What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 201-250 of 3,049

[[deleted user]]

Dactylonomy - The art of counting on the fingers.

This is what my students do when the basic addition facts have left their brains :) It also works for those pesky multiplications facts!

[Inky]

Risible. Dactylonomy is a risible practice I've observed in high school math classes.

[Sharon]

It's also the title of a film that is a wonderful romantic comedy.

[Sharon]

Oops -- I was referring to the film title, "serendipity" but when I posted the reply it didn't look like it stayed with the message I was referring to. Now the word I see in the post above mine is "Calque." I don't know if there's a film with that title. Anyway, the word I was responding to was "serendipity" and the film with the same title is a romantic charmer: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240890/

[Ken, Moderator]

prodigal, as in, the "return of the prodigal son," which always makes you wonder where the prodigal daughter went. Anyway, it means "recklessly extravagant, lavish, characterized by wasteful expenditure." Where do I get in line to be one? I've got the return part down, now I just need the prodigy stuff.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Prodigy stuff? Why are the words prodigy and prodigal so similar? Come on Donna....nice bit of etymological sleuthing for you!!
I always thought prodigal meant 'returned' and thought that 'return of the prodigal son' was tautological!!! Thanks NE!! Comes of being such an atheist and all!!! I have a prodigal son...but my daughter is not prodigal. Neither were prodigies...is that the plural of prodigy?

[Ken, Moderator]

This proffered analysis is a very profound and profuse (but not prolix) product that progresses my professed knowledge of prodigal.

And I still want to know why daughters can't be prodigal, too (my daughter is quite adept at spending, thank you).

[John]

Don't forget pro stituare to offer for sale. Unless independently wealthy, or retired, I guess we are all pro stituarians.

[Ken, Moderator]

But I thought those "pros" were for rent, not for sale...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

...as long as she is not a pro stituare!!

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Oooh....and hello John. Would I be right in thinking this is your first post here? I would say welcome, but I might scare you off.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

You mean I have been aspiring to be grammorous all these years?? Is that poor glamour?!

[Ken, Moderator]

We're dripping with glamor. The grammar might not always be right, but there's no denying the glamor.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Check this one out!!!
Floccinaucinihilipilification.
It means: the habit of estimating almost everything as worthless.

[[deleted user]]

EEK!

[Ruth]

yep

[[deleted user]]

yay

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

:-)

[Ken, Moderator]

Never knew the "Gang of Five" rule was in place. The things I learn here...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Gang of Five....characters? That would be me, Donna, Sarah, Ruth and Moe!!

[Ken, Moderator]

Wasn't there once a Gang of Five ruling China? A political allusion. Unless my memory serves about as well as seeing-eye puppy.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Your memory serves you well....should that have been me, Donna, Sarah, Ruth and Mao!

[[deleted user]]

I feel so honored to be included!

[[deleted user]]

wasn't it more mrs. mao than the sir?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

The power behind the throne....behind every great man etc. I believe it probably was!

[Ken, Moderator]

Mao was married? And, like a good Communist, had no children?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Madame Mao was seriously scary! I don't know if they had kids....never heard of any...

[Ken, Moderator]

And he loved her anyway? The word of the day, then: uxorious.

[rabbitprincess]

uxor, uxoris: third declension feminine! Argh, Latin is just embedded in my brain now. :P

[rabbitprincess]

I agree! It does not sound very pleasant.

However, "uxor" is MUCH better than a fourth declension word for "old woman" that begins with an "a". THAT one gave me a start on the final exam. :O

[rabbitprincess]

Spelled using radio alphabet because I just don't like seeing it in print...

Alpha November Uniform Sierra

Were I an elderly Roman, I would insist on being called a "femina" instead.

[Ken, Moderator]

The word of the day is the last word in the W section of my dictionary: wyvern, a fabulous animal usually represented as a 2-legged, winged creature representing a dragon.

Have a fabulous day!

[[deleted user]]

"wy...vern

you're looking a little peaked today...
a little dragonish"

i think i'm making purchasing trips to the garden center and used bookstore today

by the way

i've been wondering where eastofoz has gotten to
any word of her?

[Ken, Moderator]

Click her icon and drop her a line! East is east and west is west, and long time since Oz was met.

[[deleted user]]

will do
and some of you
may have noticed i fixed my too
before you could point it out
nananana

[Ken, Moderator]

Oops. Can't even find East of Oz's icon. Has she gone East of Eden on us?

APB, APB, Amber Alert, Amber Alert! Fly, Fly (that for the flying monkeys) until you find her (and her little dog, too)!

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

She has dumped us! Maureen found her and became her friend so it showed up on my friends update. NE....she belongs to the 'Math is Fun' group (or some such). I liked this quote on her page though:
""The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.""
— Dante (Inferno)

[Ken, Moderator]

What? Dumped us? That does it. I'm friending her and solving some quadratic equations today.

[Inky]

Shudder. Did you feel that? Talk of math being fun in the Language and Grammar group is shaking up our corner of the ether.

[Ken, Moderator]

Which gives me an idea... Thanks, Inky.

[Inky]

Always happy to inspire, although I do a better job when math temblors aren't threatening to upend my inkwell...

[[deleted user]]

ok all
i didn't know my friending would be broadcast publically (deb)
i was missing eastof so now all of you be on your best behavior and tidy up would you
did the chaise arrive?
she might come back and visit her friends and i don't want you weirdos scaring her away
uh...weirdos that i love
and that i am weird with and even possibly weirder than

ok no one be offended by my above slinging of the weird word
i was just joking
you are wonderfully weird

[Ken, Moderator]

The word of the night is weird, or queer in the good old-fashioned sense before the gays kidnapped and bound it (without so much as a ransom note!).

I'm calling a cleaning service in and asking everyone to sleep in their own houses if just for this one night. By tomorrow after church (see?), this place will be sterling. (Which reminds me, I'm missing some silver... oh, never mind.)

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Ummmm...it is already Sunday night here.....

[Ken, Moderator]

Odd, how you can have already slept in the L&G F&S House (Language & Grammar Fraternity & Sorority House) the night before me. You've heard Lambchops' theme song, "This Is the Song That Never Ends," well "This Is the Party That Never Ends." Guess we'll have to pick up (and party) as we go along the time zones...

Meaning we have TWO words in LATIN today to think about:

TEMPUS FUGIT!

[Ruth]

TEMPUS FUGIT!

It do indeed.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Fugits too fast most of the time!

[[deleted user]]

time flies?

in this case jumps a date line

[Ken, Moderator]

Tempus Greenwicht, then.

[Ken, Moderator]

The word for the day is sophistry in honor of
the two primaries being split (what else?) today, and in honor of the wonderful reasoning faculties of the candidates.

Also: irony, for the fact that the word "candid" is in "candidate."