What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 1,751-1,800 of 3,049

[Tyler]

Sunday's wftd: Anomie

The adjective is anomic. It refers to a condition of individuals or society characterized by a breakdown or absence of social norms and values, as in the case of refugees.

[Ruth]

I first ran across that word in an art review.

[David]

It was used by Émile Durkheim, the French sociologist, in Suicide A Study in Sociology.

[Ken, Moderator]

I thought Shakespeare used it in Romeo & Juliet -- the Queen Mab speech by Mercutio. Or maybe I'm thinking of "atomie."

[Carol]

Here is a word I came across today. heteronomises

[David]

apotropaic

Intended to ward of evil, like this hamza:

[image error]

[Carol]

I like a rabbits foot better. Do all lucky charms have something to do with feet or hands

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Horseshoe..........

[Carol]

ooh good one, just don't stand under the door where it hangs.

[Ken, Moderator]

If it's upside down, it's bad luck (because the luck all "spills").

[Carol]

Is friended a proper way or should I have said befriended

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Befriended

[Carol]

Yes. I made a grammar boo boo. Thanks for your help, though I can't change it now. It is out there for the world to see.

[David]

"To friend" is a social networking internet neologism. It's a common English grammatical process, a verbalization, as in "to pencil in an appointment," "to dog one's footsteps," and "to sister on a beam." Don't handcuff your creativity.

[Carol]

David wrote: ""To friend" is a social networking internet neologism. It's a common English grammatical process, a verbalization, as in "to pencil in an appointment," "to dog one's footsteps," and "to sister on a..."

Thank You. It was not a formal letter ,so mayhap I didn't mis-step

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Sister on a beam? Never heard that one!

[Carol]

I am always a sun beam. hehe

[David]

It's attaching one beam lengthwise to another, to make the whole assembly stronger.

[Ken, Moderator]

Raise High the Roof Beam. JD Salinger, no?

I'm not very good at "friending." In fact, I'm best avoided.

[Carol]

remove from, antisocial, non-friended all examples of a non friendling person. What say you.

[Ken, Moderator]

Um... I'm speechless.

[David]

misanthrope

[David]

psogos (fr. Greek ψογος)--rhetoric--a speech which condemns or degrades someone or something

[Ken, Moderator]

bumfodden -- that's toilet paper in Germany (think the Black Forest...).

[David]

I thought that was somewhere in Egypt.

[Ken, Moderator]

The Black Forest or the Bumfodden?

[David]

Bumfodden. The Black Forest is not a river in Egypt.

[Ken, Moderator]

I just like saying, "Bumfodden." It's a wonderful euphemism for TP (a bridge over the Hudson, I believe, between Joisey and New York state).

[David]

A bridge? Over the Hudson? The enviros and NIMBYs would never allow it. As fot TP, ban it. What we need are softer newspapers!

[Ruth]

Eclogue

A brief, dramatic pastoral poem, set in an idyllic rural place but discussing urban, legal, political, or social issues. Bucolics and idylls, like eclogues, are pastoral poems, but in nondramatic form. See Edmund Spenser’s “Shepheardes Calendar: April,” Andrew Marvell’s “Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn,” and John Crowe Ransom’s “Eclogue.”

[Ken, Moderator]

Eclogue looks like it's missing the first "o." Ecologue. That, too, is a word (if not a word of the day), no?

[Ruth]

Back in my geological days, I loved the word dodecahedron. A solid, usually a crystal, with 12 faces or facets. The word rolls of the tongue in a most satisfying manner.

[Ken, Moderator]

It clunked off my tongue in a most unsatisfactory way. Must be in the rolling of one's r's.

[David]

One of the (is it?) five regular solids:

cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedrown, dodecahedron.

Plato, they say . . .

[Ken, Moderator]

Did you know there's a recipe of Plato?

[Summer]

Ruth wrote: "Back in my geological days, I loved the word dodecahedron. A solid, usually a crystal, with 12 faces or facets. The word rolls of the tongue in a most satisfying manner."
I just watched The Phantom Tollbooth. The multifaced dodecahedron is voiced by Mel Blanc. It was a fun movie, though I was glad when my little sister told me she preferred me reading aloud.

My word of the day is ersatz which neither sounds nor means exactly what I expected. I thought it meant something closer to pretense or affectation, but the dictionary says:
–adjective 1. serving as a substitute; synthetic; artificial: an ersatz coffee made from grain.
–noun 2. an artificial substance or article used to replace something natural or genuine; a substitute.

[Summer]

I'm reading The Virgin in the Garden A Novel which makes reference to Ted Orton's "fussocky wife."

fussock
A lazy fat woman. An old fussock; a frowsy old woman.
Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.

Now there is probably an interesting volume: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Is it a sort of UrbanDictionary.com for the 1800s perhaps?

[Ken, Moderator]

Hi, Summer. Fussock is a great name for a grouchy old woman because it has the word "fuss" in it.

And some things in life should never be made of ersatz (often man-made) stuff. Like butter, for instance.

[Carol]

Hello everyone I am finally back on line. It is so discombobulating to be out of the know.

[David]

animadversion

Reproach, criticism, warning.

[Carol]

David wrote: "animadversion

Reproach, criticism, warning."

It sounds like it should be an aversion to animals instead.

[Ken, Moderator]

Aversion to animated feature-length films?

My WOD:

moribund -- it means dying, not dead!

[Carol]

My roses are finally in the state of moribund.

[Ken, Moderator]

How'd they get to New Jersey?

[Carol]

via the trans-gallactic skyrail.

[Ken, Moderator]

(Meaning: the rabbit hole at Disney World?)

[Carol]

I have been to Disneyland,I live about 5 miles from it, But I have never been to Disney World.

[Summer]

Admonitory is a new to me word which I instantly recognized. After I looked it up to make sure I had the meaning just right, I found that it and admonition are both related to monitor which is from a Latin root word meaning to warn. I love language!

[Carol]

So now I have been admonished. I am just becoming prolific in using new words. Thanks to L&G

[Ken, Moderator]

I get admonished for a living (it's my pastime)! Thanks, Summer!