What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 801-850 of 3,049

[Stamatia]

centrifugal is my WFTD

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Is foofaraw a corruption of free-for-all, which is what we call an all-out brawl (or donnybrook) down this way?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Oh.....and I like your poem David!!!!

[Savvy]

and I'll add another verse David...

Ye gods and little fishes
You kids never do the dishes
And your laundry's in a mountain on the floor.

It seems you're always texting
And I worry that you're sexing
And as you leave you always slam the door.

The havoc that you're wreaking
When shrieking instead of speaking
Spawns a hurricane of hormones all at war.

[David]

I discovered a word I'd never heard before--"chyron"--it's "an electronically generated caption superimposed on a television or movie screen."

The word comes from the name of the company that originated the technology.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

i've never heard any of the words you've posted david and i used to think i had a good vocabulary
but you and bunny and ne and deb and others
put the lie to that theory of my own glory

thanks

you're a veritable cornucopia of linguistic enlightenment
a plethora of pontification
an embarrassing abundance of erudition

[David]

Awww, shucks.

Would you care to join me for some 'umble pie?

"Umble pie, made from the umbles - heart, liver and gizzard - of a deer."

Why do I keep coming back to food?

[Angela]

I love that song, David and Suzanne! Bravo!

[Ken, Moderator]

xyston -- a 12-foot-long lance with a foot-long point at BOTH ends. You know. Typically in a Welcome Wagon gift basket.

[Ken, Moderator]

Luddite? The playful curmudgeon god?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Was that before the Romans dubbed it Londinium?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

From Britannica:
The “Ludds,” or Luddites, were generally masked and operated at night. Their leader, real or imaginary, was known as King Ludd, after a probably mythical Ned Ludd. They eschewed violence against persons and often enjoyed local support. In 1812 a band of Luddites was shot down under the orders of a threatened employer named Horsfall (who was afterward murdered in reprisal). The government of Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd earl of Liverpool, instituted severe repressive measures culminating in a mass trial at York in 1813, which resulted in many hangings and transportations. Similar rioting in 1816 was caused by the depression that followed the Napoleonic Wars; but the movement was soon ended by vigorous repression and reviving prosperity.

The term Luddite is now used broadly to signify individuals or groups opposed to technological change.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

....and try this for London's origins...

http://www.chr.org.uk/legends.htm

[Ken, Moderator]

Dun=Fort. Thus, a "dunning" notice?

[David]

And a foin Talk Like a Pirate Day t' ye all, me hearties!

[Ken, Moderator]

Where I work, the din is relentless in the café. It's most kids' favorite class. They eat it up.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Groooooaaaaaan!!

[David]

They'll be a-groanin' when we sends 'em down ter Davey Jones!

[Ken, Moderator]

Is there such a word as perseverate or is it educational jargon? I heard it once last year (from a new teacher) and again this year (from a special education teacher). In both cases, I said, "Do you mean persevere? I got the hairy eyeball.

Also, two people have recently pronounced "collegial" with a "g as in gate" sound instead of the traditional "g as in gee whiz" sound. I about broke out in laughter, but everyone else kept a serious face. Again, either I'm missing the train or infiltration has begun in my school..

[Savvy]

ATRABILIOUS

Gloomy or morose; bad-tempered or irritable.

[Ken, Moderator]

Thanks, Bunny. I drifted during Psych 101. Those large lecture halls did me in...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

NE....the infiltration has begun...the collegial thing is one example...here is another. I wandered into the staffroom the other morning and announced that it was NZ Suffrage Day....1893...NZ women first in the world to be emancipated. Female colleague in late 30's said.."What the hell is that? Sounds like something you need a laxative for!" Second female colleague in early 30's joined in expressions of ignorance.
I kept my incredulity to myself too.

[Savvy]

Bunny,

After I'd posted it, I read the author's admonishment about his site being copyrighted and thus not reprintable without his permission.

A case of do first, then read the fine print...a style I seem to favor.

It's a great word site and I'll attempt to link it here so you can check it out for yourself.

Sorry, I should have explained when I deleted.....

WORLDWIDEWORDS

[Ken, Moderator]

Debs... were the new generations referring to the word "suffrage" or "emancipation" when they thought of laxatives? How they could be teachers and ignorant of either of those words is beyond me (and the person next to me, I think).

Thanks, Susanne, for the copywronged site.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Emancipation....close to constipation if you are ignorant of the meaning. Dumbing down of the profession started at about the same time as people began getting nervous about 'failure' and made exams easier and passing grades lower. God forbid that anyone should actually work up a sweat studying!!

[Old-Barbarossa]

I take it you can't actually use the work "stupid" anymore when refering to pupils. "Differently clever"?
What do you call someone who's lazy? I take it there's a politically correct term.

[Ken, Moderator]

No. "Stupid" could get you fired if addressed at a student (especially around others). Personally, I would agree with this action, however. Calling a kid stupid in front of other kids IS stupid.

No one's lazy. It's the teacher's fault. The teacher hasn't addressed said student's "learning style" or hasn't "scaffolded the work" correctly or hasn't considered the child's personal education plan.

Finally, the "standards-based" movement proclaims that you should never dock a kid points for handing in a paper late (one day, one week, three weeks). If he ultimately hands it in and PROVES he can meet the standards, he passes. Work habits and responsibility are NOT tied to the grade (until... ahem... they get a job and get their asses fired for missing deadlines, that is).

:-)

[Ken, Moderator]

conscientious

[Stamatia]

Ahem, excuse me but a lazy student in my narrowminded and bigotted opinion is THE FAMILY'S FAULT. We can't expect teachers to build our kids' characters. We send children to school to be educated, they're supposed to get their life attitudes from home
(PS I'm not a teacher)

[Ken, Moderator]

When I say, "No one's lazy. It's the teacher's fault," my tongue is firmly in cheek. But you knew that...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Yay Stamatia!!!! I am not a voice alone in the wilderness!!:-)
PS I AM a teacher

[David]

upbraid

[David]

If a student is lazy, it's his fault. I'm sick to death of psychobabble, excuses and pansification.

If the little b*******ds don't want to work at school, let them get jobs.

Time to burn Signind Freud & John Dewey.

[David]

Sigmund.

[Old-Barbarossa]

I saw a documentary recently about a charity that ran schools in slums in India. They compared the expectations of the pupils in India with Brit inner city school kids.
The kids from the UK all wanted to "be famous" or "be rich", with no idea how they would get there.
The Indian kids, by contrast, said "I want to be a Dr/physicist/engineer". Concrete goals.
Sad reflection of the UK schools system and society in general.

[Old-Barbarossa]

Aye, get them back to cleaning chimneys...music was music when I was a boy...etc

[David]

When I was a lad, we lived on the bottom of a lake, and all we had to eat was stones . . .

I do believe people--including children--are better off it we expect them, and they expect themselves, to be responsible for themselves and their actions.

Even a 3-year old can wipe up the milk herslef when she spills it.

[Ruth]

I agree, David. And I think children have a way of living up to our expectations of them, good or bad. That's why I never made accusations unless I was absodamn sure they were guilty.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

herslef absodamn

it should be a name
may i have it?

[David]

"herslef," from the Old English "hraeslof," meaning a pencil eraser bitten off the pencil by a troll.

The word "horselaugh" is not derived from "hraeslof."

The grelmins got into my wrod porcessor.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

fake etymology
it should be a thread

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Well...get it started then! I'm trying to come up with a post for it....

[Old-Barbarossa]

I second that.

[Savvy]

Here's one I just stumbled upon...

Obscure Words: epicaricacy

/ep"-i-kar-ik'-i-see/ taking pleasure in another's misfortune: syn: schadenfreude

[Ken, Moderator]

I don't know about epicaricacy, but I've been seeing a LOT of the word "schadenfreude" in the press lately. What would the old newspaper guys say? Jimmy Olson would NEVER use such a word!

[David]

German loan words in English are interesting:

weltanschauung-- worldview
schadenfreude-- joy at the misfortune of others
weltschmerz-- sorrow at the state of the universe
leitmotiv -- recurring musical theme
bratwurst-- a kind of sausage
blitzkrieg-- lightning military attack
untermensch-- inferior person
ubermensch-- superior person
schweinehund-- "pig dog," s.o.b.
schmalz-- sentiment
schrechlichkeit-- ruthlessness with connotation of violencee
totentanz-- dance of skeletons
totenkopf-- death's head (skull)
geheimrat-- Privy Councillor

[Ruth]

Oh the wonderful schmalz
Of a Viennese waltz.

[David]

Oh how we danced
On the night we were wed
I needed a wife
Like a hole in the head.

I'm rather fond of mine, thank you, the parody to the contrary notwithstanding.

[David]

Some French loan words (not from the Norman Conquest era, but newer):

joie de vivre--energetic optimism
paté--a processed paste, beloved of gourmets
élan vital--vital energy
rendezvous--a meeting, usually clandestine, often adulterous
bourgeois--an urban dweller, by extension a holder of wealth other than from hereditary landholdings
noblesse oblige--the obligation of nobility--charity to one's inferiors
bistro--fr. Russian, a homey restaurant
mille feuilles--a "thousand leaves" pastry
rotisserie--a roasting device
pot au feu--a kind of stew
prie dieu--a piece of furniture used for kneeling a prayer
rodomontade--wordy, pompous speech

A lot about food, sex, and social class. Is it me, or the pattern of borrowings?

[David]

French also is the source of diplomatic and military words:

démarche--a diplomatic proposal or demand
bivouac--a stopping place for a group of soldiers
lieutenant--a "place taker" pronounced "leftenant" by the English, as in "the French leftenant's whore."
regiment--a subdivision of an army.
manoeuvre--a tactic involving movement
chargé d'affaires--a diplomatic representative serving in lieu of another of higher rank
chef de cabinet--administrator of a bureaucratic office
aide memoire--a type of memorandum

And words used in culcha:

dénouement--the resolution of a conflict
récherché--overly and unnecessarily precious or complex
plié--a ballet step (from the word for "folded")
étude--a "study" a type of musical composition
roman à clef--a "novel" that's supposed to be about real people
poignant--painfully sad, from a word for what a dagger does
pièce de résistance--a point of high achievement, culmination of many efforts

And of course, a back-translation, "Singes capitulards bouffeurs du frômage," meaning "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," not to be repeated since the French are our friends again. It's rude to say "sod the frogs," now, too.