Language & Grammar discussion
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What's Your Word for the Day?
I like that word Susanne. How is hubby today, besides being sore. Susanne's husband, the armipotent handyman ,who is feeling quite bruised after his tumble from a ladder. :(
Yes, Susanne , How is he? Is he getting iced packed, is he venturing on the roof again, take care of each other.
Here is a new word for me. I had never heard it before.Fracking-Hydraulic fracturing (called "frac jobs"[1] or "frac'ing" in the industry[2][3][4] and recently, "fracking" by the media) is a process that results in the creation of fractures in rocks, the goal of which is to increase the output of a well.
Fracking I thought it was like frick and frack, like two peas in a pod,like floatsam and jetsam. Now those are four words of the day for me, making up for lost time. Or I fracked my elbow, that sounds much more descriptive. Thanks, Kitty. By the way, are you near the fires in San Bruno. I read about it in the paper. Are you okay?
No I am in Southern Ca. About 500 miles or so away. But it has been warm here and we have had no rain.Here is an interesting word.
argy-bargy
(informal) pushing-and-shoving or outright fighting.
I like your word never thought there was a word associated with pushing and shoving. Must use it sometime. Glad to hear you are not near the scene.
Mod
I will use that word at some time during the day, I am sure.
Has anybody used hebdomadal yet? That's my word for the week.
M wrote: "Has anybody used hebdomadal yet? That's my word for the week."Meaning?
hebdomadal [hɛbˈdɒmədəl], hebdomadary [hɛbˈdɒmədərɪ -drɪ]adj
a rare word for weekly
hebdomadally adv
Who got the comeuppance, me or Jan? Carol, where are you getting the IPA symbols?
*looking for a magazine and some scissors* I think I'll cut and paste the alphabet, starting near the middle,perhaps M.
Isn't this the word of the day thread, that was my word and I am sticking to it, so there!
Jan wrote: "*looking for a magazine and some scissors* I think I'll cut and paste the alphabet, starting near the middle,perhaps M."Ha ha ha ha ha! I'm unflappable. That's my word for the day. I guess it's a lucky thing I'm not a bird.
BORACHIODefinitions
■(noun) A large leathern bottle or bag, used in Spain and throughout the Levant for holding wine or other liquor; a wine-skin (now the current name in English).
■(noun) A drunkard, as if a mere wine-bottle.
Notes
■'Borachio' is also a character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and probably comes from 'baracho,' Spanish for 'drunk.'
Examples
■“We should have drunk our wine poisoned with the villanous odor of the borachio, had not some Eastern merchants, lighting their fires in the Desert, marked the strange composition which now glitters on our sideboards, and holds the costly produce of our vines.”
■“No sooner were these words spoken, when Panurge coming up towards her, after the ceremonial performance of a profound and humble salutation, presented her with six neat’s tongues dried in the smoke, a great butter-pot full of fresh cheese, a borachio furnished with good beverage, and a ram’s cod stored with single pence, newly coined.”
■“D'ye think my niece will ever endure such a borachio?”
Carol (Kitty) wrote: How is hubby today, besides being sore. Susanne's husband, the armipotent handyman ,who is feeling quite bruised after his tumble from a ladder. :("Thanks Carol and Robin!
He checked out okay at the orthopedic surgeon's exam....nothing broken. But ego humbled and he's cranky cuz it hurts to walk and he is not used to staying in one place too long.
Jan, I saw the comment of unflappable, ha, ha. Susanne your husband reminds me of the time my husband got surgery for a herniated disk, and his mom was staying with us, she asked if he wanted her to stay a few extra days, and he said he was fine, he didn't want to be babied. Men do like to be kept busy, as long as it doesn't involve climbing roofs or stepping on ladders.
M wrote: "Has anybody used hebdomadal yet? That's my word for the week."I have to admit that I actually don't care for this word. It might be poor form to say that but I'm curious... what's it's appeal to you M? Is there some way in which it's more evocative than weekly? I love words and I use quite a number of them but I sort of expect that any word over three syllables must have its own power or it doesn't get used.
Take the other words as examples, "Armipotent" clearly draws power from its similarity to the overused "omnipotent" and "unflappable" has great imagery associated with it... hence the joke earlier in this thread.
By contrast "hebdomadal" seems kind of teflon-coated. Nothing sticks to it.
Of course tastes vary, and I'm most likely missing something. Please what appealed to you the first time you saw it?
Hebdomadal isn't a word I would use in anything I wrote. I was trying to think of something nobody had posted on the thread. Most of my reading is nonfiction, and I come across some strange words. I had thought of using hebephrenic, but it seemed too dry. I like the word vigesimal (having to do with the number twenty), but except in conversation I've never found an occasion to use it.
four and vigesimal blackbirds baked in a pie.
M wrote: "...I had thought of using hebephrenic, ..."Now there's a word that I like better. There is no shorter way of describing the mood. To me it's always meant that manic ambition to do anything but what needs to get done. Course that might just be because the three Jewish girls I learned it from used it when talking about why they weren't studying for finals.
Course they also introduced me to other words like mitzvah and mensch.
I. In English, it's simply a first person pronoun. In LATIN, however, it is the imperative form of "to go". It's pronounced as "ee", not "eye."
should have consulted a thesaurus for the proper spelling.
Ok my word for the day is hymenal I just ran across it as meaning a song sung after a wedding to wish the happy couple a fruitful family life. Kinda spooky how close it is to Hymnal...
Mod
Mod
Stephen wrote: "Ok my word for the day is hymenal I just ran across it as meaning a song sung after a wedding to wish the happy couple a fruitful family life. Kinda spooky how close it is to Hymnal..."
I think you have these 2 words reversed.
Hymenal refers to the hymen and Hymnal is the singing.
Susanne wrote: "I think you have these 2 words reversed. Hymenal refers to the hymen and Hymnal is the singing. ..."
Yep. I know that the book is called a Hymnal. The writer that I was reading was using the word hymenal in the sense of a wedding night song as suggestion that the woman was a virgin. Hence the song that the revelers were singing did have to do with the hymen.
I was just remarking on the similarity between the two words. It was a ribald remark. I just found the similarity fascinating.
Just as Fascinating is derived from fascinus, the Latin word referring to a phallus-shaped amulet used to ward off the evil eye.
I don't know about that, Stephen, fascinate originally meant to enchant, by means of witchcraft, using either the evil eye or by words, to cast a spell over, which would seem the opposite of warding off the evil eye.How reliable is your source?
Mod
From Latin fascinātus, perfect passive participle of fascinō (“enchant, bewitch, fascinate”), from fascinum (“a phallus-shaped amulet worn around the neck used in Ancient Rome; witchcraft”).
[edit] Verb
to fascinate (third-person singular simple present fascinates, present participle fascinating, simple past and past participle fascinated)
1.To evoke an intense interest or attraction in someone
The flickering TV fascinated the cat.
2.To make someone hold motionless; to spellbind
We were fascinated by the potter's skill.
3.To be irresistibly charming or attractive to
Her gait fascinates all men.
This is from Wiktionary Jan.....by my calculations, that makes you both right!!
Ohhh...a word to have fun with!.....LOPPY
Definitions
■(adj) Hanging down: limp and pendulous.
■(adj) Full of fleas.
■(adj) Short; lumpy: said of the sea.
Notes
■'Loppy' may come from the Middle English 'loppe,' small branches and twigs.
Examples
■“Georgie was driven over from the Mission by her husband, the next day, in Susan's honor, and carried the fat, loppy baby in for so brief a visit that it was felt hardly worth while to unwrap and wrap up again little Myra Estelle.”
■“Intermittent darkness and flashing so played on the enemy line from Gommecourt to Maricourt that it looked like a reef on a loppy day.”
■“There she sits, a trifle loppy and loose-jointed, looking me squarely in the face in a straightforward, honest manner, a twinkle where her shoe-button eyes reflect the electric light.”
■“A tall, loppy young female in a sagged skirt and a faded pink shirtwaist is driftin 'up the driveway, towin' a bow-legged three-year-old boy by one hand and luggin 'a speckle-faced baby on her hip.”
Mod
(Speaking of, where'd David, Prince of Wales, run off to?)
Mod
Loppy is a gorgeous word....I think you could have fun with definitions 1 and 2....combined!!
OK. Is there a difference between a chav and a yobbo? If so, what is it?
Ah.. I've found you all at last. I haven't been hiding, I've been trying to write a rubbish poem but my brain seems addled this morning, it's the wet weather.
Chav is, I think, a relatively new term used to describe someone, usually a youngish person, who has all the trappings and accessories of modern urban life but who is poorly educated, of limited intelligence and completely lacking in taste. The sort of person who might want to appear on reality TV shows. 'Chav' originates from East London or Essex.
Does that help?
Chav is, I think, a relatively new term used to describe someone, usually a youngish person, who has all the trappings and accessories of modern urban life but who is poorly educated, of limited intelligence and completely lacking in taste. The sort of person who might want to appear on reality TV shows. 'Chav' originates from East London or Essex.
Does that help?
Here's a word that defeated me and most others at the pub quiz last night: Zymology.
Gabi wrote: "David, I feel you are going to have to be Daffydd. David Epstein was here before ya! Gonna be confusing if one is answering questions for the other. But, having said that, you were certainly the o..."
Now I hadn't thought of that but given the concentration of travellers and former travellers in and around Essex, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.
Now I hadn't thought of that but given the concentration of travellers and former travellers in and around Essex, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.
If it's got to be Dafydd, then it's only one 'f'.
I'd sure hate to encounter a loppy borachio gowling in the night! :-)GOWL
Definitions
■(verb) To howl, either threateningly or in weeping.
Notes
■'Gowl' may be related to the obsolete 'goule,' mouth, which comes from the Latin, 'gula,' throat.
Examples
■“Again the "gowl" broke out -- its loud echoes rolling through the woods -- this time so near, that every moment I expected to see the animal that had uttered it.”
■“"Gie a cheer, boys!" he cried; and as the muzzle of Mons Meg swept down the file, a strange wavering cry arose, that was half a gowl of anger and half a broken-backed cheer.”
■“Ere he had reached the corner, a gowl of anger and grief struck his ear, and he wheeled eagerly.”
Mod
I like it too. My dictionary gives a quote from Burns."May ne'er misfortune's gowling bark
Howl thro' the dwelling o' the clerk."
It seems to combine the concept of 'gutteral' and 'howl'. The dictionary labels it as Old English and Scotch.
The problem is, if you attempt to revive an old English word, or spread a rare one, will anybody understand you?
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Language & Grammar
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Definitions
■(adj) Powerful in arms; mighty in battle.
Notes
■'Armipotent' comes from the Latin 'armipotens.'
Examples
■“The mothers enter in, and while the temple steams with their incense, pour from the high doorway their mournful cry: 'Maiden armipotent, Tritonian, sovereign of war, break with thine hand the spear of the Phrygian plunderer, hurl him prone to earth and dash him down beneath our lofty gates.'”
■“This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist and the armipotent soldier.”
■“In this character Armado is made to use the peculiar word 'armipotent' twice [in Love's Labour's Lost]. It is significant that this word is never used by Shakespeare except in connection with Armado and Parolles.”