No TV sets muttering, no thump of feet against the floor above their heads. Not even a pornochord somewhere, blasting out from a quad. "Are the walls fairly thick in these apartments?" he asked Ruth sharply.
"A woman I knew, married, with three kids; she had two kittens and then she got one of those big gray Belgian rabbits that go lipperty lipperty lipperty on those huge hind legs."
On the screen the features of the nerdish Las Vegas functionary captain formed. "Our thermo-radex shows a male of Taverner's weight and height and general body structure in one of the as yet unapproached remaining apartments."
In her New York apartment at one time she had set up a huge quad system and more or less lived inside it, eating dietetic sandwiches and drinking fake frosty slime drinks made out of nothing. Listening forty-eight hours at a stretch to disc after disc by the Purple People Strings, which he abominated.
...Ruth still had beautiful black hair, all coiled in an upsweep at the back of her head. Featherplastic eyelashes, brilliant purple streaks across her cheek, as if she had been seared by psychedelic tiger claws.
..."you," he said chokingly, "are a reflex machine that diddles itself endlessly like a rat in an experiment. You're wired into the pleasure nodule of your brain and you push the switch five thousand times an hour every day of your life when you're not sleeping. It's a mystery to me why you bother to sleep; why not diddle yourself a full twenty-four hours a day?"
"What was it this time?" he demanded. "Termaline?"
"No." Her speech, of course, came out slurred. "Hexophenophrine hydrolsulphate. Uncut. Subcutaneous. She opened her great pale eyes, stared at him with rebellious displeasure.
With his rank key he opened the building's express descent sphincter, dropped rapidly by chute to his own level, fourteen. Where he had worked most of his adult life.
"He's just one of those little green turtles... not a land tortoise or anything. Have you ever watched the way they snap at food, at a fly floating on their water? It's very small but it's awful. One second the fly's there and the next, glunk. It's inside the turtle."
She held up her right arm, pointing to a section of her sleeve. "I've got a gray pol-ident tab, there; it shows up under their macrolens. So I don't get picked up by mistake."
Once, years ago, when the Reynolds syndicate had tried to buy into the show, he had learned to use - and had carried - a gun: a Barber's Hoop with a range of two miles with no loss of peak trajectory until the final thousand feet.
He had no more quinques. So, at this point, he gave up. That was a stupid thing to say, he realized, that about the phone lines. That would make anybody hang up. I strangled myself in my own word web, right down the old freeber. Straight down the middle. Beautifully flat at both ends, too. Like a great artificial anus.
She peered, one eyebrow cocked. "You're young but not too young. You're good-looking. Your voice is commanding and you have no reluctance about brigging me like this. You're exactly what a twerp fan would look like, sound like, act like. Okay; are you satisfied?"
"I won't meet you at Altrocci's or anywhere. Keep out of my life or I'll have my prive-pols deball you and-"
"You have one private pol," Jason interrupted. "He's sixty-two years old and his name is Fred. Originally he was a sharpshooter with the Orange County Minutemen; used to pick off student jeters at Cal State Fullerton. He was good then, but he's nothing to worry about now."
It happened too fast. He backed away out of instinct, but too slowly and too late. The gelatinlikeCallisto cuddle sponge with its fifty feeding tubes clung to him, anchored itself to his chest. Already he felt the feeding tubes dig into him, into his chest.
He knew that at one time she had been illegally married to a student commune leader, and that for one year she had lived in the rabbit warrens of Columbia University, along with all the smelly, bearded students kept subsurface lifelong by the pols and the nats. The police and the national guard, who ringed every campus, keeping the students from creeping across to society like so many black rats swarming out of a leaky ship.
"He glanced at her, then studied her. Volumes of red hair, pale skin with a few freckles, a strong roman nose. Deep-set huge violet eyes. She was right; she didn't show her age. Of course she never tapped into the phone-grid transex network, as he did. But in point of fact he did so very little. So he was not hooked, and there had not been, in his case, brain damage or premature ageing."
Well, I'd guess it means the structure that surrounds the chimney itself in a living room. Made of brick or stone and usually tapering toward the ceiling. At least this makes sense of the citation, and I don't know any other term for that thing.
Hi Louises - I'm really enjoying your excellent citations from The Last Werewolf. Perhaps you should gather them together in a dedicated list? If you don't, then I might! Keep them coming.
"Most people could weather a fortnight of unpaid work; but once you start talking about three or six months, you basically have to be living with your parents, they have to live in the same city – usually London for the desirable posts – and they have to be able to support you. So pretty soon the point arrives when there's a middle-class stranglehold on the jobs that people want to do – notably in politics, the media and the third sector."
- Zoe Williams, Ripping off young interns is routine, but it's still wrong, guardian.co.uk, 20/03/12.
There used to be a TV advert for Nabob coffee with a cheesy jingle which went "It's a Nabob coffee morning..." implying that people do love the smell of Nabob in the morning.
'Vancouver's iconic cherry blossom festival could also be hit by a lagging spring.
"The really early cherries flower normally, but the ones that would normally come out, say the first of April, come out a week or two later," Justice said. "And everything gets pushed back.
"That creates havoc because the cherry blossom festival is essentially the month of April."'
- Spring brings more cold, snow and rain, Vancouversun.com, 20-03-12.
It would be easier to just rename the colours so they are more easily mnemonicable. For example, instead of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet we could have unphor, mogal, brove, rosp, acetin, gliese and eltic.
It means "travelling", or "in transit". If one is "on the road" then one is away from home, on a journey, staying in hotels, pensions, inns, auberges, hostelries, taverns, roadhouses, motels, lodges, bothies, B&B's, encampments, caravansaries &c.
A caff is a dilapidated British eatery serving English breakfasts, tea and coffee, and sandwiches and maybe a few other unwholesome things for lunch. It is quite distinct from a cafe, in that in the former all the chairs will be of normal height - no stools - and all the colours will be matt. All the tables are wipe-clean, all the condiment-bottles are sticky and all the staff are stuck, gesturing impotently, and so are you.
"The nauseogenic properties of a patterned rug that reputedly caused motion-sickness-like symptoms in those who viewed it was the topic of this study."
Makes me think of the spawn of shell-fish; specifically, the spawn of the oyster; also, a young oyster, or young oysters collectively, up to about the time of their becoming set, or fixed to some support. And a gaiter or legging.
Hi Norm. When I lived in the UK I also noticed this usage in the situations you describe, especially in the Northern part of the country. In fact I picked it up and used it myself sometimes when working behind a bar. My sense is that it's used specifically by younger males when addressing older men; especially, as you point out, by a younger man providing a product or service, or doing a courtesy, to an older one.
It's because the comment-engine of Wordnik comes from what was once a separate site, called Wordie, and devoted more to the social side of words than the technical side. Wordie was quite rudimentary (in the best possible way) and didn't distinguish upper from lower case. So many words which should have an upper case element are replete with old comments on their lower case form.
I'd say ludicrous and laughable have moved closer to parity with ridiculous since the Century's disquisition. I've also noticed that ludicrous (along with the other synonyms discussed here) is often used to mean unbelievable or incredible - to describe a feat of athletic skill, for example, or a long shift of work, or anything generally impressive.
Looking at the examples, and especially the tweets, it seems that when people use travesty in the sense of "disaster" or "disgusting state of affairs" they often do so as a short form of the stock expression travesty of justice. E.g.
“It is too depressing by far to know that Justin Beiber has more hits on Youtube for his version of Somebody to Love than Queen. A travesty” - @jactherat
“If Brighton win this it will be a travesty. Wrexham have been superb.” - @lawrenceVB
“However, the big travesty is that if you live in Manhattan delivery is free – you live in the Bronx and the sale is no sale at all.” - Wine prices - beating the spread online and in-store | Dr Vino's wine blog
I also suspect there to be some confusion with tragedy.
Re: chub-on. It seems to be more often used to describe a slight affection or penchant for something than an actual state of semi-arousal. I quite like it actually.
Well dominatrix is still common, and I've come across interlocutrix and executrix and I think editrix in old books, but I take your point. I'm a big fan of this suffix.
I've come across the singular, I think, probably in books. But I suppose the reason for the preponderance of the plural would be that cloves come whole, not typically ground or as tiny seeds. Just as you 'd say "bay leaves" instead of "bay leaf" when describing the plant generally. On the other hand we say "star anise", not "stars anise", don't we?
This would be the classic British "wanker" gesture: like the "OK" gesture but rotated so the "O" is horizontal and then moved up and down by the wrist. The sort of motion Polonius might make behind the arras while Hamlet rants.
I'd just throw up a craigslist ad. I bet there are more long-haired anchovy lovers in your town than you think. I'd offer my own hair - I'm due to have my ears lowered - but the quantity would only suffice for a thimble-sized sieve, and thus for a ramekin's worth of the fishy elixir.
Then you should make one of those, too. You must know somebody who needs a haircut. Offer to let them have some of the anchovy sauce if they donate their locks.
It's quite a difficult novel to read and I'm not sure if I will read more by Spackman. He has a special talent for dialogue, reproducing all the filler, dislocations and verbal tics of real speech - sort of like Don DeLillo but Spackman's characters have an extra layer of fanciness in their vocabulary. He is fun to read, just not that engaging; not at all gripping. Something to read four or five pages at a time perhaps.
'Here however his lawyer worked his weighty way through the uproar and started holding these dockets up against the cabin wall for him to sign one after another, affably bawling his full-phrased enucleation of each in turn into his ear...'
'And it might have been the Thirties all over again, his cabin jammed, flowers everywhere and the most agreeable urban din, Victoria's man eeling his way through the hubbub with the champagne...'
'He said in an attempt at a lighter tone, "Now Melissa the plain apodeictic fact is nobody is very sensible," but she paid no attention to this truth...'
"...did she suppose at his age he'd be so insensible, or her own word 'irresponsible' dammit, as to disseize a perfectly decent boy, no matter how hulking, of a girl he-"
"He at once replied that while he couldn't say he recalled all this in, uh, quite such unerring detail, still, if a lifetime's delight in the mere look, the mere tournure, of women, in the posed and lovely portraits they always somehow made him half-think they were-"
"'...the day we had lunch champêtre deep in that wonderful grove of beeches stretching on and on and on, by that half-ruined Doric folly with its frusts and columns.'"
'Here,' said he, taking some dice out of his pocket, 'here's the stuff. Here are the implements; here are the little doctors which cure the distempers of the purse. Follow but my counsel, and I will show you a way to empty the pocket of a queer cull without any danger of the nubbing cheat.'"
"Nubbing cheat!" cries Partridge: "pray, sir, what is that?"
"Why that, sir," says the stranger, "is a cant phrase for the gallows; for as gamesters differ little from highwaymen in their morals, so do they very much resemble them in their language.
"...honourable established people who wanted a gleaming properly laid table and good food well served and some delicious creature or other to have dinner with on a fine early-summer evening as the lights came on in the baldachin of dusk and the nightfall murmur of traffic died slowly away uptown along the Avenue..."
"Nicholas instantly resumed, demanding of Mrs. Barclay with amazed innocence other women other women must she be like a pervicacious angel think that because he loved her with every beat of his heart, love and had loved, as she herself well remembered and in this house should remember best of all..."
"...also his lawyer up from Philadelphia with his bulging briefcase, the sheer tax-maneuvering his wife's behaviour had now got him into! his own cursing yeoman forebears hadn't been amerced with a blacker set of reliefs and merchets, church-scot and plough-arms and smoke-farthings and hearthpenny on Holy Thursday, and nowadays who could he tallage in return?"
"In some ways, it appears, the balladist wasn't a bad guy ... aside from an uncontrollable oestrus he turned out to have for neighbourhood-grocers' wives, and one or two low incidents in consequence, Mike had no trouble with him whatever..."
"...and why question in 1932 (or how*?) the credo trained into us of economic propraetorships inevitably to come, the steady steak-fed beating of the Big Board heart, and naturally at the last the opulent, the eupatrid retirement?"
- W.M. Spackman, Heyday
*the text has "or how?" but I think "or now" makes asmuch/more sense given the publication date.
I share rolig's astonishment; I've never once noticed the "sh" pronunciation. If it's so widespread you'd think I'd have heard it on TV, if not on the street.
Now I know how the Luddites felt. I mean it's neat that you can just list a link to a Wordnik search string and Bob's your uncle, but I mourn the loss of human agency. I lament the passing of the human touch in list-making. The days when an actual flesh-and-blood person had to go to Onelook and create their own search string, then type each word into the list. Or at least write a program to do all this.
The theme of the dream is that Ruzuzu has announced that she will be leaving the site, not immediately, but soon - her last day will be in a couple of weeks. Wordie (I'm pretty sure it was -ie, not -nik) is a physical space, roughly mapped onto the hillside neighbourhood where I live. Ruzuzu's "house" / presence on Wordie is at the top of the hill. I make my way by bike through slush and gloom to attend her farewell party.
Ruzuzu's space is a smallish bungalow, decorated haphazardly but not without discernment. Everyone is there, milling around with drinks, even long-gone names like Kewpid and Colleen. The atmosphere is cordial, bordering on fun, but with overtones of a wake. Chained_Bear has a baby with her which is passed around merrily. It says "poop!" while Bilby changes its diaper.
Ruzuzu has made a long list of content for us to create on Wordie after she has gone. One example is 'a page to commemorate Charles Sanders Peirce's upbraiding of Mark Twain at a congressional hearing for his improper pronunciation of deliquesce' (except in the dream, a full-page account of the event is given). I read the list and wonder how she can expect us to create all of this, then realise it doesn't matter because she has already created it in the form of the list.
But I am desperately sad that Ruzuzu is leaving. I implore her to stay, but to no end; things are intractably thus (that's what she says, quoting my favourite poet). Finding myself alone, I break down and sob desolately; I feel completely abandoned. Ruzuzu comes over and consoles me by saying that I can take one item from her house to remember her by. I look around and see nothing that could compensate for the loss of her. Bilby chooses a translucent, ruby-red desktop calculator, shot through with veins of amber. Later, I am persuaded to take a tripodal "postcard-holder" - three spindly wire legs with a crocodile clip at the top for clamping a postcard - on condition that she sends me a postcard from wherever she is bound.
I.e. from a given list, I want to take these particular dozen words, and move, or copy, them, to another list. I just tick those which apply and hit "move" (or "copy"), then chose the target list. You could allow copying from other people's lists, too. The same for multiple deletions.
Very interesting comment, especially that last sentence. You're dead right that the crunchiness of toast - including the sound of the crunch - is an integral part of the experience of eating it. The same applies to the crunching, cracking sound of biting into an apple. This is amplified when you listen to a horse, with its outsized chompers, eating an apple - the whole thing pretty much explodes at once.
"A few white mammal-bellied clouds dandered like plutocrats across the blue floor of the sky, and the reeky old city and many sorts of town and village and farmland were below me, and bleak hills edging the borders behind me, and the blue mountains edging the highlands in front, and the firth between them widening with islands and ships to the sea."
- Looking down on Auld Reekie, in 1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray
Traditionally played by adults? What? So traditionally, adults play this game but kids don't? But right now it's different? Whaddaya mean by "traditionally" here?
Pedantry aside, I believe Wee Willie Winkie and Wynken are in fact the same individual. In his nonage he was given to running through the town, and this incipient wanderlust found an adult outlet in the storied fishing expedition with Blynken and Nod.
A crude mix of uppers and downers (amphetamines, opiates, caffeine etc) formerly used by professional cyclists as a performance enhancer. Fell out of use with the introduction of basic drug testing.
What the Bamiyan Buddhas made me realise is, I don't really object to blowing up statues, but I do very much object to the kind of people who want to blow them up.
I do not recall writing those comments. Sionnach, it hasn't arrived yet! It's being shipped from the UK I think. Can't wait to get stuck into a mess of arboreal erotica.
I also see ent - so I am going now to have intercourse with trees, I'm going into the vast forests of this province. My stride is such that in two days I will be out of Moot distance, and for those of you who don't know what that means - it was a Beta version called the "Tree". - I am surrounded by the bloody things but soon it will just be one vast plain full of escapists and associated Apple ghouls.
I also noticed the words ass, urge and gen - and the backword us, which seem to explain everything, When the great middle-class revolt occurs, this page will be the Rosetta Stone. Or do I mean the Golden Bough? Yes, the latter. Sorry Rosetta Stone!
"The pilot Juan Fernandez procured a deed of the isle named after him, and for some years resided there before Selkirk came. It is supposed, however, that he eventually contracted the blues upon his princely property, for after a time he returned to the main, and as report goes, became a very garrulous barber in the city of Lima."
Much to love in that example. Jujubes. The odd assortment of "small articles". The smokers 'cachous. The moral "ought". The non-specific "dishonest customer" (or does Punch have a specific dishonest customer in mind?) And of course the muff.
"Higher up now we mark the gony, or gray albatross, anomalously so called, an unsightly unpoetic bird, unlike its storied kinsman, which is the snow-white ghost of the haunted Capes of Hope and Horn."
"What outlandish beings are these? Erect as men, but hardly as symmetrical, they stand all round the rock like sculptured caryatides, supporting the next range of eaves above. Their bodies are grotesquely misshapen; their bills short; their feet seemingly legless; while the members at their sides are neither fin, wing, nor arm. And truly neither fish, flesh, nor fowl is the penguin; as an edible, pertaining neither to Carnival nor Lent; without exception the most ambiguous and least lovely creature yet discovered by man. Though dabbling in all three elements, and indeed possessing some rudimental claims to all, the penguin is at home in none. On land it stumps; afloat it sculls; in the air it flops. As if ashamed of her failure, Nature keeps this ungainly child hidden away at the ends of the earth, in the Straits of Magellan, and on the abased sea-story of Rodondo."
Dan: I wonder if French "lieu" is related to Spanish "lugar", place. Seems reasonable. If so, it's great that "loo" is related to the Spanish - and presumably the Latin - for "place".
If someone said they were having their bathroom - or their loo - renovated, then I would indeed assume that the crapper was being ripped from its moorings. Very few houses have a room with a bath but no toilet in it these days, so the sense of "bathroom" as distinct from "loo" is obsolete.
Rolig, there is actually a transatlantic distinction re: "go to the bathroom". The sense of "urinate and/or defecate" is pretty much confined to North America, I think. In the UK one would say "the dog crapped in / shat in the kitchen", or in more polite language, "fouled" or "soiled" the kitchen. So I think in this case the Americans take the periphrasis a step further than the Brits do, as they do also by using the ridiculous term "restroom".
I've never heard it called "the head". Surely there is a list somewhere?
But equally, would one call a room with no toilet a "bathroom"? In your scenario, were "loo" to be replaced with "bathroom", I bet most people would still infer that the person was going to the room with the W.C. Ergo, "bathroom" is a synonym of "loo".
The way the English language tiptoes around this subject is pretty pathetic. We require a polite, specific word for the thing itself (crapper or bog, perhaps) and also for the room (dunny, shithouse?) - words which aren't euphemisms. I'm fed up with restrooms and lavatories and washrooms and privies.
Yes, part of the auditory landscape of London. The reason it's so well imprinted on the London psyche is not just its repetition but the intonation used in the recorded messages. "Mind... the GAP." There's a suspenseful delay before "the gap" which seems to imply that there is more to the gap than we're being told, or that the "the gap" isn't just the gap between the platform and the train, but a more terrible existential gap into which we shall all of us assuredly fall sooner or later.
As a Scottish place name, this may not belong on madmouth's list, but I've had it revolving in my mind for some time now and... well, I wouldn't mind a beef tub of my own.
Oh boy, Ruzuzu, for that you deserve a great, strouting Rabelaisian codpiece, a codpiece so big it obscures your entire person. Ruzuzu that was so much fun. You're lucky there are no Vulcans in Lincoln (at the last census, anyway) because if there were, they'd all be glomming on to you with the mind-melds.
Horrible how this memetic modern-major-general phrase has infected everyday discourse. I heard a cop, naturally, use it on the TV news the other day, along the lines of "our thoughts are with the hearts and minds of the victims..." And today I'm reading a subpar nonfiction book (2010) about earthquakes and I get:
"China's reported success story injected a surge of scientific adrenalin into the hearts and minds of those who saw prediction as the holy grail of the new seismology."
Dasani is pure branding, its success the ultimate expression of form over substance. You could say that about any bottled water, but the meaningless name is the cherry on top.
"To mark territory, hippos spin their tails while defecating to distribute their excrement over a greater area. Likely for the same reason, hippos are retromingent-- that is, they urinate backwards."
Excellent. The first sentence in particular is like a description of some retro-futuristic variation on the ouija board - which is actually how I've always thought of the telephone.
Thanks biocon! Fun coinkidink then. Reason I ask is 'cause near where I grew up there was a small precipitous hill called "The Cliffe" or "The Clive". I always wondered where the name came from, and this word seemed to blend the two spellings.
editrix is one of my favourite words but I wouldn't call its falling into disuse a "dumbing down of gender". In fact I think I prefer the gender-neutral occupations. It's certainly less hassle than e.g. Spanish where you're always having to add an 'a' if the person happens to be female.
I'm sure they're very clever (albeit oddly-monikered) fellows, but until they've made the Statue of Liberty disappear I really don't think they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as David Copperfield.
Were they true, they were highly extenuating, and were they a lie, they they but a mediocre sally - so of course they were heartily well meant.
Your parsnips are not, thank God!, my responsibility. But I will do you the courtesy of my advice: smother the buggers in lard, basted with your own umbrage, and consume without compunction.
But one learns from one's mistakes, n'est-ce pas, mon amie? By alluding to your extensive learning, I was paying you a compliment - so pray return that umbrage, which I believe was withdrawn from the fell swoop page.
You misunderstand, sionnach, and not for the first time. A particularly ruthless individual may well swoop felly twice, thrice or any number of times, on different targets - but one can't by defintion experience - that is, fall prey to - more than a single such swoop.
I'm really thinking of the head honcho of the Nazgul, the Witch-King of Angmar, on his faithful fell beast here (I think the fell beasts are more or less the fellest swoopers known to man).
I've long been in favour of literal timestamps - they're more precise, and sometimes knowing the intervals between posts can add nuance, or help one to interpret an old conversation. I can't see an advantage to "about three years ago" etc.
EDIT: this comment was following one by adrian which has disappeared.
Every school had bike sheds back in the day. Behind the bike sheds was the scene of illicit activities like smoking, fighting and smooching. I've never heard of a house with a "bike shed" though - at home I use the back yard for those activities.
"...'the film he made out of Alastor before he went to Hollywood, which he shot in a bathtub, what he could of it, and apparently stuck the rest together with sequences of ruins cut out of old travelogues, and a jungle hoiked out of In dunkelste Afrika...'"
"'I have,' the Consul said, 'a slight confession to make, Hugh... I cheated a little on the strychnine while you were away.'
'Thalavethiparothiam, is it?' Hugh observed, pleasantly menacing. 'Or strength obtained by decapitation. Now then, don't be careful, as the Mexicans say, I'm going to shave the back of your neck.'"
"She was, unlike the Philoctetes, everything in his eyes a ship should be. First she was not in rig a football boat, a mass of low goalposts and trankums. Her masts and derricks were of the lofty coffee-pot variety."
"There was a lane branching to the left before you reached Jacques' house, leafy, no more than a carttrack at first, then a switchback, and somewhere along that lane to the right, not five minutes' walk, waited a little cool nameless cantina with horses probably tethered outside, and a huge white tomcat sleeping below the counter of whom a whiskerando would say: "He ah work all night mistair and sleep all day!" And this cantina would be open."
"The strychnine - he had ironically put some ice in it - tasted sweet, rather like cassis; it provided a species of subliminal stimulus, faintly perceived: the Consul, who was still standing, was aware too of a faint feeble wooling of his pain..."
We have a book made from elephant dung paper at home. It's one of those books that lie around the house and no one's sure where they came from. I wouldn't call it a classic. Nice texture though.
In the sense quoted by billprice, referring to a simple subject or object, aka works fine. But in the broader sense of "i.e." ("that is to say..." referring to a proposition or conclusion) - a "thought" rather than a "thing" - aka is no alternative.
Better, then, to stick to aka's original meaning, i.e. alias.
I like the new look and feel a lot and it seems pretty user-friendly to me.
I've only one beef, but it's a big one - a whole raw steer in fact. I hate the in-your-faceness of the Twitter feeds next to the comments. The tweets are almost always irrelevant, usually moronic, often misspellings or typos, frequently obscene and occasionally offensive, so couldn't they be hidden behind a button somewhere instead of staring us in the face?
Sionnach said somewhere that he sees Wordnik as something of a haven from the turpitude of the internet in general, and it's the same for me. If I want to dip my toe in the cesspool, I can find my own way to Twitter or Youtube, but please don't pipe it onto Wordnik's wonderful comment pages!
Again, considering this is a fairly radical redesign, I'm pleased and impressed. Thank you all for taking such good care of the site and for feeling the same way I do about words - there's nowhere remotely like Wordnik.
I knew a bloke in Chile who was called el mataburros by his friends on account of his reckless driving and history of accidents on a particular behairpinned mountain road.
It's not one of those Aussie-cliché words which everyone knows are Australian. But that only goes to strengthen its status as a true Australianism (and New Zealandism, baaaa!)
Well, I've reinstalled my dickey OED and it's not much help. Apparently it's a back-formation from rorty, adj. (also raughty) "of dubious propriety" (among other senses) which is of course "of obscure origin" (OED-speak for "sorry we haven't a clue").
The only usages it gives of the verb form are as gerunds - rorting used as a noun.
I can't remember the last time I encountered an Australianism that was totally new to me, like this. I quite often run into regional American slang with which I'm unfamiliar, and it's always exciting when I do, but as a Brit I always identified more closely with Australians (and hence their lingo) than with Americans.
Would love to know the etymology of rort. I bet it's some weird Gaelic thing; that would explain why it's so strange to me.
I've picked a few picayune specimens already, or rather my kids have. And yesterday we had our first strawberry, surprisingly red after a soggy spring.
I was just wondering about that the other day. I work downtown so I can drink coffee, eat sushi, and all manner of other things pretty much whenever I want. My email's on my librarything profile.
As for the onion, I believe I'm on record as saying it's my favourite vegetable, and I will champion it in any debate touching on the vegetable universe. And it certainly conveys its dignity (rotundity and hue, remember?) until you cut (or bite) into it, and it assails you with that sweet, stinging prickly perfume and bleeds its pungent juices all over your hard-bitten fingertips... I love it and it may look dignified, but inside it's a punk.
When Wales and England met Scotland 430m years ago during the frankly smutty-sounding Caledonian orogeny, a range of mountains – the Caledonides – of Himalayan proportions was formed at the centre of a continent that contained all the world's landmass.
- Ian Vince, Britain's Historic Past, in guardian.co.uk, 26-5-11.
Kohlrabi and baby okra may indeed be teh alsome, but they aren't dignified!
Beets are a contender I suppose, as would be most of the sturdier roots, but if it's a combination of brilliance and rotundity you're after then you're going to be running up hard against the majestic pumpkin.
I think the sporting adage "form is temporary, class is permanent" applies. If we're going to speak of dignified vegetables then the dignity must be enduring, not merely a passing fad or foible.
Although I don't especially like the taste of them, I do find artichokes especially dignified. They have such stability, and also a sort of primness about them, like a maiden aunt in a great skirt (although like all vegetables, they yield readily to a salacious reading).
I quite agree rolig; it's your last objection that really makes this word an utter failure. You can't just stitch together any two words and have a witty portmanteau - there has to be a verbal vetting, too.
I had just about heard of toroidal group motion – the ring formed by some fish or the aforementioned slime moulds – but klinotaxis and hysteresis are new ones on me. The former describes what happens when a flock of birds "decides" to travel in one particular direction rather than in another- Nicholas Lezard, reviewing Flow by Philip Ball, Guardian.co.uk, 8-6-11.
After days of deliberation, I've decided this is my favourite STF (or at least the one I most want on a mug - I was very fond of athlete's foot fetish as well, not to mention hemorrhoid cream puffs).
For sure Duffel van der P's comments were coming with the notification emails until about a week ago - now I have to actually look at the list to get my daily fix, which sort of makes the emails redundant.
I discovered Wordie while browsing the "also on" drop-down list on Librarything. The first word I listed, and still one of my favourites, was donkeyman, which I'd found in a novel not long before. My second might have been poopyhead.
I'm sure you used to be able to view a given Wordnik's activity, i.e. everything they've done, listing, commenting, favouriting, tagging etc., and click through back to the very beginning. But now I can't find it.
But I think the reason that employing very is often seen as poor style is not that it fails to convey what is meant, but that it does so abstractly, by - *flicks through Creative Writing 101 Textbook* - telling instead of showing. Better to say that reesetee's desk is large enough to accommodate a nine-hole golf course than simply to say that it is very large.
Also perhaps because it's prone to overuse. However I do like it in its older sense of genuinely, verily: the "very gentil parfait knight".
Yes, definitely rolig. I would be very surprised to hear whilst used in normal speech by someone under the age of 35, and in a young person it does sound quite plummy and public school, that is if it's not an obvious affectation. However - and the more I think about this the less certain I am - it's the sort of word you also hear on the lips of working-class pensioners in pubs - especially, and here it gets bizarre, old women.
So there you go, unreliable anecodtalism at its finest from someone who hasn't lived in the UK for seven years.
Yes, quite an honour! I had never heard of a spelling bee until after I left school , and I bitterly regret not being able to take part in one. They look like fun.
"'This morning we have seen a young man take this activity a step further and attempt to plank on a balcony. Unfortunately he has tragically fallen to his death,' Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett told reporters.
The man and another person had been out during the night and were planking in various locations on their way home."
Speaking as a subject of Her Majesty, I can confirm that whilst, amongst and amidst are in common use in speech and informal writing, although in all three cases I think the non -st forms predominate.
Personally I don't like and never use whilst; the other two I'm neutral on and cannot with certainty deny that they occasionally pass my lips.
Actually, on reflection, I think I prefer amidst to amid, but among to amongst - purely arbitrary I suppose.
Hurrah! Now add 119 favourites, 81 lists - or better still, 181, and preferably 67 pronunciations before you comment again - but I'm sure you can do that in the next 12 hours or so. You are unhesitatingly the mainstay of Wordnik, and that makes you a mainstay of my mind.
I knew Century Dictionary (for some reason I'm loath to abbreviate this) would be your downfall, ruzuzu. I do like a game of scrabble although I'm long out of practice.
Yes he did. And playful is another one I'm kicking myself over (I'm kicking my knees, in case you were wondering). Too clever by half. A bit like froggo's stripper in the last one.
Ruzuzu, I'll take the mug if you'll accept the Sisyphean task privilege of masterminding the next edition a year hence. Incidentally it was the looniness that gave your lunette away to me.
And I can't believe I didn't get distingue! Shoddy lapse.
I've just realised that in true Eurovision-fashion, the winner of ID the 'nik is required to compere the next installment. Because this daunting challenge outweighs the allure of the mug, and because it would certainly prolong the agony entertainment, I am happy to continue with a playoff.
Hang on a minute. As far as I can see, 'zuzu got these right: blafferty, erinmckean, fbharjo, frindley, PossibleUnderscore, seanahan, wordnicolina. It's seven, no?
I like the taste of coffee, but the smell is better. I'm really struggling to think of things that taste better than they smell. Beer, maybe. Wine, sometimes. And some relatively odourless foods like confectionary... but there isn't much.
"Playing bumble-puppy with Minnie Beebe, niece to the rector, and aged thirteen--an ancient and most honourable game, which consists in striking tennis-balls high into the air, so that they fall over the net and immoderately bounce; some hit Mrs. Honeychurch; others are lost. The sentence is confused, but the better illustrates Lucy's state of mind, for she was trying to talk to Mr. Beebe at the same time."
First thing I did was try to identify the seven (c)red-herrings, i.e. the seven words I thought most likely to have been thrown into the mix by gangerh.
Then there were two or three match-ups that I was certain of, so I filled those in. Then it was a case of eliminating all the "no-way!" combinations and seeing what was left that worked. I also took account of other people's choices, going with the mass of opinion in a couple of cases where I might otherwise have chosen differently.
I would like a way to mass-import Ruzuzu's favourite words into my own favourites list.
How about mass-pilfering tools in general - for lists, I mean? A tool that lets you copy the contents of one list, whether yours or someone else's, straight over to another one.
Just noticed prolagus also provided a spreadsheet - well, there's another one for "systematic", ha ha. Thank you also, p, though I went with the first one I saw.
"At certain times of the year, particularly after the rainy season, they velvet mites'>velvet mites proliferated, and the grass around our house hotched with them."
- William Boyd, Memories of the Sausage Fly (collected in Bamboo).
Reading that Lanark citation from two years ago makes me want to go back and read it again.
Ha ha! Love the wine/swine pun! I've been to Denny's only once, while my wife was giving birth to our second kid, and it was crap, but this ad has convinced me to try again.
Honestly, all this guff about "word-making". As if English was cold-forged by some mythical Wayland Wordsmith in a halcyon age of morphological innocence.
Yeah, I've heard both front and put up used with both cash and money in both the UK and North America. Not sure there's much of a regional distinction here.
No, I don't think it does. But there are certainly two distinct kinds of nostalgia: a personal one, and a more communal one, perhaps harking back to a supposed golden age, a traditional culture or just an earlier way of life, all of which could date from hundreds or thousands of years ago. This I suppose is what benw is trying to identify.
For example, I sometimes feel a pang of nostalgia for the Cretaceous.
Thanks for pristinity, moll - another good offering, but to me at least pristine implies not only unbroken, virgin, but also perfectly clean and uncontaminated. In the end I just went with unbrokenness - it was not important anyway, just a lame comment on a blog.
Hi writer - just to let you know there's no need to leave definitions on common words, since there are multiple dictionary definitions accessible under the "definitions" section of each word's page (top left).
Thanks, integrity is the best suggestion yet. It's slightly diluted by its ethical connotation, which I would say is dominant, but it might be as close as I'm going to get.
Our house is small, and garageless, so I have to keep my bikes in a windowless storage room upstairs. The room smells unmistakeably of bike - I suppose it must be a blend of grease, rubber and (to my shame) dirt.
CD has a bunch of adjectival and verbal senses listed under "noun" - but it's not a noun. And anyway, by far the stronger meaning is "healthy, fit, sprightly".
Something needs to be done about people looking up capitalized words and then complaining when the usage examples relate to proper nouns (or "proper names"). There needs to be some way of informing people that wordnik is case-sensitive, or else someone needs to review the obliviots and cull them.
All too often while shopping for groceries, I find myself plunging my face into the biggest bunch of coriander I can find and inhaling until my lungs are swollen with the vivifying, coppery, earthy fragrance.
I first heard this used by José Mourinho when he was at Chelsea.
"As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal. I would have been frustrated if I had been a supporter who paid £50 to watch this game because Spurs came to defend. There was only one team looking to win, they only came not to concede - it's not fair for the football we played."
You're looking at a list of definitions, not synonyms. And yes, I can actually imagine exclaiming "Oh! Bisexual!" every time something is perfect. I think it would be funny - although I'm sure the novelty would wear off.
I read a novel recently - "An Ice-Cream War" by William Boyd - which features an entrepreneurial sisal farmer whose prized possession is his mighty mechanised decorticator.
True, but you have to have had pants - or the idea of pants - to be without them. It's very French actually, being and nothingness and all that palaver.
Obviously it's out of context, but translation: Bunbury (a player) scored for Kansas City, giving them a 1-0 lead over the Whitecaps.
It was a cracking game - wish I hadn't turned the T.V. off with 25 minutes to go and the 'caps down 3-0. They ended up drawing 3-3 with two goals in stoppage time.
Comments by yarb
Show previous 200 comments...
yarb commented on the word pornochord
No TV sets muttering, no thump of feet against the floor above their heads. Not even a pornochord somewhere, blasting out from a quad. "Are the walls fairly thick in these apartments?" he asked Ruth sharply.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word lipperty lipperty lipperty
"A woman I knew, married, with three kids; she had two kittens and then she got one of those big gray Belgian rabbits that go lipperty lipperty lipperty on those huge hind legs."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word nerdish
Citation on thermo-radex.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word thermo-radex
On the screen the features of the nerdish Las Vegas functionary captain formed. "Our thermo-radex shows a male of Taverner's weight and height and general body structure in one of the as yet unapproached remaining apartments."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word unexist
Alys, observing everything, said, "A man who's unexisted himself. Has that ever happened before?"
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word fake frosty slime drinks made out of nothing
Citation on quad system.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word dietetic
Citation on quad system.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word quad system
In her New York apartment at one time she had set up a huge quad system and more or less lived inside it, eating dietetic sandwiches and drinking fake frosty slime drinks made out of nothing. Listening forty-eight hours at a stretch to disc after disc by the Purple People Strings, which he abominated.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word upsweep
Citation on featherplastic.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word featherplastic
...Ruth still had beautiful black hair, all coiled in an upsweep at the back of her head. Featherplastic eyelashes, brilliant purple streaks across her cheek, as if she had been seared by psychedelic tiger claws.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word fob jazzy
...a first-rate cocktail lounge. The kind many women go to, with a three-man combo playing fob jazzy, preferably blacks. Well dressed.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word hype-up
On the screen McNulty's rumpled hyped-up features appeared.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word diddle
Citation on pleasure-nodule.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word pleasure nodule
..."you," he said chokingly, "are a reflex machine that diddles itself endlessly like a rat in an experiment. You're wired into the pleasure nodule of your brain and you push the switch five thousand times an hour every day of your life when you're not sleeping. It's a mystery to me why you bother to sleep; why not diddle yourself a full twenty-four hours a day?"
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word drug
Citation on fetish.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word fetish
Whenever she had been heavily fetishing and/or drugging she crashed her in his main office.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word hexophenophrine hydrosulphate
"What was it this time?" he demanded. "Termaline?"
"No." Her speech, of course, came out slurred. "Hexophenophrine hydrolsulphate. Uncut. Subcutaneous. She opened her great pale eyes, stared at him with rebellious displeasure.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word Dixie cup
...at the coffee machine, a female officer drinking from a Dixie cup.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word express descent sphincter
With his rank key he opened the building's express descent sphincter, dropped rapidly by chute to his own level, fourteen. Where he had worked most of his adult life.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word bloblike
Large tears slid down her cheeks and dropped, bloblike, onto her blouse.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word glunk
"He's just one of those little green turtles... not a land tortoise or anything. Have you ever watched the way they snap at food, at a fly floating on their water? It's very small but it's awful. One second the fly's there and the next, glunk. It's inside the turtle."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word four-dimensional living room
Citation on infinity ceiling.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word rotating bath
Citation on infinity ceiling.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word floating house
Citation on infinity ceiling.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word infinity ceiling
I have a floating house in Malibu, he thought, with eight bedrooms, six rotating baths and a four-dimensional living room with an infinity ceiling.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word macrolens
She held up her right arm, pointing to a section of her sleeve. "I've got a gray pol-ident tab, there; it shows up under their macrolens. So I don't get picked up by mistake."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word van-quibble
Citation on thungly.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word thungly
...the man, gripped by four thungly pols, disappeared into a parked van-quibble, ominously gray and black: police colors.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word Barber's Hoop
Once, years ago, when the Reynolds syndicate had tried to buy into the show, he had learned to use - and had carried - a gun: a Barber's Hoop with a range of two miles with no loss of peak trajectory until the final thousand feet.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word anus
Citation on freeber.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word freeber
He had no more quinques. So, at this point, he gave up. That was a stupid thing to say, he realized, that about the phone lines. That would make anybody hang up. I strangled myself in my own word web, right down the old freeber. Straight down the middle. Beautifully flat at both ends, too. Like a great artificial anus.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word sic
"She's probably sicced the pols and nats both on me."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word twerp
Citation on brig.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word brig
She peered, one eyebrow cocked. "You're young but not too young. You're good-looking. Your voice is commanding and you have no reluctance about brigging me like this. You're exactly what a twerp fan would look like, sound like, act like. Okay; are you satisfied?"
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word deball
Citation on prive-pol.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word jeter
Citation on prive-pol.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word prive-pol
"I won't meet you at Altrocci's or anywhere. Keep out of my life or I'll have my prive-pols deball you and-"
"You have one private pol," Jason interrupted. "He's sixty-two years old and his name is Fred. Originally he was a sharpshooter with the Orange County Minutemen; used to pick off student jeters at Cal State Fullerton. He was good then, but he's nothing to worry about now."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word quinque
He found a public phone booth, entered, shut the door against the noise of traffic, and dropped a gold quinque into the slot.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word blep
"When you blep away," he said abruptly, trying to catch her off guard, "how do you do it?"
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word schmalch
"You get a lot of bills," he said, "for a girl living in a one-room schmalch."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word micromag
Citation on crampedly.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word crampedly
He prowled, crampedly, about the room, examining a book here, a cassette tape, a micromag.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word hot-compart
...Kathy had a single room with a hot-compart in which to fix one-person meals.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word quibble
...the clerk drove his old-time quibble slowly and noisily down the street...
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word gelatinlike
Citation on Callisto cuddle sponge.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word Callisto cuddle sponge
It happened too fast. He backed away out of instinct, but too slowly and too late. The gelatinlike Callisto cuddle sponge with its fifty feeding tubes clung to him, anchored itself to his chest. Already he felt the feeding tubes dig into him, into his chest.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word six
Like all sixes she had enormous recuperative ability. It had been carefully built into each one of them.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word nat
Citation on pol.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word pol
He knew that at one time she had been illegally married to a student commune leader, and that for one year she had lived in the rabbit warrens of Columbia University, along with all the smelly, bearded students kept subsurface lifelong by the pols and the nats. The police and the national guard, who ringed every campus, keeping the students from creeping across to society like so many black rats swarming out of a leaky ship.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word phone-grid transex network
"He glanced at her, then studied her. Volumes of red hair, pale skin with a few freckles, a strong roman nose. Deep-set huge violet eyes. She was right; she didn't show her age. Of course she never tapped into the phone-grid transex network, as he did. But in point of fact he did so very little. So he was not hooked, and there had not been, in his case, brain damage or premature ageing."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word chimney breast
Well, I'd guess it means the structure that surrounds the chimney itself in a living room. Made of brick or stone and usually tapering toward the ceiling. At least this makes sense of the citation, and I don't know any other term for that thing.
March 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word glop
You're welcome.
March 23, 2012
yarb commented on the word besnotted
I'm infatuated right down to your boogers. I'm completely besnotted.
March 23, 2012
yarb commented on the user Louises
Hi Louises - I'm really enjoying your excellent citations from The Last Werewolf. Perhaps you should gather them together in a dedicated list? If you don't, then I might! Keep them coming.
March 23, 2012
yarb commented on the word Afghanistan Banana Town
See afghanistanbananastan.
March 21, 2012
yarb commented on the list afghanistanbananastan
Brackets required: Afghanistan Banana Town.
March 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word pseudomantid
A truly magisterial summation by mollusque.
March 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word third sector
"Most people could weather a fortnight of unpaid work; but once you start talking about three or six months, you basically have to be living with your parents, they have to live in the same city – usually London for the desirable posts – and they have to be able to support you. So pretty soon the point arrives when there's a middle-class stranglehold on the jobs that people want to do – notably in politics, the media and the third sector."
- Zoe Williams, Ripping off young interns is routine, but it's still wrong, guardian.co.uk, 20/03/12.
March 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word nabob
There used to be a TV advert for Nabob coffee with a cheesy jingle which went "It's a Nabob coffee morning..." implying that people do love the smell of Nabob in the morning.
March 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word a priori
What an awesome first comment!
March 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word havoc
Cry havoc and let slip the cherry blossom.
March 20, 2012
yarb commented on the word havoc
'Vancouver's iconic cherry blossom festival could also be hit by a lagging spring.
"The really early cherries flower normally, but the ones that would normally come out, say the first of April, come out a week or two later," Justice said. "And everything gets pushed back.
"That creates havoc because the cherry blossom festival is essentially the month of April."'
- Spring brings more cold, snow and rain, Vancouversun.com, 20-03-12.
March 20, 2012
yarb commented on the word sidereal
Oh, Century! Most romantic of lexicons.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word terpomo
Joking aside, Griza, you have already entered this wonderful word on Wordnik. Thank you and congratulations.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word terpomo
Or perhaps you have a particularly impressive potato and you want to enter it in a competition?
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word terpomo
How to enter a potato? I'll let someone else google that for you.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word Umbra, G.E.
Mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow, superior alternative to Roy G. Biv (after some modifications to the names of the colours).
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word Roy G. Biv
Wait, isn't umber a colour? So we could have Umber, GA.
Come to think of it there is also the word umbra, the dark part of a shadow. So Umbra, G.E. is also a possibility.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word Roy G. Biv
I was thinking of "emu grab" but yours is better.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word Roy G. Biv
It would be easier to just rename the colours so they are more easily mnemonicable. For example, instead of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet we could have unphor, mogal, brove, rosp, acetin, gliese and eltic.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word Roy G. Biv
Although I suppose for bigrovy to gain acceptance would require some rearrangement of the visible spectrum.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word Roy G. Biv
bigrovy would be much more fun and just as coherent.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the list the-non-event-horizon
Ha, yes. I can only add to this list by not adding to it.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word Roy G. Biv
Probably the stupidest mnemonic in common use.
March 14, 2012
yarb commented on the list red--4
russet, ruddy, rubicund, rufous, erubescent?
March 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
I can confirm that I have not been pelted with any bananas lately - at least not any of a ruddy hue.
March 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word porching
To sleep, porching to dream?
March 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word nebraksa
The first photo looks kind of like the end-times (which like all good things, I'm sure will begin in Nebraksa).
March 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word iroquois
I find that concept rather iffacle to imagine, fbh.
March 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word national sleep awareness week
Wee Willie Winkie? Rip van Winkle? Winken, Blinken and Nod? Or Wee Willie Rip van Winken Bliken and Nod?
March 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word world kidney day
I'm celebrating with a steak and kidney pie.
March 9, 2012
yarb commented on the word three pipe problem
...but only 50 minutes for Holmes.
March 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word semantic satiation
Happened to me this morning in the shower with the word blame.
February 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word screechy
Insects have six feet and are sometimes screechy.
February 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word bogart
No! That's quite charming if true! Well spotted.
February 29, 2012
yarb commented on the list the-masses--the-common-or-ordinary-people
the great unwashed?
February 27, 2012
yarb commented on the user Emmanuel
It means "travelling", or "in transit". If one is "on the road" then one is away from home, on a journey, staying in hotels, pensions, inns, auberges, hostelries, taverns, roadhouses, motels, lodges, bothies, B&B's, encampments, caravansaries &c.
February 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word almost Solveig
*initiates wardrobe malfunction sequence*
February 6, 2012
yarb commented on the list children’s-clothing
Ideas for spam-related children's clothing welcomed (or anything else spam-related)
February 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word polysplenia
Come on deinonynchus, I want to know the word for the condition of having seventeen lungs.
February 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word pisspoor
British. Execrable.
February 3, 2012
yarb commented on the user rightshopping1986
You are pisspoor even for a spammer.
February 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word tractor
Where was I on Feb 15th, 2007?!
February 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word polysplenia
Two spleen, or not two spleen?
February 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word commatology
Comma gain, ruzuzu?
February 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word list out
Or, to arrange several things into a list.
February 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word hork
Interesting, brian. What you say about hork, I would say defines bork.
February 1, 2012
yarb commented on the list impossible-wind-up-toys
Me too!
January 31, 2012
yarb commented on the word tagatose
Look at its ickle pwetty taga toes!
January 30, 2012
yarb commented on the list the-measure-of-man
That vague "in some places" paired with the precise "formerly 4¾ cubic yards" is classic Century!
January 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word madent
Madent may be wet, but it will never be moist.
January 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word vernepator
Where can I get one?!
January 29, 2012
yarb commented on the user per2013
Alert! These pills make your penis smaller, not bigger, and one side-effect is inflammation of the node.
January 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word caff
A caff is a dilapidated British eatery serving English breakfasts, tea and coffee, and sandwiches and maybe a few other unwholesome things for lunch. It is quite distinct from a cafe, in that in the former all the chairs will be of normal height - no stools - and all the colours will be matt. All the tables are wipe-clean, all the condiment-bottles are sticky and all the staff are stuck, gesturing impotently, and so are you.
January 28, 2012
yarb commented on the list places-for-eating-and-drinking
I'm not saying you need to get multilingual here - far from it, in fact - but I think pulquería deserves a spot.
You could also add caff, which is different from a cafe.
January 28, 2012
yarb commented on the word Dam troll
Dam troll!
January 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word nauseogenic
"The nauseogenic properties of a patterned rug that reputedly caused motion-sickness-like symptoms in those who viewed it was the topic of this study."
- discoblog, 26-1-12
January 27, 2012
yarb commented on the list panvocalics
I ran across nauseogenic here and immediately went looking for a version with one less 'e'.
January 27, 2012
yarb commented on the list panvocalics
nausogenic gets plenty of hits, though perhaps you'd consider it a misspelling of nauseogenic.
January 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word spat
Makes me think of the spawn of shell-fish; specifically, the spawn of the oyster; also, a young oyster, or young oysters collectively, up to about the time of their becoming set, or fixed to some support. And a gaiter or legging.
January 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word woven
I agree, very cool.
January 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word spat
I think it's dialectical, isn't it? Depends where you're from.
I suppose it could be spreading by analogy with hit, fit and quit.
January 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word boss
I'm sure I've noticed it in London, too.
January 25, 2012
yarb commented on the word oracle machine
That's uncanny. How could it know that I habitually lunch on fresh drupes and schizocarps of a Tuesday?
January 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word boss
Hi Norm. When I lived in the UK I also noticed this usage in the situations you describe, especially in the Northern part of the country. In fact I picked it up and used it myself sometimes when working behind a bar. My sense is that it's used specifically by younger males when addressing older men; especially, as you point out, by a younger man providing a product or service, or doing a courtesy, to an older one.
January 24, 2012
yarb commented on the word oracle machine
I asked the Wordnik oracle/random word feature to describe itself in one word and it came up with... genie! So it must be real.
January 24, 2012
yarb commented on the list fig-shaped
Insanity.
January 22, 2012
yarb commented on the word blue rubber bleb syndrome
Well, someone made it up.
January 22, 2012
yarb commented on the word Zagros fold and thrust belt
A wardrobe essential for the interstellar gigolo.
January 22, 2012
yarb commented on the word λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυποτριμματοσιλφιοκαραβομελιτοκατακεχυμενοκιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττοπεριστεραλεκτρυονοπτοκεφαλλιοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳοσιραιοβαφητραγανοπτερύγων
Worth knowing.
January 22, 2012
yarb commented on the word witling
"But if witlings should be inclined to attack this account, let them have the candour to quote what I have offered in my defence."
- Boswell, in Life of Johnson
January 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
For what it's worth, I still think there should be a redirect to the correctly-cased version of a word, with disambiguation for genuine discrepancies.
January 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
It's because the comment-engine of Wordnik comes from what was once a separate site, called Wordie, and devoted more to the social side of words than the technical side. Wordie was quite rudimentary (in the best possible way) and didn't distinguish upper from lower case. So many words which should have an upper case element are replete with old comments on their lower case form.
January 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
See comments on barometz.
January 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word MVEMJSUNP
You're right, R: P is a dwarf planet these days. As it happens, I'm currently very interested in dwarf planets, plutoids and trans-Neptunian objects, the Kuiper belt, scattered disc and Oort cloud and all that kind of stuff.
January 20, 2012
yarb commented on the word Manuel Moschopoulos
Known to his pals as moschops.
January 20, 2012
yarb commented on the word MVEMJSUNP
Personally I think it's easier to just remember the names of the planets than to remember MVEMJSUNP.
January 20, 2012
yarb commented on the word handle with care
*hork*
January 20, 2012
yarb commented on the word afterworld
Ha ha. Wordnet is the Beavis and Butthead of internet lexicons.
January 20, 2012
yarb commented on the word pope lick monster
I don't have issues with popes, licking, or monsters, but I find the pope lick monster profoundly disturbing.
January 20, 2012
yarb commented on the list monsters
One of my favourites is the pope lick monster.
January 19, 2012
yarb commented on the list shaped-like-a-pair-of-scissors
I love these highly specific lists.
January 19, 2012
yarb commented on the word beetlestomper
Sounds like a cool kind of footwear. Like winklepicker.
January 19, 2012
yarb commented on the word ludicrous
I'd say ludicrous and laughable have moved closer to parity with ridiculous since the Century's disquisition. I've also noticed that ludicrous (along with the other synonyms discussed here) is often used to mean unbelievable or incredible - to describe a feat of athletic skill, for example, or a long shift of work, or anything generally impressive.
January 19, 2012
yarb commented on the word travesty
The ngram data is (as so often) interesting. Before about 1880 there is nothing but a whole lot of mockery of justice. But then comes the rise of the travesty of justice, usurping mockery of justice around 1910 and now more than twice as common.
Of the other options offered by the Century, only parody of justice has any support in the corpus, and is at best a minority choice.
January 19, 2012
yarb commented on the word travesty
Looking at the examples, and especially the tweets, it seems that when people use travesty in the sense of "disaster" or "disgusting state of affairs" they often do so as a short form of the stock expression travesty of justice. E.g.
“It is too depressing by far to know that Justin Beiber has more hits on Youtube for his version of Somebody to Love than Queen. A travesty” - @jactherat
“If Brighton win this it will be a travesty. Wrexham have been superb.” - @lawrenceVB
“However, the big travesty is that if you live in Manhattan delivery is free – you live in the Bronx and the sale is no sale at all.” - Wine prices - beating the spread online and in-store | Dr Vino's wine blog
I also suspect there to be some confusion with tragedy.
January 18, 2012
yarb commented on the word lend
The ngram data bears you out, ptero. I share your dejection; this is a such a pleasant, well-seeming word.
January 18, 2012
yarb commented on the user feedback
I think it was pig-Latin.
January 17, 2012
yarb commented on the list stuffie-you-haven-t-lived
Re: chub-on. It seems to be more often used to describe a slight affection or penchant for something than an actual state of semi-arousal. I quite like it actually.
January 16, 2012
yarb commented on the word smell fungus
See smellfungus.
January 15, 2012
yarb commented on the list stuffie-you-haven-t-lived
I believe "to have a chub-on" means to have an incipient erection, jenn.
January 15, 2012
yarb commented on the list the-beerhunter
We found a third of them, in the end.
January 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word fatigue life
Poignant.
January 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word euendolith
Get out of that rock, you bloody endolith!
January 14, 2012
yarb commented on the user Prolagus
When I think of you, I think cu<3'ltivated and thoroughly pleasa'nt.
January 13, 2012
yarb commented on the user Prolagus
Hi! I hope your Friday 13th was <3' not in the least bit' unlucky.
January 13, 2012
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
Perhaps I'm <3' not' as smart as I think I am.
January 13, 2012
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
Hmm.
January 13, 2012
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
Dear ruzuzu,
You are <3' the opposite of' a terrible bore.
Yours with no <3' thing but' fondness,
Yarb.
January 13, 2012
yarb commented on the word trending words
The cat came back!
January 13, 2012
yarb commented on the list joshee-word-list
Penny for your thoughts.
January 13, 2012
yarb commented on the list outcasts
Good one! I think it would be just as funny, though, to see the "not a" words which Wordnik does have definitions for.
January 13, 2012
yarb commented on the list impossible-snow-globes
Right-o, I'll fire away then.
January 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word egg you on
See also egg on.
January 12, 2012
yarb commented on the list impossible-snow-globes
Whoops, I added a duplicate Moses scene. Sorry about that.
January 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word -trix
Well dominatrix is still common, and I've come across interlocutrix and executrix and I think editrix in old books, but I take your point. I'm a big fan of this suffix.
January 12, 2012
yarb commented on the word postum
"There’s a Skaverbacked Gritchen
who lives in my kitchen
and makes his home under the sink.
And he lives upon Gipes
that crawl out of the pipes
and he takes only Postum to drink."
- Shel Silverstein, There's a Gritchen in my Kitchen
January 12, 2012
yarb commented on the list herbs-and-spices
I've come across the singular, I think, probably in books. But I suppose the reason for the preponderance of the plural would be that cloves come whole, not typically ground or as tiny seeds. Just as you 'd say "bay leaves" instead of "bay leaf" when describing the plant generally. On the other hand we say "star anise", not "stars anise", don't we?
January 11, 2012
yarb commented on the list pigs-on-parade
Your younger readers will note the omission of Peppa Pig.
January 9, 2012
yarb commented on the word jacking-motion
This would be the classic British "wanker" gesture: like the "OK" gesture but rotated so the "O" is horizontal and then moved up and down by the wrist. The sort of motion Polonius might make behind the arras while Hamlet rants.
January 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word halching
It has a name?!
January 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word washroom
Quaint? In my experience it's the standard (in polite conversation).
January 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word whoremasterly
Marvellous!
January 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word fly-half
I think of rugby. You win.
January 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word anchovy
I'd just throw up a craigslist ad. I bet there are more long-haired anchovy lovers in your town than you think. I'd offer my own hair - I'm due to have my ears lowered - but the quantity would only suffice for a thimble-sized sieve, and thus for a ramekin's worth of the fishy elixir.
January 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word anchovy
Then you should make one of those, too. You must know somebody who needs a haircut. Offer to let them have some of the anchovy sauce if they donate their locks.
January 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word anchovy
That sounds horrible. You should make it, ruzuzu.
January 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word nonic
Thanks for pointing this out, h. Really the only acceptable type of glass for bitter.
January 4, 2012
yarb commented on the word brain tsunami
“and your brain juices are rising in your skull bowl to form a tsunami that is drowning your actual brain” @Kibasaur
- from the tweets
January 4, 2012
yarb commented on the word elder-rob
I wonder what the etymology of the -rob/-roob bit is?
January 4, 2012
yarb commented on the word ladies-putting
Wow - authoritative.
January 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word shode-pit
If I read this in a text I'd assume it was a synonym for latrine.
January 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word may-hill
Why is May a trying month for invalids?
January 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word fromage
Ha ha. Did the inspector pronounce it to rhyme with rummage?
January 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word bliegger
Roughly the noise I uttered upon seeing it.
January 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word tournure
It's quite a difficult novel to read and I'm not sure if I will read more by Spackman. He has a special talent for dialogue, reproducing all the filler, dislocations and verbal tics of real speech - sort of like Don DeLillo but Spackman's characters have an extra layer of fanciness in their vocabulary. He is fun to read, just not that engaging; not at all gripping. Something to read four or five pages at a time perhaps.
January 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word bouleversement
Came here to say "cool word!" only to find my comment from three and a half years ago.
January 3, 2012
yarb commented on the word enucleation
'Here however his lawyer worked his weighty way through the uproar and started holding these dockets up against the cabin wall for him to sign one after another, affably bawling his full-phrased enucleation of each in turn into his ear...'
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word eel
'And it might have been the Thirties all over again, his cabin jammed, flowers everywhere and the most agreeable urban din, Victoria's man eeling his way through the hubbub with the champagne...'
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word apodeictic
'He said in an attempt at a lighter tone, "Now Melissa the plain apodeictic fact is nobody is very sensible," but she paid no attention to this truth...'
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word loquat
Citation on impluvium.
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word impluvium
"...a snapshot of loquat trees and a dirty impluvium."
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word femalize
"...she nuzzled and cooed and femalized at him in general."
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word disseize
"...did she suppose at his age he'd be so insensible, or her own word 'irresponsible' dammit, as to disseize a perfectly decent boy, no matter how hulking, of a girl he-"
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word tournure
"He at once replied that while he couldn't say he recalled all this in, uh, quite such unerring detail, still, if a lifetime's delight in the mere look, the mere tournure, of women, in the posed and lovely portraits they always somehow made him half-think they were-"
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word tenue
'"Only then you began grumbling about their tenue, these girls', Bermuda shorts and so on, you said where had all the baroque charm gone?'"
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word champêtre
Citation on frust.
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word frust
"'...the day we had lunch champêtre deep in that wonderful grove of beeches stretching on and on and on, by that half-ruined Doric folly with its frusts and columns.'"
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
January 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word elsewhither
"With Strickland the sexual appetite took a very small place. It was unimportant. It was irksome. His soul aimed elsewhither."
- Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence
December 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word The Two Ronnies
Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett
December 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word cull
Citation (sense of fool, dupe) on nubbing cheat.
December 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word nubbing cheat
'Here,' said he, taking some dice out of his pocket, 'here's the stuff. Here are the implements; here are the little doctors which cure the distempers of the purse. Follow but my counsel, and I will show you a way to empty the pocket of a queer cull without any danger of the nubbing cheat.'"
"Nubbing cheat!" cries Partridge: "pray, sir, what is that?"
"Why that, sir," says the stranger, "is a cant phrase for the gallows; for as gamesters differ little from highwaymen in their morals, so do they very much resemble them in their language.
- Fielding, Tom Jones, VIII. xii.
December 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word aboiement
Mooooo!
December 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word satchel of shite
Did you mean satchel of shire?
December 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word jingleweed
Excellent, thanks H. It struck me as appropriate for the season (though I guess not really suited to the decking of halls).
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word baldachin
"...honourable established people who wanted a gleaming properly laid table and good food well served and some delicious creature or other to have dinner with on a fine early-summer evening as the lights came on in the baldachin of dusk and the nightfall murmur of traffic died slowly away uptown along the Avenue..."
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word pervicacious
"Nicholas instantly resumed, demanding of Mrs. Barclay with amazed innocence other women other women must she be like a pervicacious angel think that because he loved her with every beat of his heart, love and had loved, as she herself well remembered and in this house should remember best of all..."
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word tallage
"...also his lawyer up from Philadelphia with his bulging briefcase, the sheer tax-maneuvering his wife's behaviour had now got him into! his own cursing yeoman forebears hadn't been amerced with a blacker set of reliefs and merchets, church-scot and plough-arms and smoke-farthings and hearthpenny on Holy Thursday, and nowadays who could he tallage in return?"
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word jingleweed
What plant does Spackman mean by this? Google is no help.
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word jingleweed
"In the meadows, in the flash and dazzle of the morning, his fat black cattle grazed through the jingleweed, his white guineas ran huddling."
- W.M. Spackman, An Armful of Warm Girl
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word oestrus
"In some ways, it appears, the balladist wasn't a bad guy ... aside from an uncontrollable oestrus he turned out to have for neighbourhood-grocers' wives, and one or two low incidents in consequence, Mike had no trouble with him whatever..."
- W.M. Spackman, Heyday
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word eupatrid
"...and why question in 1932 (or how*?) the credo trained into us of economic propraetorships inevitably to come, the steady steak-fed beating of the Big Board heart, and naturally at the last the opulent, the eupatrid retirement?"
- W.M. Spackman, Heyday
*the text has "or how?" but I think "or now" makes asmuch/more sense given the publication date.
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word pibroch
"...all around us, under the orderly bucolic antiphonies of drunken argument, I could hear swelling wild, swift, and ominous the pibroch of hysteria."
- W.M. Spackman, Heyday
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word grocery
Having said that, I almost never watch TV. Or, for that matter, spend time "on the street".
December 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word grocery
I share rolig's astonishment; I've never once noticed the "sh" pronunciation. If it's so widespread you'd think I'd have heard it on TV, if not on the street.
December 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word trending words
Lost: one cat.
December 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-gods-must-be-crazy
What a beast this list is!
December 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list king-in-uruk
Would you say this is a happy list, ruzuzu?
December 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list words-from-the-big-lebowski
I tear up at the scattering of Donny's ashes.
December 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word Never let a time traveler have his picture taken with you if you don't know why he's smiling.
I bet the older gentleman was Mark Twain.
edit: or Jean-Luc Picard.
December 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word reverse boustrophedon
Duly tagged.
December 16, 2011
yarb commented on the list words-with-uu--1
Now I know how the Luddites felt. I mean it's neat that you can just list a link to a Wordnik search string and Bob's your uncle, but I mourn the loss of human agency. I lament the passing of the human touch in list-making. The days when an actual flesh-and-blood person had to go to Onelook and create their own search string, then type each word into the list. Or at least write a program to do all this.
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word pi-stachio
Ha ha! *tries vainly to think of more Greek letters that could come before "-stachio"*
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word mazzafegati
Time for a list of sausages, I think. God I love sausages.
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word slinzega
This stuff sounds delicious.
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list 50-k-for-50k
Kongratulations.
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word zany
That sentence is equally true when preceded by the words "Calling your opponent..."
December 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word union
Surely that would be ioff?
December 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word union
Not an onion.
December 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word articulatio genus
We are the knights who say "articulatio genus".
December 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word Wordnik dreams
The theme of the dream is that Ruzuzu has announced that she will be leaving the site, not immediately, but soon - her last day will be in a couple of weeks. Wordie (I'm pretty sure it was -ie, not -nik) is a physical space, roughly mapped onto the hillside neighbourhood where I live. Ruzuzu's "house" / presence on Wordie is at the top of the hill. I make my way by bike through slush and gloom to attend her farewell party.
Ruzuzu's space is a smallish bungalow, decorated haphazardly but not without discernment. Everyone is there, milling around with drinks, even long-gone names like Kewpid and Colleen. The atmosphere is cordial, bordering on fun, but with overtones of a wake. Chained_Bear has a baby with her which is passed around merrily. It says "poop!" while Bilby changes its diaper.
Ruzuzu has made a long list of content for us to create on Wordie after she has gone. One example is 'a page to commemorate Charles Sanders Peirce's upbraiding of Mark Twain at a congressional hearing for his improper pronunciation of deliquesce' (except in the dream, a full-page account of the event is given). I read the list and wonder how she can expect us to create all of this, then realise it doesn't matter because she has already created it in the form of the list.
But I am desperately sad that Ruzuzu is leaving. I implore her to stay, but to no end; things are intractably thus (that's what she says, quoting my favourite poet). Finding myself alone, I break down and sob desolately; I feel completely abandoned. Ruzuzu comes over and consoles me by saying that I can take one item from her house to remember her by. I look around and see nothing that could compensate for the loss of her. Bilby chooses a translucent, ruby-red desktop calculator, shot through with veins of amber. Later, I am persuaded to take a tripodal "postcard-holder" - three spindly wire legs with a crocodile clip at the top for clamping a postcard - on condition that she sends me a postcard from wherever she is bound.
December 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word Wordnik dreams
Is there a list or a place somewhere for discussion of Wordie/nik-related dreams? I had a zinger last night.
December 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word wears
You should probably check another 1,000 examples, just to be sure.
December 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word mumchance
"There had been school days like this when teachers sent questions thudding on some dream. And you sat mumchance."
- J.P. Donleavy, Franz F
December 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word who loves this list
See who has favourited a given word or list (possibly with opt-out on profile screen).
December 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word multiple-checkboxes to add-move-delete words in one go
I.e. from a given list, I want to take these particular dozen words, and move, or copy, them, to another list. I just tick those which apply and hit "move" (or "copy"), then chose the target list. You could allow copying from other people's lists, too. The same for multiple deletions.
December 6, 2011
yarb commented on the user Reader
Ouch, a stinging critique.
December 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word mouthfeel
Very interesting comment, especially that last sentence. You're dead right that the crunchiness of toast - including the sound of the crunch - is an integral part of the experience of eating it. The same applies to the crunching, cracking sound of biting into an apple. This is amplified when you listen to a horse, with its outsized chompers, eating an apple - the whole thing pretty much explodes at once.
November 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word Longwangmiao
*snigger*
November 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word almost almost almost Solveig
See new new interface.
November 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word new new interface
It's almost almost almost Solveig.
November 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word avuncular
Neither vuncular nor its opposite. That to which the concept of vuncularity does not apply.
November 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word hatekillpuke
Ha ha!
November 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word Auld Reekie
Edinburgh.
November 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word dander
"A few white mammal-bellied clouds dandered like plutocrats across the blue floor of the sky, and the reeky old city and many sorts of town and village and farmland were below me, and bleak hills edging the borders behind me, and the blue mountains edging the highlands in front, and the firth between them widening with islands and ships to the sea."
- Looking down on Auld Reekie, in 1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray
November 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word thole
"...those Stalinist crimes imputed to you by your most ardent admirers and which the intelligently decent have NEVER been able to thole."
- Alasdair gray, 1982, Janine.
November 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word galvanic
... or nostalgic for the era of galvanism.
November 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word lahal
Traditionally played by adults? What? So traditionally, adults play this game but kids don't? But right now it's different? Whaddaya mean by "traditionally" here?
November 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word semicolon
"They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing."
- surely this is a reason to use semicolons?
November 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word jealous
Jealousy can have that meaning, but I think it's most often used synonymously with envy. But it's a nice distinction.
I'm a fan of the word envy. It's all scrunched-up and spiteful-sounding.
November 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word faluns
They banned it, but it still hasn't falun out of fashion.
November 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word faluns
In China, their serving is announced by the faluns-gong.
November 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word abscond
I think that must be a Wordie Pro feature, my friend.
November 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word Penny in Italy
Thanks sionnach. Panel and poem both very much in the spirit of Alf.
November 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word shoofly pie
Shoofly? Don't bother me.
November 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word Penny in Italy
Sounds exactly like "A Room with a View".
Give me the Bash Street Kids any day. Or Alf Tupper, Tough of the Track.
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
*commences bacchanalia*
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word Londons under siege
Pedantry aside, I believe Wee Willie Winkie and Wynken are in fact the same individual. In his nonage he was given to running through the town, and this incipient wanderlust found an adult outlet in the storied fishing expedition with Blynken and Nod.
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word Londons under siege
Did you mean Wynken, Blynken, and Nod?
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
*press*
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
*press*
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word Londons under siege
He's the poet who guided Dante through the undervorld.
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
Oh look! A tasty food pellet.
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word If Ruzuzu is infinitely powerful, can she also be infinitely good
*presses*
November 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word pot belge
A crude mix of uppers and downers (amphetamines, opiates, caffeine etc) formerly used by professional cyclists as a performance enhancer. Fell out of use with the introduction of basic drug testing.
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word chain
It is evident!
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word Kelvin-Helmholtz instability
Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz: one person, or two?
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word strapline
I did.
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word path
Bleurgh.
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word tsunamis
I suppose I've had the odd tooth-loss dream, but no, they're no fun; evidently I'm as anxious about potential penury as the rest of us.
HH, I think an evening of old-time fiddle and banjo music in Indiana is an excellent idea for the inaugural global Wordie con.
November 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word tsunamis
Mine seem to be about relief and oblivion... I usually wake up feeling relaxed.
November 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word tsunamis
I have a lot of tsunami dreams, perhaps because of my obsessive earthquake monitoring via the USGS global alert feed.
November 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
My condolences on your dire rear.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
Note to file: swaddling has never been my objective. Sionnach's calumniations lack objectivity. This page is an object lesson in objectionableness.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
Sionnach, I hereby appoint you as the object of my derision.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
I find that epithet objectionable, but have no objection to it.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word someone
Just who does he think he is?
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
Yes, and I also object to people on the internet who object to my objections, but not to the objections themselves.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word tongueworm
I'd prefer a tongue, in my earworm.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word we possess very few authentic details about a people whose written annals were burnt by the ignorant "conquistadores"
What the Bamiyan Buddhas made me realise is, I don't really object to blowing up statues, but I do very much object to the kind of people who want to blow them up.
November 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word hagiolatry
I worship St. Gertrude of Nivelles, patron saint of mice, so it is a word after all.
November 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word hectopron
I think you'll need a bigger unit to measure what was lost during the gong-show of a transition to this new interface.
November 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word pyewipe
It's a game.
October 31, 2011
yarb commented on the word narb
And of course, "Yarb" is a dog in Gogol's "Dead Souls". Like most dogs, Yarb is four-footed.
October 31, 2011
yarb commented on the word bunburying
Name them.
October 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word Bunburying
Me too. Listing Capitalized words seems somehow wrong... undemocratic.
What the hell. Crypto-fascist!
October 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word roomate
Breakfast of champignons!
October 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word comments
Great idea, hh! I'm surprised nobody thought of that before.
October 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word superstrong
Also, 3rd person singular of the verb 'to supertrong'. 'Ghibbs habitually superstrong the system'.
October 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word clownery
Ophelia pain, ruzuzu.
October 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word Animal Spirits are the Invisible Hand.
Ha ha! The funny thing is, it sort of works with both "ate" and "are" (but I'm no economist).
October 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word botox
Wordplayer: so why are there no square drums?
October 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word unslinging
If a gunslinger unslings a gun,
what does an unslinger do to have fun?
Does he unholster his gun super-quickly
or does he insert it therein with a sickly
grin and a word of appeasement?
And for his easement,
what's there to bolster a
pseudo-upholsterer,
the last of his cover being blown?
October 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word Gond
A land on the margins of Middle Earth, ruled by Centaurs.
October 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word conger
The conga is a sophisticated art form!
October 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word conger
Conger is tasty. I like to eat it with congee.
October 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word my hovercraft is full of eels
I like how in the first visual, the phrases are in the order you'll need them.
October 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word jelly shoes
She doesn't look Belgian to me, in any case.
What is that thing? She looks like she's about to hurl it at a politician.
October 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Belgian kiss
I will confess to a having a fetish for Belgians.
October 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word incent
This vile word incentses me.
October 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word ghost chile
I've been working my way through this guy's Youtube videos. They really are works of art. I love the refrain of "my tongue... back of my throat...".
For relevance, I link to the Bhut Jolokia or ghost chile, but my favourite so far is the Dorset Naga.
October 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word swishcheese
Ha ha!
October 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word lucky
You're lucky I like the taste of SPAM, dude!
October 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word unbrick
Black Cat, yeah! A frightening word.
October 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word yarb
One of my favourite books, "Holiday Tales Christmas in the Adirondacks".
- "Yis, the yarb be good fur a woman when things go crosswise, and the box'll be a great help to her many and many a night, beyend doubt."
October 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word Rolig
"'Twas rolig! And the slithey toves..."
October 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word mohr's egg
That is a sorry pun, bilby. And I laughed at it, mohr's the pity.
October 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word blueberry, pepper, eucalyptus, jerky, and menthol
I have assembled a cutup, but I'm not sure the writing gains anything. Sometimes a plain list is the best medium for poetry.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word blueberry, pepper, eucalyptus, jerky, and menthol
This list is pure poetry. Magnificent ludic stuff. Actually it's something I've thought about before, but I can't improve on your selections.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word barrow-coat
*lies down on railway tracks*
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word barrow-coat
I suppose it's so-named because it makes children easily portable by wheelbarrow.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word get into itness with our gym lasses
Wednesday night Jazzercise with Duns Scotus.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word get into itness with our gym lasses
Boxercise classes with Simone de Beauvoir.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word assurgent
I do not recall writing those comments. Sionnach, it hasn't arrived yet! It's being shipped from the UK I think. Can't wait to get stuck into a mess of arboreal erotica.
October 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word assurgent
I also see ent - so I am going now to have intercourse with trees, I'm going into the vast forests of this province. My stride is such that in two days I will be out of Moot distance, and for those of you who don't know what that means - it was a Beta version called the "Tree". - I am surrounded by the bloody things but soon it will just be one vast plain full of escapists and associated Apple ghouls.
October 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word assurgent
I also noticed the words ass, urge and gen - and the backword us, which seem to explain everything, When the great middle-class revolt occurs, this page will be the Rosetta Stone. Or do I mean the Golden Bough? Yes, the latter. Sorry Rosetta Stone!
October 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word pseudol
See also the wildly popular pseudolist, one who engages in this old-time hobby.
October 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word dive
And then she gafe you the shofe?
October 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word sustainism
I'd rather be among Old Ones than Great Old Ones.
October 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word pseudol
To yodel pretentiously.
October 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Google’s Favorite Wordnik Lists
Is a pseudolist one who pseudols?
October 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word 4M2-200709210919
Frightening stuff!
October 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word fessways
whelks?!
October 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word Godspeed and may life give you sausages
I believe this is a Canadian post-rock band.
October 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word iff
Interesting to see widespread use of this bit of philosophical jargon on the Twitter.
Who said Twitter was an intellectual desert?
October 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word breeze
I'll have the house-sweepings please, waiter.
October 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word oncom
As prolagus alludes, this is an oncomatopoeia.
September 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word vampire pumpkins and watermelons
Imagine being savaged by a watermelon. Bilby I'm surprised you treat the subject so lightly.
September 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word the blues
Citation on blue.
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word blue
"The pilot Juan Fernandez procured a deed of the isle named after him, and for some years resided there before Selkirk came. It is supposed, however, that he eventually contracted the blues upon his princely property, for after a time he returned to the main, and as report goes, became a very garrulous barber in the city of Lima."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Seventh
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word appanage
"So they told him he might have his pick of the Enchanted Isles, which were then, as they still remain, the nominal appanage of Peru."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Seventh
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word meow
You're probably right. I prefer it with the 'r' though.
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word meow
Were you looking for mrkgnao, sionnach?
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word new interface
*marginalizes bilby's discourse*
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word sausage fest
Waiter! There's a girl in my sausage fest!
September 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word sausage party
"So, is new-style atheism the sausage party that media coverage would suggest?"
- Why the New Atheism is a boys' club, guardian.co.uk, 26-9-11.
September 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word fig-pecker
Sure it's not a spoonerism?
September 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
I'm sure he will live Apsley ever after.
September 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word manjak
Yet more CD genius (which I'm sure every manjak of you will appreciate).
September 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word steamer
I'll have the clam, please.
September 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word beef creature
See kip.
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word kip
I think that young or small beef creature needs some consolatory brackets.
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word rhetoric
Ha ha!
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word cachous
You are the walrus?
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word manicure
Much to love in that example. Jujubes. The odd assortment of "small articles". The smokers 'cachous. The moral "ought". The non-specific "dishonest customer" (or does Punch have a specific dishonest customer in mind?) And of course the muff.
September 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
What is its name?
September 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
Perhaps Melville was looking at penguins the wrong way, i.e. horizontally.
n.b. that is a handsome, and very symmetrical, penguin.
September 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
Sometimes I think of Melville as the evil twin of Charles Sanders Peirce.
September 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
Haven't you noticed how awfully asymmetric penguins are?
September 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word gony
"Higher up now we mark the gony, or gray albatross, anomalously so called, an unsightly unpoetic bird, unlike its storied kinsman, which is the snow-white ghost of the haunted Capes of Hope and Horn."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Third
September 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word penguin
"What outlandish beings are these? Erect as men, but hardly as symmetrical, they stand all round the rock like sculptured caryatides, supporting the next range of eaves above. Their bodies are grotesquely misshapen; their bills short; their feet seemingly legless; while the members at their sides are neither fin, wing, nor arm. And truly neither fish, flesh, nor fowl is the penguin; as an edible, pertaining neither to Carnival nor Lent; without exception the most ambiguous and least lovely creature yet discovered by man. Though dabbling in all three elements, and indeed possessing some rudimental claims to all, the penguin is at home in none. On land it stumps; afloat it sculls; in the air it flops. As if ashamed of her failure, Nature keeps this ungainly child hidden away at the ends of the earth, in the Straits of Magellan, and on the abased sea-story of Rodondo."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Third
September 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word mondegreen
I think there's a name for sentence-length mondegreens like that - a French word maybe?
The big challenge is to find two such sentences which both make sense individually.
September 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word mote-mote
I've come across these buggers before - I think William Boyd mentions them in an essay on his West African nonage.
September 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word sucurujú
Great word and great quotations.
September 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word semitorque
I suppose it amounts to the same thing...
September 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word pickmaw
Sure it's not a plane?
September 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word semitorque
Do you like mushrooms?
September 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word pathogenetic Rabelaisianism
I think this pathogen is already epidemic on Wordnik. We just have to try and infect the rest of the world.
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word opportune mouthfeel closes in
You can't fight it!
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word kurunj
Just watching that scene mentally, and laughing - though not, I'm ashamed to say, out loud.
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word semitorque
I have a question.
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
Dan: I wonder if French "lieu" is related to Spanish "lugar", place. Seems reasonable. If so, it's great that "loo" is related to the Spanish - and presumably the Latin - for "place".
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
You Aussies must be terrible prudes if you won't take a shower while your missus lays a cable. I'm surprised.
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word knapbottle
It sounds like an advertising slogan. "The bladder champion!"
September 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word minbar
Ha ha! I might have known!
Actually, it's possible your GR review was how it got on my wishlist in the first place - I can't remember how I heard of it.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word minbar
Speaking of sex and trees, I recently ordered a copy of this novel. Has anyone read it?
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word dwarfism scheduler
The consultant will see you shortly.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word black hawthorn
Thank you for being can-did.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word sarcocele
I don't see what the Little Prince has to do with Johnson's ballsack.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word cucumber
Johnson's always popping up where you least expect him.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word sarcocele
This is worse than it sounds. I would have thought a sarcocele to be some quaint Provençal country dance.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
If someone said they were having their bathroom - or their loo - renovated, then I would indeed assume that the crapper was being ripped from its moorings. Very few houses have a room with a bath but no toilet in it these days, so the sense of "bathroom" as distinct from "loo" is obsolete.
Rolig, there is actually a transatlantic distinction re: "go to the bathroom". The sense of "urinate and/or defecate" is pretty much confined to North America, I think. In the UK one would say "the dog crapped in / shat in the kitchen", or in more polite language, "fouled" or "soiled" the kitchen. So I think in this case the Americans take the periphrasis a step further than the Brits do, as they do also by using the ridiculous term "restroom".
I've never heard it called "the head". Surely there is a list somewhere?
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
My money is on the W.C.
But equally, would one call a room with no toilet a "bathroom"? In your scenario, were "loo" to be replaced with "bathroom", I bet most people would still infer that the person was going to the room with the W.C. Ergo, "bathroom" is a synonym of "loo".
The way the English language tiptoes around this subject is pretty pathetic. We require a polite, specific word for the thing itself (crapper or bog, perhaps) and also for the room (dunny, shithouse?) - words which aren't euphemisms. I'm fed up with restrooms and lavatories and washrooms and privies.
September 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word rotavate
See ya later, rotavator.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word cobaltic orchards
Fantastic list, hh!
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word kurunj
Tall, erect and leguminous, that's me.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word loo
Bilby, in my experience "loo" can refer to both the bathroom and the toilet. One can be on the loo or in the loo.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word GHibbs
lol
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word Surtsey
Excellent!
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word earthle
To snuffle, scratch and sniff at the ground. Like a truffle pig.
See earthling.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word ravager
The Vikings were great nourishers. Always suckling babbies, them Norsemen.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word kurunj
It's a tough call, but I think I'd rather be a tree than a valid scrabble word.
September 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word mind the gap
Yes, part of the auditory landscape of London. The reason it's so well imprinted on the London psyche is not just its repetition but the intonation used in the recorded messages. "Mind... the GAP." There's a suspenseful delay before "the gap" which seems to imply that there is more to the gap than we're being told, or that the "the gap" isn't just the gap between the platform and the train, but a more terrible existential gap into which we shall all of us assuredly fall sooner or later.
September 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word nails
Are you seriously going to leave this comment on every noun which is also a verb??
September 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word Devil's Beef Tub
As a Scottish place name, this may not belong on madmouth's list, but I've had it revolving in my mind for some time now and... well, I wouldn't mind a beef tub of my own.
September 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word aquilon
Oh boy, Ruzuzu, for that you deserve a great, strouting Rabelaisian codpiece, a codpiece so big it obscures your entire person. Ruzuzu that was so much fun. You're lucky there are no Vulcans in Lincoln (at the last census, anyway) because if there were, they'd all be glomming on to you with the mind-melds.
September 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word spermatorrhoea
NSFW but high genius - The Gush, from Chris Morris's legendary Radio 1 show "Blue Jam".
September 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word jimson weed
I omitted it because I felt it was essentially the same as jimson weed. I am a bit of a fascist like that.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word emerald
See mangold for verbing.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word mangold
emeralding - lovely.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word rusty steppe moss
I wonder if there's ever been a man called Rusty Steppe-Moss.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word cow pie
For me this brings to mind neither muck nor moss, but the magnificient horned pies beloved of Desperate Dan.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word succorrhea
I'd rather suck a kiwi or a moa.
September 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word new interface
Until something is done about the bile salt, nothing will ever get better.
August 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word fateful day
The surefire sign of bad writing.
August 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word hearts and minds
Horrible how this memetic modern-major-general phrase has infected everyday discourse. I heard a cop, naturally, use it on the TV news the other day, along the lines of "our thoughts are with the hearts and minds of the victims..." And today I'm reading a subpar nonfiction book (2010) about earthquakes and I get:
"China's reported success story injected a surge of scientific adrenalin into the hearts and minds of those who saw prediction as the holy grail of the new seismology."
August 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word parontogenese
You'll have to add a pronunciation so that I don't embarrass myself when I use it.
August 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word parontogenese
This is a superb word. Could it be something geometrical? Some sort of inbred dog, maybe?
August 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word purple loosestrife
Either or both. I've been seeing a ton of Giant Hogweed by the roads lately.
August 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word rattler
Term apparently still in use in the Black Country, bilby, judging from the tweet by @seanoliver86.
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word stenoderma
...or your loved ones shall die of lice?
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word stenocephaly
Narrowness of the skull is fine in moderation, but one certainly wouldn't want it to become excessive.
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word kitchen table
Wordnet 3.0 living up to its lineage here.
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word purple loosestrife
If you're knowledgeable about invasive species, biocon, I'd love to see a list of them (non-scientific names preferred).
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word nemophila
nemophila, nemophila, nemophila. There, I did it. *checks world still turning*
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word Dasani
Dasani is pure branding, its success the ultimate expression of form over substance. You could say that about any bottled water, but the meaningless name is the cherry on top.
August 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word perruquier
Especially the one from "Story-Lives of Great Musicians".
August 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word new interface
Thanks for all the recent improvements and bug-fixes.
August 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word skim-colter
Then stop wearing it.
August 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word foyle's further philavery (christopher foyle)
It is precisely by not being "of benefit to our community" that this phrase, and countless others like it, benefit our community.
August 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word The Monty Hall Problem
You should change your answer to door #3, because a goat is better than a car.
Goats have personalities, cars don't. And as dontcry notes, you can get cheese out of a goat, but I never heard of anyone getting cheese out of a car.
August 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word slaw
Same eggcorn here rolig!
July 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word Grindr
Ha ha.
July 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word retromingent
"To mark territory, hippos spin their tails while defecating to distribute their excrement over a greater area. Likely for the same reason, hippos are retromingent-- that is, they urinate backwards."
- From the Wikipedia article on the hippo.
July 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word telephone
Excellent. The first sentence in particular is like a description of some retro-futuristic variation on the ouija board - which is actually how I've always thought of the telephone.
July 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word clivose
Thanks biocon! Fun coinkidink then. Reason I ask is 'cause near where I grew up there was a small precipitous hill called "The Cliffe" or "The Clive". I always wondered where the name came from, and this word seemed to blend the two spellings.
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word ruct
c.f. eructate?
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word editor
That should be the Wordnik logo.
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word clivose
Interesting. Wonder if it's related to cliff.
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word gambiologia
Cool! Yes, kludging would seem to be the best translation.
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the user rolig
Thank you!
July 25, 2011
yarb commented on the user marklayno
I take umbrage at that.
July 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word editor
editrix is one of my favourite words but I wouldn't call its falling into disuse a "dumbing down of gender". In fact I think I prefer the gender-neutral occupations. It's certainly less hassle than e.g. Spanish where you're always having to add an 'a' if the person happens to be female.
July 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word stridor
"So near the hull did they come, that the stridor or bony creak of their gaunt double-jointed pinions was audible."
- Melville, Billy Budd
July 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word the conical bearing of Gamhey
It sounds like a title by Edward Gorey.
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word theodolite
Whilst the layer of oil may well be exceedingly or exceptionally thin, I hope it isn't, as the definition states, excessively so.
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word theodolite
The parenthetical snark about "some geodesists" is pure joy.
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word menfauxpause
I'm imagining some sort of word-coining committee. Was a quorum present?
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word frango
And don't even think about saying "ab ovo".
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word frango
Portuguese for "chicken". Where the heck does it come from?
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word list idea
A big one - words of unknown origin
July 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word tappenade
Ha ha!
I was thinking along the lines of cannonade...
July 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word wizard
I'm sure they're very clever (albeit oddly-monikered) fellows, but until they've made the Statue of Liberty disappear I really don't think they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as David Copperfield.
July 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word mandrill
What a glorious, consolatory-prophetic comment.
July 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word spectabundal
Or "The twelfth chime of the clock saw the spectabundal acolytes seated tensely around the pentagram, in the guttering light of the candelabra."
July 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word spectabundal
It can't be a verb. I imagine something like: "The cat waited, spectabundal, for the goldfish to swim within reach of its paw".
July 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word rubby
Also rub-dub.
July 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word umbrage
Were they true, they were highly extenuating, and were they a lie, they they but a mediocre sally - so of course they were heartily well meant.
Your parsnips are not, thank God!, my responsibility. But I will do you the courtesy of my advice: smother the buggers in lard, basted with your own umbrage, and consume without compunction.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word umbrage
But one learns from one's mistakes, n'est-ce pas, mon amie? By alluding to your extensive learning, I was paying you a compliment - so pray return that umbrage, which I believe was withdrawn from the fell swoop page.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word spinach
If they're so succulent, why do they require seasoning and boiling??
Heads need to roll over this one.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word good to go
Yeah, this one raises a small imaginary stormcloud over my head as well.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word aqueduct
My 'a' in both aqua and aqueduct is as in 'cat'.
July 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word jean dimmock
anol
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word spinach
CSP always struck me as a meat-and-potatoes man.
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word jean dimmock
Klein bottle
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word jean dimmock
timothy
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the word quesadilla
Is not the mounted liger multifunctional? Satay,
mouth-watering, bone-forming enchiladas, gluten-free
masala, psychoactive potpies (guarded jealously),
unwholesome nontraditional croquettes - you've got to say,
though lesser-known, of common stock he definitely ain't
(and in the world of quesadillas he's a St.)
- by Alfredo Lyddite
June 30, 2011
yarb commented on the user hernesheir
Loch Ness Monster? Dr Jamieson?
June 29, 2011
yarb commented on the user hernesheir
Parallel universe? String theory?
June 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word fell swoop
You misunderstand, sionnach, and not for the first time. A particularly ruthless individual may well swoop felly twice, thrice or any number of times, on different targets - but one can't by defintion experience - that is, fall prey to - more than a single such swoop.
I'm really thinking of the head honcho of the Nazgul, the Witch-King of Angmar, on his faithful fell beast here (I think the fell beasts are more or less the fellest swoopers known to man).
Whomp, whomp.
June 29, 2011
yarb commented on the word frog grenade
A bouncing bomb?
June 28, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
I've long been in favour of literal timestamps - they're more precise, and sometimes knowing the intervals between posts can add nuance, or help one to interpret an old conversation. I can't see an advantage to "about three years ago" etc.
EDIT: this comment was following one by adrian which has disappeared.
June 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word kalpa
"I had no longer that feeling of unutterable loneliness; but felt, rather, that I was less alone, than I had been for kalpas of years."
- William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland
June 28, 2011
yarb commented on the word fell swoop
Good question, reesetee. Perhaps if more than one was required, it would no longer be quite so fell?
June 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word bikeshedding
Every school had bike sheds back in the day. Behind the bike sheds was the scene of illicit activities like smoking, fighting and smooching. I've never heard of a house with a "bike shed" though - at home I use the back yard for those activities.
June 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word air douche
The guy sitting in front of you who reclines his seat during meal service.
June 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word whiskeranto
Also whiskerando.
June 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word bikeshedding
Great! Thanks.
June 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word bikeshedding
Saw this one floating by on the main page. Can anyone explain it?
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word mercaptan
"In the mingitorio a stench like mercaptan clapped yellow hands on his face..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word retiform
"...a Chinese hunchback in a retiform visored tennis cap..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word hideously elongated cucumiform bundle of blue nerves and gills below the steaming unselfconscious stomach
Feel free to add to penis-related lists.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word hideously elongated cucumiform bundle of blue nerves and gills below the steaming unselfconscious stomach
Citation on cucumiform.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word cucumiform
"...the fact that that hideously elongated cucumiform bundle of blue nerves and gills below the steaming unselfconscious stomach had sought its pleasure in his wife's body brought him trembling to his feet."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word hoik
"...'the film he made out of Alastor before he went to Hollywood, which he shot in a bathtub, what he could of it, and apparently stuck the rest together with sequences of ruins cut out of old travelogues, and a jungle hoiked out of In dunkelste Afrika...'"
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word thalavethiparothiam
See note 178.5 in The Malcolm Lowry project for an explication.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word thalavethiparothiam
"'I have,' the Consul said, 'a slight confession to make, Hugh... I cheated a little on the strychnine while you were away.'
'Thalavethiparothiam, is it?' Hugh observed, pleasantly menacing. 'Or strength obtained by decapitation. Now then, don't be careful, as the Mexicans say, I'm going to shave the back of your neck.'"
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word trankum
"She was, unlike the Philoctetes, everything in his eyes a ship should be. First she was not in rig a football boat, a mass of low goalposts and trankums. Her masts and derricks were of the lofty coffee-pot variety."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word steamfly
Citation on untumultous.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word untumultous
"...till there was nothing but the black untumultous face of the songless lyre itself, soundless cave for spiders and steamflies..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word carttrack
Citation on whiskerando.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word whiskerando
"There was a lane branching to the left before you reached Jacques' house, leafy, no more than a carttrack at first, then a switchback, and somewhere along that lane to the right, not five minutes' walk, waited a little cool nameless cantina with horses probably tethered outside, and a huge white tomcat sleeping below the counter of whom a whiskerando would say: "He ah work all night mistair and sleep all day!" And this cantina would be open."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word wool
"The strychnine - he had ironically put some ice in it - tasted sweet, rather like cassis; it provided a species of subliminal stimulus, faintly perceived: the Consul, who was still standing, was aware too of a faint feeble wooling of his pain..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word widthways
"They moved on past the front of Cortez Palace, then down its blind side began to descend the cliff that traversed it widthways."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word winze
"The shop, adjacent to the Palace, but divided from it by the breadth of a steep narrow street desperate as a winze, was opening early."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word tabid
"Outside, in the sunlight, in the backwash of tabid music from the still-continuing ball, Yvonne waited..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word reascend
Citation on flexitone.
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word tenuity
Contains its own scrabble score (ten).
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word nutant
"The old bandstand stood empty, the equestrian statue of the turbulent Huerta rode under the nutant trees wild-eyed evermore..."
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word meed
"Alas, but why have I not pretended at least that I had read them, accepted some meed of retraction in the fact that they were sent?"
- Lowry, Under the Volcano
June 25, 2011
yarb commented on the word pharyngemphraxis
I do worry about this. I have pharyngemphranxiety.
June 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word naked hiking day
Is it true that the longer you bear navel oranges, the more your bare navel oranges?
June 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word naked hiking day
I'd worry that a snack pack may invalidate my nakedness.
June 24, 2011
yarb commented on the word Herxheimer's reaction
Here's my reaction to Herxheimer's reaction:
"Up at Herk-Heimer Falls, where the great river rushes
And crashes down crags in great gurgling gushes,
The Herk-Heimer Sisters are using their brushes.
Those falls are just grand for tooth-brushing beneath
If you happen to be up that way with your teeth."
- Dr Seuss, The Sleep Book
June 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word ner ner ni ner ner
I'll pronounce it as soon as I have a private moment.
My office is relatively secluded, but I wouldn't want the receptionist, who sits not far away, to think I was taunting her.
June 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word ner ner ni ner ner
A taunting sound.
June 23, 2011
yarb commented on the word ner
Yes indeed: as in ner ner ni ner ner.
June 23, 2011
yarb commented on the list animals-with-their-own-paper
We have a book made from elephant dung paper at home. It's one of those books that lie around the house and no one's sure where they came from. I wouldn't call it a classic. Nice texture though.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word doggelganger
Wow! I'm Kylie, a 4 month-old mongrel from Auckland.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word erump
C.f. erumpent.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word rubymeated
Yes, particularly disturbing/arresting are compounds like meathead, meatball, meatpuppet.
And I agree about fleisch, too - sounds like the noise of meat being processed.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word naked hiking day
I want to combine the two.
June 22, 2011
yarb commented on the word strangely orange snack appreciation day
I missed this 12 months ago.
*opens bag of cheez-its*
June 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word AKA
Aka is not aka i.e, i.e. i.e isn't aka aka.
In the sense quoted by billprice, referring to a simple subject or object, aka works fine. But in the broader sense of "i.e." ("that is to say..." referring to a proposition or conclusion) - a "thought" rather than a "thing" - aka is no alternative.
Better, then, to stick to aka's original meaning, i.e. alias.
June 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word Ralph Waldo Emerson on Jane Austen
+1
June 21, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
Down with tweets and images on the comments page!
I would also like to see displayed, along with each list a word appears in, the owner of that list.
June 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Robert Louis Stevenson on Walt Whitman
Arf! That's superb!
June 20, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
I like the new look and feel a lot and it seems pretty user-friendly to me.
I've only one beef, but it's a big one - a whole raw steer in fact. I hate the in-your-faceness of the Twitter feeds next to the comments. The tweets are almost always irrelevant, usually moronic, often misspellings or typos, frequently obscene and occasionally offensive, so couldn't they be hidden behind a button somewhere instead of staring us in the face?
Sionnach said somewhere that he sees Wordnik as something of a haven from the turpitude of the internet in general, and it's the same for me. If I want to dip my toe in the cesspool, I can find my own way to Twitter or Youtube, but please don't pipe it onto Wordnik's wonderful comment pages!
Again, considering this is a fairly radical redesign, I'm pleased and impressed. Thank you all for taking such good care of the site and for feeling the same way I do about words - there's nowhere remotely like Wordnik.
June 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list sugarysweetland
Wow! Yes, epic list.
June 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word Vox Clamantis
I always get this mixed up with Mott's Clamato.
June 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word plinth
Nice. Did you stand on the plinth for a while?
June 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word disbursement
Right.
June 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word clvngodess
It must be Welsh.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list bonebreakers-and-mother-in-law-killers
I knew a bloke in Chile who was called el mataburros by his friends on account of his reckless driving and history of accidents on a particular behairpinned mountain road.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word pyemesis
Who ate all the pyes?
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word machubchub
See comment on cwm. Apparently an Amharic verb, to swish water around in the mouth.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word cwm
I love machubchub!
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word Peirce
That's what comes of studying Uranus.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word least-favorite
Someone should at least favorite this.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the user mikeoregon
Hi Mike! I was just in Oregon on vacation. What a great state!
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word rort
It's not one of those Aussie-cliché words which everyone knows are Australian. But that only goes to strengthen its status as a true Australianism (and New Zealandism, baaaa!)
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word rort
Well, I've reinstalled my dickey OED and it's not much help. Apparently it's a back-formation from rorty, adj. (also raughty) "of dubious propriety" (among other senses) which is of course "of obscure origin" (OED-speak for "sorry we haven't a clue").
The only usages it gives of the verb form are as gerunds - rorting used as a noun.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word rort
I can't remember the last time I encountered an Australianism that was totally new to me, like this. I quite often run into regional American slang with which I'm unfamiliar, and it's always exciting when I do, but as a Brit I always identified more closely with Australians (and hence their lingo) than with Americans.
Would love to know the etymology of rort. I bet it's some weird Gaelic thing; that would explain why it's so strange to me.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word rort
Usage by bilby on red or green.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word red or green
Well, rort is entirely new to me! Thanks cobber.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word red or green
If I could only have one or the other: green.
June 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word an ape with angel glands
Angels have glands?
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word pronephric
And give it someone you love in a cheap vase.
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word pronephric
Picalilli.
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word does a dog have Buddha-nature or not
I do sometimes wonder how all these zen jokes have stood the test of time.
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word pronephric
Because he ate with relish the inner organs of annelid worms?
June 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word fitfall
Erm..
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word radish
I've picked a few picayune specimens already, or rather my kids have. And yesterday we had our first strawberry, surprisingly red after a soggy spring.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word shank
Shank you very much for shat, bilby.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the user madmouth
I was just wondering about that the other day. I work downtown so I can drink coffee, eat sushi, and all manner of other things pretty much whenever I want. My email's on my librarything profile.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word shank
Not just your personal definition. A mishit in a ball game - football, tennis, golf - is a pretty widespread meaning of shank.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
I agree there is a case to be made for the leek.
As for the onion, I believe I'm on record as saying it's my favourite vegetable, and I will champion it in any debate touching on the vegetable universe. And it certainly conveys its dignity (rotundity and hue, remember?) until you cut (or bite) into it, and it assails you with that sweet, stinging prickly perfume and bleeds its pungent juices all over your hard-bitten fingertips... I love it and it may look dignified, but inside it's a punk.
June 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word moresome
Well I've heard of moreish, but this is a new one to me. I think I prefer this one.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-former-island-of-urk
Delightful!
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word ignatius loyola
Ignatius Loyola
would probably have been an ambassador for Coca-Cola
had he been alive today -
but God called him away.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word joan of arc
Joan of Arc
thought "what a lark
talking directly to God is!"
as she dodged the dead bodies.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word joan of arc
That's a good one, sionnach.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word saint francis of assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi
was very fond of geese. He
loved animals not a little. He
ended up being the patron saint of Italy.
June 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list dying-arts
Brilliant, favourited, and all the other nice things people say about lists on wordnik!
June 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word orogeny
(some html is allowed)June 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word orogeny
Definitely belongs on a "sounds filthy" list.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word orogeny
- Ian Vince, Britain's Historic Past, in guardian.co.uk, 26-5-11.June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
Bruce Willis?
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word I dislike ampersands
I also approve this message, milos.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word sertanista
Presumably from Portuguese sertão, wilderness.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word plinth
I'm sorry that sionnach's excellent conversation-starter dropped dead in the water "almost 2 years ago".
I'd make rude gestures in a languid fashion.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
Kohlrabi and baby okra may indeed be teh alsome, but they aren't dignified!
Beets are a contender I suppose, as would be most of the sturdier roots, but if it's a combination of brilliance and rotundity you're after then you're going to be running up hard against the majestic pumpkin.
June 10, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
I think the sporting adage "form is temporary, class is permanent" applies. If we're going to speak of dignified vegetables then the dignity must be enduring, not merely a passing fad or foible.
Although I don't especially like the taste of them, I do find artichokes especially dignified. They have such stability, and also a sort of primness about them, like a maiden aunt in a great skirt (although like all vegetables, they yield readily to a salacious reading).
June 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word professor von schmartzenpanz
On closer reading, it's not the Prof who's stopped up.
That's a relief!
June 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word We must restore the dignity of this vegetable!
Always insist on a sheathed cuke.
June 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word professor von schmartzenpanz
"...a tall, stopped man..."
I'm sorry to hear about the Prof's internal congestion. No doubt D van der P is somehow behind this.
June 9, 2011
yarb commented on the list memories-of-hk
That's why you're so necessary - you're like a bot crawling wordnik for good stuff.
And I mean that in a good way - some of my best friends are bots.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word cornball
O cornball ye faithful?
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word cornball
Ridiculous. Every potential wordie list, etc.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word cornball
Can't believe hernesheir or ruzuzu hasn't included this on some panoptical corn-themed list.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the list extended-ipa-letters
First class froggery.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word full online keyboard
I'll save you the trouble and bracket red tube-wanking homies for you, shall I madmouth?
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word nutmeg
Typically accomplished with an exultant cry of "nuts!" or "megs!" from the successful party.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word menfauxpause
I quite agree rolig; it's your last objection that really makes this word an utter failure. You can't just stitch together any two words and have a witty portmanteau - there has to be a verbal vetting, too.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the list memories-of-hk
Thanks for alerting me to so many exquisite lists, ruzuzu. Your *favorited* is truly a wordnik kitemark.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word toroidal group motion
Citation on klinotaxis.
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word klinotaxis
June 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word I once ran over a baby crocodile with my bicycle
Probably no harm done if it was just the once?
June 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word autogarphing
The World According to Garp Hing?
June 6, 2011
yarb commented on the list the-red-ink-ran-dry
In my (library) copy of Simplicissimus, tr. Mike Mitchell, the word gaol was repeatedly given as goal.
June 6, 2011
yarb commented on the list spelling-bee-final-round
Bloody hell, what a list! I think I could more or less define 10 of these, and probably spell about 15-20.
June 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word hemorrhoid cream puffs
Treatable with a preparation h bomb.
May 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word molotov cocktail waitress
After days of deliberation, I've decided this is my favourite STF (or at least the one I most want on a mug - I was very fond of athlete's foot fetish as well, not to mention hemorrhoid cream puffs).
May 20, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
For sure Duffel van der P's comments were coming with the notification emails until about a week ago - now I have to actually look at the list to get my daily fix, which sort of makes the emails redundant.
May 20, 2011
yarb commented on the list first-lists
I discovered Wordie while browsing the "also on" drop-down list on Librarything. The first word I listed, and still one of my favourites, was donkeyman, which I'd found in a novel not long before. My second might have been poopyhead.
May 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word weimaraner
Potential Wordnik tagline alert!
May 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
Yes, I've no doubt you'd be well into "follow-through" territory with that...
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
Simultaneous pouting and snorting, that is. Not pea coffee.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
The last time I tried that, I farted.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
I was only joking. Although it certainly is uncannily spammish.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word pea coffee
SPAM.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
Thanks prol, I noticed it as soon as I logged in this a.m!
I've also noticed in the last few days that the explanatory comments posted with each wotd are no longer showing on the notification emails.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
How do I see a list of word-of-the-day lists? Is there some central place from where I can access them?
I just can't get to grips with the feature, feel like I'm missing something obvious.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the list how-to-make-a-facebook-game
dope wars is the only one here that I've played - it's a classic from pre-Facebook days.
May 19, 2011
yarb commented on the list first-lists
I'm sure you used to be able to view a given Wordnik's activity, i.e. everything they've done, listing, commenting, favouriting, tagging etc., and click through back to the very beginning. But now I can't find it.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word giblich
Despite having a name like a Lovecraftian horror.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word giblich
I wonder what a giblich looks like. It's probably cute.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list torture
I did a "first words" list here which is quite revealing, I think.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-clouds-do
Adorable.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word Tim Tam
Was that a listed side-effect? If not, you should certainly sue.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word stale
Presumably the same as stile in the sense of hurdle.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word shufti
Most often in the construction "have a shufti". Proper slang though, strictly verbal.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word stang
(unicode & # 3 8 3 ;) (minus the spaces)
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word stang
Pray replace your f's with long eſſes!
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list torture
iron maiden? brazen bull? Those may be straying into the realm of execution, I suppose. Still, there's an extensive grey area.
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word very
Very interesting.
But I think the reason that employing very is often seen as poor style is not that it fails to convey what is meant, but that it does so abstractly, by - *flicks through Creative Writing 101 Textbook* - telling instead of showing. Better to say that reesetee's desk is large enough to accommodate a nine-hole golf course than simply to say that it is very large.
Also perhaps because it's prone to overuse. However I do like it in its older sense of genuinely, verily: the "very gentil parfait knight".
May 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list masthead-staples
picayune!
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the list three-wishes
Fun list!
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, and jam today
See jam tomorrow.
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word witchwich
Bread, witch, bread. Pickles optional.
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word whitwitch
I suppose that would be a witchwich.
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word whitwitch
A witch sandwich?
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word wet dog
Well, that's a matter of preference. But whether it smells good to you or not, surely you'll admit that it smells better than it tastes.
May 17, 2011
yarb commented on the word deciding not to read that Wisława Szymborska poem
It's not a bad poem, but it ends too soon.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word deciding not to read that Wisława Szymborska poem
What were the poems about numbers, zuze?
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word whilst
Yes, definitely rolig. I would be very surprised to hear whilst used in normal speech by someone under the age of 35, and in a young person it does sound quite plummy and public school, that is if it's not an obvious affectation. However - and the more I think about this the less certain I am - it's the sort of word you also hear on the lips of working-class pensioners in pubs - especially, and here it gets bizarre, old women.
So there you go, unreliable anecodtalism at its finest from someone who hasn't lived in the UK for seven years.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the user Wordplayer
Yes, quite an honour! I had never heard of a spelling bee until after I left school , and I bitterly regret not being able to take part in one. They look like fun.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word calin
Ha! Love the "apparently" in CD's defintion.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word planking
I had a suspicion I might not be first to this gem.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word plank
"'This morning we have seen a young man take this activity a step further and attempt to plank on a balcony. Unfortunately he has tragically fallen to his death,' Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett told reporters.
The man and another person had been out during the night and were planking in various locations on their way home."
- Yahoo! News, 15-5-11.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word whilst
Speaking as a subject of Her Majesty, I can confirm that whilst, amongst and amidst are in common use in speech and informal writing, although in all three cases I think the non -st forms predominate.
Personally I don't like and never use whilst; the other two I'm neutral on and cannot with certainty deny that they occasionally pass my lips.
Actually, on reflection, I think I prefer amidst to amid, but among to amongst - purely arbitrary I suppose.
May 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word writer's block
In answer to oroboros's original question, and forgive me the tardy response: no. She should persevere and pay no heed to the neighsayers.
May 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word nipplewort
Did you milk it?
May 9, 2011
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
Hurrah! Now add 119 favourites, 81 lists - or better still, 181, and preferably 67 pronunciations before you comment again - but I'm sure you can do that in the next 12 hours or so. You are unhesitatingly the mainstay of Wordnik, and that makes you a mainstay of my mind.
May 9, 2011
yarb commented on the user yarb
Visiting the parentals in North Wales with pitstops in London at either end.
May 8, 2011
yarb commented on the user yarb
Hurrah! Now I'm treating myself to a well=deserved vacation (really: I'm in the UK this week).
May 7, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
protean seemed appropriate for an actor - though in hindsight not as appropriate as playful.
Would like to hear the five accents pronouncing professor von schmartzenpanz.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I knew Century Dictionary (for some reason I'm loath to abbreviate this) would be your downfall, ruzuzu. I do like a game of scrabble although I'm long out of practice.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
For what it's worth, I chose od because I like it and I thought short words would be in short supply.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Yes he did. And playful is another one I'm kicking myself over (I'm kicking my knees, in case you were wondering). Too clever by half. A bit like froggo's stripper in the last one.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word halbard
Usually halberd, I think.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Ruzuzu, I'll take the mug if you'll accept the
Sisyphean taskprivilege of masterminding the next edition a year hence. Incidentally it was the looniness that gave your lunette away to me.And I can't believe I didn't get distingue! Shoddy lapse.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I assumed a mortsafe was one of the many tools frogapplause uses to create frogapplause.
May 5, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I've just realised that in true Eurovision-fashion, the winner of ID the 'nik is required to compere the next installment. Because this daunting challenge outweighs the allure of the mug, and because it would certainly prolong the
agonyentertainment, I am happy to continue with a playoff.May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
*investigates emergency sources of umbrage*
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I mean the playoffs would be fun but I'm not giving up on that mug without exhausting every legal avenue first.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
But hernesheir didn't get credit for his own word.
Recount please!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Hang on a minute. As far as I can see, 'zuzu got these right: blafferty, erinmckean, fbharjo, frindley, PossibleUnderscore, seanahan, wordnicolina. It's seven, no?
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I demand a recount. *lawyers up*
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I call shenanigans! Surely 'zuzu only has seven correct?!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Not so fast, ruzuzu!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
I think I agree about espresso.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
It's squeaky bum time.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
I like the taste of coffee, but the smell is better. I'm really struggling to think of things that taste better than they smell. Beer, maybe. Wine, sometimes. And some relatively odourless foods like confectionary... but there isn't much.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
sinistral was a tough one to assign; there were four or five possibilities.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
*applauds*
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
That doesn't mean I'll scoff anything with a 'c' and an 'l' in it.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
This is exciting isn't it? It's like Eurovision, as sionnach says, with all the high camp and none of the Balkanised political skulduggery.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I just looked up calepin.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
But no, I've never tasted celery.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Hork! The Herald Angels Sing
Excellent.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word symphony horkestra
Good one.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
Depends what you mean by "taste".
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list things-that-smell-better-than-they-taste
Practically everything smells better than it tastes.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word you're something of a horkdog, aren't you
A connection made by prolagus on that very page!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Odds of at least one correct at random please, sionnach?
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Oooh! That is frankly embarrassing.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word will hork for food
Brilliant!
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Is there a list for hork-puns? If not, should there be?
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
horking
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I was suspicious of tear-resistant but it was a case of following the herd. I'd rather be wrong and have company than right and lonely.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word stepped on a little frog
I never stepped on a frog but when I was a about the same age I joined a friend in placing worms on our bike chains and spinning the cranks.
Disgusting I know - what a way to foul up your drivetrain.
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word address
lol - that sionnach, always making a fool of himself
May 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word address
wtf
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word bumblepuppy
"Playing bumble-puppy with Minnie Beebe, niece to the rector, and aged thirteen--an ancient and most honourable game, which consists in striking tennis-balls high into the air, so that they fall over the net and immoderately bounce; some hit Mrs. Honeychurch; others are lost. The sentence is confused, but the better illustrates Lucy's state of mind, for she was trying to talk to Mr. Beebe at the same time."
- E.M. Forster, A Room With a View
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word hurt-bush
Citation on last.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word last
"He praised the pine-woods, the deep lasts of bracken, the crimson leaves that spotted the hurt-bushes, the serviceable beauty of the turnpike road."
- E.M. Forster, A Room With a View
I'm struggling to find the sense of last being used here.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the user sionnach
It's bloody terrifying.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word Thank you, Ruzuzu
Citation on country frolics.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word country frolics
Wonderful. It has all the innocent bucolic lubricity of Nabokov's Ada, with none of the emotional constipation. Thank you, Ruzuzu.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word 227
I tried to at the time, but couldn't access it for some reason. Could you supply?
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word sexy prime triplet
For example, 227, 233 and 239.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word Abbottabad
Definitely up there with WTM!
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word 227
Thanks for the sexy prime triplet.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Ha ha! I had sionnach as boggy due to a tenuous Irish - "bog Irish" connection (not that he is any such thing - purely a semantic connection)...
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
First thing I did was try to identify the seven (c)red-herrings, i.e. the seven words I thought most likely to have been thrown into the mix by gangerh.
Then there were two or three match-ups that I was certain of, so I filled those in. Then it was a case of eliminating all the "no-way!" combinations and seeing what was left that worked. I also took account of other people's choices, going with the mass of opinion in a couple of cases where I might otherwise have chosen differently.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word colepixy
Ha! Another classic Century Dictionary moment.
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word unsigmatic
Or, bizarrely to me, strong aorist. I suppose it's "strong" because it doesn't need the sigmatic crutch?
May 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word urzuzu
I read that as an x-ray of a bowl of red grapes sitting on his foot.
May 2, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Based on ruzuzu's late change, I've made two of my own.
May 2, 2011
yarb commented on the word kallisti
Yep, dative (i.e. for, to) singular feminine superlative of An. Gk for dessert.
May 1, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
I would like a way to mass-import Ruzuzu's favourite words into my own favourites list.
How about mass-pilfering tools in general - for lists, I mean? A tool that lets you copy the contents of one list, whether yours or someone else's, straight over to another one.
April 28, 2011
yarb commented on the list best-cheeses
You have good taste in cheese.
Wait... Laughing Cow?!
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word ample bosom buddies
Breast friends.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word Cockaigne
*Only the phoney... know the way I feel tonight...*
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word gorm
A valuable commodity in "Identify the Wordienik".
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Change my ming? Right, I'll change my ming to "mind".
blafferty, alas no. Some people just like to be helpful.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I'm putting this up here but will probably change my ming at some point:
bilby -- slopseller
blafferty -- ascian
chained_bear -- mediæval
dontcry -- tear-resistant
erinmckean -- calepinerienne
fbharjo -- chrestomatic
frindley -- alexis
frogapplause -- mortsafe
gangerh -- emordnilap
hernesheir -- hidelugged
mollusque -- systematic
oroboros -- protean
PossibleUnderscore -- balsamaceous
Prolagus -- harlequin
pterodactyl -- present
reesetee -- sinistral
ruzuzu -- lunette
seanahan -- prodigal
sionnach -- boggy
Wordnicolina -- greenhorn
Wordplayer -- playful
yarb -- wodge
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I'm also having trouble with hernesheir.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Trickiest wordniks to identify: fbharjo and prolagus.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word perp walk
If a police officer sits the suspect down beforehand and assures him that everything will be fine, is that a pre-perp walk pep-talk?
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Not much love for alexis, I notice.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
Or like Masterblaster from "Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome".
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
The mind/body duality made flesh.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
No wait. bilby's breadfruit vendor.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
Noam Chomsky?
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
Perhaps he felt intimidated by Ray Mears.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-to-jail--go-directly-to-jail
No need for get-out-of-jail-free cards: I put MacGyver in there with you.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word Cockaigne
Only if it's phoney.
April 27, 2011
yarb commented on the word dor
I'd like a full lexicon of the spicular elements of sponges, so that I can incorporate as much of it as possible in a sonnet.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Just noticed prolagus also provided a spreadsheet - well, there's another one for "systematic", ha ha. Thank you also, p, though I went with the first one I saw.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word rubber
Amusing about rubber launching her, though. Brings to mind ballistics. Wheeee!
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word rubber
I assume it's referring to cash crops?
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word hotch
The novel that is, not just the citation.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word hotch
"At certain times of the year, particularly after the rainy season, they velvet mites'>velvet mites proliferated, and the grass around our house hotched with them."
- William Boyd, Memories of the Sausage Fly (collected in Bamboo).
Reading that Lanark citation from two years ago makes me want to go back and read it again.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word tenalach
Literally?!
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word eructation
I like wiktionary's erumpent blast and earthy depths as well. Well done wiktionary!
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Thanks blafferty for the spreadsheet, saved me some toil there. I used to love those logic puzzles when I was a kid.
I intend to cogitate for as long as I'm allowed, because this is a real noggin-botherer - as the attempts at guessing my word so far suggest.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word fraureichtgebahr
A recipe for disaster in my experience.
April 26, 2011
yarb commented on the word cat-harping
Pure joy.
April 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word ludicrosity
I agree with duckbill on this one. Ludicrosity makes me cross-eyed.
April 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word baconalia
You could have called the child Ham-let.
April 21, 2011
yarb commented on the word kizzz
Cute!
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word baconalia
Ha ha!
Wordnik is all about the comedy today.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word baconalia
Ha ha! Love the wine/swine pun! I've been to Denny's only once, while my wife was giving birth to our second kid, and it was crap, but this ad has convinced me to try again.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Nitinol
Ha ha!
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Nitinol
I want a bike made out of this.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Babbitt
Just because it rhymes, I suspect.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word Babbitt
Undoubtedly John Cabot, the discoverer of Newfoundland.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word wax-paper
Good morning, dontcry.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word niveous
Is it closer to white, or brown?
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word gasometer
Prescriptivism... bloody hell. *shakes head*
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word fetch
Or a sloth. No, you want something dynamic for your fetch. I'm glad mine's a pigeon.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word gasometer
Honestly, all this guff about "word-making". As if English was cold-forged by some mythical Wayland Wordsmith in a halcyon age of morphological innocence.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word fetch
I haven't read those books (yet), but the idea is a very old one.
.Wouldn't it suck if your fetch was a sheep or something.
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word gasometer
Bad Greek, but perfectly good English!
April 20, 2011
yarb commented on the word hippocracy
Rule by horses.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word manege
triage?
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word sidekick
It certainly is a rip-snorter of a word.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word centre
I think so.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word typosquatters
You see this "fake word" allegation from time to time. How is it possible to have a fake word?
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word front the money
Yeah, I've heard both front and put up used with both cash and money in both the UK and North America. Not sure there's much of a regional distinction here.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word queer as Dick's hatband
I remember my Grandfather saying this!
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word gout
Thanks!
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word paludious
This one's nice and obscure.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word outdacious
Meaning wot?
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word noogie
When I was at school we called this a donkey scrub.
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the word centre
My guess is it was one of the spellings regularized by Webster - it would have come into English from French, presumably, hence originally "-re".
April 19, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
No, I don't think it does. But there are certainly two distinct kinds of nostalgia: a personal one, and a more communal one, perhaps harking back to a supposed golden age, a traditional culture or just an earlier way of life, all of which could date from hundreds or thousands of years ago. This I suppose is what benw is trying to identify.
For example, I sometimes feel a pang of nostalgia for the Cretaceous.
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
benw - interesting. I don't know the answer but I'll say this: nostalgia ain't what it used to be.
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Thanks for pristinity, moll - another good offering, but to me at least pristine implies not only unbroken, virgin, but also perfectly clean and uncontaminated. In the end I just went with unbrokenness - it was not important anyway, just a lame comment on a blog.
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word unhood
Definition: the state of being un; not being something.
(yoinkage paid)
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word unhood
*double yoink*
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word typosquatters
damn, you, arby!
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word in all my born days
"I'd been plugging away for many hours when there came a sound I'd never heard the like of in my born days. Eh, I won't forget that."
- C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian
(am reading it to my daughter)
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the word gout
Nice citation! What was the work?
April 18, 2011
yarb commented on the user writer723
Hi writer - just to let you know there's no need to leave definitions on common words, since there are multiple dictionary definitions accessible under the "definitions" section of each word's page (top left).
April 17, 2011
yarb commented on the list cause-and-effect
To quote ruzuzu - *favourited*
April 16, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Is that a slight, moll?
Thanks, integrity is the best suggestion yet. It's slightly diluted by its ethical connotation, which I would say is dominant, but it might be as close as I'm going to get.
April 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word mollusque baugh
*slurps on caesar*
April 16, 2011
yarb commented on the word TP-82
Awesome - talk about killing two birds with one stone!
April 16, 2011
yarb commented on the list recently-sniffed
Our house is small, and garageless, so I have to keep my bikes in a windowless storage room upstairs. The room smells unmistakeably of bike - I suppose it must be a blend of grease, rubber and (to my shame) dirt.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
That sounds like just the tool I need for raking the pebbles from my brook!
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
I appreciate your efforts ruzuzu, ineffectual as they are.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
??
CD has a bunch of adjectival and verbal senses listed under "noun" - but it's not a noun. And anyway, by far the stronger meaning is "healthy, fit, sprightly".
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Nah, I need a noun. Like "unbrokenness", but not so awkward.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word Financial Firm Ltd.
Ha ha. It's like they used a spam template and forgot to change the placeholders.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Is there an abstract noun meaning "the state of being intact, of being not yet broken"? Basically, "intactness"?
"Wholeness" and "completeness" won't do, because they connote quantity.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the list places-that-sound-great
Thanks for the plug 'jo, tho' that list is really more yours than mine! Don't think I haven't noticed and marvelled at your ongoing additions to it.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word also
Yeah, I've heard a few people use it like that. It's not a regional thing as far as I'm aware, more like an affectation.
April 15, 2011
yarb commented on the word Brogan
Something needs to be done about people looking up capitalized words and then complaining when the usage examples relate to proper nouns (or "proper names"). There needs to be some way of informing people that wordnik is case-sensitive, or else someone needs to review the obliviots and cull them.
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word acid-wash denim
I always thought they employed professional jeans-wearers to wear the jeans until they acquired that "distressed" look.
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the list verbs-that-are-better-for-me-than-other-verbs
Nice list!
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word coriander
All too often while shopping for groceries, I find myself plunging my face into the biggest bunch of coriander I can find and inhaling until my lungs are swollen with the vivifying, coppery, earthy fragrance.
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
(Not that I'd ever presume to speak for ruzuzu).
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the user ruzuzu
Recommend? I would insist upon it!
April 14, 2011
yarb commented on the word Ghazi
*facepalm*
April 13, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
How long have I to think of a word, g-love?
April 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word brimful of hellcat fury
Brillliant!
April 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word park the bus
I first heard this used by José Mourinho when he was at Chelsea.
"As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal. I would have been frustrated if I had been a supporter who paid £50 to watch this game because Spurs came to defend. There was only one team looking to win, they only came not to concede - it's not fair for the football we played."
- Mourinho, September 2004.
April 13, 2011
yarb commented on the word perfect
You're looking at a list of definitions, not synonyms. And yes, I can actually imagine exclaiming "Oh! Bisexual!" every time something is perfect. I think it would be funny - although I'm sure the novelty would wear off.
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Fabulous prize. I'm extra motivated this time.
Are you going to throw in a few red herrings, too?
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list musical-titles-in-translation
Reminds me of Gavin Ewart's semantic limericks.
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word country frolics
I think I might have got it mixed up with Shakespeare's "country matters".
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the word country frolics
I honestly thought this was a euphemism for houghmagandy, or at least Ugandan discussions.
April 12, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-fug-yourself
Sorry, I meant which, not what.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-fug-yourself
Precisely, madam.
So - what blog are these quotes from?
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word unprepared for ID the Wordienik
Is there some sort of preparatory regimen we should be doing? If so, I share your secret.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word vague rainbow colors of anxiety
Reminds me of that great Hotel Hallways blog, now sadly defunct.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word scintillation
CD getting cosmic on our asses.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-fug-yourself
No need to be rude.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list go-fug-yourself
Which blog?
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word lapsana
*throws away porn collection, grabs musty old copy of CD*
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word professor von schmartzenpanz
No, I don't want worts on my nipples, thank you.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word titin
There is an even shorter form: spam.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word yonks ago
yonks
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word when I were a lad
yonks ago
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word alehouse
Yes, we used to use this jocularly when I were a lad.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word vague rainbow colors of anxiety
So no more "the current threat level is orange"?!
Airports won't be the same.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word totology
Toto - small, black, and a dog, is, in toto, a small black dog.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word patchwork madras
Sounds ghastly. I'd rather be turned into a newt.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word awesome
Tua can play at that game!
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word unknots
Bilby!
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word aam
How much, pray?
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sacks spiral
Sort of butt-like.
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list pigment-of-your-imagination
Hope you don't mind my adding blue (a mixture of black and blue).
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the list pigment-of-your-imagination
Fantastic idea for a list!
April 11, 2011
yarb commented on the word water-pump
*heads for bar*
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the user reesetee
I mean Wordnik...
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the user reesetee
Yeah, nut yourself reesetee! If you will insist on doing the life thing, then you're going to have this problem on Wordie.
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word water-pump
You should do stand-up, ruzuzu.
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word decorticated
I read a novel recently - "An Ice-Cream War" by William Boyd - which features an entrepreneurial sisal farmer whose prized possession is his mighty mechanised decorticator.
And now this!
April 9, 2011
yarb commented on the word rose hip
What sort of cup do you use for your jelly?
April 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word cup
Looking forward to being pleasantly cup in about nine hours' time.
April 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word brieve
Worthy of a dedicated list.
April 7, 2011
yarb commented on the list test--29
Well, I think it's a very nice test.
April 7, 2011
yarb commented on the word hugger-mugger
If this word comes from Irish Gaelic then I'm a Dutchman's uncle.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word omen
Plural of Oman.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word sarlacc
Not sure he needed the "slowly", though.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word sarlacc
Threepio waxes lyrical!
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word soy
My favourite scene from all the Star Wars movies.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word debt
Well done, now work on the other 'd' words. You will notice they also differ from each other.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word starshine
Hmm. I can't say I felt ravished by Proust.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word soy
stout... erect... stem... hairs... sauce... oil expressed... residue... fertilze(r)...
Century dick-tionary.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word loosies
Cigarettes used to be sold singly by many corner shops in England in the 80's. Of course the biggest customers were kids.
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word carnal
I'm carnal and proud!
April 6, 2011
yarb commented on the word moran
Harrrr!
April 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word moran
I didn't know you were married, sionnach.
April 5, 2011
yarb commented on the user wkaren77
Got any SPAM lightening tips?
April 5, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sansculottide
...and why they spent all that time sitting around in cafes instead of standing proudly at the bar like ordinary folk.
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sansculottide
Yes, that's the idea. Ou sont les culottes d'antan?
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sansculottide
True, but you have to have had pants - or the idea of pants - to be without them. It's very French actually, being and nothingness and all that palaver.
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word Sansculottide
Wasn't there a "panvocalic pants" list somewhere?
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word kitchy
Spelled kitschy.
April 4, 2011
yarb commented on the word stake
I'm still totally baffled about stake.
North American sports reporting has countless weird synonyms for score.
April 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word stake
Ha!
Obviously it's out of context, but translation: Bunbury (a player) scored for Kansas City, giving them a 1-0 lead over the Whitecaps.
It was a cracking game - wish I hadn't turned the T.V. off with 25 minutes to go and the 'caps down 3-0. They ended up drawing 3-3 with two goals in stoppage time.
April 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word stake
"Bunbury staked Kansas City to a 1-0 lead in first-half stoppage time."
- Whitecaps stage amazing comeback to salvage tie, cbcsports.ca, 2-4-11.
April 3, 2011
yarb commented on the word quellazaire
Well, this is enticingly exotic - where's it from?
April 3, 2011
yarb commented on the user feedback
The community, p? Why, it's nothing but a mess of squirrel headed nubbins that all hell couldn't shuck.
April 1, 2011
yarb commented on the word a mess of squirrel headed nubbins that all hell couldn't shuck
It should be the site tagline.
April 1, 2011
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