What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 2,551-2,600 of 3,049

[Carol]

I don't know either one I guess. Although I don't recall Victoria Holt books(when I was young so very young and in my bodice ripper stage) as being ubiquitous but they were more plangent in description.

[Ken, Moderator]

The plangent Plantagenets, is that it?

I never use plangent, but ubiquitous is extremely useful because so many things in life are: commercials, cell phone calls, mosquitoes, etc.

[Carol]

I did think of Plantagenet's also when I seen the word plangent. hee hee

[Carol]

I like the word conservatory it sounds so posh. Better than veranda which sounds so ordinary.

[Ruth]

A conservatory isn't the same place as a veranda. I think both sound lovely, though.

When I was a kid I had conservatory and observatory mixed up. Caused no end of confusion when reading novels.

[Ken, Moderator]

Two other words that our constantly confused are podium and lectern.

[Ruth]

What's the difference, NE. Is it that the podium is a raised place? I seem to remember something like that.

[Ken, Moderator]

Oops. Just checked my Garner. I'll have to eat my words on this one -- or be a purist.

"podium =(1) a low wall serving as an architectural foundation; (2) a raised platform that a speaker or orchestra conductor stands on; dais; or (3) a stand for holding a speaker's notes; lectern. Sense 3, once widely condemned as a misuse, has become commonplace. But careful writers should avoid it."

I always thought it was definition #2 and that the pod (foot) proved it. I'll stop being so careful and go with the flow.

Glad I opened my mouth. Learned something.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I always used meaning #2 too!

[Carol]

conservatory [kən sʉrvə tôr΄ē]
adj.
< ModL & It: ModL conservatorium, a greenhouse < ML, a preserver < LL, neut. of conservatorius, preserving < conservatus, pp. of conservare; It conservatorio, a refuge, academy, conservatory < conservare < L: see CONSERVE
Rare that preserves
n.
pl. conservatories
1. a room enclosed in glass, for growing and showing plants; noncommercial greenhouse
2. a school, or academy, of the fine arts, specif.


veranda or verandah [və randə]
n.
Anglo-Ind < Hindi & Beng < Port varanda, balcony < vara, pole, staff < L, wooden trestle, forked stick (for spreading out nets) < IE base * wa-, to bend apart > VACILLATE, VARY
an open porch or portico, usually roofed, along the outside of a building

One is enclosed and one has opened sides. I think of a conservatory as warm and cozy with various vegetation. A veranda is for open air breezes with balmy seas and swaying palms in my way of thinking.

[Ruth]

Mr. Plum did it with a wrench in the conservatory.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I thought it was Miss Scarlet with the dagger.....

[MollyRena]

My word of the day would be pancakes becuase i just love pancakes i really don't know why but i just do.

[Carol]

If so go post it in the edible thread.

Edible is a useful word

edible [edə bəl]
adj.
LL edibilis < L edere, EAT
fit to be eaten
n.
anything fit to be eaten; food usually used in pl.
edibility [edəbilə tē]
n.
edibleness

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

mea culpa

Meaning
I'm to blame. The literal translation from the Latin is 'through my own fault'. Even those who don't speak Latin could probably make a guess that this phrase means 'I am culpable', or words to that effect.

Origin
The phrase originates in the Confiteor which is a part of the Catholic Mass where sinners acknowledge their failings before God. Confiteor translates as 'I confess'.

It has a long history of use in English and was used by Chaucer in his Troylus as early as 1374:

"Now, mea culpa, lord! I me repente."

To emphasize the point the phrase is sometimes strengthened to 'mea maxima culpa' - literally 'my most grievous fault'. This also has longstanding use, as here in Watson's Decacordon, 1604:

"Shall lay their hands a little heavier on their hearts with Mea maxima culpa."

[Ruth]

I know I shouldn't a dun it. (hangs head in shame.)

[M]

culpa, -ae (first, or a-) declension
mea, -us, -um my

[Savvy]

SAGGER

Definitions
■(noun) A box or casing of clay used to protect delicate ceramics during firing; a saggar.

■(noun) Slang term for a young male, who wears trousers very low on his hips, exposing underwear and/or his buttocks or lower abdominals.

■(noun) The NATO designation for a Soviet AT-3 series man-portable, wire-guided missile first deployed in the 1960's.

Notes
■'Sagger' may be an alteration of 'safeguard.'

Examples
■“[A sagger] is a large clay container in which unfired pottery or porcelain is packed while it is passing through the firing process. These large clay vessels have come into general use as the best thing for the purpose. They stand the heat and at the same time are less liable to break or chip the goods than are containers of any other material.”

■“Glover, a 29-year-old former sagger who admits to an occasional offense still, said kids today have taken the trend too far, exposing too much of their backsides.”

[Savvy]

Ruth wrote: "Very clever. So a nidifice is a nest built by flying mice?"

nidifice n 1656 -1656
a nest
The lizard climbed into the nidifice, only to be eaten by the mother eagle.

[Jan]

Safeguard the former sagger, lest a lizard climbs into his nidifice.

[Savvy]

We can throw a rundlet after it...

RUNDLET

■(noun) A small barrel; a unit of capacity, equal, according to statutes of 1439 and 1483, to 18 1/2 gallons, but in modern times usually reckoned at 18 gallons.

Notes
■'Rundlet' is a diminutive of 'round.'

Examples
■“While we were required to take up these presents, I chanced to cast an eye upon the table, where there lay a fresh service of cheese-cakes and tarts, and in the midst of them a lusty rundlet, stuck round with all sorts of apples and grapes, as they commonly draw that figure.”

■“If the ship never passed that way before, the captain is to give a small rundlet of wine, which, if he denies, the mariners may cut off the stem of the vessel.”

■“The winged crocodile was kicked into the closet, after it were hurled the thunder machine and the lightning torch, and after them clattered the cups and the silver rundlet.”

[Jan]

Can you put them in the sentences in which you find them? If they're all as bad as the one given above, I suspect a case of bad writing. Perhaps he writes with a thesaurus at his side and selects obscure words. If the object is effective communication, he is not successful.

[Jan]

'Orogeny' refers to the process of mountain formation, so to say "The burden of too much time was as profound as orogeny."...sounds like a misuse of a scientific term.
'illucid' was not recognised in the online dictionary, nor was 'insequent', but if he means 'unclear' and 'does not follow' then it appears he's inventing words.
"Surquedry" does exist...it means 'overweening confidence'. Guilty as charged!
Now I may be making a mountain out of a molehill, but this writing is anything but lucid. Let me make myself clear:STOP reading this rubbish! (Unless of course for the purpose of discombobulating us all with this nonsense!)

[Jan]

Read this comment any way you choose:



Can't
Read
Awful
Prose

[Ruth]

Gack, Gabi. Run for your life!

[Aryn]

Gabi wrote: "Has anybody read any of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson.
I read the first and the second but when it came to the Last, I cried "uncle". I read half the first book and coul..."

I read these when they came out on the strong recommendation of the book store clerk. The squick factor is pretty strong, although I did like the final denouement (probably because it was finally OVER-this was during my 'if you start it you must finish it' phase). Were I you, I'd find someone who read them and just ask for a précis. Preferably someone without the thesaurus.

[Jan]

Fortunately, I've never had an 'if you start it you must finish it' phase. Imagine! I would have had to read more than a page and a half of The Da Vinci Code! And I wonder which volume of the World Book Encyclopaedia I would be up to by now? I purchased it in 1990. Now I would quite enjoy the encyclopaedia, or a dictionary, but Dan Brown? No thankyou. I did complete Atonement once, just to see why there's so much fuss over Ian McEwan. Better than Dan Brown, but that's not saying much.

[MollyRena]

hey hey.

[Aryn]

Jan wrote: "Fortunately, I've never had an 'if you start it you must finish it' phase. Imagine! I would have had to read more than a page and a half of The Da Vinci Code! And I wonder which volume of the World..."

I actually did finish DaVinci Code and then went on to sully my brain with several others of his (I think it was an adjunct to 'book' extending to 'author'.) This was probably what kicked me into gear with the NOT FINISH. As to World Book; for me it was the Brittanica . Nope, didn't finish it; got to M, I think. Did finish the Christian bible. Whew, welcome to the land of the weird.

[Jan]

You stopped at M? Possibly a very difficult book to read! :D

[MollyRena]

wait what

[Aryn]

Jan wrote: "You stopped at M? Possibly a very difficult book to read! :D"

More likely youth morphing into 'cool teen'. Far too cool to read the encyclopedia. By the time I had time again to pick it up again, it was a) so far out of date as to be laughable, and b) the internet got to me. I confess to going through the time line that Windows used to include in their package (are you of a sufficient age to remember that?).

[Jan]

It was a little joke, a double entendre, because there is a person in L&G who goes by the name of 'M'...and sometimes we can't understand him, and sometimes he's very funny, hence 'a difficult book to read' has a second meaning.

I'm so old I hardly used computers at all until I broke my arm this year. I'm a grandma, but I love to ice-skate, and I've just joined a zumba class, so I guess you could say I'm young at heart. You can see pictures of my cute little granddaughters in my photos.
I don't read computer information or use Windows. I get my daughter to help me put photos on my profile page.

[Ken, Moderator]

shivaree -- the serenading of a newly-married couple with a clanging of kettles and blowing of horns.

[Jan]

Country of origin? Somehow it sounds Irish to me, even though I've never heard of it before.

[Aryn]

Jan wrote: "It was a little joke, a double entendre, because there is a person in L&G who goes by the name of 'M'...and sometimes we can't understand him, and sometimes he's very funny, hence 'a difficult book..."
Ah. Now I get it. I learned to ski at 40. I still like to ski; cannot manage ice skates any more. A lovely woman over at a Yahoo group just (literally, JUST) introduced me to Calibre. I would like to have been a techie; I blunder my way through computer stuff. Are we terribly off-topic here? I am new to this area and do not wish to stomp on toes.

[Carol]

I have always heard it in connection with the Irish. also bansheeor banshie [banē]
n.
Ir bean sidhe < bean, woman (see GYNO-) + sith, fairy
Celt. Folklore a female spirit believed to wail outside a house as a warning that a death will occur soon in the family

[Jan]

We are supposed to mostly stay on topic. We can always go to the Kitchen Sink to chat about anything. Have you introduced yourself on the Introductions thread?


NE aka Newengland aka New, just mentioned an unusual word 'shivaree'...I checked in the online dictionary. Apparently it is an Americanism. No wonder I'd never heard of it.

[Carol]

Hoedown is a good toe stomper

hoedown [hōdn΄ ]
n.
prob. of black orig.; assoc. with BREAKDOWN, sense 2
1. a lively, rollicking dance, often a square dance
2. music for this
3. a party at which hoedowns are danced

[Ken, Moderator]

Shivaree is originally from the French, charivari.

P.S. Hi, Aryn! Like Jan says, you should jump over to the kitchen so folks can get to know you (Introductions thread is an option, too!). Once you're there, you can explain what "Calibre" is.

[Carol]

humdinger [humdiŋər ]
n.
fanciful coinage
Slang a person or thing considered excellent of its kind

It was a humdiger of a knee thumping hoedown.

[Ruth]

I've heard of shivaree. Aren't they mostly a Southern thing?

[Ruth]

Kitty wrote: "humdinger [humdiŋər ]
n.
fanciful coinage
Slang a person or thing considered excellent of its kind

It was a humdiger of a knee thumping hoedown."

I had a humdinger of a humming bird a the humdinger of a humming bird feeder this humdinger of a rainy day.

[Carol]

The hummingbird had a humdinger of a rainfall while he sipped from his hummingbird feeder. The humdinger of a sunshine came out around 2:00 pm and I did a knee thumper jig.

[Carol]

Jig
see 1 and 2 definitions

jig
jig1 [jig]
n.
prob. < MFr giguer, to gambol, dance < gigue, a fiddle < MHG giga (akin to ON gigja) < OHG * gigan (> Ger dial. geigen), to move back and forth
1.
a) a fast, springy sort of dance, usually in triple time
b) the music for such a dance
2. any of various fishing lures that are jiggled up and down in the water
3. any of several mechanical devices operated in a jerky manner, as a sieve for separating ores, a pounding machine, or a drill
4. a device, often with metal surfaces, used as a guide for a tool or as a template
vi., vt.
jigged, jigging < ? giguer: see JIG1 the n.
1. to dance or perform (a jig) or to dance in jig style
2. to move jerkily and quickly up and down or to and fro
3. to use a jig (on) in working
4. to fish or catch (a fish) with a jig
—  in jig time
Informal very quickly
—  the jig is up
Slang that ends it; all chances for success are gone: said of a risky or improper activity
jig2 [jig]
n.
Slang BLACK (n. 5): a hostile and offensive term

[Ruth]

Jiggers, the jig is up! Look out for the jigsaw!

[Carol]

vernacular


1ver·nac·u·lar
adj \və(r)-ˈna-kyə-lər\
Definition of VERNACULAR
1
a : using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language b : of, relating to, or being a nonstandard language or dialect of a place, region, or country c : of, relating to, or being the normal spoken form of a language
2
: applied to a plant or animal in the common native speech as distinguished from the Latin nomenclature of scientific classification
3
: of, relating to, or characteristic of a period, place, or group; especially : of, relating to, or being the common building style of a period or place
— ver·nac·u·lar·ly adverb
Examples of VERNACULAR

1. the vernacular architecture of the region
2.
3. While there are American operas galore, some of which are quite good indeed, there is no vernacular opera tradition in America—instead, we have musical comedy—and now that supertitles have become standard equipment at major American opera houses, the chances that those houses will start regularly performing foreign-language operas in English translation have dropped from slim to none. —Terry Teachout, New York Times Book Review, 9 Nov. 1997
4. Native crafts, the use of local materials, and vernacular buildings were considered integral to each country's heritage, and their preservation and revival became part of the movement to forge a strong national identity. —Wendy Kaplan, Antiques, October 1995
5. For the proliferation of rich vernacular literatures in the twelfth century secured the place of the vulgar tongues in European society, and this entrenchment of the vernacular tongues made the European peoples more conscious of being separated from each other; decreased the cosmopolitan attitudes of the European nobility; and encouraged xenophobia, which became common in the thirteenth century. —Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993
6. Hurricanes, fires and economic development unfortunately have caused many examples of both vernacular and more classical architecture to disappear over the years. —Suzanne Stephens, Architectural Digest, 1 Aug. 1990
7. [+]more[-]hide

Origin of VERNACULAR
Latin vernaculus native, from verna slave born in the master's house, native
First Known Use: 1601

[Carol]

I know I do like it. It rolls off the tongue quite merrily.

[Ken, Moderator]

I speak in the vernacular. It took years of Rosetta Stone CDs, but....

[Ruth]

I learned a new word today. And it's most appropriate to the season.

crapulous (and it's not what you think it is.)


Definition of CRAPULOUS
1
: marked by intemperance especially in eating or drinking
2
: sick from excessive indulgence in liquor
Examples of CRAPULOUS

1.

Origin of CRAPULOUS
Late Latin crapulosus, from Latin crapula intoxication, from Greek kraipalē
First Known Use: 1536
Related to CRAPULOUS
Synonyms: bibulous, drunken, intemperate, sottish
Antonyms: temperate