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IRON-HEARTED

PRONUNCIATION: (EYE-uhrn-har-tid)

MEANING: adjective: Cruel; unfeeling.

ETYMOLOGY: From iron, from Old English iren + heart, from Old English heorte. Earliest documented use: 1570.
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IRON-HEATED - when you should strike

L.RON-HEARTED - believing in Dianetics

IRONY-HEARTED - pretending to believe in Dianetics, knowing its origin

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PUGNACIOUS

PRONUNCIATION: (puhg-NAY-shuhs)

MEANING: adjective: Having a quarrelsome nature; belligerent.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pugnare (to fight), from pugnus (fist). Ultimately from the Indo-European root peuk- (to prick) which is also the source of point, puncture, pungent, punctual, poignant, pounce, poniard, oppugn, repugn, impugn, pugilist, and repugnant. Earliest documented use: 1642.
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PUGRACIOUS - being courteous to small dog with squished-in faces

PUNNACIOUS - addicted to wordplay

BUG NACIÒ US - the insect was born in the United States

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ITHYPHALLIC

PRONUNCIATION: (ith-uh-FAL-ik)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Lewd or salacious.
2. Having an erect phallus.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin ithyphallicus, from Greek ithyphallikos, from ithyphallos, from ithys (straight) + phallos (phallus). Earliest documented use: 1795.
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ITCHYPHALLIC - horny

THY PHALLIC - how his subjects address Pan Priapus

IT HYPE ALL I.C. - integrated circuits are to be encouraged

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CHICKEN-LIVERED

PRONUNCIATION: (CHIK-en-LIV-uhrd)

MEANING: adjective: Cowardly; easily frightened.

ETYMOLOGY: The word chicken has traditionally been used to describe a coward. Also, earlier people believed that the liver was the seat of courage. But chicken-livered or chicken-hearted, it’s all the same. Earliest documented use: 1616.

NOTES: The English language hasn’t been very kind to the domestic fowl. Some similar terms are chicken hawk and Chicken Little. Also see lily-livered and white-livered.
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CHICKEN-LIVERIED - 1. dressed chicken, suitable for serving on formal occasions
2. dressed chicken, suitable for serving on formal occasions

THICKEN-LIVERED - hepatic cirrhosis

CHICKEN-LOVERED - the betrothed of Miles Standish (just ask John Alden)

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HYSTERIC

PRONUNCIATION: (his-TER-ik)

MEANING: adjective: Exhibiting an uncontrolled or overly emotional state, volatility, attention-seeking behavior, etc.
noun: An overly emotional or unstable person.

ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin from Greek hystera (uterus), from the former belief that disturbances in the uterus resulted in such behavior. Earliest documented use: 1652.
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SHYSTERIC - like a less-than-principled lawyer

WHY STERIC? - Is there a reason for the three-dimensional configuration?

HYSTERICA - Alice's description of the US (see Edward Hope, Alice in the Delighted States: "...the continents are Aphasia, Paprika, North Hysterica, South Hysterica, Stirrup, and Nostalgia. Or something like that.")

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JIM CROW

PRONUNCIATION: (jim kroh)

MEANING: noun: The systematic practice of discriminating against Black people.

ETYMOLOGY: From Jim Crow, the name of a Black character in a 19th-century minstrel show. Earliest documented use: 1832.
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JAM CROW - Knotts Berry Farm advertising

TIM CROW - Wee Cratchit says, "God Bless us, every one!"

JIM CROWN - orthographically-challenged champion body-builder's title

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SIMON LEGREE

PRONUNCIATION: (SY-muhn li-GREE)

MEANING: noun: A harsh taskmaster.

ETYMOLOGY: After Simon Legree, a brutal slaveholder in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896). Simon Legree has Uncle Tom, an enslaved man, whipped to death for refusing to divulge the whereabouts of two enslaved women who had escaped to freedom. Earliest documented use: 1857.
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SIMON DEGREE - an MBA in Shopping Mall management

SIMON LE TREE - a simple French arbre

I'M ON LE GREEN - pretty good golf shot, non?

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UNCLE TOM

PRONUNCIATION: (UHNG-kuhl tom)

MEANING: noun: A person regarded as betraying their cultural allegiance by being subservient to another.

ETYMOLOGY: After Uncle Tom, an enslaved man in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96). Earliest documented use: 1852.

NOTES: The term is considered disparaging and offensive, especially when applied to a Black person seen as being subservient to White people. In the book, Uncle Tom is a heroic figure. For example, he disobeys the orders to beat other enslaved people. In minstrel shows he was depicted as a passive figure and that image has taken root in the language.
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UNCLEFT OM - the mantra is uniform and in one piece

NUNC LE TOM - Here we are in Ancient Rome, and Brady takes the field...

UNCLE ATOM - J Robert Oppenheimer was considered by many to be the "Father of the Atomic Bomb." What does that make his younger brother Frank?

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TOPSY

PRONUNCIATION: (TOP-see)

MEANING: noun: Something growing without intention or direction.

ETYMOLOGY: After Topsy, a young enslaved girl, in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Earliest documented use: 1885.

NOTES: Topsy, a young girl, is purchased by the slaveholder Augustine and she becomes friends with his daughter Eva. When Eva asks Topsy who made her, she replies, “Nobody, as I knows on. I s’pect I growed. Don’t think nobody never made me.” The cute reply became popular in the English language to refer to an unplanned or an enormous growth.
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STOPSY - alternative name for the urban game "Red Light"

TOPS'L - just below the Crows' Nest

TOPHY - full of gouty lumps on fingers, hands, toes, and feet, and in the skin

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AUNT TOM

PRONUNCIATION: (ant tom)

MEANING: noun: A woman considered to be a traitor to a cause.

ETYMOLOGY: Coined as a feminine version of Uncle Tom. Earliest documented use: 1956.

NOTES: There’s no such character as Aunt Tom in the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Uncle Tom’s wife is actually named Chloe. The term Aunt Jemima is also used sometimes as a synonym for Aunt Tom. The term could be derogatory and offensive, applied to a Black woman who is seen as servile to White people.
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TAUNT TOM - what non-NE fans liked to do when he was a Patriot

QUANTTOM - a weird mechanics about to descend upon the Tampa football team

GAUNT TOM what he looks like after he develops anorexia

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