What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 2,251-2,300 of 3,049

[Carol]

Next time I go to San Diego Ruth I will give you a wave.

[Ruth]

Give me a heads up and stop for lunch.

[Savvy]

Hey Ruth... we sometimes go down I 5 on our annual migration to AZ.
From your pix and descriptions of foods that you've shared... I'd be delighted with that same invite! :-)
Suz

[Ken, Moderator]

Sorry, Ruth. I-95 is the best I can do.

[Carol]

Ruth wrote: "Give me a heads up and stop for lunch."

That's sweet thanks for the invite Ruth.

[Danaran]

myopic

–adjective
1.
Ophthalmology . pertaining to or having myopia; nearsighted.
2.
unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.
3.
lacking tolerance or understanding; narrow-minded.

[Carol]

Ohohoh another newbie how many is that now ? Danaran we are on a thousand member countdown.

[Ruth]

Myopic = me

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Only physically Ruth! You are NEVER narrowminded or intellectually short-sighted!

[Ken, Moderator]

Yeah.

And hello, Danaran. I think definition #3 is the currency of D.C.

[Ruth]

Debbie wrote: "Only physically Ruth! You are NEVER narrowminded or intellectually short-sighted!"

Even if I can't see the big E?

[Ken, Moderator]

The Big E -- fall fair in Springfield, Mass.?

[Ruth]

[image error]

[Carol]

I am 20/70 can't see a thing. I told the story about a visit to the eye doctor in my twenties. I was reading the chart right to left and the nurse thought I was blind. She asked me if I had drove there. Of course I said. hahahaha

[Ruth]

I'll see your 20/70 and up you to 20/400

[Ken, Moderator]

E-Z, boy! said the "chair" man.

[Savvy]

Try to say this one three times fast! :-)

floccinaucinihilipilification

flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-key-shuh

The action or habit of judging something to be worthless.

Back in the eighteenth century, Eton College had a grammar book which listed a set of words from Latin which all meant “of little or no value”. In order, those were flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili (which sound like four of the seven dwarves, Roman version, but I digress). As a learned joke, somebody put all four of these together and then stuck –fication on the end to make a noun for the act of deciding that something is totally and absolutely valueless (a verb, floccinaucinihilipilificate, to judge a thing to be valueless, could also be constructed, but hardly anybody ever does). The first recorded use is by William Shenstone in a letter in 1741: “I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money”.

A quick Latin lesson: flocci is derived from floccus, literally a tuft of wool and the source of English words like flocculate, but figuratively in Latin something trivial; pili is likewise the plural of pilus, a hair, which we have inherited in words like depilatory, but which in Latin could mean a whit, jot, trifle or generally a thing that is insignificant; nihili is from nihil, nothing, as in words like nihilism and annihilate; nauci just means worthless.

The word’s main function is to be trotted out as an example of a long word (it was the longest in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary but pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis edged it out in the second). It had a rare public airing in 1999 when Senator Jesse Helms used it in commenting on the demise of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty: “I note your distress at my floccinaucinihilipilification of the CTBT”.

[D.E.]

Newengland wrote: "Cool word. I like the letter Z very much (though not enough to name my son Zorro).

Zeitgeist, for instance. Zest. Zealot and zealotry. All Z-words with pizazz!

Then there's bagging Z's ..."


Don't forget zaftig! I love that one!

[Robin]

what about svelte, zealotry is nice. Zinfandel is nicer too. Zebra.

[D.E.]

My word for today is crenellation: a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns

[Carol]

I always loved the sound of crenellation before I knew what it meant.

[Ruth]

Crenellation sounds like a word for "eating potato chips."

[Carol]

Yes the rippled ones. hee

[Robin]

Ripple also was a name for a wine. I don't think I've tried that one, Being that I don't drink.

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

Robin wrote: "Ripple also was a name for a wine. I don't think I've tried that one, Being that I don't drink."

I don't think you'd want to try Ripple, Robin. It's a very inexpensive wine that a lot of almost out-of-money alcoholics buy. (I used to date jazz musicians and a lot of them also drank. I never did, glad I never did.)

[Savvy]

ADYNATON----adynaton (plural adynata) (from Greek: a-: without and dynasthai: to be powerful) is a figure of speech in the form of hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to suggest a complete impossibility:


'Pigs might fly, or as some would have it 'pigs may fly', is an example of an adynaton, that is, a figure of speech that uses inflated comparison to such an extent as to suggest complete impossibility. Other examples are 'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle...' and 'Make a mountain out of a molehill'.

[Ken, Moderator]

So it's hyper-hyperbole.

[Ruth]

Dynaton sounds like a fancy electric healing machine flacked by a quack.

[Savvy]

too funny Ruth!!!...or maybe a quacking duck ala "AFLAC"

[Robin]

Mrs. Seby I guess it (Ripple) is also like Muscatel,or White Lightning.

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

Robin wrote: "Mrs. Seby I guess it (Ripple) is also like Muscatel,or White Lightning."

From the jazz musicians I've known, I think so. It's a lot like Thunderbird, and from what they tell me, you wouldn't ever want to drink that, either. LOL I don't drink alcohol, either, so I really don't know. One table at the restaurant where my husband works ordered two bottles of Veuve Cliquot yesterday, though. Wow. And that was just the alcohol.

[Robin]

Yes, I have just heard it referred in songs, the white lightning one. The word is protuberance, that is just a heavily loaded word, don't ya think? And I am not referring to M's thread about something living in his britches, either.

[Joseph]

Mrs. Selby's comment about jazz musicians reminds me of a word(kinda) that I've heard over the years and have never quite understood its meaning. The word is "ofay." African Americans often use it when speaking about whites they don't like. I'd be GREATLY appreciative if anyone could tell me(kind of) what it means. I'm pretty sure it's not complimentary.

[Robin]

Don't know never heard of that word.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

This is from the Urban Dictionary...



1. ofay
buy ofay mugs, tshirts and magnetsA word of unspecified West African origin that refers to "white" people. It's commonly used in the American South but has fallen out of favor as "White Devil" has assumed prominence.
This ofay at my job is jealous of my ability to get the job done faster and better than him. But he can't help his ofay ways.

[Ruth]

I've heard/read ofay a lot. Scrabble even accepts it as a word.

[Joseph]

Thanks to Debbie, Ruth, and Robin.

[Robin]

When I first saaw the word I thought of the Our Gang series with Buckwheat mangling the words, or he couldn't pronounce he'd say otay, that was just my take on it. Spike Lee calls white people crackers, I never got the jist of that one, either.

[Ruth]

Crackers is old. Derogatory term = poor white trash.

[Robin]

I know, I just brought it up because I find that term offensive, and wish people would just get along. No more labelling others just because they may look different . Maybe my Pollyanna=ish tendencies are coming to the fore.

[Stephen]

Never heard of Ofay until this thread but when I first read the post. I flashed on an unlikely origin idea... Maybe its pig latin latin Feo is ugly in spanish so if there is a pig latin latin that follows english pig latin rules wouldn't that be Ofay?

[Robin]

No sense trying to decipher what other people say, I just give it a pass.

[Ken, Moderator]

I'm ofay'd I don't have an answer.

[Robin]

neither do I.

[Ken, Moderator]

obtuse

[Robin]

questionable?

[Ken, Moderator]

No, it's the word of the day. Get it?

[Robin]

I get it, that was my word after your word.

[Ken, Moderator]

We need SAT words. I'm taking my PSATs soon and I'm angling for a decent college.

[Robin]

perambulate