the worthless word for the day is: doofusistic [fr. doofus, a stupid, incompetent person] done by a doofus, or with a doofus, or to a doofus, or in the name of a doofus, or in lieu of a doofus, or just with a doofus-like flair "OK, now you are just being wilfully doofusistic." - wikipedia, 18 Mar 2005 (another neologism, with thanx to Mark Peters)
the worthless word for the day is: freudenschade [as opposed to schadenfreude] dissatisfaction, unhappiness, or pain as the result of someone else's good fortune (this week, some neologisms for the nonce) "..my chief emotion was, to coin a phrase, Freudenschade." - Erin Korn, Remainders (1989) "The comment and letter.. on schadenfreude reminded me that there is no single word to express the feeling of disappointment at someone else's success. I suggest 'freudenschade' might fill the gap." - The Observer (London), letter to the editor Dec 31, 2006
the worthless word for the day is: latration [fr. L. latrare, to bark] a barking "With which attendant indignities? The unsympathetic indifference of previously amiable females, the contempt of muscular males, the acceptance of fragments of bread, the simulated ignorance of casual acquaintances, the latration of illegitimate unlicensed vagabond dogs, the infantile discharge of decomposed vegetable missiles, worth little or nothing or less than nothing." - James Joyce, Ulysses (1922)
the worthless word for the day is: borak [fr. Ab. (Wathawurung) burag] /boraek/ also borac(k), borax Austral. and NZ slang nonsense, humbug; banter; esp. in phr. to poke (the) borak, to make or poke fun (see also, taking the mickey) The old boy had been poking borak at him about anthropology... - Herbert (1975) "Now he takes delight in poking the borax at his friends who support the northern London powerhouse club, the Gunners." - Richard Knowler, Manawatu Standard 13 Jun 2008
the worthless word for the day is: zhoosh [fr. Romani cant] chiefly UK (gay) slang to tweak, finesse or improve something (e.g., one's hair) "If a gay hairdresser in London offers to zhoosh you, it's safe to accept his titivation even if you're a straight man." - Caleb Crain, ibid. "Mom so loved what Jill did for me that she asked her to zhoosh her living room. We stole the word "zhoosh" from Carson Kressley on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. It means to style, to shoot your sleeves, to spruce up." - D. G. Fulford, Designated Daughter (2008)
the worthless word for the day is: titivation [titivate + -ion] /TID uh VAY shun/ the action of sprucing up or making small additions or improvements in appearance "And I have even, in addition, a dim vague view of re-introducing, with a good deal of titivation and cancellation, the too-diffuse but, I somehow feel, tolerably full and good "Bostonians" of nearly a quarter of a century ago..." - Henry James (letter to Wm Howells) 7 Aug 1908 "If a gay hairdresser in London offers to zhoosh you, it's safe to accept his titivation even if you're a straight man." - Caleb Crain, The Nation Dec 10, 2008
the worthless word for the day is: holus-bolus [prob. reduplication of bolus, a large pill] /HO lus BO lus/ all at once: altogether (file bolus under: so that's what that's called) "With these words, she appeared to lose all command over herself; and, making a sudden snatch at the heap of silver, put it back, holus-bolus, in her pocket." - Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868) "That scene is stolen, holus bolus, for the remake, which lards in all the fiery extras that really don't add much." - Peter Howell (movie critic), The Toronto Star Feb 3, 2008 "With your thumb, push the stem rod forward to place the capsule or bolus into the horse's throat." - Theo. Landers, Professional Care of the Racehorse (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: emacity [fr. L. emacitas, a desire to buy] /ee MAS i tee/ rare a fondness for buying things "So in matter of this Literatorie chaffer, I.. went on in my Laudatives, to procure the greater Longing, that an ardent desire might stir up an emacity, to the furtherance of my proposed end." - Sir Thomas Urquhart, Logopandecteision (1653) "During our trip to Paris, my wife demonstrated her remarkable emacity." - The Times (London), Expand Your Vocabulary August 25, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: agraffe [F. agrafe < agrafer, to hook onto] /uh GRAF/ 1) a kind of hook, which fastens to a ring, used as a clasp 2) the wire cage holding down the cork in a bottle of champagne (also, F. muselet) (file under: so that's what that's called) "The feather of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants, was another distinction..." - Walter Scott, Ivanhoe (1820) "Audoin's greatest Champagne is, without doubt, his Cuvée de Prestige, which is sealed in the 18th century style with a waxed-cord agraffe." - Tom Stevenson, World Encyclopedia of Champagne (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: bayard [fr. bayard, a bay-colored horse] /BAY urd/ obs. one who has the self-confidence of ignorance "..and this he presumes to do, being a bayard, who never had the soul to know what conversing means..." - John Milton, Colasterion (1645) Bold as blind Bayard.. - ancient proberb "You are as bold as blind Bayard the horse, who blunders forth and thinks of no peril.." - Chaucer, The Canon's Yeoman's Tale (c 1386)
the worthless word for the day is: apricity [fr. L. apricus, exposed to the sun] obs. rare warmth in the sun, sunshine {N. Bailey, 1731} the warmness of the sun in winter {Cockeram, 1623} see also, apricate : to bask in the sun; to expose to sunlight "Prior to becoming inured to a castrensial mode of life, I very injudiciously submitted to humicubations during pernoctations; which during the initial part of my castrametations, and alfresco employment, in connection with nocturnal irrorations, miasmatic exhalations, and the dankishness of the atmosphere, generated by a want of apricity, were extremely febrifacient; causing tertiary quassation and febriculosity." - J. E. L. Seneker, Frontier Experience (1906) (ed. by Thomas Stone) [Before I became accustomed to a camping lifestyle, I unwisely passed my nights lying (unprotected) on the ground, which due to damp and oppressive conditions fostered by the lack of the warmth of sunshine, eventually resulted in chills and feverishness.]
the worthless word for the day is: horologist [fr. horology, concerned with measuring time + -ist] /huh RAL uh just/ a person skilled in the practice or theory of horology; a maker of clocks or watches ""A horologist, Jack," she corrected primly... "Not a whoremonger. Chilton told me that a master horologist sells timepieces, not trollops."" - Miranda Jarrett, Buried Treasure (1999)
the worthless word for the day is: extirpate here's the word you may really want when your first thought is decimate.. [fr. L. exstirpo, to uproot] /EK stur pate/ 1a) to destroy completely: wipe out b) to root out 2) to cut out by surgery hence, extirpation, the act of extirpating Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises Of homage and I know not how much tribute, Should presently extirpate me and mine Out of the dukedom..: - Wm Shakespeare, The Tempest (1610) "The "Self-Regenerating Systems" SRS auto-programming programme is the brainchild of the renowned Pentagon barmy-boffin bureau, DARPA, where they never saw a self-aware computer network hellbent on the extirpation of humanity they didn't like." - Lewis Page, The Register 13 Nov 2008
the worthless word for the day is: fly-tipping [fly + tipping] U.K. the illegal dumping of garbage in an unauthorized place "A custodial sentence could be appropriate for an offence of commercial flytipping even where aggravating features, such as depositing waste of a dangerous or offensive nature, were not present." - The Times (London) November 25, 2008 "On the fence was a sign, Fly Tippers Will Be Prosecuted." - Reginald Hill, The Roar of the Butterflies (2008
the worthless word for the day is: pongy [origin unknown] /PON gy/ Brit. informal having a strong, usually unpleasant smell; stinky, smelly "An 8ft cell replete with pongy latrine and even pongier cellmate." - The Times (London), 22 Aug. 2002 "Whatever, it also smelt like a pongy red herring." - Reginald Hill, The Roar of the Butterflies (2008)
the worthless word for the day is: chuffed updated: [orig. northern Eng. dial. meaning proud] /chuft/ 1) pleased, delighted; flattered; very excited 2) displeased, disgruntled "Qualifiers and context may be required to distinguish usage from the previous sense as 'pleased'. Variants include 'dischuffed' and 'dead chuffed'." [see below] - Eric Partridge et al. The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) "'He'll not be chuffed at you paying off old debts on company time.' 'He's going to be even less chuffed if something big did happen and South were sitting there smugly saying, "Well, we did warn you!"'" - Reginald Hill, Death's Jest-Book (2004) "'And I thought that Sir Monty.. would be bum-chuffed to hear that something bad might be happening...'" - Reginald Hill, The Roar of the Butterflies (2008)
the worthless word for the day is: incrassate(d) [fr. L. incrassare to fatten, make thick] /in CRAS sate/ Botany, Zool. thickened or swollen: inspissated; also fig. "..lubricious investiture decommissioned externalized incondite anastrophe incrassate misinformed.." - William S. Burroughs, The Job (1969) My first is in Dog House, though not in demand: My second's incrassate until it's in hand: My whole is in Simpson when it isn't in Bland. - Reginald Hill, Dialogues of the Dead (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: heresiarch [L.L. haeresiarcha < L.Gk hairesiarches] /huh REE zee ark/ the founder of a heresy or the leader of a heretical sect "..and the subtle African heresiarch Sabellius who held that the Father was Himself His own Son." - James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) "I conjectured that this undocumented country and its anonymous heresiarch were a fiction devised by Bioy's modesty in order to justify a statement." - Jorge Luis Borges Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (1940) (tr. Andrew Hurley)
the worthless word for the day is: pullulation [fr. L. pullulare, to sprout] /pul yuh LAY shun/ 1) germination 2) a rapid and abundant increase "The approaches to the monorail station were black with the ant-like pullulation of lower-caste activity." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932) "I felt all about me and within my obscure body an invisible, intangible pullulation." - Jorge Luis Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths (1941) (tr. Andrew Hurley)
the worthless word for the day is: necrological [necrology, an obituary + -ical] /nek ruh LOJ uh kul/ of, relating to, or having the nature of a necrology "Herbert Quain died recently in Roscommon. I see with no great surprise that the Times Literary Supplement devoted to him a scant half column of necrological pieties in which there is not a single laudatory epithet that is not set straight (or firmly reprimanded) by an adverb." - Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions (1941) (tr. Andrew Hurley)
the worthless word for the day is: piste [F. piste < It pista, track] /peest/ 1) a beaten track or trail made by an animal; more generally, any track or trail 2) a hard packed ski trail or course "A "lost" track recorded by the band in 1967 and performed only once in public could finally be released, Paul McCartney told the BBC in an interview... "I like it because it's The Beatles free, going off piste."" - The Observer (UK) Nov 16, 2008 "Graham Anderson's family holiday to exclusive Puy St Vincent ended in appalling tragedy when he skied off piste with his ski school, lost control and slammed into a tree." - Plymouth Evening Herald (UK) Nov 14, 2008
the worthless word for the day is: cunctatory [fr. L. cunctari, to delay] /KUNK tuh tuh ri/ (not so) rare : delaying "When Marie tries to get a visa to go back to France, the vicious (and often murderous) commissar Pirogov merely tears up her passport. Aleksei, partly out of love for the motherland, partly out of necessity, pursues a cunctatory course, playing along with the authorities while hoping for some future amelioration." - John Simon, National Review, May 22 2000 "As minister, Speer had been stripped of his power to forbid scorched-earth measures. His cunctatory tactics, doubletalk and delay, were patent defiance of Hitler's orders." - James P. O'donnell, The Bunker (2001) (thanx to rkdillon)
the worthless word for the day is: flabbergastation [fr. flabbergast, to confound] the state of being flabbergasted "We scarcely remember to have ever seen any respectable party in a greater state of flabbergastation." - Punch (London), 13 Dec. 1856 "To the complete flabbergastation of all present, he easily read exactly what each of the five had written on their scraps of papers." - Newton Newkirk, Boston Post (1920) "Just when we thought we had heard everything from the financial shenanigans of some of our federal agencies, along comes this "flabbergastation"." - Washington Post (letter to the editor) Apr 17, 1995
the worthless word for the day is: vauntless [fr. vaunt, boasting or bragging + -less] not bragging or boasting "Vigorous, vauntless, straightforward, this man is as eminent and respected a teacher of men as might well be found today..." - Time magazine Oct. 13, 1924 "His tongue is true, he is vauntless, and tauntless." - Daniel Sargent (of G. M. Hopkins), Four Independents (1977)
the worthless word for the day is: preponderate [fr. L. praeponderare to exceed in weight or influence] /pri PON duh rate/ 1) to exceed in weight: turn the scale 2) to exceed in influence, power, importance or numbers; predominate "And in balancing his faults with his perfections, the latter seemed rather to preponderate." - Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (1749) "All these matters, no doubt, will be duly considered by Congress, and a decision had on whichever side the advantages preponderate." - George Washington (to Henry Lee), 20 July 1786
the worthless word for the day is: delation [fr. L. delatio, an accusation, denunciation] accusation, denouncement "[H]e was sure that Wield wouldn't have engaged in a deliberate act of delation over his researches into ex-Sergeant Roote's background." - Reginald Hill, Death's Jest-Book (2003) "Mirabeau himself announced that 'delation is the most important of our new virtues!'" - Friedrich Sieburg, Robespierre the Incorruptible (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: caliginosity [fr. L. caliginosus: see caliginous and -ity] /kuh lij uh nos i tee] archaic dimness of sight; darkness "I dare not ask the oracles: I prefer a cheerful caliginosity, as Sir Thomas Browne might say." - George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) "While he stops the camera from recording and begins disassembling it, I swallow and walk out into the whispering caliginosity." - Jason Hornsby, Every Sigh, the End (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: mafflard [maffle, to mumble or stammer + -ard] /MAFF lard/ obs. a stammering or blundering fool "As his book, Reading the Oxford English Dictionary, makes clear, Mr Shea's feat failed to make him a better person, improve his conversation or make him appear more intelligent. Rather it turned him into a mafflard, bedevilled by onomatomania. " - Ben Hoyle, The Times Oct. 4, 2008 this week: Reading the OED with Ammon Shea
the worthless word for the day is: onomatomania [NL] /AHN uh MAD uh MANE ea/ uncontrollable obsession with words or names or their meanings or sounds; esp.: a mania for repeating certain words or sounds "Time and again he returned to the subject of Mrs. Van Alstyne as persistently as though he were afflicted with onomatomania and her name was his particular obsession." - William R. Hereford, The Demagog (1909) "I'm waiting for the next flashing.. name to feed my onomatomania and induce reckless, cackling giggles." - Courier-Mail, 13 Sept. 1996
the worthless word for the day is: Sitzfleisch [G., sitting flesh] /ZITS flaish/ the ability to endure or persist in some activity "They simply hadn't enough Sitzfleisch to squat under a bho-tree and get to Nirvana by contemplating anything, least of all their own navel." - D. H. Lawrence, Things (1928) "There are the ghosts of governors past: Hiram Johnson and populist uprisings; Pat Brown and build, build, build; even Jerry Brown, ca. 1975, with his high- decibel environmentalism, a California space program, a string of new governmental agencies, contempt for civil servants and not much Sitzfleisch for the daily chores of governing." - Peter Schrag, McClatchy - Tribune Business News Nov 14, 2007 "I am always careful to pack a can of sitzfleisch whenever I have to go to the post office or visit a friend who wants to show me his entire collection of baby pictures." - Ammon Shea, Reading the OED (2008)
the worthless word for the day is: vocabularian [vocabulary + -ian] one who gives much or undue attention to words "..the one thing that isn't contestable.. is the last thing that left our venerable vocabularian's mouth prior to his expiration: "Love one another, push the perimeter of this glorious language. Lastly, please show proper courtesy; open not your neighbor's mail." - Mark Dunn, Ella Minnow Pea (2001) "Passionate vocabularians often plunge into the unabridged dictionaries, which average 450,000 entries and offer quantities of information not available in desk versions." - Richard Lederer, A Man of My Words (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: anthropophagous [L. anthropophagus] /ænthruhPOHfagus/ man-eating; feeding on human flesh "'However domesticated your academic may look, he is by instinct and training anthropophagous. Whatever else is on the menu, you certainly are!'" - Reginald Hill, Death's Jest-Book (2003) this week: a glance at Reginald Hill
the worthless word for the day is: (to go) pear-shaped [fr. earlier senses, shaped like a pear; rich, mellow] chiefly Brit. colloq. to go badly wrong, to go awry ""Because as you well know, Wieldy, the last time I asked them for help, things went a bit pear-shaped."" - Reginald Hill, Dialogues of the Dead (2002) "Everything went pear shaped, then banana shaped, then no shape at all. Then I seemed to be drifting in and out of these weird dreams." - Reginald Hill, Good Morning Midnight (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: plonker [fr. plonk, to set down heavily or carelessly] Brit. informal a foolish or inept person ""Any road, I didn't say he were a useless plonker. And if Pozzo says we ought to listen to him, then mebbe we should."" - Reginald Hill, Dialogues of the Dead (2002) ""I'm being a plonker, but everyone's entitled this time of year."" - Reginald Hill, Death's Jest-Book (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: halitotic [ad L. halitus, breath] /HAL uh TOT ic/? (characterized by) having bad breath "Minus her police ally, Jax was delighted to have whatever high-level support she could hang on to in Mid-Yorkshire and she let the halitotic councillor rabbit on for ten minutes or so before cutting him off with a promise to keep him up to speed." - Reginal Hill, Dialogues of the Dead (2002) [commenting on the forthcoming end of Prohibition, he said] "we have cast off the cursed yoke imposed by a parcel of umbrella-brandishing halitotic harridans who forced the standards of Goosetown and Waterville, Ohio upon New York, Chicago and Union Hill, New Jersey." - Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, Mencken (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: contortuplicate [ad. L. contortuplicat-us < contortus, twisted together + plicatus, folded] Bot. twisted back upon itself; also in extended use ""But it's all a bit... convoluted, isn't it, sir?" "Convoluted?" echoed Dalziel. "It's [eff]ing contortuplicated!" That sounded like a Dalziel original, but Pascoe had been caught out before and made a note to look it up before making comment." - Reginald Hill, Dialogues of the Dead (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: metastasize [fr. NL metastasis] /muh TAS tuh size/ Pathol. to spread to other parts of the body by metastasis; in extended use, to change form or matter; to transform "And the possibility was also there to be considered that what happened between the judge and his associate wasn't seductive flirtation but something misinterpreted as such, growing grotesque in the imagination, sufficient to metastasize as an inclination to bestiality." - William F. Buckley, On the Right this week: interesting usages
the worthless word for the day is: soubrette [F. coy, reserved] /soo BRET/ 1) Theatr. a) a lady's maid in comedies who acts the part of an intrigante : a coquettish maidservant or frivolous young woman -- compare ingenue b) an actress who plays such a part; in extended use, a woman playing a role or roles in light entertainment 2) a lady's maid; a maidservant "Although ostensibly a male - she played the wisecracking, cigar-smoking soubrette - Holt alone wore flesh-colored tights." - Darryl Brock, If I Never Get Back (2007) this week: interesting usages (this use seems very extended)
the worthless word for the day is: luxated [fr. L. luxare < luxus, dislocated] put out of joint; dislocated "[T]here's not even a recognizable human being in here. And this isn't just because of clunky prose or luxated structure. The book is inanimate because it communicates no real feeling and so gives us no sense of a conscious person." - David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays (2005) this week: interesting usages
the worthless word for the day is: perseverating [fr. L. perseverare, to persevere] /pe(r) SEV uh rating/ repeating something insistently or redundantly "Hoffman realizes, belatedly, the television is perseverating, obsessively and dramatically dispensing CNN news. His father waves irritably at the television and gropes for the remote to shut it off." - Kathleen George, Afterimage (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: demegoric [fr. Gk demegoros, popular orator] /dee muh GAW rik/ of or pertaining to public speaking "Aristotle devides rhetoric into three parts. These are the dicanic or forensic, a speech delivered in court; the symbouleutic or demegoric, a speech delivered in front of a political assembly; and finally, the epideictic, a speech concerned with praise and blame, delivered without explicit political or judicial function." - Benjamin Todd Lee, Apuleius' Florida (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: gelastic [fr. Gk gelastos, laughable] /juh LAS tik/ serving the function of laughter, risible "The members [of the Tuesday Club] adopted what they called the "gelastic" law: "That if any Subject of what nature soever be discussed, which levels at party matters, or the administration of the Government of this province, or be disagreeable to the Club... the Society shall laugh at the member offending, in order to divert the discourse." - Elaine G. Breslaw, The William and Mary Quarterly Apr., 1975 "Personally, I want to know the kind of guy or gal who describes a situation as "droll" or "gelastic." But those who opt for the LOL? I kind of want to punch them in the jimmies." - Jen Lancaster, Bright Lights, Big Ass (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: spruntly [origin unknown] obs. 1) vigorously; youthfully 2) smartly; gaily; neatly "How do I look to-day? Am I not drest Spruntly?" - Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass (1616) "But he does full justice to Jonson's linguistic zaniness. The comic high-point comes when Sheila Steafel's Lady Tailbush ("Am I not dressed spruntly?") begs Douglas Henshall's dragged-up Wittipol to discourse on Spanish fucuses (cosmetics) and, advised of some diabolical concoction to "keep it in your gallipot well gliddered", solemnly repeats the line as if it were a Delia Smith recipe." - Michael Billington, The Guardian Apr 6, 1995 gallipot - a small usually ceramic pot, for medicines gliddered - glazed over
the worthless word for the day is: sinisterity [fr. L. sinisteritas awkwardness, untowardness, perversity] now rare (opposed to dexterity) 1) sinister character; perversity; dishonesty 2) lack of skill or dexterity; clumsiness, awkwardness 3) use of the left hand; skill in this "Snarling wasn't a form of communication that came easily to him, and attempting to keep his upper teeth bared while emitting the plosive P produced a sound effect which was melodramatically Oriental with little of the concomitant sinisterity." - Reginald Hill, Dialogues of the Dead (2001) "We might wisely keep that word [desterity] for what the hand does at the mind's bidding; and use an opposite word - sinisterity, - for what it does at its own." - John Ruskin, Ariadne Florentina (1874) "The Latin thief's - I may not say dexterity of hand without exposing myself to the charge of making a bull - but if you will allow me to say the Latin thief's sinisterity of hand, became proverbial." - R. Shilleto, in The [Cambr.] Journal of Philology (1877)
the worthless word for the day is: paronomania [coined by Reginald Hill, after paronomasia] a clinical obsession with word games sometimes a person will go to great lengths in coining a new word; take this word, for instance — on the flyleaf of Dialogues of the Dead, Reginald Hill provided the following fiction of an OED entry, complete with quotes from Lyttelton, Byron and Hal Dillinger: paronomania [Factitious word derived from a conflation of PARONOMASIA [L. a. Gr. paronomasia] Word-play + MANIA (see quot. 1823)] 1. A clinical obsession with word games. 2. The proprietary name of a board game for two players using tiles imprinted with letters to form words. OED (2nd Edition) "And was his attempt to read something significant into these name changes merely a symptom of his own personal paronomania?" - Reginald Hill, Dialogues of the Dead (2001) "Anthropophagous. Charley loves such words. We still play Paronomania, you know, despite the painful memories it must bring him." - Reginald Hill, Death's Jest-Book (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: nimrod [fr. Nimrod, a mighty hunter] 1) not capitalized : a hunter 2) N. Amer. slang : a stupid or contemptible person; an idiot "Towns such as Eagle, Glenwood Springs.. and Gunnison throw out the welcome mat for this horde of nimrods." - Denver Post, Oct. 1994 "The Lord doesn't give a damn what a chicken does on the Sabbath, you nimrod! It's a chicken." - Christopher Moore, The Gospel According to Biff (2003) this week: words you might not expect to find in OED and W3, but there they are
the worthless word for the day is: snarf [prob. blend of scarf + snack] orig. U.S. slang to consume quickly or greedily snarfed down some pizza "Tradition has it that way back in the day, you could snarf up more free stuff at the State Fair than you could carry off - I still treasure a little Heinz pickle pin I got there when I was a kid - and that the giveaways, in these lean times, have gone away." - Jacquielynn Floyd, Dallas Morning News (blog) Oct 01, 2008
the worthless word for the day is: diddly-squat [prob. euphemistic, cf. doodly-squat] U.S. slang the least amount: nothing (in negative constructions, anything) if everyone ignores it, it won't be worth diddly-squat -- Andrew Tobias "On the subject of managerial philosophy, Ozzie Guillen is something of an agnostic. He believes, with his requisite fervor, that managers account for diddly-squat of a team's success, which is interesting, because he gets paid more than $1 million to manage the Chicago White Sox." - Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports Sep 25, 2008 --- J. Hill writes to exclaim: How appropriate! I have a great usage example; Yesterday I had a nice 401k package of company stock, today it's worth diddly-squat.
the worthless word for the day is: bushwa [probably a euphemism for BS] also bushwah rubbish, nonsense there it was again: the bushwa, the sloganeering, being poured out to him with no regard for the truth -- David Driscoll "If you're a detective, what was all that bushwa about Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard?" - Ross Macdonald, The Galton Case (1959)
the worthless word for the day is: renegacy the action of renouncing: renegation(?) I have not been able to find renegacy in any dictionary, but it is in wide evidence as applied to former leftists who have reneged their views. Prof. Martin, cited below, answered my query thusly: "It is likely a term of art used by the far left. Very often, extremists develop their own language to talk to each other. The far right does the same [sort of] thing." "One would have to write a whole pamphlet to enumerate the gems of renegacy of that despicable renegade Kautsky." - V. I. Lenin, Pravda No. 219 11 October, 1918 "The Marxist-Leninist Party has persevered in steadfast revolutionary struggle, while the opportunists, as fair- weather "revolutionaries," are reveling in despondency and renegacy, are denouncing the revolutionary traditions from the mass upsurge that reached its height in the 1960s and early 1970s, and are cowering behind the liberals, labor bureaucrats and any bourgeois who is willing to throw them a crumb." - Communiqué on the Second Congress of the Marxist- Leninist Party, USA Fall 1983 (as quoted by Prof. Gus Martin, Essentials of Terrorism (2007)) "There are a number of factors in such renegacy. Money, adulation and that creeping conservatism known as growing old play a part, as does the apparent collapse of an alternative to capitalism." - Terry Eagleton, The Guardian July 07 2007
the worthless word for the day is: exuviate [fr. L. exuere, to take off] to shed (a skin or similar outer covering): molt; to free oneself from: change "Dictionary compilers at Collins have decided that the word list for the forthcoming edition of its largest volume is embrangled with words so obscure that they are linguistic recrement. Such words, they say, must be exuviated abstergently to make room for modern additions..." - The Times September 22, 2008 "The young crayfish exuviate two or three times in the course of the first year." - Thomas Huxley, The Crayfish (1880) "..Wagner's observable behaviour indicated that his intellect had yet to fully exuviate the bender's incapacitating effects." - Geoffrey Verdegast, Of Staves and Sigmas (2007) bonus word: abstergent - cleansing or scouring (thanx to B.J. Herbison)
the worthless word for the day is: snootitude [fr. snoot, a snob; after attitude] /SNOOT uh tude/ the state of mind of a snoot; esp. in regards to the usage of American English (coined by David Foster Wallace?) "Maybe it's a combination of my SNOOTitude and the fact that I end up having to read a lot of it for my job, but I'm afraid I regard Academic English not as a dialectal variation but as a grotesque debasement of SWE [Standard Written English], and loathe it even more than the stilted incoherences of Presidential English ("This is the best and only way to uncover, destroy, and prevent Iraq from reengineering weapons of mass destruction") or the mangled pieties of BusinessSpeak ("Our Mission: to proactively search and provide the optimum networking skills and resources to meet the needs of your growing business"); and in support of this utter contempt and intolerance I cite no less an authority than Mr. G. Orwell, who 50 years ago had AE pegged as a "mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence" in which "it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning."" - David F. Wallace, Harper's Magazine April, 2001 but (note date), "Palm Beach, mother ship of the insufferably wealthy, has a track record of above-it-all snootitude that defies reality for us in the trade classes. It was in deference to the high-born, finely bred, princess-and-the-pea sensitivities of Palm Beach residents that shirtless jogging was barred from that city's streets a few years back.I was surprised to learn they allowed pedestrianism there at all." - Don Addis, St. Petersburg Times Jan 15, 1989 "Snootitude is a fine coinage, but I have always wondered what the criteria are by which certain neologisms are silently accepted while others are not." - Jim Bisso, Wordsmith Talk, 07/28/08 (thanx, Jim)
the worthless word for the day is: term of art a word or phrase used in a precise sense in a particular subject or field; a technical term "Or will you have the goodness to supply us with a few thumping, blustering terms of art..." - Walter Scott, The Antiquary (1816) ""Business model" is one of those terms of art that were central to the Internet boom: it glorified all manner of half-baked plans." - Michael Lewis, The New New Thing (2000)
the worthless word for the day is: presenteeism [after absenteeism] /prez un TEE iz um / the fact or condition of being present, esp. at work; (a) the practice of working more hours than is required by one's terms of employment, or of continuing to work without regard to one's health, esp. because of perceived job insecurity; (b) the practice of attending a job but not working at full capacity, esp. because of illness or stress (usually opposed to absenteeism) {OED Online} "'Presenteeism' in War Plants Sought in Manpower Measures" - Christian Science Monitor (header) Jan 12, 1945 "A new CIGNA survey of U.S. workers shows the flip side of low absenteeism is "presenteeism" - coming to work sick or distracted by personal problems, which can lower productivity." - Hartford Courant Sep 13, 2008
the worthless word for the day is: chaogenous [Gk chaos + genos, born] /kay OJ en us/ arising out of (born amidst) chaos "Then soon chaogenous dreams of revenge were fuming in his serpent brain, the last of his sanity burned out, and he called her to him." - John Gardner, Jason and Medeia (1973) "And after a time, the boiling sea of blood and all the lopped and all the hacked-up humanity that swam within it drained from mah head, and from it rose a pillar of chaogenous calculus, cold and hard. And some serious weighing up of terms ensued. Yes, there, supine beneath a bold and brazen sun, ah struggled with some pretty eternal, some pretty adult problems. Listen." - Nick Cave, And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989)
the worthless word for the day is: dysnomy [fr. Gk dys, bad + nomos, law] /DIS noh mee/ rare bad legislation; the enactment of bad laws {Cockeram} "The state of 'eunomy' and good order which that constitution [sc. Lycurgus'] brought about..." - George Grote, A History of Greece (1846) "And though our elected officials usually claim they are committed to eunomy (like you know me), the enactment of good laws that promote the welfare of the people, all the wheeling and dealing of government often results in dysnomy, the enactment of flawed legislation that generates further difficulties and discontent." - Charles H. Elster, There's a Word for It (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: spifflicated [a fanciful conflation] /SPIFF likatid/ slang intoxicated, drunk (also spiflicated) "They forced his teeth open, and, while a couple of them sat on his chest, they poured about a quart of corn liquor into his system. He was so spifflicated before they let him up that they had to lift him bodily and plant him in a seat." - Washington Post, July 1904 ""He's spifflicated," said Andy. "We gotta keep him quiet."" - Darryl Brock, If I Never Get Back (1990) "Not surprisingly, many of these terms begin with the letter "sh" ... er ... "s": "stewed," "soused," "stiffed," "stinking," "snuffy," "sozzled," "spiflicated," "shellacked," "sloshed," "smashed," "schnockered," "sauced" -- and those are just the ones we can print in the newspaper." - Rob Kyff, Hartford Courant Jul 11, 2001
the worthless word for the day is: fedifraction [fr. L. foedus, compact + fractionem, a breaking] /feh di FRAK shun/? (see also fedifragous) obs. rare a breach of faith or covenant "I.. shall be allowed the full benefit of all the.. plenipotentialities and fedifractions that I.. can devise." - Nathaniel Ward (as 'B.'), Discolliminium (1650) "And let great Jove heare thus, whose thunders great Do truces tie, fright the fedifragous." - Virgil's Æneid (1632, Vicars tr.)
the worthless word for the day is: perquisquilian [fr. L. quisquiliae, trifles, rubbish] (cf. quisquilious) obs. nonce-word thoroughly worthless "It is a most unworthy thing for men that have bones in them, to spend their lives in making fiddle cases for futilous women's fancies: which are the very pettitoes of infirmity, the giblets of perquisquilian toys." - N. Ward, The Simple Cobler of Aggawam (1647) but.. "Efficient primality routines blinking retribution and incalescent divinity without the avoidance of cachinnatory hysterics. Avoid the perquisquilian planets that hatch pseudo magic lanterns." - Jason Earls, Red Zen (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: mentimutation [fr. L. mens, mind + mutation] /men ti myoo TAY tion/ obs. rare a change of mind the exceedingly rare mentimutations of a major league umpire - David Grambs " I.. shall be allowed the full benefit of all the.. illaqueations, extrications,..mentimutations, rementimutations,.. that I.. can devise." - Nathaniel Ward (as 'B.'), Discolliminium (1650) "[T]he arrival on the scene of Perot the Spoiler has made his mentimutation more pronounced." - Billy Porterfield, Austin American Statesman Jun 24, 1992 "In fact, there may not even be total consistency in what I say. This stems less from constant mentimutation, than from my not knowing what position might be most valid and useful for research purposes." - E. Quarantelli, What is a Disaster? (1998)
the worthless word for the day is: mundicidious [fr. L. mundus, world + -cidious (-cida, killer)] /mun di SID ee us/ (cf. homicidious, also rare) obs. rare likely or able to destroy the world "[T]hese are Exorbitancies: which is a formidable word: a vacuum and an exorbitancy, are mundicidious evils, Concerning Novelties of opinions..." - N. Ward, The Simple Cobler of Aggawam (1647)
the worthless word for the day is: waldo [fr. the name of Waldo F. Jones, the inventor of such gadgets in a science-fiction story by Robert Heinlein] a device for handling or manipulating objects by remote control "Even the..humanoid gadgets known universally as 'waldoes'.. passed through several generations of development.. in Waldo's machine shop before he redesigned them for mass production. The first of them.. had been designed to enable Waldo to operate a metal lathe." - Robert A. Heinlein, Waldo (1942) "Teleoperation on a massive scale. A kind of spiritual waldo." - Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1993)
the worthless word for the day is: uplift [fr. earlier sense, to lift up or elevate] to engineer a species (usually genetically) to make them intelligent; also, the act of uplifting "A young man on the left, wrapped in silver sateen from the throat to toe, held up a placard that said, 'Mankind Was Uplifted Too: let our E.T. Cousins Out!'" - David Brin, Sundiver (1980) "[E]ver since their uplift, these species had all grown more decadent, temperamental, and culturally sterile.. particularly those uplifted for the longest period." - James Gardner, Ascending (2001)
the worthless word for the day is: tanstaafl [acronym, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch] /tans toffle/ intj. asserting that there is a cost, hidden or otherwise, to everything "Oh, 'tanstaafl.' Means 'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.' And isn't," I added, pointing to a FREE LUNCH sign across room, "or these drinks would cost half as much. Was reminding her that anything free costs twice as much in long run or turns out worthless."" - Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (1966) "'Tanstaafl. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. We both know that I was brought here for a reason. If we could get down to business.'" - Lance Parkin, The Infinity Doctors (1985) ""I noticed she had a large lapel button that said TANSTAAFL, which I took to be some Scandinavian name."" - Dr Helen Thomas, Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: elsewhen [else + when] obs. at another time, at other times but used by Robert A. Heinlein in 1941 as a novella title; so now (in time-travel situations) at another point in time "Her husband willed her to go to the church, which she both then and elsewhen refused to do." - John Foxe, The Book of Martyrs (1563) "I appear in John Baird's apartment and set down the bag. I look at the empty chair in front of the old typewriter, the green beer bottle sweating cold next to it, and John Baird appears, looking dazed, and I have business elsewhere, elsewhen. A train to catch. I'll come back for the bag in twelve minutes or a few millennia..." - Joe Haldeman, The Hemingway Hoax (1990)
the worthless word for the day is: computronium [coined by physicists Morgolus and Toffoli, for programmable matter(?)] hypothetical material engineered to maximize its use as a computing substrate ""The AI could have digested the entire Earth and spun its atoms into a Dyson sphere made of pure computronium," Hugh told us." - Damien Broderick & Rory Barnes, The Hunger of Time (2003) "Planetary Elimination (example: post-Singularity beings disassemble planet to make computronium)" - Jamais Cascio, An Eschatological Taxonomy (December 31, 2006)
the worthless word for the day is: feck /fek/ feck has several vernacular meanings and variations.. [n] Scots 1) efficacy; force; value (whence, feckless) 2) (large) amount/quantity 3) greater or larger part (used with definite article) [v] Irish Eng. 1) to steal 2) to throw 3) to leave hastily [intj] chiefly Irish as an expletive, without sexual connotation; as in: damn, blast "He had a feck o' books wi' him—mair than had ever been seen before in a' that presbytery..." - R. L. Stevenson, Thrawn Janet (1881) "I hae been a Devil the feck o' my life..." - Robert Burns, Kellyburn Braes (1792) "Because they had fecked cash out of the rector's room." - James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist (1916) "Our perceived reluctance to leave the timelessness of the struck chord has earned ukulele players our reputation as feckless, clownlike children who will not grow up." - Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day (2007) this week: I may have previously failed to gloss these
the worthless word for the day is: refractory [fr. L. refragor, to oppose] /ri FRAK t(u)ree/ 1) resistant to control or authority: stubborn, unmanageable 2) resistent to treatment; unresponsive; immune 3) capable of enduring high temperature (not to be confused with refactory) "I must object to Oxford's dubbing resistentialism a "mock philosophy." There is nothing mock or sham about it, as anyone who has ever had to call a plumber on a Sunday morning to unclog a refractory toilet will attest." - Charles Elster, Resistentialism: Things that go totally awry Refractory Husbands (short stories) - Mary Stewart (Doubleday) Cutting (1913)
the worthless word for the day is: autological [fr. Gk autos, self + logos, word] self-descriptive, self-referential used to refer to words such as polysyllabic, English, pronounceable, common, olde, noun, word (compare heterological) "If it seems questionable to include hyphenated words, we can use two terms invented specially for this paradox: autological (="self-descriptive"), and heterological (= "non-self-descriptive")." - Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979) "The question is: Is the word "heterological" auto- logical or heterological? If it's autological, then it's heterological. If it's heterological, then it's autological. Ha! Ha!" - Cathcart & Klein, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: procerity [fr. L. proceritas height, tallness] /pro SER udi/ now rare tallness, loftiness, height "When he met a tall woman, he immediately commanded one of his Titanian retinue to marry her, that they might propagate procerity." - Samuel Johnson, Memoirs of the King of Prussia (1756) "You see, I'm one of those who has been blessed in the old elevation department. If it's height, tallness, stature, procerity or prominence you're after, then I'm your man." - Bob Shields, Daily Record (Scotland), 15 Jan. 2000
the worthless word for the day is: aproneer [fr. OF. naperon + Eng. -eer] UK, obs. a shopkeeper or tradesman "He is scared with the menaces of some prating Sequestrator or some surly Aproneer." - Bp. John Gauden, Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ suspiria (1659) Three quid for just one pint of beer? The price is an outrage-too dear! This gouging must stop! Who's in charge of this shop? I'll have words with the head aproneer. - Len Farano, OEDILF this week: let's see.. describing folks, with an 'a'
the worthless word for the day is: apolaustic [Gk apolaustikos, devoted to enjoyment] /ap uh LOS tik/ devoted to seeking enjoyment; self-indulgent "The lordly, apolaustic, and haughty undergraduate.." - Saturday Review (London) (1880) "In France President Jacques Chirac observed his 73rd birthday with the lowest approval rating in the history of the Fifth Republic but with the prospect that when his term ends in 18 months he can have an apolaustic position in that Russian-German pipeline, possibly in its oil-for-Food program." - The American Spectator, Feb. 2006
the worthless word for the day is: archimage [Gk archimagos] (also archimagus) /AR kuh maje/ a great magician, wizard, or enchanter “No, no, Rashleigh,” said Miss Vernon; “dismiss from your company the false archimage Dissimulation, and it will better ensure your free access to our classical consultations.” - Walter Scott, Rob Roy (1817) "Of these, many had application and a few some talent, but only that floricultural archimage Sebastian Marco was a Merlin, and over the best gardens in town he held an inviolate suzerainty..." - Michael Malone, Dingley Falls (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: antiscian [fr. Gk anti, opposite + skia, shadow] /an TISH iun/ pertaining to those who live on the same meridian, but on the opposite side of the equator, so that their shadows at noon fall in opposite directions "Those who live north of the equator are antiscians to those on the south, and vice versa; the shadows on one side being cast towards the north; those on the other, towards the south." - Webster's Dictionary (1828) Southern brother, it's most odd to see That your shadow's behind, as with me. North and south-what a riddle- The sun's in the middle. We're antiscians, don't you agree? - Robert (Bob) Hogg, OEDILF this is (mis)defined on some word lists as 'someone who lives on the exact opposite side of the world'
the worthless word for the day is: fidging [fr. Sc. fidge, to move about restlessly] Scot. restless, fidgety; in phr. fidgin' fain, eager and twitching with excitement "A fidging Mare should be well girded." - James Kelly, Scottish Proverbs (1721) Wha will mak me fidgin' fain? Wha will kiss me o'er again? The rantin' dog, the daddie o't. - Robert Burns, The Rantin' Dog (1786) this week: the Scots are comin'
the worthless word for the day is: forfoughten [fr. archaic form of fought] /for FAUT un/ also forfoughen Scot. worn out (from fighting); exhausted ""I propose that this good little gentleman, that seems sair forfoughen, as I may say, in this tuilzie, shall send for a tass o' brandy and I'll pay for another..."" - Walter Scott, Rob Roy (1817) ""I ha'e fear Ise ta'en a strong grippit o' death. I am sair forfoughten, but never fear, mon, but wha' the auld Sir Peter will e'er present a heckle to his foes."" - Zane Grey, George Washington, Frontiersman (1994)
the worthless word for the day is: ettle [fr. ON ætla, to think, purpose] /ET'l/ Scot. 1) aim, intent, purpose 2) chance, opportunity For Nannie, far before the rest, Hard upon noble Maggie prest, And flew at Tam wi furious ettle.. - Robert Burns, Tam o' Shanter (1790) But fainness to be hame, that burnt my breast, Made me to tak the ettle when it keest. - Alexander Ross, Helenore (1768)
the worthless word for the day is: heidyin [usu. in the phrase high heidyins] /hi heed yins/ Scot. (high) head one(s) "Had the Chief Super been rapped over the knuckles by the high heidyins themselves?" - Ian Rankin, Strip Jack (1992) "The roll-call sounds like a branch meeting of the 'republique des professeurs' combined with the 'high heidyins' of (mostly academic) Scottish society." - Sian Reynolds, Paris-Edinburgh Cultural Connections (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: muffism [fr. muff, an oaf + -ism] /MUF izm/ UK colloq. obs. the action characteristic of a muff or incompetent person; foolishness "[T]he muffism of walking down St. James's Street, on a gusty day in September, in a rough, and somewhat shabby, pilot coat." - Lady Bulwer-Lytton, Behind the Scenes (1854) "A feeling grew up in their minds that there was a possibility of picking up a suitable husband just on the borders of muffism." - William Chambers, Ailie Gilroy (1872)
the worthless word for the day is: psilology [alteration of philology; fr. Gk psilo- mere, bare] /psi LOL o gy/ obs. nonce-word (love of) empty talk "Schools of psilology (the love of empty noise) and misosophy are here out of the question." - Samuel T. Coleridge, Literary Remains (1838) bonus word misosophy - the hatred of wisdom
the worthless word for the day is: bizarrerie [F.] /buh ZAR uh REE/ 1) bizarre quality 2) something bizarre "It was a freak of fancy in my friend to be enamored of the Night for her own sake; and into this bizarrerie, as into all his others, I quietly fell; giving myself up to his wild whims with a perfect abandon." - E. A. Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) "Even the pictures illustrate only one or two phases of its infinite bizarrerie, endless variety, preternatural massiveness, and utterly alien exoticism." - H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness (1931) (thanx to Meghan R. of the Scripps spelling bee..)
the worthless word for the day is: vindictivolence [fr. L. vindicta vengeance, after malevolence] nonce-word the desire of revenging oneself or of taking vengeance "Ill-will is perhaps always a form or mode of vindictivolence, i.e. is connected with a feeling of ourselves as somehow wronged." - John Grote, A treatise on the moral ideals (1876)
the worthless word for the day is: ignotism [fr. L. ignot-us, unknown] obs. a mistake due to ignorance "It has 92 Errors or Ignotisms in it." - The Gentleman's Magazine (1737) "Quite dead.. is old "ignotism," "a mistake due to ignorance." God rest his soul, we could have used him." - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, N.Y. Times Oct. 13, 1971
the worthless word for the day is: overegg [Yorkshire, 'we mustn't over-egg the pudding'] fig., orig. Eng. regional to embellish or supply to excess, to overexaggerate "The bank was anxious however, not to overegg investor expectations for the current year." - The Evening Standard, 15 May 2002 "But even that was refreshing, coming from a conductor so often accused of overegging the pudding." - Times Online, UK - Jul 10, 2008
the worthless word for the day is: carrefour [F. fr. L. quadrifurcus, having four forks] /kah ruh FUR/ 1) a crossroads, a carfax 2) a public square, plaza "They'd follow those aristocrats' high-stepping chargers out through the city gates, there at the carrefours where the meaner sorts of criminals dangled unconscious from the whipping-posts, and they would come into St. Germain des Pres..." - Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver (2003) "A horseback statue of McClellan stands in a carrefour in Washington overlooked by the windows of an apartment house largely occupied by retired generals and their families." - A. J. Liebling, World War II Writings (2008)
the worthless word for the day is: brumous [fr. F. brume, fog] /BREW mus/ foggy, misty "..the entire building seems to be speeding massively through the brumous air, going nowhere." - John Banville, Prague Pictures (2003) "..it seemed to him, self-critical in the brumous October gloaming and the outskirts of London, that only his boots had shone throughout their two-hour companionship." - John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga (1922) this week: more words from my reading
the worthless word for the day is: memorous [fr. L. memorosus memorable, mindful] obs. rare memorable "How many of the following words, all of them em- ployed by writers of English in earlier times, do you recognize, much less use yourself? memorous.. memorious.. memoried.. memorist.. mnemotechny.. mnemonize.. mnemonicon... The contemporary rarity of such terms, terms once familiar to ordinary speakers of English, should give us pause. Where have all the words for memory gone?" - Edward S. Casey, Remembering (2000) "I am the pain of young men memorous Of beauty that they never knew, and loss They never suffered." - Archibald MacLeish, Tower of Ivory (2004) this week: more words from the gang at Wordsmith Talk
the worthless word for the day is: chiack [prob. alter. of cheek] /CHAHY uhk/ (also chyack) Australia to jeer at; tease; deride "[M]y mates begin to chiack me vociferously for acting like a bloody drongo and my teachers afterwards rebuke me for my rudeness to the regal personage and demand to know the reason why." - Roger Milliss, Serpent's Tooth (1984) "Just think how you can chyack those stay-at-homes in Sydney and Melbourne." - Thomas Wood, Cobbers (1934) bonus word: drongo Australasian slang a simpleton; a stupid, worthless person
the worthless word for the day is: blooter [origin uncertain] UK, Scot. [n] 1) a hard and usu. wild kick of a ball; also fig. 2) a fool, an oaf, a bumbler; a babbler [v] to do something to excess; to blunder or babble e.g., to hit with force; to smash, to kick a football extremely hard or wildly; to drink heavily "Jock nodded. 'The minute the wind dropped - came into the boiler house there - said he was away to blooter them.'" - Peter Kerr, The Mallorca Connection (2007) "Admittedly, a few weeks ago, I lulled my wife into a false sense of security by not saying anything when the last Rangers blooter was greeted with her cry of relief: "Thank God that's football over for another season!" I didn't tell her that the Euros were coming up hard and fast." - Aidan Smith, Scotland on Sunday, 8 June 2008 "Women go into pubs.. to enjoy a quiet drink with friends. And any halitosis-ridden, hand-wandering blooter who thinks otherwise could find himself stuck up his own optic." - The Daily Record (Glasgow), 23 July 1999
the worthless word for the day is: geis [Irish] /gesh?/ (also gaysh, geas; pl. geasa) Irish folklore a solemn injunction, prohibition, or taboo; a moral obligation "Some geasa were connected with totem animals, some with certain aspects of hospitality, some with journeys and traveling but, whatever the geis concerned, should a person wittingly or unwittingly break it, then certain doom would follow." - Steve Blamires, Celtic Tree Mysteries (1997) "In a sense which most Irish people will know, this put Fallon under a geas, a moral compulsion, to say his bit." - The New Statesman, 23 July 1965 (thanx to zmjezhd)
the worthless word for the day is: horrent [fr. L. horrere to stand on end, bristle] /HOR unt/ archaic 1) bristled 2) bristling "[S]uddenly I see him, as if he were before me here, Joe somebody, a hulking, big-boned fellow with jug ears and horrent hair." - John Banville, op cit this week: a touch of Banville (thanx to Anthony Stevens)
the worthless word for the day is: marmoreal [fr. L. marmoreus < marmor, marble] /mar MOR ee ul/ resembling marble, as in smoothness, whiteness, or hardness "The thought of all that tensed and tensely quivering naked flesh, untrammelled save by the marmoreal folds of a robe or a wisp of gauze fortuitously placed.. glutted my inexperienced but already overheating imagination..." - John Banville, op cit
the worthless word for the day is: glutinous [fr. L. glutinosus < gluten, glue] /GLOOT (e)n us/ of the nature of or resembling glue; sticky "The spring she had dreaded had come and gone, and she had been too ill to mind its agitations, and now it was a damply hot, glutinous summer." - John Banville, The Sea (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: flocculent [fr. L. flocculus + English -ent] /FLOCK yu lunt/ 1) of the character of wool: woolly, flocky <flocculent cloud masses> 2) made up of loosely aggregated particles or soft flakes <a flocculent white precipitate> "In the flocculent hush of the Golf Hotel we seemed, my daughter and I, to be the only patrons." - John Banville, The Sea (2005) this week: a touch of John Banville
the worthless word for the day is: velutinous [fr. L. velutum, velvet] /vuh LUT uh nus/ covered with dense, silky hairs: velvety "I seemed to inhabit a twilit netherworld in which it was scarcely possible to distinguish dream from waking, since both waking and dreaming had the same penetrable, darkly velutinous texture..." - John Banville, The Sea (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: hooplehead [origin uncertain, but see Quinion] a foolish, ridiculous or worthless person "He hated to think it, but his daughter was a hoople- head. Every one else was moving out, and here she'd moved back in." - Mary Anne Kelly, The Cordelia Squad (2003) "Hooplehead - Al Swearengen's designation for a member of the largely unthinking, easily manipulated masses. Presumably refers to the city of Hoople, North Dakota." - David Lavery, Reading Deadwood (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: altercate [fr. L. altercari, to dispute or wrangle] /ALL tur kate/ to dispute with zeal: wrangle "[I]t becomes us not.. to altercate on the localities of the battle." - Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Athens: Its Rise and Fall (1837) "People altercated over questions of identity, particularly with respect to the older bones that had long turned brown." - Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: extravagate [fr. Med. L. extravagari, to wander] archaic 1) to wander widely 2) to exceed proper limits "Out of the bowels of those very schemes In which his youth did first extravagate; These spread like day, and something in the shape Of these will live till man shall be no more." - William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805) " In statement, it is true, he could extravagate like a master." - Bradford Torrey, The Atlantic Nov 1, 1899
the worthless word for the day is: stravage (or stravaige) [prob. by shortening and alteration fr. extravagate] /struh VAIG/ chiefly Scot. saunter, stroll, wander "[F]or ten years [I] had stravaiged the world like a tinker, never doing a hand's turn of work." - John Banville, The Book of Evidence (1989) "I stravage along behind them, beckoning a cabana boy who doesn't exist to bring a latte that never comes." - E . S. Schwarzer, Motherhood Is Not for Wimps (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: guerdon [Middle F.] /GER dun/ something that one has earned or gained: reward the ultimate, and rather easy, word from the 2008 National Spelling Bee, confirming the result of the previous round "William the Conqueror had to promise a generous guerdon for people who fought for him." - from the Scripps judge "And Rosaline they call her: ask for her; And to her white hand see thou do commend This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go." Giving him a shilling - Wm Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (1598)
the worthless word for the day is: esclandre [F.] /esk la(n)dr(eh)/ an incident that arouses unpleasant talk or gives rise to scandal: scene this week: interesting words from the 2008 National Spelling Bee (today's word was the penultimate (and winning) word from round 15 -- the other semifinalist got prosopopoeia wrong, omitting the 'i') "Threatening to make an eslcandre and leave the chateau." - as used in a sentence by the Scripps judge (Charles Greville, The G. memoirs - 1832) "Fostered by feverish play, cheating at cards in France has soared to heights unknown before. At even the most select and aristocratic, the most legitimate clubs, much foul play may occur, as was clearly disclosed by the recent esclandre in the Cerole de la Rue Royale." - The New York Times March 28, 1886
the worthless word for the day is: Kulturkampf [G. fr. Kultur + Kampf, conflict] /kul TUR kam(p)f/ broadly a conflict between cultures or value systems this week: interesting words from the 2008 National Spelling Bee (today's word is also from round 13; in round 14 one of the two finalists correctly spelt introuvable, which is *not autological!) "The 1920's proved to be the focal decade in the Kulturkampf of American Protestantism." - Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1962) "Great moments in the drug war Kulturkampf" - Reason Magazine [banner], Jun 2008
the worthless word for the day is: opificer [fr. L. opifex: craftsman, artisan + -er] /uh PIF uh ser/ obs. an artificer; a workman; one who creates something this week: interesting words from the 2008 National Spelling Bee (today's word is from round 13 and eliminated one of the three semifinalists, who took the initial schwa as an 'e' — roots, roots, roots!) "If you respect either Artificers or Opificers, all Nations have been benefited thereby." - as proffered by Scripps judge (5/31/08) "So many playwrights, and opificers of chit chat have ever since been working upon.. my uncle Toby's pattern." - Laurence Sterne, The Life.. of Tristram Shandy (1761)
the worthless word for the day is: aptyalism [fr. a- + Gk ptuelismos, salivation] /A TIE uh liz um/ absence of or deficiency in secretion of saliva (cf. ptyalism for excessive flow) this week: interesting words from the 2008 National Spelling Bee (today's word is from round 12) "Just look at those kids on that stage - their cheeks a bright nacarat, their mouths suffering from aptyalism, and yet still standing tall like the bogatyr of forgotten history." - Seattle Post Intelligencer - May 31, 2008 bonus: bogatyr - a medieval Russian heroic warrior, akin to Western European knight errant "Aptyalism can result from dehydration such as with fever or disease of the kidneys." - The Times Recorder (Zanesville, OH) - Jun 20, 1960
the worthless word for the day is: pleionosis [fr. Gk pleos, filled + L. nos, us (ego)] /PLAY oh NO sis/ obs. rare the exaggeration of one's own importance (cf. nosism, egotism) "The only disorder universal to humankind." - Peter Bowler, The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words (1992) "I confess that one word I had never heard of seems to define one of my traits: That's pleionosis, the exaggeration of one's own importance." - Jack Smith, Los Angeles Times Jan18, 1993 "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains: round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away. - P. B. Shelley, Ozymandias (1818)
the worthless word for the day is: timber-head [timber + head] also, timbernonce(?) Melville's slang usage a blockhead "Don't you see, you timber-head, that no harm can come to the holder of the rod, unless the mast is first struck?" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851) "Timbernonce number three... Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece, prodigiously overendowed with Big Ideas." - Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings (2004) this week: jobbernowls and other blockheads
the worthless word for the day is: clodpoll [clod + poll, head] /CLOD poll/ a stupid person: blockhead, clodpate "Therefore this letter, being so excellently ignorant, will breed no terror in the youth. He will find it comes from a clodpoll." - Wm Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1601) "Clodpoll number two, the Greek people again... for thinking that just because the civilization here [Smyrna] used to be approximately Greek in the distant past and is now partially Greek, it should be forced into political union with old Greece." - Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: lackwit [lack + wit] /LACK wit/ a dull or witless person: blockhead, fool yahoo, thickwit, dope, nitwit, dimwit, half-wit ""Lackwit? In what musty drawer of some dead English professor's dust-covered desk did you find that word? I assure you that never in my worst nightmares did I ever suppose that I was a lackwit."" - Orson Scott Card, Shadow Puppets (2002) "I will tell you who the rattlebrains are, beginning at the top. Actually, there is not a top, because there are so many contestants for the lackwit championships that all come in equal first." - Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: domnoddy [origin uncertain] /DOM noddy/ fool, ninny, nincompoop, simpleton (also, noddypoll, noddy) ""You idiot! You cabbageheaded domnoddy! If you've hurt my horse, I'll have your skin!"" - Gerald Morris, The Squire's Tales (1999) "But it can be a miserable, lonely existence for a subordinate who yearns to be productive and get things done, but is caught in a strangle hold by an unqualified and incapable domnoddy. Incompetent managers rely heavily on rules, policies, and procedures." - Jim Weaver, How Did You Manage That? (2002) "What bothers me is that I am dying (albeit quite pleasantly) because of the most gignatic f[oul]-up, brought about by domnoddies, nincompoops and ninny- hammers of the first order who happened to find themselves in charge of f[oul]ing everything up." - Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: palinoia [fr. Gk pali-n, again + -noia, thought] /pal ih NOI uh/ the compulsive repetition of an act as a way to master its performance "It started at that Easter Egg Hunt when we all lined up in a row, like civil war warriors set to wage brash attacks upon the yolk of hardboiled phlegmatism. Poached palinoia." - Mark Axelrod, Capital Castles (2000) "This neologism became widely known after it was used as part of a credit for an episode of the 1990s US animated television comedy Pinky and the Brain." - Christopher Foyle, Foyle's Philavery (2008)
the worthless word for the day is: fabulist [F. fabuliste, fr. L fabula, fable] /FAB yuh list/ 1) a creator or writer of fables 2) a teller of tales; a liar "To quote another American fabulist [Mark Twain], Denial ain't just a river in Egypt." - Lila Shapiro, TPM May 4, 2008 "Had it been Hillary Clinton or Al Gore who made all these errors, we would have heard by now that the candidate was a fabulist." - Jennifer Rubin, Commentary 05.27.2008
the worthless word for the day is: onomastic [Gk onomastikos, fr. onomazein to name] /ah nuh MAS tik/ of, relating to, or consisting of a name or names; relating to onomastics ""I was thinking more along an onomastic line. Proper names. Place names. Nicknames. You know, nickname itself is an interesting word. It comes from ekename, which-"" - David Carkeet, Double Negative (1980)
the worthless word for the day is: exeleutherostomize (also exeleutherostomise) [fr. Gk ex-, out + eleutherostom-os, free-spoken] /?/ nonce-word to speak out freely "The heroes of the Iliad—shall we hide it to live, or exeleutherostomize it and die?-are for the most part boors." - Charles Badham, Prose Halieutics (1854) "The offices of a General Manager of one of the few national banks is not the place to exeleutherostomise." - B.S. Johnson, Christie Malry's Own Double-entry (1985) bonus word: halieutics - the art or practice of fishing; a treatise on fishing [fr. Gk halieutikos, of fishing]
the worthless word for the day is: antejentacular [fr. L. ante-, before + jentacul-um, breakfast] archaic before breakfast (compare postprandial) "Not one poor visit in the antejentacular perambulations." - Jeremy Bentham, correspondence (1843) "You will learn that the holder for a handleless coffeecup is called a zarf (if you didn't already know it); that the antonym for postprandial (afterdinner) is antejentacular (before breakfast), while the antonym of wealth may well be illth..." - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY Times Aug 9, 1982
the worthless word for the day is: malnoia [fr. mal- : ill, wrong + Gk nous, mind] /mal NOI ah/ a vague feeling of mental discomfort "At last—the word we all wanted, to describe the way we feel five minutes after waking up in the morning when we realize that we are about to recall yesterday's unresolved problems." - Peter Bowler, The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words (1992)
the worthless word for the day is: misocainea [fr. Gk misos, hatred + kainos, new] /miso KINE eah/ an abnormal aversion to new things or ideas (cf. misoneism) "Although I agree with the majority that no appellate court has yet held an insurer liable absent a premium payment, it may be nothing more than appellate judges suffering from a case of misocainea!" - Arizona Business Gazette (Phoenix) Nov 11, 1993 "A crucial objective of our program is to remove any innate misocainea.. and replace it with the entrepre- neurial principle of 'change is an opportunity to create competitive advantage.'" - Scientific Computing & Instrumentation, 01 Jan 05
the worthless word for the day is: nephelococcygia [first used in the play The Birds written in 414 B.C. by the Greek comic poet Aristophanes, this was to be a city in the clouds; fr. nephele, cloud + kokkyx, cuckoo] /ne fê lê kak SI jee yê/ 1) capitalized cloud cuckooland 2) the act of finding shapes in clouds "Without flying to Nephelococcygia or to the Court of Queen Mab, we can meet with sharpers, bullies, hard-hearted impudent debauchees, and women worthy of such paramours." - Thomas Macaulay, Comic Dramatists (1840) "Finding shapes in clouds is an old endeavor. There's even a word for it: nephelococcygia, literally "cloud cuckooland," from the Aristophanes play The Birds. Thoreau practiced it, describing a sunset in which he saw a "phantom city." About a hundred years later cartoonist Charles Schulz created a Peanuts comic strip in which Linus gazed at the clouds and spied the outline of British Honduras, the profile of artist Thomas Eakins, and a group of forms reminding him of the biblical stoning of Stephen. "I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie," Charlie Brown responded, "but I changed my mind." - Chris Dodge, Utne Reader Jan/Feb 2007
the worthless word for the day is: jeopardous [Middle English jupartous, fr. jupartie + -ous] fraught with risk or danger; hazardous, perilous "In such snow he'd have led us into all sorts of thrilling and jeopardous traps..." - Leif Enger, Peace Like a River (2002) "Had the man not opted for a late soak my brother's career might've ended on the spot, but wet feet and wood floors make jeopardous allies..." - ibid
the worthless word for the day is: grue [Scot., akin to OHG ingruen, to shiver, shudder] /gru/ [v] to shiver or shudder especially with fear or cold [n] 1) a shiver 2) a gruesome quality or effect "I begin to grue at the sound of it." - R. L. Stevenson, Catriona: a sequel (1893) "[T]he sound of wind in the rigging still gave him the chills and the grues when he heard it." - R. B. Robertson, Of Whales and Men (1954) "As a tale of grue it was badly timed; Waltzer, too, had spoken of cannibalism, and in fact it seemed a thing he might practice without remorse." - Leif Enger, Peace Like a River (2001)
the worthless word for the day is: ogry [from ogre, presumably] resembling, or pertaining to, an ogre(?) "Opvarts and at ham, or this ogry Osler will oxmaul us all..." - James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939) (thanx to Cécile)
the worthless word for the day is: nephology [fr. Gk nephos, cloud + -ology] /neh FOL eh jee/ the scientific study of clouds, the branch of meteorology that deals with clouds (also, nephologist) "This is the life! Things seen resemble images in a thaumatrope. (Squinting up at the washing on the line): I must take up nephology some day." - Mark Lemon (ed.), Punch (1841) "Conrad accepted every invitation to lecture Alden about nephology or aviation." - Maria Flook, Lux (2004) "If I put this ad in the paper — nephologist seeks eidolon — would you answer?" - Marcus E. Ryan, Two Diaries (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: unau [Port. < Tuni uná, lazy] /YOO now/ Zool. the South American two-toed sloth "There are two species of this animal, viz. the Unau and the Ai." - The Family Magazine (1843) "The Ai is more indolent in his habits than the Unau..." - Arthur Mangin, The Desert World (1872)
the worthless word for the day is: vigneron [F. < vigne, vine] /VEEN yuh RO(n)E/ winegrower, viticulturist (an assist to Barry MacDonald on this) "Wine lovers have garnered the image of the passionate vigneron into an almost spiritual figure, one who translates the mysteries of the soil into wine." - Artvoice Apr 23, 2008 "Away from her roles as actress and guru, she (sc. Kerry Armstrong) is a vigneron, pressing grapes at her property near Eltham and bottling a fine drop that is sometimes finer than others." - The Age (Australia) May 4, 2008
the worthless word for the day is: bahookie [alteration of behind(?)] /buh HOO kee/ Scot. colloq., humorous the buttocks "'Stop staring at my bahookie, nancyboy,' Barry heard him mutter." - Michael Gerber, Barry Trotter and the Unnecessary Sequel (2003) "'Mm-hmm, and that little tub of his'll go like a greased dolphin with a Roman candle up its bahookie!'" - Peter Kerr, The Mallorca Connection (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: bardo [Tibetan, literally, between two] /BAR dO/ Lamaism the intermediate or astral state of the soul after death and before rebirth "Sometimes I felt I was already dead, wandering in some Hades or Tibetan bardo zone where the shades repressed the disquieting thought that they were no longer alive by engaging in a make-believe danse macabre of frantic activity." - Daniel Pinchbeck, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl
the worthless word for the day is: disintermediate [originally a banking term, now more broadly used] Econ. to withdraw one's money from intermediate institutions for direct investment; to eliminate the middleman "This growth in Euro commercial paper tends to disintermediate commercial banks in the short-term market just as Euronotes have replaced medium-term syndicated credits." - J. Peter Williamson, The Investment Banking Handbook (1988) ""One of the reasons you see press releases ranked higher in Web measurement surveys is that an increasing number of releases are written not for the press, or even for consumers, but for search engines.. many PR pros just decided to leverage the Internet medium and disintermediate the journalist entirely -- the intersection of direct marketing and PR, if you will."" - Rick Sharga (marketing consultant), via c/net news.com Apr 18, 2008
the worthless word for the day is: thirlable [fr. OE thirl: hole, perforation] obs. rare that may be thirled or pierced; penetrable "Say no more old chap-your logic is unthirlable." - Peter Bowler, The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words (1992) yesterday's word: stylite this week: more hogwash (and other) words
the worthless word for the day is: stylite let's play hogwash®.. choose one: a) unadorned stone tracery forming the structural border of a stained glass window b) a type of ripstop nylon of extra light nature mainly used for making kites, banners, etc. c) a Christian ascetic living atop a pillar d) a Greek slave used as a soldier e) fossilized swine excrement (answer tomorrow)
the worthless word for the day is: sabrage [F. sabrer] /sah BRAHDZH/ the act of opening a bottle, usu. champagne, with a sabre "You might think the result will be lots of broken glass and mess, but the skill of sabrage lies in hitting the bottle hard just at the bottom edge of the annulus, the glass ring at the top of the neck. The blow breaks the neck off cleanly, complete with cork." - Michael Quinion, World Wide Words, 15 Jul 2006 "With a deft and decisive blow, he relieves the bubbly of its cork with one foul swoop and the top of the bottle, glass and all, flies to the bricks below. A rush of pent-up, foamy champagne gushes from the beheaded bottle. Bonaparte would be proud. After all, it was his mounted artillery officers who perfected the "art of sabrage," albeit back in the early 1800s, the beheading was usually done on live victims following bloody crusades." - Rick VanSickle, Calgary Sun August 6, 2006
the worthless word for the day is: thrapple (thropple) [origin obscure] /THRAPul/ Scot. [n] the throat, windpipe [v] to throttle, strangle But now she fetches at the thrapple, An' fights for breath : Haste, gie her name up in the chapel, Near unto death! - Robert Burns, to John Goldie (1785) "Sorrow be in your thrapple then!" - Walter Scott, Guy Mannering (1815) "I could thrapple ye whaur ye staun'." - James Strang, A Lass of Lennox (1899)
the worthless word for the day is: plagosity [fr. L. plagosus, given to blows, fond of flogging] obs. rare the inclination or tendency to beat or flog people "Thus Nicholas Udall's accidental propensity to theatricals led to Eton being the birthplace of English Comedy, and the 'plagosity' of William Malim led to the composition of one of the masterpieces of English prose." [Roger Ascham's famous treatise on 'The Scholemaster'] - Lionel Cust, A History of Eton College (1899)
the worthless word for the day is: elenctic [Gk elenktikos, fr. elenktos] /ee LENC tic/ variants elenchtic, elenctical, elenchtical serving to refute; refutative (used of indirect modes of proof) opposed to deictic, showing or pointing out directly "His duty is elenchtic." - Blackwood's Magazine, v. XXXIII (1833) "Because he has spent so much of his life in elenctic argument, we are sometimes tempted to infer that Socrates knows more than he is letting on about the subject matter at hand." - Brickhouse & Smith, Plato's Socrates (1994)
the worthless word for the day is: conviciatory [fr. L. conviciari, to revile, rail at] (also spelt convitiatory) obs. wrangling, railing; reproachful also conviciate, obs. to revile, reproach, slander, rail at "This expression [a dog] is the favourite term of reproach with the Greeks, whose convitiatory language is most violent and abusive." - John C. Hobhouse, A Journey through Albania (1813) "[I]t is an easy thing for men so resolved to conviciate, instead of accusing..." - William Laud, The Autobiography of.. (1839)
the worthless word for the day is: fucivorous [fr. L. fucus, rock-lichen + -vorus, devouring] /few SIV ur us/ eating or subsisting on seaweed hence fucivore, one who eats seaweed "The pancreas in carnivorous Terrapins (Emys) is more bulky and compact in form than in the fucivorous Turtles (Chelone)." - Richard Owen, On the Anatomy of Vertebrates (1866) this word would probably be totally unknown, but for its dictionary neighbors... "The word before the word in question in the dictionary is 'fucivorous'. Someone who eats meat is a carnivore, someone who eats plants is a herbivore and someone who eats seaweed is a fucivore. Sadly, as I've never met anyone who dines solely at a Chinese restaurant with an incredibly limited menu, it is a word I'll never get to use." - Chris Lloyd, Northern Echo Sept. 27, 2003
the worthless word for the day is: nubivagant [fr. classical L. nubivagus, wandering among the clouds] obs. rare passing through the clouds "[Y]et it would be better for a collineomaniac to think, now and then, of the desolation he is bringing down upon happy nests; of how many little broods he may cause to starve; of how many robbed mates he will send, nubivagant, whistling and singing tremulous love notes through the air, vainly searching and calling for their lost spouses, never, never to return!" - H. W. Herbert, Sporting Scenes and Sundry Sketches (1842) bonus word: collineomaniac, a hunter
the worthless word for the day is: pieriansipist [Perian + sip + -ist] a dabbler in learning: one who learns a little about many subjects, or 'sips' from the Pierian spring (a source of knowledge and inspiration from the Muses) A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain And drinking largely sobers us again. - Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism What's a pieriansipist? this week: more neologisms
the worthless word for the day is: retrogenesis [fr. retro- backward + -genesis, origin] /ret troh JEN uh sis/ the loss of mental abilities in old age in the opposite order in which they are gained in childhood, esp. as exhibited by Alzheimer's patients "[Dr Barry] Reisberg and others say that retrogenesis is more than just a newfangled academic term to explain an age-old human condition." - John Fauber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel June 23, 2002 "It made her feel good, the counting down, and she did it sometimes in the day's familiar drift, walking down a street, riding in a taxi. It was her form of lyric verse, subjective and unrhymed, a little songlike but with a rigor, a tradition of fixed order, only backwards, to test the presence of another kind of reversal, which a doctor nicely named retrogenesis." - Don DeLillo, Falling Man (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: keming [fr. misreading kerning] /KEM ing/ the result of improper kerning (a new typography term) kerning - the addition or removal of space between individual characters in a piece of typeset text to improve its appearance or alter its fit here are some examples where Book Search software falls prey to this exact mistake "Bad keming is rampant in all those twisty groovy captcha phrases." - anon. "Spum Bad Keming" - anon.
the worthless word for the day is: nihilartikel [fr. L. nihil, nothing + G. artikel] /NI hil AR ti kul/ a deliberately erroneous entry in a dictionary or other reference book (cf. esquivalience, for instance) also see fictitious entry "Because we have no English word for the concept, some English writers have used what looks like a German word, Nihilartikel, for such deliberately invalid entries... There's some doubt whether this is a genuine German word, or one formed in English as a joke and unknowingly copied. Others have used Mountweazel, which derives from the false entry for Lillian Virginia Mountweazel that appeared in the 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia." - Michael Quinion, World Wide Words, 1 Oct. 2005 "No self-respecting reader will overlook such glaring errors as describing the DJ's favourite Technics SL-1200 turntable as 'belt driven'. Boy, I hope somebody got fired for that blunder. Sadly the authors resisted inserting a proper nihilartikel, the alleged German word for an item invented to catch out the unwary plagiarist." (from a review of The Rock Snob's Dictionary) - Steve Jelbert, The Independent June 26, 2005
the worthless word for the day is: infovore [info- + L. vorus, devouring] /IN fo vore/ (introduced as a scientific term by neuroscientists Irving Biederman and Edward Vessel, after carnivore, omnivore, etc.) a person who indulges in and desires information gathering and interpretation "I'm an infovore. I consume and excrete interesting factoids for a living." - Cory Doctorow, A Place So Foreign (2003) "Why are you reading this article when you could be watching paint dry instead? It's all because of our innate hunger for information. Humans, it turns out, are infovores." - New Scientist, 22 July 2006 "You might call us 'infovores.'" - The Wall Street Journal March 12, 2008 the opposite of infovore is ignotarian, a person who avoids or limits the acquisition of (new) information
the worthless word for the day is: multivious [L. multivius, having many ways] /mul TI vi us/ now rare having many ways or roads; going in many directions "The sinner is often perplexed amidst the multivious and conflicting directions that are given." - David Thomas, The Crisis of Being (1850) "A "plea bargain" may take many forms; it is multivious in nature." - Court of Special Appeals of Maryland Mar 9, 1981 "The history of World War II has been told in such multivious detail that its simplest lessons are easily obscured." - Wayne Biddle, Barons of the Sky (2001) ___ for those who feel that most of these words are just *too obscure, to the point of being mostly unusable, this week I offer up some words that I've actually used recently, albeit online.
the worthless word for the day is: opioid [opi(um) + -oid] /OH pee oid/ n. an opium-like substance produced naturally in the brain adj. possessing some properties characteristic of opiate narcotics but not derived from opium "When he hooked up volunteers to a brain-scanning machine, the preferred pictures were shown to generate much more brain activity than the unpreferred shots. While researchers don't yet know what exactly these brain scans signify, a likely possibility involves increased production of the brain's pleasure-enhancing neurotransmitters called opioids." - Lee Gomes, The Wall Street Journal March 12, 2008 "When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call us 'infovores.'" - ibid
the worthless word for the day is: disfluency [dis-, apart or away + fluency] /dis FLOO un see/ 1) Pathol. impairment of the ability to produce smooth, fluent speech; stammering 2) an interruption in the smooth flow of speech, as by a pause or the repetition of a word or syllable; lack of skillfulness in speaking also, dysfluency "People doubt the believability of a message when these delivery factors are present: (a) weak eye contact, looking at people infrequently; (b) frequent disfluencies (e.g., "uhs," "uhms"); (c) the use of abnormal hand or arm movements associated with fidgeting; and (d) overuse of hand gestures." - W. T. Coombs, Ongoing Crisis Communication (2007) "I have cleaned up some minor dysfluencies in Clinton's testimony." - Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought [note] (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: prepensely [by extension from prepense, which is usu. seen postpositionally] (as, malice prepense) with premeditation: deliberately, purposely "Whether Jennings changed my wording prepensely or merely in the folk-speech way, I do not know, and the point is of little consequence." - William Ritter, American Journal of Sociology, Jan. 1929 "To the Socialist a house, a knife, a cup, a steam engine, or what not, anything, I repeat, that is made by man and has form, must either be a work of art or destructive to art. The Commercialist, on the other hand, divides `manufactured articles' into those which are prepensely works of art, and are offered for sale in the market as such, and those which have no pretense and could have no pretense to artistic qualities." - William Morris, Monthly Review, Jan. 1997
the worthless word for the day is: fornication [fr. L fornix, an arch or vault] a vaulting or arching: vaulted construction (as of a cloister) so how did we get from here to the more common usage of today? below the streets of Rome were subterranean vaults that served as dwellings for vagrants, criminals and low-class prostitutes, who often conducted business beneath an arch or vault. fornix became synonymous with what we would call a brothel. (cf. vaulting-house) "Fornication is, in fact, a surviving term in architecture." - John Ciardi, A Second Browser's Dictionary (1993) "If an architect uses the term fornication, he or she is probably talking about a curved roof covering..." - Debrah K. Dietsch, Architecture for Dummies (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: pendulate [NL pendulum + -ate] /PEN jul ate/ 1) to swing as a pendulum 2) fig. fluctuate, undulate "But why does the pendulum vibrate, or pendulate, to coin a necessary verb?" - Scientific Monthly, 1922 v. 15 "The American electorate for some decades has pendulated between liberalism and conservatism." - J. L. Collier, The Rise of Selfishness in America (1991)
the worthless word for the day is: glottogony [fr. Gk glossa, tongue + gonikos, of the seed] /glo TOG uh nee/ the study of the (putative) origin of language hence, glottogonic /glot oh GON ik/ relating to the origin of language "The origin of words is a question that now falls within the chapter of "glottogony", resurrected after decades of inactivity." - Werner Winter, On Languages and Language (1995) "Reduplication, in early glottogonic periods of language, cannot have represented anything more than an attempt to make an idea tarry." - M. Bloomfield, American Journal of Philology, v. XVI 1895 (thanx to zmjezhd)
the worthless word for the day is: patulous [L. patulus, from patere to be open] /PACH ul us/ 1) Zool. and Med. expanded; gaping; also fig. <a wound with patulous margins> 2) Bot. spreading out <an old tree with patulous branches> (also, rarely, patulent; not to be confused with petulent) "The weave [of the cleansing cloth] is designed to remove material from patulous pores common on the central face." - Dermatology Times, v. 23, 2002 "Meagan Lawrence, a small young woman with large, patulous eyes and large, sweetly eccentric voice and manner, is excellent as the lost Sally Bowles." - Vincent Canby, New York Times Sep. 20, 1995 "It is said he found the baby under a patulous basil plant in his garden." - Times of India 24 Dec. 2000
the worthless word for the day is: frondescent [fr. L. frondere, to put forth leaves] /fron DES unt/ springing into leaf; leafy; expanding into fronds "In the spring, when all Nature was frondescent, that gaunt, strange man, that fellow of a million whimsies and thrice ten thousand charms, passed away." - The Smart Set, ed. by George J. Nathan (1930) "I have given a curious instance of the influence of light on the colours of a frondescent incrustation, deposited by the surf on the coast-rocks of Ascension, and formed by the solution of triturated sea-shells." - Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1888) ""In parks, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans play dominoes under the frondescent shade of coconut palms.." Hold it. Are we in Broward or Dade County? There may be some Hispanics playing dominoes around here but if they're doing it under the frondescent shade of palm trees, every one of them will die of sunstroke." - Steve Weller, Sun Sentinel, Jun 20, 1989 spring, at last!
the worthless word for the day is: impulregafize [Urquhart's nonce-word, evidently coined to one-up Rebelais, who coined emburelucocquer for the nonce] to strain(?) "Ha, for favour sake, I beseech you, never emberlucock or inpulregafize your spirits with these vain thoughts and idle conceits; for I tell you, it is not impossible with God, and, if he pleased, all women henceforth should bring forth their children at the ear." - Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (ca. 1532) (tr. by Sir Thomas Urquhart, 1653)
the worthless word for the day is: scobberlotcher [related to scopperloit, also of obscure origin] /?/ an idler (also scobolotcher) ""What! not abroad yet, thou bed-worm, thou scobberlotcher!"" - Cecil Day Lewis, Dick Willoughby (1933) "A scobolotcher, said Mr. Moore, was an undergraduate walking around a quadrangle hands in pockets and deep in thought." - Bournemouth Daily Echo 21 Apr. 1956
the worthless word for the day is: equanimous [fr. L. æquanimis, having an even mind] /EE kwa nuh mus/ possessing or displaying equanimity: even-tempered "They are equally equanimous in prescribing the remedy by which this happy effect is to be produced." - The Federalist, Hamilton, Madison, Jay (1788) "French Eric, who has thought long and hard about these things, says that emotional control is the key to winning poker... With about 4,500 chips left, the once-equanimous burly man raised the next pot to 800. The woman beside him, who only played premium cards, promptly reraised, putting him all-in. He called, showing his 75 of spades against her QQ. The board didn't improve his hand and he rolled, cursing, away from the table, having gone from tournament leader to oblivion in the space of six minutes and three hands. French Eric was right." - Sunday Telegraph (London) Nov 18, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: axiopisty [fr. Gk axio-pistos < axios, worthy + pistos, to be trusted] /aks ee AH pih stee/ obs. rare : the quality that makes something believable: trustworthiness "She does not only attribute to their sacred authors the axiopisty, a credibility fully merited, but also the autopisty; that is to say a right to be believed independently of their circumstances or of their personal qualities..." - Louis Gaussen, Theopneusty (1844) "How can you not suspect the axiopisty of someone who has been convicted of a white-collar crime?" - New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur), July 1, 1996 bonus words: autopisty - self-authentication theopneusty - divine inspiration
the worthless word for the day is: urgrund [G. fr. ur- primal + grund, ground] /UR grunt/ a primal cause or ultimate cosmic principle "Bude's argument makes concealment into a kind of primal foundation for the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, its shadowy Urgrund." - Dagmar Reese, Dissent Winter, 2007 "Claire was eliminated in the seventh round after putting a "t" on the end of "urgrund."" - Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: expergefaction [fr. L. expergefacere < expergere, to awake] /ek spurj uh fak shun/ archaic the act of rousing; the condition of being aroused also, expergefactor : someone or something that awakens: an awakener; e.g., an alarm clock "[H]aving rubbed my eyes, distended my limbs, and returned to a full expergefaction, I began to call myself to account..." - The Harleian Miscellany: A Winter Dream (1810) "The newly invented Hydraulic Expergefactor rings a bell at the time when a person wishes to rise." - Mechanic's Magazine, 1823, no. 7
the worthless word for the day is: fefnicute [origin unknown] Lancashire dialect a hypocrite; a parasite, a hanger-on; a sneak "It is fate's promiscuous kiss, especially for the American writer who--ever since the unhappy pea-and-thimble tricks of Benjamin Franklin, that shifty-eyed fefnicute who tried to transmute thrift into worship, greed into sanctity--might suffer the delusion he can legitimately serve both God and Mammon." - Alexander Theroux, Three Wogs (1972)
the worthless word for the day is: comperendinate [fr. L. comperendinare, to defer (a trial)] /kom per EN di nate/ obs. rare to delay, to postpone {Johnson, 1805}; hence, comperendination <I vow not to comperendinate until tomorrow> I've been meaning to announce that this is National Procrastination Week...
the worthless word for the day is: priscianist and speaking of grammarians.. [fr. Priscian, a celebrated Roman grammarian] arch. rare a grammarian; (in extended use) a person who uses grammar cleverly in dissembling (not to be confused with precisian/precisianist) "He had a little beggarly and course latin, so much as a Priscianist may have." - Thomas Coryate, Coryate's Crudities (1611) "It may be said [Stanyhurst] went somewhat further than some of the Priscianists in his devotion to quantity." - George Smith (ed.), Elizabethan critical essays (1904)
the worthless word for the day is: grammaticaster [med. L. < grammatic-us + -aster, expressing incomplete resemblance] /gram MAT i CAS ter/ contemptuous a petty or inferior grammarian yes, today is National Grammar Day "He tells thee true, my noble Neophyte; my little Grammaticaster, he does..." - Ben Jonson, Poetaster (1616) "But Jonson undoubtedly did much to popularize the suffix -aster and [poetaster] itself. Grammaticaster is apparently his." - Joshua H. Neumann, Notes on Ben Jonson's English (1939) "And should Kerry, noting one of Bush's many verbal blunders, accuse him of being no less than a wantwit, the president could quickly respond by calling his assailant an ineffectual grammaticaster." - Bill Ott, The Booklist April 1, 2004
the worthless word for the day is: vapulation [fr. L. vapulare, to be beaten] (also vapulate) obs. a beating or flogging file under corporal punishment (cf bastinado, lapidation, etc.) "The defendant, however, not minding whether the battery he had inflicted on the plaintiff was severe or light, still threatened him with further vapulation." - The Times, Aug. 7, 1824 "Still used by judges to avoid public outcry when they sentence prisoners to "three months jail and ten vapulations."" - Toxic Custardpedia
the worthless word for the day is: metemptosis [fr. Gk meta- + emptosis, falling] /met emp TOE sis/ Astron. obs. the suppression of a (leap) day in the calendar to prevent the date of the new moon being set a day too late, or the suppression of the bissextile day once in 134 years (the opposite to this is the proemptosis, or the addition of a day every 330 years, and another every 2,400 years) "Metemptosis.. a term in chronology, expressing the solar equation, necessary to prevent the new moon from happening a day too late." - Encycl. Britannica, Vol. XI (1797) "[The] modern system is only superior to that of the ancient Mexicans by the metemptosis, or omission of the 29th of February once in every 134 years, in order to equalize the excess of time created by [their] innovation." - T. H. Lambert, Journal of the Am. Geog. Soc. of NY (1883)
the worthless word for the day is: verbificent [as if fr. L. verbificus, making or generating words (see Hobbes)] /ver BIF i cent/ 1) extremely liberal in making new words 2) using high-sounding or fabricated words where common ones would do 3) wordy coined by Jeffry Henning or was it... "[Norman Douglas] knew Lorenzo [D. H. Lawrence] the Verbificent before his marriage; was apparently a sub-editor in the office of the The English Review, to which Lawrence contributed redundant articles that had to be cut down." - Edward Kingsbury, New York Times May 7, 1933 They call me Magnificent, My songs are beneficent And also verbificent - Aggro Me (blog) Feb. 10, 2006
the worthless word for the day is: monomyth [mono- single, one + myth] an archetypal myth; a theme that underlies a number of superficially different myths: the hero's journey evidently coined by Joyce as a throwaway, Campbell borrowed it and ensconced it forever in his seminal marriage of comparative mythology and cosmogony "And then and too the trivials! And their bivouac! And his monomyth! Ah ho! Say no more about it!" - James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939) "The changes rung on the simple scale of the monomyth defy description." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)
the worthless word for the day is: peevology [peeve + -ology] also, peevologist 1) the collecting and public airing of language peeves 2) the study of such peevish behavior this very recent coinage was adapted by language blogger Mr. Verb from Jan Freeman's phrase in the Boston Globe, "Connoisseurs of peeve-ology," (July 8, 2007) which she applied to the second sense given above. Mr. Verb went on to widely apply it primarily in the first sense, as have others... "National Grammar Day. Nominally interesting -- if only people really were interested in grammar -- but in fact it's just a peevology fest. (Stop harassing people about apostrophe[']s already, for heaven's sake.)" - Mike Pope, (blog) 29 January 2008 "The liturgical core of peevology is the ritual lamentation of lost causes." - Mark Liberman, Language Log, Feb. 12, 2008 "Such polysemy is endemic to our linguistic ecology, so it's fitting that the neologism peevology should develop its own polysemous behavior right out of the gate." - Benjamin Zimmer (commenting on the dual senses) Language Log, July 26, 2007 links: Jan Freeman Benjamin Zimmer Mark Liberman
the worthless word for the day is: spaghettified [by extension] hence, spaghettification 1) heavily Italianized; fig. incomprehensible 2) Physics stretched into a long thin shape, or torn apart by the tidal forces of a strong gravity field such as a black hole "Lurking inside the open door is a husky puller-in; and he dashes out and grabs hold of you and will not let go, begging you in spaghettified English to come and examine his unapproachable assortment of bargains." - Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb, Europe Revised (1914) "It is high time to recognize that action, and action alone, will be the agent that transmutes the flowery barrier of unutterability into an arbitrary but sacred iota of purposefulness, which cannot help but penetrate into an otherwise nameless and universally spaghettified lack of meaning, which smears and beclouds the crab-lit hopes of half-beings begging for deliverance from their own private, yet strangely tuberculine maelstroms that begat, and begotten were from, a howling sea of ribosomal plagiarism." - Y. Serm Clacoxia, The Illusions of Alacrity (as from Douglas Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas, 1985) "Soon my body gives way, and I become "spaghettified" (to use a technical term coined by John Wheeler)." - Kip Thorne, The Future of Spacetime (2002) "Those last three minutes will be very uncomfortable; in practice, spaghettification will kill the hapless individual long before the singularity is reached." - P.C.W. Davies, The Last Three Minutes (1994) neologisms are great fun, and even useful when struck for the purpose of of capturing new thoughts in a word; spaghettified was first coined as a humorous nonce-word in 1914, but was then re-coined by the physicist John Wheeler in 1957.
the worthless word for the day is: meracious [L. meracus, fr. merus pure, unmixed] /meh RAY shus/ obs. rare 'Strong; racy.' {Sheridan, 1797} pure, unadulturated; hence, strong, racy "We are glad to see this theme,-superstitious as it is,-made the subject of a poem, by an American; and confidently predict, that the bold meracious style, which dignifies this first attempt, is sure to be followed by some brighter wreath of Poesy." - The Southern Quarterly Review (1842) Matchless, meracious, overwhelming, reprieving, Inscrutable, piquant, microdont, relieving.. - The Fat Knight (1896) bonus word: microdont having relatively small teeth(?) "But the oddest things of all are to be found in the dictionaries. Why they are all kept there no one knows; but what man in his senses would use such words as zythepsary for a brewhouse, and zumologist for a brewer; would talk of a stormy day as procellous and himself as madefied; of his long-legged son as increasing in procerity but sadly inarcid, of having met wilh much procacity from such a one; of a bore as a macrologist; of an aged horse as macrobiolic; of important business as moliminous, and his daughter's necklace as moniliform; of some one's talk as meracious, and lament, his last night's nimiety of wine at that dapatical feast, whence he was taken by ereption?" - Charles Dickens (ed.), All the Year Round (1861) this week: from Dickens' dictionary(s)
the worthless word for the day is: ereption [L. ereptio, fr. eripere, to snatch away] /e REP tion/ obs. 'A taking away.' {Cockeram, 1623} "[T]he recovery of the civil inheritance by hereditatis petitio might be rendered unavailing by ablation or ereption for Indignitas." - Gaius, Elements of Roman Law (tr. by E. Poste, 1875) "Do not confuse with ereptation (creeping forth). Snuggling up to your beloved at the drive-in, you say, "I think I sense an ereption coming on," and suddenly snatch the M&Ms from her lap. If it transpires that she has put the M&Ms somewhere else, you will be compelled to perform an ereptation." - Peter Bowler, The Superior Person's Book of Words (1985) bonus word: ereptation [L. ereptare, to creep forth] obs. 'A creeping forth' {Bailey, 1736}
the worthless word for the day is: dapatical [L. dapaticus, magnificent (of a feast) < dapis, feast] obs. sumptuous in cheer {Bailey} "Let us then turn our thoughts to the dinner table and its scents of saffron and spices of the evening's dapatical banquet." - Sextus Propertius, Propertius in Love (ca. 25BCE) (tr. David R. Slavitt, 2002) Dapatical, fathomless, gorgeous, expanding, Enthymematic, fertile, commanding - The Fat Knight (1896)
the worthless word for the day is: procellous [L. procellosus, stormy < procella, a storm] /pro CEL lous/ rare, now literary tempestuous, stormy {Bailey} "But I recall that in it I likened myself to a sailor navigating shoals and besought the pharos of Giuliana's eyes to bring me safely through, besought her to anoint me with her glance and so hearten me to brave the dangers of that procellous sea." - Rafael Sabatini, The Strolling Saint (1913) "It was a Stygian and procellous night. Peter Mark Roget, a Scottish physician with a French name, was sitting alone in his study indulging in his favorite hobby (avocation, pastime)." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8 Aug. 1992
the worthless word for the day is: zumologist [fr. Gk zume, to ferment + -ologist] "One who is skilled in the fermentation of liquors." - Noah Webster 1828 now, zymologist one skilled in the science of fermentation ""I'm a zymologist, if you don't mind." "What's the difference?" Clousarr looked lofty. "A chemist is a soup-pusher, a stink-operator. A zymologist is a man who helps keep a few billion people alive. I'm a yeast-culture specialist."" - Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel (1962)
the worthless word for the day is: delphically [< Delphic pronouncements; i.e., obscurely prophetic] ambiguously, obscurely "The pressure was direct: it was time for "moves" to be made; "your cheapest commodity available is money," Hunt delphically said." - Stanley Kutler, Wars of Watergate (1990) ""[F]or mine own part, it was Greek to me.".. Yet it is not difficult to find out what Cicero said. In Suetonius's Life of Julius Caesar, in the context of a possible bid for the monarchy on Caesar's part, Cicero delphically quotes a couple of lines from the Phoenissae of Euripides." - A. D. Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: presagition [fr. L. praesagere, to forebode, portend] obs. an omen, a prognostication; (also) foresight, prevision "It shall nott bee labor loste if wee shall reherce a presagition and token..." - Polydore Vergil's English History (1550) "Those indications which physicians receive, and those presagitions which they give for death or recovery in the patient, they receive, and they give, out of the grounds and rules of their art." - John Donne, Sermons: Death's Duel (Feb. 1630) [his last, given a few days before his own death.]
the worthless word for the day is: pythonic [fr. Gk python, spirit of divination] A.1) of or relating to divination; prophetic, oracular 2) of, relating to or like a python; huge, monstrous [Python, monstrous serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi] B) of or relating to the Monty Python comedy group C) of or relating to the Python programming language "The blue glitter of Mr. Kelly's eyes in the uttermost depths of their orbits became fixed, then veiled by the classical pythonic glaze." - Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938) "Graham Chapman died in 1989, leaving the remaining five to eke out a post Pythonic existence." - Sunday Times (London) Feb 26, 2006
the worthless word for the day is: theomancy [fr. Gk theos, god + -mancy, divination] divination by the responses of oracles supposed to be divinely inspired "Exactly what advantage there may be in knowing the result six hours before it is declared it is hard to say, unless one is about to se up as an oracle and practise theomancy oneself." - Punch, 1841 "Every one, I presume, knows the distinction between oracular divination and theomancy. The pythia could only be inspired in the temple of Apollo, and at certain times; while the theomantics, after the performance of certain rites, might be inspired at any time, and in any place." - The Primitive Church Mag., v. viii (1851) bonus word: pythia [fr. Gk pythein, to rot] the priestess of Apollo at Delphi (not to be confused with theomachy)
the worthless word for the day is: vomitacious [vomit + -acious] (see also vomitous) vomit-inducing; nauseating this strikingly graphic word hasn't found its way into dictionaries yet, but can be found in several print sources, such as: "Another piece that the Goodmans salvaged is the circa-1880 "fainting couch," in the master bedroom: "It was upholstered in a vomitacious red-and-gold- velour bordello look. We saved it by re-covering it."" - Providence Journal Nov 26, 1989 "We did some research and discovered the cinquain was invented around the turn of the century by one Adelaide Crapsey, a humongously sensitive Vassar grad who died young of consumption and general weepiness. We have here in front of us several books of cinquains by Miss Crapsey, a hugely tragic figure, and we must say these are the most effete and vomitacious versifications, poems so ickily precious and pretentious they make haiku look like Kipling." - The Washington Post May 26, 1996 "As for Ms Jenkins and Jupiter, I kept hoping through- out that the god, in retaliation, would despatch a thunderbolt to carry her off in a puff of smoke. The great soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf once coined a word that sums up perfectly the sheer awfulness of this bathetic rubbish: vomitacious." - David Mellor, (London) Mail on Sunday May 6, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: symphoric [fr. Gk sumphora, mishap, calamity] /sim FOR ik/ accident prone, clumsy <elderly and increasingly symphoric - D. Grambs> "Who would have endured in this place to have seen two such words as the phthano-paranomic or crime- preventing, and the phthano-symphoric or calamity- preventing, branches of the police?" - Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation (1781) "Just unhook it and come on down. It's very simple I assure you, old fellow. And perfectly safe unless you are symphoric perhaps." - K.K. Stevens, Moonspins and Widdershins (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: wouldingness [fr. woulding (desiring) + -ness] obs. nonce-word desire, inclination "And whatsoever you do, you do, first against one velleity (or wouldingness) or other; and secondly, with some mixture of the contrary." - Henry Hammond, A practical catechism (1645) "VELLEITY, s. A term (Locke) used to signify—The lowest degree of desire. Hammond calls it a wouldingness." - Charles Richardson, A new dictionary of the English language (1839)
the worthless word for the day is: crapulosity [fr. L. crapulosus, crapulous] /crap yu LOS ity/ A) an inclination to drunkenness or gluttony B) by transf. something which is complete rubbish "Of vanities under the sun, Pride seized me at last as concupiscence first, Crapulosity ever." - Robert Browning, Fust & his Friends (1887) "Just a few years ago you couldn't buy condoms legally in Ireland, nor could you get a divorce, though buckets of beer were easily available and unruly crapulosities a national curse." - Paul Theroux, The New York Times Dec. 15, 2005 "What?" said George.. vigorously erasing all that he had just written, scattering erasure crumbs across the pages. "Crap. Crap crap crap. Who wrote this crapulosity?" - Katharine Weber, Triangle (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: writative [write + -ative] /WRITE uh tiv/ inclined to much writing (after talkative) "Increase of years makes men more talkative but less writative." - Alexander Pope, letter to Swift (1736) "[Y]ou know I am a little talkative.. but alas I am not at all writative, at least not in English." - Patrick O'Brian, Treason's Harbour (1994)
the worthless word for the day is: pro tanto [late L., for so much] [adv] to that extent; accordingly [adj] commensurate, resultant "It should not surprise us that the propensity to consume is highest among the unemployed. But it is discouraging to be told that reduced income taxes do not result, pro tanto, in increased consumer spending." - W. F. Buckley, New Republic Jan. 19, 2008 "So far as these emergencies can be met from reserves there is a pro tanto saving in the cost of capital, and a corresponding benefit to the consumer. - Times, 8 May 1934 this week: punditocracy; subtext: semantic change
the worthless word for the day is: forensic [fr. L. forensis] /feh REN sik/ A. pertaining to, connected with, or used in courts of law B. ellipt. use, colloq. a forensic science department or laboratory "On the witness stand I argued that the word "jig" could be used other than as animadversion. The feverish lawyer grabbed a book from his table and slammed it down on the arm of my chair. "Have you ever heard of a dictionary?" he asked scornfully, as if he had put the smoking gun in my lap. I examined the American Heritage College Dictionary and said yes, I was familiar with it. "In fact," I was able to say, opening the book, "I wrote the introduction to this edition." That was the high moment of my forensic life." - W. F. Buckley, National Review May 19, 2006 "When a police officer hisses in my ear in court, 'Are you from forensic?' I no longer protest. I just weakly nod my head." - Guardian 2 Sept. 1983
the worthless word for the day is: sacerdotal [fr. L. sacerdos, one who offers sacrifices] 1) relating to priests or priesthood: priestly 2) relating to undue emphasis on a need for the authority of a priesthood or of priests "That's a sacerdotal thought, And not a soldier's." - G. Byron, Sardanapalus (1821) "She had all the brains of the Partisan Review crew but none of the sacerdotal sureness." - Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic Dec. 31, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: punditocracy [pundit + -ocracy] /pun dih TOK ruh see/ a group of pundits who wield great political influence "This analysis comes from.. the Washington punditocracy, including leading conservative sages whose concern for the health of the Democratic Party is, let us say, problematic." - M. Kinsley, Wall Street Journal Sept. 10, 1987 "Meanwhile, an unprecedented number of Americans are typing and hyping their opinions about the contest: the barricades are down, the punditocracy is dead, the technology has killed it, the people are their own commentators." - Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic Dec. 31, 2007 this week: the punditocracy speaks
the worthless word for the day is: litherness [fr. lither < G. liederlich, lewd + -ness] obs. 1) wickedness 2) laziness, sloth "slouthfulnes, idlenes" - Robert Cawdrey, A Table Alphabeticall "Things lost by much lethernesse must be recovered againe by great diligence." - Sir T. Wilson, Demosthenes (1570) this week: inkhorn terms from Cawdrey's list of Hard Words, credited with being the first English dictionary.
the worthless word for the day is: pinguidity [fr. post-classical L. pinguidus fatty, greasy] /pin GWID ity/ now rare fatty, greasy, or oily matter; fatness, obesity "fatnes, or greasinesse" - Robert Cawdrey, A Table Alphabeticall "She was a plain, sensible girl, and was rather corpulent than otherwise; and as is usual with most of the human race blessed with pinguidity, she was very sweetly tempered." - Southern Literary Messenger (1838) "Jennifer and Clarissa, dripping with pinguidity.., arrive at Aldershot to prepare a nosh-up." - Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Jan. 1999
the worthless word for the day is: preterlapsed [classical L. praeterlapsus] /pre ter LAPST/ now rare past, bygone; ended, over with "passed, or gone past" - Robert Cawdrey, A Table Alphabeticall "We look with a superstitious reverence upon the accounts of præterlapsed ages." - J. Glanvill, The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661) "The following table shows the time preterlapsed between the light and report, as observed at Zevenboompjes." - Annals of Philosophy (1825)
the worthless word for the day is: sophister [fr. OF sophistre, ad. L. sophista] one who makes use of fallacious arguments; a specious reasoner: sophist (also, Hist an upperclassman at Cambridge (or Oxford, or Harvard or Dartmouth, or Trinity College, Dublin)) "cauiller, or craftie disputer" - Robert Cawdrey, A Table Alphabeticall "The pompous high-placed imbecile, mouthing his platitudes, the wordy sophister with his oven full of half-baked thoughts, the ill-bred rhetorician with his tawdry aphorisms, the heartless hate-producing satirist, would have gone down before his sword and spear." [of Cardinal Newman] - Augustine Birrell, Res Judicatae (1892)
the worthless word for the day is: naffin [origin uncertain, but see It. gnaffa, a dreary man] Brit. colloq. one who is almost an idiot "When the word idiot is a little too strong for the occasion, try naffin instead." - Novobatzky & Shea, Insulting English (2001) this week: random insults
the worthless word for the day is: fogram [origin unknown] also fogrum /FOE gruhm/ [n] an antiquated or old-fashioned person: fogy [adj] obs. antiquated, old-fashioned ""Only his reputation. You must be dreadfully behind times if you don't know it yourself." "Well," said Whitehouse, "I suppose I am. An old fogram like me."" - John Griesemer, Signal and Noise (2003) "Burney, perhaps, was a link between the world of ton and the world of fogrum." - Virginia Woolf, Dr Burney's Evening Party (1932) bonus word: ton - [F.] the fashion, vogue or mode
the worthless word for the day is: wordanista [coined by Steven Colbert, after fashionista, etc.; -ista has been given a pejorative twist in English] /word uh NEE sta/ someone who tells others what is or is not a word, based on what they have read in books "Truthiness. Now I'm sure some of the Word Police, the wordanistas over at Webster's, are gonna say, "Hey, that's not a word." Well, anybody who knows me knows that I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, or what did or didn't happen. Who's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was finished in 1914? If I wanna say it happened in 1941, that's my right. I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart." - Steven Colbert, The Colbert Report "Turns out I underestimated those wordanistas." - Steven Colbert, The Colbert Report
the worthless word for the day is: woodpusher [blend of wood + pusher] slang a poor chess player; a patzer (or, if you prefer, Urban Dictionary gives "a term used by rollerbladers to define skateboarders") ""This is a revelation of unsuspected depths," Holmes said, gazing at me quizzically. "Watson a woodpusher!" Somewhat stung, I replied, "Not quite a dub. While I was convalescing there from my wounds, I won the championship of the base hospital at Peshawur."" - Fritz Leiber, The Moriarty Gambit (1962) "So I sent my mind on a tour of my friends, such as they were. The woodpushers I whipped routinely at chess, the card sharps who just as routinely trimmed me at poker." - Laurence Block, Burglars Can't be Choosers (1977)
the worthless word for the day is: xylocephalous [fr. Gk xulo- < xulon, wood + kephale, head] /zy lo suh FAL us/ (also perh. xylocephalic) wooden-headed My dribbling chuckleheads My marmalade morons My zany April-fools My yokel boobies and bubbly-jocks My xylocephalous clods My witless driplets - Paul West, Caliban's Filibuster (1971) "Sir, you are an apogenous, bovaristic.. wlatsome, xylocephalous, yirning zoophyte." - Peter Bowler, cf. an abecedarian insult "Hulga Vanders - a xylocephalic ogress, deep disgruntled furrows carved carved upon her face, great arms folded across her vast bosom..." - Nick Cave, And the Ass Saw the Angel (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: rudery [fr. L. rudis, rough, unwrought] /RUE duh ree/ rudeness; a rude remark, comment, practical joke, etc. "I have, as a rule, been averse to including such obvious rudery in my letters to you, but the sight of your crazy supplement (thank you for it), has quelled my aversion." - Dylan Thomas, Dec. 1933 letter "Some of them walked in pairs, smoking, exchanging good-humored ruderies." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, August 1914 (trans. 1989) this week: from the writings of Dylan Thomas.
the worthless word for the day is: platitudinary [fr. platitude, after e.g. latitudinary] rare characterized by or tending to use platitudes (usually seen in the form platitudinarian) "It is no mean gift being able to turn a piece of news into a nice, platitudinary set of verses, made to please relatives and poet-tasters alike." - Dylan Thomas, Early Prose Writings "Wordsworth was a tea-time bore, the great Frost of literature, the verbose, the humourless, the platitudinary reporter of Nature in her dullest moods. Open him at any page: and there lies the English language not, as George Moore said of Pater, in a glass coffin, but in a large, sultry and unhygienic box. Degutted and desouled." - D. Thomas, Sept. 1933 letter (he was 18)
the worthless word for the day is: prodnose [fr. the name Prodnose, a pedantic and interfering character in the humorous columns of J.B. Morton] [v] rare to pry, to be inquisitive (more commonly found used in Britain as a colloq. noun or adj. used to refer to the British public) "What can I say.. that can interest anyone save, vaguely, myself, and of course my guardian angel, a failed psychoanalyst in this life who is even now prodnosing in the air above me, casebook in claw, a lilttle seedy and down-at-winged-heel, in the guttural consulting-rooms of space?" - Dylan Thomas, Quite Early One Morning (1954) "Shiner was bitter about what he called "prodnosed bureaucrats" who interfere with his artistic freedom as a chef." - Michael Green, The Art of Coarse Drinking (2001)
the worthless word for the day is: dogdayed [f. dog-days, the hottest, sultriest days of summer] poetic nonce-word of or relating to the dog-days There from their hearts the dogdayed pulse Of love and light bursts in their throats. O see the pulse of summer in the ice. - Dylan Thomas, I see the boys of summer (1934) Out of these seathumbed leaves That will fly and fall Like leaves of trees and as soon Crumble and undie Into the dogdayed night. - Dylan Thomas, Prologue (1952)
the worthless word for the day is: vibrissa [L. vibrissae, nostril hairs] /vie BRIS uh/ pl. vibrissae one of the long stiff hairs that project from the snout or brow of most mammals, as the whiskers of a cat (also transf. somewhat speciously) (file under: so that's what that's called) "She simply looks around, makes a pass at the leg of the dining table with her vibrissa, then saunters over to the exact spot on the floor where the sun is streaming through the window and collapses in a heap of drowsy fur. I think she has [AD/HD]. I've a good mind to spike her food with Ritalin." - Smith & Sipress, Your Cat's Just Not That Into You (2005) "Excepting for Darcy and his father, who favoured each other both in swarthiness and in stature, no two shared a duality. That is, of course, if one discounted the predis- position to adiposity, vibrassa, and wattles..." - Linda Berdoll, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: ingravescent [L., to become worse] /in gra VES ent/ Medical growing worse or more severe; also transf. "The Original Dixieland Strutters have to be given credit for braving the elements in seemingly ingravescent circumstances." - John McKay, Richmond Times Oct 5, 1987 "To Americans who worry that their country is going the way of ancient Rome, only faster, two of the most alarming trends are the ingravescent influence of money in politics and the exponential growth of gambling." - Martin Dyckman, St. Petersburg Times Jul 8, 1997
the worthless word for the day is: adoxography [fr. Gk adoxos, inglorious + -graphy, writing] /ad ok SOG ra fee/ fine writing on a trivial or base subject "[T]he country would enter an age of adoxography, when good writing on base or meaningless subjects would emerge from the primal ooze of the politically correct - to be followed.. by an aeonian of philosophical re-examination." - Ralph de Toledano, Insight on the News May 7, 2001 "Montaigne's praise of Sparta belongs unmistakably to the rhetorical tradition repudiated by his Spartan heroes. Within that tradition, he cultivates especially the epideictic genre, and within that genre he shows a predilection for what is known as "adoxography" or paradoxical praise, which has been recognized as a precursor of the literary essay." - Eric MacPhail, Rhetorica (spring 2002) ""Elizabethan schoolboys," Mr. Kadri writes, "were commonly taught adoxography, the art of eruditely praising worthless things.... The first English treatise on the subject appeared in 1593 and contained essays celebrating deformity, ugliness, poverty, blindness, drunkenness, sterility, and stupidity. Its preface claimed that it would be particularly useful to lawyers."" - Walter Olson, Wall Street Journal Sep 8, 2005
the worthless word for the day is: mesopygion [fr. Gk meso-, middle + pyge, the rump + -ion] rare the cleavage of the buttocks (in the middle of the pyg family) "Even if they have the mesopygion of Ganymedes, the eye of Narkissos, the ankle of Hyakinthos, O cow-eyed Io! they steal your time, your rest, your attention. Be gone away!" - Guy Davenport, Eclogues (1981) "And precisely as he was trying not to think that little is as arousing as the [shadow] of a woman's veiled mesopygion, he was jolted by the belligerent epiphany that the day had been narrowing in complicity with his foreknowledge into the corner of the room..." - Rick Harsch, The Sleep of the Aborigines (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: mesonoxian [fr. Gk meso-, middle + L. nox, night] /mezz uh NOCK see un/? obs. rare of or belonging to midnight {Cockeram} "What are your mesonoxian plans?" sounds so much better on Dec. 31 than "Hey, whatcha doin' tonight?" - as from Erin McKean (author of More Weird and Wonderful Words) "What's your favorite jazz song?" "That's easy. Thelonius Monk's 'Round Mesonoxian." - The Booklist March 1, 2007 [perhaps better would have been 'Round Mesonoxia]
the worthless word for the day is: visuriency [fr. L. visere, to behold + -ency] obs. nonce-word the desire of seeing as Morris Bishop states in The Exotics, The love scene is majestic, though verging on the indelicate: "[T]hat each part and portion of the persons of either was obvious to the sight and touch of the persons of both; the visuriency of either, by ushering the tacturiency of both, made the attrectation of both consequent to the inspection of either." - Sir Th. Urquhart, The Jewel (1652) bonus obs. nonce-word: tacturiency - the desire of touching [fr. L. tangere, to touch]
the worthless word for the day is: feriation [fr. L. feriari < feria, holiday] obs. holiday keeping; cessation of work <a welcome midwinter feriation - D. Grambs> "[A]s though there were any feriation in nature..." - Sir Th. Browne, Pseudodoxia (1646) "Simple feriation was enough for the weekend. No binges, no feasts." - Coleman Barks from New Words, White Trash, ed. by Robert Grey (1976)
the worthless word for the day is: entheomania [fr. L, entheos, divinely inspired + -mania] a passion for divine inspiration; religious mania cf. demonomania ""Before the Beginning"!.. its very vastness prevents its doing injury to a mind not already unhinged from some other cause. This fact, coupled with a saving sense of humor, is sufficient to keep any normal person safe from entheomania." - William Wooten, The Planetarian Apocalypse (1956) "[The psychiatrist] is often much more aware of the pathological forms of religious involvement, such as entheomania, scrupulosity, asceticism, fantasy, denial, etc., than the wholesome forms of religious participation." - Eric G. Swedin, Healing Souls (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: titivil [L. Tutivillus, of unknown origin] /tit uh vil/ obs. 1) a name for a demon or devil in the mystery plays, said to collect fragments of words dropped, skipped, or mumbled in the recitation of divine service, and to carry them to hell, to be registered against the offender 2) hence, a term of reprobation: a bad or vile character, scoundrel, knave, villain b. esp. a tattletale "Titivil was evidently in origin a creation of monastic wit." - Paul Harvey, The Oxford Companion to Eng. Lit. (1938) "You may be saved from an eternity of misery by remem- bering the lesson of the word titivil: "a devil said to collect words mumbled, dropped, or omitted in the recitation of divine service, and to carry them to hell." The text's illustrations are by Roz Chast and they are - well - ostrobogulous." - The Baltimore Sun, Apr 6, 2003
the worthless word for the day is: ostrobogulous [attributed to Victor B. Neuburg, British writer] /OS tro BOG ju lus/ chiefly humorous slightly risqué or indecent; bizarre, interesting, or unusual hence, ostrobogulation and ostrobogulatory (see Ostrobogulous Pigs, by A. Graves) "It was sick, dirty, or more precisely, 'ostrobogulous', which according to Victor Neuburg.. meant etymologically full of (Latin, ulus) rich (Greek, ostro) dirt (schoolboy, bog)." - Times Lit. Suppl. 27 July 1973 "'Ostrobogulous' was Vickybird's favourite word. It stood for anything from the bawdy to the slightly off-colour. Any double entendre that might otherwise have escaped his audience was prefaced by, 'if you will pardon the ostrobogulosity'." - Arthur Calder-Marshall, The Magic of My Youth (1951) "A tissue of ostrobogulous lies, he calls them. With the writer laughing behind each page at the reader's gulli- bility, and no one else in this dead, dead town reads, except for Mrs. Pomeroy, and all she reads is Anne Bradstreet!" - Charles Johnson, Oxherding Tale (1982)
the worthless word for the day is: tortiloquy [fr. late or med.L. tortiloquium < tortus, crooked + loqui, to speak] obs. rare crooked talk {Blount, 1656} "[W]e should certainly rescue from the list of defunct words the splendid "tortiloquy", meaning "crooked speech", of which there is currently no shortage." - Guardian Unlimited, Sept. 1 2007
the worthless word for the day is: vampirarchy [vampire + -archy, rule of] exploitative rule comparable to rule by vampires "A sceptical critic has pretended, with a degree of malice prepense against the Vampyrarchy,.. that his Imperial Majesty's surgeons-major and counsellors of war might perchance be deceived in some respects." - New Monthly Magazine (1823) "[P]olitical humorists of the nineteenth century sometimes referred to the ruling classes as the "vampirarchy" rather than the "hierarchy."" - Jay Stevenson, Ph.D.; The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vampires (2002) "Some believe that we are secretly ruled by the Illuminati or a similar vampirarchy." - Stephen Chrisomalis, The Phrontistery note: malice prepense :: malice aforethought
the worthless word for the day is: surdaster [fr. L. surdus, deaf + -aster, not genuine] inkhorn term deaf person; a little deaf Surdaster cum surdastro litigabat (Hard-of-hearing vs Nearly deaf) - Collected Works of Erasmus "I did not see your letter, but those are his L[ord's] several answers, as near as I could conceive and mark them in such a troublesome place with so bad a pair of ears, being somewhat surdaster, and the more through a cold which I have taken." - Robert, Earl of Essex, letter (1596)? --- Tracey Rockett wrote to point out the haplography that was committed yesterday in philologaster.
the worthless word for the day is: philosophaster [post-classical L. philosophaster, person who dabbles in philosophy] /feh LAS eh fast er/ a pretender or dabbler in philosophy cf. poetaster, philogaster, criticaster, grammaticaster "And one must certainly concede to the debunkers that Wordsworth, not when he was communicating it as a poet, but when he was merely talking about it as a philosopher (or philosophaster), said some very silly things." - C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (of loving nature) "Hamlet and Macbeth with the coming to the throne of a Scotch philosophaster with a turn for witchroasting." - James Joyce, Ulysses (ref. to James I)
the worthless word for the day is: gonkulator [blend of gonk + calculator] /GON kyoo lay tur/ 1) a pretentious piece of equipment that actually serves no useful purpose 2) a word used in place of an actual technical term for a mechanical device Klink vs. the Gonculator - Hogan's Heroes episode, 1968 "The [DOD FX13 Gonkulator Ring Modulator] is one twisted effect that can coerce out all kinds of atonal metallic clinks, robotic drones, and sick shortwave sounds out of your unsuspecting guitar." - Guitargeek "I think the settings on your cortical governor are too high; they're overriding normal hypothalamic urges. Maybe I could get in there with some stereotaxic probes and tweak the options on the limbic gonkulator to resist guilt and release more lust." "..It's inoperable. Beyond your expertise." - Richard Dooling, Brain Storm (1998) (thanx to Kelly Egnitz)
the worthless word for the day is: slangwhanger [fr. slangwhang, to assail with abuse] chiefly U.S. a noisy or abusive talker or writer; a ranting partisan "These knights, denominated editors, or slang-whangers, are appointed in every town, village, or district, to carry on both foreign and internal warfare, and may be said to keep up a constant firing 'in words'." - Washington Irving, Salmagundi (1807) "Slangwhanger was used in 1807 by Irving for a bitterly partisan political journalist, but by the time of Pickering's Vocabulary (1816) it had come to mean also a demagogic orator." - H. L. Mencken, The American Language (1948) "He went without saying that the cull disliked anything anyway approaching a plain straightforward standup or knockdown row and, as often as he was called in to umpire any octagonal argument among slangwhangers, the accomplished washout always used to rub shoulders with the last speaker and clasp shakers (the handtouch which is speech without words) and agree to every word as soon as half uttered..." - James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake (1939) "Both politicians [Lincoln & Douglas] used the same slangwhanging style that Rice employed, and both told ribald jokes." - David Carlyon, Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of (2001) today: speaking of vilipensive.. note re yesterday's entry: evidently ‘Rhedycina’ is a latinisation of Rhydychen, the Welsh for Oxford.
the worthless word for the day is: vilipensive [fr. L. vilipendere] /vil ih PEN sive/ abusive "[T]ime was when even Rhedycina's learned bowers resounded to strains not simply laudative of Oporto, but vituperative and vilipensive of Bourdeaux." - Sir Morgan O'Doherty, Blackwell's Magazine, July 1824 "Southey.. tacks vilipensive prefixes and postfixes to several of these." - Fraser's Magazine, 1838 today's conceit: going one-up on A.W.A.D. (hi Anu!) [and an assist to zmjezhd]
the worthless word for the day is: locupletative [fr. L. locupletare, to enrich] /lock you PLEA ta tive/? inkhorn term tending to enrich "The distinctions of which testimony is susceptible, considered with reference to the person whose interest is affected by it, and the manner in which it is affected, have been already brought to view. Veracious or mendacious, those distinctions are alike applicable to it; testimony self-regarding or extra-regarding: in both cases, servitive or disservitive: if disservitive, criminative or simply onerative; if servitive, exculpative, exonerative, or locupletative." - Jeremy Bentham, Rationale of judicial evidence (1827) today's putative connection: "Among other important factors are... mental technique (e.g. associative, extrapolative, intuitive, holographic, or nulutative)..." - David Brin the worthless word for the day is: locupletative [fr. L. locupletare, to enrich] /lock you PLEA ta tive/? inkhorn term tending to enrich "The distinctions of which testimony is susceptible, considered with reference to the person whose interest is affected by it, and the manner in which it is affected, have been already brought to view. Veracious or mendacious, those distinctions are alike applicable to it; testimony self-regarding or extra-regarding: in both cases, servitive or disservitive: if disservitive, criminative or simply onerative; if servitive, exculpative, exonerative, or locupletative." - Jeremy Bentham, Rationale of judicial evidence (1827) today's putative connection: "Among other important factors are... mental technique (e.g. associative, extrapolative, intuitive, holographic, or nulutative)..." - David Brin
the worthless word for the day is: intertwingularity a term coined by Ted Nelson to express the complexity of interrelations in human knowledge "Intertwingularity is not generally acknowledged - people keep pretending they can make things hierarchical, categorizable and sequential when they can't. Everything is deeply intertwingled." - Ted Nelson, Dream Machines (1987) "It is no doubt a reflection of the 'intertwingularity' of knowledge that one has to be concerned with terms other than those one had planned for. Definitions and contextual examples of terms often make use of many other terms." - B. E. Antia, Terminology and Language Planning (2000) this week: signs and portents redux, or six degrees of interconnectedness
the worthless word for the day is: qiviut [Inuit qiviuq, down, underhair] /KEE vee ut/ the soft wool of the undercoat of the musk ox "But to measure qiviut in terms of pounds is like speaking of the proverbial ton of feathers." - Brad Leithuser, The Atlantic Monthly (1993) (Scrabble players were probably expecting this one; an assist goes to katachresis)
the worthless word for the day is: fozy [fr. Dutch voos, spongy + -y] /FO zi/ chiefly Scot. 1) (of a vegetable) spongy and light-textured; overripe 2) (of a person) a: fat and bloated: obese; b: dull-witted and insipid: fatheaded hence, foziness "He maun be a saft sap, wi' a head nae better than a fozy frosted turnip: it wad hae ta'en a hantle o' them to scaur Andrew Fairservice out o' his tale." - Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy (1834) bonus word: hantle - a good deal, many this week: words found in the OSPD
the worthless word for the day is: jauk [obscure origin] /jahk/ Scot. to trifle, to dally, in walking or work {Jamieson} "An' ne'er, tho' out o' sight, to jauk or play." - Robbie Burns, The Cotter's Saturday Night
the worthless word for the day is: puggry [Hindi pagi, turban] /PUG gry/ (also puggree, etc.) 1) a turban worn in India 2) a light scarf wound around a hat or helmet to protect the head from the sun "Scott saw her, the centre of a mob of weeping women, in a calico riding-habit, and a blue-grey felt hat with a gold puggaree." - Rudyard Kipling, William the Conqueror "There are at least fifty -gry words in addition to angry and hungry, and every one of them is either a variant spelling, as in augry for augury.. or ridiculously obscure, as in anhungry, an obsolete synonym for hungry; aggry, a kind of variegated glass bead..; puggry, a Hindu scarf wrapped around the helmet or hat and trailing down the back to keep the hot sun off one's neck; or gry, a medieval unit of measurement equaling one-tenth of a line." - Richard Lederer, A Man of My Words (Richard neglected to mention iggry...)
the worthless word for the day is: fremd [fr. OE fremde] /fremd/ now chiefly Scot. 1) foreign, unfamiliar, strange 2) not belonging to one's own family: unrelated 'Better kind fremd, than fremd kindred.' - as from Walter Scott, Quentin Durward (1823) "Better kind friend than friend kind. Friend is a corruption of fremd, meaning a stranger." - Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) this week: found in the OSPD; i.e., playing Scrabble™
the worthless word for the day is: teritoepiest [origin unknown] /?/ bombastic nonsense word(?) (see also papiromance, meloskelothermick) ""As I think of it now, I like either the classically elegant or the downright peculiar. That's what you would see in my house: a black-and-white stone lithograph of Barnum, so delicate most people think it is a pencil drawing, in between an 18th-century unillustrated playbill of a 'teritoepiest painter' capable of rendering a picture in under two minutes of a subject mentally chosen by a spectator, and an image of a juggler balancing a piano on his head while playing a trumpet."" - New York Times (quoting Ricky Jay) Nov. 15, 2007 the playbill in question (and sole source)? this week: a handful of hypotheticals
the worthless word for the day is: helluation [fr. L. helluari, to gormandize] /?/ obs. rare 'A devouring gluttony' {Blount*} *Thomas Blount, Glossographia; or, a dictionary interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language, now used in our refined English tongue (1656)
the worthless word for the day is: tarassis [fr. Gk tarasso(?), to trouble the mind, confound, agitate, disturb, disquiet] /tuh RASS iss/ male hysteria {Mrs. Byrne}? ""Hysteria" (hustera, womb) is a form of neurosis which, strictly speaking, ought to apply to women only. But males suffer from the malady, too, and the same term is used to designate it. In 1886 Sanoaville de Lachèse proposed that the word "tarassis" (tarasso, to agitate, disturb, trouble) be used to designate hysteria in the male, but in spite of its appropriateness the term has not received general acceptance. It is not always the superior scientific term that succeeds in winning approval." - Oscar Nybakken, Greek and Latin in Scientific Terminology (1959)
the worthless word for the day is: analogivorous [fr. L. -vorus < vorare, to devour] /analo JIV orous/ rare craving analogies or parallels(?) "I am inspired to concede a brief parenthesis to all the analogivorous, who are capable of interpreting the 'Live dangerously,' that victorious hiccough in vacuo, as the national anthem of the true ego exiled in habit." - Samuel Beckett, Proust (essay, 1930)
the worthless word for the day is: banting [after William Banting, 19th century English undertaker and dietitian] a method of dieting for obesity by avoiding sweets and carbohydrates; used humorously by extension also, vb. to bant, bangtingism, etc. "Banting published a sixteen-page pamphlet describing his dietary experience in 1863 - Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public - promptly launching the first popular diet craze, known farther and wider than Banting could have imagined as Bantingism." - Gary Taubes, Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007) "The notion that cutting carbohydrate intake could reduce weight dates back to the mid-19th century when a London undertaker called William Banting cut back on carbs, lost 50lb and wrote about it. But it was new to Atkins and to most of America in the 1960s. He refined the diet he had read about and, encouraged by his own experience, transformed his cardiology practice into a diet clinic that over the years treated, by one estimate, 65,000 clients." - The Sunday Times, 19 February 2006 "The Classics seemed to have undergone a successful course of Banting." - The Times, 12 Aug. 1864 "Bantingism excludes beer, butter, and sugar." - Knowledge, 27 July 1883 (thanx to Elizabeth Herrington) --- speaking of words and diet, check out freerice.com ___ this week: still more contributions by readers
the worthless word for the day is: uropygium [Gk ouropygion, fr. ouro- tail + pyge rump] /YOOR uh PI jee um/ Ornith. the fleshy and bony prominence at the posterior extremity of a bird's body that supports the tail feathers: the rump hence, uropygial "The brilliant train of the Peacock.. not growing from the uropygium (or rump,) but upon the back." - William Bingley, Animal Biography (1813) "uropygial gland: secretory gland just above the base of the tail feathers that provides oil for preening" - David M. Bird[!], The Bird Almanac (2004) hoo-ah! another pyg word. (thanx to shufitz)
the worthless word for the day is: doula [modern Gk, female helper < Gk doule, female slave] /DU luh/ a woman experienced in childbirth who provides advice, information, emotional support, and physical comfort to a mother before, during, and just after childbirth "The best possibility would probably be a doula, who is trained to help new mothers in any way she can. This miracle worker will mind the twins for you, fix meals, do the laundry - whatever you want." - Washington Post June 21, 2000 "She had considered hiring a doula - a birthing coach - to stay with her through delivery. There are studies showing that having a doula can lower the likelihood that a mother will end up with a Cesarean section or an epidural. The more she looked into it, however, the more worried she became about being paired with someone annoying. She thought about delivering with a midwife. But, as a doctor, she felt that she would actually have more control working with another doctor." - The New Yorker Oct. 9, 2006 (thanx to Mark Kramm (krambo))
the worthless word for the day is: guddle [prob. imitative] /GUD ul/ 1) to grope for fish in their lurking places 2) chiefly Scot. : to feel one's way with or as if with the hands: grope "Stripped to the waist and groping about or (as they say) guddling for these fish. " - Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped (1886) "tickling. A peculiar method of catching trout by tickling them lightly with the fingers oil the belly. After a little practice it is easy to grasp the fish behind the gills and lift it out of the water. The process is called guddling in Scotland, and the writer, when a boy, has caught hundreds in this way." - The Shakespeare Cyclopædia, by John Phin (1902) (Lie thou here, for here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling! - Twelfth Night) "This way of capturing trout is well known to country boys in many lands. An eminent American jurist tells me that he has frequently practiced it in this country when he was a boy. It is a most deadly method, and a stream may be so very easily depopulated in this way that tickling or guddling is prohibited by law in some places." - To the Editor of the New Yorks Times, June 3, 1905 (thanx to Barry MacDonald)
the worthless word for the day is: refactory [fr. L. reficere, to remake or restore, cf. refectory] a place for remaking or restoring an object through reanalysis of its structure without changing its behavior <wwftd is an obscure words refactory> "This is Tim Talen's Ragwood Refactory, a haven where folks come to talk about airplanes made of wood and fabric, and where Talen restores the past. There isn't a plane made with rags and wood that Talen doesn't know about." - The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) Nov 20, 2005 (thanx to G. F. Perry)
the worthless word for the day is: terriculament [L. terriculament-um, bugbear] /ter RIK yoo la ment/ obs. a source or object of needless dread; a bugbear <childhood terriculaments> "[M]any times such terriculaments may proceed from natural causes, and all other senses may be deluded." - Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy (1832) "The pains of purgatory are but a vain terriculament, to make men pay dear for Popish masses, merits, satisfactions and pardons." - Wm Fulke, Confutation of the Rhenish Testament (1834) (thanx to Hydra) ___ this week: more contributions from readers
the worthless word for the day is: Antaean [fr. Antaeus, a giant overcome by Hercules, his strength was renewed by contact with the earth] /an TEE en/ 1) of very great size: mammoth 2) possessed of superhuman strength with suggestions of earthiness "The word, Antaean, sprang hundred-voiced around her, and held her by every gripping voice. Perjury, on her soul and in her blood, if now she slipped to buy sweets with money that was not hers." - Charles Williams, Descent Into Hell (1937) "[Seferis] had begun to ripen into the universal poet - by passionately rooting himself into the soil of his people. Wherever there is life to-day in Greek art it is based on this Antaean gesture, this passion which transmits itself from heart to feet, creating strong roots which transform the body into a tree of potent beauty." - Henry Miller, The Colossos of Maroussi (1941) (thanx to Ben M)
the worthless word for the day is: indehiscent [in- + L. dehiscent, opening wide] /in di HIS uhnt/ Botany not splitting open at maturity: indehiscent fruit hence, indehiscence "But this is only the beginning for the black walnut forager... You have to get the husks off. They are magnificently indehiscent. Nature does not lend a hand." - Raymond Sokolov, Fading Feast (1998) (thanx to JNova)
the worthless word for the day is: boxology [box + -ology, science or discipline of] 1) a hierarchical presentation of software-architecture using boxes and arrows 2) pejoratively reduction of a scientific hypothesis to a series of boxes connected by arrows in lieu of a definitive exposition of the hypothesis referencing careful studies "Box-and-arrow diagrams seem inevitable for presentation of software architecture; however, the term "boxology" often mocks their over-use, especially when informal. We introduce in this paper a formal boxology to serve as a semantic domain for graph-based software architecture representation languages: the Nested Boxes and Arrows (NBA) model." - Malton & Holt, Boxology of NBA and TA (2005) "This is not a model in the statistical sense, which might be tested in relation to counts or measurements of various sorts of relevant behaviors or characteristics of individuals and groups. Rather, it's a "boxology" that expresses graphically a number of qualitative hypotheses." - Mark Liberman, Language Log October 22, 2007 (thanx to David Craig)
the worthless word for the day is: thagomizer [coined by Gary Larson] the cluster of spikes at the end of a stegosaurus' tail "Now this end is called the thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmons." - (as by) Gary Larson, The Far Side (1982) "Ken Carpenter, a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, was the first to use the term professionally, quipping, "And now, on to the thagomizer," when describing a specimen with broken tail spikes at a 1993 meeting." - Discover Magazine, 06.20.2007 "Father, I have sinned -- I have drawn dinosaurs and hominids together in the same cartoon." - Gary Larson (thanx to Kelly Egnitz)
the worthless word for the day is: cantrip [origin uncertain, perhaps alt. of caltrop] 1) Scot. a magic spell, a witch's trick 2) chiefly British a deceptive move; a sham Coffins stood round, like open presses, That shaw'd the Dead in their last dresses; And (by some devilish cantraip sleight) Each in its cauld hand held a light. By which heroic Tam was able To note upon the haly table, A murderer's banes, in gibbet-airns... - Robbie Burns, Tam O'Shanter (1790) ""God forgive us all!" thocht Mr. Soulis, "poor Janet's dead." He cam' a step nearer to the corp; an' then his heart fair whammled in his inside. For-by what cantrip it wad ill beseem a man to judge—she was hingin' frae a single nail an' by a single wursted thread for darnin' hose." - Robert Lewis Stevenson, Thrawn Janet (1881) (this passage is quoted by RLS in Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde) Shanil M. of South Africa notes: This is a very common word in fantasy novels. It is defined as a spell associated with words (somatic) as opposed to a spell associated with a hand gesture. Hence, some sorcerers are powerful enough to cast spells without the use of cantrips. "I have some poor little skill - not like yours, Master Doctor, of course - in small spells and cantrips that I'd be glad to use against our enemies if it was agreeable to all concerned." - C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia this week: trick or treat
the worthless word for the day is: samhainophobia [Irish Samhain, 'All Saints' Day' + -phobia] a fear of Halloween(?) the word seems a bit bogus, if you're at all literal-minded - Samhain falling on the first day of November and all, but read on.. "Millions of Americans may suffer some form of samhainophobia, says Donald Dossey, a Los Angeles psychologist who runs the Phobia Institute/Stress Management Centers. Samhainophobia is Dr. Dossey's clinical term for "fear of Halloween," named after Samhain, the god for whom Druid priests founded their end-of-summer festival of the dead more than 2,000 years ago." - Wall Street Journal Oct. 30, 1992 "The word [Halloween] began as All Hallowmas Even, roughly translated as "All Saints' Day Evening." (Nov. 1 is All Saints Day.) Over time and many translations, according to Donald E. Dossey in "Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun," the phrase was shortened to All Hallows' Even then All Hallowse'en, followed by All Hallowe'en and finally, Halloween. Halloween customs began as a means to frighten away spirits. Years ago some priestly Druids celebrated their year's end (Oct. 31) and the harvest. (The fear of Festival of the Dead is samhainophobia -- from the Gaelic "Samhain," meaning "summer's end."" - Austin American Statesman Oct 24, 1998 "If you have samhainophobia, you might want to avoid our last show of the year! We're bringing you an assortment of all-Austin Halloween-y short films.. themed around DISGUISES AND FEAR." - Austin American Statesman (online) Oct. 11, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: outcumlins [G. Ankömmling, a stranger] Strangers [Coming from without; not dwelling in the neighborhood.] - Wm Holloway, A general Dictionary of Provincialisms, 1838 "People don't think of those things but you've got [outcumlins] coming up to your house in costumes and dogs could get a little excited about that." - Hubbard Township Police Chief Todd Coonce [adapted] "The powers and history of Gramarye have always been misunderstood and feared by outcumlins, but we have always persevered." - http://blackwoodabbey.com/gramarye/
the worthless word for the day is: ogerhunch [origin unknown] /OH ger huns/ Any frightful or loathsome creature, especially a bat. - Thomas Edmondston, A Glossary of the Shetland and Orkney Dialect, 1866 "[M]y work is fair game, says I. It is curious to me that every now and then, someone who knows me not.. will raise the head of an ogerhunch and gibber that I try to interfere with "fair comment."" - Harlan Ellison, Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion, August 30, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: ostentiferous [fr. L ostentifer, portentous] obs. rare bringing omens or unnatural or supernatural manifestations "Ostentiferous, that which brings monsters or strange sights." - Thomas Blount, Glossographia (1661) A Federalist newspaperman is so furious at the Republican party that he runs out of words and must make up a few: "The Republican party is the source from which all sedition flows. And until that crodiloferous and ostentiferous institution is discancatenated, and the individuals who compose it experience decalation, their querulous bominations and demolitions will never cease to obnubalate the prospects of their superiors." - Peter Fenner, outake from Alexander Hamilton on American Experience
the worthless word for the day is: novercant [fr. L. novercalis, of or like a stepmother, hostile] obs. rare having characteristics attributed to a stepmother; hostile more commonly but now rare novercal /no VUR kul/ stepmotherly; freq. in extended use: cruel, malicious, hostile "It was only her third date with their father, and already Ingrid was addressing the twins in severe, novercant tones, admonishing them not to wipe their mouths on their sleeves and the like." - Novobatzky & Ammon, Depraved and Insulting English (2001) "The Soil is so pregnant and fertile, that nature hath stor'd it in no niggardly nor novercal benevolence." - Edmund Hickeringill, Jamaica View'd (1661) "This Greek world is certainly an eastward-facing one, Sicily and Magna Graecia receiving decidedly novercal treatment." - Classical Review 1982, v. 32 this week: words that can't be found via OneLook (yet)
the worthless word for the day is: necessarium [post-classical L. necessarium, privy] /NES eh SAR ium/ Historical a privy, esp. in a monastery; humorous a toilet, lavatory "A passage at the other end leads to the 'necessarium'.. a portion of the monastic buildings always planned with extreme care." - Encycl. Britannica 1875 "I had to look it up too, once I'd feigned a visit to the necessarium." - Scotland on Sunday 25 May 1997 (see macroverbumsciolist)
the worthless word for the day is: nihilarian [fr. L. nihil, nothing + -arian, producer] // obs. rare a person who deals with things of no importance; someone with a meaningless job "This emphasis on the importance of practical mathematics is expressed in the Commentaries where, having styled the mathematicians as "Nihilarians," Berkeley complains, "If the wit and industry of the Nihilarians were employ'd about the useful and practical mathematiques, what advantage had it brought to Mankind?"" - Douglas Jesseph, Berkeley's Philosophy of Mathematics (1993)
the worthless word for the day is: gutterblood Scot. 1) a low-bred person; one of the rabble 2) someone brought up in one's immediate neighborhood, and who is on equal footing as to their station "A dozen young gutter-bloods, street-boys, would have been round him in a moment." - Edmund Yates, The Rock Ahead (1868) "Yesterday, nae farther gane, just as we were mounted, and about to ride forth, in rushes a thorough Edinburgh gutterblood - a ragged rascal, every dud upon whose back was bidding good-day to the other, with a coat and hat that would have served a pease-boggle..." - Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel (1822) a pease-boggle, I gather, is very much like a scarecrow
the worthless word for the day is: lapidable [fr. L. lapidare, to stone < lapis, stone] obs. rare worthy of being stoned "Lapidable, marriageable, fit for a husband." - Phillips, The new world of English words (1706) [OED2 notes that this strange mistake is copied in some later dictionaries] "Now, to help get through some of these [awful] tomes, I've found it helps to be gambrinous. Even so, many of the books remain jumentous, and their authors lapidable." - James MacGowan, The Ottawa Citizen Feb 13, 2000
the worthless word for the day is: arudshield [?] "the velvet-covered razor," an elegant, logical, theoretical technique for cutting through cant to truth, celebrating the simplest explanation among a panoply of complexities or obfuscations, and resembling Ockham's razor - Madeleine Cosman's Medieval Wordbook (1996) another word from the hogwash files: "[These three].. votes probably came from those attempting to apply the arudshield." - the hogmaster
the worthless word for the day is: ology [abstracted from words with this ending] /ALL eh jee/ an informal term for an unidentified branch of learning "Ologies of all kinds, from morning to night. If there is any Ology left, of any description, that has not been worn to rags in this house.. I hope I shall never hear its name." - Charles Dickens, Hard Times For These Times (1854) "One's doing a thesis on geology now, and the other's writing a book on meteorology. Ology is about the only thing they have in common." - Anthony Price, War Game (1976)
the worthless word for the day is: adiaphanous [ f. a- + med.L. diaphanus < Gk diaphanes] /ae di AHF enes/ not translucent, opaque (not diaphanous) "Upon the Gurmundizing Quagmires and most Adiaphanous Bogs, of the Author's obnubilated Roundelayes." (penned by 'T.C.', 1658) - The Origins of English Nonsense, collected by Noel Malcolm (1999) "Sometime in the warm, adiaphanous space of their night, curled around each other, Grace moved her arm across Max's pocketknife." - Jacqueline Hand, Hidden in Xanadu (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: exsufflate [L. exsufflare to blow at or upon] /ex SUF flate/ obs. exc. Historical to blow away; to exorcise or renounce by blowing hence, exsufflation, blowing out; forced breathing also, rare exsufflicate, puffed up(?) cf. insufflate "The old Mumbo Jumbo of 'unchristianizing the Legislature' must not be consigned to the eternal limbo.. without a parting exsufflation." - Saturday Review, 31 July 1858 When I shall turn the business of my soul To such exsufflicate and blown surmises. - Wm. Shakespeare, Othello
the worthless word for the day is: nulutative [?] /?/ neologism, nonsense word Some time ago I received the following query from a concerned reader: I found the word [nulutative] in David Brin's "The Uplift War". Among other important factors are [...] mental technique (e.g. associative, extrapolative, intuitive, holographic, or nulutative)... I can find no other use or definition of the word, and since it appears here in a list, there is no context from which to infer a precise meaning. If it is a neologism, it is the only one in the book, if you don't count presumable misspellings. Given Brin's prodigious use of pointedly obscure words, it's reasonable to think that he may have unearthed this one rather than invented it. --- Eventually, I wrote to Mr Brin via his web site, and received this in return.. response from the David Brin web site: In this case the word does NOT come from "Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual Words." Rather, it is made-up for a very good storytelling reason. Sometimes, the reader is supposed to FEEL that there have been new concepts developed in the future. Inserting a neologism is better than saying "they didn't know about this in 2007."
the worthless word for the day is: dysthymic [fr. dysthymia < Gk dysthymos, despondent] /dis THY mik/ affected with despondency or depression of spirits "Did he venture a guess about what's wrong with her?" .. "Dysthymic Disorder. That's his guess." "Sounds impressive. What does it mean?" "Sad, down in the dumps for more days than not." - Paul McCusker, The Mill House (2004) "Lately he'd grown accustomed to spending his days in a dysthymic funk, but the following morning he was so nonplussed by his conversations.. that he failed to notice that the usual cause of said funk wasn't around." - Jesse Kellerman, Trouble (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: kyacting [?] /KYE ac ting/ UK slang, rare clowning at work "Here, knock off that kyacting, will you?" an irate PO will say, if he sees a youngster playing the fool instead of attending to his work." - G. Goodenough, The Handy Man Afloat & Ashore (1901) Eric Partridge opines, "This may be a confusion of chy-ack or chi-hike," slang for jeering or banter. (not to be confused with kayaking)
the worthless word for the day is: trendoid [blend of trend + android] /TREN doid/ usu. disparaging [n] a trendy person [adj] trendy "You are well within your homeowners' rights to evict any trendoid who sullies the beer with lime." - Bon Appetit, Sept. 1989 "Food isn't supposed to be some sort of trendoid object, it's supposed to feed your body and soul and the things that matter." - Chicago Tribune Jan. 11, 1990 "Being unaware of the existence of any other people at all, none of this rather large and very loud mob of trendoids had noticed the creature from another species who joined their revels. Dortmunder was in perfect concealment with this crowd." - Donald Westlake, What's So Funny (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: concinnous [L. concinnus neatly arranged, elegant] /kuhn SIN uhs/ characterized by concinnity: neat, elegant; harmonious "[Y]our final alloquy, and concinnous deport laid me under a reasonable obstriction to impart to you a pantography of the occidental domain upon which I had placed my opthalmic organs." - Lorenzo Altisonant, Letters to 'Squire Pedant (1850) "The incandescent grin that once had illuminated those concinnous quarters disappeared with the decade, however." - Gerald Clarke, Capote: A Biography (2005) (of Cole Porter's quarters) bonus word: pantography in this sense, a general description of an object; an overview
the worthless word for the day is: borborology [fr. Gk borboros, filth + -logia, discoursing] rare filthy talk "Shunne obscene borborology, and filthy speeches." - John Trapp, Commentary on the Epistles (1649) not to be confused with borborygmic, maybe
the worthless word for the day is: advertently [advertent + -ly ad. L. advertere, to turn to] rare heedfully "It does not pay to assume that a word must have an opposite, or one opposite, whether it is a 'positive' word like 'wilfully' or a 'negative' word like 'inadvertently'. Rather, we should be asking ourselves such questions as why there is no use for the adverb 'advertently'.., if used for this purpose, would suggest that, if the act was not done inadvertently, then it must have been done noticing what I was doing, which is far from necessarily the case (e.g. if I did it absent- mindedly), or at least that there is something in common to the ways of doing all acts not done inadvertently, which is not the case. Again, there is no use for 'advertently' at the same level as 'inadvertently': in passing the butter I do not knock over the cream-jug, though I do (inadvertently) knock over the teacup -- yet I do not by-pass the cream-jug advertently." - John Austin, A Plea for Excuses (1956) "..teens inadvertently starting the Third World War, aliens inadvertently starting the Third World War, and adults advertently starting the Third World War." - Richard Powers, Operation Wandering Soul (1994)
worthless word for the day is: deparadisation [de- + paradise + -ation] nonce-word expulsion from the Garden "Commonly there are far more enemies in the spirit world than there are protectors, although there are supposed to be uncountable armies of angels and the like. Maybe they've all been on R&R since the deparadisation of Shaitan, I don't know." - George Alec Effinger, When Gravity Fails (1986)
the worthless word for the day is: unpregnant obs. in this sense not prolific; slow of wit, inept Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak*, Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing; no, not for a king, Upon whose property and most dear life A damn'd defeat was made. - Wm. Shakespeare, Hamlet *mope (now obs.)
the worthless word for the day is: vinolency [L. vinolentia] obs. drunkenness "This disease [apoplexy] being so frequent an attendant, or a consequence of vinolency holds up a most awful warning to the inebriate." - Thomas Trotter, An Essay.. on Drunkenness (1813) "[Ye] wassailers elide your costrels and degneate[sic] yourselves of your vinolency..." - Lorenzo Altisonant, Letters to 'Squire Pedant (1850) costrel - an earthenware or leather bottle denegate - to deny
the worthless word for the day is: regargletate nonce-word (after regurgitate) to spew forth the same old arguments(?) "[Y]ou are not going to regargletate that tired hash. Please spare me the trouble of having to correct you in public." - Jesse Kellerman, Trouble (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: rumble-bumble [rumble + bumble] cf. rumble-jumble a miscellaneous mass or mixture: jumble, hodgepodge "And under all the rumble-bumble of bad ideas lay the imbecile assumption of the jitney messiah at all times and everywhere: that human beings may be made over by changing the rules under which they live, that progress is a matter of intent and foresight, that an act of Parliament can cure the blunders and check the practical joking of God." - H. L. Mencken, writing of H. G. Wells Prejudices (1919) "He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash." - H. L. Mencken, of Pres. Warren G. Harding's bloviations The Baltimore Evening Sun (1921)
the worthless word for the day is: maculate [fr. L. maculatus] archaic or literary 1) marked with spots: blotched 2) besmirched, defiled, impure Arm. My love is most immaculate white and red. Moth Most maculate thoughts, master, are masked under such colours. - Wm. Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (1590) "The best banana is the maculate kind, the banana whose succulent flesh is ripening to the point where its fibres are breaking down." - Independent, 16 Nov 1991 (thanx to Krambo)
the worthless word for the day is: lentiginous [L. lentiginosus, freckled] /len TIJ uh nuhs/ covered with freckles: freckled "But this man, this artist with the broad lentiginous hands, he let the world sift through his fingers as though it were all wreckage and it was his job to reclaim and recreate." - Melissa Pritchard, Spirit Seizures (1987) (not to be confused with litigious: Litigious hands did her of right deprive, That after all 'twas penance to survive. - Katherine Philips (1656))
the worthless word for the day is: lexiphanicism [fr. Gk lexiphanes, phrase-monger (title of dialogue by Lucian)] /lex i FAN i sizm/ archaic the use of pretentious phraseology "Come, Doctor, let us have no more of your medical terms and solemnity... 'Tis no better than downright Lexiphanicism." - Archibald Cambell, Lexiphanes; a dialogue.. (1767) "[W]hen it comes to -isms there isn't a single, satisfactory, all-encompassing, universally agreed definition, or even agreement on the fact that there isn't a single, satisfactory, all-encompassing, universally agreed definition of the -ism in question. Whether it be realism, relativism, conservatism, liberalism, idealism, empiricism, communism, capitalism, fascism, feminism, gnosticism, aestheticism, asceticism, athleticism, mysticism, mesmerism, masochism, modernism, marxism, malapropism, or any other '-ism' that those mad for macaronicism, liable to lexiphanicism or smitten by sesquipedalianism are inclined to conjugate, the only thing that everyone knows for certain is that there is no certainty about the thing everyone 'knows'. The ism isn't." - Stephen Brown et al, Romancing the Market (1998) (bonus word: macaronicism - macaronic style) "Judges, by nature and by training, rarely tend to be free spirits, and I have encountered from time to time an undercurrent of anti-lexiphanicism." - Judge Bruce M. Selya, wordsmith.org (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: altisonant [fr. L. altus, high + sonare, to sound] /al TIS oh nant/ archaic lofty or pompous: high-sounding; loud ""This, you see, is a story in words of five syllables. I wrote it to show the absurdity of big words so striven after by young writers, and, for the matter of that, by many old ones as well." Taking another book, he selected a passage and had me read it aloud, saying, at the conclusion, "How clear and simple that is! Now try Altisonant again." I tried, but gave it up." - Lew Wallace, quoting Professor Samuel K. Hoshour (the man behind Lorenzo Altisonant), his private teacher for a period, in: Lew Wallace: An Autobiography (1906) "There was one.. clerk of Eastham, who was guilty of several enormities; amongst others, "for that he singeth the psalms in the church with such a jesticulous tone and altisonant voice, viz: squeaking like a gelded pig, which doth not only interrupt the other voices, but is altogether dissonant and disagreeing unto any musical harmony, and he hath been requested by the minister to leave it, but he doth obstinately persist and continue therein." - Peter H. Ditchfield, The Parish Clerk (1907) bonus word: jesticulous - ridiculous(?) (nonce-word) --- this week: deciphering the Lorenzo Altisonant quote "Divest yourselves of your imbonity, incogitancy, and malversation; bonity is impetrable; perpend your longinquity from eupathy and the inenarrable sequences of your impreparation for the apropinquating catastrophe." - Lorenzo Altisonant (Samuel Keinfelter Hoshour), Letters to 'Squire Pedant (1850) the words purport to be those of a visiting preacher to a camp meeting, which might be re-rendered in English along these lines: Quit your unkindness, thoughtlessness, and corruption; kind acts are called for; ponder your distance from good feelings and the indescribable results of your lack of preparation for the approaching doom.
the worthless word for the day is: longinquity [L. longinquitas, fr. longinquus, distant] /lan JIN kwed ee/ archaic remoteness in space or time "But Don Quixote told him not to worry about leaving the animals unattended, because he who was to care for them on a voyage of such longinquity would see to their animal's sustenance. "I don't know what you mean by longdrinkity," said Sancho, and I've never heard such a word in all the days of my life." "Longinquity," Don Quixote replied, "refers to a very great distance, and it is no surprise that you do not understand it, because you are not obliged to know Latin, like some who pride themselves on knowing it and don't."" - Cervantes, Don Quixote (tr. by J. Rutherford) (2003) [NB: in an earlier translation, Walter Starkie stuck with the Anglicized Latin longinquous and Poncho heard logicuous -- but on the whole, I prefer Starkie's 1964 translation.)
the worthless word for the day is: eupathy [Gk eupatheia comfort; innocent emotions] /EU pa thy/ Stoic Philos. good affections; right feeling "The Stoics who called our good affections eupathies, did not manage those affections as well as they understood them." - Robert Southey, The Doctor (1834-43)
the worthless word for the day is: incogitancy [fr. L. incogitantia] /in COG i tan cy/ obs. lack of thought or of the power of thinking: thoughtlessness "It leads me to seek for happiness.. in every breath that blows around me, in an entire freedom of rest or motion, of thought or incogitancy, owing account to myself alone of my hours and actions." - Th. Jefferson, letter to James Madison (June7, 1793)
the worthless word for the day is: cullibility [fr. cully, to make a fool of + -bility] archaic gullibility "Providence never designed him to be above two and twenty, by his thoughtlessness and cullibility." - Jonathan Swift, letter to Alexander Pope (1728) "--it is a beautiful sound, that call to prayer, alliterative and moving even to a blaspheming dog of an unbeliever like myself. I hurried through the empty streets; hustlers stopped their hustling for prayer, marks overcame their cullibility for prayer." - George Alec Effinger, When Gravity Fails (1986)
the worthless word for the day is: imbonity [fr. L. imbonitas < im- + bonitas, goodness] /im BON i tee/ obs. rare the absence of good qualities, want of goodness "Divest yourselves of your imbonity, incogitancy, and malversation; bonity is impetrable; perpend your longinquity from eupathy and the inenarrable sequences of your impreparation for the apropinquating catastrophe." - Lorenzo Altisonant (Samuel Keinfelter Hoshour), Letters to 'Squire Pedant (1850)
the worthless word for the day is: ferroequinologist [ferroequino- "iron horse" (from ferro- + equino-, fr. L. equinus equine) + -logy + -ist] /FEH rO eek weh NAHL eh jest/ one whose hobby is railroads or model railroads: a railroad enthusiast, railfan "The Ferroequinologist-A Journal for Students of the Iron Horse" - Published by Central Coast Railway Club, Inc., San Jose, California
the worthless word for the day is: ramfeezled [origin unknown] /ram FEEZ uld/ Scot. exhausted, worn out My awkward muse sair pleads and begs I would na write. The tapetless ramfeezl'd hizzie, She's saft at best, and something lazy. - Robert Burns (1785) "Poor Burns loses much of his deserved praise in this country through our ignorance of his language. I despair of meeting with any Englishman who will take the pains I have taken to understand him. His candle is bright, but shut up in a dark lantern. I lent him to a very sensible neighbour of mine; but his uncouth dialect spoiled all; and, before he read him through, he was quite ramfeezled." - William Cowper (1787) bonus word: tapetless - senseless
the worthless word for the day is: toey [toe + -y] /TOE ee/ Austral. informal nervous, anxious; frisky(?) "The horse seemed to him a bit on the toey side. He looked down to see if saliva was dripping. " - Charles Drummond, The Odds On Death (1969) "I don't know, his girlfriend came into town last night, and maybe he was feeling "toey,"" said Allenby, using Australian slang for "frisky." - Bob Harig, ESPN.com September 8, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: cornobble [fr. cor-, with(?) + nobble, to strike, hit, beat up] /kor NOB bul/ to beat on the head {Phelps} cornobbled : hit with a fist {Mrs. Byrne} NB: hit with a fish is a bit of a stretch, but fun You'd better walk a circle around him, if you don't want to visit Fist City... - Stuart Friebert
the worthless word for the day is: whamboozled [wham + bamboozled] (coined by Norman Chad) hoodwinked and eliminated "[W]hen a poker player stands to be eliminated from a tournament, Chad often states that said player needs a certain card or he/she is "whamboozled."" - wikipedia "Helmuth needs a King and King only or he is WHAMBOOZLED" - Norman Chad, ESPN/World Series of Poker
the worthless word for the day is: casuistry [fr. F. casuiste < Sp. casuista] /KAZH oo i strE/ 1) specious or excessively subtle reasoning intended to rationalize or mislead 2) a resolving of specific cases of conduct through interpretation of ethical principles or religious doctrine casuist: someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious "The science of casuistry.. has been termed, not inaptly, the 'art of quibbling with God'..." - The Penny Cyclopaedia VI (1836) "This is casuistry. The United States invaded Iraq and.. has some responsibility for the security situation in that country. Comparing American responsibilities in Iraq to those in the Congo is deceptive." - Atlantic Online Sep 1, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: introvenient [fr. L. introvenire, to come in] obs. rare coming in "..there being scarce any condition (but which depends upon clime) which is not exhausted or obscured from the commixture of introvenient nations either by commerce or conquest." - Sir Th. Browne, Pseudodoxia epidemica (1646) not(?) to be confused with intervenient [fr. L. intervenire, to intervene] 1) coming in incidentally or extraneously 2) intervening 3) intermediary "For if the intervenient appetites make any action voluntary, then by the same reason all intervenient aversions should make the same action involuntary; and so one and the same action should be both voluntary and involuntary." - Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
the worthless word for the day is: fecklessness [fr. Sc. feck, effect + -less + -ness] worthlessness due to being weak and ineffectual of his latest tome, Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon wrote: "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places;" in the press release he added a caution: "No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred." heh.
the worthless word for the day is: cispontine [fr. cis- near side + L. pons bridge] /si|spon TINE/ situated on this or the nearer side of the bridge (in London, north of the Thames) compare transpontine (also cismontane (this or the near side of the moun- tains) and cismarine (this or near side of the ocean)) "The transpontine and cispontine dramas were nearly all built that way sixty years ago -- the avenging spirit was always "on top."" - Louis C. Elson, University Musical Encyc. (1912) "And Trainspotting took place entirely north of the Thames so it was cispontine [not transpontine]." - Faldage, Wordsmith Talk, Aug. 30 2007
the worthless word for the day is: sputative [fr. L. sputare] /SPYOO ta tive/ obs. rare given to (excessive) spitting <an ugly and sputative lizard - D. Grambs> "..and to see whether among all kind of affected persons confluent thither I could pick out any counsel to allay that sputative symptom, which yet remaineth upon me from my obstructions of the spleen." - Sir Henry Wotton, letter to Dr Castle (1638) "Doyler laughed, expectorated... You're all right, Doyler, MacMurrough thought. You'll do fine, my sputative disputative boy." - Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys (2001)
the worthless word for the day is: confabulatory [fr. L. confabulari, to chat together] /kun FAB yu luh tory/ marked by familiar talk; colloquial "This led to a confabulatory discourse between the men." - Blackwood Magazine (1829) "But a lot of them's looking at us like it one of them confabulatory tales of them UFOs, like it one them confabulatory UFO tales that Nicholas telling. Like he telling them how he got hisself abducted in one of them confabulatory UFOs. And how one of them little confabulatory aliens that abducted him had them special and purely wonderful and powerful healing powers." - Gayl Jones, The Healing (1999)
the worthless word for the day is: jamfle [Sc. jamphle < jamph, travel with difficulty] to shuffle in walking, as if in consequence of wearing too wide shoes {Jamieson} "And in the morning I jamfled over to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and their archives..." - Glen Berger, Underneath the Lintel (2001) (thanx to John Huston)
the worthless word for the day is: introuvable [F., incapable of being found] /a[n] tru va bl[eh]/ [adj] immpossible to find; spec. of books. also as noun <pamphlets, all now almost introuvable - Times Lit. Suppl.> "Privately printed, 1894, Sir George's book - a most interesting volume, based on public and private papers - unluckily is introuvable." - Andrew Lang, The Valet's Tragedy (1903) "A potential introuvable to future collectors." - Times Lit. Suppl., 15 Feb 1963 (thanx to Hydra)
the worthless word for the day is: suffisance [ad. late L. sufficientia] // 1) obs. sufficiency; plenty; abundance; contentment 2) after F. suffisance excess of self-confidence, conceit "Welcome my knight, my peace, my suffisance!" - G. Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (1374) "Perhaps it's suffisance on my part, but still it's better to say it." - Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1865) (2002 Constance Garnett tr.) --- are y'all sufficiently sophonsified?
the worthless word for the day is: cumulose [fr. L. cumulus, a heap] // 1) obs. full of heaps {in Bailey} 2) of a soil deposit consisting chiefly of accumulated organic matter cf. cumulus (heap-like) clouds "Cumulose materials may be grouped under two heads, peat and muck." - Harry Buckman et al, The Nature and Properties of Soils (1969) --- this week: an abundance of surfeit
the worthless word for the day is: aggerose [fr. L. aggerosus(?)] /ad jer OSE/ obs. full of heaps; formed in heaps {in Bailey} <a quantity of aggerose foreign coins - David Grambs> also, aggeration - a heaping up; an accumulation <aggerations of sand> "I think the stones are more likely to have been raised by mechanical means than by the rude process of aggeration." - R. Southey, letter [in ref. to Stonehenge] (1832)
the worthless word for the day is: murth [origin uncertain] /murth/ (obs?) N. Eng. dial. a great quantity, an abundance <a murth of cold> also: morth, mort "I think we should have had a murth of it this year, but the summer has been a little too cold, and Indian corn must have a hot sun. " - W. Brooke, Eastford (1855)
the worthless word for the day is: uberty [L. ubertas] // now rare fruitfulness, fertility; copiousness, abundance "I think logicians should have two principal aims: 1st, to bring out the amount and kind of security (approach to certainty) of each kind of reasoning, and 2nd, to bring out the possible and esperable uberty, or value in productiveness, of each kind." - Charles S. Peirce, Letter to F. A. Woods (1913) "A key question addressed.. is whether any juxtapositions of the American polymath with the great English detective are likely to vent esperable uberty? Esperable uberty?" - Thomas A. Sebeok, I Think I Am a Verb (1986) [Words spoken by a contestant at the Indepen- dence Day Nathan's Hot Dog-eating contest] "Give Me Uberty or Give me Death." - Dr. Bill Long drbilllong.com (© 2004-2007) "If an archaic, obsolete, or rare word (such as "Uberty" or "Esperable") is chosen as a mark, it is often deemed fanciful as well." - Stephen M. McJohn, Intellectual Property (2006) bonus word: esperable [Sp.] expected, hoped for (?)
the worthless word for the day is: consilience [fr. L. consilere < con- + silere, to leap] /kun SIL iens/ jumping together, bridging the gaps to join together "The consilience of inductions takes place when one class of facts coincides with an induction obtained from another different class." - William Whewell, The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840) "The trend cannot be reversed by force-feeding students with some of this and some of that across the branches of learning; true reform will aim at the consilience of science with the social sciences and the humanities in scholarship and teaching." - Edward O. Wilson, Consilience (1998)
the worthless word for the day is: obscurantist [fr. L. obscurare, to obscure] a person who opposes reform and enlightenment "Nor is it certain from Derrida's ornately obscurantist prose that he himself knows what he means." - Edward O. Wilson, Consilience (1998) "Unfortunately, there is huge resistance to such modernization from the authoritarian and religiously obscurantist forces within the Arab-Muslim world." - Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: irrisory [L. irrisorius < irridere, to laugh at] /ih RIZ eh ree/ rare mocking, derisive "Finding that, in despite of his displeasure, the young men continued in their irrisory mood, Van Ni admonished them a second time, and with greater seriousness." - Walter S. Landor, Imaginary Conversations (1846) "It is unusual for an irrisory epigram to impart so much information with such little clarity..." - N. M. Kay, Epigrams from the Anthologia Latina (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: subreption [fr L. subripere, surripere to take away secretly] /sub REP shun/ a deliberate misrepresentation, or an inference drawn from it; so, subreptitious & subreptitiously "Subreption is a vice in a rescript* arising from fraud." - Ethelred Luke Taunton, The Law of the Church (1906) "'Do you know what subreption is?' said Donelly. 'No.' 'To obtain something by misrepresentation. That is what our civilization does -- it holds carrots in the air to make donkeys work." - John Lahr, Prick Up Your Ears (1987) *in this sense, rescript is a written answer of a pope to an inquiry or petition as to Church law
the worthless word for the day is: apodysophilia [fr Gk apodyein, to strip off + -philia] exhibitionism; hence, apodysophiliac "Exhibitionism (also known as Lady Godiva syndrome and Apodysophilia) is the psychological need and pattern of behavior to exhibit naked parts of the body to other people." - Wikipedia "These people are way more fixated with sexual transgression than me and my porn star friends put together, and in a wholly apodysophiliac kind of way." - Violet Blue, S. F. Chronicle August 9, 2007 (thanx to J. Blake)
the worthless word for the day is: contumation [fr. contumacious, by false analogy after vexatious, vexation, etc.] inkhorn term(?) obs. rare disobedience to authority; rebellious stubbornness : contumacy "..and if he [Raleigh] should fail in either of these two conditions, he should but augment his fault and contumation both." - Patrick F. Tytler, Life of Sir Walter Raleigh (1844) (quoting a letter from Sir Robert Naunton (1618)) (not to be confused with contumulation, cf. contumulate)
the worthless word for the day is: indigeneity [indigenous + -eity, quality or condition] /IN di jeh NAE ity(?)/ the quality of being indigenous or native: indigenousness "The term "indigeneity" is something of a mouthful. You won't find it in the Oxford English Dictionary, which insists on "indigenousness" or the ugly "indigenity" (which it describes as rare). Like its near-synonym, "aboriginality," the word "indigeneity" forms an abstract noun from a term we use to apply to certain peoples living in the world." - Jeremy Waldron, New Zealand Journal of Public Law, December 5, 2002
the worthless word for the day is: helliferocious [blend of hellacious & ferocious] Hist. hellaciously ferocious "If you havent heerd tell of one Mike Fink, I'll tell you something about him, for he war a helliferocious fellow, and made an almighty fine shot." - W. T. Porter, ed., Spirit of the Times (1831-1856) "Others have faded away: monstracious, teetotaciously, helliferocious, conbobberation, obflisticate, and many others of equal exuberance." - Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue (1990)
the worthless word for the day is: ambisinister [fr. L. ambi- both, + sinister, on the left side] clumsy with both hands (with two left hands) "Use your left hand, do you?" "Er, I use both," said Brutha. "But not very well, everyone says." "Ah," said Didactylos. "Ambi-sinister?" "What?" "He means incompetent with both hands," said Om. - Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
the worthless word for the day is: clochard [F. fr. clocher, to limp < L. cloppicare] /klO SHAR/ a tramp; vagrant "There was a good moon, but it was very late for lovers; the evening was silent and uninhabited but for the clochards, the human flotsam in rags sleeping in the streets underneath the globular streetlamps that hung like rotted melons on their corroded stalks." - Brian Garfield, Hopscotch (2004) --- our friend BranShea, of the Hague, writes to say that she has to cut down some with online endeavors lest she "end up a computer clochard."
the worthless word for the day is: resipiscent [L. resipiscentia, < resipiscere to recover one's senses] /res eh PIS ent/ returning to one's senses; learning from experience (also, resipiscence: repentance for misconduct; return to a sane, sound, or correct view or position) "Whenever this befalls, reason takes immediate steps for its coercion and recovery; and grammar, in the end, resipiscent and sane as of old, goes forth properly clothed and in its right mind." - Fitzedward Hall, Recent Exemplifications of False Philology (1872) "After worrying us all by missing a short par putt at the fourth hole, the resipiscent Garcia alleviates those fears by holing another little tickler." - Mike Adamson, Guardian Unlimited July 20, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: gephyrophobia [fr. Gk gephyra (bridge) + phobos (fear)] /JEFF ih ro FO bee uh/ an abnormal and persistent fear of crossing bridges hence, gephyrophobic "'Where did you go?' she asks crossly when she's negotiated the traffic. 'Gephyrophobia,' she says unexpectedly. 'Pardon?' "Gephyrophobia -- fear of bridges.'" - Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet (1999) "[Gephyrap]hobic drivers may worry about being in an accident in busy traffic or losing control of their vehicles. " - Webster's New World Medical Dictionary (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: earworm [G. ohrwurm] a song or tune that repeats over and over inside a person's head "The Germans use the word Ohrwurm to denote these cognitively infectious musical agents. Whenever somebody complains to you that he just can't keep the latest pop tune from running through his head, tell him he can dispel it by calling it by name and by thinking about the original German meaning, which captures some of the mnemonicalli parasitical connotations of the word, for Ohrwurm literally means "ear worm" and is also used to refer to a kind of worm that can crawl into the ear." - Howard Rheingold, The Whole Earth Review, Dec. 22, 1987 ""Wait till you've got the Barney song stuck in your head," Festino said. "Earworm from hell."" - Joseph Finder, Killer Instinct (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: onomatopeed [fr. onomatope, an onomatopoeic word] /AN eh ma TOPT/ or /-to PEED/ (?) used onomatopoeia (a word from a sound associated with an action or a thing being named) ""Ding, ding, ding," Jody onomatopeed, signaling that Tommy had hit on the correct answer." - Christopher Moore, You Suck (2007) "..the second of these papers calls attention to the fondness of comic-strip artists for onomatopes, e.g., whap, zam, sputtt, tsk-tsk,.. bam, yazunk and whambo." - H. L. Mencken, The American Language (1948) "You can verb anything." - attributed to William Safire
the worthless word for the day is: diegogarcity [fr. Diego Garcia, Indian Ocean atoll; after serendipity] "a term used [at Wordorigins.org] to denote the appearance of another term in multiple sources shortly after you have looked it up in the dictionary" (or first noticed it) "I've heard "diegogarcity" suggested for this, which was coined along these lines: the experience is a little like serendipity. The etymology for the latter word relates to the island, Serendip, in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is another island in those waters, providing a parallel for serendipity if such be desired." - Peter Moylan, alt.usage.english April 28, 2006
the worthless word for the day is: cornscateous [corn + L. scatare to bubble, gush, well, spring, or flow forth] /corn SKAY sious(?)/ "First used by the old almanac makers, this term signifies warm, damp air. Though it signals ideal climatic conditions for growing corn, it also poses a danger to those affected by asthma, pneumonia, and other respiratory problems." {OFA} "Cornscateous air is everywhere." - Old Farmer's Almanac July 12, 2006 (thanx to Eric Smith)
the worthless word for the day is: plastinated [fr. plastic, after plastination] preserved by plastination (an embalming and preserving technique using synthetic materials such as epoxy or polyester polymers) "The.. exhibition of flayed and dissected 'plastinated' corpses has opened in London." - Daily Telegraph, 26 Mar. 2002 "Edward Depauw's current wife was a plastinated real-estate broker half his age, the very one who'd found him a penthouse after things went awry with the Original Recipe Mrs. DePauw." - Jesse Kellerman, Trouble (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: hypnopompic [hypno- + Gk pompe, a sending away] /hip neh POM pik/ associated with the semiconsciousness preceding waking "The hypnagogic and hypnopompic states are two such crossroads of reality, and navigation through them may carry us forth on an odyssey to invisible worlds." - Carol Ebu, Astral Odyssey (2002) "In some cases these ghosts-in-plaid are accompanied by the odor of hydrogen sulfide and sudden chills or sudden blasts of heat, while other episodes are probably purely hypnopompic." - John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: hypnagogic [F. hypnagogique, fr. Gk hupnos, sleep + agogos, leading] /hip neh GAH jik/ (also hypnogogic) 1) sleep-inducing 2) of, relating to, or associated with the drowsiness preceding sleep (opposed to hypnopompic) ""Are you having a hypnagogic episode?"" - Jesse Kellerman, Trouble (2007) "Auditory hypnogogic hallucinations. Talks to self. Talks to deceased wife. Maternal aunt in mental institution. Very peculiar stare." - Richard P. Feynman, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" (1997)
the worthless word for the day is: mise-en-scene [F. mise en scène, putting into the scene] /meez ahn sen/ narrowly a stage setting; broadly visual style "Even when we don't understand the director's specific purposes, we are stirred by his gorgeous images, stirring mise-en-scène (Paris seems to be a reddish, glowing series of Hollywood-style soundstages) and the note-perfect performances of [his] cast..." - Desson Thomson, Washington Post June 29, 2007 "He should have noticed how slowly she'd been moving; should have noted the choreographed quality, the mise-en-scène of it all." - Jesse Kellerman, Trouble (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: gorgeosity [a blend of gorgeous & generosity(?)] an abundance (generosity) of gorgeousness "Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh." - Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (1962) "I didn't want you to be hurt. So messy. But you got going. I couldn't stop you. It was gorgeosity." - Jesse Kellerman, Trouble (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: genizah [Heb., hiding place < ganaz, to hide] /geh NEE zah/ (also geniza) a repository for Hebrew documents and sacred books that are no longer in use, e.g. because they are old and worn, but must not be destroyed "In the ninth century, the Cairo Geniza adjacent to the main synagogue, contained a remarkable garbage heap of letters from Jewish traders and merchants: contracts, accounts, court proceedings, business ledgers, family letters, personal jottings on odd scraps, preserved because according to Jewish law anything bearing the name of God must be buried, not destroyed." - Madeleine P. Cosman, Medieval Wordbook (1996) ""Hebrew books, which contain the sacred name of G-d, cannot be thrown away when they get torn or old. They must either be buried in a cemetery, or put in a safe resting place, usually the attic of a synagogue. Such a repository is called a genizah, and it is a gold mine for rare-book hunters."" - Naomi Ragen, The Ghost of Hannah Mendes (1998) (we're going medieval this week.)
the worthless word for the day is: recto [fr. L. rectus straight, right] /REK toe/ 1) the front side of a printed sheet 2) the right-hand page of an open book (contrast verso) "Chapters or similar divisions after the first usually begin either on recto or verso pages but may begin, in a very formal book, on recto only." - Univ. of Chicago Press, A Manual of Style (1952) "Traditionally the terms recto and verso are used for the front and back of a papyrus when it is used in the regular manner... Egyptologists in general adhere to the use of recto and verso." - T. G. H. James, Pharaoh's People (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: trivium [L., crossroad (where three roads meet)] /TRIV eum/ the lower division of the seven liberal arts in medieval schools, comprising grammar, logic, and rhetoric "The real secular education of the early Middle Ages was confined to the "Trivium."" - Arthur A. Tilley, Medieval France (1922)
the worthless word for the day is: quadrivium [L., place where four roads meet] /kwa DRIV eum/ the higher division of the seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages, comprising geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music (compare trivium) "The "Quadrivium" was never much more than a scheme on paper: it was superseded before it had been fully elaborated." - Arthur A. Tilley, Medieval France (1922)
the worthless word for the day is: quiddler [perh. a blend of quiddity and fiddler or twiddler] dawdler, trifler "Drummond was indeed a quiddler -- with little fire or fibre -- and rather a taste for poetry than a taste of it." - Henry Thoreau, Journal (Vol. 2: 1842-1848) "[SET Enterprise's] portfolio of games include SET and Quiddler, the number one and number three best selling card games in the United States." - PR Newswire Jul. 4, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: sphallolalia [fr. Gk sphallo, make to fall + -lalia, chatter] /SFAL oh LAY lee yuh/ (nonsense word?) flirtatious talk that leads nowhere "Welcome to Wikipedia! We welcome your help to create new content, but your recent additions (such as Sphallolalia) are considered nonsense." - Wikipedia, 4 February 2007
the worthless word for the day is: pyrrhonism [fr. Gk skeptic philosopher Pyrrho] /PIR eh nizem/ usu. capitalized Philos. the doctrine of the impossibility of attaining certainty of knowledge; absolute or universal skepticism; hence generally, skepticism esp. when total or radical "Pyrrhonism is, therefore, an abdication of all the supposed rights of the mind, and cannot be dealt with by the ordinary rules of logic or by the customary canons of philosophical criticism." - The Catholic Encyclopedia (1911) "Pyrrhonism is an anti-philosophy..." - Hugh Roberts, Dog's Tales (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: astucious [F. astucieux, fr. L. astutus astute] /as TU cious/ archaic subtle; cunning; astute "..replied Dunois, with a frankness which.. made him from time to time a considerable favourite with Louis, who, like all astucious persons, was as desirous of looking into the hearts of others as of concealing his own." - Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward (1823) (bending all the rules of attribution) "[M]y ignorance, admittedly both exhaustive and orphic, is in its particulars clandestine and astucious." - anon. (2007)
the worthless word for the day is: emmet [fr. emmet, a synonym of ant] in Cornwall, mildly disparaging a holiday-maker or tourist; a summer visitor (cf. grockle) "A Devon lady mentioned in passing that emmets and grockles were about to come her way" - Sunday Express, 15 June 1975 "The visitors, drawn to Cornwall's subtropical climate and unique culture, are called emmets by the locals, a Cornish word for the insects they resemble..." - James B. Minahan, One Europe, Many Nations (2000)
the worthless word for the day is: grockle [origin uncertain] Brit. dialect, mildly disparaging holiday-maker or tourist (esp. in southwest England); a summer visitor "The term 'Grockle' now commonly used in the South West to mean holidaymaker, has also given rise to the following descriptive expressions: Grockle fodder (fish and chips), Grockle bait (the merchandise sold in gift and souvenir shops), and Grockle nests (camp sites)." - Daily Telegraph, 25 Aug. 1986 "Fowles went on to admit that he had been less than helpful as curator... "That was because I already knew the right person was tackling the problem, and that we did not need one more error-perpetuating account just to fill a space in the grockle market." - Judith Pascoe, The Hummingbird Cabinet (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: periscian [fr. Gk periskios, throwing a shadow all around] /peh RIS kian/ rare having shadows revolving all around, as happens during the course of a summer day in the polar regions "In every clime we are in a periscian state, and with our Light our Shadow and Darkness walk about us." - Sir Thomas Browne, Christian Morals (1716)
the worthless word for the day is: fritinancy [fr. L. fritinnire, to twitter] /FRIT i nan see/ (also fritiniency) obs. twittering or chirping, as of cicadas or other insects "Life in all its manifestations - the tumult of politics, the dolor of women, the fritinancy of the drawing-room -- was his "divine amusement."" - Vance Thompson, French Portraits (1899) "Unsupported libels and slanders whizzed all day long through the offices of the great, a sort of gnat- fritinancy, disregarded." - Anthony Burgess, The Wanting Seed (1962)
the worthless word for the day is: oolly [India] /OOL ly/ a lump or loop of iron, as wootz, when taken as a pasty mass from the crucible "OOLLY is a noun, not an adjective or an adverb: it designates a lump or loop of iron or steel, when taken as a pasty mass from the crucible." - Albert Ross Eckler, Word Ways (1968) "[oolly] appears in Merriam-Webster's New Interna- tional Dictionary, Second Edition after the word oological and before oologist, not quite in alpha- betical order." - everything2.com (another word from the hogwash® files)
the worthless word for the day is: gemebund [L. gemebundus] /JEM eh bund/ inkhorn term, rare groaning; sighing Ut vero fuga vos a certa morte reduxit, ille quidem totam gemebundus obambulat Aetnam praetemptatque manu silvas... [When you escaped by flight from certain death, Polyphemus roamed over the whole of Aetna, groaning, and groping through the woods...] - Ovid, Metamorphoses
the worthless word for the day is: wootz [perh. a corruption of Canarese ukku, steel] /wootz/ a type of steel imported from the East Indies, valued for making edge tools; Indian steel "Enoch went over and picked one of them up. "This is called wootz," he said. "It's a Persian word. Persians have been coming here for thousands of years to buy it."" - Neal Stephenson, The Confusion in honor of a new round of hogwash®
the worthless word for the day is: phosphene [Gk phos, light; + phainein, to cause to appear] /FOS feen/ a sensation of light caused by excitation of the retina by mechanical or electrical means rather than by light, as when the eyeballs are pressed through closed lids "Darkness is not essential for the creation of phosphenes, which can also occur spontaneously, especially following prolonged visual deprivation." - Michael Ripinsky-Naxon, The Nature of Shaminism (1993) "Scientists believe that [Prisoner's] Cinema is a result of phosphenes combined with the psychological effects of prolonged exposure to darkness." - Wikipedia (with assists to Hydra and Myridon :)
the worthless word for the day is: manticratic [fr. Gk mantisi, prophet + -cratic] (found only in Lawrence) of the rule by the prophet's family or clan "The position of the Sherif of Mecca had long been anomalous. The title of 'Sherif' implied descent from the prophet Mohammed through his daughter Fatima, and Hassan, her elder son. Authentic Sherifs were inscribed on the family tree - an immense roll preserved at Mecca, in custody of the Emir of Mecca, the elected Sherif of Sherifs, supposed to be the senior and noblest of all. The prophet's family had held temporal rule in Mecca for the last nine hundred years, and counted some two thousand persons. "The old Ottoman Governments regarded this clan of manticratic peers with a mixture of reverence and distrust. Since they were too strong to be destroyed, the Sultan salved his dignity by solemnly confirming their Emir in place. This empty approval acquired dignity by lapse of time, until the new holder began to feel that it added a final seal to his election." - T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom
the worthless word for the day is: seely [ME sely (cf. silly)] /SEE lee/ archaic 1) foolish, simple 2) pitiable especially because of weak physical or mental condition: frail By thee the seely amorous sucks his death By drawing in a leprous harlot's breath.. - John Donne, Elegy IV (ca. 1621) "Feisal told [Said] that he was come at an opportune moment. He could offer Jemal the loyal behaviour of the Arab Army, if Turkey evacuated Amman, and handed over its province to Arab keeping. The seely Algerian, thinking he had scored a huge success, rushed back to Damascus: where Jemal nearly hanged him for his pains." - T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926)
the worthless word for the day is: metensomatosis [fr. Gk meta- + en- + somat-, soma body + -osis] the migration of a soul from body to body (to be confused with metempsychosis) "Metempsychosis is the common name for the concept more properly referred to as palingenesis or metensomatosis." - Rhodri Lewis, The Huntington Library Quarterly (2006 no. 2) "Ægypt is a metamorphosis, a metensomatosis, a memory play and a meta-novel; a story about many stories, a book with a larger book inside it." - Elizabeth Hand, Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 2007
the worthless word for the day is: nowanights [now + anight(s), at night; after nowadays] on present nights (in contrast with the past) "I take it that the Golden Drugget is not outspread nowanights across the high dark coast-road between Rapallo and Zoagli." - Max Beerbohm, And Even Now (1920) "And they fell upong one another: and themselves they have fallen. And still nowanights and by nights of yore do all bold floras of the field.. say only: Cull me ere I wilt to thee!" - James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake (1939) "Luckily, a nocturnal shopper in Ottawa has other options nowanights." - Ottawa Citizen, 22 May 2000
the worthless word for the day is: Bob's your uncle [origin uncertain] ..but see worldwidewords UK interj. used to show the simplicity of something; there you are "Ask the two questions: height and airspeed. Research Section must know the height and airspeed. Leave the money in your overcoat pocket. He'll pick up your coat, hang his own beside it and help himself quietly, without any fuss, taking the envelope and dropping the film into your coat pocket. You finish your drinks, shake hands, and Bob's your uncle. In the morning you fly home. Leclerc had made it sound so simple." - John le Carré, The Looking Glass War "Or had they improvised this on the spot from stuff lying around -- a bit of cable here, a transformer there, a dimmer-switch, an old poker, and Bob's your uncle?" - John le Carré, The Mission Song this week: a few words from le Carré
the worthless word for the day is: knees-up Brit. informal a lively party, usu. including dancing Knees up, Mother Brown. - traditional pub/party song "There's a knees-up afterwards apparently, with some big names in the industry, so I thought it might do me some good." - John le Carré, The Mission Song (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: caboosh UK slang an aggregate; usu. in the phrase the whole caboosh: all, everything, everyone "And she skilfully behaved so that Sir Alexander should think that he was lord and monarch of the whole caboosh, with his stout, would-be-genial paunch, and his utterly boring jokes, his humourosity, as Hilda called it." - D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) 'I heard people of all nations.' 'You heard right. French, German, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Turkish, Thai, Lebanese, Saudis and black Africans, the whole caboosh, male and female. And a lot of Greeks.' - John le Carré, Absolute Friends (2004) 'Further explanations will tie you in knots, so do not on any account attempt one. That's the whole caboosh you're wearing, is it? Shiny shoes, dress shirt, the lot?' - John le Carré, The Mission Song (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: doddle [origin unknown] Brit. colloq. a very easy task; a 'walk-over' "Probation was a doddle really, and it didn't make much difference to me." - Alfred Draper, Swansong for a Rare Bird (1970) 'You're.. brilliant. Well, be brilliant. Young strong chap like you, it's a doddle.' - John le Carré, The Mission Song (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: kippleization [cf. kipple, both words coined by P. K. Dick] the tendency of the universe towards decaying entropic trash "It's a universal principal operating throughout the universe; the entire universe is moving towards a final state of total, absolute kippleization." - Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? this week: words for you to hoard
the worthless word for the day is: mongo [origin unknown] /MAWNG goh/ New York City dial. an object retrieved from rubbish; a scavenger "Nagle's interests lie more with the trash collectors than with the trash, although the two intersect on the subject of "mongo" -- sanitation lingo for "redeemed garbage" or the act of collecting it. (Nagle consulted a lexicographer, looking for help in tracking down the etymology, to no avail.)" - Ben McGrath, New Yorker Nov. 13, 2006 (not to be confused with any other mongo, or mungo) (thanx to helen :)
the worthless word for the day is: disposophobia [fr. dispose + -phobia] the fear of throwing anything away "Instead I'm thinking about how disorganized I am and how I suffer from Disposophobia, and I remember a tale about two brothers, hermits from somewhere up in the East, ..." - Beth Boswell Jacks, Snippets (2004) "Author Ron Alford, who coined the term disposophobia.. admitted that there's a fine line between collecting and hoarding." - Jeff Koyen, Wired 03-07-07
the worthless word for the day is: syllogomania [fr. Gk sylloge, collecting + -mania] /SIL eh jo mania/? compulsive hoarding "The technical name is syllogomania, from sylloge ("to collect"), but most psychiatric professionals call it compulsive hoarding." - Jeff Koyen, Wired 03-07-07
the worthless word for the day is: pismirism [with reference to the behaviour of ants (pismires) in hoarding food] /PIS mer izem/ nonce-word the hoarding of money; miserliness "The mass of money piled up by the late Mr. Sage in the course of a life of parsimonious pismirism." - Daily News, 22 Dec. 1906
the worthless word for the day is: yosenabe [Jap.] /YO seh NAH bay/ a soup consisting especially of seafood and vegetables cooked in a broth; a Japanese equivalent of bouillaibaise "In sukiyaki you only pick up solid ingredients from the pot, while in yosenabe you take the broth together and enjoy it as a soup." - Yukiko Moriyama, Quick & Easy: Favorite Japanese Dishes (2004) (the penultimate winning word at the 2007 Spelling Bee)
the worthless word for the day is: eminentissimo [It. (used as a title for cardinals) fr. eminente] /em eh nen TIS eh mo/ a person of superlative eminence "The spelling words would stump many college English professors: devastavit, Lysenkoism, orfevrerie, gallipot, brunizem, eminentissimo, epideictic." - Ventura County Star, May 28, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: bibliothec [fr. L. bibliotheca, collection of books, library] /BIB li o thec/ [n] a librarian [adj] belonging to a library or a librarian "Librarians are all wonderful people. Here at Gouger, we want to recognize that wonderfulness and make money off it. Every bibliothec desires a professional award to adorn their work area." - Gouger Library Supplies May 29, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: bouquiniste [F., fr. bouquin, old book] /bukeeneest/ (also, the anglicized bouquinist) a dealer in secondhand books "The bouquiniste encouraged us to browse as long as we wanted." - Scripps Consolidated Word List "M. Mabeuf's political opinion consisted in a passionate love for plants, and, above all, for books. Like all the rest of the world, he possessed the termination in ist, without which no one could exist at that time, but he was neither a Royalist, a Bonapartist, a Chartist, an Orleanist, nor an Anarchist; he was a bouquinist, a collector of old books." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (1862) tr. by I. Hapgood
the worthless word for the day is: cambist [F. cambiste, fr. It. cambista] one who deals in bills of exchange or who is skilled in the science and practice of exchange; a banker hence, cambistry - the science of exchange The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics? - by Daniel Abraham, in Logorrhea, ed. by John Klima the 1977 Spelling Bee winning word -- it was a simpler time
the worthless word for the day is: machicotage [F.] /ma shi KO tazh/ the embellishment of the solo part of plain song by the insertion of ornaments between the authentic tones "'Machicotage is an anachronism, a living leftover which remains obliquely in its own time, a surviving element which one no longer knows what to do with." - Björn Schmelzer, Glossa Music (2006) "Finola gets maschicotage. Oops, I'm wrong again. It's machicotage. Hey, I was only off by one letter! She gets it right. Apparently, this is "luck of the draw" working in her favor, because three of her last four words have been French, which Finola studies in school. Okay, I studied French for six years, and you saw what I did with machicotage." - Red Fraggle, Spelling Bee: A Running Diary (2006) _______ in what may be an apochryphal story, when the British conquered Sindh in 1843, General Charles Napier is said to have reported victory to the Governor General with a one-word telegram, namely "Peccavi" – or "I have Sindh"; or, this pun may have first appeared later as a cartoon in Punch magazine.
the worthless word for the day is: peccavi [L., I have sinned] /pe KAH wee/ or /~ vee/ an acknowledgment of sin "Anurag walks to the microphone to face peccavi. He knows it, and as Jacques Bailly gives the definition, Anurag, rushing in the heat of the moment, interrupts to get the language of origin. He apologizes to Bailly quickly, then just as quickly spells without doubt." - James Maquire, American Bee <heh>
the worthless word for the day is: onychophagy [NL onychophagia] /AHN eh KAF eh jee/ nail-biting (= onychophagia) ""Does it mean the biting of fingernails?" [Samir Patel] replied, when asked to spell "onychophagy."" - Houston Chronicle, June 3, 2005 "Onychophagy is usually symptomatic of emotional tensions and frustrations." - anon.
the worthless word for the day is: onomasiologic [fr. Gk onomasia, name + -ology] /on uh may see uh LOJ ik/ Linguistics relating to the gathering or comparison of lists of words that designate similar or associated concepts (cf. onomastics, the science or study of the origins and forms of proper names of persons or places) "The project of such a book.. may materialize in different ways (clusters of synonyms supported by well-chosen quotations from authors; "ideological index" to a standard dictionary; array of regional or temporal counterparts of each basic entry - an arrangement sometimes called "onomasiologic" in the Central European tradition of modern-language scholarship.)" - Yakov Malkiel, A Typological Classification of Dictionaries on the Basis of Distinctive Features (1962) "A book on onomastics explained that the name Donald is a Scottish Gaelic word meaning "world ruler."" - [Scripps] Consolidated Word List
the worthless word for the day is: antinomy [fr. Gk antinomia, < anti- + nomos, law] /an TIN uh me/ 1) opposition between two laws or rules 2) a contradiction between principles or conclusions; a paradox "Of all the cosmological ideas, however, it is that occasioning the fourth antinomy which compels us to venture upon this step." - Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1899) "The open space versus movement debate figures an irresolvable antinomy within the WSF." - Bret Benjamin, Foreign Policy in Focus, 5/10/07 (not to be confused with antimony) (thanx to John Hedin)
the worthless word for the day is: oscine [fr. L. oscen] /OS Ine/ of or relating to a large suborder of passerine birds that includes most songbirds "Oscine birdsongs.. are among the most complex of all natural behaviors known to us" - Marc Hauser & Mark Konishi, The Design of Animal Communication (2003) "When we think of birdsong, we think mostly of the perching birds, and among them especially of the oscine families, such as vireos, thrushes, finches, warblers, orioles, sparrows, and tanagers: the so-called true songbirds." - Gene Holtan, The Ardent Birder (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: passerine [L. passerinus of sparrows, fr. passer sparrow] of or relating to the largest order of birds, comprising mainly songbirds of perching habits "[T]he only passerine glimpsed all day was a solitary tree sparrow on a frozen street." - Peter Matthiessen, The Birds of Heaven (2001) "Waterfowl migration is about complete but passerine and shorebird migrations are heating up." - Jackson Hole Star-Tribune, May 10, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: skyhookery [fr. skyhook < sky + hook] nonce-word use of an imaginary hook suspended in air to bootstrap a process; gen., the abandonment of reason "It is a dreadful exhibition of self-indulgent, thought- denying skyhookery... But the very least that any honest quest for truth must have in setting out to explain such monstrosities of improbability as a rainforest, a coral reef, or a universe is a crane and not a skyhook." - Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: defeasible [OF de(s)faisible, cf. feasible] /di FEE zuh bul/ 1) Law capable of being annulled or voided: subject to defeasance (a rendering null and void) <a defeasible claim> 2) Logic susceptible to defeat by contrary evidence "But the unlettered savage, who repented the alienation of vast tracts, by affixing a shapeless mark to a bond, might deem the English tenure defeasible." - George Bancroft, History of the United States (1876) "There are five kinds of features in Defeasible Logic: facts, strict rules, defeasible rules, defeaters, and a superiority relation among rules." - Joxan Jaffar, Logic Programming (1998) (thanx to J. Nova)
the worthless word for the day is: gegenschein [G., counter-glow] /GA gen shine/ the 'opposition effect,' a diffuse, faint light sometimes visible almost directly opposite the sun in the night sky, thought to be sunlight reflected by dust particles in the atmosphere - best seen in September and October "I have never seen the Gegenschein, but people who have say that the best way to spot it is to sweep your eyes back and forth across the area where it should appear, keeping your vision slightly averted. It is the most elusive of the lights of the night sky." - James Elkins, How to Use Your Eyes (2000)
the worthless word for the day is: gemütlichkeit [G., < gemütlich, congenial] /geh MOOT lik kite/ cordiality, warm friendliness ""So we're all sitting hugger-mugger at the big table in the corner -- students, pretty girls, all sorts. Old Stan had come round from behind the bar and some laddie was doing a fair job with a squeeze-box. Bags of Gemütlichkeit, bags of booze, bags of noise."" - John Le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) _____ Brian Sullivan points out another phallocrat citation
the worthless word for the day is: phallocratic D. Haug wrote: Here are [some] citations [from] Devil's Picnic, by Taras Grescoe.. [F. phallocratique] /FAL uh KRAD ik/ relating to masculine power and dominance also phallocrat, phallocracy "As a fetish item for phallocratic fat cats that emitted mushroom clouds of carcinogenic gas, an Esplendido had the power to grievously offend more Americans than just about any other product in existence." - Taras Grescoe, The Devil's Picnic (2005) ""Those women who refused to release themselves from the phallocratic dependencies and habits that had been embedded in them under the old system were in effect refusing to evolve."" - Mary Daly, Quintessence (1998) this week: cleaning out the mailbox
the worthless word for the day is: hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia on 6/6/06, Tom Kuffel wrote: I thought you'd be using hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. [fr. Gk hexa^kosioi-, six hundred + hexekonta-, sixty + hexa-, six + -phobia] fear of the number six-hundred and sixty-six and, hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiac, one who so fears "So far, few seem to be suffering from hexakosioihexekonta- hexaphobia - an intense aversion to the numerical sequence 666." - L. A. Daily News, June 07, 2006 "64. Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs is the term for people who fear the number 666." - BBC News Magazine Monitor, 100 things we didn't know last year, 28 Dec. 2006
the worthless word for the day is: ichthyophagous Charles Hodgson wrote: Ichthyophagous: eating or subsisting on fish [fr. Gk ikhthus, a fish, plus phagein, to eat + -ous] /ik thE OFF uh gus/ feeding on fish "..and my brother observed derisively, much to my grief, that a wretched ichthyophagous people must make shocking soldiers, weak as water, and liable to be knocked over like nine-pins; whereas, in his army, not a man ever ate herrings, pilchards, mackerels, or, in fact, condescended to anything worse than sirloins of beef." - Thomas De Quincy, Autobiography (1853) "..we Greenlanders are a clean, proud people who would never stoop to the unhealthy habits of those desperate grubby ichthyophagous Icelanders and Norwegians." - Jared Diamond, Collapse (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: teetotaciously John Turner writes: I have had quite a go of it and still no success in locating the meaning of this word. I found it in a quote; 1840: ...the Administration is bodaciously used up, tetotaciously exflunctified. Mr. Wick, Indiana, House of Reps., Congressional Globe, July 20, p.545. [fanciful elaboration of teetotally {OED2}, t(otal) + total + -ly] U.S. dial. totally, completely, absolutely "I'm the best man--if I ain't, I wish I may be tetotaciously exflunctified!" - James K. Paulding, Lion of the West (1833) "With consummate ease he could teetotaciously exfluncticate his opponent in a conbobberation, that is to say a conflict or disturbance, or ramsquaddle him bodaciously, after which the luckless fellow would absquatulate." - A. Marckwardt, American English (1980) "Hell, all courtroom testimony about the past is ipso facto and teetotaciously a baldface lie, ain't that so? Moonshine! Chicanery! The old gum game!" - Robert Coover, The Public Burning (1977)
the worthless word for the day is: accismus [Gk akkismos] /ak SIZ mas/ Rhet. a form of irony, a pretended refusal of something one desires "A woman uses no figure of eloquence - herself excepted - so often as that of accismus." - tr. of Jean Paul Richter's Levana (1863) ""I don't need help," I say with perfect accismus, "but who are you talking about?"" - Dan Wick, The Devil's Tale (2006) this week: yours insincerely
the worthless word for the day is: assentation [fr. L. assentari, to agree with] ready assent, esp. when insincere or obsequious "Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust." - Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his son (1749) "The decanter flew across and across the table with wonderful rapidity, and the flow of assertion increased with the captain, and that of assentation with his lieutenant." - Edward Howard, Rattlin the Reefer (1971)
the worthless word for the day is: phonus-bolonus [alt. of phoney baloney, after L. nouns ending in -us] nonsense, exaggeration; insincerity; fraud, trickery "Of course this message is nothing but the phonus bolonus." - Damon Runyon, in Hearst's International, Jul. 1929 "She had guessed, of course, that he was up to some kind of phonus-bolonus, but if you had asked her what particular kind of phonus-bolonus she would not have been able to tell you." - P. G. Wodehouse, Quick Service (1940) "Many times in history we get this type of phonus bolonus from Scared Hair, so we give him the razz and go back to minding our own business." - Sunday Telegraph, 18 Feb. 1990
the worthless word for the day is: patrioteer [patriot + -eer, cf. profiteer] U.S. depreciative an insincere, misguided, or false patriot: flag-waver "They are quick to detect the phony and they can distinguish a patriot from a patrioteer." - Birmingham (Alabama) News, 14 Apr. 1954 "Rathenau's acceptance of the post was regarded as an outrage by apoplectic patrioteers of the right." - N.Y. Review of Books, 4 Nov. 1999 "The main modern meaning of patriot, "loyal and disinterested supporter of one's country," is attested from 1605, but the history of the word has diverged in America and England. In the United States, patriot has kept a positive sense. Phony and rascally varieties of the patriotism tend to be identified by collateral formations, such as patrioteer." - Callimachus, Feb. 9, 2005
the worthless word for the day is: greyhoundy [gray + hound + -y] resembling a greyhound dog in appearance "A wiry, light-fleshed filly of the greyhoundy type.." - Black & White (journal) "Ah ! heavens ! how handsome he looks in his sinuous, supple, greyhoundy, vivacious grace." - Annie Thomas, Stray Sheep (1879)
"The annotated proof sheets reveal that editing primarily meant cutting. Murray was constantly obligated to compromise his descriptive ideal, deleting quotations, definitions, and entire entries. Mugglestone discusses the rationale behind the deletions, confirming that literary language tended to be favored over vulgarisms, established vocabulary over neologisms. Thus quotations from daily newspapers were cut, while the wisdom of poets and bishops was kept. "Linguipotence" was retained because it was a coinage of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, while "greyhoundy" was omitted, being used only in the popular journal Black and White." - Andrea Nagy, Losing "greyhoundy" (a review of Lynda Muggleston's Lost for Words, 2006)
________ James Murray declaimed in 1883 that 'The design of the new dictionary is to furnish a complete account of the present meaning and past history of every English word whatsoever now in use, or shown to have been in use. The dictionary aims at being exhaustive.' But, in the event, choices had to be made, words were rejected, and others were simply missed. this week we'll look at a handful of words you can't find in the OED.the worthless word for the day is: traulism [fr. Gk traulismos] /TRA lizem/ rare stammering, stuttering "I myself felt some of my parents' fear that my traulism.. was "infectious." Was I perhaps to blame for the stuttering of my younger sister Lieba?" - Marc Shell, Stutter (2005) for instance..
the worthless word for the day is: tiddledies [origin unknown] soft flexible ice, or chunks of floating ice "Naturally, I felt pretty foolish, and, while I tried to pass it off with something about your still being green and raw, the ice was mighty thin, and you had the old man running tiddledies." - George H. Lorimer, Letters from a Self Made Merchant.. (1902) "In spring, when the ice was breaking up, there was another sport, exciting, but not at all safe, in which little Sam Howe delighted; and he spent much of his play time in "running tiddledies, "which means jumping from one floating ice-cake to another." - Laura E. Howe Richards, Two Noble Lives (1911) "When we were boys we used to run tiddledies on the frog pond in the Common -- that is, jump from piece to piece of the ice, each being enough to jump from but sinking under you if you stopped. I said [to Brandeis], having ideas was like running tiddledies -- if you stopped too long on one, it sank with you." - Harold J. Laski, Holmes-Laski letters (ca. 1916)
the worthless word for the day is: after-dream a depressive letdown, as after a period of drug-induced euphoria; a muddled state upon wakening from a vivid dream "I looked upon the scene before me - upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees - with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium - the bitter lapse into everyday life - the hideous dropping off of the veil." - Edgar A. Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) "We first expect 'after-dream' to represent the nightmare of the addict. However, this 'dream' turns out to be the addict's waking to 'every-day life'." - Raman Selden, Practicing Theory and Reading Literature (1989) For ever burning in the midst and wrapping In luscious slumber and sweet after-dream The soothed and lullèd heart. - Gilbert Beresford, Sorrow (1875) (you won't find this term in the OED)
the worthless word for the day is: grannyism [granny + -ism] (also old-grannyism) a characteristic or mannerism of an old woman "Hence, also, that singular but most characteristic specimen of unconscious grannyism, namely, his pedantic, unseasonable and impertinent trifling and dallying with artful forms and turns of thought and speech amidst the more serious business.. where he appears not unlike a certain person who "could speak no sense in several languages." Superannuated politicians, indeed, like [Polonius], seldom have any strength but as they fall back upon the resources of memory." - Henry Hudson, The Works of Shakespeare (1848) "The conclusion locally and nationally about the May riots in Philadelphia was that response was not quick and harsh enough-that, in Strong's words, "irresolution and old grannyism in general" prevailed. - David Grimsted, American Mobbing, 1828-1861 (1998) (This word was also struck from OED's 1st edition.)
the worthless word for the day is: luniversary [L. luni-, moon + versus, turned; after anniversary] the day of the month on which something recurs "The "Atlantic" obeys the moon, and its luniversary has come round again. I have gathered up some hasty notes of my remarks made since the last high tides, which I respectfully submit." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (The Atlantic) [1858] (This word was struck from the 1st edition of the OED. More recent attempts at coining a term for this concept are lunaversary and mensiversary.)
today's Kurt Vonnegut memorial wwftd is... pool-pah nonce-word the wrath of god "'Sometimes the pool-pah', Bokonon tells us, 'exceeds the power of humans to comment.'" - Kurt Vonnegut [1922-2007], Cat's Cradle (1963) _____________ the worthless word for the day is: wrongeousness [after righteousness] the state or condition of being wrong; wrongfulness "The heroic effort to carry out the old righteousness becomes at last sheer wrongeousness." - D. H. Lawrence, Kangaroo (1923) "Jung's idea of the ego leans toward self-righteousness, whereas his idea of the personal unconscious leans toward self-wrongeousness." - Martin Lass, Mirror, Mirror, Body and Mind (2002) "If we don't have righteousness, we only have "wrongeousness," and it is like having steel armor that is rusted, weak, and with holes that are large enough to let weapons pierce through and cause death." - Thomas P. Dooley, Praying Faith (2005) this week we're looking at some words that were coined just for the nonce, but have since received some wider usage.
the worthless word for the day is: grandiloquism [fr. L. grandiloqu-us + -ism] the practice of using bombastic language "But everything that is Russian appears, according to the author's colouring, so superior to what exists any where else, that we must take his testimony with some caution.. His grandiloquism proves too much." - The Monthly Review, Aug. 1836 "The other day, as I walked by the World Trade Center site, with its immense, fraught blankness extending above, I reflected that I never used to take the "world" in that name seriously. I thought it was a grandiloquism for "American," like the "world" in the name World Series." - Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, Apr 25, 2005
the worthless word for the day is: desperadoism [fr. desperado + -ism] /des peh RAHD o izem/ a wave or period of unusual activity by desperadoes "The sort of sneaking desperadoism of the disguised bands of thieves infesting the rural neighborhood." - Nation (N.Y.) 1874, vol. XIX "My idea, when I began this chapter, was to say something about desperadoism in the "flush times" of Nevada." - Mark Twain, Roughing It (1880) "[T]he most usual form of early desperadoism had to do with attempts at unlawfully acquiring another man's property." - Emerson Hough, The Story of the Outlaw (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: wordster [word + -ster] /WORD ster/ one that is adept in the use of words, esp. in an empty or overblown manner "To the tribe of Wordsters, Pedants, Fanatics, and Impossibilists, who so rabidly pursued an ignoble peace, that they helped to provoke a disastrous war." - H. A. Jones, The Pacifists [Dedication] (1917) "..a clever wordster might equate the situation to zero." - John J. O'Neill, Engineering the New Age (1949) "As an amateur wordster, my personal lexicon contains lengthy lists of various types of words." - Verbatim, Dec. 8, 1976
the worthless word for the day is: immorigerous [fr. im-, not + L. morigerus, compliant] obs. obstinate, disobedient; rude, uncivil "Such creatures as are immorigerous, we have found out expedients to reclaim." - Th. Stackhouse, A new history of the holy Bible (1737) "Dogged by reports of sexually immorigerous behavior towards women over the past 25 years, California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger apologized Thursday." - Kevin Johnson, spizzquiz (10/2/2003) morigerous - obs. obedient, compliant, submissive this week: remembering the spizzquiz
the worthless word for the day is: oikology [fr. Gk oikos, house, dwelling + -logy] rare the science of the home; home economics; (the science of?) housekeeping "As recently as the 1950s humorist Stephen Potter (Gamesmanship) could still joke that a nice long boring discussion of "oikology" was a perfect strategy for terminating a romantic relationship." - David Warsh, Economic Principals (1993) males who could use a crash course in basic oikology - David Grambs, The Endangered English Dictionary (1994) "Martha Stewart, the woman who raised oikology to an art form, was betrayed by her own reputation, jurors in the case were saying over the weekend." - Kevin Johnson, spizzquiz (3/5/2004) not to be confused with ecology, from the same roots
the worthless word for the day is: retection [fr. L. retegere, < re- + tegere, to cover] obs. the act of disclosing or uncovering something "Though this may be said to be rather a restoration of a body to its own colour, or a retection of its native colour than a change, yet still [etc.]." - Robert Boyle, The experimental history of colours (1663) "Trent Lott's troubles continued Thursday, with Time magazine's retection that Lott, accused of making racially divisive remarks last week, also led a fight to keep blacks out of his Sigma Nu fraternity while an Ole Miss student in the early 60s." - Kevin Johnson, spizzquiz (12/12/02)
the worthless word for the day is: diffidelity [dis- + fidelity, after infidelity] obs. rare disbelief, unbelief "Parcel-Diffidelity in matters of such nature, I am sure is no sin." - Th. Fuller, The History of the Univ. of Cambridge (1840) "In a vote that will no doubt inspire diffidelity in some observers, the U.S. Senate Wednesday passed a campaign finance reform bill, 60-40." - Kevin Johnson, spizzquiz (3/20/02)
the worthless word for the day is: trucidation [fr. L. trucidare, to slaughter] /tru ci DAY shun/ obs. a cruel killing or murdering "I loathe the snails: but from loathing to actual butchery, trucidation of multitudes, there is still a step that I hesitate to take." - R. L. Stevenson, letter (1883) "Francis Bacon.. used [the Hydra myth] to lay the intellectual basis.. for the justifications of murder, which themselves have a semantics of Latin euphemism -- debellation, extirpation, trucidation, extermination, liquidation, annihilation, extinction." - Linebaugh & Rediker, The Many-headed Hydra (2000) "The National Education Association will announce a new benefit for members in its September newsletter: a $150,000 payout triggered when teachers are victims of trucidation." - Kevin Johnson, spizzquiz (7/25/2001)
the worthless word for the day is: sanable [L. sanabilis, fr. L. sanare, to heal] /SAN ah bil/ obs. capable of being healed or cured; susceptible of remedy hence, sanability "Whilst the corruptions seem Sanable and admit hopes of Cure." - Hickes & Nelson, Memoirs of the life of J. Kettlewell (1718) "Use of stem cells is expected to mean a quantum leap in the sanability of a wide range of diseases." - Kevin Johnson, spizzquiz (8/9/2001)
the worthless word for the day is: ventripotential [ad. F. ventripotent, fr. L. venter, belly + potens, powerful] nonce-word hving a large abdomen; big-bellied "An alderman is a ventripotential citizen, into whose Mediterranean mouth good things are perpetually flowing, although none come out." - New Monthly Magazine (1824) this week: nonce-words; that is, words intended by a writer for one instance only
the worthless word for the day is: delphinity [fr. L. Delphinidae, after humanity] humorous nonce-word dolphin-kind, the nature of dolphins "[H]istory has never told that the dolphins who were charmed by Orpheus were peculiar dolphins, with any special fondness for music, or an ear for melody; they were ordinary creatures of the deep, -- fish, so to say, taken ex medio acervo of delphinity." - Charles Lever, A day's ride; a life's romance (1863) (some marketing/consulting firm has co-opted this term)
the worthless word for the day is: yogibogeybox [yogi + bogey + box] nonce-word the apparatus of a spiritualist "Yogibogeybox in Dawson chambers. Isis Unveiled. Their Pali book we tried to pawn. Crosslegged under an umbrel umbershoot he thrones an Aztec logos, functioning on astral levels, their oversoul, mahamahatma." - James Joyce, Ulysses
the worthless word for the day is: epassyterotically [fr. Gk epassuteros, one after another] nonce-word one after another "..my successfulness therein amounting.. to the final discussing of some of these creditors, and, in a plausible way, according to the exigence of the persons, and circumstances of the nature, condition and quality of their security, to dispatch the residue of them epassyterotically, that is, one after another." - Sir Thomas Urquhart, Logopandecteision (1653) (in his book Literary Portraits (1920), Charles Whibley comments that Urquhart knew of a "Francis Sinclair who to 'accresce his reputation' fought a duel with a gallant nobleman.. who once in Spain slew seven adversaries 'epassyterotically, that is, one after another.'")
the worthless word for the day is: interaulic [fr. inter- + L. aula, hall, court] /in TER au lik/ nonce-word 'Existing between royal courts' {Webster, 1864}. "And now, after examining these pictures of interaulic politics and backstairs diplomacy.., we must throw a glance at the external, more stirring, but not more significant public events which were taking place during the same period." - John L. Motley, History of the United Netherlands (1860) Jonathon Green, in his comprehensive examination of dictionaries 'Chasing the Sun' (1996), writes of how English lexicons have shamelessly borrowed from one another over the last four centuries. He states that OED "in its most recent edition refers to Webster's various editions more than 5,000 times." this week: taken intact from Webster's in OED2
the worthless word for the day is: refluctuation [re- + L. fluctuation-em] /re fluk tu A shun/ very rare A flowing back {Webster 1828}; reflux "Sheet flow restored to the Kissimmee Basin by dechannelization of Canal 38 coupled with refluctuations of Lakes Cypress, Hatchineha and Kissimmee may be the most direct - [i]f not the only - means of augmenting the effective storage capacity of Lake Okeechobee." - Arthur R. Marshall, Statement To Governing Board South Florida Water Management District, 6/11/1981
the worthless word for the day is: renidification [re- + L. nidus, nest + facere, to make] /re NID i fi KAY shun/ Zool. The action of building a nest a second time. {Webster 1864} so renidify, to make another nest
the worthless word for the day is: vertiginate [fr. L. vertiginare < vertigo, a whirling around] /ver TIJ uh nate/ rare [adj] 'Turned round, giddy' {Webster, 1864} [v] to whirl dizzily around, spin, twirl "Surely never did argument vertiginate more!" - Samuel T.Coleridge, Literary Remains
the worthless word for the day is: demephitize [fr. de- + mephit-ic + -ize] rare 'To purify from foul unwholesome air' {Webster 1828} hence, demephitization <a railroad that should demephitize its stale old smoking cars> - David Grambs, The Endangered English Dictionary
the worthless word for the day is: schm- (or shm-) [fr. various Yiddish words] colloq., chiefly U.S. an element used to form a nonsense term of derision by preceding the initial vowel or by replacing the initial consonant or consonant cluster (forming a rhyme) <fancy, shmancy> "'Time; schmime,' said Pappa irritably." - Isaac Asimov, Second Foundation (1953) "'It's murdering your own child, is what it is.' 'Child, schmild. A complex protein molecule, is all.'" - Thomas Pynchon, V. (1963) "Nowadays even the headboards boast a book shelf or two and some fancy-schmancy reading lights." - Daily News & Analysis, India - Mar 5, 2007
Published in The New Yorker © February 14, 2005
the worthless word for the day is: finiteless /FI nite less/ Webster's 1913: a. Infinite. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne. without bounds, unlimited non-word, or not? OED2 comments: a spurious word in the Dictionaries. Cited by Johnson from Sir T. Browne (Pseud. Ep. I. ii, where the real reading is 'fruitlesse') {fruitless??} :finiteless is boundless, a word hardly worth perpetuating while we have the far better one infinite to express the same sense: - The London Encylopaedia, ed. by Th. Curtis (1839) Forcible, fulgid, epanthous, auxetic, Entitative, finiteless, informative, excellent, Interpretative, latitudinous, crepitant.. - The Fat Knight (1896)
the worthless word for the day is: pompatus [perhaps fr. puppetutes, coined by Vernon Green?] nonsense word (or maybe not) Some people call me the space cowboy. Yeah! Some call me the gangster of love. Some people call me Maurice, Cause I speak of the Pompatus of love. - Steve Miller, The Joker ("It doesn't mean anything--it's just jive talk.")
the worthless word for the day is: genethlialogy [Gk genethlialogía, casting of destinies] /jeh neth lee OL uh jee/ the science of calculating positions of the heavenly bodies on nativities; the act or art of casting nativities; astrology hence, genethlialogic ""I guess so," I said, being polite. "I, uh, don't go much for astrology." "Not astrology, genethlialogy. One's superstition, the other's science." "Um."" - Frederik Pohl, Gateway (1976)
the worthless word for the day is: schmegeggy (Yiddish) /shmeggy/ also shmegegge 1) a contemptible person; an idiot 2) baloney; hot air; nonsense "'He better get it this afternoon, that ludicrous schmegeggy!'" - Saul Bellow, Herzog (1964) "'Don't give me that shmegegge!'" - L. Roster, Joys of Yiddish (1968)
the worthless word for the day is: batrachian [Gk batrachos, frog] /buh TREY kee uhn/ relating to tailless amphibians, esp. frogs and toads "Traditionally he ought to see snakes, but he doesn't. Good old tradition's at a discount nowadays. Eh! His--er--visions are batrachian. Ha! ha! No, seriously, I never remember being so interested in a case of jim-jams before." - Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900) bonus word: jim-jams - slang 1) the jitters 2) delirium tremens
the worthless word for the day is: scaturient [fr. L scatere, to flow out] /skah TUR ee ent/ gushing forth, overflowing; effusive "[H]e wielded that most fatal of all implements to its possessor, a pen so scaturient and unretentive, that we think he must have been often astonished not only at the extent of his lucubrations, but at their total and absolute want of connection with the subject he had assigned to himself." - Scott(?), in The Edinburgh Review (1805) "Marshall, who later would remark that a single English word was more interesting than the entire NASA space program, tried to memorize three new words a day - words like scaturient and sesquipedalian - and use them in conversation. He collected lists of the words and in later life habitually pored over etymologies in the Oxford English Dictionary as if they were mystic runes." - Philip Marchand, Marshall McLuhan: a biography (1998)
the worthless word for the day is: tonitruous [fr. L tonitruare, to thunder] /tu NI tru ous/ thundering, fulminating (also tonitruant) ""Skill and kill, kill and skill, Carolina," muttered Gattineau, -- words brushed aside by Simms's tonitruous baritone as by a hand sweeping aside gnats." - Craig Bell, Lost in the Elysian Fields, v. 3 (2002) bonus word: tonitruone - a device or instrument for imitating thunder (so that's what that's called!)
the worthless word for the day is: firnification [fr. G. firn + -i + -fication] /FIR nuh fi KAY shun/ the process whereby snow is changed to firn, or névé "The third type of snow change is melt-freeze metamorphism, or firnification. Sunlight melts the surface of the snowpack, and the meltwater moves down into it, where it refreezes at night. Firn -- hard, firm snow that still has spaces between grains -- forms from old snow. Glacial ice, from which the air has been pressed, comes next." - Steven A. Griffin, Snowshoeing (1998)
the worthless word for the day is: immanitous [fr. L immanis brutal, frightful, enormous] nonce word monstrous in size or strength; immane there's no telling why de Bernières seemingly coined this word instead of going with (the archaic) immane "These immanitous men were single-handedly capable of carrying pianos uphill on their necks, in the full fire of the sun, with nothing but a cushion by way of assistance." - Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings
the worthless word for the day is: epistemic [fr. Gk epistem(é), knowledge] /ep uh STEE mik/ of or pertaining to knowledge or the conditions for acquiring it "Henceforth, we will call this claim that knowledge excludes luck the 'epistemic luck platitude'. The problem, however, is that it is difficult to take this thesis entirely at face-value, despite its initial plausibility." - Duncan Pritchard, Epistemic Luck (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: foofaraw [origin uncertain; possibly fr. Sp. fanfarron, boaster] /FOO fuh raw/ 1) a great fuss over a trifling matter 2) an excessive amount of decoration or ornamentation "All this mommixity and foofaraw was compressed into a street no more than three paces wide, and was further complicated by the dogs who.. slept promiscuously in the paths and alleyways." - Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings (2004) bonus word: mommixity (?) from mommuck, to bother; thus, all this fuss and bother
the worthless word for the day is: mameluke [fr. Arabic mamluk, slave] /MAM uh look/ 1) usu. cap. a member of an Arabic military class, originally composed of slaves 2) lowercase (in Muslim countries) a slave "Conceivably both fort and causeway had been built by an Egyptian Mameluke for the passage of his pilgrim-caravan from Yenbo." - T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) ""Tell me," I said, changing my tone dramatically, "do you enjoy working for Wild, being treated like his mameluke?" - David Liss, A Conspiracy of Paper (2000)
the worthless word for the day is: opisometer [fr. Gk opiso, backwards + -meter] /AH peh SAH med er/ an instrument with a revolving wheel for measuring curved lines, as on a map "The women were found in a wild maze of maps.. and Bell had armed herself with an opisometer." - Wm Black, The strange adventures of a phaeton (1872) "Almost no one uses the opisometer we mentioned above, for example; spatial properties of features can be determined by geographic information systems on digital representations." - Dan Montello, Paul Sutton, An Introduction to Sci. Research Methods in Geography (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: scripturient [L scripturire, to desire to write] obs. having an overwhelming urge to write from Butler's epitaph upon William Prynne: This grand scripturient paper-spiller, This endless, needless, margin-filler..
the worthless word for the day is: teratism [Gk terat marvel, monster + -ism] /TER eh tizm/ 1) an anomaly of organic form and structure: monstrosity 2) love of the marvelous; worship of monsters (also teratosis, Med.) "The Bringer looked with scorn on the snarling, caged teratism." - Neal Shusterman, Thief of Souls (2000) ""I can't understand why we've run across so many teratisms. I can't remember ever seeing one in my practice at the Medical Center." - James Gunn, The Immortals (2004) [see Google for role-playing and heavy metal usages]
the worthless word for the day is: unsonsy Brit. dial. 1) boding or causing misfortune: unlucky 2) unpleasant, disagreeable "[A]t these unsonsy hours the glen has a bad name." - Sir Walter Scott, Waverly (1814)
the worthless word for the day is: velitation [fr. L velitari, to skirmish] /vel i TEY shun/ now rare a minor dispute or contest "While the ladies in the tea-room of the Fox Hotel were engaged in the light snappish velitation, or skirmish, which we have described, the gentlemen who remained in the parlour were more than once like to have quarrelled more seriously." - Sir Walter Scott, St. Ronan's Well (1824) "And in a tense atmosphere of mistrust, with normal diplomatic channels severed, any small clash or velitation can spur escalation back to full-scale war." - Virginia Page Fortna; Peace Time (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: docity [perhaps alter. of docility] dial. teachableness; quickness of comprehension "She's all docity jist now, keep her so." - Thomas Haliburton, The Clockmaker (1838)
the worthless word for the day is: testudineous [fr. L. testudine-us] /tes tju DIN eus/ 1) like the shell of a tortoise {Blount} 2) slow, like a tortoise "I don't think there is one of our boarders quite so testudineous as I am." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, The professor at the breakfast-table (1860) "Like a fool, I'd gone down on one knee to comb the stiff hacked grass for the keys, my mind making connections in the most dragged-out, testudineous way, knowing that things had gone wrong, that I was in a lot of trouble, and that the lost ignition key was my grail and my salvation." - T. C. Boyle, Stories (1998)
the worthless word for the day is: cumber-ground [fr. cumber, to block up] a person or thing that uselessly cumbers the ground; a useless or unprofitable occupant of a position "Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?" - Luke xiii. 7 "It hath been a cumber-ground these three years; cut it down." - John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (1684) "Thou hast been a cumber-ground long already, and wilt thou continue so still?" - John Bunyan, The Holy War (1682) "Now at the parish cottage wall'd with dirt, Where all the cumber-grounds of life resort.." - John Clare, The Village Minstrel, etc. (1821)
the worthless word for the day is: furciferous [fr. L furcifer, yoke bearer, scoundrel] /fur CIF er ous/ rare rascally "[O]bserve the dilemma into which these furciferous knaves must drop." - Thomas De Quincey, Autobiographic Sketches (1835) "[sotto voce] Furciferous wabbit!" - Elmer Fudd (19??)
the worthless word for the day is: sustention [fr. sustain, after such pairs as retain : retention, detain : detention] /suh STEN chen/ an act or instance of sustaining; the state or quality of being sustained "Those of extreme theological sophistication.. were gratified that someone might have turned up who would lend their shoulder to the great cosmic wheel, directing their spiritual power to the sustention of the universe." - Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings "Her Adagio sustention is a magnificent prayer, dedicated to the composer Yudina called "the Sun who blinds me... and I cannot and dare not play being blind."" - Gary Lemco, Audio Audition
the worthless word for the day is: jolterhead [origin obscure] also jolthead obs. a blockhead ""Hold your confounded stupid tongue, will you, you old jolterhead;" and on this occasion he put his hand on his father's shoulder and shook him." - Anthony Trollope, Castle Richmond (1861)
the worthless word for the day is: jawhole [fr. jaw, an outpour of liquid + hole] Scot. an uncovered sewer, house-drain, or cesspool "That odoriferous gulf, ycleped, in Scottish phrase, the jawhole; in other words, an uncovered common sewer." - Sir Walter Scott, St Ronan's Well (1824) "On one occasion he outwitted some caterans who were hovering in the neighbourhood, and who ultimately entered his house to rob it, by concealing his money in the nave of an old wheel, which lay in the jaw-hole before the door as a kind of stepping-stone." - George Gilfillan, The Life of Robert Burns (1886)
the worthless word for the day is: quakebuttock a coward "His mind's eye watched a boy. It watched him at home and it watched him at school and it was watching him now at the Forty Foot. And looking back, it seemed to Jim that he had never prayed for himself at all but for this other boy that his mind's eye watched, a rawney- looking molly of a boy, the son of a quakebuttock, a coward himself, praying that he should hear his calling and join the brothers like Our Lady wished." - Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys (2001) "If you weren't such a quakebuttock, you wouldn't need a gun." - anon. (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: tongue-shot [tongue + shot, range or distance] speaking or talking distance, voice-range "I wish I was within ear-shot of you, and tongue-shot too; for I would speak as well as hear." - S. Wilberforce, The Life of Wm Wilberforce (1838) "She would stand timidly aloof out of tongue-shot." - Charles Reade, The cloister and the hearth (1861)
the worthless word for the day is: footpad [fr. foot + obs. pad, highwayman] historical a highwayman who robs on foot "Roads in the neighbourhood of the metropolis were infested by footpads or highwaymen." - Ch. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841) ""There can be murders without hate," said Cadfael grimly. "Footpads and forest robbers take their victims as they come, without any feeling of liking or disliking."" - Ellis Peters, One Corpse Too Many (1979) (thanx to Ray Haupt)
the worthless word for the day is: barlafumble [fr. parley, call for truce + ?] Scot. obs. a call for a truce by one who has fallen in fighting or play; a request for a time out ..do not go To fight, lest ye, when canons rumble, With shame for fear, cry barlafumble. - A Book of Scotish Pasquils [sic], ed. by J. Maidment (1868) (thanx to William Kendrick)
the worthless word for the day is: enthymeme [fr. Gk enthyméma thought, argument] /EN thuh meem/ Logic a syllogism or other argument in which a premise or the conclusion is supressed "With an enthymeme, it is not even necesary to state the premise that is already believed. As a practical matter, most deductive arguments in everyday life are of this type. To convince your listener that a witness is smart, you might just say that he is a rocket scientist. Your listener will supply the implicit premise..." - Ronald J. Waicukauski, et al, The Winning Argument (thanx to Anthony Quas)
the worthless word for the day is: jargogle [origin unknown, but perhaps related to jargon] obs. to confuse or jumble "I fear, that the jumbling of those good and plausible Words in your Head.. might a little jargogle your Thoughts, and lead you hoodwink'd the round of your own beaten Circle." - John Locke, A Third Letter for Toleration (1692) "Congratulations, dearest; I wouldn't have thought it possible, but you've found something else to jargogle." - Peter Bowler, Superior Person's Book of Words (1990)
the worthless word for the day is: dunkle Scot. [v] to make a dint or pit in; to dint [n] the cavity produced by a blow, or in consequence of a fall "Victoria came to sit at the foot of her bed and see her stomped so ugly with two teeth on the floor. Ree could feel the dunkle with her tongue." - Daniel Woodrell, Winter's Bone (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: automagically [blend of automatic + magically] /aw toh MAJ i klee/ now chiefly computer jargon automatically, esp. in a way that seems ingenious or inexplicable; as if by magic automagically - Automatically, but in away that, for some reason (typically because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps even too trivial), the speaker doesn't feel like explaining to you. - Jargon File 4.2.0. 23 Jan. 2007 "The Thor Automagic Washer is a streamlined cabinet with two separate tubs... Each tub is complete in itself--compact, sanitary, operated automagically." - Chicago Tribune, 2 Sept. 1945 "Of course, life would be easier if the spam could be deleted automagically." - Guardian, 27 Feb. 2003
the worthless word for the day is: truthiness [fr. truth via truthy] 1) obs. rare truthfulness, faithfulness 2) nonce usage the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true "Everyone who knows her is aware of her truthiness." - J. J. Gurney, Memoirs (1824) "In its 16th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted truthiness as the word of the year [2005]." - American Dialect Society, Jan 6, 2006 "Comedian Stephen Colbert [co-opted] the word "truthiness" to describe "the quality by which a person claims to know something intuitively, instinctively, or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts," to quote the Wikipedia entry on it. In other words, things that we just believe because they feel right." - John Whiteside, Houston Chronicle Jan. 17, 2007 American Dialect Society Words of the Year
the worthless word for the day is: pluto [fr. Pluto, the declassified planet] to demote or devalue someone or something ""Plutoed" has been chosen as word of the year for 2006 by the American Dialect Society, beating "climate canary" in a run-off vote." - BBC News, 8 Jan. 2007 "Yet there were those who felt the politico most plutoed in the shift was Vic Toews, who went from being justice minister to president of the treasury board." - Montreal Gazette, Jan 10, 2007
the worthless word for the day is: mattoid [fr. It. matto, mad + -oid, resembling] /MAD oid/ [adj] semi-insane [n] a semi-insane person; a borderline psychopath "These mattoid scientists make a direct and disastrous attack upon the latent self-respect of criminals." - H. G. Wells, Mankind in the Making (1903) "The hostages give him an excuse not to obey the mattoids who enrich themselves by creating wars." - Orlando Sentinel, 10 Sept. 1990
the worthless word for the day is: vendition [F. fr. L. vendere, to vend] /ven DISH en/ the act of vending or selling; sale "Several taverns are set apart solely for the vendition of this liquor." - Henry Fielding, Journal of a voyage to Lisbon (1754)
the worthless word for the day is: miserabilism [fr. L miserabilis, miserable] /MIZ er(a) ba LIZ em/ a philosophy of pessimism; self-indulgent pessimism; gloomy negativity ""Capitalism sure is sunny!" cried the unemployed Laredo toolmaker, as I was out walking, in the streets of Laredo. "None of that noxious Central European miserabilism for us!" And indeed, everything I see about me seems to support his position." - Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: epenthesis [fr. Gk epentithenai, to insert a letter] /e PEN(t) thuh sis/ the insertion (or development) of a sound or letter within a word epenthesize, to so insert epenthesis describes the extraneous vowel sounds you hear in (and the misspelling of) words such as athlete, film, nuclear, realtor, Lithuania and Tijuana(!) -- this purportedly stems from a need to make things easier to pronounce! in Phonetics, the special case of the development of a vowel between two consonants is also called anaptyxis [Gk, unfolding]
the worthless word for the day is: irpe a round of hogwash then.. irpe, choose one: a) UK dial. : eructation b) a fantastic grimace, or contortion of the body c) a footpath d) a comb used to clean freshly sheared wool e) Scots. : a drink before battle
the worthless word for the day is: euphuistic [After Euphues, in Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit by John Lyly; from Gk euphues, shapely] /YU fyu IS tic/ of the nature of or characterized by euphuism (high-flown diction); hence, euphuistically "Pistol, however, is not an original invention of Shakespeare's; but he was intended to be a satire upon some euphuistic and bombastious characters that are to found in other plays of his time.." - Charles C. Clarke, Shakespeare Characters (1863) "As for Gongora, that puerile asshole, that proparoxytonic, euphistic [sic] versifier, that dabbler in vortices, tricliniums, promptuaria, and vacillating Icaruses, that shadow on the sun and eructation of the wind... he is the last thing that worries me now." - Arturo Perez-Reverte, Purity of Blood (trans. by Margaret Peden) (2006) "A poem, most euphuistically entitled The Cherubic Wanderer." - Robert A. Vaughan, Hours with the mystics (1860)
the worthless word for the day is: diversiloquent [fr. L. diversus, diverse + loquentem, speaking] /dy ver SIL o kwent/? rare speaking diversely Diversiloquent, speaking in different ways. - John Craig, A new universal etymological, technological, and pronouncing dictionary of the English language (1848) Electric, effable, true-born, didactive, Diversiloquent, dynastic, conclusive... - The Fat Knight (Anon.) (1896)
the worthless word for the day is: extirp [ad. F. extirper, ad. L. ex(s)tirpare] obs. or arch. extirpate (to root out, exterminate) "Who such a black concatenation Of mischief hath effected, that to extirp The memory of't must be the consummation Of her and her projections--" - John Webster, The White Devil [T]he vice is of a great kindred, it is well allied: but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down. - Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (III. ii. 110) "Errors or defects in the details are readily extirped or supplied." - John Austin, Lectures on jurisprudence (1873) (thanx to Dan McCartney for the heads-up)
the worthless word for the day is: diversivolent [fr. L. diversus, diverse + volentum, wishing] /dy ver SIV o lent/? desiring strife or differences: contentious "Lawyer. Most literated judges, please your lordships So to connive your judgments to the view Of this debauched and diversivolent woman, Who such a black concatenation Of mischief hath effected, that to extirp The memory of't must be the consummation Of her and her projections-- Vittoria. What's all this--? Lawyer. Hold your peace. Exorbitant sins must have exulceration." - John Webster, The White Devil "Yo[n] diversivolent lawyer, mark him: "knaves turn informers, as maggots turn to flies; you may catch gudgeons with either." - ibidem (thanx to the gang at Wordsmith Talk)
the worthless word for the day is: bouleversement [F, fr. OF bouleverser, to overturn] /boole VER suh MA(n)/ 1) a violent disturbance; tumult 2) a turning upsidedown: reversal
"The stupor and surprise produced in my mind by this extraordinary change in the posture of affairs was perhaps, after all, that part of the adventure least susceptible of explanation. For the bouleversement in itself was not only natural and inevitable, but had been long actually anticipated as a circumstance to be expected whenever I should arrive at that exact point of my voyage where the attraction of the planet should be superseded by the attraction of the satellite -- or, more precisely, where the gravitation of the balloon toward the earth should be less powerful than its gravitation toward the moon." - Edgar Allen Poe, The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaa
the worthless word for the day is: ferial [L. feria, ordinary day] /FE ri al/ of or relating to a weekday on which no feast is observed "These accretions were not assigned to special seasons, or portions of the year, or treated as preparations for great feasts, but were said on ferial days throughout the year." - E. Bishop, The Prymer (1895)
the worthless word for the day is: syne [OE siththan, since] /sine/ Scots [prep] since [adv] since then: ago should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days o' auld lang syne - Robert Burns
the worthless word for the day is: ferial [L. feria, ordinary day] /FE ri al/ of or relating to a weekday on which no feast is observed "These accretions were not assigned to special seasons, or portions of the year, or treated as preparations for great feasts, but were said on ferial days throughout the year." - E. Bishop, The Prymer (1895)
the worthless word for the day is: badot Amelia W. thinks "badot cumber-ground" is a fabulous insult and wants to say it aloud.. [ad. F. badaud gaping fool, idler] /ba DOH/ obs. rare silly "[T]he people of Paris are so sottish, so badot, so foolish and fond by nature, that a juggler, a carrier of indulgences, a sumpter-horse, or mule with cymbals or tinkling bells, a blind fiddler in the middle of a cross lane, shall draw a greater confluence of people together than a.. preacher." - Rabelais, Gargantua (trans. by Th. Urquhart, 1653) bonus word: sottish - drunken (or stupid)
the worthless word for the day is: hoddypeak [fr. hoddy-dod, a shell-snail + peak] obs. a fool, simpleton, blockhead ""Don't stand there gawking like a hoddypeak! Alert the castle: Lady Elaine returns!"" - Joan E. Goodman, The Winter Hare (1996) "By creatively combining disparaging archaisms, you can brand your nemesis a badot cumber-ground ("silly person who takes up space"), a furciferous lordswike ("rascally traitor"), a balatronic hoddypeak ("buffoonlike blockhead").. [etc.]" - Richard Lederer, Word Wizard (2006)
the worthless word for the day is: majuscule [fr. L. majusculus, rather large] /MA jus kyul/ [n] a large (capital) letter [adj] uppercase so, majuscular compare minuscule "Majuscule came before minuscule, not only in rank but also in time." - David Diringer, The Book Before Printing (1982) "Uncial, in calligraphy, ancient majuscular book hand characterized by simple, rounded strokes." - Encycl. Brit. XII (1997)
the worthless word for the day is: hypersnickety [hyper- + snickety : fussy, pernickety] /HY per SNIK iti/? nonce-wd excessively over-particular "But Richard Dawkins knows better. He is just as leery of idle armchair speculation and hypersnickety logic- chopping as any hard-bitten chemist or microbiologist.." - Daniel Dennett, The Selfish Gene as a Philosophical Essay (pdf) "persnickety, pernickety - Both adjectives mean "over-particular, over-fussy." Persnickety is the American version of Scottish and British pernickety..." - The Columbia Guide to Standard American English
the worthless word for the day is: knackatory [fr. knick-knack, itself a redup. of knack, a toy or trifle] also knick-knackatory a shop for finnimbruns (knick-knacks) "I keep a nicknackatory, or toy-shop." - Thomas Brown, Works (1704) "Salter described it as a knackatory and himself as a gimcrack-whim collector..." - Mary Cathcart Borer, Two Villages (1973) "He saw Ribbins and Looking-glasses.. and Hobbyhorses.. and all the other finnimbruns that make a compleat Country Fair." - Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler (1653)
the worthless word for the day is: abligurition [f. L. abligurire, to spend in luxurious indulgence] /ab lig yoor ISH un/ obs. lavish spending on food and drink "Abligurition, a prodigal spending in Belly-Cheere." - Nathan Bailey, An universal etymological English dictionary (1742) When abligurition prevails, Instead of some fries I'll eat snails. I won't care about taste, Nor the money I'll waste. Were they pricey, I'd eat monkey tails. - John Scunziano, OEDILF
the worthless word for the day is: centicipitous [fr. L. centum + caput, head] /cen ti CIP i tous/? obs. rare hundred-headed {in Bailey} Hence, then can you marvel when editors pure, So incorrupt, chaste, whom naught e'er could allure, Unsullied, untainted, untarnished, clean, Immaculate, holy like virute's pure queen, ... Neat, able-minded, powerful, vigourous Aboveboard, abluent, astral, crucigerous, ... Alexipharmic, acquisitive, lucky Centicipitous, anthophorous, plucky... - The Fat Knight (Anon.) (1896) bonus words: abluent - washing away; carrying off impurities crucigerous - bearing or marked with a cross alexapharmic - counteracting or driving away poison anthophorous - flower-bearing (thanx to Kelly Egnitz)
the worthless word for the day is: postpositive [fr. L. postpositus, pple of postponere, to put after] /post POZ i tiv/ [adj] a modifier placed after or at the end of a word [n] a postpositive word "A discussion of the postpositive use of adjectives in such groups as law ecclesiastical." - American Speech, v. XI (1936) (thanx to the gang at AWAD)
the worthless word for the day is: logocentrism [fr. Gk logos, word + -centrism] /lo go CEN triz em/ 1) literary analysis that focuses on words and language to the exclusion of non-linguistic matters such as the author's individuality or historical context 2) excessive attention paid to the meanings of words or distinctions in their usage hence, logocentric "Logocentrism relies on an assumption of secure meaning that the slippery nature of the language system cannot supply. Hence logocentrism is metaphysical, something posited as outside the verifiable world." - Susan Rowland, Jung's Ghost Stories (2004) this week: more words about words
the worthless word for the day is: haplography [fr. Gk haplo- single + -graphy writing] /hap LOG ruh fee/ the inadvertent omission of a repeated letter(s) in writing (e.g. writing philogy for philology) compare haplology, for pronunciation haplography is often cited as a problem in the translation of ancient books: "The commonest kind of omission is that known as ~." - W. M. Lindsey, Intro. to Latin Textual Emendation
the worthless word for the day is: pundigrion [origin unknown, but prob. the source of pun; perhaps a humorous alteration of It. puntiglio (equivocation, trivial objection)] obs. rare a play on words; pun "A few days [we] passed at Liverpool..; and had it been quite sure that we should have found you at no inconvenient season, perhaps I might have crossed the river; in which case had there come on a storm, so as to endanger the ferry-boat, I could not have prayed to the Lord to have Mersey upon me! What a face of abomination you will make at that pundigrion!" - Robert Southey, letter to C. W. Wynn, Esq. M.P.
the worthless word for the day is: logomachist [Gk logomachia + -ist] /lo GAM eh kest/ one given to disputes over or about words (also logomach) "One feels inclined.. to ask like some old logomachist what he exactly means by 'is'." - Pall Mall Gazette May 3, 1882
the worthless word for the day is: grammatolatry [fr. Gk grammato- + Eng. -latry, worship of or fanatical devotion to] /GRAM eh TAL eh tree/ the worship of letters or words; fig. concern for the letter with disregard for the spirit cf. epeolatry, word-worship "The worship of words is more pernicious than the worship of images; grammatolatry is the worst species of idolatry." - R. D. Owen, The Debatable Land (1871) "If it is true.. that the writing down depends upon the reading up, then the causal decoupling of these reciprocal functions both assumed and promoted by contemporary forms of grammatolatry will have only a tangential effect on the problems our students continue to face." - David Solway, Lying About the Wolf (1997)
the worthless word for the day is: oicotype [fr. Gk oikos house, dwelling + type] cf. ecotype* /OY ko type/? a term proposed by Carl Wilhelm von Sydow to designate a local or regional form of a migratory folktale "The final chapter of the study includes an attempt to establish oicotypes by linking the variation of the story to their geographical distribution." - Leho & Maglaughlin (Compilers), Kurdish Culture and Society (2001) "...the concept of oicotype is a major theoretical construct in folkloristics even though admitedly it is not widely known outside the ranks of folklorists." - Alan Dundes, Life Is Like a Chicken Coop Ladder (1984) * a subdivision of an ecospecies adapted to an environment
the worthless word for the day is: perpession [fr. L. perpessio, endurance of suffering] /per PES sion/ obs. endurance of suffering "The eternity of destruction in the language of Scripture signifies a perpetual perpession and duration in misery." - Bp John Pearson, Exposition of the Creed (1659) not to be confused with: perpension, [fr. L. perpensio] careful weighing in the mind <give me the results of your perpensions -- R.L.Stevenson> --- regarding murdrum: yes, it is a palindrome; and yes, it does remind one of Steven King's REDRUM (The Shining)
the worthless word for the day is: murdrum [ML] /MUR drum/ early English law, now hist. 1) the killing of someone in a secret manner 2) a fine imposed by the Crown on a manor or hundred (district) in which such a killing had been committed (also called the murder fine) "The institution of the murdrum fine by William I was of particular significance in making clear the distinction between French and English." - H. R. Loyn, Anglo-Saxon England.. (1962) "[F]or the unsolved murders of Frenchmen, they inflicted a particularly punitive version of the long-lasting murdrum fine.." - Rebecca Colman, Saint George for England, Contemporary Review, Apr. 1997
the worthless word for the day is: musard [F., fr. muser, to loiter, trifle] /MU sard/ obs. a dreamer; an absent-minded person "Alle men wole holde thee for musard, That debonair have founden thee; It sittith thee nought curteis to be." - Chaucer, The Romance of the Rose
the worthless word for the day is: zoosemiotics [fr. Gk zoi-, animal + semiotics, the study of signs and symbols] /ZO uh sem ee OT ics/ the scientific study of signaling behavior in and across animal species "By the early 1970s, it was clear to me that restricting semiotic inquiry to our species was absurd and that its field of reference had to be extended to comprehend the entire animal kingdom in its maximum diversity. I designated this expanded field zoosemiotics." - Thomas A. Sebeok, Global Semiotics (2001) this week: some words borrowed from other logolepts The Phrontistery (currently a lost link.. where are you, Forthright??)
the worthless word for Thansgiving day is: epulose [fr. L. epulum, a feast] /EP u lose/ obs. rare feasting to excess hence epulosity, a feasting to excess "Epulosity, great banqueting." - Nathan Bailey, The universal etymological English dictionary (1760)
the worthless word for the day is: impignorate [fr. Latin pignerare, to pledge] obs. [v] to place in pawn; to pledge or mortgage [pple] pledged, pawned, mortgaged "I have got the yacht paid off in triumph, I think; and though we stay here impignorate, it should not be for long, even if you bring us no extra help from home." - Robert Lewis Stevenson, a letter (1889) this week: some words borrowed from other logolepts World Wide Words
the worthless word for the day is: micrology [fr. Gk mikrologia minute discussion, frivolity] /mahy KROL uh jee/ 1) attention to petty details or distinctions; nitpicking "Micrology registers the occurence of thought as the unthought that remains to be thought in the decline of grand philosophical thought." - David Rodowick, Reading the Figural, or, Philosophy After the New Media not to be confused with 2) a science dealing with the handling and preparation of microscopic objects for study [fr. micro- + -logy] this week: some words borrowed from other logolepts skb list o' nifty words
the worthless word for the day is: schizothemia [fr. Gk schizo- < schizein, to split + thema, theme] rare digression by means of a long reminiscence; repeated interruptions of a conversation by the speaker introducing other topics (not to be confused with schizothymia) this week: some words borrowed from other logolepts Luciferous Logolepsy
the worthless word for the day is: antigodlin [origin unknown] also antigoglin U.S. dialect (Midl., SW) [adj] lopsided, out of line: askew [adv] at an angle; crosswise, diagonal(ly) <he went antigodlin across the field> ""Your skirt is all antigodlin" (hangs unevenly)." - Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) (thanx to Joan Houston Hall, ed. of DARE)
the worthless word for the day is: bobbasheely [fr. Choctaw itibapishily, lit., my brother with whom I was suckled] U.S. dialect (Gulf States) /?/ [n] a very close friend, chum [v] to associate with someone in a friendly fashion ""How's that for a idea? Huh, Sugar Boy? You and Sweet Thing bobbasheely on back to the hotel now, and me and Uncle Remus and Lord Fauntleroy will mosey along any time up to midnight."" - William Faulkner, The Reivers (1962)
the worthless word for the day is: blatterer [L blaterare to prate, babble] dialect one who blatters; a babbler; a noisy, blustering boaster <he blattered along and managed to inquire about pretty much everybody -- Mark Twain> also blatteration, a blattering "All the famous blatterers and swindlers." - N. Y. Nation, 3 Jan. 1867
the worthless word for the day is: treeware [tree + -ware, after hardware, software, etc.] computing slang, freq. humorous documentation or other printed material "But the word slips have gone obsolete now, as Simpson well knows. They are treeware." - James Gleick, NY Times Magazine Nov. 5, 2006
the worthless word for the day is: tatum [named to evoke the rapid-fire piano playing of jazz keyboardist, Art Tatum] Music the smallest perceptual time interval between successive notes in a rhythmic phrase "For example, if all nominal durations in a work are divisible into sixteenth durations, and the sixteenth duration is the largest such divisor, the sixteenth value is deemed the tatum for the work." - David Huron, Music Cognition Handbook (thanx to belligerentyouth :)
the worthless word for the day is: fumifugist [L. fumus, smoke + fugare, to put to flight, fugere, to flee] /fu MIF u gist/? obs. rare 'One who or that which drives away smoke or fumes.' - Webster, 1864 (thanx to Jackie!)
the worthless word for the day is: scry [fr. shortening descry] 1) obs. descry 2) to practice crystal gazing hence, scrying "The bowl of water you scry with is part of the oceans of our earth. ... As you scry with a crystal ball, you scry with the wisdom of the Earth." - Sally Dubats, Natural Magick: The Essential Witch's Grimoire "Scrying is an old-fashioned practice of divination that involves staring into a reflective object, such as a magic mirror, crystal ball, or a still pool or bowl of water (as Nostradamus did)." - Complete Idiot's Guide to Psychic Awareness "John Dee's adventures with alchemy and the scrying glass take him ever further from his god." - from a review of John Crowley's Daemonomania
the worthless word for the day is: ejulation [L. ejulatio, fr. ejulare to wail, lament] /EJ u LAY shun/? obs. a wailing, lamentation "..with dismal groans, And ejulation, in the pangs of death." - J. Philips, Cyder (1708)
the worthless word for the day is: irreption [fr. Latin irreptus] /eh REP shun/ creeping or stealing in, stealthy entrance <the irreption of pseudoclassical plurals in technical language> "A protection against casual and deplorable irreptions creeping into the language." - Encounter, Feb. 1974 also, irreptitious: characterized by creeping in, esp. into a text "A firm grounding in the 'sovereign command' of Scripture was the starting point for a critical and historical assessment of 'what is authentical, what erroneous, irreptitious and inserted by monks.'" - Justin Champion, Republican Learning (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: bêtise [F, fr. bête, beast, fool, foolish, fr. OF beste, beast] /bay TEZE/ 1) a stupid or foolish act or remark 2) stupidity; folly "The bêtise of our human community is everywhere." - Thornton Wilder (?) "We have no word very fitly to represent the character of the affair. The French would have called it a betise. It was a betise of the first magnitude." - Sir John W. Kaye, History of the War in Afghanistan (1851)
the worthless word for the day is: enatic [L. enatus] also enate related on the mother's side <enatic clans> bonus word: agnatic (also agnate) - related on the father's side [L. agnatus] "I regard it as now established that the elementary components of patrification and matrification, and hence of agnatic, enatic, and cognatic modes of reckoning kinship are, like genes in the individual organism, invariably present in all familial systems." - Meyer Fortes, Kinship and the Social Order (2005)
the worthless word for the day is: congou [ad. Chinese kung-fu work, and workman, kung-fu-ch'a, app. tea on which work or effort is expended - omission of the f is the foreigner's corruption (Prof. Legge)] /KUN(j) go/ a fine grade of black tea imported from China "The chief varieties of black tea, arranged in [an upward order of excellence] are Bohea, Oolong, Congou, Campoi, etc." - F. W. Pavy, Food & Dietetics (1875) "For example, the company sold very little of the more expensive and better quality Congou tea since it cost twice as much as Bohea tea from China. There was clearly a good opportunity here for the selling of illicit Congou and within a decade it had become one of the most popular black teas in Britain." - William J. Ashworth, Customs and Excise (2003) (thanx to Dan Dyckman)
the worthless word for the day is: irenology [fr. Gk irene, peace] the study or science of peace "All of these different approaches complement each other and contribute to the rich diversity of the emerging academic discipline, irenology, from the Greek word for peace, "irene."" - Ian M. Harris et al, Peace Education (2003) compare polemology, the study of war
the worthless word for the day is: terp [Frisian] an artificial mound or hillock, the site of a prehistoric village "The terp as we know it today is the result of almost 800 years of occupation and complex site formation processes." - J. C. Besteman, Excavations at Wijnaldum (thanx to C. Terp Madsen) not to be confused with terp, theater slang for 'stage dancer' or chorus girl (or even for the short form of terrapin) "Variety bestowed its succinct accolades on him: "George Balanchine has done an ace job on the terp angle."" - Bernard Taper, Balanchine: A Biography
the worthless word for the day is: contango [perhaps an alteration of continue] /cuhn TANG go/ Commerce charge paid by purchaser for postponing payment from one settling day to next compare backwardation : postponement by seller of delivery of stock; premium paid to buyer for such postponement "Heating fuels would be expected to be priced in a backwardation structure during the winter and in a contango structure during the fall." - John Elting Treat, Energy Futures
the worthless word for the day is: laocoon [after Laocoon, ancient Greek priest of Apollo who is portrayed in a 1st century B.C. sculpture in a heroic struggle against two giant serpents] /lay AK oh wan/ one that struggles heroically with crushing or baffling difficulties "Hardy wrote as he pleased, just as any popular novelist does, quite unaware of the particular problems of his art, and yet it is Hardy who gives the impression of being cramped, of being forced into melodramatic laocoon attitudes, so that we begin to appreciate his novels only for the passages where the poet subdues the novelist." - Graham Greene, The Lesson of the Master
the worthless word for the day is: indurate [fr. L. indurare] /IN duh rate/ [v] 1) to harden 2) to inure 3) to make callous [a] hardened; obstinate cf. obdurate Thy heart indurate, shall poetic woe, And plaintive ejulation, nought avail? - Lord John Maclaurin, On Johnson's Dictionary (1798) White as the snows of Apennine Indurated by frost. - William Wordsworth, The Eclipse of the Sun (1820) "Bertram Cornell, the indurate, cold-blooded Englishman, is struck by many arrows but remains upright and still as a statue as his comrades make their way to safety." - Dale L. Walker, Jack London: The Stories (ca. 2006) bonus word: ejulation - obs. wailing, lamentation
the worthless word for the day is: galliardise [fr. F. galliard] (or galliardize) /GAL yeh(r) dize/ archaic exuberant merriment, (extreme) gaiety "I am in no way facetious, nor disposed for the mirth and galliardize of company, yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof." - Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici (1643) "Your life is one long gaillardise." - Harper's Magazine, Feb. 1893
the worthless word for the day is: capernoited [perhaps from capernaite (a believer in transubstantiation)] /KAP er noi ted/ Scot. 1) crabbed, peevish 2) muddleheaded, tipsy "It was an ill hour that he darkened my doors in, for, ever since that, Alan has given up his ain old- fashioned mother-wit for the tother's capernoited maggots and nonsense." - Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet (1824) "Of the stark aquavitæ they baith lo'ed a drappie, And when capernutie then aye unco happy." - Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs) (1853)
the worthless word for the day is: caponier [a. F. caponnière, ad. Sp. caponera in same sense] /kae peh NIE(r)/? a covered passage across a moat or ditch "a covered passage across the ditch of a fortified place, for the purpose either of sheltering communication with outworks or of affording a flanking fire to the ditch in which it stands" - Stocqueler Mil. Dict. (1853) "Its buildings are vast, with towers and pinnacles, tunnels and embayments, wharves and anchor stands and a chapel and a ravelin tower and a clutch of caponiers, all hewn and blasted from the pink-and-white limestone, and sewn together with plates of rusting iron." - Simon Winchester, Outposts bonus word: ravelin a projecting out-work in a fortification, having two embankments forming a salient angle; half-moon
the worthless word for the day is: internesia [blend of internet + amnesia] informal the inability to remember either the location of or information contained on a web site cf. infonesia, the inability to remember where one saw a piece of information "Bookmarking pages is one tool that helps users remember favorite Internet sites or backtrack to important information, but often bookmarking too many pages will only contribute to internesia." - Webopedia "Internesia means "inability to remember where on the Web you saw a particular bit of information," and I presume a lesson plan to overcome this mental lapse is called an intercourse." - William Safire, The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: nocuous [fr. L. nocere, to harm] /NAH kyu wus/ harmful; noxious hence: nocuously, nocuousness (both rare) "To have that 'other woman', what's her name, accuse him of adultery is self-seeking, nocuous, media sensationalism." - San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Jan. 1992
the worthless word for the day is: meticulosity [from meticulous (after curious : curiosity)] /muh tik yuh LAS ud ee/ the quality or state of being meticulous: meticulousness "..unconsciously explaining for inkstands, with a meticulosity bordering on the insane, the various meanings of all the different foreign parts of speech he misused..." - James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake (1939) "Pam Wilkinson, editor extraordinaire, and my son Stuart Calderwood, who canvased the manuscript with a meticulosity bordering on the insane, have from many blunder freed me, if not foolish notion." - James L. Calderwood (1989, Acknowledgment) "Never before has the story of the twisted course of these negotiations been told with such richness of detail and meticulosity of documentation." - Journal of Modern History (Vol. 52, Dec. 1980)
the worthless word for the day is: internecion [fr. L. internecare, to kill, destroy] /in ter NESH un/ rare (mutual) destruction, slaughter, massacre "By the Spaniards in the West Indies, the numbers of Internecions and Slaughters would exceed all Arithmetical Calculation." - Sir Matthew Hale, The primitive origination of mankind (1677) "The Civil War Battle of Antietam is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, an internecion that claimed more than 23,000 lives." - 2004 Scripps National Spelling Bee Cons. Word List
the worthless word for the day is: objurgatory [L. objurgatorius] /ob JURG uh tor ee/ expressing (a harsh or violent) rebuke ""You did not head for your pretended creek," he added, after dealing in some objurgatory remarks that we do not deem it necessary to record, "but steered for that bluff, where every soul on board would have been drowned, had we gone ashore."" - James Fenimore Cooper, The Pathfinder (1841) "[Mrs. Poyser] was remarkable for the facility with which she could relapse from her official objurgatory tone to one of fondness." - George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859) "I note and can to some extent sympathize with the objurgatory tone of certain critics who feel that I write too much because, quite wrongly, they believe they ought to have read most of my books before attempting to criticize a recently-published one." - Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates (1989)
the worthless word for the day is: pessimize [fr. L. pessimus, worst] /PES uh mize/ to take a negative view of; make the worst of also, to act or speak in a pessimistic manner cf. pessimal "'You don't stay at Notre Dame very long making a lot of third-and-eights,' Holtz pessimized." - Chicago Sun Times Sept. 6, 1999 (quoting Lou Holtz) "People optimize their own opinion and pessimize others'." - E. Robert Morse, Amazement (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: vertiginous [ad. L. vertigo, a whirling] /ver TIJ uh nus/ 1) revolving; whirling round 2) affected with vertigo or dizziness; giddy, dizzy 3) unstable "Wherever it was, in whatever city, it was a vast and crowded station. Through its high windows the sun made great solid bars of light in the dusty air that were vertiginous to look up at: he remembered that." - John Crowley, The Translator (2002) "Recall my earlier mad cows and how they stayed young as they moved about at vertiginous speeds, while the sensible farmer got older every day." - Joao Magueijo, Faster Than the Speed of Light (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: gracile [L. gracilis] /GRAS ul/ or /GRAS ile/ 1) gracefully slender 2) graceful "They were divided into two types-a slender "gracile" type and a burlier, more primitive-appearing "robust" type." - Donald. C. Johanson, Lucy: The Beginning of Humankind (1987) "The iceberg shattered like a gracile wine glass being sung to by a heavy soprano." - Reuters, October 02, 2006 thanx to long-time contributor M. Kramm!
the worthless word for the day is: nutant [fr. L. nutare, to nod] chiefly Bot. nodding; drooping "The old bandstand stood empty, the equestrian statue of the turbulent Huerta rode under the nutant trees wild-eyed evermore, gazing over the valley..." - Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano (1947)
the worthless word for the day is: transvection [fr. L. trans, across + vehere, to carry] /trans VEK shun/ 1) obs. the act of carrying from one place to another 2) Math. a method for deriving invariants and covariants 3) flying on something via magical powers (witchcraft) "The consummate salvation of the Saints, or their transvection into those eternal Mansions of glory." - Henry More, Apocalypsis apocalypseo (1680) "--You do not, the Emperor's physician asked Doctor Dee, believe in the transvection of witches. --I do not, said John Dee." - John Crowley, Daemonomania
the worthless word for the day is: opiniatry [fr. French opiniâtreté] /eh PIN ieh tri/ now rare the quality or state of being opinionated: mental obstinacy or inflexibility also opiniatrety (obs.) "The floating of other men's opinions in our brains makes us not one jot the more knowing, though they happen to be true. What in them was science, is in us but opiniatrety; whilst we give up our assent only to reverend names, and do not, as they did, employ our own reason to understand those truths which gave them reputation." - John Locke, An Essay.. (1690) "Hard-working students such as ourselves should take such sage advice to heart, especially after several long sessions of opiniatry and a full meal." - James Axtell, Beyond 1492 (1992)
the worthless word for the day is: suzerainty [F. suzeraineté] /SU zeh ren tee/ the dominion of a suzerain: overlordship "One cannot come away from St Helena without shaking one's head and muttering that something must be done; but nothing has been, nothing is, and nothing ever will be done - under the suzerainty of Britain, at least." - Simon Winchester, Outposts "Under Saddam's suzerainty, the trains ran on time and Shia and Sunni lived in relative peace - in the same neighborhoods." - Free Market News Network Sept. 26, 2006
the worthless word for the day is: matelot [F] /MAT low/ or /MAT uh low/ Brit. sailor "Britain gave up Port Edward, the famous sanatorium where unnumbered matelots had recovered from malaria and gazed out at the sea and the mountains of Shantung was handed over to the Chinese Navy, and the fleet sailed away, for ever." - Simon Winchester, Outposts "Matelot, matelot, where you go my heart goes with you; matelot, matelot, when you go down to the sea." - Nicholas Delbanco, Running in Place (2001) (quoting Noel Coward)
the worthless word for the day is: ogrous [apparently adj. form of ogre] /OH grus/? having the appearance or characteristics of an ogre: ogreish "[The Gibralter apes] are truly loathsome creatures, in a state of permanent distemper, ogrous packages of green and grey fur, all teeth, stale fruit and urine." - Simon Winchester, Outposts (1985) "Now, in another bed of the same size lay the ogre's seven ogrous daughters, each wearing a gold crown." - William F. Hansen, Ariadne's Thread (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: lubricity [fr. L. lubricus, slippery] /loo BRIS ity/ the quality or state of being lubricious: slipperiness; lasciviousness Haste thee, Thought, and bring with thee Emblems of Lubricity - John Crowley, Daemonomania "Some time ago, when our highbrows, or, as they are pleased to call themselves, our intelligentsia, were all praising James Joyce's "Ulysses," I ventured to put it in the pillory as the pinnacle and apex of lubricity and obscenity." - James Douglas, Sunday Express, Nov. 1922 this week: some words from John Crowley
the worthless word for the day is: ludibrium [L., mockery, derision] a divine comedy(?) "He wasn't composing, only recording; there was no reason for him to write down his ludibrium, his celestial jest or comedy, at all, except for others to read; he himself would not forget it." - John Crowley, Daemonomania cf. ludibrious - obs., rare scornful, mocking
the worthless word for the day is: athanor [ad. Arab. attannur, the furnace] /ATH en or/ also, formerly, athenor an alchemist's furnace designed to maintain uniform heat "The athenor of the alchemists, for instance, the Philosopher's Egg within which the transformation from base to gold took place -- was it not a microcosm, a small world?" - John Crowley; Little, Big (1981) "I have sat whole weeks without sleep by the side of an athanor, to watch the moment of projection." - Samuel Johnson; The Rambler, No. 199 (1752)
the worthless word for the day is: exemplum [L., model, example] /eg ZEM plum/ 1) example, model <an exemplum of heroism> 2) a story illustrating a moral point or sustaining an argument "..history's game of Telephone that always pushes anecdotes toward clarity, wonder, or exemplum." - John Crowley, Daemonomania (2000)
the worthless word for the day is: operose [fr. L. operosus : laborious, industrious] 1) tedious, wearisome 2) industrious, diligent "The deed had proved more operose than he'd expected." - John Crowley, Little, Big (1981) "This punishingly operose text bears the hallmarks of having been written by a committee. " - Internat. Affairs, No. 57 (1981) "He is an operose Bachelor of Music..." - New Republic; Feb. 26, 1995
the worthless word for the day is: ophiophilist [fr. Gk ophio-, serpent + philos, loving] rare a person who loves snakes "An 'ophiophilist' is one who loves snakes, and you don't get a chance to use the word any too often." - Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times, 17 July 2000 bonus word: ophiophagous, snake-eating
the worthless word for the day is: incompossible [ad. L. incompossibilis] /in kom POS sih bel/ now rare not possible together; wholly incompatible or inconsistent; hence, incompossibility "Incompossibility, it will be seen, is only incompatibility let loose. Instead of such low language as "Go heel yourself - I mean to kill you on sight," the words, "Sir, we are incompossible," would convey an equally significant intimation and in stately courtesy are altogether superior." - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary "It is a moment [of recognition] which may be signalled by trompe l'oeil effects, when two realities (the past and the future) dance in one moment or body, before time moves again, and they become incompossible." - John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
the worthless word for the day is: exenterate [fr. L. exenterare] obs. in literal sense to take out the entrails of; to eviscerate, disembowel "They.. went into a poore woman's house.. and bought a hen, and made the woman exenterate it, and then stuffed the bodie with snow..." - John Aubrey, Brief Lives [of Bacon] (1697) "A boxful of papers.. which I have to read and exenterate." - Robert Southey, a letter (1822) "Let any man of correct taste cast his eye on such words as denominable, opiniatry, ariolation,.. discubitory, exolution, exenterate, incompossible, incompossibility, indigitate, &c. and let him say whether a dictionary which gives thousands of such terms, as authorized English words, is a safe standard of writing." - An American view of [Johnson's] Dictionary (1807)
the worthless word for the day is: inwit [ME., in + wit] obs., used as conscious archaism by modern writers 1) conscience 2) reason, intellect, understanding; wisdom "They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit. Conscience." - James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) "There is no light in your conscience And your acts shed, therefore, no light In your inwit." - Ezra Pound, The classic anthology.. (1955) "Very probably Bond fans will be able to turn a blind eye to the bites and agenbites of new-Bond's inwit." - The Listener, 28 Mar. 1968 cf. agenbite of inwit
the worthless word for the day is: haggersnash [Sc. term applied to tart language {Jamieson}] Sc. dialect : a spiteful person "Tova swatted Seth on the back of his head. "Why must I be stuck with this little haggersnash?" she said." - Brian Snelson, Shaturanga (2000)
the worthless word for the day is: faleste [F., thrown into the sea] cf. infalistatus obs. a form of capital punishment inflicted upon a malefactor by laying him bound upon the beach sands until high tide carries him away "INFALISTATUS. L. Lat. In old English Law. Exposed upon the sands, or sea shore. A species of punishment mentioned in Hengham... See Faleste." - A. M. Burrill, A Law Dictionary and Glossary (with an assist to Spartann!)
the worthless word for the day is: notaphilist [fr. L. nota, note + -phile] /no TAF il ist/ a person who studies notaphily; a collector of banknotes "'I am a notaphilist,' booms Brian Turner.. which means, as you know, that he 'spends a lot of present day money collecting banknotes.'" - Daily Telegraph, 26 Jan. 2000 this week: collector words
the worthless word for the day is: ephemerist [fr. Gk ephemeris, diary] /ee PHEM er ist/ 1) obs. one who keeps an ephemeris; a journalist 2) obs. one who studies the daily motions and positions of the planets 3) a collector of ephemera [paper items (as posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles] "Almost all the material that ephemerists collect is intrinsically worthless." - Sunday Telegraph, 27 May 1990 "To the uninitiated the word [ephemera] is faintly suspect. To the initiate it may or may not cover a multitude of items, from cigarette cards to uniform buttons. To the Ephemera Society it has fairly precisely defined limits: It covers printed or handwritten items, produced specifically for short- term use and, generally, for disposal." - The Ephemerist, Journal of the Ephemera Society (1975)
the worthless word for the day is: mirabiliary [fr. L. mirabilis, marvel] obs. a person who deals in marvels, a miracle-worker; a collector of marvelous things "The use of this work.. is nothing less than to give contentment to the appetite of curious and vain wits, as the manner of Mirabilaries [sic] is to do..." - Francis Bacon, Of the advancement of learning (1605)
the worthless word for the day is: paroemiographer [L. paroemiographus] (also paramiographer) /Par a mi OG ra pher/ a writer or collector of proverbs "The closest parallel outside of Egypt is furnished by the paroemiographer Zenobius." - Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc. (2000) "You will recall that the interview is to take the form of a short talk by.. Rochegrosse-Bergson from the Sorbonne -- the distinguished anthropologist, antistructuralist, mythologist and paroemiographer." - Penelope Fitzgerald, The Golden Child (1999)
the worthless word for the day is: mome [a factitious word introduced by Lewis Carroll] nonce-word (explained by Carroll as) grave, solemn All mimsy were the borogoves; And the mome raths outgrabe. - L. Carroll, Rectory Umbrella & Mischmasch (1855) "'Mome' has a number of obsolete meanings such as mother, a blockhead, a carping critic, a buffoon, none of which, judging from Humpty Dumpty's interpretation, Carroll had in mind." - Martin Gardner, in The Annotated Alice (1999) (not to be confused with mome, the noun)
the worthless word for the day is: ophicleide [F. fr. Greek ophis, snake + kleid-, key] /OFF ih klide/ a keyed brass instrument of the bugle family with a baritone range that was the structural precursor of the bass saxophone and was replaced by the tuba and euphonium in brass sections see picture of Madame Curie playing the ophicleide! "...the tramping of our feet had grown to a solemn music, joined by instruments that were not trumpets nor ophicleides nor any others known to me." - Gene Wolfe, The Urth of the New Sun (thanx to Faldage, etaoin, Fr. Steve, et al)
the worthless word for the day is: durbar [Pers. and Urdu darbar, court] East Indian /DUR bar/ 1) the court of an Indian prince; an audience held by a prince 2) a hall or place of audience "Lord Curzon held his darbar about this time." - Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography (1948) "It took several hours, this great imperial dog-durbar, and must have tested Sir Bruce to the limits of his ingenuity. But eventually, with the aid of rifles, strips of strychnine-laced beef and whips made from palm fronds, the dogs were all herded or dumped dead inside the shed." - Simon Winchester, 'Diego Garcia' (Granta 73)
the worthless word for the day is: swith [fr. OE swithe, strongly] 1) obs. strongly, forcibly; extremely, excessively 2) chiefly dial. instantly, quickly "Kings and nations -- swith awa'!" - Robert Burns, 'Louis, what reck I by thee' (1788) (thanx to Logwood)
the worthless word for the day is: bailiwick [fr. bailiff + ME wik, town] /BAY leh wik/ 1) a person's specific area of interest, skill or authority 2) the office or jurisdiction of a bailiff ""Bailiwick" today means something less precise and legalistic than in merry old England, more an area of expertise or authority based on familiarity with the subject." - The Word Detective "..in the case of Man, in the cases of the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and of Alderney, Great Sark, Little Sark, Brechou, Lihou, Jethou and Herrn, not even the most fervent apologist would suggest that an Imperial foot was placed against a colonial neck..." - Simon Winchester, Outposts (1985)
the worthless word for the day is: cymotrichous [fr. Gk kuma, wave + trich-, hair] /SY ma tre kes/ Anthrop. having wavy hair hence cymotrichy, wavy-hairedness "The wavy-haired, or Cymotrichous people, are those who belong to the Aryan Root-Race. They comprise nearly all Europeans, the Hamites and Semites, the Iranians, the Dravidians and Aryans of India, the Indonesians, and some Polynesians." - The Theosophist Magazine, Jul-Sep 1923 "Some cymotrichous peoples have very hairy bodies." - A. C. Haddon, The races of man and their distribution (1924)
the worthless word for the day is: extramundane [fr. late L. extramundan-us] situated in or relating to a region beyond the material world; fig. out of this world "Matthew Gregory Lewis was the leader of a romantic school, both of poetry and prose fiction, abounding in diablerie and all manner of extramundane machinery, to which the perturbed temper of the times gave a momentary sucess." - The new American cyclopædia (1858) "What may be called an extramundane zeal." - Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More (1829)
the worthless word for the day is: yclyketed [olde English] latched "..and the dore closed, Y-keyed and yclyketed..." - William Langland, The Vision of William Conc. Piers the Plowman (1393) ""Yclyketed," which originated in the 1390s and is equivalent to the more modern "latched," might not be a word you need to find in a hurry -- or ever for that matter -- but there are more than 600,000 others to choose from." - Kate Flatley, The Wall Street Journal Mar 23, 2000 (The OED Goes Online..) [okay, so this is one of the really, truly worthless words in OED! and I have no clue how it was pronounced.]
the worthless word for the day is: disquixote [dis- + quixote, to act like Don Quixote] to disillusion "I will not be the first to tell him of our quixoting." - Jane Porter, Thaddeus of Warsaw (1803) "However, he came home the most disquixotted cavalier that ever hung up his shield at the end of a scurvy crusade..." - John P. Kennedy, Swallow Barn [p.54] (1832)
the worthless word for the day is: pie-faced [pie + faced] orig. U.S. slang, chiefly derogatory having a round, flat face or a blank expression; stupid a pair of pie-faced louts - A.J. Liebling "Did you put that pie-faced infant up to bally-ragging Mr. Bassington-Bassington?" - P. G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves (1923) "I told her that Hanna Klovack was a piefaced little fathead." - Walter Stewart, Right Church, Wrong Pew (1990) (not to be confused with po-faced!)
the worthless word for the day is: quorate [fr. quor(um) + -ate] of a meeting: attended by a quorum; hence inquorate, not attended by a quorum "In a tiny department of three, what happens if the head is wed to one of the other two? The department meeting becomes quorate during intercourse." - Times Higher Educ. Suppl., 11 May 1973 "The meeting.. was an inquorate one and therefore had no validity and was entirely unofficial." - Times, 13 May 1974 (thanx to J. Hilton) --- regarding yesterday's word: I typo'd wiffled. OED2 has whiffled as a headword, and for both citations. Wodehouse has whiffed in both instances, according to amazon.com. QED(not)..
the worthless word for the day is: whiffled [origin obscure; cf. squiffy] (or is it whiffed?) slang intoxicated, drunk "Intoxicated? The word did not express it by a mile. He was oiled, boiled, fried, plastered, whiffled, sozzled, and blotto." - P. G. Wodehouse, Meet Mr. Mulliner (1927) "'Have you forgotten that I did thirty days.. for punching a policeman.. on Boat-Race night?' 'But you were whiffled at the time.'" - P. G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves (1930) bonus word: swacked [fr. Sc. swack, to gulp, swill] U.S. slang drunk, intoxicated "My father used to drink till he saw the light, and he prided himself on being able to say anything at any time of the day or night, no matter how swacked he might be, without tripping over a syllable." - P. G. Wodehouse, Laughing Gas (1936)
the worthless word for the day is: uterine [fr. L. uterinus] 1) of or relating to the uterus 2) having the same mother but different fathers uterine brothers 3) being enclosed and dark; womblike "That is how I become: even on spring days I can be wrapped in a uterine fog." - Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame.. (trans. by Geoffrey Brock)
the worthless word for the day is: magniloquence [fr. L. magniloquus] the quality or state of being magniloquent : speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner "'You owe nothing to me,' said Plantagenet, with some little touch of magniloquence in his tone." - Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her "He was a suave elderly man who balanced his imposing body, when at rest, upon a large silk umbrella. His magniloquent western name was the moral umbrella upon which he balanced the fine problem of his finances. He was widely respected." - James Joyce, Dubliners
the worthless word for the day is: goombah [fr. It. dial. compare, gumbare : literally, godfather] (also goomba) 1) a close friend or associate - esp. among Italian- American men 2) mafioso; broadly: gangster 3) a macho Italian-American man "I didn't see any goombahs, who mostly avoided Little Italy on weekends when people came to see goombahs." - Nelson DeMille, The Lion's Game ""Goombah" has now become the modern catch phrase for the decades-old stereotypical Italian American wise guy starring in the latest generation of gangster movies..." - Anthony V. Riccio, The Italian American Experience.. --- note: there is some conjecture that exflunct actually preceded exfluncticate in Pioneer days, although I can find no usage before the 1950s.
the worthless word for the day is: exflunct [back formation from exfluncticate, itself a mock Latinism from U.S. pioneer days] to demolish or utterly destroy, to overcome or beat thoroughly; to exhaust, completely use up "'With all this excitement we've had, I think the men are just about completely exfluncted.'" - Michael D. Cooper, The Runaway Asteroid "Yet again, there are the purely artificial words, e. g., sockdolager, hunky-dory, scalawag, guyascutis, spondulix, slumgullion, rambunctious, scrumptious, to skedaddle, to absquatulate and to exfluncticate." - H. L. Mencken, The American Language (1921) "The frontiersman, ring-tailed roarer, half horse and half alligator, described himself as kankarriferous and rambunctious, his lady love as angeliferous and splendiferous. With consummate ease he could teetotaciously exfluncticate his opponent in a conbobberation, that is to say a conflict or disturbance, or ramsquaddle him bodaciously, after which the luckless fellow would absquatulate." - A. Marckwardt, American English (1980)
the worthless word for the day is: marmalize [origin uncertain; perhaps fr. marmalade, after pulverize] (also marmalise) Brit. slang to thrash; to crush or destroy; also fig.: to defeat decisively "'In the words of Ken Dodd, our great national comedian, I shall marmalise 'em.'" - Sunday Times, 5 Dec. 1993 "Marmalize = A metaphor for beating you into a strawberry colored pulp." - Old Rottenhat, Dec. 2004
the classic worthless word for the day is: gruntled [back-formation from disgruntled] put in a good humor: pleased, satisfied, contented "He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled." - P. G. Wodeshouse, Code of the Woosters (1938) "An action against a barrister for negligence.. would open the door to every disgruntled client. Now gruntled clients are rare in the criminal courts." - New Statesman, 11 Nov. 1966 this week: some words used by Wodehouse
the worthless word for the day is: rannygazoo chiefly U.S. dial. or slang (see also similar forms ranikaboo, reinikaboo) a prank, trick; horseplay, nonsense "'You--bluffer!' shouted a voice, 'don't you think you can run any such ranikaboo here!'" - S. E. White, Arizona Nights (1907) "It is very little all right. If such rannygazoo is to arrive, I do not remain any longer in this house no more." - P. G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves "..she possessed to a remarkable degree that sort of quiet air of being unwilling to stand any rannygazoo which females who run schools always have." - P. G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves! "Still [Wilkie] refused to make a.. speech, still turned down.. pleas.. to let loose with a ring-tailed, rabble-rousing rannygazoo." - Time, 14 Oct. 1940 "A ranikaboo in Arizona would be known as a prank in other states." - Baltimore Sun, 20 Jan. 1947
the worthless word for the day is: volplane [F. vol plané, gliding flight] /VAL plane/ 1) to glide in or as if in an airplane 2) to make one's way be gliding "The only thing to be done was to shut off, and volplane down to the straits. And there were points in the problem which appalled me." - Aleister Crowley, Diary of a Drug Fiend "She legged it into the sitting-room and volplaned into a chair." - P. G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves!
the worthless word for the day is: oojah-cum-spiff [origin uncertain] cf. oojah fine, all right ""All you have to do," I said, "is to carry on here for a few weeks more, and everything will be oojah-cum-spiff." - P. G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves! [1st OED citation] "Then everything is tickety-boo, hunky-dory and oojah-cum-spiff." - Times, 15 Sept. 1984 "For the first couple of centuries all was oojah-cum-spiff." - Observer, 21 Nov. 1993
the worthless word for the day is: palter [origin unknown] /POL ter/ 1) to act insincerely or deceitfully: equivocate 2) now rare to haggle, chaffer hence, paltering "..what other Bond Then secret Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter?" - W. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene I "Well, we Woosters are campaigners. We can take the rough with the smooth. But to say that I liked the prospect now before me would be paltering with the truth." - P. G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves! "..hatred of the girl who had dared to palter with strangers; an utter distrust of the sincerity of her refusal to yield him up..." - Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
the worthless word for the day is: snooter [fr. snoot : to nose, to snub (U.S. dialect)] to harass, bedevil; to snub (only in P. G. Wodehouse) "My Aunt Agatha.. wouldn't be on hand to snooter me for at least another six weeks." - P. G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves "You know, sometimes it seems to be as if Fate were going out of its way to such an extent to snooter you that you begin to wonder if it's worth while continuing to struggle." - P. G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves!
the worthless word for the day is: chitinous [fr. Gk chiton] made of or resembling the hard horny substance (chitin) of which the integument of insects or crustaceans is composed "And then, behind the wind came the sounds. Sounds of things that were not metal or plastic or glass but neither were they human. Sounds of rising notes, of chitinous surfaces sandpapering against one another, of water being heated to steam, of tympani echoing from a mountaintop." - Harlan Ellison, Shatterday "A bird pellet may contain chitinous fragments from the insects which have been eaten." - Peter Weaver, Birdwatcher's Dictionary
the worthless word for the day is: dybbuk [Yiddish dibek] the wandering soul of a dead person believed in Jewish folklore to enter and control a living body "I had no idea if [he] was merely the product of my own mind, a sick and twisted, deranged and malevolent phantom of a personality that had finally split, or if he was a disembodied spirt, an astral projection, a dybbuk or poltergeist or alien from the center of the Earth that had come to wreak murder.. using me as his unwitting tool." - Harlan Ellison, In the Fourth Year of the War ""Possessed, you say?" The Rabbi paused and stroked his beard waiting to hear more, "You mean a dybbuk?"" - Ken Goldstein, The Dybbuk
the worthless word for the day is: vanishment [vanish + -ment] an act of vanishing or state of having vanished "He remembered that [day] now. And found the emotion.. to react to this terrible vanishment of the world." - Harlan Ellison, Shatterday "As they dimmed and spread, legs of light crept down from their point of vanishment, brightening wherever they passed through the earlier glows." - Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky (not to be confused with banishment)
the worthless word for the day is: ergodic [erg + Gk hodos, way + -ic] 1) of or relating to a process in which every sequence or sizable sample is the same statistically and therefore equally representative of the whole 2) involving or relating to the probability that any state will recur hence ergodicity RK Dillon writes: When things seemed utterly chaotic & disorganized and then some glimmer of resolution finally began to appear, [John Bird] would credit it to ergodic process breakdown - antientropy. "Under certain circumstances a system will tend in probability to a limiting form which is independent of the initial position from which it started. This is the Ergodicity Property." - Gustav Herdan, Type-Token Mathematics
the worthless word for the day is: antientropic [anti- + entropy] tending towards order (as of man's intellectual power) "The physical is inherently entropic, giving off energy in ever more disorderly ways. The metaphysical is antientropic, methodically marshalling energy. Life is antientropic. It is spontaneously inquisitive. It sorts out and endeavors to understand." - Buckminster Fuller, Synergetics "And she wanted the young man to go away and begin fulfilling the destiny that would produce antientropic energy by hastening the onrush of the Infinite Dark Mass." - Harlan Ellison, Shoppe Keeper
the worthless word for the day is: claustrophial [fr. L. claustrum, confined space + -phile] nonce word used to describe a space which could only be appreciated by someone who desires to be confined "The on-air studio in which they sat was a claustrophial box, fifteen by ten, with two windowed walls: one side looked into the control room; the other looked into the waiting room [for] taking and screening phone calls from the general public. The studio seemed somehow smaller than usual, and throat- cloggingly filled with menace. And it had started out being such a lovely day." - Harlan Ellison, Flop Sweat
the worthless word for the day is: catchpole [fr. Anglo-French cachepole, literally, chicken chaser, fr. cacher + pol, chicken < Latin pullus] also catchpoll a sheriff's deputy or bailiff; esp. one who makes arrests for failure to pay a debt: bumbailiff (disparaging) but, "An instrument consisting of a six-foot pole, furnished at the end with metal bars and springs so arranged as to catch and hold be the neck or a limb a person running away." (Robert. Hunter, The Encyclopaedic Dictionary) and "One that catches by the poll, though now taken as a word of contempt. Yet in ancient times it was used without reproach for such as we call Serjeants of the Mace, bailiffs, or any other that we use to arrest men upon any action." (Thomas Blount, A Law Dictionary and Glossary) "The chair and its contents had become the object of a local pilgrimage, and a number of Saldaña's catchpoles were needed to hold back the crowd while the judge and the scribe drew up their documents and Martín Saldaña made his cursory examination of the corpse." - Arturo Perez-Reverte, Purity of Blood (trans.) "But I.. kept looking anxiously outside, expecting at any moment to see the catchpoles of the corregidor appear with a new warrant for don Francisco's arrest, to punish his arrogant lack of caution." - Arturo Perez-Reverte, Captain Alatriste (trans.)
the worthless word for the day is: bricolage [F. < bricoler, to putter about] /BREE ko LAZH/ construction achieved by using whatever comes to hand; also, something constructed in this way cf. bricoleur "His photographs divide along definite lines of contrast. The most obvious is.. a contrast between the bricolage of popular life and small trading, and the formal plan of the aristocratic parks." - The Times, 21 Dec. 1971 "Even the decor is a bricolage, a mix of this and that." - Los Angeles Times Aug. 24, 1986 "All knowledge, whether one knows it or not, is a species of bricolage, with its eye on the myth of "engineering." - Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology (trans. preface)
the worthless word for the day is: lampadedromy [Gk lampadedromia] Gk Antiquity a torch-race; a race (on foot or horseback) in which a lighted torch was passed from hand to hand (erroneously in Webster: lampadrome) also lampadephore, a torchbearer "The lampadedromy was a race run in ancient Greece. Contestants carried lit torches, and the winner was the first to finish with his torch still lit. The race was run in honor of Prometheus." - New York Times trivia quiz #78
the worthless word for the day is: noctuolent [fr. L. noctu, by night + olent, redolent of] obs. rare of a flowering plant: more strongly scented at night than during the day "Dog-rose, The noctuolent plants, of which there are several kinds, as some of the geraniums, and of the jasmines, etc." - Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopædia (Suppl. 1753) "noctuolent (NOK-too-o-lent) smelling strongest at night - the noctuolent bog on the property" - David Grambs, The Endangered English Dictionary not to be confused with noctilucent; e.g., night, smelling strongest at: noctuolucent (from index to The Endangered English Dictionary)
the worthless word for the day is: pejorate [fr. L. pejorare to become worse, make worse] to make worse: depreciate "You do not appear to me to recognise the gravity of your situation, or you would be more careful not to pejorate the same." - R. L. Stevenson, Catriona: a sequel to 'Kidnapped' (1893) "Although the tendency is for words to pejorate, this one [sc. raffish] has ameliorated. It suggests a certain kind of swagger, yes, but not so unfavorable as its origin (riffraff) would indicate." - Max Nurnberg, I Always Look Up the Word Egregious (1981)
the worthless word for the day is: uncomeatable [un- + come-at-able : attainable] also un-come-at-able unattainable; inaccessible Characterized by Johnson as ‘a low, corrupt word’. "My Honour is infallible and uncomatible." - William Congreve, The Double-dealer (1694) "For instance, the word inaccessible, though long in use among us, is not yet, I dare say, so universally understood by our people as the word uncomeatable would immeditely be, which we are not allowed to write." - Ben Franklin, The Pennsylvania Gazette, June 10 1731 "Dr. Donne was mentioned as a writer of the same period, with a very interesting countenance, whose history was singular, and whose meaning was often quite as "uncomeatable," without a personal citation from the dead, as that of any of his contemporaries." - William Hazlitt, New Monthly Magazine, Jan. 1826
the worthless word for the day is: catastrophonical a nonsense word "A sign of good shaving, my catastrophonical fine boy." - John Marston, The Dutch Courtezan "If enough new words were cast at theatregoers, some would stick and become part of common usage while others would fade into obscurity the moment the play concluded. Thus, for every 'capricious' there is a 'catastrophonical'..." - Richard Scarr, in The Drama of John Marston
the worthless word for the day is: concupiscible [fr. L. concupiscere]] lustful, desirous; archaic : that merits desire, suitable to be longed for or lusted after; greatly desirable "He would not, but by gift of my chaste body To his concupiscible intemperate lust, Release my brother.." - W. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
the worthless word for the day is: latrinology [fr. latrine, ad. L. lavatrina + -logy] the study of bathroom graffiti (latrinalia) "Latrinalia reputedly was coined by Alan Dundes, a professor at UC Berkeley who apparently has made an academic specialty out of latrinology, the study of restroom writings." - Charles H. Elster, There's a Word for It! "Years of experience have revealed that latrinology is a field of limited value, save for improving one's handwriting analysis, but "they wash these walls to stop my pen // but the bathroom poet strikes again" is a classic." - unknown
the worthless word for the day is: enigmatology [enigmato- + -logy; fr. L. (Gk) ænigma] the investigation or analysis of enigmas so enigmatologist "At Indiana University, [Will Shortz] became the first and only person to major in puzzles and to receive, in 1974, a degree in enigmatology, the art and science of puzzle construction." - Richard Lederer, A Man of My Words "Will Shortz, the current New York Times crossword puzzle editor (and former editor of Games Magazine), has called for a systematic study of the relation between puzzles and culture under the rubric of enigmatology." - Marcel Danesi, The Puzzle Instinct
the worthless word for the day is: exobiology [fr. Gk exo, outside + biology]] the branch of biology that deals with the search for extraterrestrial life and the effects of extra- terrestrial surroundings on living organisms hence exobiologist "In the same paper [George Gaylord Simpson] opined that exobiology was a "'science' that has yet to demonstrate that its subject matter exists!"" - Steven Dick, James Strick; The Living Universe "One could be cynical and suggest that an exobiologist is drawing his wages under false pretences." - Gary Bates, Alien Intrusion
the worthless word for the day is: limnology [fr. Gk limne, lake + -logy] the scientific study of bodies of freshwater, esp. lakes and ponds so limnologist, one who studies lakes "A monumental three-volume reference work on limnology (the science of inland waters) hardly acknowledges the existence of streams." - Thomas F. Waters(!), Streams and Rivers of Minnesota "The English Lake District has been and is still a mecca for limnologists." - Nature, 25 July 1970 from the land of 10,000 lakes.. actually, there are 12,034 lakes in Minnesota of greater than ten acres.
the worthless word for the day is: asyndeton [fr. Gk asyndetos, unconnected] /ah SIN deh tahn/ Rhet. a figure which omits the conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words or clauses "[asyndeton is] the omission of the conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words or clauses, as in the phrase "I came, I saw, I conquered" or in Matthew Arnold's poem The Scholar Gipsy: Thou hast not lived, why should'st thou perish, so? Thou hadst one aim, one business, one desire; Else wert thou long since numbered with the dead!" - © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica "In the end, I settle on three rhetorical devices: anadiplosis, or repetition; asyndeton, or lack of conjunctions (as in Caesar's "I came, I saw, I conquered"); and antithesis, the juxtaposition of two opposing ideas (as in the phrase "Life is short, art is long")*." - A. J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All * that's Ars longa, vita brevis in the original
the worthless word for the day is: haboob [Arabic habub, blowing furiously] /ha BOOB/ a hot, violent wind which causes duststorms or sandstorms, esp. of the Sahara in Sudan "A haboob may transport huge quantities of sand or dust, which move as a dense wall that can reach a height of 900 metres (about 3,000 feet). Haboobs result from the northward summer shift of the intertropical front into North Africa, bringing moisture from the Gulf of Guinea." - © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica "It kind of reminds me of my life. It's my own.. fault, but I've found myself in an information haboob. A dense wall I can't see out of. I'm not even a third of the way to those glorious Zs, and my life consists of work and reading, reading and work, with a little sleep and a bowl of.. cereal in between." - A. J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All "The American haboobs are not so frequent as the Sudanese (two or three a year at Phoenix as compared with perhaps 24 a year at Khartoum)." - Scientific American, Jan. 1973 haboobs have been used to great effect by Hollywood.
the worthless word for the day is: pachycephalosaurus [sci. L.(genus name) < ancient Gk, thick-headed lizard] Paleontology a bipedal herbivorous dinosaur of the late Cretaceous, characterized by thickened, dome-like skulls "The unusual and distinctive feature of Pachycephalo- saurus is the high, domelike skull formed by a thick mass of solid bone grown over the tiny brain." - © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica "As I dive into the P's, it's [the stack of completed Britannicas] shot to above my belly button, like I've been rubbing the covers with somatotropin growth hormone. So I'm getting there. I'm not Ron Hoeflin, but I'm no pachycephalosaurus (a dinosaur with a thick mass of solid bone grown over its tiny brain, also known as the "bone-headed dinosaur")." - A. J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All somatotropin : a hormone which promotes human growth Jacobs describes Ron Hoeflin, founder of the Mega Society (much more exclusive* than Mensa), who lives in a tiny apartment in which the rent is lower than his IQ and who had stopped work on his magnum opus, a work of philosophy called "To Unscrew the Inscrutable", because he couldn't afford to replace his printer. (*99.9999th percentile, or 1 person-in-1,000,000)
the worthless word for the day is: erethism [fr. Gk erethizein, to irritate] abnormal irritability or sensitivity to stimulation (of an organ or body part) "More than ever did he seek women, urged by a nervous erithism which he could not explain or control." - George Moore, Mike Fletcher "In the past, hatters often became ill because they used mercury salts to make felt out of rabbit fur. The mercury poisoning led to a mental deterioration known as erethism. Hence the phrase 'mad as a hatter'." - A. J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All "Ingestion of mercury salts.. also affects the higher centres of the brain, resulting in irritability, loss of memory, depression, anxiety, and other personality changes. This mental deterioration, known as erethism, led to the well-known saying "mad as a hatter," because, in the past, hatters commonly became ill when they used mercury salts to make felt out of rabbit fur." - © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
the worthless word for the day is: pennyworth [penny + worth] chiefly Brit. 1) a penny's worth; that which can be bought for a penny 2) a bargain 3) a small amount; a modicum "What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now; Sleep for a week." - Will Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet (IV. iv. 31) "I like long and unusual words, and anybody who does not share my tastes is not compelled to read me. Policemen and politicians are under some obligation to make themselves comprehensible to the intellectually stunted, but not I. Let my prose be tenebrous and rebarbative; let my pennyworth of thought be muffled in gorgeous habilements; lovers of Basic English will look to me in vain." - Robertson Davies, The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks "A succession of extremely pompous commentators, historians, royal watchers, a pollster, and one individual described as a 'social critic', lined up to add their pennyworth to the debate." - Daily Mail, 17 Aug. 1992
the worthless word for the day is: culacino [It.] a mark left on a surface by a moist glass there's a slight difference of opinion as to the surface that is indicated; here are two sources: "The Italians even have a word for the mark left on a table by a moist glass (culacino) while the Gaelic speakers of Scotland, not to be outdone, have a word for the itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whisky. (Wouldn't they just?) It's sgriob." - Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue (1990) "Culacino : A drink-ring or circular stain left when a book is used as a coaster for a drinking glass. A handy Italian term which has no one-word English equivalent (and, from the perspective of book people, one of the most useful terms to be found in Howard Rheingold's entertaining book They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases)." - Between the Covers Illustrated Glossary (online) so that's what that's called.. (or is it on the tablecloth? my hunch is that the surface doesn't really matter.)
the worthless word for the day is: bundling [from bundle (vi)] traditional a former custom of an unmarried couple's occupying the same bed without undressing esp. during courtship "Van Corlear stopped occasionally in the villages to.. dance at country frolics, and bundle with the Yankee lasses." - Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809) "Before this time bundling was known primarily as something other people somewhere else did." - Bruce C. Daniels, Puritans at Play (1996) "I'm thinking about how engaged couples in Scotland were allowed in the same bed -- but were sewn up in separate sleeping bags (the practice is called ~)." - A. J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All (2004) so that's what that's called - back when I was fresh out of college, I had a roomie who got into something like this odd custom with his girlfriend; shortly thereafter I was asked to move out...
the worthless word for the day is: papillote [F.] /PA pe YOTE/ 1) a greased paper wrapper in which food (as meat or fish) is cooked 2) Hist. a small triangular piece of paper used as a curl-paper for damp hair "Except in the most formal situations, part of the appeal of fish en papillote is cutting open the paper at the table." - Fine Cooking, Feb.-Mar. 1995 "Papering, 18th cent. term for placing the paper papillotes around the wound hair preparatory to pinching it with hot pinching irons." - J. S. Cox, An illustrated dictionary of hairdressing (1966) this week: so that's what that's called
the worthless word for the day is: solidus [Med. L. solidus, shilling] (pl. solidi) diagonal, or forward slash : / (a.k.a. virgule) (appears in this sense in the Century Dictionary of 1891) "I think the 'solidus' looks very well indeed... it would give you a strong claim to be President of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Printers." - Arthur Cayley, letter to Stokes (ca. 1880) "Johnson/Jenkinson's 'oblique dash'.., which is otherwise called a 'solidus' or 'virgule'." - Archivum Linguisticum (1971)
the worthless word for the day is: nyctinasty [G. nyktinastie] /NIK teh NAS ti/ Botany plant movement associated with diurnal changes of temperature or light; e.g. the shutting of the petals of a flower at night "But the [Yucca] flowers exhibit nyctinasty, the art of being nyctotropic or, in other words, they move about at night." - H. Peter Loewer, The Evening Garden nyctinastic : relating to or caused by nyctinasty
the worthless word for the day is: slipshoddity [slipshod + -ity] carelessness, slovenliness you probably won't find this is any (other) dictionary, but these two citations show its viability: "The variations between the two [editions], far from being, as Mr. J. Vinson with his usual slipshoddity asserted, a question of orthography, are really dialectal, at least for certain verbal forms." - Edward S. Dodgson, Transactions of the Philological Society (1902) "Priority jobs are a little unusual. A symptom of bad morale and general slipshoddity. Every job should be a priority job." - Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (1992) NB: OED2 attests slipshoddiness and slipshodness used in the same sense, including this from Poe: "No error, for example, is more certainly fatal in poetry than defective rhythm; but here the slipshodiness is so thoroughly in unison with the nonchalant air of the thoughts--which, again, are so capitally applicable to the thing done.. that the effect of the looseness of rhythm becomes palpable, and we see at once that here is a case in which to be correct would be inartistic." - E. A. Poe, Marginalia (1850)
the worthless word for the day is: plerophory [fr. Gk plerophoria] archaic complete assurance; full conviction "The peace of a good conscience, and the plerophory of faith." - John Trapp (Bible commentary, 1647) "For there is an extraordinary variety of seemingly innocent objects.. by which men have elected to give what an old anonymous writer.. pleonastically calls 'the fulness of plerophory of confirmation.'" - W. H. Olding, The Gentleman's Magazine, Oaths and the Law (1899) more pleonasm: "To forbear, in some measure, that plerophory of cocksureness with which he habitually dogmatizes." - Fitzedward Hall, The Nation (1893)
the worthless word for the day is: adequation [fr. L. adaequare, to make or become equal] 1) the result of making equal: equivalence 2) the act of making equal: commensuration 3) Linguistics a semantic process whereby the meaning of a word or phrase changes under the influence of the type of context in which it typically occurs "In another way truth is defined according to that in which the notion of true is formally perfected, and thus Isaac says, 'Truth is the adequation of thing and intellect,'..." - Thomas Aquinas, The Meanings of Truth "Strict adequation can bring nonrelating as much as relating intentions into union with their complete fulfillments." - Edmund Husserl, The Shorter Logical Investigations NB: the verb adequate (to make equal, to be equal to) is obsolete
the worthless word for the day is: strepitant [fr. L. strepere, to make noise] also strepitous clamorous, noisy, boisterous (strepitous found chiefly in musical criticism) One is incisive, corrosive; Two retorts, nettled, curt, crepitant; Three makes rejoinder, expansive, explosive; Four overbears them all, strident and strepitant: Five... O Danaides, O Sieve! - Robert Browning, Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha "The magnificent, intoxicating, bewildering, the grandiose, the terrible, strepitous, ugly, convulsive, neurotic,--each finds its place." - Richard Wagner, Religion and Art (translator's preface (1897))
the worthless word for the day is: jubilate [fr. L. jubilare, to rejoice] to rejoice, exult; hence, jubilating "Hark! in heaven is mirth! Jubilate!" - Edward Bulwer Lytton, Dramatic Works (The Duchess de la Vallière) Taraba citizens jubilate over third term failure - Nigerian Tribune (column head) 17/5/2006 "'He nearly slipped from me there. I could not make him out. Who was he?' And after glaring at me wildly he would go on, jubilating and sneering." - Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim
the worthless word for the day is: ursprache [G. ur-, original + sprache, speech] usu. capitalized a parent language: proto-language "Greek, Latin and Sanskrit.. are all close enough in structure to their common progenitor, the Ursprache, to have retained the Ursprache's principal characteristic." - Arnold Toynbee, Greeks and their Heritages "A 13-year-old New Jersey girl making her fifth straight appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee rattled off "ursprache" to claim the title of America's best speller on prime-time television Thursday night." - Associated Press June 2, 2006 (a nod to SNSB on prime-time; or, when did these kids start wearing makeup?! -- kudos to Ms. Close)
the worthless word for the day is: compenetrate [med. L. compenetrare] to penetrate throughout: pervade, permeate thus, compenetration : pervasive penetration, mutual permeation (not to be confused with contemperation) "..the world of power, of influence, and of state, the world which made laws as best suited it, and executed them, the world that loved earthly prosperity and hated faith, felt itself surrounded, filled, compenetrated by a mysterious system, which spread, no one could see how, and exercised an influence derived no one knew whence." - Nicholas Wiseman, Fabiola (1855) "And this absorption, sir, and compenetration of the two ideas--land into people, people into land--the exposition of which might, in good hands, be made beautiful--is a fruitful germ of Patriotism..." - John Wilson, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1849) contemperation - obs. accommodation; also, compromise this week: other obvious offshoots
the worthless word for the day is: vincible [fr. L. vincere, to conquer] /VIN(t) suh bul/ capable of being overcome or subdued "Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know." - Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means (1937) "The foundation of the distinction between vincible and invincible ignorance lies in the disposition of the will with regard to the search for the true good." - Peter Bristow, The Moral Dignity of Man (1993)
the worthless word for the day is: exoteric [fr. Gk exoterikos, external] (compare esoteric) 1a) suitable to be imparted to the public b) belonging to the outer circle 2) relating to the outside: external "An individual can pass from the exoteric circle to the esoteric by undergoing a process of initiation in the form of scientific education." - Ludwik Fleck, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact "..calling to me with an air of superiority, like that of an esoteric over an exoteric disciple of a sage of antiquity..." - James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
the worthless word for the day is: premonish [pre- + monish (admonish); fr. L, monere, to warn] now rare to forewarn; to give warning in advance "It is an enigma you might long guess over, did not perhaps indolence and healthy instincts premonish you that, when you had it, the secret would be worth little." - Thomas Carlyle, Historical Essays "I would premonish you, as a friend..." - Sir Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose
the worthless word for the day is: phthartic [fr. Gk phthartikos, destructive] /THOR tik/ obs. rare deadly, destructive "..at the end of this Kolhari alley, a luminous fabric that leaps from the loom of language for a monstrous, phthartic flight, soaring, habromanic, glorious as song and happy as summer, till finally it sinks into the savage and incicurable complexities." - Samuel R. Delany, Flight from Neveryon bonus words: habromania - insanity in which the delusions are of a cheerful or gay character; extreme euphoria habromanic - euphoric (in the extreme) incicurable - that cannot be tamed [fr. L. cicurare, to tame + in-]
the worthless word for the day is: noctilucent [fr. L. nox, night + lucere, to shine] 1) luminescent at night or in the dark (rare) 2) Meteorol. designating a cloud that appears luminescent at night; spec. a silvery or bluish-white cloud occasionally seen in summer in high latitudes "There has been considerable dispute in the past about whether the noctilucent clouds are composed of ice particles or dust particles." - New Scientist, 25 July 1963 "Another phenomenon to watch for during June and July evenings is that of noctilucent clouds which form at a height of about 80 km in high latitudes." - Times, 30 May 1995 "To see noctilucent clouds, you need to be in the right place at the right time. The right time (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) is June and early July. The right place is typically between latitudes 45° and 60°." - Jeff Kanipe, A Skywatcher's Year (1999) "Noctilucent clouds are not just curiosities; they can be among the most splendid sights in the heavens. There is an old saying that every cloud has a silver lining, but noctilucent clouds shine entirely silver-blue -- except that they sometimes have a golden lower edge!" - Fred Schaaf, Wonders of the Sky (1984)
the worthless word for the day is: lethiferous [fr. L. lethum, death + -ferous] that causes or results in death, deadly "As we murder bishops, so is there another class of persons whom we only afflict with lethiferous diseases." - Edward Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford (1842) "At any rate, the pathogen-host relationship was not fully understood and back-contamination had resulted in lethiferous disease." - Charles M Houck, The Heavens Are Mine (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: umbrageous [fr. L. umbra, shadow > umbrage] 1) affording shade, shady; shadowy 2) inclined to take offense easily: belligerant, resentful hence, umbrageously "The Umbrageous Umbrella-maker, whose Face nobody ever saw, because it was always covered by his Umbrella." - Edward Lear, More Nonsense "Only the street lamps shone on, making a glow-worm halo in the umbrageous alleys or drawing a tremulous image on the waters of the port." - RLStevenson, The Ebb Tide between fiftyodd and fiftyeven years of age at the time after the socalled last supper he greatly gave in his umbrageous house of the hundred bottles with the radio beamer tower and its hangars, chimbneys and equilines - James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake "Cymon sat up, glowered umbrageously, and fingered his windpipe." - Godfrey Tucker, Darkweorld
the worthless word for the day is: bibliomania [fr. Gk biblio-, book + mania, madness] a rage for collecting and possessing books; thus, bibliomaniac and bibliomaniacal "The most determined, as well as earliest bibliomaniac upon record.. Don Quixote de la Mancha." - Walter Scott, The Antiquary (1816) "This bibliomaniacal anecdote is literally true." - Walter Scott, op. cit. "I am not like [The Failure], but I would like to become so. To fashion from his bibliomaniacal fury an opportunity for my own nonmonastic escape from the world." - Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame..
the worthless word for the day is: logorrheic [ad. NL logorrhea + -ic] /LO geh REE ik/ characterized by excessive use of words "Fenig is hyperactive, logorrheic, a language- secreting insect who generates millions of words and keeps them all in a massive trunk." - Mark Osteen, American Magic and Dread "A secular penitent, a logorrheic mystic, I convince myself that the most beautiful island is the one that has not been found, that sometimes appears, but only in the distance..." - Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame.. (trans.)
the worthless word for the day is: gravedinous [ad. L. gravedinosus, fr. gravedo, heaviness] obs. rare drowsy, heavy-headed {in Bailey} this is one of those words that contains the 5 vowels (aeiou) in alphabetical order without repetition; some others that are more(?) common: facetious, abstemious, arterious, arsenious, adventious, abstentious, bacterious, and tragedious the shortest word of this type seems to be the obsolete term aerious (7 letters), meaning airy if you'd like to include 'y', you can add -ly to these; e.g., facetiously hence, gravedinously, I suppose 8-)
the worthless word for the day is: omnigenous [L. omnigenus, from omnis, all + genus, kind] /om NI jen ous/ composed of or containing all kinds Myself moving forward then and now and forever, Gathering and showing more always and with velocity Infinite and omnigenous, and the like of these among them, Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my remembrancers, Picking out here one that I love, and now go with him on brotherly terms. - Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (I think I could turn and live with animals) "His collection was omnigenous, and he never ceased to accumulate books of all kinds, buying them by all methods, in all places, at all times; once by a single purchase he secured 30,000 volumes." - Holbrook Jackson, The Anatomy of Bibliomania
the worthless word for the day is: noctuary [fr. L. noctu, by night + Eng. -ary; after diary] archaic a journal of nocturnal incidents "It stands thus in a diary or rather noctuary of dreams." - Robert Southey, Omniana (1812) "When we had proceeded for a considerable time, (at least so it appeared to me, for minutes are hours in the noctuary of terror,--terror has no diary), ..." - Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer (1998)
the worthless word for the day is: trebuchet [fr. OF trebucher, to overthrow] also trebucket /treb yeh SHET/ or /treb eh KET/ a medieval catapult, a heavy siege engine for hurling large stones and other missiles ""The kid's special," Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson said of Liriano, the 22-year-old with the trebuchet for a left arm." - Jim Souhan (sports columnist!), Star Tribune, May 14 2006 "In the State Science Olympiad, Jacob Manogue and Tim Cwirla placed first with their trebuchet and second in bridge building." - Michelle Scheuermann, Watertown Daily Times, WI - May 13, 2006 "It was too bad for them that a lucky trebuchet shot decimated the formation before it could get within shooting distance of the walls." - Matt Cook, mygamer.com, 11 May 2006
the worthless word for the day is: avolate [fr. L. avolare, to fly off or away] obs. to fly away, escape, exhale, evaporate "Lo! through the scant casement of that lonely cot, which is seated on a barren furzed heath, protected from the blast by no umbrageous shelter, glimmers one sickly light.--Enter there, ye children of Mockery! the soul of one is about to avolate to those empyrean seats of bliss, where the sneer and point shall never vex him more." - G. R. W. Baxter, Humor and Pathos (1842)
the worthless word for the day is: pulicous [ad. L. pulicos-us, fr. pulex : flea] (erroneously, pulicious) archaic abounding with fleas; fleay so, pulicose : infested with fleas "A pulicious fever, caused by lying upon an old leathern sofa, prevented me from closing my eyes." - Sir George Le Fevre(!), The life of a travelling physician (1843) "Just notice, in passing, how infinitely more difficult it is to suppose a common or "generalised ancestor" for the flea and the elephant than to suppose simply, that the elepant began its terrestrial existence as an elephantine beast, and the flea as a pulicious; that the flea's terrestrial parent was originally a flea, or very flea-like; that the elephant's, was an elephant, or very elephantine. A "generalised ancestor, indeed!" - David Graham, The Grammar of Philosophy (1908) "At last a gloomy vision of our dirty and pulicose schooner obtruded itself; and we took leave of our new friends." - The Knickerbocker (1857)
the worthless word for the day is: grangerism [fr. James Granger who published a Biographical History of England, with blank leaves for the reception of engraved portraits or other pictorial illustrations of the text.] (cf. grangerize, to so illustrate) the practice of illustrating a book with engravings, prints, etc. cut from other books "The only drawback to Grangerism is that it leads to the plunder and mutilation of valuable books for the enrichment and amplification of others. It is stated in the advertisement to the fifth edition of Granger's Biographical History of England, that at its first appearance the rage to illustrate it became so prevalent, that scarcely a copy of any work embellished with portraits could be found in an unmutilated state." - George Augustus Sala, Living London
the worthless word for the day is: vespillo [ad L. vespillo; fr. vesper, evening] also vespillon obs. rare : he that carries forth dead bodies in the night to be buried, as they use in time of plague and great sickness {Blount, 1656} "VESPILLO'NES. Undertakers' men, who carried out the corpses of poor people at night-time, or in the dusk (from vesper), because they could not afford the expense of a funeral procession." - Anthony Rich, A Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities (1874) "By raking into the bowells of the deceased, continuall sight of Anatomies, Skeletons, or Cadaverous reliques, like Vespilloes, or Grave-makers." - Sir Thomas Browne, Religio medici (1643) "To test the burying-beetle (Necrophorus vespillo), the former had tied a dead frog lying on the ground to a string fastened at the upper end to a stick..." - Arthur Schopenhauer, World As Will and Representation (1958) [clang]: Bring out your dead! [clang]: Bring out your dead!
the worthless word for the day is: inadequation [in- + L. adaequare] archaic want of equivalence or exact correspondence see Brock's translation of Eco, "terms that tasted like magic words: avolate, baccivorous, benzoin, cacodoxy, cerastes, cribble, dogmatics, glaver, grangerism, inadequation, lordkin, mulct, pasigraphy, postern, pulicious, sparble, speight, vespillo..." "It is precisely their insistence on inadequation that makes ethical feminism and deconstruction utopian." - Marian Eide, Ethical Joyce "On the one hand, deconstruction reveals a certain inadequation of form and content, theory and praxis, in the manifestation of the text itself..." - The Textual Sublime: Deconstruction and Its Differences
the worthless word for the day is: topos [Gk, short for (koinos) topos, (common)place] /TOE pos/ a stock rhetorical theme or topic; a literary convention "It is a common topos to remark that thanks are due to the editor or author for raising weighty questions." - Times Lit. Supplement, 16 Jan. 1981 "They range from geography to satire to philosophical romance to nonsense, and provide material for tracing the history of the topos of the world turned upside down..." - Ronald Reichertz, The Making of the Alice Books (2000) "In Milan some weeks earlier, I had seen on television a color movie about the last stand of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie at the Alamo. Nothing is more exhilarating than the topos of the besieged fort." - Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame.. (trans.)
the worthless word for the day is: pulverulent [L, pulverulentus; from pulver-, dust + -ulentus, abounding in] /pul VER yuh lent/ consisting of or reducible to fine powder; covered or looking as if covered with dust or powder: dusty, crumbly "I do not understand their changes. Some [puffball fungi] are quite pulverulent, and emitting a cloud of dust at every touch." - Henry David Thoreau, Journal "If a cellar prefigures the underworld, an attic promises a rather threadbare paradise, where the dead bodies appear in a pulverulent glow, a vegetal elixir that, in the absence of green, makes you feel you are in a parched tropical forest, an artificial canebreak where you are immersed in a tepid sauna." - Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame.. (trans.) NB: regarding yesterday's Eco citation, translator Geoff Brock writes: In this case the literal meaning of the Italian words was beside the point -- what mattered was only that the words be obscure and sound mysterious or "magical." So I picked words that looked vaguely similar (pseudo-cognates, I called them to myself) from the 1913 Webster's Unabridged (which seemed a decent analogue for the Melzi). It's one of several passages in the book where I as the translator got to have a bit of fun. (With Eco's oversight and approval, of course.) next week we'll look at some other words from his list.
the worthless word for the day is: glaver [fr. M. Eng. glaveren] obs. to talk in a deceitfully kind or pleasant manner: flatter "Those who will glaver upon you, and seem as if their hearts were with you." - Jeremiah Burroughes, An exposition of Hosea (1643) "It was in [Nuovissimo Melzi (Italian encyclopedic dictionary)] that I had encountered terms that tasted like magic words: avolate, baccivorous, benzoin, cacodoxy, cerastes, cribble, dogmatics, glaver, grangerism, inadequation, lordkin, mulct, pasigraphy, postern, pulicious, sparble, speight, vespillo..." - Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame.. (trans./2005)
the worthless word for the day is: hesitude [fr. L. haes- (< haerere, to hold fast) + -tude] obs. rare doubtfulness I'm feeling some hesitude about today's word. - w.m.
the worthless word for the day is: mordacious [fr. L. mordax < mordere, to bite + Eng. -ious] /mo(r) DAY shus/ 1) biting or given to biting 2) biting or sharp in manner: caustic "[The snakes] were powerful and mordacious, their poison was virulent; ...he bestowed the art of healing poison on the great-spirited Kasyapa for the well-being of creation." - J A B Van Buitenen, The Mahabharata (1980) "Grand-duke and taxes were synonymes, according to this mordacious lexicographer!" - Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature (1823)
the worthless word for the day is: squadoosh Italian-American slang used to describe something that is missing, absent, or forgotten; zero, nil, nothing "I don't know squadoosh about stock-car racing! What.. number is Richard Petty? Live and learn. I figured everyone from Georgia loved racing." - Robert Cullen, A Mulligan for Bobby Jobe
the worthless word for the day is: viaggiatory [fr. It. viaggiare, to travel; ad. L. viaticum] (nonce-wd in Medwin, appropriated by Wolfe) [adj] on the move; given to traveling around [n] a journey "The viaggiatory English old maids, who scorn the continent." - Thomas Medwin, The Life of Shelly You're holding a viaggiatory sacrifice? - Gene Wolfe, Epiphany of the Long Sun Taking everything outside for a viaggiatory! However did you think of it? - Gene Wolfe, op. cit.
the worthless word for the day is: witticaster [fr. wit or witty, after criticaster; fr. L. -aster, expressing incomplete resemblance] nonce-wd a petty or inferior wit, a witling "The mention of a nobleman seems quite sufficient to arouse the spleen of our witticaster." - in Latham's Dict., quoted as from Milton
the worthless word for the day is: ombibulous [coined by H. L. Mencken; ultimately fr. L. imbibere, to drink in + omni, all] referring to someone who drinks anything "One of the fellows I can't understand is the man with violent likes and dislikes in his drams--the man who dotes on highballs but can't abide malt liquor, or who drinks white wine but not red, or who holds that Scotch whiskey benefits his kidneys whereas rye whiskey corrodes his liver. As for me, I am prepared to admit some merit in every alcoholic beverage ever devised by the incomparable brain of man and drink them all when occasions are suitable--wine with meat, the hard liquors when my so-called soul languishes, beer to let me down gently of an evening. In other words, I am omnibibulous, or more simply, ombibulous." - H. L. Mencken, Minority Report "Harold E. Stearns was addicted to a "nauseous" bootleg sherry so vile that even the ombibulous Henry Mencken, having ventured to taste it, absolutely refused to touch the stuff again." - Nathan Miller, New World Coming
the worthless word for the day is: lychnobite [fr. Gk lychnos, lamp + bios, life] /LIK no bite/ obs. rare one who labors at night and sleeps by day; one who turns night into day; a fast-liver "Lychnobite, a Night Walker." - in Bailey (1727) "Conveniently meeting in the afternoon, a Masonic rendezvous was provided where the gregarious lychnobite could in his..." - Charles M. Williams, 50 Years of St. Cecile Lodge "..a number of words are thrown in, which have either never before made their appearance in English, or of which young ladies may safely remain ignorant. Of this description are, odontalgia, otalgia, lychnobite, pseudodox, asmatography..." - The Eclectic Review (ca. 1805-1868) (that is: toothache, earache, ~, false doctrine, composition of songs)
the worthless word for the day is: paradiastole [L. ~, putting together of dissimilar things] /PAR eh DI es teli/ Rhet. a figure of speech in which a favorable turn is given to something unfavorable by the use of euphemism or partial truth [not to be confused with peridiastole (Med.)] "The rhetorical device of paradiastole, that is redescription of one thing as another--I am brave, but you are reckless; I am frugal, but you are stingy." - The Journal of Modern History (1998) "You use paradiastole when you choose your words according to whether you like or dislike the action." - Teresa Brennan, Globalization and Its Terrors (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: sevocation [fr. L. sevocare, to call aside] /sev uh KAY shun/ obs. rare a calling apart or aside a discreet sevocation of the four girls in trouble - David Grambs, The Endangered English Dictionary
the classic worthless word for the day is: hexerei [Pennsylvania German, fr. G. Hexe, witch] /hek seh RYE/ witchcraft "Never in my life have I seen a shop filled with so much religious hexerei." - John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces "To some of these folk the supernatural is still real. 'Powwow' doctors have not wholly disappeared, nor have witches and Hexerei, especially among the Busch Deutsch or 'hillmen'" - Pennsylvania: A Guide to the Keystone State
the worthless word for the day is: boak chiefly Scot. (also bolk) [v] to belch; to vomit [n] a belch, an eructation "I think it was at this moment that Patricia lurched from the table, informing everyone that she was going to be sick and indeed was as good as her word, throwing up before reaching the door ('Heinrich, fetch a clout - the lassie's boaked!')." - Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum "Sanctimonious bastard gives me the boak." - Ian Rankin, A Question of Blood
the worthless word for the day is: carriwitchet [origin unknown] /kar eh WICH et/ a hoaxing or riddling question; a pun, quibble "There is a certain exhilaration in meeting a new word and recognizing its capacities. Frequently it changes that for which it stands from the intolerable to the attractive in your estimation. I find the carriwitchet endearing, for example, though I find the pun -- which is almost the same thing -- detestable." - Scribner's Magazine (1939) "Carriwitchet, a hoaxing, puzzling question.. as 'How far is it from the first of July to London Bridge?'" - John C. Hotten, A dictionary of modern slang (1874)
the worthless word for the day is: agible [ad. L. agibilis, fr. agere : to do] obs. feasible; practicable "In my first years, my friends bestowed on me those Learnings which were fit for a Gentlemans ornament, without directing them to an Occupation; and when they were fit for agible things, they bestowed them and me on my Princes Service..." - Sir Anthony Sherley, Travels into Persia (1613)
the worthless word for the day is: imprescriptible [F] not subject to prescription: inalienable; also, absolute "..the natural and imprescriptible rights of man.. are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression." - Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man (1791) "The Argentine nation ratifies its legitimate and imprescriptible sovereignty [over the Falkland, South Georgia and South Sandwich islands]." - Belfast Telegraph, UK Apr 3, 2006
the worthless word for the day is: aurify [f. L. aurum, gold + -fy] to turn into gold "..and so are the future guineas that now lie ripening and aurifying in the womb of some undiscovered Potosi; but dig, dig, dig, dig, Manning!" - Charles Lamb, letter to Th. Manning A skill held by Midas of old Was to aurify - turn things to gold. On the plus side for him, His cup filled to the brim; On the minus, no food, so I'm told. - John Wellington Wells (OEDILF)
the worthless word for the day is: indign [fr. L. indignus, not worthy] /in DINE/ 1) archaic unworthy, undeserving 2) obs. shameful, disgraceful Let housewives make a skillet of my helm, And all indign and base adversities Make head against my estimation! - William Shakespeare, Othello (act I, sc 3) Such scope is granted not my powers indign... I have lain in dead men's beds, have walked The tombs of those with whom I'd talked, Called many a gone and goodly one to shape a sign, And panted for response. - Thomas Hardy, A Sign Seeker (poem)
the worthless word for the day is: bimanous [fr. L. bimanus or F. bimane] /BI meh nehs/ (also bimanal) having two hands: two-handed "Even in these enlightened days, many a curate who, considered abstractedly, is nothing more than a sleek bimanous animal in a white neck?cloth, with views more or less Anglican, and furtively addicted to the flute, is adored by a girl who has coarse brothers, or by a solitary woman who would like to be a helpmate in good works beyond her own means, simply because he seems to them the model of refinement and of public usefulness. " - George Eliot, Janet's Repentance (1858) "At this point in time, we have little information on the indigenes. A few orbital pictures, enough to show they are bimanous bipeds." - Richard Fawkes, Face of the Enemy (1999) [thanx to Bingley]
the worthless word for the day is: wegotism [jocular blend of we + egotism] an obtrusive and too frequent use of the editorial we (also called weism) "Dr. Dwight," said an inquirer, "is it not better for a minister, when speaking of himself, to say 'we,' rather than 'I?'" "I think not," answered the doctor. "But it avoids the appearance of egotism." "Ah, well," said Dr. Dwight, "I would rather have egotism than wegotism." - J. Gallaher, The Western Sketchbook (1850) "What intolerable weism! more revolting than the worst species of egotism!" - Anti-Jacobin Review (1800)
the worthless word for the day is: wesort [probably from we sort (i.e., our sort)] usually capitalized one of a group of people of mixed white-black-Indian ancestry living in southern Maryland "The man who answered was Oswald Swan, a so-called wesort--of white, African American, and Piscataway Indian descent--who lived there with his wife and eight children." - Michael W Kauffman, American Brutus "Write-in entries included such synonyms of "mixed" as multiracial, multiethnic, interracial, and Wesort (one designation for white-black-Indian groupings)..." - William Petersen, From Birth to Death [thanx to David Check!]
the worthless word for the day is: decussate [fr. L. decussis : the number ten (X), intersection of two lines] to intersect decussation : an intersection esp. in the form of an X "One of Johnson's most commonly quoted fits of classical whimsy is his definition of network: "Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections." - David Micklethwait, Noah Webster and the American Dictionary "The unmarked, decussating paths would have been confusing to anyone but a native. Hackworth had never been here before." - Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age
the worthless word for the day is: apothegmatic [fr. Gk apophthegmatikos, sententious] /apeh THEG mad ik/ also apophthegmatic relating to or characteristic of apothegms; sententious; pithy hence apothegmatical (and apophthegmatical) "I copied out passages from Ecclesiastes and Lovecraft, Shakespeare and Dunsany, even from my apothegmatic dad: 'Every fifteen-minute job takes an hour... If you liked it all the time they wouldn't call it work.'" - Michael Dirda, An Open Book (2003) "It seems that the apothegmatical Hipparchus did not associate with Anacreon more from sympathy with his genius than inclination to the subjects to which it was devoted." - Edw. Bulwer Lytton, Athens: Its Rise and Fall (1837) (yes, that Bulwer Lytton)
the worthless word for the day is: algorism [ad. mL. > Arab. al-Khuwarizmi (Arab mathematician)] the Arabic, or decimal system of numeration; hence, arithmetic (ultimately the source of algorithm) "Al-Kuwarizmi's Algebra is a collection of rules for the solution of linear and quadratic equations, elementary geometric propositions and more mundane inheritance problems involving the distribution of money. The word "algorism" is derived from Al-Kuwarizmi's name." - A. T. Haft et al., The Key to the Name of the Rose "..a denial that at best is swamped by the uselessness of the effort, the ninny teaching algorisms in some hazy university to grubby grinds or colonels' daughters." - Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch (trans.)
the worthless word for the day is: ataraxia [Gk ataraxia, impassiveness] /ad eh RAK see eh/ also ataraxy calmness untroubled by mental or emotional disquiet: intellectual detachment, imperturbability "They go their way unmolested and have attained to literary ataraxia." - Saturday Review, 20 May 1882 "Lay quietism, moderate ataraxia, attent lack of attention." - Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch (trans.) bonus word: quietism - a passive mysticism; a state of calmness or passivity
the worthless word for the day is: limacology [fr. L. limax : slug, snail + -ology] the branch of zoology which deals with slugs "To the same author we owe a paper on "Limacology, or Slug-study." This came upon us as a bit of a shock, for we were unaquainted with this evidence of the extent of Mr. Sich's versatility. What a nerve it must require to study slugs!" - James William Tutt, The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation (1890) "Limacology or slug-watching is similar to bird- watching with the added convenience that slugs don't fly away before you've got a good look at them." - Observer, 15 Feb. 1981
the worthless word for the day is: supinity [fr. L. supinus lying on the back] obs. supineness: inertness; sluggishness "Incuriousness was the most potent ally of our imposed order; for Eastern government rested not so much on consent or force, as on the common supinity, hebetude, lack-a-daisiness, which gave a minority undue effect." - T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom ""You have charms," Elly commented as I tried to sit upright on a piece of furniture suited only to graceful supinity. "But not to soothe the savage beast." - Peter Schaffter, The Schumann Proof
the worthless word for the day is: stentorian [fr. Stentor, a Gk warrior with a powerful voice] /sten TOR ee un/ of the voice: loud, like that of Stentor also stentorious (?) "And turning to the imaginary microphones in the wall, he said in a stentorian voice, "Gentlemen, as always in such circumstances, I wish to take this opportunity to encourage you in your work and to thank you on behalf of all future historians."" - Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (not to be confused with stertorous) "It was the most horrible and fascinating snoring that I have ever listened to: it was stertorous and stentorian, morbid and grotesque; at times it was like an accordian collapsing, at other times like a frog croaking in the swamps; after a prolonged whistle there sometimes followed a frightful wheeze as if he were giving up the ghost, then it would settle back again into a regular rise and fall, a steady hollow chopping as though he stood stripped to the waist, with ax in hand, before the accumulated madness of all the bric-a-brac of this world." - Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn "When in Robert Carson's very fine novel, The Revels Are Ended, I read that a man breathed 'stentoriously' I thought, 'Oh, he means stertorously. But Carson writes so well that I then reflected that he intended a portmanteau, or a blend, of stentorianly and stertorously, for he wishes to convey the senses of an extremely noisy stertorousness." - Eric Partridge, Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English
the worthless word for the day is: stertorous [fr. stertor, a heavy snoring sound > L. stertere, to snore] 1) characterized by a harsh snoring or gasping sound: exhibiting or marked by stertor 2) marked by snoring hence sterterously and stertorousness "Her breathing grew stertorous, the mouth opened... And then Lucy's breathing became stertorous again, and all at once it ceased. "It is all over," said Van Helsing. "She is dead!" - Bram Stoker, Dracula "They find Krook still sleeping like one o'clock; that is to say, breathing stertorously with his chin upon his breast." - Charles Dickens, Bleak House "At the expiration of this period.. a natural although a very deep sigh escaped the bosom of the dying man, and the stertorous breathing ceased-that is to say, its stertorousness was no longer apparent, the intervals were undiminished." - Edgar A Poe, The Short Fiction of Edgar Alan Poe
the worthless word for the day is: theologaster [NL, fr. theologus + -aster, cf. poetaster] /the AL uh gas te(r)/ a shallow theologian, esp. one who pretends to possess great theological knowledge; a theological quack "Why Deity, being omniscient and omnipotent, doesn't "kill the Devil" and banish evil from the earth... is a question in theodicy a trifle too profound for a safe-brush theologaster." - William C. Brann, Brann the Iconoclast "So farewell, dear Doctor Platitude, Thou Theologaster sound and good." - Edwin P. Hood, The World of Proverb and Parable
the worthless word for the day is: clinomania [fr. Gk klin- : sloping, inclining + -mania] an overwhelming desire to stay in bed, esp. on a snowy (or rainy) day "Clinomania... Not a bad mania, as manias go; and a reasonably plausible excuse for taking Monday off." - Peter Bowler, The Superior Person's Second Book of Words
the worthless word for the day is: petarding [fr. petard, explosive] rare the action of setting off petards "A 'wicker Figure'.. is promenaded, not in silence, to the popular judgment-bar; is doomed; shriven by a mock Abbe de Vermond; then solemnly consumed by fire, at the foot of Henri's Statue on the Pont Neuf;--with such petarding and huzzaing that Chevalier Dubois and his City-watch see good finally to make a charge (more or less ineffectual); and there wanted not burning of sentry-boxes, forcing of guard-houses, and also 'dead bodies thrown into the Seine over-night,' to avoid new effervescence." - Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution (1837) "On the 5th of February 1,000 guns started a barrage that lasted five hours as the leading troops to cross the Rhine crossed the start line. We supported the 51st Division by laying two bridges and some fascines and petarding a pillbox." - Henry Smith, Recollections of 6thJune 1944; Before and after: 79th Armoured Division in Normandy (2004) bonus word: fascine - Mil. A long cylindrical faggot of brush or other small wood, firmly bound together at short intervals, used in filling up ditches, the construction of batteries, etc. usually pl.
the worthless word for the day is: sardoodledom [> sardoodle- (blend of Victorien Sardou, French playwright criticized by G. B. Shaw, for the supposed staginess of his plays and doodle) + -dom] usually capitalized : mechanically contrived plot structure and stereotyped or unrealistic characterization in drama: staginess, melodrama "No wonder the battery inflicted nightly on Shaw's aesthetic sensibilities often left him in critical condition: titles of his reviews include "Plays That Are No Plays," "Sardoodledom," "One of the Worst," "Boiled Heroine," and "Resurrection Pie." - Bernard Dukore, 1992: Shaw and the Last Hundred Years "We do not want to try to rebut Shaw's criticism of 'Sardoodledom'." - The Times, 15 Jan. 1960 "There is certainly a good reason why it's [sc. Fedora] not performed more often; it's a crashing bore. And Shaw rightly condemned Sardou's dramaturgy in this and other pieces: "Sardoodledom." - anon., rec.music.opera (1996)
the worthless word for the day is: nebulochaotic [fr. L. nebula : mist, fog + chaotic] nonce-wd (obs.) : hazily confused "The altogether nebulochaotic condition of her mind." - George MacDonald, Mary Marston (1881)
the worthless word for the day is: libricide [f. L. liber, book + -cide] the slaughter of books this is marked rare by the OED, with just the Blair citation; but they haven't yet taken into account the bounteous opportunities for usage supplied by more recent history "Milton ranks libricide or book-slaughter with homicide or man-slaughter." - W. Blair, Chron. Aberbrothock (1856) Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century - Rebecca Knuth, book title (2003) "In the 1990s, the ethnocide and libricide in post-Communist Yogoslavia was a common feature on the nightly news..." - Cultural Expressions of Evil and Wickedness ed. by Terrie Waddell (2003)
the worthless word for the day is: neologization [fr. neologize v. > neology n.] rare (coined by Jefferson) the coining of new words or phrases "When an individual uses a new word, if illformed it is rejected in society, if wellformed, adopted, and, after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. And if, in this process of sound neologisation, our transatlantic brethren shall not choose to accompany us, we may furnish, after the Ionians, a second example of a colonial dialect improving on its primitive." - Th. Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams (1820) "As the subject of this.. has been adequately covered within the various portions of this book, I merely wish in this instance, to offer it to you for your study, as well as, for the invigoration of your mind. It is well worth your ambitiousness, to recognize the two previously studied letters as a collective doctrine on the neologization of the American language. Furthermore, a serious study of them would be an admirable endeavor indeed, which in turn, would render to the aspirant multifarious coruscations of sagacity." - Prof. Diogenes Vindex, So It Was Written (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: divinate [fr. L. divinare, to divine] back-formation from divination(?) to foretell future events, soothsay, augur, prophesy "But as against any view that one pariticular technique is in itself metaphysically fatal, one might rather suggest that cultures which use hieroglyphs to 'divinate' will continue to 'divinate' with alphabetic letters, reducing truth to determinate manipulation." - John Milbank, The Word Made Strange [whoa! almost read 'determinate' as a verb there!] "Numerology: Similar to astrology in that our birth date is used to divinate meaningful information about a person's life and potential, numerology uses numbers derived from both the birth date and name as the basis for understanding an individual." - Joanne E. Brunn, Awakening Your Psychic Skills "Accurate information in order to divinate! Do you know how idiotic that sounds? This is exactly why I've been reluctant to commit to a relationship with you." - Eve Howard, The History of Hugo Sands [for AnnaStrophic]
the worthless word for the day is: sesquipedalophobia [sesquipedalian + -phobia] (coined by Byran A. Garner in a Verbatim article) the fear or hatred of long words "Fear ...and the most ironically named one of all: sesquipedalophobia--the fear of long words!" - Barron's How To Prepare For The SSAT/ISEE (!?)
the worthless word for the day is: pottiness [f. potty + -ness] (first attested to Wodehouse) the state or condition of being potty "It was not primarily his pottiness that led him to steal the Empress." - P. G. Wodehouse, Heavy Weather (1933) "We shall all feel perfectly ghastly wondering.. whether our own conversation doesn't sound a little potty. It's the pottiness, you know, that's so awful." - Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night (1935) potty : (chiefly Brit.) 1) trivial, insignificant; easy, simple 2) crazy, mad; eccentric
the worthless word for the day is: cerebrotonic [fr. L. cerebrum, brain + tonic, producing tension] designating or characteristic of a type of personality which is introverted, intellectual, and emotionally restrained, usu. associated with an ectomorphic physique; so cerebrotonia, such a personality or characteristics "With cerebrotonia, the temperament that is correlated with ectomorphic physique, we leave the genial world of Pickwick, the strenuously competitive world of Hotspur, and pass into as entirely different and somewhat disquieting kind of universe - that of Hamlet and Ivan Karamazov. The extreme cerebrotonic is the over-alert, over-sensitive introvert, who is more concerned with what goes on behind the eyes.. than with that external world, to which, in their different ways, the viscerotonic and the somatotonic pay their primary attention and allegaince." - Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (1945) "There was just enough of the somatotonic in his.. cerebrotonic make-up to make him regret his cerebrotonia." - Aldous Huxley, letter (1945)
the worthless word for the day is: persifleur [F, see also persiflate] a person who indulges in persiflage : one given to frivolous banter, especially about matters usually given serious consideration "He thought: 'A leg-puller, a persifleur, a practical joker?'" - Olivia Manning, The Rain Forest (1974) "There is something almost alarming about his [sc. Lawrence] sincerity and seriousness - something that makes one feel oneself to be the most shameful dilettante, persifleur, waster and all the rest." - Aldous Huxley, (quoted by Nicholas Murray in Aldous Huxley) persiflate : rare to indulge in persiflage, to talk banteringly [< French persifler, to banter lightly] "In later school stories you get Marriott and Jimmy Silver putting their feet up and simply persiflating." - Richard Usborne, Plum Sauce (Wodehouse at Work)
the worthless word for the day is: totipotent [fr. L. toti-, fr. totus : whole + potent; cf. omnipotent] /toe TIP oh tent/ Biol. capable of developing into a complete organism or differentiating into any of its cells or tissues; also gen. <totipotent blastomeres> "A fertilized egg is called a zygote and is said to be totipotent because it is not specialized and can give rise to an entire functioning organism." - Raymond Bonnett, Genetic Engineering "...[the business card] was, in fact, a chit: that is to say, a totipotent program for a matter compiler, combined with sufficient [credit] to run it." - Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age (a chit, in this case, is akin to a signed voucher.)
the worthless word for the day is: minger [prob. from minging : stinking; foul, unpleasant] Brit. slang (derogatory) an ugly or unattractive person, esp. a woman "Last night Ali asked fashion designer Thomas Del Jeffers if he was happy to design clothes for women 'even if they were mingers, you know, nice personalities, but mingers'. - The Bath Chronicle, 14 Apr. 1999 "In the hall, a girl in a gold lamé halter top called a girl in a fake Pucci dress "a minger." - Marian Keyes, Under the Duvet (2001)
the classic worthless word for the day is: nefandous [< classical L. nefandus : wicked, impious, abominable] /neh FAN dous/ archaic unspeakable, unmentionable; abominable, execrable "Only the bricks of the chimney, the stones of the cellar, some mineral and metallic litter here and there, and the rim of that nefandous well." - Tales of H. P. Lovecraft "Many of the persons who held such opinions were, of course, guilty of the most nefandous conduct themselves, and yet saw no paradox in holding such views because they were not hypocrites themselves-they took no moral stances and lived by none." - Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age
the worthless word for the day is: grith [fr. Old Norse gridh, domicile, asylum] obs. exc. Hist. : protection or sanctuary provided by Old English law to persons in certain circumstances "So Church-grith is sometimes used for sanctuary; but it really means as much as Church-frith, the peace and security which the law guarantees to those under the Church's protection." - Wm Stubbs, The Constitutional History of England "Dr. X was unusually clever at taking advantage of the principle of grith, or right of refuge.." - Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age
the worthless word for the day is: hederated [fr. L. hederatus] /HED ur ated/ adorned or crowned with ivy "He [Gower] appeareth there neither laureated nor hederated Poet.. but only rosated, having a Chaplet of four Roses about his head." - Thomas Fuller, The history of the worthies of England (1662) "If a campus was a green quadrilateral described by hulking, hederated Gothics, then this was a campus. But if a campus was also a factory of sorts, most of whose population sat in rows and columns in large stuffy rooms and did essentially the same things all day, then the Design Works was a campus for that reason too." - Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age (1995)
the worthless word for the day is: catachthonian [< Gk kata : down, under + chthonios, of the ground] /kae tuk THO nian/? subterranean hence, catachthonic "Pluto.. was always.. a chthonian or catachthonian Zeus." - Sir John Rhys, The Hibbert Lectures (1888) "Lying as close as it did to Source Victoria, the park was riddled with catachthonic Feed lines, and anything could be grown there on short notice." - Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age (1995)
the worthless word for the day is: mulierosity [< L. mulierositas, excessive fondness for women] obs. rare : a (excessive) fondness for women also, mulierose : (excessively) fond of women "That may signify nothing; but as rule when the friends of a preacher- by scraping the state-cannot secure a committee that will unanimously acquit him of a charge of too much mulierosity, there's something desperately rotten in Denmark. The brethren much dislike to convict a preacher of scandalous conduct..." - William Cowper Brann, Brann the Iconoclast (1898) "Well then, dame, mulierose- that means wrapped up, body and soul, in women. So prithee tell me; how did you ever detect the noodle's mulierosity?" - Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth (1861)
the worthless word for the day is: passéist (passeist) [< French passéiste < passé, the past] contrast futurist (adj.) having an excessive regard for the traditions and values of the past; backward-looking (n.) a person, esp. a writer or artist, with excessive regard for the traditions and values of the past; a backward-looking person "The passéist, who once pretended to be offended by the "impermissible devices" of the Futurists,.. now makes use of a complete arsenal of whatever devices he pleases, and displays any sort of sleight of hand." - Anna Lawton, Herbert Eagle, Words in Revolution (1988) "For younger Japanese film-makers, especially during the socially divisive period of the late Sixties, [Kurosawa] had come to seem aloof and passeist, one of the most visible representatives of a detested Establishment, no longer deigning to direct his fastidiously patrician gaze at the problems besetting the society in which he lived." - Gilbert Adair, The Independent (obit. Sep 7, 1998)
the worthless word for the day is: percontation [fr. L. percontari : to inquire, interrogate] /per kon TAY shun/ archaic a questioning or inquiry, esp. one which requires more than a yes or no answer "Between a percontation and interrogation, the ancients made this distinction -- that the former admitted a variety of answers, while the latter must be replied to by 'yes' or 'no'." - Samuel Maitland, The Dark Ages (1890) and perhaps this is the word meant by Samuel Clemens here (note the other 'typos'): "The result of my perlustration and perscontation of this isoperimetrical protuberance is a belief [th]at it is one of those rare and wonderful creation[s] left by the Mound Builders." - Mark Twain, Sketches New and Old
the worthless word for the day is: perscrutation [fr. L. perscrutari, to examine thoroughly] a thorough examination: careful investigation "Such guessing, visioning, dim perscrutation of the momentous future..." - Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (1843) "..the reader knows that.. Narcissus is just a story; and Conrad is surely at liberty to turn his pretended narrator into a veritable Pooh-Bah of perscrutation if it will serve his turn." - Ian P Watt, Essays on Conrad (2000) "In an age when many of our judicial opinions lack originality and freshness, this use of the English vocabulary is peculiarly striking. But it strikes us negatively in almost every instance because the writer has strained to find the unfamiliar word when the ordinary one comes immediately to mind. Why perficient instead of efficient, or perscrutation instead of scrutiny?" - Bryan A. Garner, The Elements of Legal Style (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: pernoctation [L. fr. pernoctare, to stay all night] /per nak TAY shun/ the act of staying up all night; an all-night vigil "..some difficulties were chronic: frequenting taverns, pernoctation, gambling, hunting, irreverent or disorderly conduct within the chapel and hall." - James McConica, The History of the University of Oxford (1986) "The nature of 'engagement' and the status of 'fiancés' was at that time qualitatively different to those of the present day (even if 'bundling' -- joint pernoctation -- was often permitted provided it did not result in pregnancy)." - James Dunkerley, Americana (2000) "The baths were used by night; there were lights and incense, and the patient saw visions during the pernoctation." - William R. Smith, Religion of the Semites (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: ecdemomania [fr. Gk ekdemos, being away from home + -mania] a compulsive wandering this is another of those words that can be found on many lists of obscure words, but doesn't seem to have been actually used anywhere of note. (perhaps a journal of psychiatry??) ecdemiomania, ecdemomania, ecdemomonomania: A morbid impulse, or obsession, to travel or wander around. - John G. Robertson, An Excess of Phobias and Manias bonus word: ecdemolagnia - arousal from traveling or being away from home --- this week: expiscations, or words searched for herein
the worthless word for the day is: tulgey [nonsense word coined by 'Lewis Carroll'] applied to a wood(s); (usu. interpreted as) thick, dense, and dark; also fig. The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! - C.L.Dodgson, Through the Looking-glass (1871) "The jabberwocks of historical and antiquarian research burble in the tulgy wood of conjecture, flitting from one tum-tum tree to another." - J.R.R.Tolkien, Proc. of the Brit. Acad. (1936) "The meandering road from these relatively straightforward beginnings into the tulgey woods of semiotics was long, labyrinthine, and full of surprises..." - Thomas A. Sebeok, Global Semiotics (1982)[Sp., prob. < Vulgar Latin mansus, tame] n. a meek, tame, or cowardly person or animal, esp. a tame or timid bull adj. of a bull: tame, timid, lacking in aggression "'Yes sir, war drums,' said Gomez, the half-breed. 'Wild Indians, bravos, not mansos; they watch us every mile of the way; kill us if they can.'" - Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World (1912) "Manso, tame, mild and unwarlike; a bull which does not have the fighting blood is manso, as are also the steers called cabestros when they are trained." - E. Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon (1932)
the worthless word for the day is: aibohphobia [phobia melded with phobia reversed, fr. LL. -phobia, fear of something] jocular : the fear of (or aversion to) palindromes "This investigation prevents aibohphobia-the fear of palindromes." - Judith & Paul Sally, Trimathlon: A Workout Beyond the School Curriculum Aibohphobia stands for the fear Of those phrases or words that appear, When reversed, not to change. It's a palindrome-strange- And the same from the front or the rear. - Chris Doyle, Aibophobia [OEDILF]
the worthless word for the day is: elozable [fr. OF. esloser, to praise] /el LO za bul/? obs. rare amenable to flattery <a very insecure and elozable widow - D. Grambs> "...but the execution of the laws would reach them, as well as others, who, in the time of Tarquin, it seems, found the prince more elozable." - Machiavel's Vindication (1537) (in The Harleian Miscellany (1808))
the worthless word for the day is: ubiquit [back-formation from ubiquitous or -ity (fr. L. ubique, everywhere)] obs. to make ubiquitous (as to turn up everywhere) "This being done, then the Exposer ubiquits himself, peeping at the key-holes, or picking the locks of the bed-chambers of all the great ministers, and though they be reading papers of state, or at the stool, more seasonably obtrudes his pamphlet." - Andrew Marvell, Mr. Smirke (1676) this week : back-formations
the worthless word for the day is: reluct [ad. L. reluctari, to struggle; but in later use prob. a back-formation from reluctance] 1) to make a determined resistance: struggle 2) to feel or show repugnance or reluctance: revolt "He is apt to reluct against the oppression of task masters." - Escape from Toil (1849) "I care not to be carried with the tide, that smoothly bears human life to eternity; and reluct at the inevitable course of destiny." - Charles Lamb, New Year's Eve (ca. 1823)
the worthless word for the day is: flummer [back-formation from flummery] archaic : to get around (a person) especially by coaxing or flattery: beguile, humbug ""But what, what do they do, these famous Monseers?" demanded the Captain;.. "or do they spend all their time in flummering old women?"" - Frances Burney, Evelina (1777) "She was flummering Sheridan upon the excellence of his heart and moral principles, and he in return upon her beauty and grace." - Thomas Creevey, The Creevy Papers (1904) "[The struggle] had succumbed to a sudden inspiration that the primal need of humanity not yet met either by gonculating nor trummeling was the ability to flummer." (2005) - anon.
the worthless word for the day is: farfetch [back-formation from farfetched] tv : to derive (a word) in a farfetched manner iv : to make farfetched derivations "Poetry more and more tends to farfetch its word- meanings, and this results once again in mob-meanings, which arouse only a mob-reaction in the individual." - D. H. Lawrence, Selected Critical Writings (1929) bonus word : farfetchedness, the state or fact of being farfetched "Occasionally, we meet in Miss Barrett's poems a certain far-fetchedness of imagery, which is reprehensible in the extreme. What, for example, are we to think of: Now he hears the angel voices Folding silence in the room?" - Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Barrett [Browning]
the worthless word for the day is: delapsation [?] a spurious word in Webster, copied in subsequent dictionaries De`lap*sa"tion (?), n. See Delapsion [a falling down]. Ray. - Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 DELAPSATION, n. A falling down. - Webster's 1828 Dictionary the citation from Ray: "[The birds] are able to continue longer on the Wing without Delassation." - John Ray, Miscellaneous discourses concerning the dissolution and changes of the world (1692) delassation - [fr. L. delassare, to weary or tire out] obs. rare : fatigue, weariness delapsion - [fr. L. delabi, to slip of fall down] obs. : to fall or slip down, descend delapsation could have been an error for either of these words, or a conflation of the two. this week: spurious words & dictionary errors
the worthless word for the day is: superhumerate [?] to carry on the shoulders a spurious word, error in Richardson's Dict. for subhumerate perhaps influenced by superhumeral, a vestment worn over the shoulders; fig. a burden carried on the shoulders [fr. superhumerale (Latin Vulgate)] "To blessed Silvester and all his successors we give especially the Lateran palace of our empire, then the diadem, that is the crown of our head, and the miter, and the superhumeral, that is the band which customarily goes round the imperial neck,..." - William of Ockham, A Short Discourse on Tyrannical Government (tr. from Latin)
the worthless word for the day is: razbliuto [Russian(?)] a feeling a person has for someone he or she once loved but no longer feels the same way about - Christopher Moore, In Other Words (2004) We can't blame Webster for this one, as it seems to stem from a fascination with "untranslatable" foreign words. "In a more bittersweet mood, the Russian offers razbliuto, ros-blee-OO-toe, 'a feeling a person has for someone he or she once loved but no longer feels the same way about.'" - William Safire, The New York Times 4/17/2005 the feeling a person has for someone he or she once loved but now does not - Howard Rheingold, They Have a Word for It (1988) "The origin is not as important as the basic fact that (listen up, now) there is no such Russian word." - Languagehat April 17, 2005 Languagehat goes on to point out a source which relates: the "word" originated in the '60s TV show The Man from U.N.C.L.E.! A commenter there speculates that the word intended was [Cyrillic characters deleted] (razlyubleno 'fallen out of love') but there was a typo in the script. ""Stop it," she said. "There's no need for any of this. Just go." And then, softly, she spoke a single word, a word that hung like a question mark between them: "Razbliuto." Only that: razbliuto." - Will Ferguson, Happiness: A Novel (2002)
the worthless word for the day is: throstling [?] A disease of bovine cattle, consisting of a swelling under the throat, which, unless checked, causes strangulation. - Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 (orig. in 1828 Webster; but not known to Vet. Surgery) prob. in origin a misprint or other error for throttling "He passed several playa lakes crowded with thousands of ducks and geese struggling in the white-capped waves, and these bodies of water seemed incongruous under the throstling brown wind." - Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole
the worthless word for the day is: weasy [?] Given to sensual indulgence; gluttonous. - Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 this word has spread all over the web, as the 1913 Webster's is in the public domain; but it's a spurious word, in dictionaries based on a misreading of 'wealy' in Joye's The exposicion of Daniel the prophete; hence weasiness (wealines[s]) from the same source "The peple of Israell as oft as thei wexed wealy and fatte as saith the song of Moses."
the worthless word for the day is: pauciloquy [fr. L. pauciloquium, the fact of saying little] archaic brevity in speech hence, pauciloquent | that uses few words in speech; laconic "I felt abashed at his pauciloquy; he had not yet told me how I could meet Father's friend." - P. Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi "The trilingual but pauciloquent 'word score' [of an opera]." - The Times, 5 Mar. 1973
the worthless word for the day is: babliaminy nonce-word a babbler "Out, you babliaminy, you unfeathered, cremitoried quean, you cullisance of scabiosity!" - Thomas Middleton, A Trick to Catch the Old One (1608) bonus word: bablatrice - a female babbler (yet another nonce-word)
the worthless word for the day is: hecatomb [fr. L. hecatombe > Gk hekatombe] /HEK uh tome/ (or -tum) 1) an ancient Greek and Roman sacrifice consisting typically of 100 oxen or cattle transf. and fig. 2) the sacrifice or slaughter of many victims 3) a large number or quantity A whole hecatomb in Chrysa bled. - Homer, The Iliad (trans. by Cowper) (1791) "We may use an analogy to symbolize the inefficiency of natural selection by hecatomb." - Steven Jay Gould, Eight Little Piggies (1993) "That the Mumias hecatomb is a horrible stain on the whole nation's character is obvious." - Daily Nation (Kenya) Dec. 20, 2005 ...regard this Earth Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise, And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts, With fear and self-contempt and barren hope; Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate, Hast thou made reign and triumph, to thy scorn, O'er mine own misery and thy vain revenge. - Percy Shelley, Prometheus Unbound (1821)
the worthless word for the day is: apostrophize [fr. Gk apostrophein, to turn away] /uh PAS truh fize/ 1) (trans.) to address an absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically; i.e. to address by apostrophe <Carlyle's "O Liberty, what things are done in thy name!" is an example of apostrophe> 2) (intrans.) to make use of an apostrophe (') "Ah! poultry, poultry! You little thought," said Mr. Pumblechook, apostrophizing the fowl in the dish, "when you was a young fledgling, what was in store for you." - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations "Obscure noblemen, forgotten builders--thus he apostrophized them with a warmth that entirely gainsaid such critics as called him cold, indifferent, slothful..--thus he apostrophized his house and race in terms of the most moving eloquence; but when it came to the peroration--and what is eloquence that lacks a peroration?-—he fumbled." - Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography
the worthless word for the day is: circumjacent [fr. L. circumjacere, to lie around] /sir kum JAY sent/ adjacent on all sides: surrounding "The civilian passed on in the middle of the road, and when he had penetrated the circumjacent Confederacy a few yards resumed his whistling and was soon out of sight beyond an angle in the road, which at that point entered a thin forest." - Ambrose Bierce, The Story of a Conscience "..the circumjacent region of sitting-room was of a comparatively pastureless and shifty character: imposing on the waiter the wandering habits of putting the covers on the floor (where he fell over them), the melted butter in the armchair, the bread on the bookshelves, the cheese in the coalscuttle, and the boiled fowl into my bed in the next room - where I found much of its parsley and butter in a state of congelation when I retired for the night." - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
the worthless word for the day is: gridironic [fr. gridiron, after ironic] adj. related to the game of (American) football "Emily really did wear football shoulder pads under a green Philadelphia Eagles jersey, and her tight white pants, although convincingly gridironic, were in fact a pair of her favorite casual slacks." - Arthur Phillips, Prague (2002) not only does Phillips adjectivize the word gridiron, but he adds a touch of irony as well; good stuff. actually, gridironic does score a few Google hits (ghits?), a couple of them from 1998; e.g., "He lost by an extra point. In a gridironic finish, Hale Irwin, the former star of the Colorado secondary, came in second at the Bruno's Memorial Classic to a guy with the physique of a kicker. Irwin finished within a whisker of becoming the first Senior tour player to win three straight tournaments since Lee Trevino in 1992." - Sports Illustrated Golf Plus May 11, 1998
the worthless word for the day is: fratultery [fr. L. frater, brother; after adultery] nonce-word an affair between a man and his brother's girlfriend or fiancé "John Price.. lay on his folded bed's covers, unable to file the events of the day, the head injury and fratultery. His brother deserved nothing better." - Arthur Phillips, Prague (2002) "These big ideas are conveyed in prose that is studied, even mannered; nonetheless, "Prague" often manages to be very funny... And it's filled with the kind of gleeful neologisms-"fratultery," for a man's affair with his brother's girlfriend-that you'd expect of a five-time "Jeopardy!" champion, which Phillips is." - Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker 07/08/2002
the worthless word for the day is: fourberie [F. > fourbe : a cheat, imposter] /FUR buh ree/ obs. trickery, deception "On ne trompe point en bien; la fourberie ajoute la malice au mensonge." [We never deceive for a good purpose; knavery adds malice to falsehood.] - Jean de la Bruyere, Les Caracteres (1688) "This, sir, I think is a very pretty Pantomime trick, and an ingenious burlesque on all the fourberies which the great Lun has exhibited in all his entertainments." - Henry Fielding, The historical register for the year 1736 (1737) fraud: artifice, bamboozlement, bamboozling, blackmail, cheat, chicane, chicanery, con, craft, deceit, double-dealing, dupery, duping, duplicity, extortion, fake, fast one, fast shuffle, flimflam, fourberie, fraudulence, graft, guile, hanky-panky, hoax, hocus-pocus, hoodwinking, hustle, imposture, line, misrepresentation, racket, scam, sell, shakedown, sham, sharp practice, skunk, smoke, song, spuriousness, sting, string, swindle, swindling, treachery, trickery, vanilla - Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus (2006) vanilla?? [thanx and a tip of the wwftd beret to Ray Haupt]
the worthless word for the day is: detritivore [ad. G. Detritivore > L. detritus, rubbing away + -vore] /deh TRID uh vore/ Zool. an organism that feeds on detritus; also, detritivorous : feeding on detritus "Autumn leaf-drop provides a rich seasonal source of organic material to stream-dwelling detritivores in temperate regions. To assess the degree that leaf-drop enhances production of detritivorous insects, this study measured the annual production of two nemourid stoneflies in a small west-coast stream..." - R. W. Griffiths, Department of Zoology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada "Detritivores such as bacteria, earthworms, and many insects aid in breaking down soil." - Encarta® World English Dictionary
the worthless word for the day is: echt [G] /ekt/ genuine, authentic, typical as performances these are echt masterpieces "'Are you married?' he asked.., 'I see your ring, but is that camouflage or echt?'" - Nicloas Freeling, Love in Amsterdam (1962) "John Singleton Copley, the Bostonian who painted some of the most exquisite portraits of the 18th century, hightailed it for England, where he remained for the rest of his days. Henry Adams, despite his echt Boston lineage, left town for Washington and Paris." - Sam Allis, The Boston Globe Dec. 25, 2005 (Exit, stage left)
the worthless word for the day is: paperasserie [F] excessive bureaucratic procedure or paperwork; bureaucracy; red tape (see also: bumf) "He wept sweet tears over Maillard, that nice little man who introduced la paperasserie into the September massacres. But as emotional tenderness leads to fury, he becomes all at once furious against the victims." - Anatole France, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (tr. 1923) "The larger a bureaucracy, the more paperasserie -- the production and dissemination of paper. An inordinate amount of time and effort goes into bureaucratic empire building..." - Walter Laqueur, The Uses and Limits of Intelligence (1985) "Britain's quarantine laws should be tightened. Our bulwark against rabies.. must not be transmuted into the flimsy paperasserie of 'Passports for Pets'." - The Sunday Telegram, 20 Oct. 1996
the worthless word for the day is: jargonaut [fr. jargon + -naut > Gk nautes, sailor; after argonuat; cf. juggernaut] humorous, colloq. someone who uses an excessive amount of jargon "Mr. Williams sketches them with what, in the current idiom of the jargonauts, is called an expert, lucid meaningfulness." - The New York Times July 9, 1963 "'Mode' could now use a rest. 'Slipping into a failure mode' is an admiral's jargon for 'failing.' Whenever a scientific term is embraced by jargonauts, the parameters are stretched beyond recognition. Let us return 'mode' to fashion, and to the large dollop of ice cream that lands squarely on top of the pie." - William Safire, "On Language," The N. Y. Times December 28, 1980 "I'd also worry that Americans in general and aerospace types in particular are jargonauts and acronymphomaniacs. An international partner could, for example, easily confuse PMC with PMS." - Discover Feb. 24, 1992
the worthless word for the day is: illeism [fr. L. ille : he, that one, that + Eng. -ism] /IL e ism/ orig. a nonce word of Coleridge, until jerked into current usage in referring to pop icons, such as certain sports figures, who became illeists; e.g., Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson excessive use of third person pronoun, esp. in reference to oneself; by extension, referring to oneself by name; hence illeist, one who does this "For one piece of egotism.. there are fifty that steal out in the mask of tuisms and ille-isms." - Samuel Coleridge, The Friend (1809-10) "Bo doesn't like that." - Bo Jackson (somewhen in the 80s) "In the published novel, Grimes relation with Clutterbuck emerges from a series of coyly teasing hints, and his dull admission 'I've never really been attracted to women' becomes the splendid illeism '"Women are an enigma," said Grimes, "as far as Grimes is concerned"' - a formula Waugh would often use again when lost or despairing souls among his characters reflect on themselves." (1998) - Douglas L. Patey, The Life or Evelyn Waugh
the worthless word for the day is: crassitude [ad. L. crassitudo, f. crassus, crass] /KRAS uh t(y)ud/ 1) obs. thickness (as of a solid body) 2) the quality or state of being crass: grossness; excessive dullness of intellect, obtuseness; also, an instance of this "But in this computation we have made no allowance for the crassitude of the solid particles of the air, by which the sound is propagated instantaneously." - Isaac Newton, Principia, Vol I "Amy, not being afflicted with crassitude, soon did her work admirably." - Mortimer Collins, Marquis and merchant (1871) "Furthermore, for the deputy commissioner to accept such a proposition is an example of crassitude and criminal neglect." - Benjamin Ricci, Crimes Against Humanity: A Historical Perspective (2004)
the worthless word for the day is: sophrosyne [Gk fr. sophron : of sound mind, prudent] /sau FRAS en ee/ moderation; prudence, self-control "Translating the idea into English, however, has always posed a difficulty, since we don't have one word that summarises his ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind combined in one well-balanced individual. [Plato] defined it as "the agreement of the passions that Reason should rule". - Michael Quinion, World Wide Words I am that star most dreaded by the wise, For they are drawn against their will to me, Yet read in my procession through the skies The doom of orthodox sophrosyne. - W. H. Auden, For the time being (1944) "Even when his ideas were crazy, the man had sophrosyne, as they used to call it in the old days." - John Gardner, The Wreckage of Agathon (1970) "Not the philosophers - who often had their heads in places bereft of sun - but the ancient Greek poets understood two things: arete and sophrosyne. The first is all-around excellence in a man who first must become sophron. That meant he must understand the fundamental mysteries, the unfathomable love of woman, the sometime bravery of man, human mortality and man's relationship with God and live with these among the accepted modalities." - T. R. Fehrenbach, San Antonio Express-News, 01/01/2006 ---all things in moderation, for the new year
the worthless word for the day is: manso
the worthless word for the day is: murmuration [fr. L. murmuratio : muttering, grumbling] 1a) now chiefly literary : the act of murmuring; the uttering of low continuous sounds or complaining noises b) Sc. obs. : rumoring; the action of spreading rumors 2) of starlings: a flock There in the ring where name and image meet, Inspire them with such a longing as will make his thought Alive like patterns a murmuration of starlings Rising in joy over wolds unwittingly weave.. - W. H. Auden, Perhaps (in New Statesman, 16 July 1932) "Like the murmuration of a flock of warblers, the prattling and giggling of the women.." - John Hersey, Antonietta "It was a warm late-May night, summer having finally caught up with baseball, and the smallish crowd, having nothing much to cheer about, fell into a soft, languid murmuration." - Roger Angell, Five Seasons
the worthless word for the day is: peregrinity [f. L. peregrinitas, foreignness, outlandishness, condition of being a foreigner or alien] now rare (considered to be a foreign word by Johnson) foreignness in style, fashion, dialect, etc.; strangeness, outlandishness "He [sc. Johnson] said to me as we travelled, 'these people, Sir,.. may have somewhat of a peregrinity in their dialect, which relation has augmented to a different language.' I asked him if peregrinity was an English word: he laughed, and said, 'No.' I told him this was the second time that I had heard him coin a word." - James Boswell, Journal of a tour to the Hebrides (1773) (Boswell notes that Johnson had earlier made up the word depeditation [after decapitation], for amputation of a foot; but OED has a couple of earlier, 16th century citations for peregrinitie.)
the worthless word for the day is: megalophonous [f. Gk megalophonos, loud-voiced] rare of imposing sound; clamourous