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DACTYLOSCOPY

PRONUNCIATION: (dak-tuh-LOS-kuh-pee)

MEANING: noun: The analysis of fingerprints for identification of individuals.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek dactylo- (finger or toe) + -scopy (observation). Earliest documented use: 1908.

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DACTYLOSCOOPY - hand-packed (like some ice cream)

DACTYLOCOPY - a counterfeit fingerprint

DACRYLOSCOPY - taking pictures only of clothes made with man-made fibers

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PLUTOMANIA

PRONUNCIATION: (ploo-tuh-MAY-nee-uh)

MEANING: noun: An obsession with money or wealth.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek pluto- (wealth) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze). Earliest documented use: 1652.

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PLUTOMARIA - The new Disney movie where the dog mutinies and takes over Christopher Columbus' largest ship

PLUROMANIA - no singles allowed

FLUTOMANIA - James Galway ROCKS, and Jean-Pierre Rampal, too!

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LUFTMENSCH

PRONUNCIATION: (LOOFT-mensh)

MEANING: noun: An impractical dreamer.

ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish, from luft (air) + mensch (man, person), from German. Earliest documented use: 1907.
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LUFTMESCH-- the fabric that covers airplane wings (in the early days of aviation, anyway)

LUFTMENSACH - The Right Stuff (the qualities that make one an airmen/test pilot)

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PISHER

PRONUNCIATION: (PISH-uhr)

MEANING: noun:
1. A bedwetter.
2. A young, inexperienced person.
3. An insignificant person: a nobody.

ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish pisher (pisser), from German pissen (to urinate). Earliest documented use: 1941.

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PAISHER - a simple card game, when preceded by PISHER

PISER - a man who is pathologically averse to spending money. Compare MISER, a woman who is...)

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GANEF

PRONUNCIATION: (GAH-nuhf)

MEANING: noun: A thief, swindler, or rascal.

ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish, from Hebrew gannabh (thief). Earliest documented use: 1920.
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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)

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MACHER

PRONUNCIATION: (MAHKH-uhr)

MEANING: noun:
1. A person of influence, one who gets things done.
2. A self-important overbearing person.

ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish makher, from German macher (maker or doer). Earliest documented use: 1911.

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MANCHER - someone who lives on the French side of the English Channel

MALHER - a dyslexic German composer

MAC-HEF - an Irish playboy, familiarly (with apologies to J.M.Synge)

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KIBITZER

PRONUNCIATION: (KIB-it-suhr)

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

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LUBRICIOUS

PRONUNCIATION: (loo-BRISH-uhs)

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

LUMBRICIOUS - having hyperactive fingers or toes

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DIFFIDENT

PRONUNCIATION: (DIF-i-duhnt)

MEANING: adjective: Lacking in self-confidence.

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)


wofahulicodoc #218763 10/08/14 08:08 AM
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DOFFIDENT – Take it off and be recognized.
DAFFIDENT – 2. Scarce as duck's teeth.

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