What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 2,951-3,000 of 3,049

[Stephen]

Debbie wrote: "...pashing was with .. shhhh ....tongues! "

You mean French Kissing? Well I did mention lingua franca

[Mark]

I wonder what the origin is of "pashing." Shortened form of "passion?"

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

A play on passion certainly...pash on!

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pash

[Mark]

Debbie wrote: "A play on passion certainly...pash on!

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pash"

Thanks for the reference. I had provisionally eliminated the possibility that it was derived from the "Pashto" language of Afghanistan. :) :)

[Ken, Moderator]

We had a bowl of Hershey Pashes over Christmas break....

[Stephen]

emm... On second thought... I have a whole new appreciation for that whole Christ of the Ozarks Outdoor Pash On play thing...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

A pash on plaything? Sounds like fun!!

[Mark]

The pash on play's the thing... (Hamlet)
A pash on both your houses! (Romeo and Juliet)
Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have. (A Winter's Tale, and the quote is literal!)

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

The word I love to hate; the word I use when I wish to damn with faint praise....."nice".
Funnily enough, its meaning has changed dramatically over the centuries.....I think it's original meaning is great!
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?t...

[Mark]

I'd like to say Nice is nice, but in a nice way, without making any nice distinctions.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Aaaarghh!!

[Ken, Moderator]

"Nice" is a favorite sarcastic expression, especially when the pronunciation is drawn out (e.g. "Ni-i-i-i-ce!"). In that sense, it hews to its etymological roots.

Guess I should reconsider the word. I find I often write it on papers: "Nice simile here," "Nice sentence!" That sort of thing.

[Ruth]

Abiblophobia - fear of running out of reading material

[Carol]

Ruth wrote: "Abiblophobia - fear of running out of reading material"

Something I will never be. If pressed , I have read a dictionary.

[Ruth]

And backs of cereal boxes.

But that's one great thing about the Kindle. You can have a new book in seconds.

[Carol]

Yeah , I forgot about cereal boxes. LOL!

[Ken, Moderator]

I've cut back on cereal now. If the paper's not here, there's always the tops of egg cartons (exciting -- and you need a bookmark for next time) and oatmeal tins.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Food labels are very interesting reading.....but I haven't been that desperate since I got my Kindle Ruth....too easy to get a new read!

[Mark]

Carol wrote: "Ruth wrote: "Abiblophobia - fear of running out of reading material"

Something I will never be. If pressed , I have read a dictionary."

If challenged, I can press a dictionary (but only a paperback edition).

[Mark]

Ruth wrote: "And backs of cereal boxes.

But that's one great thing about the Kindle. You can have a new book in seconds."

I can summon ebooks from the vasty deep. (But I get billed for them.)

[Stephen]

Mark wrote: "I can summon ebooks from the vasty deep. (But I get billed for them.)"

Prospero's books?

[Mark]

Stephen wrote: "Mark wrote: "I can summon ebooks from the vasty deep. (But I get billed for them.)"

Prospero's books?"

I'd hate to be the CPA to do Prospero's books.

[Mark]

And I don't actually get billed if I download the free ones, full of solecisms and confused zombies. Not that there are any unconfused zombies. Now, which planet was I on?

[Harold]

I like "zaftig". It's a Yiddish word indicating a full-figured woman, like Rubenesque. The literal interpretation is "juicy" or "succulent". Personally, I think it can apply to more abstract conditions, like a zaftig sentiment, which would be a luscious, rich tasting sentiment.

[Ruth]

Harold wrote: "I like "zaftig". It's a Yiddish word indicating a full-figured woman, like Rubenesque. The literal interpretation is "juicy" or "succulent". Personally, I think it can apply to more abstract con..."

That's me.

Yiddish has some wonderful words.

[Ken, Moderator]

Many have entered the English lexicon, only I have a helluva time spelling them. Schlep, for instance.

[Joanne]

I like "chutzpah." You kill your parents, you ask the judge for mercy because you're an orphan, you've got chutzpah.

[Ruth]

Plotz!

[Mark]

Not nudzhing you like a nudnik or a shmendrick, here, but there's a huge lexicon of wonderful imported Yiddish words, and I wouldn't kvetch if you provided the whole megillah. It would almost be meshuggah not to.

[Ruth]

Oy vey!

[Ken, Moderator]

The Yiddish Thread.

[Mark]

Newengland wrote: "The Yiddish Thread."

With a Yiddish thread, you could sew a schmatta.

[Ruth]

Who wants to wear a schmatta?

[Ken, Moderator]

What's schmatta?

[Ruth]

Just kvetching.

[Ken, Moderator]

We started reading Night today and I had my share of Yiddish words: Kabbala, beadle, Zohar, Talmud, shtible (sp?), etc. That's OK, I don't speak Catholic, either, and I was brought up as one.

[Mark]

Newengland wrote: "We started reading Night today and I had my share of Yiddish words: Kabbala, beadle, Zohar, Talmud, shtible (sp?), etc. That's OK, I don't speak Catholic, either, and I was brought up as one."

I think it's most usually "shtibl," but this is the correct spelling: שטיבל
(FWIW). Night is a great book; I'm surprised it hasn't been banned.

[Ken, Moderator]

The first chapter is rough sledding, but kids get into it from Madame Schachter (Ch. 2) on....

[Jane]

Richard wrote: "A dicussion of chatspeak is probably better suited to the jargon thread, but mostly it's used in real-time communications such as chat rooms and instant messaging (not so much on message boards lik..."

My first thought was to pronounce pwn as they do in Welsh, say, poon or puhn. Many people probably have heard the Welsh word cwm [pronounced coom] as in Cwm Rhondda [Rhondda Valley]

[Stephen]

Jane wrote: "...My first thought was to pronounce pwn as they do in Welsh, say, poon or puhn..."

Given the usage I've seen I've always pronounced it as own rhymes with cone. Or perhaps if we're speaking Canadian as own rhymes with prune.

[Harold]

Newengland wrote: "What's schmatta?"

schmatta is Yiddish for "rags"/"poor quality clothes". E.g. What kind of store sells schmatta like this!

[Harold]

One last Yiddish entry for favorites is "punim" (which has nothing to do with Purim). It means "face"...What a sheine punim she has!

[Stephen]

Keeping with the Yiddish theme for words of the day lately...

I suggest that the word of the day be forty.

The biblical expression “40 days and 40 nights” just means a really long time. At the time among the Jews, the number forty wasn’t generally used to signify a specific number, per se, but rather more used as a general term for a large figure. When it was used in terms of time, it simply meant a “long time”. Thus, the phrase “40 days and 40 nights” was just another way to say a “really long time”.

Likewise the Jews wandering in the desert for 40 years, Moses being on the mountain 40 days while God was giving the 10 commandments, etc.

So like they say on Sesame Street... Today is brought to you by the number 40


Read more at http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.p...

I'm guessing that Ali Babba & the Forty thieves had similar roots. And speaking of Roots I'm pretty sure that "40 acres and a Mule" has a tie-in as well.

[Ruth]

Funny, my husband uses 57 in the same way.

[Mark]

Stephen wrote: "Keeping with the Yiddish theme for words of the day lately...

I suggest that the word of the day be forty.

The biblical expression “40 days and 40 nights” just means a really long time. At the ..."

If 40 is a really long time (measured, say, in glacial epochs), then I can now claim to "be 40," which seems to be a cosmetic improvement, numerologically speaking. (People always seemed to be mentioning, "UB40," and I've never hitherto understood the accusation.) :)

[Stephen]

Mark wrote: "...(People always seemed to be mentioning, "UB40," and I've never hitherto understood the accusation.)"

Actually, as a non-brit I didn't pick up on the real source of the UB40 name for a long time. As I understand it, UB40 was the form one used to get on the dole. Unemployment Bureau being the operative part of that name. Though waiting in line a "really long time" was probably part of that process as well.

... still trying to sort out the hidden meaning behind a little bagariddem

[Mark]

Stephen wrote: "Mark wrote: "...(People always seemed to be mentioning, "UB40," and I've never hitherto understood the accusation.)"

Actually, as a non-brit I didn't pick up on the real source of the UB40 name f..."

Thanks for the scoop on "UB40." I'd always thought it was a demand to get younger (or older, le cas échéant). Apart from the obvious ("a little bag of rhythm"), I can't think what "baggariddim" might refer to, though it really does look as though it ought to be some clever allusion, possibly in Welsh or Sindarin. :)

[Stephen]

Mark wrote: "Apart from the obvious ("a little bag of rhythm")..." There is that and it might be nothing but I've heard of drummers who were crazy protective of their small cymbals carrying them in special bags, so I've considered that angle but it may just be a reggae phrase of no particular import.

[Harold]

Really like Symbol's WOTD: "Anthropodermic bibliopegy". I would feel a bit queasy thumbing through a book of word puzzles bound with the skin of Will Shortz. One of my favorite words is "genizah". It's a cemetary for books that are falling apart. It originally was intended for Jewish holy books that contained the name of God. Under Jewish law, it is forbidden to destroy any book that contains the name of God. http://jewishencyclopedia.com/article...

[Mark]

Harold wrote: "Really like Symbol's WOTD: "Anthropodermic bibliopegy". I would feel a bit queasy thumbing through a book of word puzzles bound with the skin of Will Shortz. One of my favorite words is "genizah"..."

I think Will Shortz would like it even less. :)