siren wears
CUTESTRING - a long line of puppies and kittens and penguin chicks and panda cubs and the like
MEANING: noun: A residential building with outbuildings and the attached land.
ETYMOLOGY: From the misreading of the letter n as u in Old French mesnage (household), from Latin manere (to remain, dwell). Ultimately from the Indo-European root men- (to remain), which also gave us manor, mansion, ménage, immanent, permanent, menagerie, menial, and remain. Earliest documented use: 1490. _______________________________
MASSUAGE - (pron. mass-WAGE) - paying everybody at least $15/hour!
MESSUAVE - (pron. me-SWAV) - "I am the smoothest!"
MESSTAGE - (pron mess-STAGE) - after the wild theater party
MEANING: noun: 1. An illustration facing or preceding the title page of a book. 2. A facade, especially an ornamental facade, of a building. 3. An ornamental pediment over a door or window.
ETYMOLOGY: The word was formed by corruption of French frontispice by association with the word ‘piece’. It’s from Latin frontispicium (facade), from front- (front) + specere (to look). Ultimately from the Indo-European root spek- (to observe), which also gave us spy, spice, species, suspect, expect, spectrum, despise, despicable, bishop, telescope, specious, speciesism, soupcon, prospicient, perspicuous, speculum, omphaloskepsis, and conspectus. Earliest documented use: 1598.
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FRONDISPIECE - many leaflets of a fern, all on one single stem
FRONTISPICE - the most prominent condiment in the cabinet, often a chili or a curry
FRONTISPIERCE - a direct attack from straight ahead using a sharp instrument
PARSNIMONY – 1. Mon(e)y is the root of all evil. 2. A replacement for the gold standard. PARSIMON – A tree that is reluctant to give up its orange fruit.
MEANING: noun: 1. The combining capacity of an atom or a group of atoms to form molecules. 2. The capacity of someone or something to affect another.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin valentia (power, worth, or strength), from valere (to be well or strong). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wal- (to be strong) that also gave us valiant, avail, valor, value, wieldy, countervail, valetudinarian, and valorize, Earliest documented use: 1425. _________________________
VALENE - one of the ameno acids
VIALENCE(1) - the orchestral string section
VIALENCE(2) - riot in the perfume-bottling factory
MEANING: noun: Personal property: movable property, as contrasted with real estate.
ETYMOLOGY: From Anglo-French personalté, from Latin personalitas, from persona (mask, person), from Etruscan phersu, from Greek prosopa (face, mask). Earliest documented use: 1528. __________________________________
PERSONALTA - a high muckety-muck of the feminine gender
PERSONASTY - any one of many unpleasant folk
PARSONALTY - things owned by a local church officer
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin turchemannus, from Arabic tarjuman, from Aramaic turgemana, from Akkadian targumanu (interpreter). Earliest documented use: 1485. ___________________________
TRACHMAN - the guy who puts the hole in your throat so you can breathe better
TRUTHMAN - a Fair Witness, male gender
TRUCHBAN - no cargo vehicles with more than two axles allowed
Popinsay- a children's toy that outwardly consists of a box with ocular-based biometric technology. When the unique patterns on a person's retina blood vessels is recognized it plays a melody. The melody utilizes synthesizers for ancillary effects.
MEANING: noun: Someone who indulges in vain and empty chatter.
ETYMOLOGY: Via French and Spanish from Arabic babbaga (parrot). The last syllable changed to jay because some thought the word referred to that bird instead of a parrot. Earliest documented use: 1322. _________________________
POPINDAY - A holiday in honour of British Nannies in general and author P.L. Travers' character in particular
POPINJAW - vernacular for TMJ syndrome (temporo-mandibular joint)
MEANING: adjective: Relating to or containing arsenic (especially when trivalent).
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French arsenic, from Latin arsenicum, from Greek arsenikon (yellow orpiment), from Arabic zarnik, from Persian zar (gold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghel- (to shine), which also gave us yellow, gold, glimmer, glimpse, glass, gloaming, melancholy, and choleric. Earliest documented use: 1818. _____________________
ARENIOUS - occurring in a place with seats all around so a lot of people can watch
ARSENIORS - the class that's going to graduate at the end of the year
ETYMOLOGY: From Italian brio (liveliness), from Spanish brio (spirit), from Celtic brigos (strength). Earliest documented use: 1731. _____________________________
MEANING: verb tr.: To trick or deceive. noun: 1. Deception. 2. An artificial narrowing or a turn added to a road to slow traffic down. ____________________________ [Doesn't it also mean, in Bridge, void in a suit?] ____________________________
ETYMOLOGY: From French chicaner (to quibble). Earliest documented use: 1672. _________________________
CHICAGE - the alternative to free-range pullets
CHICARE - Medical Assistance for the impoverished and uninsured in urban Illinois
CHOCANE - when she got older, Harry Potter's first crush developed a sore hip and used this
MEANING: verb tr.: To disparage or belittle. verb intr.: 1. To detract from (authority, value, etc.). 2. To deviate from (a standard, for example).
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin derogare (to repeal), from de- (from) + rogare (to ask, propose a law). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule), which is also the source of regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, surge, abrogate, and queen regnant. Earliest documented use: 1513. __________________________________
AEROGATE - scandal at Boeing
ZEROGATE - a binary Maxwell's Demon, which selectively excludes ones
ETYMOLOGY: From French ludique, from Latin ludere (to play), from ludus (play). Ultimately from Indo-European root leid- (to play), which is also the ancestor of allude, collude, delude, elude, illusion, ludicrous, and Ludo. Earliest documented use: 1940.
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LUPIC - wolfish
LAUDIC - complimentary
LUXIC - very bright (and energy-efficient; see also LEDIC)
MEANING: noun: A word, phrase, or piece of text arranged to form a picture of the subject described.
ETYMOLOGY: From French calligramme, from Greek calli- (beautiful) + -gram (something written). Earliest documented use: 1923. A word with the same root is callipygian.
NOTES: One of the best-known practitioners of the form was the French poet and writer Guillaume Apollinaire, whose work was published in the book Calligrammes. ____________________________________
CALLINGRAM - Here, Truckie, Here truckie!
CALLIGRAM - Hi, Nana, How're ya doing?
CARLIGRAM - Ran your Company into ground stop what made you think could do better as POTUS?
MEANING: noun: A word or phrase written in a manner that it reads the same (sometimes, a different word or phrase) when oriented in a different way, for example, when reflected or rotated.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin ambi- (both) + -gram (something written). Earliest documented use: 1985. ______________________________
(look up Scott Kim for more on the subject of Ambigrams!) ______________________________
AMBIGAM - kick equally well with left and right leg
ABBIGRAM – My boss wants me to salute when she comes into my office, and my sister's hamster accuses me of stealing his food in the middle of the night. What should I do?
AMBIGRAD – An alumnus who couldn't decide on a major.
NOTES: The best-known pangram is: The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Here’s a pangram that makes use of the whole alphabet in a 26-letter sentence: Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx
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PANGRAY - the entire Fifty Shades series in one short Readers Digest Condensed Book
PANTRAM - stuff yourself into trousers that are way too small
PAYGRAM - how your salary gets electronically deposited straight into your bank account
MEANING: noun: A composition in which the first letter of each line spells out a word or message.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin acrostichis, from Greek akrostikhis, from akron (head) + stikhos (line). Earliest documented use: 1585. A word with the same root is acrophobia.
NOTES: When the spelled-out word is in the middle (instead of from the initial letters), it’s called a mesostic (example). Also see, a meta acrostic. ______________________________
AEROSTIC - used by pilots to make the plane go up, down, or sideways
ACROUTIC - soup from which all the buttons have been removed
LACROSTIC - (I don't think I even need to finish this!)
ETYMOLOGY: From Russian starets (elder). In the Eastern Orthodox Church a starets is a spiritual adviser who is not necessarily a priest. Earliest documented use: 1923. _______________________________
STARETSK - plainclothes cop from a 70s TV show. (pl STARTSKY, usually found working with HUTCH)
STARETH - see title above
OSTARETS - miniature blenders
STARPETS - Lassie, and Rin-Tin-Tin, and sometimes Topper's Neil or The Thin Man's Asta. (Do I date myself, or what? And why are they all dogs?)
MEANING: noun: A statement that can be judged as true or false. adjective: Capable of being true or false.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin constare (to stand firm). Earliest documented use: 1901. This word is often contrasted with performative. _________________________________
CORNSTATIVE - pertaining to Iowa
CONESTATIVE - covered-wagonish
CONSTAFIVE - the number between four and six does not change
MEANING: noun: The supposed ability to hear what is inaudible.
ETYMOLOGY: A blend of clairvoyance + audience (the act of hearing), from audire (to hear). Ultimately from the Indo-European root au- (to perceive), which also gave us audio, audit, obey, auditorium, anesthesia, aesthetic, and synesthesia. Earliest documented use: 1864.
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CLAVIRAUDIENCE - attendees at a Bach Recital
ECLAIRAUDIENCE - attendees at the dessert-chef competition
CLAIRAUDIFENCE - transparent barrier around a German car dealership
MEANING: adjective: Having power and influence because of wealth. noun: Rich and powerful person.
ETYMOLOGY: A blend of affluence + influential. Both words are from Latin fluere (to flow). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhleu- (to swell or overflow), from which flow words such as influence, fluctuate, fluent, fluid, fluoride, flush, flux, reflux, superfluous, fluvial, profluent, and affluenza. Earliest documented use: 1842. ______________________________________
AFLUENTIAL - without a chimney
LAFFLUENTIAL - manipulating with comedy
WAFFLUENTIAL - radiating uncertainty and indecision
MEANING: noun: A banker who engages in dishonest or illegal behavior.
ETYMOLOGY: A blend of banker + gangster. From the derogatory suffix -ster which also gave us poetaster, mathematicaster, and philosophaster. Earliest documented use: 1893. ______________________________
BLANKSTER - Scrabble maven
BALKSTER - a singularly inept pitcher
BANKSITER - Feng Shui expert for the Bank of Nippon, who helps decide where new branches should be located
MEANING: noun: A cliché adapted to a new use. For example, a statement of the form “X is the new Y” (such as “Gray is the new black”). See more examples here.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by economics professor Glen Whitman in 2004, after the popular (but erroneous) idea that Eskimos have many words for snow, which is extended by others into the form: If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have N words for Y. __________________________________
SNOWCLOWNE - Yeti
SNOBCLONE - a Kardashian
SNOWCLONK - what happens after you lose your balance on the skijump
MEANING: noun: A person who disrobes to provide entertainment for others.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by writer and editor H.L. Mencken in 1940, from ecdysis (shedding or molting), from Greek ekdysis (casting off), from ek- (out) + dyein (to put on). _______________________________________
ENDYSIAST - a person who puts clothes on for the entertainment of others
ECODYSIAST - a strip-tease artist who donates all the revenue for environmental preservation
ECDYSIASE - the enzyme that causes molting in snakes and insects (come to think of it, that might even be a real word ! )
MEANING: noun: The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by researchers I.J. Bear and R.G. Thomas in 1964, from Greek petros (stone) + ichor (the fluid that supposedly flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology). ______________________________
PET ICHOR - The unpleasant smell of a dog after it's gotten soaked in the first rain after a dry spell
PETRICLOR (sometimes PETRICHLOR) - the smell of this bleach will turn you to stone
PET RICHER - Leona Helmsley's dog was her sole heir
MEANING: noun: The adaptation of a trait for a purpose other than for which it was evolved. For example, feathers were evolved for warmth and later co-opted for display and/or flight.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Stephen Jay Gould in 1981. A blend of ex- (out) + adaptation, from ad- (towards) + aptare (to fit), from aptus (apt). _____________________________
EXAPSTATION - where I used to get on the subway to go take my Advanced Placement test
MEXAPTATION - major blockbuster movie translated into Spanish
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Lewis Carroll in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass. A blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous. See the text of the poem Jabberwocky. ____________________________________
Q: What to binge drinkers go on? A: Benders,natch!
“One should always be drunk. That’s all that matters…But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose. But get drunk.” – Charles Baudelaire
On a baking and Baudelaire bender lately. Just found these quotes at butter and brioche
“To handle a language skilfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery” – Charles Baudelaire.
MEANING: adjective: Displaying insincere earnestness or piousness; oily.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin unctum (ointment), from unguere (to anoint). Earliest documented use: 1387. __________________________________
UNTUOUS - For whom a child is born and a son is given (Isaiah 9:6, popularized in Handel's Messiah)
INCTUOUS - adopting a legal fiction to avoid responsibility
PUNCTUOUS - 1) on time; 2) deflating; 3) making bad play-on-words jokes; 4) a common feeling in response to individuals who must indulge in being 3) above
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin in- (not) + resoltus, past participle of resolvere (to resolve), from re- + solvere (to untie or loosen). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leu- (to loosen, divide), which is also the source for forlorn, lag, loss, solve, and analysis. Earliest documented use: 1574. ______________________________________
EIRRESOLUTE - firmly committed to the Irish cause
SIRRESOLUTE - a little-known but dedicated Knight of the Round Table
IRRESALUTE - an insincere gesture of mocking respect
MEANING: noun: 1. One who stares especially with an open mouth. 2. Something that is an object of staring: anything unusual.
ETYMOLOGY: From gape + seed, from Old Norse gapa (to open the mouth, stare) + Old English saed (seed). Earliest documented use: 1598.
NOTES: The idiom “to sow gapeseed” means to gape at something (say, a fair) instead of doing some useful work (say, sowing wheat). This, and other idioms, hint at our agrarian roots: -to sow wild oats -to sow the seeds (of something) -as you sow, so shall you reap, etc.
MEANING: noun: 1. A row of raked hay laid to dry in the wind before being baled. 2. A row of leaves, dust, snow, or other material swept together. verb tr.: To arrange in a windrow.
ETYMOLOGY: From wind + row, from Old English row + raew. Earliest documented use: 1523. _________________________________
WINEROW - a grape arbor
WINGROW - 1) reinvest the dividends in a good investment; 2) a line of planes on an aircraft carrier
WINDRAW - 1) success at poker; 2) mid-March weather
ETYMOLOGY: From un- + Middle English woned, wont (accustomed), past participle of wonen (to be used to, to dwell). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wen- (to desire or to strive for), which is also the source of wish, win, Venus, overweening, venerate, venison, and banyan, venial, and ween. Earliest documented use: 1553. _______________________________
MEANING: noun: Extreme anguish or mental distress.
ETYMOLOGY: If you’ve ever been so angry, or so anguished, that you felt choked you’ve personally experienced the origin of this term. It comes from Latin angor (strangling, suffocation, mental distress), from angere (to squeeze). Ultimately from the Indo-European root angh- (tight, suffocating, painful), which also gave us anger, anguish, anxious, angst, angina, and hangnail. Earliest documented use: 1440. _______________________
MEANING: adjective: Imperfect; flawed; capable of sinning.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin peccare (to err or sin). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ped- (foot), which also gave us pedal, podium, octopus, impeach, peccavi, and peccadillo (alluding to a stumble or fall). Earliest documented use: 1604.
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DECCABLE - imprintable on a shellac disc 10" or 12" in diameter which will rotate at 78 RPM and make music
PCCABLE - what you used to need to connect your computer to a keyboard or mouse or printer
PECTABLE - 1. where you look up your chest muscle size to see where you rank 2. not unworthy of being well-thought-of again
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin fari (to speak). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bha- (to speak), which also gave us fable, fairy, fate, fame, blame, confess, and infant (literally, one unable to speak). Earliest documented use: 1637. __________________________________
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin scrutari (to examine), from scruta (trash), which also gave us scrutiny, scrutator, and scrutate. Earliest documented use: 1604. _______________________________________
SPRUTABLE - the list of gluten-free products
SCOUTABLE - can be examined in advance, so as to Be Prepared
I beat 'im again! And if I do it one more time it'll be a threefeat! _______________________________
FACTIOUS
PRONUNCIATION: (FAK-shuhs)
MEANING: adjective: Divisive; seditious; relating to or arising from faction.
ETYMOLOGY: From French factieux (seditious) and Latin factiosus (partisan), from facere (to do). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhe- (to set or put), which is also the source of do, deed, factory, fashion, face, rectify, defeat, sacrifice, satisfy, Sanskrit sandhi (joining), Urdu purdah (veil, curtain), and Russian duma (council). Earliest documented use: 1527. _________________________________
FACETIOUS - having many faces, like an elaborately-cut diamond (What, you were expecting some kind of tongue-in-cheek remark?)
FLACTIOUS - like a sycophant or toady or yes-man (or anti-aircraft fire)