What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 601-650 of 3,049

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Must have originated in 'Nyoo Zullund'!!!!! The Aussies would have us pronouncing 'fish and chips' as 'fush und chups'!

[Ken, Moderator]

Yesterday, while driving from a visit with my parentages in Scarborough, I heard Carly Simon's 70s hit, "You're So Vain." In that song, there's a lyric using the strange word gavotte:

"You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself gavotte..."

I always thought it meant "askance, from the side, furtively," but when I look it up in my dictionary, I only get two definitions: a dance of French peasant origin and a musical term meaning a moderately quick 4/4 beat to a tune (as in the French dance).

Unless of course, I've got the wrong spelling of the word (or a less than comprehensive dictionary).

I never look at myself gavotte, anyway. I always face the music.

[Savvy]

I gavotted a little after having just seen "Mamma Mia".....everybody was gavotting!:-)

[Ken, Moderator]

Ah, he was dancing and admiring himself. Well, we shouldn't mince words. It was Warren Beatty, apparently.

Mamma Mia, do I have a story about Pappa Mio! My dad, big fan of adventure films, fast cars, and shoot-em-ups, went to see Dark Knight with me and said it was only so-so. He complained he couldn't understand Batman half the time because he spoke like Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

Anyway, the kicker: later in the week he goes to see Mamma Mia with my mom and says he loves it! In fact, he'd see it again!

(OK, I says to myself, something must seriously be in the water or in that plastic-in-the-microwave rumor...)

[Stamatia]

No NE, it's just Merryl Streep performing magically again. Everything this woman touches is gold

[David]

Emblazon.

[Savvy]

sapient \SAY-pee-uhnt\, adjective:
Wise; sage; discerning.

[Ken, Moderator]

the

[Tyler]

Emblazon -- I like this word for the way it sounds. It's one of those verbs I'm tempted to use a little too often.

[Savvy]

Exculpate

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

knackered

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Just a rough day at the chalkface. A lot of them come back after a weekend of no boundaries whatsoever and find it difficult to slot back into an environment with rules and expectations!!

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Fully agree with you on THAT one!!! Keep smiling....I am!

[Stamatia]

Bunny, your mom wouldn't by any cance be related to mine, would she?
Am I going to be like that?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Isn't that one of life's greatest fears if you are a woman Stamatia!!! Oh God....please don't let me turn out anything like my mother!!!!

[Boreal Elizabeth]

and yet-we do
and somehow can excuse it in ourselves

[Ken, Moderator]

Mamma Mia, what's with all this Mommy Dearest talk? Good Night, Mother!

matronymic

[Peter]

Matriarchal?
Hehe, well, I suppose everyone has made her/his own experiences. My mother also is not an angel, but shows some very angelic facets. What I fear is her becoming a little-- forgetful, dement. That I couldn´t really bear, she´s 72 now. But still cooks like a ****-chef ;-)
TLF

[Ken, Moderator]

wistful (or, how teachers feel each August...)

[M.D.]

grammatolatry

adoring the word while ignoring its meaning.

[Ken, Moderator]

Ah, the number of grammatolatrists who take vocabulary quizzes in school is legion...

[Tyler]

Grammatolators can be found reading Ulysses.

[Ken, Moderator]

Grammatolatrists, on the other foot, can be found reading Finnegans Wake (hold the apostrophe). Or trying to. Or pretending to. All with due adoration...

[Ken, Moderator]

serpentine (works better than turpentine for cleaning up)

[Stamatia]

This made saturnine pop into my mind closely followed by the face of a smiling Jack Nicholson. Go figure

[Savvy]

asperity \as-PAIR-uh-tee\, noun:
1. Roughness of surface; unevenness.
2. Roughness or harshness of sound; a quality that grates upon the ear.
3. Roughness of manner; severity; harshness.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

That is interesting....I have only ever heard it used with the 3rd meaning!!

[David]

quondam.

[David]

Eisteddfod, plural Eisteddfodau.

Ceilidh.

Hogmanay.

(I'm feeling Celtic).

[Ken, Moderator]

I seldom see this verb, but often see its adjectival form: vituperative.

And tell those priests to lay off the incense!

[Savvy]

My CR THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO has just provided me with the word "otakuness"

Has anyone ever mentioned your "otakuness" before?

Interesting word...

[David]

Umami.

It' a flavor,/a>, not "yo' mama."

An addition to the four basic ones.

[David]

A flavor. Didn't do too well with the HTML, did I?

[Ken, Moderator]

OTAKUNESS just made its debut (it's unmami-nous). I just finished OSCAR WAO myself, but don't remember that word (I sometimes treat unknown words like speed bumps and hit the accelerator).

[David]

Pleonasm:

the use of more words than are necessary to convey meaning (e.g., see with one's eyes), either as a fault of style or for emphasis.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

you people are bloody marvelous
you are diggin up all sorts of words i've never heard of with my own ears ;)

i extol your virtues
i appreciate the pronunciation and derivation info as well

[Ken, Moderator]

I never do that (the pronunciation and derivation stuff). I just type stuff like

virgule and then take off...

[Savvy]

So what do you do with your virgule???
Is it like the one I use?

Virgula Divina/Divining Rod

:-)

[David]

piscatorial

"Of or pertaining to fish," not a tirade by an angry editor.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

so ne is of the "look it up" school
dastardly plan

gadzooks

piscatorial? hmmm use that in a sentence

it was a piscatorial tale

we thought it was bouillabaisse but turns out it wasn't piscatorial at all

[David]

"Gadzooks" is a euphemism for "God's hooks," referring to the Crucifixion, n'est-ce pas?

[Boreal Elizabeth]

sounds logical
and since it was a word bandied about in my catholic home known for it's cursing euphemisms i'd say it also feels right
but i don't know it could be piscatorial and refer to fishing hooks

where is that bunny watson when you need her?
she hasn't been seen for days
perhaps she's gotten all tangled up in her feather boa while trying to find something to wear to the yellow snail masquerade

marco is picking up her remainders

[Boreal Elizabeth]

vir·gule (vûrgyl)
n. Printing
A diagonal mark ( / ) used especially to separate alternatives, as in and/or, to represent the word per, as in miles/hour, and to indicate the ends of verse lines printed continuously, as in Old King Cole/Was a merry old soul.



there you...you... teacher you

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

No swearing allowed here moe!!!!!

We're not ignoring you Marco....it's just that we did the 'lackadaisical/lacksadaisical' thing a few months ago!

I'm sure I saw Donna a day or two ago somewhere around here....probably passing through whilst on said hunt! What are you guys gonna wear to the snail soiree?

[Boreal Elizabeth]

Beatriz de Ahumada

poor bea
i'd say she was beyond enervate
and into enever again

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Gadsniggers!!!!!!! Hahahahahaha.....derivation of THAT one please Donna? Pretty pleeeeease???

[David]

Apothegm.

"A concise saying or maxim; an aphorism." Examples, "First, do no harm" and "A republic, if you can keep it."

[Boreal Elizabeth]

you folks are going to make me compile a list
i dont' know any of these words

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

How do you say that one David....must sound like a cough!

[David]

Apothegm is pronounced to rhyme with "Baaa-no-them."
I'm not going to try to type phonetic characters into HTML. It can be done, but let someone else do it.