What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 1,101-1,150 of 3,049

[David]

"Factotum" brings to mind "lackey," originally a uniformed manservant, now a servile person. Cf. Chinese Communist invective, "lackeys and running dogs." There is a novel called Running Dog, about the search for a porn film starring Adolf Hitler. I have no desire to read it.

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

I think I'll pass on that book, as well. Plenty of other stuff out there I haven't read yet.

Panjandrum is to factotum as supervisor is to secretary.

[David]

I thought it was an Indian word, but apparently was invented by one Samuel Foote. The "Grand Panjandrum" was an experimental explosive weapon in WWII, designed to shatter the Atlantic Wall the Germans built, but never deployed.

For some reason, it calls to my unstable mind the great Huey P. Long's riff on "high popalorum" and "low popahirum," the two carnival-barker remedies offered by our two dominant political parties. You can hear and see the great Huey, who is nothing like Sean Penn, here. It's short and well worth watching.

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

How about formication? the feeling of ants crawling on ones skin.

[Ruth]

Janice wrote: "How about formication? the feeling of ants crawling on ones skin."

Fornication is more fun.

[Savvy]

Ruth wrote: "Fornication is more fun."

and probably takes some 'fortification' to partake...

[David]

"Fornication like this, we really should have bought a cake."

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Haaaaaahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!

101 ways to use chocolate cake?!!

[David]

Debbie, you are delightfully perverse.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

We aim to please....... (snort!)

[Ken, Moderator]

Remember the old album cover to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass's Whipped Cream and Other Delights? Of course not. That was, what, 50 years ago?

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

<--older than that, and yes it was a delightful cover. What wasn't whipped cream was "Tangerine".

[Nicole]

(Argh.)

Now for something completely different. Something much more eeeevil. Not so much a word of the day but an all-time favorite of mine:

defenestrate (v.) to throw something or someone out a window (n. defenestration)(from the Latin for window, fenestra)

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

OOOh Oooh. I like that one, too. The Defenestration of Prague (1618) was one of the few incidents that I remember from World History classes.

[Ken, Moderator]

We've defenestrated here before. Someone saw a window of opportunity, I guess.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

"Keep passing the open windows"

John Irving "Hotel New Hampshire"

[Ken, Moderator]

Lord, how I hated that book. An insult on Cow Hampshire, in my opinion.

Oh. I guess I'll go with

COWS

[Ruth]

Elsie

[David]

Thass a cow of another color, hoss.

[Ken, Moderator]

Ponderosa

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Little Joe

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

Little Women

[Nicole]

Whoa, hey, when did word of the day turn into word associations?!
(Window of opportunity...argh. I read a lot of the previous posts, and words would turn up more than once, so I figured I was safe to post my favorite.)

[Savvy]

CALLIPYGIAN-cal⋅li⋅pyg⋅i⋅an   / kæləˈpɪdʒiən/ [kal-uh-pij-ee-uhn:]
–adjective having well-shaped buttocks.


1- Her gown (perhaps as a result of the scorching winds coming off the ambas) clung damply to her body, clearly revealing her callipygian curves and the entire shapely length of her legs.
2- My lovely visage, callipygian frame, startlingly awesome calves and charming smile will yet go down in history!

[Savvy]

There....back on track!

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

orogeny : the process of mountain formation especially by folding of the earth's crust

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

How disappointing!

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

had you going for a minute ??
That's what I like about orogeny and formication, very misleading.

[Tyler]

Well in my opinion formication is unlikely during orogeny without callipygian participation.

[David]

I've heard of genies who granted wishes. Just not that kind.

[Savvy]

Well stated, as usual, Tyler!

May callipygous visions be granted to you!

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Archaeologist. Thanks to Janice who is 'digging up' all our old threads!

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I HATE that piece of drivel that passes for a song!!!

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

My mother used to use the word discombooberate, which apparently was a combined result of discomposure, incineration and receprion of a "lowered" boom.

[David]

Our babies of various generations have invented many expressions:

"Shribble," to keep messing with an object using one's fingers.
"Cooding," messing with one's privates.
"Coodling," the same but with two fingers.
"Rug 'em," to use a carpet sweeper.
"Brinking with toys," a borrowing from the Portuguese brincar, "to play," by my then bilingual daughter, adding English verb endings.

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

basketti and meatballs
or in some neighborhoods, pahsketti

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

From my son, not a word, but a phrase: making M's at someone for frown.
The wrinkles on my husband's forehead form an M when he is concentrating or angry.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

It wasn't discombobulate was it Janice? That is one my mum used but it is a real word. If you were discombobulated it meant that you were out of sync and not quite yourself....

[Ruth]

We ate Tucky Kenfried chicken.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Sounds better than the Tenfucky Cried that my step-daughters son was eating!!

[Ken, Moderator]

Have we ventured into the "Mispronunciation" thread? There's something like that somewhere in this joint...

[David]

Bosintang--Korean dog soup

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

How about a new word?

chatoyant: varying in color when seen in different lights or from different angles

I think of Carol Channing doing her lighthouse impersonation in a stunning, chatoyant gown.

[Ken, Moderator]

Which reminds one of titillating.

[Ruth]

or tintinabulation

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

fossa - a ditch

[Ruth]

Gabi wrote: "Would that be where Fossil came from? associates with the use of a dig in the archaelogical sense. Did I spell that right? "

Exactly. But altho archaeology does deal in fossils sometimes, paleontology deals in them almost exclusively.

[Ruth]

Gabi wrote: "I tend to lump anything to do with all that under Archaeology, regardless. "

Lots of people do, but as a former paleontologist, it always makes me cringe.

[Barbara]

Harold, My ex father-in-law as a child was very pleased with the Lords Prayer and the fact that Harold Was Thy Name
Myself, I was happy that in the childs hymn, I think called 'Jesus Loves Me, This I Know' , I could refer to my own father in the line 'You Bring Yours to the Foreman, and I'll Bring Mine' (actually made more sense to me than when corrrected to 'you in your small corner and I in mine'..)

[Barbara]

Herewith a mixed bag of mispronunciations and wrongly used words etc

Alot ( for a lot)
Vunrable
Conshoomer (and pershoo)
Pacific ( for specific)
Flout when it should be flaunt and vice versa
Cohort when describing an individual