What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 2,401-2,450 of 3,049

[Carol]

Here is a word I had never seen before

circinnation-it has something to do with the unfurling of fern leaves.

[Carol]

sir-sin-nation ???

I could not find it in the regular dictionary but in the botany dictionary and they don't have a pronunciation . So if anyone else cares to give a guess let us know. I just like the looks of the word.

[Scribble]

Gabi....Kitty's right! Nix, null, nada. The best I could find was its antonym.

But have you looked at Sir Sin Nation....what a character!

[Cecily]

Susanne (Savvy Suz) wrote: ...FANTAST

■(noun) One whose mind is full of fantastic notions; a person of fantastic ideas, manners, or mode of expression...."

Interesting, and rather different from Oxford's definition:

fantast / ˈfantast/ ( also phantast )

→ n.
(archaic) or (N. Amer.) an impractical, impulsive person.
- ORIGIN C16: orig. via med. L. from Gk phantastēs ‘boaster’, from phantazein or phantazesthai (see fantastic); in mod. use from Ger. Phantast.

How to cite this entry:
"fantast n." The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Twelfth edition . Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.


However, I think your definition is probably the one anyone hearing or reading it would infer.

[Scribble]

Gabi wrote: "Good Grief!"

I couldn't help myself...given Savvy Sue's WFTD!

[Scribble]

Word For The Day:

(or was that yesterday...in which time zone are we?)

FANTAST

[Rowena]

Word for the Day:
Dhimmitude - http://www.snopes.com/politics/medica...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Hoo-boy!!

[Savvy]

Another take on it from the free dictionary. com

fan·tast n. A visionary; a dreamer.

[German, from Medieval Latin phantasta, from Greek phantasts, boaster, from phantasi, imagination; see fantasy.]
-----------------------------
and from Merriam-Webster online

Definition of FANTAST
1: visionary
2: a fantastic or eccentric person
3: fantasist
Examples of FANTAST
"yet another short-lived utopian community that was the brainchild of a naive fantast"


and from the Thesaurus
Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun 1. fantast - someone who predicts the future
futurist
illusionist, seer, visionary - a person with unusual powers of foresight

as somebody said...good word to describe some of our politicians!

[Savvy]

Rowena wrote: "Word for the Day:
Dhimmitude - http://www.snopes.com/politics/medica..."

Ohhhhhhhh noooooooo :-(
Aren't we one nation? United we stand, right?

[Savvy]

Gabi wrote: "Is fantast a word? We have spoken of the nowaday habit of nouning verbs and verbing nouns. I don't suppose it matters, really.

I actually like this word, though I have never seen it before - it'..."


Yes...let's bring it back Gabi!
Find a way to use it today! :-)

[Stephen]

Gabi wrote: "... We have spoken of the nowaday habit of nouning verbs and verbing nouns. I don't suppose it matters, really."

When I was in Manhattan there were always groups of people bemoaning the "gentrification" of certain run-down areas. Admittedly the dodgy atmosphere helped keep things more affordable but still, cleaned up is nice too.

Now are you bemoaning the "gerundification" of verbs? When a word is apt does it really matter if we have to co-opt it for another part of speech that lacks such a word?

[Scribble]

Sweet Savvy Suz
who's oft our muse
did urge this word upon us
Fantast, said she,
in ravening glee
is something truly scrumptious.

Alas, alack, I'm plagued forthwith
with rhymes of piffling wit,
Bombast, lambast, iconoclast
Oh Suz, you are the culprit!

[Savvy]

Thank you G N... for you did begin....

Slithery serpant slowly passed mooring mast
spewing hisses salacious...too long amassed

In a flash.... the net is deftly recast!
Snake in the grass...an evil FANTAST!

Ahhh....captured that rake, aghast and fast!
Thus saving my pure and unsullied past!

:-0

[Ken, Moderator]

Hey, Richard. LONG time! Good to see you in these parts. I read both of those books and liked Into Thin Air better, though the kid in Into the Wild is undeniably interesting (and stupid).

[Savvy]

crespuscular is a fave of the ultimate wordsmith.... Cormac Mc Carthy!

I really like contumacious!...It plays well in the mouth!
I knew a few people like that...but, I only keep the harmonious types nearby anymore.

[Carol]

Does it only bloom at twilight ?

crepuscule: of, relating to, or resembling twilight : dim
2
: occurring or active during twilight

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I ran across contumacious several years ago when I was engaged in family research. I had an ancestor who was burned at the stake by "Bloody" Mary 1st as 'a contumacious heretic'. His burning (with 2 other men' was described in Foxes Book of Martyrs.

[Carol]

Debbie it was probably my ancestor doing the burning. As they had been a contumacious lot a few years before. :-O

[Rowena]

Kitty wrote: "Does it only bloom at twilight ?

crepuscule: of, relating to, or resembling twilight : dim
2
: occurring or active during twilight

Deer, rabbits and foxes are primarily crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk. I don't what we'd do without the word, I cannot think of a synonym that's adequate.

[Carol]

I read it in conjunction with bats. It sounds ominous to me now.

[Ken, Moderator]

I like bats. I don't like mosquitoes. Thus, the alliance.

[Ruth]

Newengland wrote: "I like bats. "

You welcome them to your belfry, then?

[Ken, Moderator]

Oh, no. I don't like hosting them. I like them manning the airwaves in the Great Outdoors.

P.S. Leave my belfry out of this.

[Savvy]

I agree NE...they are wonderful 'sqeetter eaters!
And they know what is esculent!

ESCULENT
es·cu·lent   /ˈɛskyələnt/
[es-kyuh-luhnt]

–adjective
1. suitable for use as food; edible.
–noun
2. something edible, esp. a vegetable.

Origin:
1615–25; < L ēsculentus edible, full of food, equiv. to ēsc ( a ) food ( cf. escarole) + -ulentus -ulent

[Ken, Moderator]

In the school cafeteria tomorrow, I'll ask the lunch lady: "Is this esculent?"

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

She'll think you meant excellent and go around telling everyone that you are drunk on the job!

[Scribble]

Or you're insulting her food by calling it excrement.

[Scribble]

(rolls off the couch in hysterics)

[Ken, Moderator]

(Truth be told, she would call me in as a stranger in the building. I've not eaten in the school café once!)

[Scribble]

Stranger in a Strange Land - are you agorophobic, NE?

[Savvy]

Debbie wrote: "She'll think you meant excellent and go around telling everyone that you are drunk on the job!"

I'm still cracking up at the picture you've just provided Debbie...the lovable, highly respected English teacher, NE asking some poor soul who would have to question his sobriety with that question!.....hahahahahaha.....

[Savvy]

BASILISK

■(noun) A mythical (and heraldic) snake-like dragon type, reputed to be so venomous that its gaze was deadly.

Notes
■'Basilisk' comes from the Greek 'basiliskos,' meaning king.

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

but is it esculent??? :-)

[Scribble]

You haven't been reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, have you, Suz?

No, it isn't. Spiders flee from it, and it flees from the crowing of the cockerel...

[Savvy]

G N wrote: "You haven't been reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, have you, Suz?

No, it isn't. Spiders flee from it, and it flees from the crowing of the cockerel..."

Too many other bewitching things turning my head...and maybe my tail? :-))

[Savvy]

Gabi wrote: "Excuse me! That sounded a bit challenging? However, enjoy!"

Gabi, the tail is from another thread where G N's hint pointed to tail...but turned out to be tale!
I'm just giving back a little ration! :-)

[Scribble]

Gabi wrote: "Sounds good to me, Suz! Cheeky, isn't he/she/it? Been here two minutes and answering back already?"

:P :P :P (artificial intelligence poking out it's tongue)

which brings me to a word for the day....

RATIOCINATE vi

\ˌra-tē-ˈō-sə-ˌnāt, ˌra-shē-, -ˈä-\

ra·ti·o·ci·nat·ed, ra·ti·o·ci·nat·ing

Definition of RATIOCINATE: to reason

— ra·ti·o·ci·na·tor\-ˌā-tər\ noun

Origin of RATIOCINATE:

Latin ratiocinatus, past participle of ratiocinari to reckon, from ratio + -cinari (as in vaticinari to prophesy)

First Known Use: 1643

First time I discovered it: Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet

[Ken, Moderator]

Why on Mars would someone ratiocinate when he can simply reason?

[Scribble]

it rhymes with procrastinate, vacillate, and has the aura of prognostication....

perhaps?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Blind 'em with syllabification!

[Scribble]

Debbie wrote: "Blind 'em with syllabification!"

Debbie, stop being so facetious...;)

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Can't.

[Ken, Moderator]

Buy me love.

Oh, wrong thread again.

[Scribble]

You see him here
you see him there
weaving in and out
of everywhere

[Carol]

Why is his face red?

[Ruth]

Here's 4 words. It's the poetry prompt for the workshop I'm taking with Kim Addonizio. I have to confess I'd never heard of any of these.

Look up each of the words below-- in the dictionary, Google it, check out its origins, synonyms, antonyms, etc. Then write for 5 minutes (or more!) on whatever comes up from your research.
For your poem, expand one 5-minute exercise, or combine several.

ataraxia
flagitious
kinetoscope
prick-me-dainty
skew-whiff

[Stephen]

Ataraxia brings back memories! My favorite high school English teacher said that it and its companion Autarchy were both greek ideals to be emmulated.

Of course he added that Autarchy and Ataraxy would also make a somewhat boring vaudeville duo.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

skew-whiff.....use it all the time down here!! "Come here and let me fix your hair....your ponytail is all skew-whiff"

[Jan]

But what on earth is a 'prick-me-dainty'? A small, but very annoying man? Do we need a kinetoscope to see him?
Is he flagitious?

Is ataraxia a cousin of anorexia? It's all Greek to me so I'm off to consult the online dictionary.

[Jan]

And this is what I found:
Ataraxia...a state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety, tranquillity, calmness.(Hmmm...I wonder why that word fell out of use?)

Kinetoscope...an early motion picture where moving pictures could be viewed through a peephole by a single viewer.

Flagitious...shamefully wicked, heinous, infamous.

Prick-me-dainty..."The original prick-me-dainties were sixteenth century dandies.
An 1818 dictionary gave the meaning as 'one who is finical in dress or carriage.' In 1822, the Scottish writer John Galt described one Bailie Pirlet in The Provost as 'naturally a gabby prick-me-dainty body', or in standard English a talkative, pedantic man. It also has been used to mean an affected, self-conscious, over-refined or mincing person."

And what do I make of all this?....


To keep the flagitious at bay
I watch my kinetoscope all day
Ataraxia? As if!
It's all gone skew-whiff
Now that my prick-me-dainty's gone away!