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

[Ken, Moderator]

Ah, yes. What's better than feeling not only serene but dipity on a Saturday morn?

Do you all use segue in everyday speech as much as I do? "OK, let's segue into..."

It's defined as "proceed to what follows without pause." A musical term originally, I believe, though I'm no music man (at least not of note).

[Daniela]

The "etymology" of serendipity is quite fascinating ... it was coined by Horace Walpole and the original meaning is much more specific than the one that is nowadays frequently used. It is described here. -->
http://www.reference.com/search?q=ser...

Thanks for somebody here for pointing out reference.com. I like that site already. :)

[Ken, Moderator]

Guten Tag!, Dani. Good to see a little Europa in the house. (And who would've paired serendipity with science, much less Horace Walpole? Not this guy.)

[[deleted user]]

and thanks to you for mentionong it dani
saved to favorites

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

See? Finding this site was definitely serendipitous. The discoveries keep coming thick and fast.

[Eastofoz]

Hi Maureen
Got your message but for some reason I can't send one back to you :( Thanks for "treasure hunting", hope something turns up!

[Prabha]

Hey I just checked out the serendipity in Science and Technology link - thanks Dani, it's really cool! Who would've ever thought!

[Ken, Moderator]

Einstein. He thought of everything (the thought hog)...

[Ruth]

But it's all relative.

R

[Prabha]

Good one Ruth :)

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

...in theory Ruth!

[Ruth]

Touche

R

[Ken, Moderator]

Is that the word for the day (touché)? Ever the poet, eh, Ruth?

Mine are the near-twins, but distant relations, abate and abet. The former seems to be used more and more by weathermen, as in, "The storm is abating" (letting up, diminishing) while the latter is used more and more in crime reports, as in, "The suspect was charged with aiding and abetting the bank robber by driving the masked man away."

My question is: aren't "aid" and "abet" repetitive? And if so, why are they like Tweedledee and Tweedledum so often?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Sounds to me as though they are partners in crime NE!!

[Symbol]

How about some confused (and possibly confusing) words? I like blutterbunged. It sounds so unusual. I can't say that I've ever used the word but I like the idea that I could use it if the need ever arose. Although, I fear that I might find myself too discombobulated to remember it when the time comes.

[Symbol]

Okay, I know I've already posted two words today, but I have to add just one more. (Besides, I've been away for two weeks; I need to catch up!)
So, without further ado, I give you:
Paraskavedekatriaphobia!
Try saying that 13 times fast!

I think this word appeals to me because it looks so long and intimidating but it's not acutally that bad once you get to know it! The alternating emphasized syllables give it a nice undulating, lilting feeling as you're saying it too. I like it!

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Discombobulated I know, love and use! But blutterbunged???!!!!! Please explain?!

[Prabha]

blutterbunged:
in a state of utmost bewilderment; baffled; astonished; surprised; dazzled; shocked; awe-struck; befuddled; dumbfounded.

from urbandictionary.com

[Kathrynn]

I like discombobulated. It's kinda catchy in how it seems to roll off the tongue.

What about: anthropomorphize?

to ascribe human form or attributes to an animal, plant, material object, etc.

[Ken, Moderator]

Blutterbunged sounds illegal (at least in 43 states). I'm staying clear of it.

Discombobulated? I do it for a living.

As for Symbol's special word, Gesundheit! When you start specializing phobias, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Anthropomorphizing is good. Can animals do worse than man when it comes to mangling the language?

[Ruth]

What a gallimaufrey of words we have here!

R

[Symbol]

Now here's one for you... I'm sure you're all familiar will ultimate and penulatimate, but have you been aquainted with antepenultimate?

The construction makes sense, ante- being 'before' and all. I just never realized that this word existed!
Antepenultimate! It's just so much more fun to say than 'third-last'! I think I might get some strange looks if I ever tried to use it colloquially though.

[Ken, Moderator]

I use penultimate so much in class that everyone knows what it means. That and sotto voce.

Oh. And Basta! of course.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Snap NE! Penultimate and I are old friends - and early each year when I first use it with a new class, at least 1 kid says, "I know what that means...my older brother/sister told me and they learned it from you"!
'Basta' is one I just googled and I don't think I would get away with it....Spanish in short supply here and too close to well-known English word meaning fatherless!!!!

[Ken, Moderator]

"Basta!" is also Italian, I believe. It's good for one go-round at least. Delivered at the right tone when the class is particularly noisy, it stops them in their tracks thinking what you thought: "Did he just say what I thought he said?"

Answer: no.

[Symbol]

I like snirtle. It strikes me as a moderately useful word. And it sounds nicer than 'snort'!

[Ruth]

Which reminds me, the Norwegian word for "snore" is "snork." Wonderful.

R

[Ken, Moderator]

I wonder if the slanguage word snarky has Norwegian roots, too. Ruth, you're married to a Norwegian, is it?

I always wanted to go to Norway, but I couldn't a-fjord it.

[[deleted user]]

eschew obfuscation

i've been reading y'all (Robert Clark's, River of the West, about the Colombia
River) so not up to speed

typing and thinking aren't connecting

please keep posting those words
i lost you at tinctumutation but will be wordy again in a few, once i figure out which picture to put up

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

NE - I just bet you're right about 'snarky' - my ex-husband was half Norwegian!!!!!!

[Ken, Moderator]

Norwegian Wood if he could (and often did)... or so they say.

(There's a Beatles joke in their somewhere... or perhaps an ex-husband joke.)

[Ken, Moderator]

Well I'll take my cue from James Carville, campaign bigwig on the Hillary campaign. He called New Mexico Gov. Richardson's endorsement of Obama "egregious" and compared the governor to Judas, the coveted endorsement coming so close as it did to the Easter holiday.

Egregious means extraordinary in some bad way. Of course, I find Carville's comparison egregious, too, but that's his Southern-boy style and, as Gov. Richardson said, it's typical of the "sense of entitlement to the presidency" reaction you'd expect from that camp.

Sorry about the politics. Just focus on the word for the day. I'm sure SOMEthing's egregious in your life.

P.S. Any Canadians here? Can you explain why my calendar says "EASTER MONDAY (Canada)" today? What the heck is that -- a travel day? Or just another day to resurrect yourself from all that hosting, hamming, and bunny hopping?

[Ruth]

In Norway this is "Second Easter Day." Saturday was "Little Easter Day." They do their all for Easter.

R

[Ken, Moderator]

Kind of like a "Boxing Day" for Easter, then? Looks like "Oh, Canada" took it on from the Old Countries...

[Symbol]

It's just another holiday for government officials and other flunkies. The rest of us still have to work, but the kiddies get the day off school. I always looked forward to that four-day weekend! (Sadly, I don't get to enjoy it anymore.)

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

We have Easter Monday in NZ too and schools are closed on the Tuesday as well. I go back tomorrow (Wed).

[[deleted user]]

ahem...fulminate and tautology

you thought i was joking? ;)

[Ken, Moderator]

I never think you're joking. Sometimes I get lazy and never think period.

[[deleted user]]

but ne-most times i am joking :)
sigh
that's the way of it
when i'm serious they take me lightly
and when i'm goofy they take me literally
and when i'm most passionate they think i've lost my mind

ah well

it's much too late in the game to fix it now

i'll just continue to correct for the wobble ;)

[Ken, Moderator]

My last post translated: when I said sometimes I don't think, I just meant to be self-deprecating. Period. Certainly no commentary on you, Maureen -- I love your posts when you're joking, when you're not, and when you're mysteriously in between.

[[deleted user]]

I am so glad to see that there are other people here who have brain difficulty on occasion. My father started a running joke when I was in college that when I was on vacation my brain went on "low voltage"-- I didn't want to make the multitude of decisions that were required of the university student when I was at home. We just finished Spring Break here-- my brain was on "low voltage" the whole time!

[Ken, Moderator]

Running jokes. Why don't they sit still? They're so transient and never sedentary That's two words for one day that have to do with movement, or lack thereof. Any other moving (sob) nominations? I'll call Amodio.

I'll also share that our Maine camp has an honored Indian friend. His name is Running Water and no one appreciates him like we do!

[Jay]

Okay, I don't actually have a word for the day--I'm sort of looking for one. I searched this discussion, but if the word is here, it's tough to find.

So, I'm looking for a word that means "to have a word or phrase on the tip of your tongue, but not be able to recall it." I know, ironic! There actually is such a word, I learned it in college, promptly forgot it, and have been searching in vain ever since (longer than I care to admit!).

A friend of mine suggested "lethologia," which is on the right track, but not the word I am looking for.

Do any of you wise word hounds know the answer?

[Ken, Moderator]

Hi, Jennifer --

I've only heard them called TOTs (which stands, of course, for "Tip of the Tongue"). Sorry. Maybe one of the other hounds will sniff something up...

[Symbol]

Donna - Thank you for sesquipedalian! I've been trying to remember that word for about a week now. I always forget to look for it when I'm at my computer and only remember it when I'm at work or somewhere equally inconvenient.

Jennifer - you should try the Reverse Dictionary at reference.com. I've played around with it a little bit, and it seems pretty good.

[Symbol]

Okay, well, I took a look at the reverse dictionary but I didn't come up with anything better than lethological. I did learn more than I ever wanted to know about the TOT phenomenon though!
(College students experience TOTs about once a week while older people get it about 3-4 times per week. Young children do experience TOT but very rarely. People can often recall the first letter of the word even if they can't remember the whole word. They can also usually come up with synonyms for the word. Children will also often list rhyming words. Et cetera, et cetera...)

[Inky]

Here's one I was inspired to post by another post in a poetry group:

Laistrygonians - a tribe of giant cannibals in Greek myth. Encountered by Odysseus on his journey back to Ithaca. I think a few of their descendants may have sailed to America and run for public office...

[Ken, Moderator]

Speaking of allusions to classical literature, Inky, I love yahoos (boorish and rowdy humans) and Houyhnhnms (intelligent and civil horses) from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

[Ken, Moderator]

About quixotic: I've been mispronouncing it all my life. Last spring, I uttered it my way (Kwee-AH-tic) and was corrected. It's Kwik-SAT-ic. Guess I was trying to give the ole knight too much of that Romantic language flair. He would have appreciated the error, but it looks like the battle goes to the Sancho Panzas of Pronunciation once again...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I always said that Don Key-hoe-tay was kwix-otic!!