rupestrine adjective [roo-pes-trin]
Biology. Living or growing on or among rocks.
I've never lived on or among rocks, but I HAVE been around a lot of stoners.
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
March 5, 2016
rupestrine
rupestrine adjective [roo-pes-trin]
Biology. Living or growing on or among rocks.
I've never lived on or among rocks, but I HAVE been around a lot of stoners.
February 29, 2016
January 20, 2016
ultracrepidarian
ultracrepidarian [uhl-truh-krep-i-dair-ee-uh n]
adjective
1. noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise
noun
2. an ultracrepidarian person.
I saw this word in my reader feed earlier and thought it might be a good one to add to my vocabulary and especially to use in online arguments. What I really like about these esoteric words is that it shuts the other person up until they can go find out what it means.
Not but a few minutes after I read it, I went to a lottery forum I participate in and caught up on a thread I had been following about the recent Tennessee Powerball winners who gave a press conference even before they claimed their share of the jackpot. The arguments were getting heated when one guy said no one had the right to criticize them since he was sure no one giving their opinions had ever won. That led to a spate of replies with one person saying "one doesn't have to be a doctor to know they have a belly ache."
Thinking about the lottery reminded me I needed to go get a ticket for tonight's Texas Lotto. I stopped at the dollar store on the way home and started to go down an aisle but two older men were talking and blocking my way. I turned around and went down the next aisle and while looking for what I wanted to buy, heard one complaining he hadn't been sleeping well and the other said "The sandman hasn't been visiting you, huh?" and at that exact point the store radio speaker just above their heads started with the distinctive opening guitar rift of "Enter Sandman" by Metallica!
I love these coincidences that seem to happen to me a lot; I'll be listening to online radio and reading something in another tab and the radio hosts will say a word I'm reading at the same time or reference a news story I'm scanning. Freaky! ("coincidence" is even a post label in this blog)
And speaking of freaky: after those earlier two coincidences, I got on Facebook to see what's been happening since I last visited and noticed a FB friend had posted a video of the Top Ten Eagles songs. #1 was "Hotel California" and I had to make a comment about it being one of the most overplayed songs ever...and after I hit "Enter" on the post, another friend's post showed up right below that one - check it out:
(click image for larger view)
January 10, 2016
December 30, 2015
Hello, Goodbye
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo, which came from Old High German "halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman." It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà (roughly, 'whoa there!', from French là 'there'). As in addition to hello, halloo, hallo, hollo, hullo and (rarely) hillo also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels
"Goodbye" came from the Middle English "godbwdye", which is short for "God be with ye."
"Goodbye" came from the Middle English "godbwdye", which is short for "God be with ye."
Hello, Goodbye - The Beatles
December 27, 2015
abdominous
abdominous adjective [ab-dom-uh-nuh s]
1. having a large belly; potbellied
While I could stand to lose a few pounds, I'm glad I don't have a potbelly...or a beer belly.
December 23, 2015
December 16, 2015
milquetoast
milquetoast noun [milk-tohst]
1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, especially one who is easily dominated or intimidated: a milquetoast who's afraid to ask for a raise.
Caspar Milquetoast
I've really never fit the definition, but there WAS a time in my life where I often failed to assert myself. For example, I'd go ahead and eat a steak even if it wasn't cooked how I had ordered. I was once browbeaten by a waitress for objecting to being served stale donuts (that day and for quite a few previously) when I could see they had a new, fresh batch on the counter. Not now; in situations such as that, the employee waiting on the customer needs to realize that while their boss might sign their checks, the customer pays their salary. I certainly wouldn't allow that old biddy waitress to talk to me that way. The only comfort I have about the incident is she's probably been dead for 20 yrs., the old "witch".
No, I'm not Caspar (the friendly) Milquetoast these days.
(NOTE: This was originally from several yrs. back, but I wanted to update it and add a little personal information. It WAS today's Word of the Day, though)
December 15, 2015
clishmaclaver
clishmaclaver noun [klish-muh-kley-ver, kleesh-]
Scot. gossip; idle or foolish talk.
Certainly sounds like a Scottish word, but it would probably help to read it out loud in Scotty's voice.
November 30, 2015
bibliotaph
1. a person who caches or hoards books.
I used to be a bibliotaph, but then I gave all of my sci-fi books to my nephews, my war-related books to my uncle and sold most of the rest at a garage sale and donated what was left over.
November 27, 2015
November 26, 2015
gormandize
gormandize verb [gawr-muh n-dahyz]
1. to eat greedily or ravenously
2. unrestrained enjoyment of fine foods, wines, and the like.
giblets
giblets
gib·lets [jib-lits] plural noun
the heart, liver, gizzard, and the like, of a fowl, often cooked separately.
There IS one more definition, classified as slang, but I didn't see it at Dictionary.com. It was a LONG time ago during a football practice and after a play, one of my teammates was still on the ground after the play was over. The coach leaned over the prostrate boy asking him where it hurt. I wasn't close enough to hear the muffled answer, but the coach got up with a smile on his face.
"He'll be all right." he informed the rest of us. "He just got hit in the giblets."
That was a scene that came to mind at every Thanksgiving dinner after that.
Since the Word of the Day was more-or-less related to Thanksgiving, I'll just combine two posts into one. I was going to write one about how many calories were in the average Thanksgiving dinner: from 3-4,000 and the average American will consume more than 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat on Thanksgiving Day alone, according to the Calorie Control Council. (there were other sources that cited different numbers, but I like the alliteration of that website's name)
That would take a LOT of exercise to work off that many calories! A nice brisk walk would be better than spending the day in a gym, so check out the Walking Calories Calculator to see how far/fast you need to walk to get rid of those excess calories, or you can use the Holiday Calorie Counter to figure both the calories in your holiday meal and the amount of exercise needed to work off the meal.
I have my Thanksgiving meal already prepared.
Pathetic, huh? One good thing is that it will be ready in a minute and a half after I pop it in the microwave; another good thing is that it's only 290 calories with 9 grams of fat. I'll work that off watching the football games on TV!
the heart, liver, gizzard, and the like, of a fowl, often cooked separately.
There IS one more definition, classified as slang, but I didn't see it at Dictionary.com. It was a LONG time ago during a football practice and after a play, one of my teammates was still on the ground after the play was over. The coach leaned over the prostrate boy asking him where it hurt. I wasn't close enough to hear the muffled answer, but the coach got up with a smile on his face.
"He'll be all right." he informed the rest of us. "He just got hit in the giblets."
That was a scene that came to mind at every Thanksgiving dinner after that.
Since the Word of the Day was more-or-less related to Thanksgiving, I'll just combine two posts into one. I was going to write one about how many calories were in the average Thanksgiving dinner: from 3-4,000 and the average American will consume more than 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat on Thanksgiving Day alone, according to the Calorie Control Council. (there were other sources that cited different numbers, but I like the alliteration of that website's name)
That would take a LOT of exercise to work off that many calories! A nice brisk walk would be better than spending the day in a gym, so check out the Walking Calories Calculator to see how far/fast you need to walk to get rid of those excess calories, or you can use the Holiday Calorie Counter to figure both the calories in your holiday meal and the amount of exercise needed to work off the meal.
I have my Thanksgiving meal already prepared.
Pathetic, huh? One good thing is that it will be ready in a minute and a half after I pop it in the microwave; another good thing is that it's only 290 calories with 9 grams of fat. I'll work that off watching the football games on TV!
November 17, 2015
Panglossian
Panglossian adjective [pan-glos-ee-uh n, - glaw-see-, pang-]
characterized by or given to extreme optimism, especially in the face of unrelieved hardship or adversity
This would describe most of we die-hard Cowboys fans as we drink our blue Kool-Aid.
October 31, 2015
October 21, 2015
kakistocracy
kakistocracy noun [kak-uh-stok-ruh-see]
A form of government in which the worst persons are in power.
I was unfamiliar with this word, but definitely familiar with the definition. To paraphrase the Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart in a 60's obscenity case: "I may not know how to define it, but I know it when I see it."
October 15, 2015
October 10, 2015
jejune
jejune adjective [ji-joon]
1. without interest or significance; dull; insipid: a jejune novel.
2. juvenile; immature; childish: jejune behavior.
3. lacking knowledge or experience; uninformed: jejune attempts to design a house.
That pretty much describes me OR this blog.
Oct. 14, 2015 EDIT TO ADD: I was watching the latest The Blacklist last night and Reddington used the word in a sentence. Cool.
October 8, 2015
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