Language & Grammar discussion
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What's Your Word for the Day?
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So that's where they got the names for those early 20th century liners. What country was Mauretania? and was there a Titanica? (country, that is)Wasn't China also known as Cathay? or was it some place else?
Mauretania was Morocco. Cathay was a somewhat mythologized China. Cipangu was Japan.Titanic just means "big," the Titans being a race of giants. There is also a moon, of Saturn, I think, and a novel, The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr..
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I can stomach Vonnegut but please God no more Hesse ( I had to read Demian for a German literacy test and I developed a strong Hasse - hatred- for Hesse. I didn't like any of his other books either)
Hesse's a bit earnest, but the Glasperlenspiel The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) A Novel is worth a read, especially if you are on a transcontinental airplane trip.
oh i loved hesse so when i was a young dramatic girlnorthumberland
Salubrious. I love to use it sarcastically. Ex. "When I walked into the rodeo-stockman's livestock show wearing a mohawk and Clash t-shirt, I was met with a less than salubrious audience." LOL.
chiaroscuro. Someone used it today to describe a film called The Old Dark House. I haven't seen the film, but the word is so evocative that I want to see the movie if only because of the description.
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It enfolds the fundamental ideas of both light and dark in one word. Laconic
Same structure as "pianoforte." "Light/dark," "soft/loud."I don't think they say, "vivomorte," though, which is how I feel sometimes.
Thanks, David...a perfect neologism. I will immediately begin employing it and trying to spread its usage.Back to "laconic": verbose
decemnovenarianize: (verb) to act like a person of the 19th century.e.g., suppose your farming cousins, Zebediah and Zachary, like to participate in Civil War Re-enactments, you might write -
My cousins, two agrarian guys,
Love to decemnovenarianize.
I'm sure there's a Italian love song that uses it...."Vivomorte per te..."
PerspicuousClearly expressed, easily understood, especially because of clarity of presentation...
Pronunciation: \pər-ˈspi-kyə-wəs\
Etymology: Latin perspicuus transparent,
I like it because it reminds me of perspex (the clear variety of course)
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floccinaucinihilipilification: the habit of estimating almost everything as worthless.
*** gourmet / gourmand / epicure ****"Your friend who likes to cook may be a gourmet, but is he also a gourmand? And could you also call him an epicure? Yes, and yes again. A gourmet is a person with discriminating taste in food and wine, as is a gourmand. But a gourmand can also be someone who enjoys food in great quantities. An epicure is pretty much the same as a gourmet, but the word may carry overtones of excessive refinement. This use of epicure, by the way, is a deliberate misrepresentation of Epicurean philosophy, which, while it professed that pleasure was the highest good, was hardly given to excessive concern with food and drink. It was concerned rather with personal happiness and freedom from pain. But rival philosophical schools took offense at Epicurus’s doctrine of pleasure and distorted the name of his school."
(source...The American Heritage Book of English Usuage)
FACINOROUSAdjective
1. Atrociously wicked.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Etymology: Facinorous \Fa*cin"o*rous\, adjective. [Latin expression facinorous, from facinus deed, bad deed, from facere to make, do.:]. (Websters 1913)
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Adumbrate reminds me of umbrage, a shady word that we are constantly "taking" somewhere.
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It's hard choosing between "foreshadow" and "adumbrate." Any tips?++++++
My word for the day: RECONDITE
I've come across it many times in my current book. This adjective refers to something hidden from view ("the recondite problems of scientific research"). Interestingly, the accent is on the first syllable.
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CHATOYANT(shuh-TOY-unt)
Changing in luster or color, the way cats' eyes do.
This marvelous word is a relative of the English word cat. It comes from the French chatoyer, which literally means "to shimmer like cats' eyes."
"Following a brisk body scrub and generous application of pineapple mango-scented moisturizer, Vanessa slipped into a magenta-and-orange dress of chatoyant silk and stepped out into the night."
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I like this word:pandiculation: an instinctive stretching, as on awakening or while yawning
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:) Thanks. It seems very appropriate on Monday.
MASTROUS from Blossom Like the Rose by Norah Lofts, now what does this mean????
any ideas?
any ideas?
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My word today is "plinth"--the heavy base supporting a column, statute, or vase.I like unusual monosyllabic words. If only there were a shorter word for "monosyllable," as Stephen Wright remarked.
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Lea wrote: "chiaroscuro.
Someone used it today to describe a film called The Old Dark House. I haven't seen the film, but the word is so evocative that I want to see the movie if only because of the descri..."
Several of my art professors were also very fond of this word.
Someone used it today to describe a film called The Old Dark House. I haven't seen the film, but the word is so evocative that I want to see the movie if only because of the descri..."
Several of my art professors were also very fond of this word.
Debbie wrote: "According to the urban dictionary it means the 'essence of cool'. Apart from that it does not appear to be a word.....google wanted to know if I meant 'monstrous'."
Thanks Debbie! I guess its so old that its no longer in usage. I had also googled it. Norah Lofts used it several times in her book which is time frame around 1670.
Thanks Debbie! I guess its so old that its no longer in usage. I had also googled it. Norah Lofts used it several times in her book which is time frame around 1670.
Back in the day (1930s) they had a brief party game fad of "Scotchegrams". The idea was to use as few words as possible because telegrams were paid for by the word. The example I have read was: "Artisan jail send alimony Yukon to Baalam out."
My word is "thrasonical," from the movie, APPALOOSA. I found it amusing that Bragg was the character to whom thrasonical was applied.
My word for the day: FactotumThis noun refers to a worker who does all kinds of jobs, and the Latin root is an imperative that translates "do everthing." Factotum is also the title of a book I'm just starting, and that's how I came across the word.
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Language & Grammar
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Good to see you back Stamatia!