One of the nicest Swedish deserts is a big sponge cake coated in whipped cream and studded with strawberries. In my wife’s family this is called by a name that translates to “maternal grandmother’s cake” but phonetically it is “murmur’s caca.” This give pause to those who are first introduced to it.
Don’t make the faux pas of pronouncing Magdalen College ‘Mag-de-len College’. It’s pronounced ‘Maudlin College’. Just to make things more confusing, Magdalen Street in the centre of Oxford IS pronounced ‘Mag-de-len’ but lively Magdelen Road in East Oxford is pronounced ‘Maudlin’ like the college. Got it?!
Heorot is a mead-hall described in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf as "the foremost of halls under heaven." It served as a palace for King Hroðgar, a legendary Danish king of the sixth century. Heorot means 'Hart, stag'. After the malicious entity Grendel slaughters the inhabitants of the hall, the Geatish hero Beowulf defends the royal hall before subsequently defeating him. Later Grendel's Mother attacks the inhabitants of the hall, and she too is subsequently defeated by Beowulf.
The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend. It is the subject of quests undertaken by famous knights such as King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival.
Gello in Greek mythology, is a female demon or revenant who threatens the reproductive cycle by causing infertility, spontaneous abortion, and infant mortality. By the Byzantine era, the gelloudes (γελλούδες) were considered a class of beings. Women believed to be under demonic possession by gelloudes might stand trial or be subjected to exorcism.
Gyllou, Gylou, Gillo, or Gelu are some of its alternate forms.
Lucky for your sister. From what I read if he had taken offense he might have unholstered his scrotum, enfolded her in it and carried her off to Tanukiville.
The Word of the Day definitions for “pugging” omit one that I find intriguing. Both GNU and the CDC suggest “thieving” as a synonym. Although its normal use is as an adjective it works just fine as a noun.
Many years ago I saw a notice of a talk to be given at MIT: “Viscous Vortices on the Vertical Verges of Variable Velocity Vessels.” I did not attend but I have wondered since if the speaker had anything substantive to say on the subject or just could not resist alliteration.
But given Australia’s colorful history I am sure that in time the origin of “nipaluna” will be construed to be a politer version of “sip-o’-moonshine.”
I have added forensic but I realize he (she?) may be the relative nobody wants to acknowledge. If he is unwelcome I will return to cast him into outer darkness. (If I can figure out how to delete an item frm a list.)
This is a problem in that groupie does not rhyme with toady. Can we suppose an especially abject roadie?
The measure of my knowledge of the culture of rock is probably a negative value. I am going to have to do some original thinking, unless of course the persuasive power of my application of roadie in this limerick has such influence that the common understanding of the word is changed. How long should I wait?
I can find no adjectival version of quandary. To my surprise the OED reports that it can be used as a verb in the passive voice and supplies examples such as, “2007 www.rolandmc.com 23 Feb. (O.E.D. Archives) I'm seriously quandaried by the need to create and choose a MySpace name.”
Dammit, bilby, I knew you were going to want more info since I know you speak Bahasa Malayu or its Indonesian cousin. The Malay origin was the first I found but now I cannot locate the specific source I used. I have found other sources that suggest the Arabic “ma’salaam” became the Malay “salang” and that British soldiers and sailors serving in Malaya in the 19th Century brought it home as “so long.”
Now I’m going to be awake all night looking for that damned first google hit.
The origins of “so long” are in fact mysterious. It’ suggested origins have been placed in Irish (slán), German (adieu so lange), Hebrew (shalom), Arabic (salaam). Also Malay, Norwegian and Swedish origins have been posited. An early appearance in print was in the poetry of Walt Whitman who reported that it was a common salutation among soldiers and sailors.
The obvious question is, “Who has been screwing the koalas?” There is nothing those Aussies won’t stoop to. Next it’ll be the quokkas. Or (gasp!) bilbies!
Yes indeed, folks. The kettle is at a simmer and I am trying to keep the lid on. If anyone else would care to set this simpleton straight I would be happy for the help.
Inscape and instress are complementary concepts about individuality and uniqueness derived by Gerard Manley Hopkins from the ideas of the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus.
Inscape and instress are complementary concepts about individuality and uniqueness derived by Gerard Manley Hopkins from the ideas of the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus.
I came across a list of Wodehousian words for drunk. Many are already in this list but the following are not: above par, rotten, groggy, ossified, tanked, illuminated, lit up like a Christmas tree, woozled.
I’ve had some more thoughts on iconic names. I have been trying to think of women’s names that have the same uniquely identifying value as men’s names and I am having trouble. ‘Ivan’ can mean a generic Russian man but can ‘Svetlana’ mean a generic Russian woman or is it just the name of a specific Russian woman? If I tell a joke featuring ‘Pierre,’ ‘Alphonse,’ or ‘Gaston’ you now that he is a French stereotype but I don’t think the same is true of ‘Francoise’ or ‘Marianne,’ even though this last is an official symbol of the French nation.
Is this an artifact of historic male supremacy or do women’s names just better permeate national boundaries? I know the Aussies have adopted the Irish ‘Sile’ (after demoting the initial uppercase letter) as ‘sheila,’ to mean a young woman. Is this still current? I don’t think it is used to mean a specifically Australian woman. I will be happy to be corrected in this assumption and enlightened by examples of nationally iconic women’s names.
Yes! I had forgotten about Jock. I have used that before when a single syllable would do. Hamish is very good too. I will file that one away. Since Erin McKean has such an abiding fondness for Scottish utterance I need to have some on the shelf.
My friend Roo writes to tell me of the Aussie habit of addressing redheaded men as Bluey. I suppose this is akin to the custom of calling bald men Curly or large men Tiny. Is there a handy word or phrase for this convention?
I have used ‘Sandy’ as a generic name for a Scotsman. A quick google search confirms that it has been so employed before. It is used in Caledonia as a diminutive of ‘Alexander’ and possibly some other more formal names. I used to use ‘Angus’ for this but now I have a grandnephew by that name so it feels awkward to attribute opinions, behaviors or attitudes to Angus.
I can use ‘Ivan’ and all would recognize that I mean ‘a Russian,’ or ‘Guido’ and a generalized Italian would be understood. What might be some other generic names? Many years ago I resided in the Philippines and learned that the locals were happy to address all Americans as ‘Joe.’
I have a correspondent in Perth who signs himself ‘Roo.’ There is a notorious Tasmanian who uses the handle ‘bilby.’ Is there a generic moniker for marsupials that we could apply to all Australians?
Pronounced chich-iss-BEE-ism. It could serve as an onomatopoetic word for a sneeze.
The definition calls for some background:
cicisbeo – n. In Italy, since the seventeenth century, the name given to a professed gallant and attendant of a married woman; one who dangles about women.
dangle – To hang loosely; be suspended so as to be swayed be the wind or any slight force.
Hence To dance attendance; hover longingly or importunately, as for notice or favors: used of persons, with about or after: as, to dangle about a woman; to dangle after a great man.
Comments by qms
Show previous 200 comments...
qms commented on the word chorology
Just where might you look for a wallaby
Or find a big prairie dog colony?
What habitats boast
The least and the most
And why, is the realm of chorology.
December 13, 2018
qms commented on the word skopos
In the matter of Moses’s toes
Just what may the scholar suppose?
The text could be comical
Or else anatomical.
He’d better define the skopos.
Any unfamiliar with the matter of Moses’s toes can be enlightened at this link:
https://youtu.be/cQLnrBxVw3M
December 12, 2018
qms commented on the word cake
One of the nicest Swedish deserts is a big sponge cake coated in whipped cream and studded with strawberries. In my wife’s family this is called by a name that translates to “maternal grandmother’s cake” but phonetically it is “murmur’s caca.” This give pause to those who are first introduced to it.
December 11, 2018
qms commented on the word freshie
The forms of address can get messy
When croc and newcomer are freshie.
I’d stumble, by gosh,
‘Cause we call them frosh
And ‘gators are what might distress me.
December 11, 2018
qms commented on the word fluviatile
Old crocs that are cruising the Nile
To Aussie eyes look juvenile.
They are mighty paltry
Compared to a saltie
And prosaically fluviatile.
December 11, 2018
qms commented on the list cookie-monster
The pepparkakor is one of the seemingly infinite variety of cookies my wife’s Swedish family bakes at Christmas.
December 10, 2018
qms commented on the word wully-wus
Ol’ bilby persists in his pranks
But, weary, I tell him, “No thanks.”
He may embrace fully
The wus and the wully
But my brief stops well short of Manx.
December 10, 2018
qms commented on the word incult
A young person’s mind is in tumult,
While fertile and green it is uncult,
So passionate youth
Neglects tact for truth
And old withered ears hear an insult.
December 10, 2018
qms commented on the word borrel
To set a tone lofty and moral
Some leaders eschew petty quarrel.
The goblin by contrast
Loves insult and bombast.
He’s hopelessly clumsy and borrel.
December 9, 2018
qms commented on the word empyreal
Some suitors use comic material;
Others are sweet and ethereal.
Some try derring-do
But the most daring woo
Is feigning the sexless empyreal.
December 8, 2018
qms commented on the word tramontane
Cf. ultramontaine.
December 7, 2018
qms commented on the word ultramontane
The still mists stifle and stain
Befouling the air of the plain.
Skies formerly bright
With reason’s clear light
Need fresh gusts ultramontaine.
Cf. tramontane.
December 7, 2018
qms commented on the word pandect
He’ll hunt and he’ll peck to collect,
To source, classify and connect,
But Ernest’s best hope is
An eccentric opus.
He’ll never compose a pandect.
Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit
December 6, 2018
qms commented on the word catadromous
*Doffs his hat.*
December 5, 2018
qms commented on the word catadromous
It’s deep sea that makes a shad amorous
But love misapplied is calamitous.
How bad must she feel
To fall for an eel
Then learn that her lover’s catadromous.
December 5, 2018
qms commented on the word zambomba
While some play the spoons or the bones
Let others percuss with two stones,
Or add a zambomba
And cry ¡Ay,caramba!
Enriching the idiophones.
December 4, 2018
qms commented on the word incondite
The flourish too much was the bonnet;
Mugs curses the moment he donned it.
The cops on the hunt
Could see through his stunt;
His costume was sadly incondite.
December 3, 2018
qms commented on the word boistous
I prithee, begone! Thou annoyeth us,
Profaning these sanctified cloisters.
A monk should be meek
And hark more than speak
But thou stealeth ale and are boistous.
December 2, 2018
qms commented on the word gentilitial
His statements, both tweets and official,
Give proof of a grave mental issue.
His dad joined the Klan
And formed the young man
So call it a trait gentilitial.
December 1, 2018
qms commented on the word lapstone
Fresh leather, uneven and knobbled,
Must always be thoroughly cobbled,
But whacking on lapstones
Is hard on a chap’s bones
And prospects of offspring are hobbled.
November 30, 2018
qms commented on the word spaghett
This pasta, I think you will find,
Accepts sauce of most any kind.
She’s not a cheap floozy
Yet cannot be choosy
For, i-less, spaghett is thus blind.
November 30, 2018
qms commented on the word kylix
Penelope’s dining is stylish:
A dainty and well-seasoned dry mix
In a Baccarat bowl
That’s food for the soul
And catnip infusion en kylix.
November 29, 2018
qms commented on the word jasey
The customs of England amaze me.
Their judges wear gowns and a jasey.
Has no one there twigged
They’re strangely bewigged
Considering wiggy means crazy?
November 28, 2018
qms commented on the word spaghett
It’s countless the pastas I’ve met:
Farfalle, linguini and yet
From out all the many,
The orzo and penne,
The noblest is humble spaghett!
November 27, 2018
qms commented on the word spaghett
In Venice the portly Geppetto
Near capsized a small vaporetto.
Resolved to get thinner
He had for his dinner
A polpetta bewreathed in spaghetto.
November 27, 2018
qms commented on the word stithy
A remarkable archaeological achievement, bilby. Also reminds me why I don’t want to be a fisherman.
November 27, 2018
qms commented on the word stithy
Poetasters flog wits with a withy
To beat out some words that are pithy,
Or bellow in time
To the hammer of rhyme,
Forging lines on the limerick’s stithy.
November 27, 2018
qms commented on the word trudgen
The hunk at the neighborhood lido
Swims freestyle and wears a tight speedo,
But for the curmudgeon
It’s trunks and the trudgen
To show that he’s conquered libido.
November 26, 2018
qms commented on the word tapotement
Priscilla, provisioned for hope, went
Again for light strokes and tapotement.
Should charm not procure
A willing masseur
Her checkbook might lead to elopement.
November 25, 2018
qms commented on the word siffle
Don’t go to the doc with a sniffle;
She’ll warn of an ominous siffle.
A cough and a sneeze
Are not real disease.
Avoid all that medical piffle.
November 24, 2018
qms commented on the word pandowdy
I just never know which ones are going to tickle people. Thank you both.
November 23, 2018
qms commented on the word pandowdy
That cowpoke’s so terribly loud he
Quite shook the whole house with his “Howdy!”
From force of his yell
My wife’s soufflée fell.
We served it as apple pandowdy.
November 23, 2018
qms commented on the word cocozelle
Said Winchell to Howard Cosell,
“Have you ever had cocozelle?”
Retorted young Howard,
“I am not empowered,
To say more than that I know her well.”
November 22, 2018
qms commented on the word sangaree
In isles of the mangrove and manatee
Swamp fevers can bring on insanity.
To shelter your senses
The best of defenses
Is glass after glass of sweet sanagree.
November 21, 2018
qms commented on the word parvitude
The fingers are pale as a larval brood
And squirm like slick worms that are starved for food.
But goblin’s do jabbing
And coarse pussy grabbing,
More foul for insinuant parvitude.
November 20, 2018
qms commented on the word ventosity
He’s not much at subtle philosophy
And stranger to grace, wit or prosody,
But his vulgar sallies
Do gin up his rallies.
He’s champ when it comes to ventosity.
November 19, 2018
qms commented on the word contumely
I desperately hope and assume he
Will go before night fears consume me,
And take from the scene
His strut and his preen,
His self-praise and raging contumely.
November 18, 2018
qms commented on the word shadoof
The pyramids furnish the proof
We need but the hand and the hoof,
For camel and manpower
Built every grand tower,
Assisted by levers, the sledge and shadoof.
November 17, 2018
qms commented on the word disselboom
The shopkeeper cheerfully mocks
The way that the Boer farmer talks.
He’ll give him a thistle bloom
When he wants a disselboom
To hitch up his weary old ox.
November 16, 2018
qms commented on the word berimbau
Yep. I’m wired.
November 15, 2018
qms commented on the word berimbau
The dancer with all limbs akimbo
Contorts in a lithesome low limbo.
In firelight flesh glistens
And all the world listens
To the beat of the haunting berimbau.
November 15, 2018
qms commented on the word garth
In seasons when sunlight is sparse
The Princess stays in by the hearth.
When Winter is gone
And sun soaks the lawn
Her court will disport on the garth.
November 14, 2018
qms commented on the word freakshake
Brilliant, bilby! Can you copyright a dance move? Shall we race to the patent office? Gimme, gimme, gimme some money for that shimmy.
November 13, 2018
qms commented on the word alestake
I guessed it was old Abenaki
Or maybe a rare type of sake,
But alestake is pure
Plain English for sure
And none of that furrin malarkey.
November 13, 2018
qms commented on the word alestake
When travelers and steeds need a break
There’s thirst of the horses to slake,
But coachmen will push
To the welcoming bush
And go till they find an alestake.
November 13, 2018
qms commented on the word lingcod
On the Great Puget Sound Octopus Survey
Beware what the scholars purvey!
Octopuses are coy in their way.
They’re dodgers and dancers,
You can’t trust their answers.
Who knows how they’ll twist a survey?
November 12, 2018
qms commented on the word illation
Concerning our great tribulation
I offer a hopeful illation:
The problem derives
From imbibing lies
And abstinence ends pixilation.
November 12, 2018
qms commented on the word demyship
If I were more learned and polished
I’d know how to say “Magdalen College.”
Odd words likes demyship
Would trip light from my lip
And all would admire my knowledge.
An interesting note on local pronunciation:
http://www.weeklyhome.com/blog/mistakes-not-make-when-you-visit-oxford.html
November 11, 2018
qms commented on the user sionnach
It’s strange prey the bandicoot stalks.
A sionnach, I learned, is a fox.
It’s not like he will be
A pal to a bilby.
He’ll eat him like bagels and lox.
November 10, 2018
qms commented on the word ponderate
Lexicographers eagerly explicate.
Though some are disposed to pontificate
A scholar who’s prudent
Is modesty’s student,
Inclined to first quietly ponderate.
November 10, 2018
qms commented on the word metanoia
The bed ought to be like a cloister
But some noisome neighbor may roister.
An unwelcome shellfish
Is Yanno, the selfish,
Notoriously boisterous, oyster.
November 10, 2018
qms commented on the word metanoia
My neighbor’s a noisy annoyer
And drove me to go find a lawyer.
Once keen on hip hop art
He now swears by Mozart
My lawyer has wrought metanoia.
November 9, 2018
qms commented on the user olcio45
Greetings.
November 8, 2018
qms commented on the word emunctory
In typical practice of Trumpery
Civility’s scarce and perfunctory.
The organs of speech,
Disgraced in the breach,
Are put to a service emunctory.
November 8, 2018
qms commented on the word baldaquin
There’s uncles and aunts and grandmothers
And spawn of your sisters and brothers,
A small baldaquin
For all balder kin
And tables in sunlight for others.
November 7, 2018
qms commented on the word ostent
Is this how our twigs should be bent?
The goblin’s example has meant
The way to succeed
Is easy indeed,
With bluster and pompous ostent.
November 6, 2018
qms commented on the user ultralighticeaxe
A penetrating observation, bilby.
November 5, 2018
qms commented on the word BOFA
This is how the critics at Variety acclaim a successful all-women show. Compare boffo and brava. (The all-caps is a regrettable bit of condescension.)
November 5, 2018
qms commented on the word parrel
There once was a parrot named Darryl
Who perched by the store’s pickle barrel.
In his salty past
He’d sailed ‘fore the mast
So chattered of halyard and parrel.
November 5, 2018
qms commented on the word dinkey
As humpback compares to a minke
Or fist to a fluttering pinky
Do engines for trains
That roar ’cross the plains
Compare to the stuttering dinkey.
November 4, 2018
qms commented on the word wunderpus
Let speciesism never asunder us
But love from we two make but one of us.
Though some think it odd,
My sweet cephalopod,
Forever you’ll be my dear wonderpus.
November 3, 2018
qms commented on the word curtilage
The yard has a drive and a fertile edge
Set round by a well trimmed myrtle hedge.
It’s modest for sure
But green and secure,
A bargain in comfortable curtilage.
November 3, 2018
qms commented on the user bilby
Reading comments such as those at eckle-feckle I grieve that I missed some merry times at Wordnik.
November 3, 2018
qms commented on the word fanion
Surveyors come always in twos.
The head man is careful to choose
A jolly companion
To plant the last fanion
Then off to the pub and the booze.
November 2, 2018
qms commented on the word auberge
Old friends will at times feel the urge
To lay down their tools and converge
To learn how each fares,
Their hopes and their cares,
In the warmth of a cozy auberge.
November 1, 2018
qms commented on the word caphar
The caravans come from afar
With goods for the local bazaar
Paid each local chief,
Lest they come to grief,
A bribe that they called a caphar.
October 31, 2018
qms commented on the word ghazal
A poet I once knew named Basil
Tried hard to impress and to dazzle.
For verses erotic
He liked the exotic
And spurned the dull sonnet for ghazal.
October 30, 2018
qms commented on the word acephalous
Astride his dark snorting Bucephalus
Whose thundering hoofbeats can deafen us,
The horseman delights
In haunting our nights,
More horrid because he’s acephalous.
October 29, 2018
qms commented on the word zoosemiotics
The boffins who deal in robotics
Avoid the weird look of exotics
So study a lot
To mix pet and bot,
Applying zoosemiotics.
October 28, 2018
qms commented on the word pharmacophore
We can't do much more than deplore
The tenants our frail bodies store.
I’m glad of the pills
Addressing my ills
With versatile pharmacaphore.
October 27, 2018
qms commented on the word artivism
Some radicals acting to start a “-vism”
More pungent than middle-class artivism
Now practice disruption
By fragrant eruption,
Harassing their targets with fartivism.
October 26, 2018
qms commented on the word jean dimmock
mayonnaise
October 26, 2018
qms commented on the word listric
Its signature characteristic
Is ponds that bespeckle the district.
By locals it’s said
They mark giants’ tread.
More likely their forming was listric.
October 25, 2018
qms commented on the word alterity
In times of great want and austerity
Comparisons pump our prosperity.
We’re pleased to discover
A more wretched other
And comfort ourselves in alterity.
October 24, 2018
qms commented on the word assoil
His minions must always be loyal,
Defending his hopeless turmoil.
They fall out of favor
Who waffle or waver;
He does not forgive or assoil.
October 23, 2018
qms commented on the word epeiric
Emissions have made the earth’s sky sick
And soiled all the waters epeiric.
We should get on board
The Paris Accord
Then learn the new rules and comply quick.
October 22, 2018
qms commented on the user scmcloud2
I look forward to your contributions.
October 21, 2018
qms commented on the word fanfaronade
His duty and truth are betrayed
With every new rodomontade.
His coarse conversation
Is tergiversation,
His speeches sheer fanfaronade.
October 21, 2018
qms commented on the word kurgan
In life Ghengis Khan dressed in ermine,
For headgear - a tight proto-turban.
We know not his clothes
In deathly repose
But know they’ll be found in a kurgan.
October 20, 2018
qms commented on the word paleotechnic
Museums these days are eclectic,
If some call it art they collect it,
From classical schools
To stuff with no rules
And even the paleotechnic.
October 19, 2018
qms commented on the word camlet
There once was a prince, name of Hamlet,
A madman (or did he just sham it?),
Who wore silken pants
For his epic rants
But talked to the dead wearing camlet.
October 18, 2018
qms commented on the word innatism
Some argue the path to true wisdom
Begins with the font and the chrism,
But others protest
The infant is blessed
With insights of deep innatism.
October 17, 2018
qms commented on the word bleb
Ambitions advance and they ebb
Like throbs of the life-giving web.
Once ardently sought
Are goals now forgot
And heart-breaking woe a mere bleb.
October 16, 2018
qms commented on the word dene
A dun dune adorns a beach scene
While inland the valley is green.
The one’s made of sand
The other, rich land,
Yet somehow they both are called dene.
October 15, 2018
qms commented on the word revet
How best the erosion abet
In dunes by nor’easters beset?
Though some, shrugging, say
You only can pray
It makes much more sense to revet.
October 14, 2018
qms commented on the word sullage
Brett’s drinking improved only ullage;
His judgment was worn to a dull edge.
Discernment unclear,
He mistook for beer
Concoctions of poisonous sullage.
October 13, 2018
qms commented on the word burgee
May each dreaming sailor’s keen urge be
To break from the dock and to surge free
With wind at her back
From tack after tack
Her hair streaming out like a burgee.
October 12, 2018
qms commented on the word plateresque
zuzu, you make it a pleasure to post them.
October 11, 2018
qms commented on the word plateresque
His lashings of gold are grotesque,
A Midas self-mocked in burlesque.
His shill, pallid Pence,
Is small change and hence
Permitted the cold plateresque.
October 11, 2018
qms commented on the word relume
The light of decorum’s entombed,
God knows when we’ll see it exhumed.
The shadows that cloak us
In all that’s atrocious
Will stay till that lamp is relumed.
October 10, 2018
qms commented on the word cosmogony
Some think there are mischievous progeny
Descended from tales of cosmogony.
No maker need be
A he nor a she
But a being of holy androgyny.
October 9, 2018
qms commented on the word heliotherapy
The nurses are unctuous and syrupy,
Their chatter theatrically chirrupy
To make you feel sure
They’ll manage your cure
With doses of heliotherapy.
October 8, 2018
qms commented on the word sacellum
Their postures are true antebellum;
They’d write if they could on old vellum.
They yearn for the day
When cotton held sway
And call Sumter’s walls their sacellum.
October 7, 2018
qms commented on the word downhole
It could be a Stephen King clown stole
Some oil giant’s blackening brown soul
And crammed it like phlegm
In the steel flower’s stem,
Accounting for obstacles downhole.
October 6, 2018
qms commented on the word morra
There’s almost a sanctified aura
To ruins of great Roman fora,
But best bear in mind
They thronged with our kind
Who idled their time playing morra.
October 5, 2018
qms commented on the word esclandre
A justice should be an upstander,
A model of frankness and candor,
And heaven forfend
He need to defend
‘Gainst stories of drunken esclandre.
October 4, 2018
qms commented on the word mythomaniac
The pundits deploy their ungainly tact,
Unwilling to say what is plainly fact.
He doesn’t misstate
Or exaggerate:
The man is a frank mythomaniac.
October 3, 2018
qms commented on the word airscrew
It’s good for a lusty air crew,
No more, they contend, than their due:
High over the deep
While passengers sleep
To join in a lively airscrew.
October 2, 2018
qms commented on the word centration
The problems that harry the nation
Persist to the general frustration.
They’re readily dumped
And easily trumped
By the goblin’s bizarre self centration.
October 1, 2018
qms commented on the word enthalpy
A physicist, stars in his eyes,
Cried, “Love is a lovely surprise!
The system’s enthalpy
Is measurably paltry
But, oh! How it does energize!”
September 30, 2018
qms commented on the word Amstetdamster
Sorry. These old eyes ain’t what they used to be.
September 30, 2018
qms commented on the word Amsterdamster
I think Amsterdamster is more pleasing to the ear tham Amsterdammer.
September 30, 2018
qms commented on the word latchet
A bad shoe can drive a man batshit.
It shouldn’t be work to attach it.
You needn’t bend over
To put on a loafer.
To hell with the laces and latchet!
September 29, 2018
qms commented on the word scop
Well done, zuzu!
September 28, 2018
qms commented on the user bilby
Ahoy, bilby! Long time no read. Have you been off foraging for tasty lichens?
September 28, 2018
qms commented on the word phonophobia
The news makes me feel like old Job.
It bruise some cranial lobe.
I crave only quiet;
I cannot deny it,
I’m now a confirmed phonophobe.
September 28, 2018
qms commented on the word scop
In Heorot he gave them all hope,
At least a bare method to cope.
Now hear Grendel’s roar
At our trembling door
But where is our comforting scop?
Note: Pronunciation guidance varies: skop, shop and shope. The last of these is the one I was taught by scholars I trust.
September 27, 2018
qms commented on the word Heorot
Heorot is a mead-hall described in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf as "the foremost of halls under heaven." It served as a palace for King Hroðgar, a legendary Danish king of the sixth century. Heorot means 'Hart, stag'. After the malicious entity Grendel slaughters the inhabitants of the hall, the Geatish hero Beowulf defends the royal hall before subsequently defeating him. Later Grendel's Mother attacks the inhabitants of the hall, and she too is subsequently defeated by Beowulf.
September 27, 2018
qms commented on the word anarthria
Tank, I am not worthy - but immensely flattered.
September 27, 2018
qms commented on the word anarthria
The goblin of course could still tweet.
I know it’s a foolish conceit
To wish for (pro patria!)
A case of anarthria
But wouldn’t the silence be sweet?
September 26, 2018
qms commented on the word fulminant
A bull fight’s a basically cruel event,
Provoking a harmless great ruminant
By pain and affronts
And daredevil stunts
To actions soon fatally fulminant.
September 25, 2018
qms commented on the word hydropathy
I think that there surely has got to be
At least a faint taint of hypocrisy
In places that get
Their guests very wet
And call the procedure hydropathy.
September 24, 2018
qms commented on the word shamefast
Demure to ensure there’s no blame cast
The coy maid is cautiously shamefast.
By blushes and sighs
She cleverly tries
How long she can make the old game last.
September 23, 2018
qms commented on the word Skein
See skein.
September 23, 2018
qms commented on the word biggin
There once was a zealot named Wiggin
Who practiced outlandish religion.
Despite vulgar stares
He said morning prayers
Clad only in boots and a biggin.
September 22, 2018
qms commented on the word etalon
A beam of bright light was once set upon
By ambushers with a sly etalon,
Their ingenious aim -
To make the beam lame
And harness the hitch in its get along.
September 21, 2018
qms commented on the word finings
Good beer is one of life’s fine things,
Consoling our dry stomach linings;
So God bless the brewer!
Let’s never have fewer
Of vats and of casks and of finings.
September 20, 2018
qms commented on the word kouros
Miss Grundy was quite at a loss
To find a light comment to toss,
So breathlessly viewed
That arrogant nude,
The fleshless, compelling kouros.
September 19, 2018
qms commented on the word patache
‘Mongst hulking great vessels of war
That bristle with weapons galore
The humble patache
With nimble panache
Still flits between ship’s side and shore.
September 18, 2018
qms commented on the word palter
Thank you kindly, zuzu.
September 18, 2018
qms commented on the word winebibber
The curse of the bashful winebibber
Is drink at the first makes him glibber
But eloquence fades,
The right word evades
And soon he’ll do no more than gibber.
September 17, 2018
qms commented on the word palter
Blasphemers will profane the altar
And read from a mischievous psalter.
Some, without qualms
Will distort the psalms;
Instead of true preaching they palter.
September 16, 2018
qms commented on the word empuse
Her enemies cruelly abuse her
And call her a heartless Medusa.
Such charges are wild;
She’s really quite mild,
No more than a creepy empuse.
September 15, 2018
qms commented on the word dunderfunk
The pirates triumphant are plunder-drunk,
Their hardships for now all in wonder sunk,
Engorged with their loot
Of viands and fruit,
Forgetting their dinners of dunderfunk.
September 14, 2018
qms commented on the word morat
The Camelot ladies adore it
But knights of the table deplore it.
For questing you need
Some strong ale and mead.
You can’t hunt the Beast drinking morat.
September 13, 2018
qms commented on the word questing beast
See also Questing Beast.
September 13, 2018
qms commented on the word Questing Beast
The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend. It is the subject of quests undertaken by famous knights such as King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questing_Beast
September 13, 2018
qms commented on the word wist
OED
wist. - To have cognizance or knowledge of; to be aware of; to know (as a fact or an existing thing).
September 12, 2018
qms commented on the word dullardism
“Oh, mirror,” he asked, “Dost thou wist
If better than I could exist?”
The dun-colored prism
Of his dullardism
Showed only his face in the mist.
September 12, 2018
qms commented on the word livor
Once crimes were resolved by MacGyver,
That endlessly clever contriver.
Now villains are caught
More often than not
By white-coated experts on livor.
September 11, 2018
qms commented on the word Gello.
Gello in Greek mythology, is a female demon or revenant who threatens the reproductive cycle by causing infertility, spontaneous abortion, and infant mortality. By the Byzantine era, the gelloudes (γελλούδες) were considered a class of beings. Women believed to be under demonic possession by gelloudes might stand trial or be subjected to exorcism.
Gyllou, Gylou, Gillo, or Gelu are some of its alternate forms.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gello
September 10, 2018
qms commented on the word gelloudes
Plural of Gello.
September 10, 2018
qms commented on the word brainge
A cowboy not home on the range
Is given to conduct that’s strange.
In search of romance
He’ll try hard to dance
But only can lollop and brainge.
September 10, 2018
qms commented on the word stupe
The witch who was doc for the group
Would steep an old napkin in soup.
When spells went awry
A broth of newt’s eye
Would make a most excellent stupe.
September 9, 2018
qms commented on the word visnomy
I’m welcome all over the town.
The grownups invite a sit-down,
But all the kids know me
By my odd visnomy
As Donald the Dangerous clown.
September 8, 2018
qms commented on the word uhtceare
A hapax legomenon.
September 7, 2018
qms commented on the word brabble
A scholar cries, “This is mere gabble!”
Another says, “Nay, it is babble!”
The conference is shattered
And comity battered
In a lexicographical brabble.
September 7, 2018
qms commented on the word maledicent
The annals record not a precedent
For comments like these of our president.
Some language was salty
Or grammar was faulty
But none so obtuse or maledicent.
September 6, 2018
qms commented on the word emprise
Oh, how many evils arise
When citizens blinker their eyes,
When allegiance to fact
Is a perilous act
And seeking the truth an emprise?
September 5, 2018
qms commented on the word prometheus
See Prometheus.
September 4, 2018
qms commented on the word cramoisie
I like my cheesecake framboise-y,
A scarlet and ivory jamboree
The cake’s at its best
When liberally blessed
With berries all lushly cramoisie.
September 4, 2018
qms commented on the word frounce
He listens to boring accounts
Of places he cannot pronounce,
Hiding incomprehension
With feigned close attention
And solemn executive frounce.
September 3, 2018
qms commented on the word caggy
There once was a lady named Maggie
Pathetically shriveled and saggy.
Bag ladies aren’t keen
On careful hygiene
So Maggie was savagely caggy.
September 2, 2018
qms commented on the word methomania
Our Ernest loves words like calcanea
And other such strange miscellanea.
It’s the wordy’s affliction,
A nerdy addiction,
A potent, though weird, methomania.
Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit
September 1, 2018
qms commented on the word higgler
There once was a spokesman named Ziegler,
A famously flexible wriggler.
While still a mere youth
He bargained with truth
And proved a most obstinate higgler.
August 31, 2018
qms commented on the word pedantocracy
And Sanders decries our plutocracy,
But fears in me linger
From his wagging finger
That Bernie supports pedantocracy.
August 30, 2018
qms commented on the word Unscented
alexz has a list called Glitched definitions.
August 30, 2018
qms commented on the word ultraism
The Pharma Bro’s free market ultraism,
Though seen quite rightly as vulturism,
Was deemed unassailable
So crimes that were jailable
Were found to obtain a result in prison.
August 29, 2018
qms commented on the word ethnopoetics
They study the lore and phonetics
And delve into tribal memetics,
But some, sick of prying,
Are given to lying
To tart up the ethnopoetics.
August 28, 2018
qms commented on the word gigantomachy
We often respond rather comically
To sounds we produce anatomically.
Our rumbles and farts
Suggest martial arts
And sometimes a new gigantomachy.
August 27, 2018
qms commented on the word tympanites
The “blimp” was a British wry tease:
A Trump in his bright tighty-whities.
Onlookers were cheerful,
The Trump, though, was tearful,
Afflicted with gross tympanites.
August 26, 2018
qms commented on the word ferity
Though wise men maintain it’s a verity
That rudeness and insult are ferity,
With those who won’t see
What’s plain villainy
The sages permit some asperity.
August 25, 2018
qms commented on the word cacodorous
Despite our indignant chorus
Polluters still mock or ignore us
And now heaps of swill
On Capitol Hill
Grow fouler and more cacodorous.
August 24, 2018
qms commented on the word literatus
My muse is some days on hiatus
Affecting my lit’rary status.
In those trying times
I recycle rhymes
And bide as a passive literatus.
August 23, 2018
qms commented on the word metewand
Ty, zuzu!
August 22, 2018
qms commented on the word metewand
The kindly ones look for a way
To soothe me on my natal day:
“To tally each dawn’s
A foolish metewand!
You’re old as you feel,” so they say.
August 22, 2018
qms commented on the word hierurgy
A yearning heart and dramaturgy
Support effective hierurgy.
A conscience that’s raw
And penitent’s awe
Combine in solemn synergy.
August 21, 2018
qms commented on the user klezmania
Welcome aboard, klezmania.
August 20, 2018
qms commented on the word scoundrelism
The voters abide a mild bounderism
But will they endure outright scoundrelism?
Mistaken election
May bring on reflection
And maybe a morsel of sounder wisdom.
August 20, 2018
qms commented on the word pecuniosity
Accustomed to shortage and paucity
The poor folk have great curiosity:
They cannot divine
Just why the rich whine.
What ails those in pecuniosity?
August 19, 2018
qms commented on the word ugsome
Maternal caresses and hugs come
To even the humblest of bugdom,
For like every other
A worm has a mother
Who cares not her offspring are ugsome.
August 18, 2018
qms commented on the word aristarch
Dilute not your umbrage with snark!
Your bite should be worse than your bark.
The highest of dudgeon
Befits the curmudgeon,
Who’s called to be arch aristarch.
August 17, 2018
qms commented on the word stelliferous
The owl and the robin do differ thus:
The chirper finds darkness somniferous,
The nocturnal owl
Is out on the prowl,
Aloft when the sky is stelliferous.
August 16, 2018
qms commented on the word genethlialogy
Thanks, zuzu.
August 15, 2018
qms commented on the word consentient
Not crooked perhaps - only gently bent,
Charming withal, and a friendly gent.
The lobbyist’s wiles
Are favors and smiles
Enabling new friends be consentient.
August 15, 2018
qms commented on the word monomachy
Some suffer a boring monogamy
Afflicted by torpid monotony,
But others think strife
Twixt husband and wife
Should offer exciting monomachy.
August 14, 2018
qms commented on the word seamark
Historically sailors would hark
To foghorns that blast in the dark,
But these days they heed
The GPS feed
And don’t even need a seamark.
August 13, 2018
qms commented on the word genethlialogy
Stargazing has often a quality
Of mystic but harmless frivolity,
But don’t laugh or jibe
At that solemn tribe
That practices genethlialogy.
August 12, 2018
qms commented on the word codicology
Accept, if you will, a most odd apology:
I misapprehended this codicology;
It’s for ancient writing,
Not haddock and whiting,
Nor matters affecting our cod ecology.
August 11, 2018
qms commented on the word highbinder
You can’t say the man’s a blindsider
Or dodgy evasive sidewinder.
He comes with lips open
And stubby hands gropin’.
A venomous preening highbinder.
August 10, 2018
qms commented on the word glairy
Priscilla affirmed she would marry
Young Boris if he were less hairy.
He waxed and he plucked;
No oyster once shucked
Ever glistened more pallid and glairy.
August 9, 2018
qms commented on the word eutrophic
We shouldn’t be shy or myopic
But yogurt’s a sensitive topic,
For effluents leak
To make the stuff “Greek”
And all local ponds are eutrophic.
August 8, 2018
qms commented on the word riant
Ensure that you’re trademark compliant
Promoting your company’s giant.
It‘s copyright folly
To say “green and jolly”
So boast that he’s vernal and riant.
August 7, 2018
qms commented on the word sorner
Watch out for that little Jack Horner
With plums on his thumbs in the corner.
When Muffet’s astray
From curds and her whey
He’ll snatch ‘em, the wretched wee sorner.
August 6, 2018
qms commented on the word monopteron
A gothic estate needs a proper lawn,
A pond in the shape of an octagon,
A statue or two,
A ruin to view
And one mysterious monopteron.
August 5, 2018
qms commented on the word daren’t
Cambridge English Dictionary:
short form of dare(s) not:
I daren't tell him - he'll be so angry.
August 4, 2018
qms commented on the word alloparent
Though hearts are swiftly beguiled
By orphans that ought to be wild
The zookeeper daren’t
Become alloparent,
Attached to a beast like a child.
August 4, 2018
qms commented on the word krang
Some shanty the tired whalers sang
To work till the dinner bell rang.
On days spent at flense
It made perfect sense
To dine on a chowder of krang.
August 3, 2018
qms commented on the word plutonomy
Deluded, resentful, they throng to see
His orgy of bombastic bonhomie.
The whole horde agrees
To be worker bees
And strive in the hive of plutonomy.
August 2, 2018
qms commented on the word wormery
The rules of the local infirmary
Ban pets as too pesky and murmurry.
My bucket of worms
Just silently squirms
So they let me hold on to my wormery.
August 1, 2018
qms commented on the word evincive
His style he supposes evincive
Of glories of sultans and princes,
But gilding is crass
In alloy with brass,
Evincing but snickers and winces.
July 31, 2018
qms commented on the word chordophone
By trumpets woodwinds and trombone
A great deal of music is blown,
And riding those gusts
In dartings and thrusts
Are flights of the sweet chordophone.
July 30, 2018
qms commented on the word propaedeutic
I offer a free hermeneutic;
The difficult work is propaedeutic;
But, competence gained,
Then freedom’s attained
And learning thereafter is therapeutic.
July 29, 2018
qms commented on the word yeggman
There once was a fellow named Stegman
Who worked as a butter and egg man,
But having grown chary
Of chickens and dairy
Embarked on a life as a yeggman.
July 28, 2018
qms commented on the word proletary
When feeling depressed and solitary
Recall that our blessing can vary.
Do not make life’s measure
The getting of treasure;
Embrace simple joys of the proletary.
July 27, 2018
qms commented on the word aiguillette
See also aiglet and aglet.
July 26, 2018
qms commented on the word aiguillette
Attachments to clothes in most cases
Will stab you in sensitive places,
However a tag well met
Is the wee aigulette
That stiffens the end of your laces.
July 26, 2018
qms commented on the word ginglymus
Thank you, zuzu.
July 25, 2018
qms commented on the word ginglymus
An internal metronome swings in us
And insight when rhymed aright clings to us,
But flexion is key
In lines four and three
For they are the limerick’s ginglymus.
July 25, 2018
qms commented on the list non-dairy-beverages
milquetoast
July 24, 2018
qms commented on the list non-dairy-beverages
milk of human kindness
July 24, 2018
qms commented on the word sapidity
Our Ernest, despite his avidity,
Eschews any careless rapidity.
Like rarest of fungi
With lips and his tongue he
Will savor each new word’s sapidity.
Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit
July 24, 2018
qms commented on the word octonion
You mean it’s not an eight-sided onion?
July 24, 2018
qms commented on the word verbigeration
The words in such dull iteration
Are not even tergiversation.
“There was no collusion”
In witless profusion
Is no more than verbigeration.
July 23, 2018
qms commented on the word caesaropapism
In this so disconsolate season,
When fear tries to rule over reason,
Is caesaropapism
Refreshing escapism
Compared to the rumors of treason.
July 22, 2018
qms commented on the word dubbin
Mix tallow and oil and then rub in
Till fingers are worn to a nubbin.
To make your boot leather
Impervious to weather
You add lots of sweat to your dubbin.
July 21, 2018
qms commented on the word expressage
Oh, what did that yellow slip presage;
A baleful or jubilant message?
What‘s won or what’s lost
To merit the cost
Of telegram’s costly expressage?
July 20, 2018
qms commented on the word tanuki
Lucky for your sister. From what I read if he had taken offense he might have unholstered his scrotum, enfolded her in it and carried her off to Tanukiville.
July 19, 2018
qms commented on the word fricandeau
My loaf is a shame and a woe
But means to save face now I know,
Not slighting the bread
But praising instead
By claiming it’s called fricandeau.
July 19, 2018
qms commented on the word indult
Achieving the state of aged adult
These chances are few to exult:
I need not assent
To strict rules of Lent
All thanks to the papal indult.
July 18, 2018
qms commented on the word microseism
The old man was shriveled and wizened,
The lassie however was lithesome.
I’ve heard it reported
The ways she contorted
Brought on a discreet microseism.
July 17, 2018
qms commented on the word tanuki
Thanks, zuzu. Can we make this a regular date?
July 16, 2018
qms commented on the word tanuki
In appearance it’s comically kookie -
Both mutt and raccoon - a tanuki!
A gigantic scrotum
Is his magic totem.
That’s fable but still pretty spooky.
July 16, 2018
qms commented on the word manway
I’d rather be elsewhere than stay
In caverns where nightmares can prey.
It’s foolish, not brave
To enter a cave
Unless you’ve been shown a manway.
July 15, 2018
qms commented on the word multure
The tasks to support agriculture
Include an unglamorous dull chore,
As most men will find
That milling’s a grind,
Relieved by receipt of the multure.
July 14, 2018
qms commented on the word barege
Isadora, oldtimers allege,
Would dance in a cloud of Arpège,
Adorned all the while
With only a smile
And diaphanous wisps of barege.
July 13, 2018
qms commented on the word tarriance
Your status you may well enhance
By carefully casual dalliance.
The rich and the great
Are stylishly late,
And greater the longer the tarriance.
July 12, 2018
qms commented on the word pugging
The Word of the Day definitions for “pugging” omit one that I find intriguing. Both GNU and the CDC suggest “thieving” as a synonym. Although its normal use is as an adjective it works just fine as a noun.
Whenever not smugly flag hugging
He’s giving the gov’mint a mugging.
He’s snug with rich thugs
Who buzz thick like bugs
Engorged with the glut of their pugging.
July 11, 2018
qms commented on the word pugging
The job of enclosing and snugging
Needs patience for doing the pugging,
A good eye and feel
To make clay congeal
And strength for the tedious lugging.
July 11, 2018
qms commented on the word nahual
If you should be born a narwhal
And find it won’t suit you at all,
Apply to a shaman
To make you a cayman
Or other exotic nahual.
July 10, 2018
qms commented on the word aversation
The landscape’s a bleak desolation,
Too grim to bear long contemplation.
A guy could do worse
Than write silly verse
While giving the news aversation.
July 9, 2018
qms commented on the word synteny
I sought the report and I’ve read it -
Our genes are now subject to edit.
Disrupting concinnity
And delicate synteny
Might serve as a reason to dread it.
July 8, 2018
qms commented on the word trommel
In heartwarming tableaux of old
The prospector pans for his gold;
The motorized trommel
Is now what is normal,
A scene that leaves dreaming hearts cold.
July 7, 2018
qms commented on the word quincuncial
Milady likes tea that’s served punctual
With certain wee treats that are munchable.
All implements furnished
Are brilliant and burnished,
Laid out in a pattern quincuncial.
July 6, 2018
qms commented on the word absolutism
It could be a slavish faux Putinism
Or native enjoyment of brutalism,
Or weak leader’s dread
Of being gainsaid
That fosters his crude absolutism.
July 5, 2018
qms commented on the word patriotical
The gestures are false but methodical:
Flag hugging is crudely symbolical;
His staging quite brims
With anthems and hymns
And all of it mock patriotical.
July 4, 2018
qms commented on the word autarchy
Good people be silent and hark ye!
Believe not the goblin’s malarkey!
He’ll wheedle and flatter
But words do not matter.
He means to construct an autarchy.
July 3, 2018
qms commented on the word vortex
Many years ago I saw a notice of a talk to be given at MIT: “Viscous Vortices on the Vertical Verges of Variable Velocity Vessels.” I did not attend but I have wondered since if the speaker had anything substantive to say on the subject or just could not resist alliteration.
July 3, 2018
qms commented on the word sycee
Very generous, bilby, thank you. I am grateful not only for the compliment but for reassurance that I am not alone out here. Where is everybody?
July 2, 2018
qms commented on the word boutade
A bon vivant might play a new card
Affecting a flashy foulard,
But such fashions fade
As soon as they’re played
Replaced by the latest boutade.
July 2, 2018
qms commented on the user tanstaafl
Impoverishment is a damn nuisance
But think of these words in a new sense:
A currency which is
A transfer of riches -
A free and renewable two cents.
July 1, 2018
qms commented on the word sycee
To live in Hong Kong can be dicey -
The housing is terribly pricey.
The rents are so bloated
That often they’re quoted
In carats per month or in sycee.
July 1, 2018
qms commented on the word velarium
The place was a burning solarium
So, wilting, he waved his orarium;
Thus Caesar conveyed
His need for some shade,
And slaves trotted out the velarium.
June 30, 2018
qms commented on the word cultigen
The eugenics project resulted in
An unsatisfactory cultigen.
Reversing bold plans
They bred Yankees fans
Instead of a species of ultra-men.
June 29, 2018
qms commented on the word galantine
In whom is such consummate talent seen,
Picasso perhaps, or in Balanchine?
What chef can impart
That tone of high art
We seek in the glistening galantine?
June 28, 2018
qms commented on the word scrappage
When efforts at mending and wrappage
Can’t hide your tin lizzie is crappage
Then turn in your honey
And take the blood money
To buy a new friend with the scrappage.
June 27, 2018
qms commented on the word weasand
The harried mom desperately reasoned
Her brat needed mush highly seasoned.
The trick was a help;
It silenced her whelp
By stifling his cries in his weasand.
June 26, 2018
qms commented on the word bastide
A taste for the market stampede
And years in the bourse may well lead
To regal facility
For rustic gentility
At the court of your summer bastide.
June 25, 2018
qms commented on the word oniomania
Now some people browse for a swap
And others use Paypal to shop,
But oniomania
Infects certain crania
And online they never need stop.
June 24, 2018
qms commented on the word sapropel
Antiquity’s singers were apt to tell
Of ominous blooms of asphodel.
Persephone’s bower
Was full of this flower,
Bred of the netherworld’s sapropel.
June 23, 2018
qms commented on the word myrmecophagous
Big Bird, on a new diet slant,
Suggests that his pal eat an ant,
But Ol’ Snuffleupagus
Is not myrmecophagous.
He tries to comply but he can’t.
June 22, 2018
qms commented on the word cark
For pessimists life has gone dark
Lit only by danger’s faint spark.
Expressions of joy
Serve but to annoy
A sufferer shrouded in cark.
June 21, 2018
qms commented on the word estivate
When striving and troublesome quest abate
And days of diversion and rest await,
I’ll work to no goal
Nor pay labor’s toll,
For starting tomorrow I’ll estivate.
June 20, 2018
qms commented on the word bittock
It pleases us all to play critic
And make our assessments acidic.
Oh, let us not hasten
To cavil and chasten
But walk with the other a bittock.
June 19, 2018
qms commented on the word chiliagon
There’s many a line to be drawn
To finish my chiliagon.
With pencils and rules
And paper my tools
With patience I’ll see you anon.
June 18, 2018
qms commented on the word ectype
Warhol had an ingenious plan
To paint a tomato soup can.
He knew to expect hype
And many an ectype.
Call Andy a shrewd businessman.
June 17, 2018
qms commented on the word foregleam
We plan, we prepare and we scheme
Constructing the future we dream,
But by nature’s kindness
We’re sheltered by blindness
And spared the despair of foregleam.
June 16, 2018
qms commented on the word rate
Its origin in Middle English raten etc. is thoroughly documented above.
June 15, 2018
qms commented on the word squandermania
The cries made in old Pomerania
Are echoed in our Pennsylvania.
The party that’s out
Still gives a great shout
Of outrage at such squandermania.
June 15, 2018
qms commented on the word thunderation
The goblin in triumph has stunned the nation;
Let’s pray that his tenure is one duration.
What words can convey
Our fear and dismay?
Oh dammit! And bother! And thunderation!
June 14, 2018
qms commented on the word auspicate
Philosophers routinely postulate
And pundits are prone to prognosticate
But if you’d be blessed
A twitcher knows best,
Whose passion is always to auspicate.
June 13, 2018
qms commented on the word vilipend
To those who will beg to be friend
The goblin may well condescend.
A different matter
Are those who won’t flatter
And these he is pleased to vilipend.
June 12, 2018
qms commented on the word dehort
Should friends be inclined to support
Or join in the trumpish cohort
Then make it your chore
To strongly deplore,
To reason, implore and dehort.
June 11, 2018
qms commented on the word ephemeron
The mayfly begins life at dawn,
By sundown the wee beast is gone,
And all it desires
Before it expires
Is love with a friendly ephemeron.
June 10, 2018
qms commented on the word roister
It would be shellfish of me to want more praise.
June 10, 2018
qms commented on the word roister
When high tide arrives they get moister,
Then quahogs and cherrystones roister,
But twice-daily frolics
Of mud-dwelling mollusks
Are spurned by the dignified oyster.
June 9, 2018
qms commented on the word bullyrag
Oh, why must her tongue unduly wag
And flail like a scourge to cruelly nag?
Her chosen life path
Is unbridled wrath
To hector and chide and bullyrag.
June 8, 2018
qms commented on the word cunctative
Also see comments at cunctatory.
June 7, 2018
qms commented on the word cunctatory
Old Aesop once in drunken glory
Concocted a famed but bunkum story
Of rabbit and turtle.
A tale ever fertile
That comforts today the cunctatory.
Also see comments at cunctative.
June 7, 2018
qms commented on the word spruit
What praise has this rivulet due it
That dies if the dew not renew it?
But readers are fickle
And even this trickle
Gains charm if you call it a spruit.
June 6, 2018
qms commented on the word putchist
Misspelling of putschist?
June 6, 2018
qms commented on the word vacillant
Be patient with Malcolm the malcontent.
It’s not that he’s always recalcitrant,
But suffers from bouts
Of worries and doubts
That make him reluctant and vacillant.
June 5, 2018
qms commented on the word geoponic
The stirring in regions chthonic
And warming of earth are synchronic
As seeds grow and flourish
To comfort and nourish,
Encouraged by skills geoponic.
June 4, 2018
qms commented on the word barranca
See comments at clough.
June 3, 2018
qms commented on the word clough
Aren’t gorge and ravine quite enough
For valleys and such hollowed stuff?
Barranca and canyon
Don’t need a companion.
I think we’ll dispense with this “clough”.
See comments at barranca.
June 3, 2018
qms commented on the word attrite
When buzzards descend and alight
Then plutocrats take an affright
And fiercely abjure
All Satan’s allure.
At Hell’s looming gate they’re attrite.
June 2, 2018
qms commented on the word sturdy
Now sturdy’s an interesting word.
I note it derives from a bird.
I see how the thrush
Could seem like a lush
But why did they call it a turd?
June 1, 2018
qms commented on the word hypaethral
The worshippers, eager and gleeful,
Now thronging their civic cathedral
In service of sport
Send prayers of support
To heaven from temples hypaethral.
June 1, 2018
qms commented on the word snarfly
Adverbial form of the verb ‘to snarf’.
May 31, 2018
qms commented on the user puyan
Ahoy there, puyan!
May 31, 2018
qms commented on the word barfly
madmouth, I am pleased to have tickled you. (In a purely notional sense, of course. No touching involved. Kept my hands in my pockets.)
May 31, 2018
qms commented on the word lazuline
Oh, stranger, I ask have you seen
Her eyes, so sublimely serene?
The depth of both gem
And sky is in them,
Cerulean yet lazuline!
May 31, 2018
qms commented on the word barfly
There once was a drunk named McCarthy
Consuming all alcohol snarfly.
His limit once struck
He’d quickly upchuck
Sustaining his drinking bouts barfly.
May 30, 2018
qms commented on the word nipaluna
The scholars arrived in a schooner
And drinking began all the sooner
For, as sailors will,
They fired up the still
And raised up their first nipaluna.
May 30, 2018
qms commented on the word nipaluna
But given Australia’s colorful history I am sure that in time the origin of “nipaluna” will be construed to be a politer version of “sip-o’-moonshine.”
May 30, 2018
qms commented on the word tharm
In Scotland they claim there is charm in it
And doctors do say there’s no harm in it,
But eating of haggis
I’m certain would gag us
Because we’re alarmed by the tharm in it.
May 30, 2018
qms commented on the word obreptitious
The victory sure was suspicious,
Defying the voters’ clear wishes,
Not obvious fraud
But obscurely odd,
Obtained by some means obreptitious.
May 30, 2018
qms commented on the word jackleg
Mike Cohen’s a slippery twister
Who loves to be thought a slick fixer.
At law he’s the dreg,
A shabby jackleg,
But passably good as a trickster.
May 29, 2018
qms commented on the word contemnor
*The monkey doffs his hat,*
May 28, 2018
qms commented on the word contemnor
The judge with his voice all a-tremor
Ordered the witness’s hem lower.
Miniskirts are distractions
In criminal actions
And get you adjudged a contemnor.
May 28, 2018
qms commented on the word exclave
It’s either foolhardy or brave
To capture the sense of enclave
While leaving in place
The lexical space
To service its shadow, exclave.
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclave_and_exclave
May 27, 2018
qms commented on the word sgraffito
It’s boring to be incognito,
Celebrity, though, gets my veto.
Expose with great care
The parts you will share;
You should be a work of sgraffito.
May 26, 2018
qms commented on the word necrology
A Christmas card list has a quality
At first of good cheer and frivolity.
By decades that column
Grows more and more solemn
And ossifies into necrology.
May 25, 2018
qms commented on the word recess
The lumberjacks lay down their peaveys
And gypsies dispose of their tea leaves.
Good sense is forsaken
And liberties taken
While Erin consorts with the Kiwis.
May 24, 2018
qms commented on the word quodlibetical
Conversing in mode quodlibetical
My contrary friend is heretical.
In subsequent talks
He’s more orthodox
To savor all joys antithetical.
May 24, 2018
qms commented on the word bezil
See bezel.
May 24, 2018
qms commented on the word cateran
On lonely roads nothing is rarer than
That stranger should prove a samaritan,
So pray he’s a blellum
Or at worst a skellum
But never a prey hunting cateran.
May 23, 2018
qms commented on the word ultramundane
It‘s no term of slighting disdain;
Like “out of this world” it’s no stain.
Without taint of “boring”
But downright adoring,
It’s good to be ultramundane!
May 22, 2018
qms commented on the user squisch
A noble aspiration. Good luck.
May 21, 2018
qms commented on the word soroche
Up high in the Andes the folks say
The chewing of coca is ok.
It’s sovereign cure
For pains of the poor
And proof against dreaded soroche.
May 21, 2018
qms commented on the word cuadrilla
The shy matador’s bright idea
For wooing the haughty Maria
Was a sweet serenade
For that tease of a maid,
Backed up by his loyal cuadrilla.
May 20, 2018
qms commented on the word expunction
I think a serial comma is fussy, foolish and redundant.
May 19, 2018
qms commented on the word serial comma
See comments at expunction.
May 19, 2018
qms commented on the word expunction
A comma should serve a clear function
Not pester a healthy conjunction.
At the end of a list
It need not exist.
I call for its lasting expunction.
See serial comma.
May 19, 2018
qms commented on the list fore
I have added forensic but I realize he (she?) may be the relative nobody wants to acknowledge. If he is unwelcome I will return to cast him into outer darkness. (If I can figure out how to delete an item frm a list.)
May 18, 2018
qms commented on the word vicariance
Ma Nature conducts such a merry dance
Ingeniously fostering variance,
With tectonic drift
And mountains’ uplift
Deployed in the cause of vicariance.
May 18, 2018
qms commented on the word réchauffé
I like finding rhymes recherché,
The fanciful, rare or outré,
But often I flail
To little avail
And serve up a soup réchauffé.
May 18, 2018
qms commented on the word toolpusher
Suggestive are names on the rig:
They drill till the gusher is big;
A roustabout’s lusty
But (read it and trust me),
The big score’s a toolpusher’s gig.
May 17, 2018
qms commented on the user Robby75
Do you think I ought to charge a rate per rhyme or just hold limericks hostage?
May 17, 2018
qms commented on the word Optix's
Something here is sadly awry.
May 16, 2018
qms commented on the word sophrosyne
Oh, Plato would weep if he was to see
The state of our current democracy,
Our meanest and least
At hubristic feast
And mocking poor starving sophrosyne.
Pronunciation note: so-FROZ-a-nee
May 16, 2018
qms commented on the word bossage
To minimize spoiling and lossage
The butcher stacks shrewdly his sausage.
The look is unkempt
But fashioned to tempt,
The oldest protruding like bossage.
May 15, 2018
qms commented on the word concinnity
A rock speeding in from infinity
Can slow in the stellar vicinity
And give up deep space
For the solar embrace
To circle in languid concinnity.
May 14, 2018
qms commented on the word scrumpy
It calms the old girl when she’s jumpy
And cheers her on days when she’s grumpy.
The proper elixir
For all that afflicts her
Is pomaceous nectar called scrumpy.
May 13, 2018
qms commented on the word cottabus
We drank from the shell of a nautilus
Till skolion wearied the lot of us
Then made dirty jests
And bragged of conquests
And spent the last wine playing cottabus.
May 12, 2018
qms commented on the word frolic
The winter left us melancholic
But May arrives bright and bucolic -
Cavorting and gambols
And giggles in brambles
And all sorts of innocent frolic.
May 11, 2018
qms commented on the word esbat
I liked the old comical fest that
Included the conical dress hat
And caldron a-stew
With dark witches’ brew,
Now banned at canonical esbat.
May 11, 2018
qms commented on the word gobemouche
"Deplorables" can mean the louche,
The wicked man coarsely uncouth,
Or simple unwise
Who swallows his lies,
The gullible, gaping gobemouche.
May 10, 2018
qms commented on the word candy-pull
Also called a taffy pull.
https://pioneerthinking.com/old-fashioned-taffy-pull-party-how-to-host-your-own
May 9, 2018
qms commented on the word tittup
This virtual college of dance
Will teach you to caper or prance:
The gambol is wilder
A tittup much milder.
Cavorting might suit you, perchance?
May 9, 2018
qms commented on the word taupie
Young ladies whose morals are sloppy
May yield to the call of the poppy.
With that fatal taste
Have lives gone to waste
And heroine turned into taupie.
May 9, 2018
qms commented on the word velure
Long gone is the beastly couture
That wrapped up the swells in pellure.
Farewell to the feathers
And exotic leathers,
Replaced now with sinless velure.
May 8, 2018
qms commented on the word attercop
Compare gangewifre.
May 8, 2018
qms commented on the word gangewifre
Compare attercop.
May 8, 2018
qms commented on the word catamite
One of the most memorable opening lines of any novel is that that begins Anthony Burgess’s Earthly Powers:
This is in medias res with a vengeance.
May 7, 2018
qms commented on the word skolion
A yodel I figured had solely been
A feature of regions tyrolean,
But wine and a lyre
I bet could inspire
The Greeks to claim it’s a skolion.
May 7, 2018
qms commented on the word barlow
Les voyageurs of long, long ago
Could carry but little cargo
A fragile canoe,
Held a musket or two,
An axe and a handy barlow.
May 6, 2018
qms commented on the word swallet
When gravity’s dictates are followed
The river finds rock that is hollowed.
The miner’s will call it
A damnable swallet,
And live in the fear they’ll be swallowed.
May 5, 2018
qms commented on the user qms
ruzuzu, you are a generous soul. I thank you.
May 5, 2018
qms commented on the word zaddy
The prospect with horror does fill me!
I don’t know where word nerds then will be.
Why purge grace and wit?
There’s little of it,
Except in the postings of bilby.
May 4, 2018
qms commented on the word tritanomaly
Because of severe tritanomaly
I view my environs abnormally.
You may think it crazy
But critics still praise me
No matter I paint so abominably.
May 4, 2018
qms commented on the word verism
Compiling my beach reading queue
I like an O’Brian or two.
But swashbuckling numbers
Disrupt my sweet slumbers -
At bedtime verism will do.
May 3, 2018
qms commented on the word sumpitan
His tweeting’s vituperative art
And close to his putative heart.
Some spittle to pump it in
The Trumpian sumpitan
Then blowhard delivers his dart.
May 2, 2018
qms commented on the word epopee
The critics praise Pope only tepidly
His work is too witty and echoey.
His epics are mock
So scholars still balk
To classify any as epopee.
May 1, 2018
qms commented on the word dortour
Friar Fred was a snorer and snorter
And brotherly tempers grew shorter.
The last straw was farting;
This led to the parting
As Fred was expelled from the dortour.
April 30, 2018
qms commented on the word exedra
Do we have a word for the dread
That pangolins lurk in the shed,
Or spiny echidna
Invade the exedra
And cobras wait curled in the bed?
April 29, 2018
qms commented on the word gyrene
The proud and committed marines
All know what a leatherneck means.
They cherish that name
And combative fame
They’ve earned as relentless gyrenes.
April 28, 2018
qms commented on the word squizz
Variety covers show biz
And glories in tags like Les Mis.
For such razmataz
And verbal pizazz
Just give the old rag a quick squizz.
April 27, 2018
qms commented on the word callllama
Uber in the Andes.
April 27, 2018
qms commented on the word dresssuit
See dress suit.
April 27, 2018
qms commented on the word wanigan
The lumberjack loved his new mannequin
And, oh, what a noisy shenanigan!
The ecstatic cries
And heartbreaking sighs
That shivered the walls of his wanigan!
April 26, 2018
qms commented on the word tufthunter
Google and I got that allusion and enjoyed a very amusing Youtube video.
April 25, 2018
qms commented on the word tufthunter
But insults or slights don’t affront her,
A compliant tool
Too ready to snool,
And formerly known as tufthunter.
April 25, 2018
qms commented on the word tufthunter
This is a problem in that groupie does not rhyme with toady. Can we suppose an especially abject roadie?
The measure of my knowledge of the culture of rock is probably a negative value. I am going to have to do some original thinking, unless of course the persuasive power of my application of roadie in this limerick has such influence that the common understanding of the word is changed. How long should I wait?
April 25, 2018
qms commented on the word tufthunter
Their scorn could hardly be blunter
But insults or slights don’t affront her.
In rock she’s a “roadie,”
More generally - “toady,”
And formerly known as tufthunter.
Michael Quinion has an excellent discussion of this word at
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-tuf2.htm
April 25, 2018
qms commented on the word bibliopolist
The pages of books can offer this:
A personal mental Acropolis,
A temple and shrine
That’s uniquely mine
Whose priest is the old bibliopolist.
April 24, 2018
qms commented on the word vowess
They prayed, “May the Good Lord endow us
With a novice of kitchen skill prowess.”
He answered their plea
With well-fed Marie,
The convent’s most welcome new vowess.
April 23, 2018
qms commented on the word flexuosity
A contortionist hailing from Ossipee
Won fame as a great curiosity.
From this we may know
How far you can go
With hard work and sheer flexuosity.
April 22, 2018
qms commented on the word groupuscule
Poor Bobby had thought it super cool
To start up a geeky troop at school.
Since scarcely a nerd
Is drawn to a herd
He rounded up only a groupuscule.
April 21, 2018
qms commented on the word quandary
I can find no adjectival version of quandary. To my surprise the OED reports that it can be used as a verb in the passive voice and supplies examples such as, “2007 www.rolandmc.com 23 Feb. (O.E.D. Archives) I'm seriously quandaried by the need to create and choose a MySpace name.”
April 20, 2018
qms commented on the word vegan
Oh, dear! Is this a bad sign for vegans?
April 20, 2018
qms commented on the word tinchel
According to common report
In Scotland the hunters consort
To stalk with a wrinkle
By forming a tinchel
But still call the killing a sport.
April 20, 2018
qms commented on the word so long
Dammit, bilby, I knew you were going to want more info since I know you speak Bahasa Malayu or its Indonesian cousin. The Malay origin was the first I found but now I cannot locate the specific source I used. I have found other sources that suggest the Arabic “ma’salaam” became the Malay “salang” and that British soldiers and sailors serving in Malaya in the 19th Century brought it home as “so long.”
Now I’m going to be awake all night looking for that damned first google hit.
April 19, 2018
qms commented on the word so long
The origins of “so long” are in fact mysterious. It’ suggested origins have been placed in Irish (slán), German (adieu so lange), Hebrew (shalom), Arabic (salaam). Also Malay, Norwegian and Swedish origins have been posited. An early appearance in print was in the poetry of Walt Whitman who reported that it was a common salutation among soldiers and sailors.
See:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/so-long-origin
https://www.etymonline.com/word/so%20long
and in many other places.
April 19, 2018
qms commented on the word haemony
That beverage that formerly seemed to me
An ordinary serving of steaming tea
Was nothing prosaic
But apotropaic -
A cup of mysterious haemony.
April 19, 2018
qms commented on the word supernova
Really? I’m always hearing people say, “I’m going to supernova my erupt.” Maybe it’s different in Tasmania.
April 18, 2018
qms commented on the word sunbow
There’s nonsense and much mumbo-jumbo
In this, our linguistical gumbo:
In absence of rain,
The pedants explain,
You must call a rainbow a sunbow.
April 18, 2018
qms commented on the word tummler
He dances, who once was a stumbler.
She sings, who once was a mumbler.
The shy and unsure
Find solace and cure
Emboldened by wine and the tummler.
April 17, 2018
qms commented on the word weem
Though life in a burrow may seem
A low and impoverished scheme
Some in a snooty vein
Call it a souterrain,
But all of us know it’s a weem.
April 16, 2018
qms commented on the word chlamydia
A swagman once pined for his Lydia
Then met a koala much prettier.
Their meeting was pleasant
So he left a present,
Now all of her tribe has chlamydia.
April 15, 2018
qms commented on the word chlamydia
The obvious question is, “Who has been screwing the koalas?” There is nothing those Aussies won’t stoop to. Next it’ll be the quokkas. Or (gasp!) bilbies!
April 15, 2018
qms commented on the word tutiorism
Recusants grown weary of dreading
And cautious confessional treading
Embraced Lutheranism
As mere tutiorism
When faced with the threat of beheading.
April 15, 2018
qms commented on the word bayadere
Already a famed bayardere
Mata Hari began a career
Of laying and lying
And diligent spying,
A true multi-task pioneer.
April 14, 2018
qms commented on the word vulpicide
The woes of the gentry are multiplied;
And country house pastimes are stultified.
Laws new and obnoxious
Protect the damn foxes,
And limit the pleasures of vulpicide.
April 13, 2018
qms commented on the word ylem
Yes indeed, folks. The kettle is at a simmer and I am trying to keep the lid on. If anyone else would care to set this simpleton straight I would be happy for the help.
April 12, 2018
qms commented on the word forgott
smell fart.
April 12, 2018
qms commented on the word vending machine
And, in an early precedent for the tv preacher/pitch man, each machine bore the onscription,
Oh, sinner you need what I vend!
Those talents you foolishly spend
If spent here with me
Will set your soul free
To find the true way and amend!
April 12, 2018
qms commented on the word schollard
The pompous word tyrant’s been collared.
In shame and confusion he hollered,
‘Oh, give me reprieve
And I’ll give you leave
To tolerate riff-raff like ‘schollard!’”
April 12, 2018
qms commented on the word workfellow
Big Joe’s normal tone is a bellow;
He shakes down the leaves with his “Hello!”
His workplace is shared
By the hearing impaired
Who think him a perfect workfellow.
April 12, 2018
qms commented on the word ylem
Before there was genus and phylum
Or God made adamic asylum,
Before night and day
Or man went astray,
Preceding it all was the ylem.
April 11, 2018
qms commented on the word daeva
My dreams are torn by incursion
Of hauntings in many a version.
Tonight’s chilling flavor
Was barking mad daeva,
A taunting malevolent Persian.
April 10, 2018
qms commented on the word thible
The Scot and the British cook quibble
‘bout tools used for stirring their nibble:
The Scotsman will hurtle
To call it a spurtle,
The Briton steadfastly says thible.
April 9, 2018
qms commented on the word phizog
The old salt sits down with his dog
And shares out his bread and his grog.
They’re birds of a feather
And, so long together,
Alike in their tastes and phisog.
April 8, 2018
qms commented on the word gowpen
The soda bread recipe lists
Ingredients in gowpens and fists.
So would you know how then
To shape your own gowpen
With palms that are joined at the wrists?
April 7, 2018
qms commented on the word claustrophilia
The Donald thinks walls give protection
From human or import infection.
But what could be sillier
Than this claustrophilia
And love of such rigid erection?
April 6, 2018
qms commented on the word fouter
In morals he’s perfectly neuter,
Self interest uniquely his tutor.
Should sanctity buy us
He’s publicly pious,
In private an unabashed fouter.
April 5, 2018
qms commented on the word bimble
The critic is mentally nimble,
Uncovering subtext and symbol,
But given the chance
Reads tales of romance -
A thinking man’s indolent bimble.
April 4, 2018
qms commented on the word inscape
Inscape and instress are complementary concepts about individuality and uniqueness derived by Gerard Manley Hopkins from the ideas of the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inscape_and_instress
April 3, 2018
qms commented on the word instress
Inscape and instress are complementary concepts about individuality and uniqueness derived by Gerard Manley Hopkins from the ideas of the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inscape_and_instress
April 3, 2018
qms commented on the word drey
He raids the bird feeder all day
And drives all the songbirds away;
Then, trading his swagger
For a corpulent stagger,
He ponderously climbs to his drey.
April 3, 2018
qms commented on the word Catherine Wheel
See Catherine wheel.
April 3, 2018
qms commented on the word above par
Less pleasant than madmouth conceives,
For Bertie disrupts and upheaves.
For life that is stable
He should, if he’s able,
Obtain his narration from Jeeves.
April 2, 2018
qms commented on the word cagoule
No storm makes a proud Frenchman snool
No matter how windy and cruel.
Courage, mon ami!
With Gallic esprit
Look cool in your boots and cagoule!
April 2, 2018
qms commented on the list a-dram-too-many
I came across a list of Wodehousian words for drunk. Many are already in this list but the following are not: above par, rotten, groggy, ossified, tanked, illuminated, lit up like a Christmas tree, woozled.
April 1, 2018
qms commented on the word above par
Per Bertie Wooster - drunk.
April 1, 2018
qms commented on the word scenographic
Prepare your victorious maffick
With every theatrical tactic,
With lights and balloons
And boisterous tunes
And all of the arts scenographic.
April 1, 2018
qms commented on the word promptuary
Terrain and the temperatures vary
Explorers, though, knew what to carry.
A well-equipped chap
Expanding the map
Kept booze in the long promptuary.
March 31, 2018
qms commented on the word grumous
Our appetites finally doom us;
Our blood becomes fatty and grumous.
The lesson thus learned
Is painfully earned
And wisdom is sadly posthumous.
March 30, 2018
qms commented on the word stuggy
His friends ‘round his coffin all joked
How much Froggy ate, drank and smoked.
So squat and so stuggy
Yet gleefully buggy,
But none were surprised when he croaked.
March 29, 2018
qms commented on the word feculent
Though most think them tasteless and petulant
His fans find his tweets are quite esculent
They dine with delight
On venom and spite
And prize the most bitter and feculent.
March 28, 2018
qms commented on the word bort
A gem in the rough by report,
Was Ernest at Doubleday’s sport.
His diamond exploit
Though grew less adroit
And Ernest’s career was a bort.
Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit
March 27, 2018
qms commented on the word noema
Prof. Husserl directs your attention
To quite a confounding invention.
He calls it noema,
A psychic edema
Inflating an act of intention.
March 26, 2018
qms commented on the word complimentarize
Dear bilby, you must have a heart!
I will, for a friend, do my part.
No matter how swollen
I’ll tighten my colon
And stifle the streperous fart.
March 25, 2018
qms commented on the word merism
I’ve stalked them from dusk until dawn
With middling success off and on:
Some words to share rhythm
And shape a merism;
I’ve hunted them hither and yon.
March 25, 2018
qms commented on the word complimentarize
Or, ‘O faithless kin, my nemesis!’
March 24, 2018
qms commented on the word complimentarize
Could be misinterpreted as ‘our farts keep mornings noisy.’
March 24, 2018
qms commented on the word battology
The Donald is best, he repeats,
The best in his mind and his feats.
To sift his battology
At best is scatology
Best sent to the pit of deceits.
March 24, 2018
qms commented on the word complimentarize
Courage, bilby! We’ve still got complimentarization, and complimentarizability to go.
March 24, 2018
qms commented on the word debitage
The sound of persistent sharp tapping
Provoke us to know what is happening
Flint flakes and a severed edge,
The litter of debitage,
Are signs a boy scout’s been caught knapping.
March 23, 2018
qms commented on the word technetronic
Your typical nerd’s not ironic
And rarely a geek is sardonic.
The bytes and the bits
Please literal wits
That coin horrors like technotronic.
March 22, 2018
qms commented on the word calvity
His scalp has been twice overhauled
But Donald insists he’s not bald.
If such simple calvity
Were solely his malady
The world would be far less appalled.
March 21, 2018
qms commented on the word pericope
Now isn’t that bilby a nuisance. I do thank him, though I would represent the pronunciation as purr-RICK-a-pee.
The audio pronunciations never seem to work on my iPad, where most composition gets done. I will be more wary in future.
There once was a preacher in Chicopee
Beset by severe insipidity.
On Sundays he normally
Abandoned his homily
And served up a meal of pericope.
March 21, 2018
qms commented on the word pericope
Theologians tell us there’s hope
Of limiting vile error’s scope.
The good can endure
With hearts that are pure
And doses of strong pericope.
This limerick left in place like a miscreant rotting on the gallows. Beware, ye hasty! (See above.)
March 20, 2018
qms commented on the word tit
There’s many a callow young wit
Who,watching one flutter and flit,
Has spread titillation
And naughty elation
Announcing his love of a tit.
March 20, 2018
qms commented on the list a-dram-too-many
I find crapulentus and comato-crapulose in the list but not crapulent, which is more common.
March 19, 2018
qms commented on the word oyabun
He laughs at a bright toy balloon,
And babbles a light joyous tune.
So ends the adventure
In childish dementia
Of him who had been oyabun.
March 19, 2018
qms commented on the word cranreuch
How spooky the look the scene took -
As eerie as woodland can look.
Damp came to emblanch
The trees, trunk and branch,
And paint the bare copse in cranreuch.
March 18, 2018
qms commented on the word thraward
Natasha sounds good to me. This could be the Rocky and Bullwinkle effect.
March 18, 2018
qms commented on the word thraward
I’ve had some more thoughts on iconic names. I have been trying to think of women’s names that have the same uniquely identifying value as men’s names and I am having trouble. ‘Ivan’ can mean a generic Russian man but can ‘Svetlana’ mean a generic Russian woman or is it just the name of a specific Russian woman? If I tell a joke featuring ‘Pierre,’ ‘Alphonse,’ or ‘Gaston’ you now that he is a French stereotype but I don’t think the same is true of ‘Francoise’ or ‘Marianne,’ even though this last is an official symbol of the French nation.
Is this an artifact of historic male supremacy or do women’s names just better permeate national boundaries? I know the Aussies have adopted the Irish ‘Sile’ (after demoting the initial uppercase letter) as ‘sheila,’ to mean a young woman. Is this still current? I don’t think it is used to mean a specifically Australian woman. I will be happy to be corrected in this assumption and enlightened by examples of nationally iconic women’s names.
March 17, 2018
qms commented on the word titchy
When Celia was angry with Richie
Her vengeance was cleverly bitchy:
She’d cook favorite dishes
But (this part is vicious)
The portions, though tasty, were titchy.
March 17, 2018
qms commented on the word thraward
Yes! I had forgotten about Jock. I have used that before when a single syllable would do. Hamish is very good too. I will file that one away. Since Erin McKean has such an abiding fondness for Scottish utterance I need to have some on the shelf.
My friend Roo writes to tell me of the Aussie habit of addressing redheaded men as Bluey. I suppose this is akin to the custom of calling bald men Curly or large men Tiny. Is there a handy word or phrase for this convention?
March 17, 2018
qms commented on the word thraward
I have used ‘Sandy’ as a generic name for a Scotsman. A quick google search confirms that it has been so employed before. It is used in Caledonia as a diminutive of ‘Alexander’ and possibly some other more formal names. I used to use ‘Angus’ for this but now I have a grandnephew by that name so it feels awkward to attribute opinions, behaviors or attitudes to Angus.
I can use ‘Ivan’ and all would recognize that I mean ‘a Russian,’ or ‘Guido’ and a generalized Italian would be understood. What might be some other generic names? Many years ago I resided in the Philippines and learned that the locals were happy to address all Americans as ‘Joe.’
I have a correspondent in Perth who signs himself ‘Roo.’ There is a notorious Tasmanian who uses the handle ‘bilby.’ Is there a generic moniker for marsupials that we could apply to all Australians?
March 17, 2018
qms commented on the word thraward
The Scots are said to be froward
But Sandy asserts it’s a foul word.
It’s Sassenach sport
A Scotsman can thwart
Insisting it ought to be thraward.
Note: The OED identifies this as a Scottish variation of ‘froward.’
March 16, 2018
qms commented on the word sapor
In France I once ate salami
That whelmed me like a tsunami.
I pray for an encore
Of that rarest sapor,
The deepest and finest umami.
March 15, 2018
qms commented on the word quinzhee
A hogan’s a nice house for two.
A teepee or wigwam might do,
But when cold and windy
You need a dry quinzhee
Or else find a vacant igloo.
March 14, 2018
qms commented on the word clinquant
Ludmila’s taste lapses are frequent,
Her judgment amiss or delinquent.
For drama’s effect
She’s tinsel bedecked
And enters all slinkily clinquant.
March 13, 2018
qms commented on the word pishogue
The old gent’s a bit of a rogue
And knows that the occult’s in vogue,
So ply him with toasts
And he’ll talk of ghosts,
Or fairies and such rich pishogue.
As in all of the supplied usage examples, and contrary to the formal definitions, the word is used dismissively to mean superstitious nonsense.
March 12, 2018
qms commented on the word neuston
Now Big Oil’s determined to drill
In waters that can’t risk a spill
The poison is loosed on
The delicate neustron
To suffocate, wither and kill.
March 11, 2018
qms commented on the word paraselene
Illusions might come from Fellini
Or wonders from work of a genie,
And in right condition
The moon’s a magician,
As witness the paraselene.
March 10, 2018
qms commented on the word cicisbeism
Pronounced chich-iss-BEE-ism. It could serve as an onomatopoetic word for a sneeze.
The definition calls for some background:
cicisbeo – n. In Italy, since the seventeenth century, the name given to a professed gallant and attendant of a married woman; one who dangles about women.
dangle – To hang loosely; be suspended so as to be swayed be the wind or any slight force.
Hence To dance attendance; hover longingly or importunately, as for notice or favors: used of persons, with about or after: as, to dangle about a woman; to dangle after a great man.
In Italy all’s in a tangle
As gallantry’s got a new angle.
It makes a wee schism
In cicisbeism
As men become objects of dangle.
March 9, 2018
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