Michael Gates's Blog, page 5
May 9, 2021
Do you find puns GELASTIC?
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
GELASTIC [jel-AS-tic] (adjective)
Provoking laughter
"Only Desmond's gelastic comments made the tedious seminar bearable." (TWITO, page 60)
April 25, 2021
Are you hungry or are you EDACIOUS?
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
EDACIOUS [ih-DAY-shuss] (adjective)
Voracious; devouring
"Abigail flailed in despair as the edaciousaphids consumed her garden." (TWITO, page 44)
April 4, 2021
My melted Easter bunny caused a DELIQUIUM
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
DELIQUIUM [del-IK-wee-um] (noun)
Melting or dissolution; liquefying; a maudlin mood
"When at length overtaken and reconveyed to the house, deliquiumfollowed deliquium, and when they ceased, frenzy succeeded; the dark night of insanity had utterly quenched the light of reason."
--Reuben Percy, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction (1834)
"The worship of Odin astonishes us, -- to fall prostrate before the Great Man, into deliquium of love and wonder over him, and feel in their hearts that he was a denizen of the skies, a god!"
--Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History (1840)
Things melt. The salad left too long in the refrigerator turns to green slime. A vinyl phonograph disc left in the sun warps disastrously. A plastic carafe left too close to the stove burner assumes a comical shape. All these things have happened to me, sad to say. But the worst was during my childhood, when my parents gave me a chocolate bunny one hot Easter morning. While we attended some religious rite, we left the confection in the car. When we returned, all that was left of my sacchariferous hare was a pool of chocolate milk. And yes, that put me in a deliquium. (TWITO, page 40)
March 21, 2021
I know you're reading this because of your SACCADE
What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today it's....
SACCADE (noun) [sa-KAHD] A small, rapid movement of the eye"Watching Henry as he turned the pages of Gravity's Rainbow, I was fascinated by the saccades of his left eye, which seemed to oscillate faster than his right." (TWITO, page 129)
March 14, 2021
Nice day for some NEPHELOCOCCYGIA?
What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today it's....
NEPHELOCOCCYGIA (noun) [nef-el-o-kok-sij’-ia]
Cloud gazing; the act of looking for and finding shapes in clouds; also, when capitalized, the name of "Cloud-Cuckoo-Land" in Aristophanes’ The Birds
"Terrence spent Saturday prostrate in the yard and in nephelococcygia, finding inspiration in the thunderheads."
I remember seeing a lot of things in clouds as a kid: faces, cities, fabulous beasts. I can’t do that anymore, which is sad. Now I just see water vapor, though I still can’t quite believe, sometimes, that I couldn’t sit on one of those diaphanous thrones if I could just get up there. (TWITO, page 95)
March 7, 2021
Are you a sun worshiper or are you UMBRIPHILOUS?
What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today it's....
UMBRIPHILOUS [UM-bruh-FILE-us] (adjective)
Fond of shade
"Being umbriphilous, he may frequently be seen siting on the trunks of trees, or on the shady side of houses, etc., as he rests during the day, and flies only after dusk, often being attracted by light." --Clarence M. Weed, "Two Shade Tree Pests" (1895) (slightly edited)
Summer is coming. Don't forget this word in the hot sun.
February 21, 2021
Is it real or HYPNOPOMPIC?
What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today it's....
HYPNOPOMPIC [hip-noh-POMP-ic] (adjective)
Associated with the period between sleep and wakefulness
"....knowledge of Mrs. Finch's balloon ascent had been acquired supernormally by Mrs. Thompson… and had lain dormant in her subconsciousness until awakened by a natural association of ideas set in motion on her reading about the accident to the airship, and not even then emerging into her full consciousness, but emerging only in a hypnopompic dream."
--J. G. Piddington, "Phenomena in Mrs. Thompson's Trance," Proceedings of the Society of Psychical Research (1904)
This word brings to mind the hypnopompic period I experience most mornings between tumbling out of bed and gulping down my first cup of coffee. While I'm staggering around like Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, I'm often brooding over some bizarre or disturbing event--until I realize that "oh...that was just a dream." (TWITO, page 69)
January 31, 2021
Somebody please invent a CURWHIBBLE to zap viruses
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....
CURWHIBBLE [KUR-wib-ul] (noun)A thingamajig or whatchmacallit
"Many thanks to your honor. What pretty curwhibbles and etceteras! I'll hang 'em to my watch to give it a travelled air."
--Anonymous, "A Captivity among the Rockites," in The Metropolitan (1831) (TWITO, page 37)
January 24, 2021
Let's EXFLUNCTIFY this virus, shall we?
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....
EXFLUNCTIFY [eks-FLUNK-ti-fy] (verb)
To destroy completely
"Interrupted again! my blood boiled, and I resolved that I would do my best to 'exflunctify' the animal at once."
--"Extract from the Journal of an Odd Fellow," in The Parterre (1834) (TWITO, page 50)
January 10, 2021
How many times could you have said "What an IMBROGLIO" lately?
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....
IMBROGLIO [im-BRO-lee-o] (noun)
A confusing, complex, or embarrassing situation, a painful misunderstanding, or a scandal
"Mr. Ervin Wardman, in the Broadway Magazine for April, exhaustively reviews the McClellan-Hearst-Murphy imbroglio, and concludes that Mr. Hearst’s real ambition, the goal of his desire, is the White House."
--Albert Shaw, The American Monthly Review of Reviews (January–June 1907)
