If like me you a) read, and b) have not yet achieved lexical omniscience, chances are you stumble across a lot of new words. The purpose of this thread is to showcase some of your recent favourites; because sometimes, there's no question to be asked, no etymology to be queried, not usage controversy: just a cool word that you'd like to share. Or perhaps this logovore is really just looking for a free lunch?

sitzmark n. an impression made in the snow by a skier falling backward.

wittol n. a man who is aware and tolerant of his wife's infidelity; an acquiescent cuckold.

palpebral adj. of or relating to the eyelids.

handbag vb. to wallop with a woman's purse: "They were very formidible women who handbagged their way to the top."

mizzle n. light rain; drizzle.


I also think something of this description would make an ideal Sticky Thread; a kind of AWADtalk Hall of Fame (though every nomination would simultaneously be an induction).

Jackie?

it reminds me of Old Bill's (wwh) lists...

some good words, Hy!

my suggestion (which I think is implied) would be for anyone that wants to grab one of these words for discussion should open a new thread.

Must the word or usage be of recent origin, or can it merely be new to the reader?

Must the word or usage be of recent origin, or can it merely be new to the reader?

New to the reader, most assuredly!

my suggestion (which I think is implied) would be for anyone that wants to grab one of these words for discussion should open a new thread.

I guess; but if there were a Sticky Thread for it, I know I'd cruise it for tasty titbits.

Let's say Poster B stumbles across a strange word, looks it up, reads with pleasure its unexpected definition. He decides to post it in the Hall of Fame. While doing so, he discovers another four, five, six weird and wonderful new words.

It would be, in other words, a kind of word pool. John Doe, who might not feel justified in devoting a whole new thread to his cryptomnesia ("Eh? How about this word?") would certainly be comfortable popping it into an existing Sticky.

Obviously, this idea would never work with any old Internet community (you can just imagine the uncontrollable pullulation of five-penny words like, "genuflect", and, "interregnum" and, "pullulation") but with a bunch of Word Mavens like yourselves...

But just a suggestion.

the initial posting of a word or words would be in this Sticky thread; discussion of one or more of those words should happen in another thread, so as not to fill the Sticky with pages of discussion.

Oh, I see what you mean.

That's a good proviso.

Of course, this thread wouldn't have to be the Sticky. Admin could word that all-important first post, with the requisite terms and conditions.

Although I am not one of them, there are some people who will never need to post on such a thread, because they know ALL the words. But it would be nice for the rest of us if commentary were restrained to only the overtly, blazingly positive, impossible-to-be-interpreted-as-sarcastic. In other words, very few comments! Those who are linguistically perfect can privately smugificate. I think more people will post, and you'll get a much more interesting thread to visit, if it's "safe".

they know ALL the words

I don't believe that for a minute.

As your stock of known knowns grows linearly your stock of known unknowns grows exponentially but your stock of unknown unknowns remains constant. The size of your stock of unknown knowns remains unknown.

hmmm... i dunno 'bout that...

what?

smugificate

There's a jamais vu word if I ever saw one. Like Hydra, I run across words I don't know all the time, especially if I'm reading something in a new (to me) subject. (Also, I get some delightful ones in the mail from Ron O.) I am reminded of a Steve Martin routine where his character is astonished at how the French have different words for almost everything.

A couple of unknowns I came across recently in conversation with an anthropology student: imbricate (link) and geis (link).

>geis

that one goes in the queue, jim.

-ron o.

not so worthless though, no?

which, in many ways, adds irreducibly to its qualifications!

You see? It's working already.

And I thought my suggestion was going to fall on stony ground.

No just sticky ground.
Great idea.

huh?

And I made up smugificate, and I like it. Is there another word (single word only) that means to revel in ones self-satisfaction and superiority? Bring 'em on... :0)

I'm all for making up words if nonacceptance is acceptable. smugificate may do, or gloat may.

Gloat may be fine if the reason for it is valid. In the case of someone who smugly espouses some made-up rule that has no validity, e.g., the split-infinitive rule, smugificate gets my vote.

There is another difference. Gloating usually has to do with personal achievements or a victory won, or an enemy's downfall, that is, objectively real things or outcomes. But the practice in question is more superciliousness, a revelling in (supposedly) superior knowlege, so the combination of smug with pontificate is most apt. The only other neologism I could suggest would be to verbify supercilious - what would that be, to supercile?

smugificate

Smug has an interesting history. In the OED1 (link) there are two earlier meanings "Of male persons: Trim, neat, spruce, smart" and "Of things: Smooth, clean". (I do like the capitalization of the first word of a list after a colon which is not a mistake, but an editorial choice.) It is the first gloss has citations from the 16th century onwards. Somewhere around the middle of the 19th century, smug starts to become a pejorative term, and gets its "exhibiting excessive complacency, self-satisfied" meaning which seems now to have replaced the older ones. (Both the OED1 and A-H suggest a possible etymological connection with German Schmuck 'jewel; adornment' (not to be confused with Yiddish shmak, English schmuck).)

Of the verbs ending in -ficate (link), most are amplifications of other verbs ending in -fy, and those seem back formations from nouns in -fication. The one noun in -ficate which is common is certificate (though this may simply be a case of a nouned verb becoming more common and most would use certify for the verb anyway). The endings -fy and -ficate usually have the meaning 'to make', though in pontificate, it has more of the meaning 'to act like (a pope)'. (Cf. orient,orientate, and orientation: there's something going on there when coining or forming Latinate words many go for the sesquipedalian.)

By far, my favorite citation is: "[T]he smug look of a toad breakfasting on fat marsh flies" [William Pearson] (link). (I couldn't track down the author or the work quoted. Does anybody know who and what?) And this cartoon is funny (link).

supercile

From the Latin supercilium 'eyebrow; upper eyelid; pride' (< super 'above' + cilium 'eyelid; lower eyelid').

When I was a child my teacher called me supercilious. I heard, "super-silliest" and was more insulted than I should have been. Then again, my superciliousness was super-silly.

A friend of ours when her daughter was at school instructed her to tell her teacher in explanation of certain absences that her hypochondria had been acting up again. It wasn't until some years later that her daughter got the joke and was retrospectively mortified with embarrassment.

That's a good one.

Speaking of dancing a flamingo, I remember fondly how Jocks at school would, when the question was put to them, aggressively deny being "heterosexual".

* snigger snigger *

To you quite common I think. To me a new surprising word I just came across.

wile, wilier, wiliest, wilishness

Wile
1154, "wile, trick," perhaps from O.N.Fr. *wile (O.Fr. guile), or directly from a Scand. source (cf. O.N. vel "trick, craft, fraud," vela "defraud"). Perhaps ultimately related to O.E. wicca "wizard" (see Wicca). Lighter sense of "amorous or playful trick" is from 1600. Wily is attested from c.1300. (online Etym.)

Poor old Wile E Coyote

A lecture by Dawkins posted on YouTube; he used the word:

brachiate verb move by using the arms to swing from branch to branch; used of apes.

But when the Wile E. smiles, farmer heed your chickens.
Coyote, read my signature!

"In the End, the Shadow is but a passing thing..." (JRRT)

Beware of creatures that cast no shadow in the sunlight.

Or at least go with a level 8 vegan.

Just saw Kung Fu Panda. Po (voiced by Jack Black) uses the exclamation, "Skadoosh!" at a very pivotal point in the story (no plot spoilers here). Google took me to the Language Log, where it turns out... well, if you're interested, you can read it here.

an obvious riff on (or ripoff of) squadoosh

-joe friday

Or either that or a portmanteau of that and the LL proffered (23) skidoo, one.

squadoosh Italian-American slang used to describe something that is missing, absent, or forgotten; zero, nil, nothing

That fits the context in which it was used.

that's what made it so obvious to me!

-ron o.

Have you seen the movie then?

no, but I read the title.

Nice gif lol.