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PUDENCY

PRONUNCIATION: (PYOOD-n-see)

MEANING: noun: Modesty, bashfulness.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pudentia, from pudere (to make or be ashamed), which also gave us pudendum, impudent, pudibund (prudish), and pudeur (a sense of shame) Earliest documented use: before 1616.
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PRUDENCY - an attitude adopted to protect one's sense of pudency

LUDENCY - cough-suppressing

PUCENCY - reddish-purple-coloring-mixed-with-gray-or-brown-ness.

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MENSTRUUM

PRONUNCIATION: (MEN-stroo-uhm)

MEANING: noun: A solvent.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin menstruum (menses). Earliest documented use: 1398.
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MENSTRUM - playing a big ol' bass guitar

MENSTRAUM - old Teutonic quarters reserved for menstruating women

MENSRUUM - public place where men go

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TITTER

PRONUNCIATION: (TIT-uhr)

MEANING: verb intr.: To laugh in a nervous, restrained manner.
noun: A nervous, restrained laugh.

ETYMOLOGY: Of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1625.
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TRITTER - one who amplifies everything threefold

TUTTER - one given to apostrophes of mild disapproval

TITSTER - an expert in small birds

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CUNCTITIVE

PRONUNCIATION: (KUNGK-tuh-tiv)

MEANING: adjective: Delaying; slow.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin cunctari (to hesitate, delay). Earliest documented use: 1617
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CUNECTITIVE - pertaining to the Nutmeg State

FUNCTITIVE - useful

PUNCTITIVE - devoted to the proper use of the apostrophe, semicolon, and ellipsis

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ACAROPHOBIA

PRONUNCIATION: (ak-uh-ruh-FOE-bee-uh)

MEANING: noun:
1. An extreme fear of small insects.
2. A delusion that one’s skin is infested with bugs.
3. A fear of itching.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek acarus (mite) + -phobia (fear). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut), which is also the source of words such as skirt, sharp, scrape, screw, shard, shears, carnage, curt, carnivorous, excoriate, scrobiculate, hardscrabble, and incarnadine.
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CAROPHOBIA - fear of caring for something (not necessarily an automobile)

AJAROPHOBIA - terror if in a room with the door open; the inverse of CLAUSTROPHOBIA

SCAROPHOBIA - afraid of being afraid

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EXCLOSURE

PRONUNCIATION: (ik-SKLO-zuhr)

MEANING: noun: A fenced area, especially in a wide open area, to keep unwanted animals out.

ETYMOLOGY: An enclosure keeps wanted animals in, an exclosure keeps unwanted animals out. The word is modeled after the word enclosure, from ex- (out) + closure (barrier), from Latin claudere (to close). Earliest documented use: 1920.
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EXCLOTURE - after the filibuster is stopped

EXCELOSURE - Of course I use Microsoft's spreadsheet

HEXCLOSURE - 1. the raging storm at Saturn's North Pole
2. any fastener requiring an Allen wrench

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UNTRACK

PRONUNCIATION: (uhn-TRAK)

MEANING: verb tr.: To remove from a track; change course.

ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English un- (a reversal) + Middle French trac (track). Earliest documented use: 1889.
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SUNTRACK - an analemma

UNBRACK - desalinate

UNURACK - set up the fifteen numbered balls for the former Premier of Burma

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MISE EN ABYME

PRONUNCIATION: (mee-zan-nah-BEEM)

MEANING: noun: Self-reflection in a literary work, a work of art, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: From French mise en abyme/abîme (placed into abyss). Originally, the term applied to heraldic shields in which a smaller shield was put into the center of the shield. Earliest documented use: 1968.

NOTES: Some examples are play within a play (Hamlet), story within a story, film within a film, dream within a dream, the placement of a small copy of a work within itself, infinite reflection between two facing mirrors, etc.
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MISE EN ABYSME - thrown into the depths and abandoned (see "a pit in Dothan")

MUSE EN ABYME - Melpomeme, who was in charge of Tragic Poetry

MA SEEN A "BY-ME" - My mother watched her card-playing friends Pass. And she doesn't use very good grammar, either.

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ZETETIC

PRONUNCIATION: (zuh-TET-ik)

MEANING: adjective: Proceeding by inquiry, search, or investigation.
noun: A skeptic or inquirer.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek zetein (to seek or inquire). Earliest documented use: 1645.

NOTES: Samuel Rowbotham (1816-1884), a flat Earther, wrote a book called Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe in 1881. Yesterday’s flat Earthers are today’s climate change denialists.
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E-ZETETIC - promoting effortless weight loss

CETETIC - 1. waxy; 2. from a whale

ZITETIC - acne-inducing

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KLEPTOMANIA

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

MEANING: noun: An obsessive urge to steal, driven by emotional disturbance rather than material need.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek klepto- (theft) + -mania (madness). Earliest documented use: 1830.
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KLEPTOMARIA - theft of religious icons

SLEPTOMANIA - malignant narcolepsy, e.g. a typical teenager

LEPTOMANIA - crazy thinking as a symptom of Weil's Disease (Leptospirosis)

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