What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 1,851-1,900 of 3,049

[Ken, Moderator]

These are rhetorical devices. I like them, too, though there are so many, it's dizzying.

Here's a fun site to explore a few...

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/rheto...

[Savvy]

MAIEUTICS (noun)
Pronunciation: [mey-'yu-tiks:]

Definition: The Socratic method of teaching by helping someone articulate ideas already in their mind; intellectual midwifery.

Usage: Today's voweliferous word denotes an approach to teaching that has survived for 2500 years. Socrates believed that all humans innately possess the concepts necessary for understanding the world. Some people seem to understand it better than others because they are better at organizing those ideas or have had someone to help them "deliver" or raise those concepts to consciousness. Socrates did not give answers; rather, he asked carefully articulated questions that led his students, step by step, to logical conclusions. Socratic teachers do not deliver ideas to students but from them, teaching them in the process to think, to organize and focus the murky, innate ideas already within themselves. The adjective is "maieutic."

Suggested Usage: Today's word essentially refers to a highly effective classical teaching method, one that specifically relies on teasing rationality from the mind of the student: "I think teaching me how to program the timer on my VCR is beyond the power of any maieutics." Do you know someone who answers questions with questions: "How are you?" "Why do you ask?" Try something like this as a cure, "I don't need maieutics for a simple greeting, Griselda." No, they will answer that with a question, too: "Huh?"

Etymology: Greek maieutikos "midwifery" from maieuesthai "to act as midwife, help in delivery" based on maia "respected mother, midwife." The Greek term shares the same origin with "mama" (see "mother" in our Word of the Day archives) and was used as a term of respect when addressing older women.

[Carol]

CRONE-As a noun, crone entered the English language around the year 1390, deriving from the Anglo-French word carogne (an insult), itself deriving from the Old North French carogne, caroigne, meaning a disagreeable woman (literally meaning "carrion").

I was always fascinated by the word crone, now I am one.

[Savvy]

SACRELICIOUS Adj. (URBAN DICTIONARY'S word for today)

1) A description of a recipe that should not exist for religious reasons, but tastes good anyway.
2) Any cooking done with communion wafers.

Try some Matzo crackers and bacon dip - it's sacrelicious.

[Carol]

tired-1 : drained of strength and energy : fatigued often to the point of exhaustion 2 : obviously worn by hard use : run-down 3 : trite, hackneyed.

And I have not even started shopping yet . online here I come.

[John]

"For example, one of the has been known to say, "LOL!" during class, even while everyone else is chuckling."

Ummm ... sorry, but I'd find that somewhat pathetic.


"They also use, 'OMG!' " - you mean they say "Oh-Em-Gee"? Ugh!

[John]

I had not heard of noisome until recently, and I like that it refers to an unpleasant odor, nothing to do with noise (vs. the logical toothsome for yummy food).

[Carol]

Exasperation-greatly annoyed; out of patience;
I am feeling exasperation ,for my older child today.

He is throwing out all his things, so he doesn't have to move anything to Virginia.

[Ken, Moderator]

Good for him. Thoreau would approve. Simplify!

[Carol]

Newengland wrote: "Good for him. Thoreau would approve. Simplify!"

I think he would even throw me out if he could. hahahahahaha

[Ken, Moderator]

That's a little TOO simple, don't you think?

[Carol]

Yeah, he thinks I am cool. I have an illusion to uphold.

[Ken, Moderator]

I have a reputation to downhold.

[Carol]

I take the Fifth Amendment

[Ken, Moderator]

Where to?

[Carol]

To The City Of New Orleans.

[Ken, Moderator]

To see the Patriots?

[Carol]

The song

The City of New Orleans
by Steve Goodman

Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin' trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car.
Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score.
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor.
And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel.
Mothers with their babes asleep,
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

CHORUS

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Half way home, we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea.
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again,
The passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues.

Good night, America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

[Ruth]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfxoM6...

[Carol]

Oh Ruth I could not remember who sang it. That was great. Thanks

[David]

And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel

[Ruth]

Even tho I'm married to a doc, I'd never run across this word before

retrospectoscope

Filed under: English, Medical, Slang
Part of speech: n.

Quotation: The view through scopes—colonoscopes, arthroscopes and laparoscopes, to name a few—routinely aids physicians in narrowing diagnoses and arriving at a plan of care. But none is as illuminating as the one doctors refer to as the “retrospectoscope,” the scope of hindsight.

[David]

l'esprit de l'escalier

"The wit of the staircase." As you leave the party, you snarl, "What I should have said to that varlet is . . ."

[Ken, Moderator]

The wit of the car ride home, I call it.

[John]

I ran across this one yesterday in my library book - do we have an American equivalent?

Trug -- noun British.

a shallow basket for carrying flowers, vegetables, etc., made from strips of wood.

[[deleted user]]

Hello John,
I have my very own trug for flower picking.
*blushes proudly*

[Carol]

John saidI ran across this one yesterday in my library book - do we have an American equivalent?

Looks like we just call them baskets. No imagination there.

[John]

I thought that was the case!

[Carol]

John wrote: "I thought that was the case!"

or the basket

[Savvy]

carol (akittykat) wrote: "John wrote: "I thought that was the case!"

or the basket
"

I call it the Trug Basket!

[Ruth]

trug shows up in crossword puzzles a lot

[Ken, Moderator]

Never heard of trug (what an ugly sounding word for something to carry baskets). And welcome, Windfall! I saw you sneak in there with the on-the-spot British perspective....

[[deleted user]]

Oh! you spotted my 'Trojan Horse' tactic NE..and
safety with neighbours..

[Cecily]

carol (akittykat) wrote: "Looks like we just call them baskets. No imagination there."

But a trug is a specific sort of basket, in terms of materials and shape. Here's a picture http://www.relderton.co.uk/portfolio/...

[Carol]

I love it. Is it very heavy in itself. I remember small bushel baskets for vegetables, my mother and grandmother used.

[[deleted user]]

It needs to be long to hold 'cut flower stems'.
Sweet and simply designed really.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Trugs

[[deleted user]]

Perfect Debbie :-)

[Carol]

They are works of art. So beautiful.

[Savvy]

They can double as Bread Baskets at the dinner table too.

[David]

trogs

[image error]

[Carol]

grogs

[Carol]

Gallimaufry is what we are having for dinner . Maybe some grilled cheese sandwiches also, if it stops raining so I can go to store.

[David]

Gallimaufry is a theater group in Laguna Beach. Most of them are too old to be tender enough to eat. Have some oatmeal, instead.

[Carol]

I can't invite you to dinner. Oh I know how about some Daal with squash.

[Savvy]

NIMROD
Today’s word of the day is nimrod. Most Americans today know it only as an insult meaning “jerk” or “loser,” but it has also historically meant “skillful hunter.” That meaning comes from Nimrod, explained in the Bible as a mighty hunter, king of Shinar, grandson of Ham, a great-grandson of Noah. The newer, less-kind meaning probably comes from the phrase “poor little Nimrod,” used by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny to mock the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd. The reference passed by a lot of cartoon-viewers and they interpreted it as an insult they’d never heard before.

[Ken, Moderator]

Also not helping: "Nim" sounds a lot like "Dim."

[Savvy]

VUVUZELA
I saw this written as "I'll be there with my vuvuzelas!" Hadn't a clue!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuvuzela

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrYb9q...

[Carol]

Didn't know they had a name. We just know them as obnoxious.

[Ruth]

Susanne wrote: "NIMROD
Today’s word of the day is nimrod. Most Americans today know it only as an insult meaning “jerk” or “loser,” but it has also historically meant “skillful hunter.” That meaning comes from Ni..."

It's also the name of a poetry journal. I'm in the latest issue.