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What's Your Word for the Day?
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Stamatia
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Jun 06, 2008 07:02AM
empirical
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Empirical always makes me think of data.
My WFTD is FECKLESS
My feckless attempts to talk on the phone while my son is in the same room leave me frustrated.
My WFTD is FECKLESS
My feckless attempts to talk on the phone while my son is in the same room leave me frustrated.
Feckless. Nice. Though it's meaning is completely different, the word's always made me think of "reckless." Which now makes me think of the words improvidence and temarious... Also nice words. Fun to say.
Jennifer-- waaaay back in March you mentioned logomachy. The word I've been using for years is logomasia (my word of the decade, I suppose). I've recently realized it "doesn't exist"... at least, it's not in most dictionaries or in major use. What a let-down. I like that word, dang-it! It was one of my major word-phases a while back -- you know those phases you go through where you unconsciously overuse a word, and when you become conscious of the habit, it tends to (but not always) go away? "Logomasia" was a bit unusual, since word-phases seem to happen more often with less obscure phrases, like "cute" or "good heavens" or "botheration." In any case, when I can't think of a word (which happens at least once a day), I can usually remember "logomasia" and still use it to excuse my faulty brain cells.
Wait, it wasn't "logomachy," it was.... crud! LOGOMASIA!
....Ah-ha. Lethologica... probably related in meaning to the river Lethe from Greek mythology. I must have had a sip from it recently.
Or rather, that was a malaprop.
NE you must have some "lovely" whether (re hellacious) in NE!"Unassuming" is my word. I like it better than "humble".
Apparently I will make an "audacious" entrance after lurking...J
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I love the word 'selcouth.'It means strange, unusual or marvellous.
According to Wordsmith.org (a site which I love!), it's a Middle English word which stems from the old english word 'sedcuth': seldan (seldom) + cuth (known), from cunnan (to know).]
It's strange how similar words like couth and uncouth are fairly common, yet we've lost the word 'selcouth'.
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I love A Word a Day, too! As for tergiversated, we have the same word in French, tergiverser, which means to hesitate, not being able to make up your mind. I wonder if the French or the English came first? Anyone know?
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Tergiversate--perfect for my son! He takes FOREVER to make up his mind or choose something. I've learned to limit his options :)
Knickers---I have a question here,is this a "funny"/"informal" word or a real word for "underwear" for both men and women and if so who uses it--ie the British, the Kiwis, the Americans....? Would you go to the store and ask for "knickers" in size medium?
I always thought that knickers were short men's pants.
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The term "Knickerbockers" began with Washington Irving's History of New York, (published 1809). Still further, the family name "Knickerbocker" can be traced to a single Dutch settler who immigrated to what is now New York in the late 1600s. By the late 19th century, the term had come to mean the style of breeches the settlers wore that buckled just below the knee, which became known as "knickerbockers," or "knickers".
For me knickers are bermuda shorts for kids 8-)
There used to be a golfer who wore knickers every time he played. I think his name was Payne Stewart.
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WFTD- Machicolation
An opening between the corbels of a projecting parapet or in the floor of a gallery or roof of a portal for discharging missiles upon assailants below.
"Look out belooowwww!"
An opening between the corbels of a projecting parapet or in the floor of a gallery or roof of a portal for discharging missiles upon assailants below.
"Look out belooowwww!"
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Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip, hooray!
Three cheers for your emancipation NE!
My WFTD is termagant:
an overbearing or nagging woman
I hope to goodness I am never described as such :)
Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip, hooray!
Three cheers for your emancipation NE!
My WFTD is termagant:
an overbearing or nagging woman
I hope to goodness I am never described as such :)
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The sleepy word of the day is nocturnal. No emission jokes, please.
My word for the day is Phrontistery, a place of learning or study.An apt word for me because I've just started my Masters dissertation :(
The sleepy word of the day is nocturnal. No emission jokes, please.
Gee, thanks a lot, NE. You shut me down before I even had a chance to get started with this word.
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Soporific
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Donna, I just read the 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 study this week. Jove knows where, though.
True, Deb, about too much leading to grog (not the kind you quaff, either). If I nap more than an hour in the late afternoon, I wake up feeling WORSE. If it's 20 mins to 30, I'm fine. I think it has to do with the type of sleep (rem, mpg, ibid, or whatever you call it).
somnambulism
But the greatest soporific is age. Young adults at about the age of 22 require the most sleep of all humans, 8 1/2 to 9 hours, yet they're the most nocturnal creatures in the zoo.
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http://www.boston.com/news/science/ar...
And if you put your cursor over the animal, it will tell you how many hours a day it sleeps on average (including REM sleep). Then hit NEXT in the upper rh corner for more animaux:
http://www.boston.com/interactive/gra...
No horsing around: a Houyhnhnm needs the LEAST amount of sleep of all -- only 2.88 hrs. a day.
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Sarah's termagant brings me to my WOTD: HarridanA harridan is a shrew, like a termagant. What I like about the word is that the hard "h" and three syllables make it more evocative than just "shrew."
These much maligned women also factor in with a new literary genre from which I plan to profit. Setting aside Ms. Cartland's lame harlequin romances, I've decided to write the first "harridan romance." In it, the older woman alway beats out the vacuous younger bimbos, despite many obstacles. It's the older woman, not the younger, who will run from the church hand in hand with Dustin Hoffman. Beauty will prove no substitute for the wiles of these wonderful women.
HUZZAH Relyt! I LOVE your premise!
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CHILDREN!!!!! for one thing ...
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(In the "grass is always greener in Christchurch" Dept....)
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