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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
"we really less epicaricatic today than we were a hundred years ago when mom and dad took the family out to picnic at a public hanging? [A scary thought.]"
Dear Wordminstrel: "epicaricraticic" won't fly. One of the early dictionaries gives spelling "epicarikaky" so your
adjective is cacky. You know where I got this.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
cars slow down passing anything parked on the shoulder
Which only makes sense from a safe driving perspective. Ya never know when some dang fool idjit's gonna pop that driver side door open on ya.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
It's a safety issue, isn't it? I mean slowing down on a motorway/freeway when there are people on the side of the road simply ensures their continued health. I was slowed down by a breakdown the other day - a boat trailer with a flat tyre. The cop and the car driver were sitting on the armco barrier chatting while waiting, presumably, for the RAC or the AA. The cop's vehicle was parked on the hard shoulder with cones out and his blue lights flashing. I have no problem with that. Killing people, even at a two-lane remove, is no part of my agenda!
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Morbid curiosity or gawkination could explain the attraction.I believe it does... and in these parts we call 'em "gapers blocks". The traffic could be moving 55mph or 25mph and people will still slow down to 10mph... It's clearly a combination of all four... safety, gawkers, the initial "wanna slow down to help" urge, and being stuck behind all of the above. ...predictable violence in sports like hockey?In this case, "predictable" only because it is allowed, unlike US "football" where it is "counted on" and other than US *football where us US's count on the fans to take up the slack  . ... maybe competitive sports start as a catharcism(sp?)... and if there ain't no violence to "relieve the need" coming from the sport itself, it serves to boil to the surface and erupt the tension into action from the gawkers. 'Morbid curiosity' are just other words for 'genetic predisposition'???
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247 |
"epicaricraticic" won't fly. One of the early dictionaries gives spelling "epicarikaky" so your
adjective is cacky.
I didn't get "epicaricatic" out of any dictionary, wwh. I got it from our own Capfka - 2nd post in this thread:
"The traffic on the M6 moved past the accident scene at an epicaricatic crawl ..."
An "epicaricatic crawl" sounds pretty good to me even if it is not recognized in any dictionary.
If we can have a 'peripatetic crawl' (aka as a "pub crawl"), why not an "epicaricatic crawl"?
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
the worthless word for the day is: epicaricacy
/ep"-i-kar-ik'-i-see/?
taking pleasure in others' misfortune: schadenfreude
this word, as defined in Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of
Unusual... Words, has caused a lot of discussion
recently on a couple of forums that discuss these
sorts of things. where in the world did she find
this English word for a concept that isn't supposed
to have a word in English? this question has yet to be
answered in full, but I can quote you this from Nathan
Bailey's An Universal Etymological English Dictionary,
which is a very olde dictionary indeed (1721):
Epicharikaky - from the Greek words or roots for
"upon", "joy", and "evil": "A Joy at the Misfortunes
of others".
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
the worthless word for the day is:you mean we're not all wwftd subscribers? 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 87
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 87 |
Well, I subscribe to wwftd. And it shows up in my inbox more times a week than AWAD does. So, kudos to tsuwm and his email server (or whatever esoteric computer stuff sends the email out every day without fail). And I'm really not complaining about AWAD being unreliable - after all, I come to read here almost every weekday and can easily look for the day's word if I've missed it. Usually necessary in order to get the gist of some threads!
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? -Ursula K. Le Guin, author (1929- )
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Now that's odd, vanguard. I get them both, heel-to-toe as it were, every morning, by the time I log on. Anyone else having trouble with AWAD delivery?
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Nope, but I was subscribing to Oxford word for the day for a while and I'd swear there were more than seven in a week. They used to come in threes sometimes!
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