What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 301-350 of 3,049

[[deleted user]]

Ruth, my parents currently live in San Bernardino! There are no gnomons in their neighborhood, but as we head downtown we'll see a few with Bob Marley type dreadlocks and bright colored berets. They watch as we drive by and I can just hear the conversations in their heads, "Gno mon, ev'rybody jus' move too fas' dese days." "Yah mon, you surely be righ' 'bout dat."

[Ruth]

I moved from San Bernardino to Redlands in 1973. SB's been going downhill, methinks. Now I'm at the beach.

[Catamorandi]

The word I learned today was "didacticism", so that is my word for today.

[Ken, Moderator]

Great word, Andi. There's the adjective, didactic (imparting a lesson), and the term for people who are self-taught without help of school (autodidact). As in, "Abraham Lincoln was an autodidact."

[[deleted user]]

Really cool! Thanks Marco :)

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I grew up with that word echoing in my head....my mother used it frequently, usually applying it to me! (Debbie takes umbrage too easily!!) I soon learned to leave umbrage here it was!

[Ken, Moderator]

That word gave JK Rowling the idea she needed when she had to name the shady Professor Umbridge.

[Tyler]

Here's a word I keep coming across:



mien


Pronunced "mean," refers to a person's bearing or demeanor, usually implying their character as well. I run into the word in lots of the older stuff I read, but I don't recall seeing it in any recent usage.

[Tyler]

It my be out of fashion, but let's not "demien" its usage ...

[[deleted user]]

Whoo hoo! We have another punny person :) Way to go Relyt!

[Ken, Moderator]

I think I once had to solve for the mien in math. That and median.

[Catamorandi]

My word for today comes from Jane Austen. It is unpropitious. I am still not sure what it means, but it sounds like something that would come out of Jane Austen's mouth.

[Catamorandi]

Thank you, Donna. What I was reading makes more sense now.

[Ken, Moderator]

Free and beloved ones? I was born on a Frige-dag, and thanks to that most famous of Frige-dags in Palestine long ago, all children born on it are "full of woe."

Well, it's a handy excuse when things go wrong, anyway...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I grew up with a rhyme that went like this:
Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go
Friday's child works hard for a living
Saturday's child is loving and giving
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

Needless to say I was born on a Wednesday!!!

[Meridee]

My lovely new word for the day is "snarkidity" as in the act of being snarky or utter snarkness. Hey, I saw it in a comment on a blog on the internet so that just proves that it is a real live word. Besides is just rolls off the tongue and can be used against children, coworkers, neighbors, you name it.

That's my word and I'm sticking to it!

[[deleted user]]

Help me out here on how to say this ...
snar-kid-i-ty? or
snar-ki-di-ty? or
snak-ki-dity?

[rabbitprincess]

I'm a Tuesday child, but "full of grace" is debatable -- I tripped and nearly fell rather spectacularly while out walking this afternoon. Seriously, arms flailing and everything. Yikes.

[Ken, Moderator]

My bad. Long time no Goose. Mother Goose, isn't it? Anyway, I thought Friday was full of woe just because I so frequently am. So I'm hard working. Well, duh. English teacher. Enough said.

Snarky I like. It's the -idity I'm not sure of.

[Tyler]

Okay, here's a word for the day: skein

I'm nominating it because I just ran across it again in my reading. It seems to have been popular at least until around 1930, and I don't know why people don't still use it.

Metaphorically, it means something suggestive of twisting, such as a skein of smoke. I like the word because I can't think of a good substitute for it. Has anyone else come across it recently?

[Ken, Moderator]

I've used it in my writing for a long, thin line of clouds. I like it, too.

[Ruth]

Obviously you're not a knitter, Relyt.

R

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Skeins of wool....not in such popular use now as the younger generations are not great knitters! Neither are some of the older generation....I can't stand knitting (or sit either NE...before you get in!) I can't sit still long enough.

[Tyler]

No, I don't knit; that must be why I never ran into it before. Nobody I know knits, either. That's why I have to buy off the rack.

But its metaphorical use has such a delectable quality. NE is obviously a man of impeccable taste. Imagine all the things there can be skeins of ...

[Ruth]

Funny, I read someplace last year that knitting was enjoying a renaissance among the young. Knitting clubs, knitting lessons, fancy wools. Skeins of people.

I like to do stuff like that, not because I'm a certain age, but I like doing stuff with my hands. Especially nice when watching TV or listening to an audiobook.

[Ken, Moderator]

Ruth, please write a poem with SKEIN in it. We promise not to knit pick it or anything.

Relyt -- I've been accused of many crimes, but "impeccable taste" has never been one of them.

[Catamorandi]

I can't find my dictionary/thesaurus right now. I ran into the word effulgence in my reading. I don't know what it means, but it looks interesting.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

effulgence \i-FUL-juhn(t)s\, noun:
The state of being bright and radiant; splendor; brilliance.

:-)

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

And when I read one of NE's comments, the word 'avuncular' just popped into my head!

[Inky]

The avuncular quality of this group is what keeps me coming back for more:)

Ruth, I'm a knitter. I can only go in straight lines, but I've succeeded in turning out some very passable baby blankets. I usually do it when I'm watching a show on tv -- it keeps me from feeling as if I (WORD OF THE DAY) frittered my time away.

My goal is to one day make a pair of socks. Small goals, that's what my knitting is about.

[Inky]

Your going to have the loveliest, moisturized hands Donna!

[Ken, Moderator]

Are woof and warp knitting terms (or at least textile industry terms)?

And sorry, peeps, but I'm too young to be avuncular.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

They pertain to weaving NE.....and if you have a daughter who has graduated, you ARE old enough to be avuncular!!! Give us a clue...go on! Are you older or younger than me?

[Tyler]

Andi mentioned effulgence. Coincidentally, I came across this very word for the first time in something I read today.

I've heard of fulgurant (flashing) and fulminate (declaim). They have the same root, pertaining to lightning. But until today, never effulgence, and certainly not twice.

NE, anyone who can refer to a "skein" of clouds has to have some literary merit.

But my mein is not that of someone who would wish to disturb the avuncular woof of this thread, lest others knit their eyebrows at me. I'm delighted now to know where lanolin comes from.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Heeheehee!

[[deleted user]]

Relyt, I second Debbie's heeheehee :)

[Ken, Moderator]

tenuous, like so many things in life...

[Catamorandi]

I just learned the word transhumanism today. It is going through to a post-human state. A post-human state, as I understand it is a form of evolution in which it goes much faster than in older times. I know this is confusing, but that is what I got out of it.

[Tyler]

I like tenuous. It describes so many things, and it doesn't always have a good substitute.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Neither does it have good connotations sometimes. Everything OK NE?

[Ken, Moderator]

Everything's... tenuous. But my job is firm, anyway. I wonder about Prabha's, though.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I think she is too principled to stay in her job. Having a rest at the moment....something else will turn up.

[Inky]

Here's a bit of free association: I saw tenuous and instantly knew my WoftD was tumulus.

[[deleted user]]

OH let's do that-- word association. Off to make a new thread -->

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I know it's only half an hour since you posted this...but where is it?!! You are usually much faster!

[Tyler]

I just learned the word transhumanism today. It is going through to a post-human state.

I've read some interesting discussions about transhumanism, which is a current philosophical question.

One point I've seen made is that we're often already "transhumans," at least partially.

Think of all the implants and injections that make hearts and other organs function better. Lasik can give you better than 20/20 vision. Even something like a crown or dental implant could be said to putting you on the road to a transhuman body.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Thank god....I am completely human!!!! (Unless dental fillings count)!

[Ruth]

What about plates in the skull?

[Ken, Moderator]

When we start to decompose we'll really be on the Transhuman Highway!

[Tyler]

Plates in the skull, dental fillings -- it's all good.

To admire my progress in the journey to a transhuman realm I now need only look at my teeth in the mirror.