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FAROUCHE

PRONUNCIATION: (fuh-ROOSH)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Wild; fierce.
2. Shy; unsociable.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French faroche, from forasche, from Latin forasticus (living outside), from foras (outdoors). Earliest documented use: 1765.
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FAR BOUCHE - after you shoot off your mouth

EAROUCHE - otitis media

FEAROUCHE - algophobia

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DINKY

PRONUNCIATION: (DING-kee)

MEANING: adjective:
1. (In the US) Small; insignificant; undesirable.
2. (In the UK) Attractively tiny; cute.

ETYMOLOGY: From Scots dink (neat, trim). Earliest documented use: 1788.
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OINKY - piggish

D.I. IN KY - anathema for new recruits at Fort Knox

DUNKY - the yummiest kind of doughnut

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SHIFTY

PRONUNCIATION: (SHIF-tee)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Evasive; untrustworthy.
2. Changing directions frequently.
3. Resourceful: able to accomplish what needs done.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old English sciftan (to arrange or divide). Earliest documented use: 1570.
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SHAFTY - nickname for Bobby who went to sea, silver buckles at his knee

SHOFTY - a donor, generous and well-meaning and easily touched, but drunk

SHRIFTY - inclined to hear confession, assign a penance, and then absolve

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ENDSVILLE

PRONUNCIATION: (ENDZ-vil)

MEANING: noun: 1. Something that is most excellent or the ultimate.
2. Something that is most undesirable; the end.
adj.: 1. Most excellent.
2. Most undesirable.

ETYMOLOGY: From end + French ville (city). Earliest documented use: 1954.
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ENOSVILLE - Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

MENDSVILLE - Taylorville, county seat of Alexander County, NC.

ENTSVILLE - where in Middle Earth the tree-people live

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PRESENTLY

PRONUNCIATION: (PREZ-uhnt-lee)

MEANING: adverb:
1. In a short while: soon.
2. At the present time: now.

ETYMOLOGY: From English present, from Old French, from Latin praesent- (stem of praesens), from present participle of praeesse (to be present before others), from prae- (pre-) + esse (to be). Earliest documented use: 1385.
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PRE-SENTRY - attending Guard School

YPRES-ENTLY - pertaining to the tree-like creatures who used to inhabit a French town (unfortunately wiped out during World War II)

PREDENTLY - the teeth haven't erupted yet

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PILTDOWNER

PRONUNCIATION: (PILT-dau-nuhr)

MEANING: noun: Someone who is crude, uncouth, or unintelligent.

ETYMOLOGY: After Piltdown, a village in Sussex, England, where a fossil skull, called the Piltdown Man, supposedly from an early human, was found. Earliest documented use: 1941. Also see neanderthal.

NOTES: In 1912, the lawyer and amateur archeologist Charles Dawson claimed to have found a fossil skull, supposedly belonging to an early human, in Piltdown, England. It was later proven to be fraud. Dawson made a career out of forgeries. Before the Piltdown Man he had presented a toad entombed in flint, a Chinese vase, a horseshoe, among dozens of other archeological finds, all fraudulent...
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SPILT-DOWNER - you busted open my pillow and the feathers went all over the place

PILL DOWNER - a drug user who hasn't moved on to injectables yet

PITT DOWNER - That's be UNC (Nov 11, 2021), among others

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DEVONSHIRE

PRONUNCIATION: (DEV-uhn-shur)

MEANING: verb tr.: To clear land by burning turf, stubble, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: From Devonshire, a county in SW England. It’s not clear how the place came to be associated with the clearing of land. Earliest documented use: 1607.
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DEVONSHORE - the portion of the English Channel running roughly from Plymouth to Weymouth

DEVON SHIRT - Didn't you know there's a substantial haberdashery industry in SW England?

DEMON'S HIRE - Satan is now paying the idle hands to do his mischief

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KERSEY

PRONUNCIATION: (KUHR-zee)

MEANING: adjective: Plain; simple.

ETYMOLOGY: After Kersey, a village in Suffolk, England. Earliest documented use: 1390.

NOTES: The word is believed to be coined after the village Kersey in England where a kind of coarse cloth was apparently first made. The word kersey today is applied to the coarse ribbed cloth and clothing made from it. An opposite of this word could be fustian, also coined after a cloth, and this word also is, perhaps, coined after a place name.
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KERSEY - second best high-butterfat-milk producing cows (right after Jersey)

KERLEY - Massachusetts politician in the early 20th Century, best known as Mayor of Boston for four terms

KERSET - a women's garment for controlling the figure, widely used in Brooklyn (no longer popular)

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HALIFAX

PRONUNCIATION: (HAL-uh-faks)

MEANING: noun: Hell.

ETYMOLOGY: After Halifax, a town in West Yorkshire, England. Earliest documented use: 1630.

NOTES: Halifax, a town in England, today may be known for toffee, but at one time it had a reputation for harsh punishment. Even petty crime meant being sent to the gibbet (an early form of guillotine). The poet John Taylor wrote a poem “Beggar’s Litany” (1622) that includes the line: “From Hell, Hull, and Halifax, Good Lord, deliver us!”
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HALL FAX - the facsimile machine is shared by everyone on the corridor

HALI FOX - vulpine who lives in a stand of ilex bushes

HALF-AX - a short-handled lightweight chopping tool

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ALDERMASTON

PRONUNCIATION: (AL-duhr-mas-tuhn)

MEANING: noun: Relating to a protest, disapproval, dissent, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: After Aldermaston, a village in Berkshire, England. Earliest documented use: 1958.

NOTES: Aldermaston is the home of Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) where the UK designs and builds its nuclear weapons. Since 1958, there have been many London-to-Aldermaston marches in protest of nuclear armament.
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AL (DR) MASTON - Alan Maston got a doctorate but doesn't use it

ALTER MASTON - ...but it's changed him somehow

ALLER MASTON - ...and all his German relatives too

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