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MAECENAS

PRONUNCIATION: (mee-SEE-nuhs, mi-)

MEANING: noun: A generous patron, especially of art, music, or literature.

ETYMOLOGY: From Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (c. 70-8 BCE), patron of Horace and Virgil. Earliest documented use: 1542.
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MAXECENAS - very-large-scale Hollywood mob scenes

MAKECENAS - draw attention to oneself in a very public fashion

MALECENAS - (pron. MA-lay-SAY-noss) very bad dinners prepared by a Madrid chef

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GUY

PRONUNCIATION: (guy)

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.
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QUY - what you use to unlock the door to the pagoda

AGUY - feelng like you're coming down with the flu

GNUY - nickname for a baby wildebeest

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VICTORIAN

PRONUNCIATION: (vik-TOR-ee-uhn)

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 Prudish; outdated; exaggeratedly proper; hypocritical.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

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GONGORISM

PRONUNCIATION: (GONG-uh-riz-uhm)

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.)
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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


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ADDISONIAN

PRONUNCIATION: (ad-uh-SO-nee-uhn)

MEANING: adjective: Having clarity and elegance.

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.
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[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]

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ADDASONIAN - adopt a male child into your family

DADDISONIAN - Patriarchal

EDDISONIAN - figured out by the inventor AFTER he received his Doctorate in Education

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MEGRIM

PRONUNCIATION: (MEE-grim)

MEANING: noun:
1. (In plural, megrims) Low spirits.
2. Whim.
3. Migraine.

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.
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HEGRIM - the other guy doesn't feel so good

MEGRAM - a narcissist's billet-doux

MUGRIM - where the lipstick goes

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POSTHUMOUS

PRONUNCIATION: (POS-chuh-muhs)

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.
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POSTHUMORUS - translation of "LOL"

POSTHUMOUR - British translation of "LOL"

PESTHUMOUS - soil with earthworms in it

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LUTESTRING

PRONUNCIATION: (LOOT-string)

MEANING: noun: A glossy silk fabric.

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.
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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

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POSTHUMMOUS - relating to that after-garbonzoid feeling.

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MESSUAGE

PRONUNCIATION: (MES-wij)

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.
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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

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