xe.ri.scap.ing [zeer-i-skey-ping,]
–noun
environmental design of residential and park land using various methods for minimizing the need for water use.
Also, xe.ri.scape
[Origin: 1980–85; xer(ic) + (land)scaping]
xeriscape. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
Example:
Bob spent a lot of time and money xeriscaping he was quite pleased with himself for saving water and having a beautiful garden. Perhaps he wouldn't have to spend so much on overhead tarps and heat lamps if he lived in an arid climate like Texas, rather than in the temperate rain forest outside Seattle.
–noun
environmental design of residential and park land using various methods for minimizing the need for water use.
Also, xe.ri.scape
[Origin: 1980–85; xer(ic) + (land)scaping]
xeriscape. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
Example:
Bob spent a lot of time and money xeriscaping he was quite pleased with himself for saving water and having a beautiful garden. Perhaps he wouldn't have to spend so much on overhead tarps and heat lamps if he lived in an arid climate like Texas, rather than in the temperate rain forest outside Seattle.
Sorry I missed last Sunday. I was coming home from vacation and kind of--well, completely--forgot to update. But enjoy this Sunday's word!
solecism / sol-uh-siz-uhm
noun
1. a nonstandard or ungrammatical usage.
2. a breach of good manners or etiquette.
3. any error, impropriety, or inconsistency.
Example: The heated debate started cooling down as Lara cinched her argument. After Lara articulated her next point, Mike was at a loss for words. In desperation, he cried out this solecism: "That's irregardless!" With that, Lara knew she had won.
Origin: 1570–80; < L soloecismus < Gk soloikismós, equiv. to sóloik(os) (Sólo(i) a city in Cilicia where a corrupt form of Attic Greek was spoken + -ikos -ic) + -ismos -ism
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
* Hopefully my example works; I just wanted to talk about my intense dislike for the word(?) 'irregardless.' :P
solecism / sol-uh-siz-uhm
noun
1. a nonstandard or ungrammatical usage.
2. a breach of good manners or etiquette.
3. any error, impropriety, or inconsistency.
Example: The heated debate started cooling down as Lara cinched her argument. After Lara articulated her next point, Mike was at a loss for words. In desperation, he cried out this solecism: "That's irregardless!" With that, Lara knew she had won.
Origin: 1570–80; < L soloecismus < Gk soloikismós, equiv. to sóloik(os) (Sólo(i) a city in Cilicia where a corrupt form of Attic Greek was spoken + -ikos -ic) + -ismos -ism
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
* Hopefully my example works; I just wanted to talk about my intense dislike for the word(?) 'irregardless.' :P
quad.ra.ge.nar.i.an [kwod-ruh-juh-nair-ee-uh n]
–adjective
1. 40 years of age.
2. between the ages of 40 and 50.
–noun
3. a person who is 40 years old or whose age falls between 40 and 50.
[Origin: 1830–40; < L quadrāgénāri(us) consisting of forty (quādrāgén(ī) forty each + -ārius -ary) + -an]
Quadragenarian. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
Example:
Wednesday I was 39 but Thursday was my birthday so I am now a quadragenarian; yet no one has taught me the secret handshake!
–adjective
1. 40 years of age.
2. between the ages of 40 and 50.
–noun
3. a person who is 40 years old or whose age falls between 40 and 50.
[Origin: 1830–40; < L quadrāgénāri(us) consisting of forty (quādrāgén(ī) forty each + -ārius -ary) + -an]
Quadragenarian. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
Example:
Wednesday I was 39 but Thursday was my birthday so I am now a quadragenarian; yet no one has taught me the secret handshake!
cupidity \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\, noun:
Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.
Cupidity ultimately comes from Latin cupiditas, from cupidus, "desirous," from cupere, "to desire." It is related to Cupid, the Roman god of love.
Myself, I have always believed that BMWs achieve their presence (and their grip on the collective imagination and cupidity of the middle classes) because they combine an athletic, masculine bulk and stance with feminine details and lines.
-- Stephen Bayley, "The evolution of the curve", Independent, October 22, 1998
Honorificabilitudinitatibus [Hono-rifica-bili-tudi-nita-tibus]
Noun: the state of being able to achieve honors
[Ablative Pl of Medieval Latin: honorificabilitudinitas]
Honorificabilitudinitatibus. wikipedia.org.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorifica
Example:
O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon."
- Costard, Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene 1 (William Shakespeare)
This word has only appeared once in all of Shakespeare's works; it is a hapex legomenon.
Sorry about missing last week, I was too busy celebrating the 4th and started celebrating way too early.
Noun: the state of being able to achieve honors
[Ablative Pl of Medieval Latin: honorificabilitudinitas]
Honorificabilitudinitatibus. wikipedia.org.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorifica
Example:
O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon."
- Costard, Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene 1 (William Shakespeare)
This word has only appeared once in all of Shakespeare's works; it is a hapex legomenon.
Sorry about missing last week, I was too busy celebrating the 4th and started celebrating way too early.
beadle
[bee-dull] –noun-
Parish official formerly employed in English churches to usher and keep order at services.
Dictionary.com entry for beadle
My friends enjoy the right to legally marry, and they wanted to include
their gay and lesbian friends, so they asked us to beadle at their wedding.
Online Etymology Dictionary entry for beadle
O.E. bydel "herald, messenger from an authority," from beodan "to proclaim" (see bid). Sense of "warrant officer, tipstaff" was in late O.E.; that of "petty parish officer," which has given the job a bad reputation, is from 1594.
apotheosis / uh-poth-ee-oh-sis, ap-uh-thee-uh-sis
noun
1. the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god.
2. the ideal example; epitome; quintessence.
Example: George Washington has been elevated to apotheosis from his own time all the way to today. There is even a painting called The Apotheosis of Washington.
Origin: 1570–80; < LL < Gk
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
noun
1. the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god.
2. the ideal example; epitome; quintessence.
Example: George Washington has been elevated to apotheosis from his own time all the way to today. There is even a painting called The Apotheosis of Washington.
Origin: 1570–80; < LL < Gk
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
Semiotics
[sem-ee-AH-tix] –noun-
1. the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior;
the analysis of systems of communication, as language, gestures, or clothing.
2. a general theory of signs and symbolism,
usually divided into the branches of pragmatics, semantics, and syntactics.
Dictionary.com entry for semiotics
Over the past three decades the semiotics of men's athletic wear has been puzzling.
Back in the 1900s, when I was a kid, their basketball shorts and swim trunks were as short
as the day is long. God Bless America.
Online Etymology Dictionary entry for semiotics
study of signs and symbols with special regard to function and origin, 1880, from Gk. semeiotikos "observant of signs," adj. form of semeiosis "indication," from semeioun "to signal," from sema "sign."
Contrarians-- Everyone is already aware of what all is wrong with everything under the sun -- make good use of yourself and come up with a better example sentence for that word, and /or explain to me what the parachute-dimension of men's shorts is all about, as a communicative gesture of the past several years... please and thanks!
- Mood:communicative
raiment- noun [rey-muh
nt]
clothing; apparel; attire.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/r
She was very upset that after going on the hike, all her raiments were ruined. Now what was she going to wear?
nt]clothing; apparel; attire.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/r
She was very upset that after going on the hike, all her raiments were ruined. Now what was she going to wear?
bravura \bruh-VYUR-uh; brah-; -VUR-\, noun:
1. A florid, brilliant style of music that emphasizes the technical force and skill of a performer; virtuoso music.
2. A showy or brilliant display.
Bravura comes from the Italian, from bravo, "brave, excellent."
The straightforward narrative account is set down with old-fashioned punctilio in prose of classic distinction, singularly free of bravura, and marked by the hard clarity of outline that is one of Waugh's several manners.
-- Charles A. Brady, "Figure of Grace", New York Times, January 24, 1960
quagmire \KWAG-myr; KWOG-\, noun:
1. Soft, wet, miry land that shakes or yields under the feet.
2. A difficult or precarious position or situation; a predicament.
While the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he was awarded in 1957, should have signaled the pinnacle of Camus's career, it came at a time when he was struggling in the deepening quagmire of the Algerian war.
-- Isabelle de Courtivron, "Rebel Without a Cause", New York Times, December 14, 1997
Quagmire is from quag, a dialectical variant of quake (from Old English cwacian) + mire, from Old Norse myrr, "a swamp."
histrionic / his-tree-on-ik
adjective, noun
1. of or pertaining to actors or acting. (adj)
2. deliberately affected or self-consciously emotional; overly dramatic, in behavior or speech. (adj)
3. an actor. (noun)
Example: The actress complained that her co-star was too histrionic, but she herself was the bigger attention-seeker.
Origin: 1640–50; < L. Latin histrōnicus of actors, equiv. to histriōn- (s. of histriō) actor (said to be < Etruscan) + -icus -ic
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
adjective, noun
1. of or pertaining to actors or acting. (adj)
2. deliberately affected or self-consciously emotional; overly dramatic, in behavior or speech. (adj)
3. an actor. (noun)
Example: The actress complained that her co-star was too histrionic, but she herself was the bigger attention-seeker.
Origin: 1640–50; < L. Latin histrōnicus of actors, equiv. to histriōn- (s. of histriō) actor (said to be < Etruscan) + -icus -ic
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
floccinaucinihilipilification [flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-k
noun
an act or instance of judging something to be worthless or trivial
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
The objects that Margaret finally decided to throw out were separated from the rest of the junk in her room by floccinaucinihilipilification.
Did I use that properly? Anyway, I generally prefer posting words that actually look like words and that can be used if properly integrated into one's vocabulary, but this one looked so fun and actually WASN'T a scientific term. So. There you go. On time and everything.
noun
an act or instance of judging something to be worthless or trivial
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
The objects that Margaret finally decided to throw out were separated from the rest of the junk in her room by floccinaucinihilipilification.
Did I use that properly? Anyway, I generally prefer posting words that actually look like words and that can be used if properly integrated into one's vocabulary, but this one looked so fun and actually WASN'T a scientific term. So. There you go. On time and everything.
- Mood:
calm
circumlocution \sir-kuhm-loh-KYOO-shuhn\, noun:
The use of many words to express an idea that might be expressed by few; indirect or roundabout language.
Circumlocution comes from Latin circumlocutio, circumlocution-, from circum, "around" + loquor, loqui, "to speak."
Dickens gave us the classic picture of official heartlessness: the government Circumlocution Office, burial ground of hope in "Little Dorrit."
-- "Balance of Hardships",
om·pha·lo·skep·sis [om-fuh-loh-skep-sis]
–noun contemplation of one's navel as part of a mystical exercise.
[Origin: < Gk omphal(ós) omphalos + -o- -o- + sképsis act of looking]
omphaloskepsis. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
--
Example:
Bob was in deep contemplation of his navel; how for did it go, where did it end up. This reminded him of childhood summer-nights staring up at the stars, awed at the size of the universe and wondering if, perhaps, somewhere out there was an alien boy contemplating the same thing. Bob wondered, was there some life form on the other side of his navel, also engaging in omphaloskepsis and wondering if there was anything outside of the Bob?
--
My step-dad suggested this word when I was visiting in FL last month. A week later "contemplate one's navel" was the subject of a![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
word_ancestry post.
–noun contemplation of one's navel as part of a mystical exercise.
[Origin: < Gk omphal(ós) omphalos + -o- -o- + sképsis act of looking]
omphaloskepsis. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
--
Example:
Bob was in deep contemplation of his navel; how for did it go, where did it end up. This reminded him of childhood summer-nights staring up at the stars, awed at the size of the universe and wondering if, perhaps, somewhere out there was an alien boy contemplating the same thing. Bob wondered, was there some life form on the other side of his navel, also engaging in omphaloskepsis and wondering if there was anything outside of the Bob?
--
My step-dad suggested this word when I was visiting in FL last month. A week later "contemplate one's navel" was the subject of a
word_ancestry post.- Music:Red Room - Nakatomi Plaza
Dauntlessness
dauntlessness
noun, the quality of not being intimidated; fearlessness
click here for the Thesaurus.com entry!
from bartleby.com : Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin domitre,
absolute dauntlessness if we are to survive this economic recession!
Godspeed, everyone :-)
appellative-noun
1. a descriptive name or designation, as Bald in Charles the Bald.
2. a common noun.
–adjective
3. designative; descriptive.
4. tending toward or serving for the assigning of names: the appellative function of some primitive rites.
5. pertaining to a common noun.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/a
1. a descriptive name or designation, as Bald in Charles the Bald.
2. a common noun.
–adjective
3. designative; descriptive.
4. tending toward or serving for the assigning of names: the appellative function of some primitive rites.
5. pertaining to a common noun.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/a
mien / meen
noun
1. air, bearing, or demeanor, as showing character, feeling, etc.: a man of noble mien.
Example: The young man's confident mien impressed the interviewers.
Origin: 1505–15; probably aphetized variant of obsolete demean (bearing); spelled with -ie- to distinguish it from mean
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
noun
1. air, bearing, or demeanor, as showing character, feeling, etc.: a man of noble mien.
Example: The young man's confident mien impressed the interviewers.
Origin: 1505–15; probably aphetized variant of obsolete demean (bearing); spelled with -ie- to distinguish it from mean
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
peccadillo / pek-uh-dil-oh
noun
1. a very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault.
Example: Although the boy's poor behavior was hardly more than a peccadillo, his mother punished him severely.
Origin: 1585–95; < Sp pecadillo, dim. of pecado sin < L peccātum transgression, n. use of neut. of ptp. of peccāre to err, offend
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
noun
1. a very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault.
Example: Although the boy's poor behavior was hardly more than a peccadillo, his mother punished him severely.
Origin: 1585–95; < Sp pecadillo, dim. of pecado sin < L peccātum transgression, n. use of neut. of ptp. of peccāre to err, offend
http://dictionary.reference.com/bro
splenetic
Origin: 1535–45; < LL splénéticus.
–adjective Also, sple·net·i·cal.
of the spleen; splenic.
irritable; peevish; spiteful. Claudian's splenetic verses
affected with, characterized by, or tending to produce melancholy. (Obsolete)
Affected or marked by ill humor or irritability.
vexatious, irascible, testy, fretful, touchy, petulant, choleric
–noun
a splenetic person.
A person regarded as irritable.
You humor me when I am sick; Why not when I am splenetic? --Pope
The book is Black's own splenetic contribution to the recent spate of books against God that have clogged bestseller lists. --Rick Sawyer, The Bostonist May 23, 2008
Several splenetic Clinton tirades against journalists, or hecklers, are popular online, and prompted some to question if Clinton's skills are dated.--Gulf Daily News May 2, 2008
My father was given to splenetic temper tantrums and drank prodigiously - two possible reasons for the collapse of his marriage - and the shame of my mother's abrupt departure made him worse. --Rory Knight Bruce
Origin: 1535–45; < LL splénéticus.
–adjective Also, sple·net·i·cal.
of the spleen; splenic.
irritable; peevish; spiteful. Claudian's splenetic verses
affected with, characterized by, or tending to produce melancholy. (Obsolete)
Affected or marked by ill humor or irritability.
vexatious, irascible, testy, fretful, touchy, petulant, choleric
–noun
a splenetic person.
A person regarded as irritable.
You humor me when I am sick; Why not when I am splenetic? --Pope
The book is Black's own splenetic contribution to the recent spate of books against God that have clogged bestseller lists. --Rick Sawyer, The Bostonist May 23, 2008
Several splenetic Clinton tirades against journalists, or hecklers, are popular online, and prompted some to question if Clinton's skills are dated.--Gulf Daily News May 2, 2008
My father was given to splenetic temper tantrums and drank prodigiously - two possible reasons for the collapse of his marriage - and the shame of my mother's abrupt departure made him worse. --Rory Knight Bruce
Page Summary
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
sea_gaagii : Jul. 25th 2008 - Xeriscaping [+4] - aokugi : (no subject) [+2]
- sea_gaagii : Jul.18th 2008 - Quadragenarian [+2]
- karmic_serenity : (no subject) [+1]
- sea_gaagii : Jul. 11th 2008 - Honorificabilitudinitatibus [+3]
- pipetti : sorry the example is a noun used as a verb-- what's the term for that? [+0]
- aokugi : (no subject) [+1]
- pipetti : (no subject) [+7]
- flaming_tyger : (no subject) [+0]
- karmic_serenity : (no subject) [+1]
- karmic_serenity : (no subject) [+5]
- aokugi : (no subject) [+2]
- rainbow_yarn : I hate it when they cancel TUESDAY D= [+16]
- karmic_serenity : (no subject) [+3]
- sea_gaagii : Jun. 13th 2008 - Omphaloskepsis [+10]
- pipetti : Capitalized properly, for my normally-intelligent friend Nick [+3]
- flaming_tyger : (no subject) [+0]
- aokugi : (no subject) [+2]
- aokugi : (no subject) [+0]
- educate_sedate : splenetic [+2]
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