What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 1,151-1,200 of 3,049

[Ruth]

Not really on track here, but...

Avocado is the fruit
Abogado is an attorney, in Mexico.

We always refer to avocados as "Mexican lawyers."

[Barbara]

Ruth wrote: "

.

We always refer to avocados as "Mexican lawyers."

"

So shall I from now on

[Ken, Moderator]

Not me. I keep my kitchen clean of lawyers.

[David]

"Avocado" is from Spanish "aguacate," which is from Nahuatl huacatl, "testicle," which it superficially resembles, though mine are rarely green.

[David]

Cf. "athaletic," "nucular," and the heinous "anyways ."

The latter is enough to get me caterwauling, q.v.

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

Curses!
From Mexico: "May your life be filled with lawyers."
From China: "May you live in interesting times."
From Mom: "Just wait 'til you have children."

[David]

Gabi--not certain that's an enticement or a threat.

Ultimate curse (from Yiddish, of course): A hospital should grow in your stomach and a surgeon should chase you from room to room with a scalpel in his hand!

[Barbara]

The way Americans ( sorry nice Americans but I can't bear it) say Paris, France and London, England

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I am with you on that one too....as if the originals need clarification!! If they are talking about Paris, Illinois, or London, Minnesota that is what they should say. London and Paris do not need qualification!!

[Barbara]

Debbie wrote: "I am with you on that one too....as if the originals need clarification!! ..."
ABSOLUTELY, so arrogant

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Not arrogant I think...just habit....but habits can be changed!
Then there was the Kiwi traveller returning from a trip to the States....asked for a ticket to Auckland (only one of those in the world I think) and ended up in Oakland!!

[David]

Non mi rompe i coglioni verdi.

[Ken, Moderator]

Today's Word for the Day is...

[Savvy]

la dolce fa niente!

[Ruth]

hammock

[David]

My favorite Italian expression is, "Non è vero, ma è ben trovato," which translates roughly as, "It's not true, but very well put."

[Ken, Moderator]

wyvern -- a fabulous animal usu. represented as a 2-legged winged creature resembling a dragon.

e.g. "The wyvern dropped by to wish us a Happy First Day of Spring."

[Ruth]

Oops. My apologies. I blundered down the hall into the wrong room again. Veered us off onto the Word Association track.

I'll atone with mellifluous. Sounds like what it means. I haven't looked it up, but it looks to me like it may derive from "honey-flowing." A sweet word.

[Tyler]

Huh -- there's nothing fabled about a wyvern. That witch next door to me fits your description. I'm calling animal control.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Has she bewitched your cows Tyler??!!

[Ken, Moderator]

Thank God Tyler Too doesn't live in Salem.

Wiccan -- a type of bamboo furniture favored by whiches and whatnots.

[Savvy]

FRABJOUS-

Originally a nonce word in Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky; probably a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous.
Adjective -frabjous (comparative more frabjous, superlative most frabjous)

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! — Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky
(informal) Great, wonderful, fabulous.

Most frequently found as an exclamation or in the form "most frabjous".

[David]

the way to hump a cow is not

the way to hump a cow is not
to get yourself a stool
but draw a line around the spot
and call it beautifool

to multiply because and why
dividing thens by nows
and adding and(i understand)
is hows to hump a cows

the way to hump a cow is not
to elevate your tool
but drop a penny in the slot
and bellow like a bool

to lay a wreath from ancient greath
on insulated brows
(while tossing boms at uncle toms
is hows to hump a cows

the way to hump a cow is not
to push and then to pull
but practicing the art of swot
to preach the golden rull

to vote for me(all decent mem
and wonens will allows
which if they don't to hell with them)
is hows to hump a cows

ee cummings

[Stamatia]

Oh but I really liked it. I think I must read more poetry from now on!! Thanks David

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

If y'all are going to spout wierd poetry, I'll add the piece my band teacher put on the board to prove a point (perhaps to illustrate the meaning of summit).

Seville, dare dago
Terte busses inaro
Noville, demis trux
Summit cowsin,
Summit dux.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

So where is the Word of the Day in all this? Perhaps you thought we were in the poetry thread?!

grumpy

[Stamatia]

feisty
just popped into my head
BTW can anyone supply the etymology of this?
Jumping thread again(grin)

[Ken, Moderator]

pugnacious -- Deb when she's got her bossy stick out to keep order in the threads (motto: "Threads have a name for a reason!") Whew!

Oh, and no, I haven't seen the feisty tree lately.

[Ruth]

Gabi wrote: "...like a fart in a colander;"

Heehee. I love it.

[Ken, Moderator]

I'll think twice next time I wash salad.

[Rowena]

That's not the etymology, though. Feisty is thought by some dictionary editors to come from aggressive little lap dogs.

It is also said to share a common root with a certain symptom of irritable bowels... which is why I wince when anyone calls my heroines "feisty". I prefer "spirited."

Gabi wrote: "Feisty:
Exuberently Frisky; Lively aggressiveness.
(as in 'the movie's feisty heroine')"

[Rowena]

Since the tone seems to be on the low side today, I will share my word of the week, which I cannot forget since a wonderfully funny roast of David Hobbs.

"Assholing" meaning "driving in a particularly inconsiderate manner" as in "he was assholing through a residential area at ninety mph"

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

Oh, good onya, Rowena.

My word of the day is conglomeration as in, "Where am I going to put this conglomeration now that I've emptied the junk drawer?

[Ken, Moderator]

"Assholing" and driving brings to mind New Englanders' favorite sobriquet for Massachusetts drivers: Massholes.

Oh, OK. One of my favorites: sobriquet, as in nickname, one of my favorite pursuits (though not everyone loves the sobriquet I come up with).

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Got some for us NE?!!

[David]

I hope I have offended none by posting raunchy verse. The etymology is unknown. It's a word with innumerable synonyms, with slightly varying connotatons, like most disreputable and forbidden things (try "drunk," or "the devil," for starters):

salacious
steamy
suggestive
lewd
bawdy
ribald
seductive
erotic
pornographic
titillating

There are no doubt dozens more. The wages of sin is death, but the words and phrases used in the adverts are legion.

[Ken, Moderator]

Deb,

I do the sobriquet thing with students and such. It's easier when you know the person in RL. As for you, well, I've used "Debs" and "Debberlies." Best I can do on virtual notice!

W for the D...

redact

As a verb, "to edit"

As a noun, "one who selects or adapts works for publication and is, thus, an editor"

[Tyler]

What I've never understood about the verb "redact" is why we need two words in English (along with "edit") for the same action.

[Ken, Moderator]

To keep Roget in business?

[[deleted user]]

Since I am reading Daughter of York it has to be CERTES since I have now read it at leasts 500 times, tee hee...

[David]

Forsooth.

[Catamorandi]

pithy - adj. - concise and to the point - full of meaning.

[[deleted user]]

Pochina
from Daughter of York

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

Janice, it took me several reads of your Teacher's poem, but I finally got it all except the second syllable of seville.

See ?, there ..."

Read the poem aloud as with a phoney German accent. You will hear that Willie is the person being addressed.

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

Indubitably, which sounds like pigeon conversation.

[Catamorandi]

Thaumaturgy - the practice of magic and miracles

[Ruth]

Janice wrote: "Indubitably, which sounds like pigeon conversation."

Oh my. It certainly does. I will never look at the pigeons down at the pier in the same way.

[Robyn]

Persona non grata - person who is no longer welcome

[David]

If they're in combat, why do people call them "camp followers"?

[Jan (the Gryphon)]

Camp followers were merchants (of various sorts) not soldiers. The strip malls that set up outside the gates of military facilities are the direct descendants of the booze tents, laundries and brothels of the camp followers of bygone days.

Technically, women who went to war as support for their husbands were also camp followers, but the phrase to describe a legal wife's situation was "following the drum."

My word today is obstreperous