But surely herpetology is amphibians. Would the study of mongeeses be herpestology? And what would a herpest be? A venereal disease causing sharp teeth, appetite for cobra egg, and a predilection for saying "rkchkchkchkchkchkchkchk!" in the traverse 'tween bed and bathtub?
Haitches shouldn't count 'less you actually say them. Four graphemes is not nearly so impressive as four phonemes. See also გვფრცქვნი - having eight rather than nine, incidentally.
Beginning a recent final descent some steward observed over the PA "The captain has illuminated the fasten-seatbelt sign..." For some reason I heard eliminated and spent most of the balance of the flight imagining various possible violent means of sign elimination by captains before I realized elimination of a sign didn't jive with turning it on.
Used by a flight desk flunky at the airport the other day (not MKE this time!) for "miss a connection". I nearly misconnected in Denver but fortunately made it to the gate just in time.
Spotted this in the Milwaukee airport tonight -- a large sign designated a number of tables past the security scanners as the "Recombobulation Area". I wonder who the clever logophile was who coined this, and the significance of the tacit admission that the whole rigmarole of airport security is indeed discombobulating.
The crazy thing is, I'm fluent in this stuff now, after having been here for so long. სულ თავისუფლად ვლაპარაკობ ქართულ ენას... never would have guessed, after making this list after the 1st trip those many years ago. მიყვარხარ საქართველო!
M. Gandhi uses this word frequently in the sense of "legume" in his autobiography "The Story of My Experiments With Truth". Confused the heck out of me.
Edit: forgot Piglet (of course) and the sneezing baby in Alice. Wiki suggests Lord of the Flies, which is a good one. That's more or less all I can call to mind from literature at least.
Really fascinating to observe the complete changeover in meaning of this word in the past century, from geography and botany to hygiene. The full sets of definitions by American Heritage and Century have almost no overlap. It would be very interesting to trace the semantic shifts more carefully, but at the moment all I can observe is (a) there used to be a mill on one of them and (b) TMItter.
Perhaps I've been *severely* overly influenced by Spanish ocupar. Now that I mention this fact to the world it might also only exist in certain dialects. Funny how I was so sure it was valid in English too.
Here's a hint: the differences in meaning between λόγος and νόμος are excellently explained by exact parallel between the English words astrologer and astronomer. I'm assuming of course you know "aster" means "star".
Mt'redi: sticking with the theme begun at columbarium. Means "dove". Always kind of liked this word. There's also a town called სამტდრედია, Samt'redia, kind of "the place where doves are, which town has always amused me. Occupy სამტდრედია!
Is this canned as in like canned like Spam or canned as in like canned like WD-40? Or does it all come in watering cans? Have you a Zans for Cans? You should.
Just learnt the highly surprising but etymological no-brainer sense of dovecot(e) the other day from "Waverly". Century #2 is helpful as always in elucidation of "why the heck".
I was going to come here to report A VERY PERSISTENT BUG THAT HAD BEEN ANNOYING ME OVER THE LAST THREE MONTHS. Namely that when I went to a word's page and saw my list of lists there, I would want to right-click on the name of a list and open it, and see my list! როგორც we kinda used to be able to a long long time ago in prehistory. PAGE NOT FOUND, the hell what is this PAGE NOT FOUND. But now I just realised that oops, what actually that LINK is for is it is a LINK to add said word to a LIST (and I accidentally added sherbet to a list just now, to prove it, on a list it doesn't belong in, but I'm leaving it anyway). So no wonder PAGE NOT FOUND when I try to open in new window. The hell. So it's not an ANNOYING BUG, just my stupidity. In this case, instead of reporting this ANNOYING BUG can I very *humbly* ask that maybe I can have some way to link to my lists from a word page? როგორც kinda how we used to. Not exactly, 'cause it wasn't ALL our lists, but some, anyway, well, anyway, it was on the same spot on the screen and I'm a fogey and an old one at that and it doesn't work the way როგორც it kinda used to, kinda. And while I'm at it I want a wittle scrollie bar for long comments like this 'un. 'Cause the beginning of my comment is afraid of the dark and I want to be able to see it when I want, without futzing about with arrow keys, the hell. როგორც kinda we used to, maybe, 'cause I can't remember that far back anymore. Maybe there wasn't a wittle scrollie bar and the wittle comment box just enlargenified. Yeah, prob'ly that was it. Guess which book I'm reading? No, don't.
Yeah, you call that catching a crab. It doesn't always throw you out of the boat (a bad one at high speed will) but it's kind of painful and not exactly great for race momentum.
In a few days' time I'll be taking a vacation from საქართველო to schmooze through the Netherlands for two weeks. This includes a day's stop at the wonderfully named city of 's-Hertogenbosch, or Den Bosch, pretty much solely for this reason. It's such an amazing idea I can't believe I've never heard of it before.
I find this adjective very interesting in terms of its connotational semantics. Part of a religious upbringing set Century #4 as the chief definition in my mind, thus establishing it as a negative adjective; but most instances I hear nowadays are along the lines of American Heritage #2, a generally positive attribution. Nevertheless I retain a negative impression on hearing this word and have to artificially remember its positive use.
I saw the use of this as a synonym for yearn, pine. Dictionaries here say it's all right but it still seems a misusage to me -- I've never seen it contextually thus in any real author. Can someone contradict?
"There was a sad and melancholy cadence in her voice, corresponding with the strange and interesting romance of her situation. So young, so beautiful, so untaught, so much abandoned to herself, and deprived of all the support which her sex derives from the countenance and protection of female friends, and even of that degree of defence which arises from the forms with which the sex are approached in civilised life,—it is scarce metaphorical to say, that my heart bled for her."
"...rather than any good action should walk through the world like an unappropriated adjective in an ill-arranged sentence, he is always willing to stand noun substantive to it himself."
What I always tell myself is that if I'm afraid to jump a storey then I have no right to claim any spirit of adventure. Higher heights can be declined in the name of prudence.
How do you suppose this is used? "I spectabundal you"? "I am spectabundaling you"? "I am spectabundaled (spectabundalled?) for you"? "I am spectabundalled to you"? "He was spectabundalled for her"?
A good candidate, I think, for "Not as bad as it sounds" or however that list was. The two words, however, do derive from the same Greek for "creeping".
I like a straighter "appeal of the void" but I don't think that's as accurate.
As for me, I don't know how to describe it exactly...mostly an intense curiosity or reflection about just how interesting it would be for myself and everybody else if I jumped. After all, you'd be able to see practically unique sights that nobody in the world has seen before...
I actually enjoy having that list of lists when you want to add a word. It's a deal more convenient than the old drop-down box.
Going half-way down the page for comments, of course, leaves something to be desired, but one grows easily into a habit, and at any rate if I was discovering the site right now I don't think I'd realize how annoying it was.
Can't be bothered to find the "lost for word" page right now, but there's got to be something for the way nobody ever likes a website redesign. Every time Facebook does a Facelift there's scads of whingers complaining their life is ruined -- usually the same ones who abominated the layout just gone when they were first subjected to it. As I recall nobody liked it when Wordie became Wordnik. I remember missing Wordie's interface a lot, but I can't remember for the life of me what was so good about it anymore, aside from cosy familiarity. Maybe it's time to dig out the Wayback Machine?
All that said any website can always become better. And I'm only a critic of the buttons and lights, not the foul dæmons beneath enslaved for æternity to make them manifest to me; the magic which might make one of these creatures sick and weak is utterly mysterious to me. Moral: I at least can be grateful for anything I have. Second moral: That said, there's no reason not to always strive for greater excellence. And I'm pretty sure our developers aren't actively trying to avoid that.
Examples: the black bar at the top does seem a little overbearing. Perhaps other colours could be experimented with. It's odd to not have the number of listings and comments next to words in lists. Is there a good reason they're gone?
In parting: a toast to umbrage! May there always be an abundance for the taking, and may it always be phony among friends!
I discussed this with a French friend of mine a few weeks ago while overlooking Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi from a third floor balcony (which are ubiquitous the country over). She had just returned from Stepantsminda, a very beautiful mountain town to the north, to which I have not yet been. Her comment: "It might not be a good idea for you to go; there's a lot of vide there."
"We first played all the few pieces in which only males are requisite; next, we travestied some of ourselves; and at last took our sisters into the concern along with us."
"Once, on Captain Ahab's ship, they served and ate chocolate ganache for a birthday celebration. They called it the place of whaling and ganache-ing of teeth."
As by analogy cringing, tinging, binging and whinging. I suppose the deviance serves to avoid ambiguity, but I wonder how the practice came to be such. Most other words ending in eing seem to be of the classes -ieing, -eeing, or rarely -oeing, or less common variants of accepted spellings -- also eyeing and dyeing (dying, incidentally, is quite an odd reversal of the typical y - i substitution). I do think I've seen bingeing in places, however; somehow my certainty of judgment (judgement??) fails me on that one.
The one exception seems to be ageing, which is a British usage, the American beingaging.
No, it's correct on Wiktionary. It's just been pulled into our database incorrectly. As you can see, it's a very correct definition: refusing to define ATM machine, they only make a reference to pleonasm.
I always keep a piece of chalk in my backpack in case of situations just like this one. Didn't occur to me to stand on; I'd just got in on the overnight train and in fact spent the next hour asleep on the bench visible.
I think it's very classy to be able to write a good-looking ampersand by hand, in one swift smooth motion, without stopping to try to remember which little pointy bit to start at, and which way to make the loop, and whether it goes the same direction as an 8 or the other way, and if the other way exactly how to do the other way, and getting fed to the gills with all the fuss in such a tidbit of a character and resorting to the vulgarity of a plus. I can't do it. Yet.
I also highly approve of the usage &c., which is incidentally living proof and reminder to the the likes of blafferty that the ampersand was created as a ligature for Latin et.
Thoughts about prescriptivism: I believe that everyone ought to be entitled to two or three linguistic pet peeves. Mine happens to be forte, born probably of my musical background making its Italian pronunciation by laymen sound dumb to my ears. With all that, all the time I've spent on other languages in the past years has been increasingly making me realise just how fiercely independent all of us English speakers are about our language, most of us quite unconsciously. The textbooks I teach out of for Georgian schoolchildren invent ten times as many rules to govern English than I've ever seen in any grammar or style guide; most of them happen to be true in a vague sense, but really they're just canons our language has adapted itself around while asleep, which our waking speakers and writers never bother to consider. Our fabled pronunciation, I feel more than ever, has to be indicative of the extreme sense of humour innate to the English speaking people; usage and syntax are only a little less lax. Even the strictest classicist will unassumingly use coinages and constructions that a Georgian speaker wouldn't even know how to blanch at: it simply wouldn't be possible. (This 'strictest classicist', incidentally, no longer truly exists; the breed flourished well in the Victorian Era, entered old age as airplanes left the ground, and perished its last specimens in the middle of the 20th century. Duckbill has a point that the literature of that time was quite certainly the most precise probably of any period of history so far, and possibly yet to come, lending an unwitting humourous colour which I enjoy very much; but there was just as much dreck in those days as there was in ours and Cromwell's.)
Thoughts about "muša": the word in Georgian means "worker".
shetankhmdebodnen -- Georgian for "they made an agreement with each other". Yes, I can pronounce this. I'm still a little distant from being able to use it in a conversation, but it nevertheless sounds very impressive when said in an angry tone of voice.
So far there are no direct flights to Tbilisi from anywhere in North America (actually, not really any from Asia either). The farthest aeroplane comes from London. Of course, the Chicago leg is utterly unnecessary, since flights from Dulles go to any number of convenient places in Europe, but I didn't book my own tickets.
BWI is in Linthicum, I suppose (not West Friendship, which is where dont_cry lives).
A friend of mine told me yesterday that Istanbul is actually not a Turkish word, but a corruption of the Greek for "in the city". I don't have time to confirm this now, but it sounds interesting. I'll have seven hours there. Maybe that will be enough to see someplace. I'm thinking about the contents of my personally memorized lexicon of Turkish...let's see, here we are:
To the attention of our United State of America passengers;
United States of America National Transportation Safety Board requests to receive the information of name, surname, sex, and date of birth of passenger’s flying to USA or from USA at least 72 hours before the flight time as of 01 November 2010.
The passenger who cannot provide this information may not travel to USA or from USA after 01 November 2010. Turkish Airlines momentously requests its passengers who fly to USA to complete required information before 01 November 2010 by applying Turkish Airlines Sale Offices or travel agencies where they obtain their tickets.
-- The Turkish Airlines website. Tomorrow: Baltimore -> Chicago -> Istanbul -> Tbilisi.
I decided this week that henceforth I would be true to my Baltimoron heritage and address strangers as "hon". We'll see how long it takes to pick up the habit.
Thanks to Mr. Elster for the pronunciation! Many people I know pronounce the first syllable as in tummy. I have always considered that somewhat beastly.
In Greek the "to be" verb can be also functionally translated in certain instances as "exists", as also in English "Beauty exists" conveying much the same as "Beauty is".
I've been discovering the potentialities of expression this word has to offer. Ambrose Bierce uses "imperfectly gratifies" as a synonym for "displeases".
A dialectical interjection in Minnesota, learnt this past week. It seems to be expressive of some kind of resigned amazement. ("The roof on the house collapsed last night." "Uff-da!")
"am not" does not contract. I am not becomes I'm not, while you are not can become either you're not or you aren't, and he is not can become either he's not or he isn't.
But in the word order of questions, we somehow get a perfectly frequently-used contraction seemingly from I are. The more I think about this, the weirder it seems.
Another humourously false irregular past participle (see also shat and brung), formed no doubt by analogy to sink - sunk, stink - stunk and drink - drunk. The simple past form thank does not exist, likely because of its use a separate word and the prevalence of thought as past tense even when this spurious participle is used. An argument could be made for a similarly spurious formation in plink - plunk. I could possibly attest to experience of that usage; however, both of those words are onomatopoeic enough that grammatical change between them seems subsidiary (as also in clink - clunk). No ablaut occurs for wink or link (or fink or dink for that matter, but they are a good deal more dialectical).
I was quite strenuously informed the other day that the accent is on the second syllable. So it is. While looking this up, I realised I had been spelling it without the second e. How plebeian.
Been reading a book on semiology. Still not entirely sure of the definition of this, but I'm working with "something put together in some kind of order".
While proofreading someone else's document, I came across the phrase "a AAA financial guaranty insurer". This phrase, I decided, was correct, and should not be "an AAA...", because in this case AAA is pronounced "triple-A".
Motivation gave out about 1/5 of the way through. Nevertheless I did have quite the fun with this, and probably will continue the project (with this list) at some near point in the future.
Trying to teach myself calculus again. Evidently the opposite of increment, but much less commonly used. Perhaps that's why it sounds really cool? Actually, I'm pretty sure I like this word only because every time I see/hear it I think specific decrement.
Also, for example, reënter. I do enjoy using this style, but most often in writing, because yanking the diaeresis from Character Map takes too long, I'll settle for a hyphen, as co-ordinate, re-enforce.
Often, actually, in farewells, I'll let loose a nonce such as "Chezi!" or "Zoopsha!" in, of course, the properly cheery tone of voice which one might use for "Bye!" or "Ciao!" or "See you later!" or "Y'all take care now, y'hear?" Nobody ever seems to notice.
I was quite amused to discover, during the very first days of my summer in Peru, the habit of greeting taxi drivers and other informal acquaintances with the mere word "buenas", an abbreviation of the formula for either good morning, afternoon, or night. It struck me as odd at first, because it's just a trailing adjective stuck to nothing -- but then I realised it was no more peculiar than the emphatic declaration of "morning" -- as if you were pointing out such a state to the unobservant, or hortatorily imploring its prolongation.
My delight with this word and eagerness to use it in conversations is sometimes tempered by a sudden and irrational fear that I've forgotten what it means and won't be using it correctly.
I believe this word ought not to be pronounced as homonym to shown. My preferred rendering, with shorter o, has been recorded. (This notion has been influenced by certain Irishmen.)
"I have even read that various persons have found themselves under toxological symptoms, and, as it were, thunderstricken by black-pudding that had been subjected to a too vehement fumigation. At least, this was stated in a very fine report drawn up by one of our pharmaceutical chiefs, one of our masters, the illustrious Cadet de Gassicourt!"
"Because lips libertine and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed but little the candor of hers; he thought that exaggerated speeches hiding mediocre affections must be discounted; -- as if the fulness of the soul did not sometimes overflow in the emptiest metaphors, since no one can ever give the exact measure of his needs, nor of his conceptions, nor of his sorrows; and since human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars."
"Sneakers more often than bare feet would scale the graven faces of the stone, to dislodge and return a frisbee to its duties of making the young merry, or sometimes even in mere adventurousness to conquer, as it were, whatever titan of self-abnegation a disturbance in the normality of one’s environment threatened, and from there to observe the grand and heady vistas conferred by being spatially five feet above the common ruck."
"But the plinth, I was mentioning the plinth – the famous Plinth of Walburg, pointed out to every stranger as the town’s monument to & remembrance of the brave veterans and soldiers of Walburg who gave their lives, etc. If it had contained three dozen fossilized cats, or memorialized the invention of the bowling pin, it would have been pointed out just the same and probably with a deal more fervor and interest. "
Apparently I've not only looked this one up before but also listed it. Apparently eleven months ago was the last time I looked at the ending of the Faerie Queene.
I use this word as distinguished from phlegmatic, to refer to a physical rather than emotional state (i.e. to be replete with phlegm, as opposed to being staid and calm).
Observed in the lead article of this week's Time Magazine. Even though there's hardly any stigma of vulgarity in such an adjective, still a little surprising to me at least.
In Greek grammar, the phenomenon of the appearance or disappearance of the letter ν at the end of some verb forms dependent upon whether the subsequent word begins or not with a vowel.
I think perhaps the idea of popularity is misleading. For example, The Anatomy of Melancholy is hardly read by anyone who is not a devotee of Elizabethan literature, but neither is it disliked in the sense that the word "unpopular" might convey. It's just very rarely heard of outside of a given academic or historical field. I would call it "classic" for much the same reasons that I would call Shakespeare's near-contemporary but much more "popular" sonnets "classic": it is renowned in its genre as a superlative work of its time, not that it is a widely read book today that happened to be written long ago. Thus we can also have science fiction classics from less than fifty years ago, as for example A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Comments by milosrdenstvi
milosrdenstvi commented on the word defeasible
A philosophy professor (non-native English speaker!) used this word at me the other day. He catches me out on vocabulary embarrassingly often.
June 8, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word macedoine
"There's a macedoine of languages spoken in East Palo Alto..." http://apps.npr.org/codeswitch-changing-races/
April 20, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word intercourse
For me there is no thought of intercourse (use, not reference) without corresponding memories of this brilliant Python sketch.
February 19, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word herpestine
But surely herpetology is amphibians. Would the study of mongeeses be herpestology? And what would a herpest be? A venereal disease causing sharp teeth, appetite for cobra egg, and a predilection for saying "rkchkchkchkchkchkchkchk!" in the traverse 'tween bed and bathtub?
February 17, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
Haitches shouldn't count 'less you actually say them. Four graphemes is not nearly so impressive as four phonemes. See also გვფრცქვნი - having eight rather than nine, incidentally.
February 17, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word გვფრცქვნი
Pronounced "gvprtskvni": "you are peeling us". Spoken, no doubt, by a tribe of glossolalian tangerines.
February 17, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Former Popes Anonymous
Did you mean "former pipes anonymous"?
February 17, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word fantods
Didn't David Foster Wallace use it enough times to last us the next couple of decades?
February 2, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word misconnect
Beginning a recent final descent some steward observed over the PA "The captain has illuminated the fasten-seatbelt sign..." For some reason I heard eliminated and spent most of the balance of the flight imagining various possible violent means of sign elimination by captains before I realized elimination of a sign didn't jive with turning it on.
January 14, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word misconnect
Used by a flight desk flunky at the airport the other day (not MKE this time!) for "miss a connection". I nearly misconnected in Denver but fortunately made it to the gate just in time.
January 14, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word recombobulation
Spotted this in the Milwaukee airport tonight -- a large sign designated a number of tables past the security scanners as the "Recombobulation Area". I wonder who the clever logophile was who coined this, and the significance of the tacit admission that the whole rigmarole of airport security is indeed discombobulating.
January 4, 2013
milosrdenstvi commented on the word WYSIWYG
Pronounced "wizzy-wig".
December 20, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the word amax
But that is Amex, surely, whereas this is some foully and unnaturally murthered Latin verb conjugation.
December 20, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mean anomaly
Why can't the anomaly just be nice like everybody else?
May 14, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the word avuncular
Well, if it's from Finnegans Wake, you hardly need to ask...
May 4, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-from-georgia
The crazy thing is, I'm fluent in this stuff now, after having been here for so long. სულ თავისუფლად ვლაპარაკობ ქართულ ენას... never would have guessed, after making this list after the 1st trip those many years ago. მიყვარხარ საქართველო!
May 4, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the word pulse
M. Gandhi uses this word frequently in the sense of "legume" in his autobiography "The Story of My Experiments With Truth". Confused the heck out of me.
February 16, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the list remarkable-wikipedia-categories
Wilbur and Napoleon?
Edit: forgot Piglet (of course) and the sneezing baby in Alice. Wiki suggests Lord of the Flies, which is a good one. That's more or less all I can call to mind from literature at least.
January 9, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the word floss
Really fascinating to observe the complete changeover in meaning of this word in the past century, from geography and botany to hygiene. The full sets of definitions by American Heritage and Century have almost no overlap. It would be very interesting to trace the semantic shifts more carefully, but at the moment all I can observe is (a) there used to be a mill on one of them and (b) TMItter.
January 9, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the list it-has-a-name
Check 'em out.
January 6, 2012
milosrdenstvi commented on the word onund
I had a dream where I was trying to convince everybody I knew that onund was not a word. Fortunately it seems not to be. My subconscious remains sane.
November 7, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ground squirrel
Is not the mantled ground squirrel not unlike the mounted liger?
October 29, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word occupy Wordnik
Perhaps I've been *severely* overly influenced by Spanish ocupar. Now that I mention this fact to the world it might also only exist in certain dialects. Funny how I was so sure it was valid in English too.
October 29, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word astronomer
Here's a hint: the differences in meaning between λόγος and νόμος are excellently explained by exact parallel between the English words astrologer and astronomer. I'm assuming of course you know "aster" means "star".
October 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word მტდრედი
Mt'redi: sticking with the theme begun at columbarium. Means "dove". Always kind of liked this word. There's also a town called სამტდრედია, Samt'redia, kind of "the place where doves are, which town has always amused me. Occupy სამტდრედია!
October 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word canned umbrage
Is this canned as in like canned like Spam or canned as in like canned like WD-40? Or does it all come in watering cans? Have you a Zans for Cans? You should.
October 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word occupy Wordnik
I've always been secretly amused at the use of occupy as a synonym for defecate. Perhaps I've been overly influenced by Spanish.
October 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word columbarium
Just learnt the highly surprising but etymological no-brainer sense of dovecot(e) the other day from "Waverly". Century #2 is helpful as always in elucidation of "why the heck".
October 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word vigorish
A contender for the "that suffix doesn't mean what you think it does" award, along with contumely and ruthless.
October 20, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word strew
I suppose the simple past is strewed and p.p. strewn. I'm sure I've misused this in my time. I tend to favour irregular constructions.
October 10, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word nepenthe
Quaff, oh quaff.
September 30, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word 28
26, on the other hand, is the only number known to be adjacent both to a square and a cube.
September 30, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word loo
Head is Navy usage.
September 20, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word new interface
I was going to come here to report A VERY PERSISTENT BUG THAT HAD BEEN ANNOYING ME OVER THE LAST THREE MONTHS. Namely that when I went to a word's page and saw my list of lists there, I would want to right-click on the name of a list and open it, and see my list! როგორც we kinda used to be able to a long long time ago in prehistory. PAGE NOT FOUND, the hell what is this PAGE NOT FOUND. But now I just realised that oops, what actually that LINK is for is it is a LINK to add said word to a LIST (and I accidentally added sherbet to a list just now, to prove it, on a list it doesn't belong in, but I'm leaving it anyway). So no wonder PAGE NOT FOUND when I try to open in new window. The hell. So it's not an ANNOYING BUG, just my stupidity. In this case, instead of reporting this ANNOYING BUG can I very *humbly* ask that maybe I can have some way to link to my lists from a word page? როგორც kinda how we used to. Not exactly, 'cause it wasn't ALL our lists, but some, anyway, well, anyway, it was on the same spot on the screen and I'm a fogey and an old one at that and it doesn't work the way როგორც it kinda used to, kinda. And while I'm at it I want a wittle scrollie bar for long comments like this 'un. 'Cause the beginning of my comment is afraid of the dark and I want to be able to see it when I want, without futzing about with arrow keys, the hell. როგორც kinda we used to, maybe, 'cause I can't remember that far back anymore. Maybe there wasn't a wittle scrollie bar and the wittle comment box just enlargenified. Yeah, prob'ly that was it. Guess which book I'm reading? No, don't.
September 20, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word requisitioned
verb = participle = noun = adjective
August 21, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word crab
Yeah, you call that catching a crab. It doesn't always throw you out of the boat (a bad one at high speed will) but it's kind of painful and not exactly great for race momentum.
July 30, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mundungus
But how do you remember what it means?
July 29, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Bossche bol
In a few days' time I'll be taking a vacation from საქართველო to schmooze through the Netherlands for two weeks. This includes a day's stop at the wonderfully named city of 's-Hertogenbosch, or Den Bosch, pretty much solely for this reason. It's such an amazing idea I can't believe I've never heard of it before.
July 26, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word worldly
I find this adjective very interesting in terms of its connotational semantics. Part of a religious upbringing set Century #4 as the chief definition in my mind, thus establishing it as a negative adjective; but most instances I hear nowadays are along the lines of American Heritage #2, a generally positive attribution. Nevertheless I retain a negative impression on hearing this word and have to artificially remember its positive use.
July 26, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word blefuscu
In Gulliver's Travels, the second miniscule country opposed to Lilliput. (Properly Blefuscu.)
July 21, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word bury
Along with choir, a leading candidate for the "unpredictable vowel" award.
July 19, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word repine
I saw the use of this as a synonym for yearn, pine. Dictionaries here say it's all right but it still seems a misusage to me -- I've never seen it contextually thus in any real author. Can someone contradict?
July 18, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Timtim
Abbreviation of Timor Timur, the old Indonesian name for East Timor (Timor-Leste), now uncommon. Source: ye olde wikkie
July 17, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list i-d-rather-have-a-bottle-in-front-of-me
You, sir, are a shining wit.
July 16, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the user dvdbest
Go spectabundal the new interface.
July 11, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word copepoda
Yikes!
July 11, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word teller
As I recall there were many very interesting words of bell-ringing lore in that book. Alas, I cannot remember.
July 11, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word literally
"There was a sad and melancholy cadence in her voice, corresponding with the strange and interesting romance of her situation. So young, so beautiful, so untaught, so much abandoned to herself, and deprived of all the support which her sex derives from the countenance and protection of female friends, and even of that degree of defence which arises from the forms with which the sex are approached in civilised life,—it is scarce metaphorical to say, that my heart bled for her."
Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy. Victorian "literally"!
July 10, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word teller
Also tailor (cf. Dorothy L. Sayers novel The Nine Tailors, containing much fascinating English bell-ringing lore).
July 10, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word may my feet bring prosperity
An Armenian friend of mine says this when entering a house as a guest. I think it a very nice custom.
July 9, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word plinth
Happened to walk past this same park again today. The word was still there. I feel powerful.
July 8, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word spatula
Oh, it's so delightful! The mysterious consonants that pushed in to make this into "spatchala" always fascinated me as a young kid.
July 8, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word noun
"...rather than any good action should walk through the world like an unappropriated adjective in an ill-arranged sentence, he is always willing to stand noun substantive to it himself."
-- Walter Scott, "Rob Roy"
July 8, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word compting
Looks like a Victorian hyper-correction to me.
July 8, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word l'appel du vide
What I always tell myself is that if I'm afraid to jump a storey then I have no right to claim any spirit of adventure. Higher heights can be declined in the name of prudence.
July 7, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word spectabundal
I see, so, something like "Is not the mounted liger, who, froze eterne in spectabundal spring..." OK, that makes more sense.
July 6, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word spectabundal
How do you suppose this is used? "I spectabundal you"? "I am spectabundaling you"? "I am spectabundaled (spectabundalled?) for you"? "I am spectabundalled to you"? "He was spectabundalled for her"?
... it just sounds ... silly.
July 6, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word herpetology
A good candidate, I think, for "Not as bad as it sounds" or however that list was. The two words, however, do derive from the same Greek for "creeping".
July 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list thank-you-marky
By the ears, naturally.
July 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word zzzzzz
See also zzzzz.
July 3, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the user ruzuzu
http://www.google.com/search?q=bilby
July 2, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word l'appel du vide
I like a straighter "appeal of the void" but I don't think that's as accurate.
As for me, I don't know how to describe it exactly...mostly an intense curiosity or reflection about just how interesting it would be for myself and everybody else if I jumped. After all, you'd be able to see practically unique sights that nobody in the world has seen before...
July 2, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
I actually enjoy having that list of lists when you want to add a word. It's a deal more convenient than the old drop-down box.
Going half-way down the page for comments, of course, leaves something to be desired, but one grows easily into a habit, and at any rate if I was discovering the site right now I don't think I'd realize how annoying it was.
Can't be bothered to find the "lost for word" page right now, but there's got to be something for the way nobody ever likes a website redesign. Every time Facebook does a Facelift there's scads of whingers complaining their life is ruined -- usually the same ones who abominated the layout just gone when they were first subjected to it. As I recall nobody liked it when Wordie became Wordnik. I remember missing Wordie's interface a lot, but I can't remember for the life of me what was so good about it anymore, aside from cosy familiarity. Maybe it's time to dig out the Wayback Machine?
All that said any website can always become better. And I'm only a critic of the buttons and lights, not the foul dæmons beneath enslaved for æternity to make them manifest to me; the magic which might make one of these creatures sick and weak is utterly mysterious to me. Moral: I at least can be grateful for anything I have. Second moral: That said, there's no reason not to always strive for greater excellence. And I'm pretty sure our developers aren't actively trying to avoid that.
Examples: the black bar at the top does seem a little overbearing. Perhaps other colours could be experimented with. It's odd to not have the number of listings and comments next to words in lists. Is there a good reason they're gone?
In parting: a toast to umbrage! May there always be an abundance for the taking, and may it always be phony among friends!
July 2, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word l'appel du vide
No, no, an urge. Please never stand on the edge of a cliff with me. Especially if you are one of those sorts of people who always aim to please.
July 2, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list tristram-shandy--chapter-15
Damn, I forgot the appurtenances.
July 1, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list tristram-shandy--chapter-15
I frankly have barely a clue what the contract is about.
July 1, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word l'appel du vide
I discussed this with a French friend of mine a few weeks ago while overlooking Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi from a third floor balcony (which are ubiquitous the country over). She had just returned from Stepantsminda, a very beautiful mountain town to the north, to which I have not yet been. Her comment: "It might not be a good idea for you to go; there's a lot of vide there."
July 1, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word l'appel du vide
I suffer from this.
July 1, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word aqueduct
The classicist in me insists upon 'a' as in 'father' for both.
July 1, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word umbrage
Brackets on "butter no parsnips with me", please! Ha, ha, ha!
July 1, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word quesadilla
The lesser-known, multifunctional quesadilla!
Mouth-wateringly unwholesome
A bone-forming croquette
A jealously-guarded untraditional potpie!
(You've also got 'masala' and 'satay' in this list,
But I have no idea what they are.)
June 30, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hopped up
Werther's Original Sorrows?
June 30, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word travesty
A cognate of transvestite. Who knew?
"We first played all the few pieces in which only males are requisite; next, we travestied some of ourselves; and at last took our sisters into the concern along with us."
-- Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, I.viii
June 29, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the user hernesheir
Seems a bit malicious, wouldn't you think?
June 29, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word middies
Derogatory (but affectionate) term for navy midshipmen used by students of St. John's College.
June 29, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word gray-legs
Crazy middies.
June 29, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Is not the mounted liger
These quesadillas are awesome. Practically like Spanish fufluns.
edit: definitely not like Spanish 'flu.
June 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Is not the mounted liger
This place is about to get muy picante.
Somebody give us all a new quesadilla, if you know what I mean.
June 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word quesadilla
quesadilla (n.)
1. Latin American edible confabulation, consistent of tortilla, cheese, other variant yummables, and brought to heat.
2. See also liger.
June 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Is not the mounted liger
Are we using quesadilla as some bizarre euphemism for an impromptu poem?
Ehmmm...excuse me...I need to go and give somebody...a quesadilla.
June 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Is not the mounted liger
Is not the mounted liger, who,
With mortled seam and crescent brow,
Shuns carbonado'd crespitude
And fetters long the sem'nal wits
By kindred shaggy grace inspir'd
Brought thus by cyrene pilgrimage
To prepossessing grace?
June 28, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word liger
Is not the mounted liger sounds like an excellent first line for a poem.
June 27, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ganache
"Once, on Captain Ahab's ship, they served and ate chocolate ganache for a birthday celebration. They called it the place of whaling and ganache-ing of teeth."
Unoriginal to me; ultimate source unknown
June 27, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ΒΑΝΑΝΑ
Clever.
June 26, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word whiskerando
see also whiskeranto.
June 25, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word singeing
As by analogy cringing, tinging, binging and whinging. I suppose the deviance serves to avoid ambiguity, but I wonder how the practice came to be such. Most other words ending in eing seem to be of the classes -ieing, -eeing, or rarely -oeing, or less common variants of accepted spellings -- also eyeing and dyeing (dying, incidentally, is quite an odd reversal of the typical y - i substitution). I do think I've seen bingeing in places, however; somehow my certainty of judgment (judgement??) fails me on that one.
The one exception seems to be ageing, which is a British usage, the American being aging.
June 24, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list it-s-made-of-people
Wordnik. And don't you forget it.
June 18, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ATM machine
In the syntax of 'please define this for me' rather than 'I would like to define this' it makes sense.
June 18, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Vox Clamantis
Well, now I have Händel stuck in my head... "the VOICE...of him that CRYeth in the WILLLLdrnss!! prePARE... the WAY of the LOO-OORD!"
June 18, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ATM machine
No, it's correct on Wiktionary. It's just been pulled into our database incorrectly. As you can see, it's a very correct definition: refusing to define ATM machine, they only make a reference to pleonasm.
June 18, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word plinth
I always keep a piece of chalk in my backpack in case of situations just like this one. Didn't occur to me to stand on; I'd just got in on the overnight train and in fact spent the next hour asleep on the bench visible.
June 17, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word plinth
Did this the other day in Tbilisi.
June 17, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list bonebreakers-and-mother-in-law-killers
Matamoscas, as well as having a really cool name, are awfully useful in a Peruvian summer.
June 15, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Peirce
Reading the AHD definition, thought it read that he confounded pragmatism and was somewhat nonplussed.
June 15, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ბატიბუტი
batibuti -- popcorn
June 15, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list the-former-island-of-urk
"The mother was said to be kept in bed with a nail through her right foot. There she would celebrate that she had just become a mother."
Urk. It sounds like a proper name you might give to a cucumber. Not only that, but it's a former island. Urk. Urk.
I wonder if there's a plinth on Urk.
June 12, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word მწვრთნელი
mts'vrtneli -- "coach, trainer". Probably one of the most exciting consonant clusters I use on a semi-regular basis.
June 11, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word I dislike ampersands
I think it's very classy to be able to write a good-looking ampersand by hand, in one swift smooth motion, without stopping to try to remember which little pointy bit to start at, and which way to make the loop, and whether it goes the same direction as an 8 or the other way, and if the other way exactly how to do the other way, and getting fed to the gills with all the fuss in such a tidbit of a character and resorting to the vulgarity of a plus. I can't do it. Yet.
I also highly approve of the usage &c., which is incidentally living proof and reminder to the the likes of blafferty that the ampersand was created as a ligature for Latin et.
June 10, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word dor
And I wanted a one-syllable word for this in a poem two months ago. Drat.
April 26, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the user milosrdenstvi
Strangely enough I've not used that word here yet. It doesn't seem to be a very common vegetable in these parts.
April 23, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the user milosrdenstvi
Greetings to all and to zuzu in particular! Please see account of my peregrinations at შეთანხმდებოდნენ.
Milo is good. Only ever had it in South America, though; it doesn't seem to be too ubiquitous in the States, or here.
April 22, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word gasometer
Thoughts about prescriptivism: I believe that everyone ought to be entitled to two or three linguistic pet peeves. Mine happens to be forte, born probably of my musical background making its Italian pronunciation by laymen sound dumb to my ears. With all that, all the time I've spent on other languages in the past years has been increasingly making me realise just how fiercely independent all of us English speakers are about our language, most of us quite unconsciously. The textbooks I teach out of for Georgian schoolchildren invent ten times as many rules to govern English than I've ever seen in any grammar or style guide; most of them happen to be true in a vague sense, but really they're just canons our language has adapted itself around while asleep, which our waking speakers and writers never bother to consider. Our fabled pronunciation, I feel more than ever, has to be indicative of the extreme sense of humour innate to the English speaking people; usage and syntax are only a little less lax. Even the strictest classicist will unassumingly use coinages and constructions that a Georgian speaker wouldn't even know how to blanch at: it simply wouldn't be possible. (This 'strictest classicist', incidentally, no longer truly exists; the breed flourished well in the Victorian Era, entered old age as airplanes left the ground, and perished its last specimens in the middle of the 20th century. Duckbill has a point that the literature of that time was quite certainly the most precise probably of any period of history so far, and possibly yet to come, lending an unwitting humourous colour which I enjoy very much; but there was just as much dreck in those days as there was in ours and Cromwell's.)
Thoughts about "muša": the word in Georgian means "worker".
April 22, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word შეთანხმდებოდნენ
shetankhmdebodnen -- Georgian for "they made an agreement with each other". Yes, I can pronounce this. I'm still a little distant from being able to use it in a conversation, but it nevertheless sounds very impressive when said in an angry tone of voice.
April 22, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word momentously
So far there are no direct flights to Tbilisi from anywhere in North America (actually, not really any from Asia either). The farthest aeroplane comes from London. Of course, the Chicago leg is utterly unnecessary, since flights from Dulles go to any number of convenient places in Europe, but I didn't book my own tickets.
BWI is in Linthicum, I suppose (not West Friendship, which is where dont_cry lives).
A friend of mine told me yesterday that Istanbul is actually not a Turkish word, but a corruption of the Greek for "in the city". I don't have time to confirm this now, but it sounds interesting. I'll have seven hours there. Maybe that will be enough to see someplace. I'm thinking about the contents of my personally memorized lexicon of Turkish...let's see, here we are:
merkez: center
tuvalet: toilet
Oh well, guess that's all. Flight in five hours.
January 14, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word სტამბოლი
stambuli -- Georgian for İstanbul, or Constantinople as the case may be.
January 13, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word momentously
To the attention of our United State of America passengers;
United States of America National Transportation Safety Board requests to receive the information of name, surname, sex, and date of birth of passenger’s flying to USA or from USA at least 72 hours before the flight time as of 01 November 2010.
The passenger who cannot provide this information may not travel to USA or from USA after 01 November 2010. Turkish Airlines momentously requests its passengers who fly to USA to complete required information before 01 November 2010 by applying Turkish Airlines Sale Offices or travel agencies where they obtain their tickets.
-- The Turkish Airlines website. Tomorrow: Baltimore -> Chicago -> Istanbul -> Tbilisi.
January 13, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list the-request-line
hrad is Czech for fortress. Just saying.
January 12, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Constantinople
I'll be passing through on Saturday, I think. Might have around seven hours.
January 11, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word jenny-ass
Have ever you harked to the jackass wild
Which scientists call the onager?
It sounds like the laugh of an backward child
Or a hepcat on a harmonica.
But do not sneer at the jackass wild
There's method in his heehaw
For with maidenly blush and accent mild
The jenny-ass answers shee-haw.
-- Ogden Nash
January 11, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Old New York
New Yooooork....New Yooooork....Livingstone's gonna pop a cooooork!!!!
January 11, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Apalachicola
Home I'll never be.
January 10, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word aisle
Another pronunciation that is just unfair. See choir.
January 9, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word octothrope
See octothorpe.
January 8, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word upled
Found this in Tender is the Night. Doesn't seem to be used anywhere else. The other usage cited is somewhat diverting.
January 8, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list the-request-line
Funny, the pronunciation I've most often heard is "KWAY-zee".
January 8, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Psalm 91
Hey, that's a good Psalm.
Can't remember anything in it about a chickenhawk, though.
January 7, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word wlonk
Found in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It made me chuckle.
January 7, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hon
I decided this week that henceforth I would be true to my Baltimoron heritage and address strangers as "hon". We'll see how long it takes to pick up the habit.
January 7, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word tumult
Thanks to Mr. Elster for the pronunciation! Many people I know pronounce the first syllable as in tummy. I have always considered that somewhat beastly.
January 7, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word tsing tsing
At the Denny's nearby here they have "Tsing Tsing Chicken". According to my Chinese friends, "tsing tsing" is Chinese for chimpanzee.
January 5, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word alot
Please see the page douug linked.
January 5, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list state-of-being-verbs
In Greek the "to be" verb can be also functionally translated in certain instances as "exists", as also in English "Beauty exists" conveying much the same as "Beauty is".
January 5, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word WTF
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, right? ....right?
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word bagel
In Minnesota they pronounce the vowels of "bag" and "bagel" oppositely from what I'm used to -- i.e. /beɪg/ and /bægəl/ instead of /bæg/ and /beɪgəl/.
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word warshington
It happens.
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word innair
Wairdy go? Jus wenninnair.
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word po-leece
An important distinction in Baltimore:
Police (pronounced PO-leece): singular.
Police (pronounced pleece): plural.
Johnny shot one PO-leece. Johnny shot two pleece. Probably happened on Norf Abnu, now that I think about it.
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word norf abnu
Baltimorese for "North Avenue"
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list baltimorese
Even I don't know all of these...
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word paramour
Baltimorese for "power mower"
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word launder
It may be necessary afterwards to do some ironing, which my fellow Baltimorons would pronounce earning.
January 4, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word imperfectly
I've been discovering the potentialities of expression this word has to offer. Ambrose Bierce uses "imperfectly gratifies" as a synonym for "displeases".
January 3, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the list mainisms
Don't forget Moxie. :)
January 2, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Priestley's mass
See also Glagolitic mass.
December 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user ruzuzu
Not sure -- my Georgian isn't up to that level yet. But here's წარმატებები (tsarmatebebi) as a substitute -- "Good luck!"
December 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word სასიამოვნოა
sasiamovnoa -- 'it is nice', as in სასიამოვნოა თქვენი გაცნობა (sasiamovnoa tkveni gatsnoba -- nice to meet you)
December 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word საქართველო
I'm going back! Got a job teaching English for about six months or so.
December 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word incommunicative
Is it better to say uncommunicative?
December 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hole-in-one
Polling the community: should the plural be hole-in-ones or holes-in-one?
December 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word -ward
A suffix of directionality: upward, downward, skyward, landward, toward, forward, leftward, rightward, westward, windward, homeward.
So where is awk?
December 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word luggage
At times I use this as a count noun: one luggage, two luggages, etc. This is an idiosyncratic usage.
December 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word thesaurus
From the Greek word meaning "treasury".
December 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Metrodome
Currently referred to by locals as the Metrobowl.
December 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word choir
As far as I know, this is the only word where oi is pronounced "wai". I'm not even sure if there are any words where oi is pronounced "ai".
December 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word girlfriend
It's always really confused me when women refer to other female friends of theirs as "girlfriends". Can't really say why.
Besides all that, this is a rather ugly word.
December 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word does
This is the only word I can think of with an irregular pronunciation in the 3rd person singular.
December 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word uff-da
A dialectical interjection in Minnesota, learnt this past week. It seems to be expressive of some kind of resigned amazement. ("The roof on the house collapsed last night." "Uff-da!")
December 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word aren't I
"am not" does not contract. I am not becomes I'm not, while you are not can become either you're not or you aren't, and he is not can become either he's not or he isn't.
But in the word order of questions, we somehow get a perfectly frequently-used contraction seemingly from I are. The more I think about this, the weirder it seems.
December 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user jackgrave
Sounds good. I always hate when I have to get up in the mornings.
December 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word broke
I enjoy using this as a past participle in certain social contexts. (Picked it up while working IT one summer.)
December 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word thunk
Another humourously false irregular past participle (see also shat and brung), formed no doubt by analogy to sink - sunk, stink - stunk and drink - drunk. The simple past form thank does not exist, likely because of its use a separate word and the prevalence of thought as past tense even when this spurious participle is used. An argument could be made for a similarly spurious formation in plink - plunk. I could possibly attest to experience of that usage; however, both of those words are onomatopoeic enough that grammatical change between them seems subsidiary (as also in clink - clunk). No ablaut occurs for wink or link (or fink or dink for that matter, but they are a good deal more dialectical).
December 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word thunder
...who ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads
...December 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word plebeian
I was quite strenuously informed the other day that the accent is on the second syllable. So it is. While looking this up, I realised I had been spelling it without the second e. How plebeian.
December 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word orientate
When I hear this word, I desire to howl and moan like a rheumatic iguana.
December 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user oroboros
Thanks much! Listening to them now.
December 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word syntagm
Been reading a book on semiology. Still not entirely sure of the definition of this, but I'm working with "something put together in some kind of order".
December 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list someday-ill-pronounce-these-things-for-frogapplause
Nice! I need to listen to more good songs in Spanish.
December 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list good-eggs
good egg!
December 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word fufluns
The best thing would be to start manufacturing and mass marketing.
December 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word villanelle
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
(IMO the only good villanelle ever written.)
December 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word sloth
So much a more delightful word when pronounced with long O.
December 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word unbe
See also non-existence.
December 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user 100001467888298
Wordnik is fun yaaaaay!!!!!!
December 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word cretonne
A form of fire approaches the cretonnes of Penelope,
Whose mere savage presence awakens the world in which she dwells.
Wallace Stevens, "The World as Meditation"
December 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word book-number
*contemplates worshipping a diety*
December 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word AAA
While proofreading someone else's document, I came across the phrase "a AAA financial guaranty insurer". This phrase, I decided, was correct, and should not be "an AAA...", because in this case AAA is pronounced "triple-A".
December 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word true love
"Were you looking for truelove?"
Actually, no, I prefer my true love with a certain spaciness to it.
December 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
:((
December 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list top-500-shower-curtains
1st reaction: what the em dash??
2nd reaction: *add add add add*
December 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
Motivation gave out about 1/5 of the way through. Nevertheless I did have quite the fun with this, and probably will continue the project (with this list) at some near point in the future.
December 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list worts-and-all
It's a misspelling, but common: worrywort
December 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user crocker33
See also jobberknowle.
December 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word book-number
Define: What you have to pay when you return your books late.
December 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Elemenope
And the famed ruler of Avignon, Antipope.
November 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Elemenope
Along with her sisters Penelope and Antelope.
November 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list its-all-greek-to-me
More likely some of these were listed on ye olde wordie in lowercase, and this is the first time they've been uppered.
November 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list gods
Ate and Dike (Strife and Justice) are both disyllabic; the final e is pronounced.
November 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list its-all-greek-to-me
No, but apparently I am an island.
November 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list its-all-greek-to-me
Transliterations are a bit inconsistent, sorry.
November 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word pindakaas
Well, it's no more a butter than a cheese, really.
November 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word obviousities
Some pretty exciting bad English on this page.
Have nice clever thoughts, meditation, reflection, speculation and elocution.
In short: Good night and have your own way.
November 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word decrement
Trying to teach myself calculus again. Evidently the opposite of increment, but much less commonly used. Perhaps that's why it sounds really cool? Actually, I'm pretty sure I like this word only because every time I see/hear it I think specific decrement.
November 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word look up word with recording
Alleluia?
November 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word wolvish
No doubt as in "flay thy wolvish visage".
November 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word chakras
Chacra is the countryside in Peruvian Spanish (not sure about other flavours).
November 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word insomnia
5:26 am...
November 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word love
My whole life (meaning ever since I was nineteen) I have been trying to ascertain the quiddity of love. Obviously, such remains elusive.
November 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word non sequitur
@chained_bear: When young, I would always pronounce it "non se-KEE-ter"...
November 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user DaveRuffley
Try antidisestablishmentarianism. And welcome to the site!
November 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user PossibleUnderscore
არტიშოკები!
November 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word the united states of america
This is probably what Keats would call ██████████.
November 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list king-lear
Thanks! Now wondering if I feel like making 123 citations.
November 16, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word coöperate
Also, for example, reënter. I do enjoy using this style, but most often in writing, because yanking the diaeresis from Character Map takes too long, I'll settle for a hyphen, as co-ordinate, re-enforce.
November 16, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user ruzuzu
ავოკადოოოოოოოოო!!!!
November 16, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word marge
There are strange things done in the midnight sun,
by the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
Robert Service, The Cremation of Sam McGee
November 16, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Artichoke!
არტიშოკი!
November 16, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hi there!
Often, actually, in farewells, I'll let loose a nonce such as "Chezi!" or "Zoopsha!" in, of course, the properly cheery tone of voice which one might use for "Bye!" or "Ciao!" or "See you later!" or "Y'all take care now, y'hear?" Nobody ever seems to notice.
November 16, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list computers-changed-everything
Exciting list!
November 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hi there!
I was quite amused to discover, during the very first days of my summer in Peru, the habit of greeting taxi drivers and other informal acquaintances with the mere word "buenas", an abbreviation of the formula for either good morning, afternoon, or night. It struck me as odd at first, because it's just a trailing adjective stuck to nothing -- but then I realised it was no more peculiar than the emphatic declaration of "morning" -- as if you were pointing out such a state to the unobservant, or hortatorily imploring its prolongation.
November 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word shat
I find this word to be a fascinating example of a recently-formed irregular verb.
November 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word foin
As in "fencing and foining".
November 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ineluctably
My delight with this word and eagerness to use it in conversations is sometimes tempered by a sudden and irrational fear that I've forgotten what it means and won't be using it correctly.
November 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word schadenfreude
Wonders: is there still a "list of most listed words"?
November 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word shone
I believe this word ought not to be pronounced as homonym to shown. My preferred rendering, with shorter o, has been recorded. (This notion has been influenced by certain Irishmen.)
November 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word copse
And robberse!
November 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word flyswatter
A jovial chap, drinking icewater,
Once remarked while regarding a flyswatter,
"Though a marvelous means
To smash up insect spleens
It's terribly bad as a rice-wadder."
November 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ugsome
Even though I already loved this word, its being dialectical rather than slang somehow legitimizes it to me.
November 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word superfetation
In the beginning was the Word.
Superfetation of τὸ ἔν,
And at the mensual turn of time
Produced enervate Origen.
T. S. Eliot
November 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word a too vehement fumigation
"I have even read that various persons have found themselves under toxological symptoms, and, as it were, thunderstricken by black-pudding that had been subjected to a too vehement fumigation. At least, this was stated in a very fine report drawn up by one of our pharmaceutical chiefs, one of our masters, the illustrious Cadet de Gassicourt!"
Flaubert, Madame Bovary, III.viii
November 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word adjectival
A favorite nonce of mine, intended to stand in for synonyms which do not come to mind.
November 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word imperfectly gratify
Picked up this marvellous euphemism from Ambrose Bierce.
November 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word venal
"Because lips libertine and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed but little the candor of hers; he thought that exaggerated speeches hiding mediocre affections must be discounted; -- as if the fulness of the soul did not sometimes overflow in the emptiest metaphors, since no one can ever give the exact measure of his needs, nor of his conceptions, nor of his sorrows; and since human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars."
Flaubert, Madame Bovary, II.xii
November 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word chine
I'd be fascinated to see what that's translated from.
November 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word save the words
This collection seems a little dubious but is nevertheless rather cute and even somewhat impressive.
www.savethewords.com
November 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
indolent and laconic added by request of someone at the NaNoWriMo site.
I'm debating whether I allow myself to change adjectives to adverbs or not. I can handle it either way, really.
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word sylvestrial
You know, the terrestrial and the sylvestrial.
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
This sentence brought to you by the letter E:
"Ever believed that there was some elementarily educable essence in everyone."
(Ever is a proper noun, and the name of who appears to be my main character.)
Also added two of my own, one from an almost definite mishearing of celestial.
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
Still talking about the plinth:
"Sneakers more often than bare feet would scale the graven faces of the stone, to dislodge and return a frisbee to its duties of making the young merry, or sometimes even in mere adventurousness to conquer, as it were, whatever titan of self-abnegation a disturbance in the normality of one’s environment threatened, and from there to observe the grand and heady vistas conferred by being spatially five feet above the common ruck."
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat
*stirs the Hottentottenottenpot*
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
Again, would take the form of moustachio. I do love the word mustache - it just becomes magnificently cooler with the o.
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
If I manage to work it in, it will be in the form handlebar moustache.
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
"But the plinth, I was mentioning the plinth – the famous Plinth of Walburg, pointed out to every stranger as the town’s monument to & remembrance of the brave veterans and soldiers of Walburg who gave their lives, etc. If it had contained three dozen fossilized cats, or memorialized the invention of the bowling pin, it would have been pointed out just the same and probably with a deal more fervor and interest. "
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
After some writing today, I think I'm about to make the plinth into a major plot point.
November 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-or-phrases-i-should-use-in-my-nanowrimo-production
I'll do what I can :)
November 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list lost-for-word
FB -- how about as verb?
November 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list lost-for-word
Is there a good word for flowing slowly that isn't as earthy as ooze?
November 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word delve
I absolutely abominate this word when used in the sense of "inquire into or learn about". Such a pretentious metaphor!
November 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word whyleare
Apparently I've not only looked this one up before but also listed it. Apparently eleven months ago was the last time I looked at the ending of the Faerie Queene.
October 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word choo choo train
Were you looking for chop chop train?
October 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word phlegmetic
I use this word as distinguished from phlegmatic, to refer to a physical rather than emotional state (i.e. to be replete with phlegm, as opposed to being staid and calm).
October 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word crappy
Observed in the lead article of this week's Time Magazine. Even though there's hardly any stigma of vulgarity in such an adjective, still a little surprising to me at least.
October 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word liquefaction
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free
O how that glittering taketh me!
October 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word arete
Usually translated "virtue", pronounced with three syllables.
October 25, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word nu-ephelkustikon
In Greek grammar, the phenomenon of the appearance or disappearance of the letter ν at the end of some verb forms dependent upon whether the subsequent word begins or not with a vowel.
October 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word previous
He uses it roughly in the same context one might use shirty. Like I said, it doesn't make terrible sense, but it enjoys a certain undefinable in me.
October 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word previous
A friend of mine has a wonderful phrase "No need to get previous about this." I have no idea where he gets it from, but it is a delightful usage.
October 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word classic
I think perhaps the idea of popularity is misleading. For example, The Anatomy of Melancholy is hardly read by anyone who is not a devotee of Elizabethan literature, but neither is it disliked in the sense that the word "unpopular" might convey. It's just very rarely heard of outside of a given academic or historical field. I would call it "classic" for much the same reasons that I would call Shakespeare's near-contemporary but much more "popular" sonnets "classic": it is renowned in its genre as a superlative work of its time, not that it is a widely read book today that happened to be written long ago. Thus we can also have science fiction classics from less than fifty years ago, as for example A Canticle for Leibowitz.
October 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list most-favorite-words
NO, LUDDITE.
October 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word i'll lay me down and bleed awhile
And then I'll rise and fight again.
October 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word illimitably
Somehow this word portrays the yearning depth of its definition far better than its synonyms.
October 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word rapt
But we went back to the Abbey, and sat on,
So much the gathering darkness charmed: we sat
But spoke not, rapt in nameless reverie,
Perchance upon the future man: the walls
Blackened about us, bats wheeled, and owls whooped,
And gradually the powers of the night,
That range above the region of the wind,
Deepening the courts of twilight broke them up
Through all the silent spaces of the worlds,
Beyond all thought into the Heaven of Heavens.
Tennyson, The Princess
October 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list pop-latin
Don't forget ecsetera.
October 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word boneless, skinless violin
I think it may have started out as "bowless, stringless" and devolved from there.
October 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Mendel's Peas
A few friends of mine and I once toyed with starting a band by this name (also considered: Mendelssohn and the Yellow Peas). It would include players upon the boneless, skinless violin, the glockenspiel d'amore, the underwater tuba, and the golden ratio. We never did come up with album names, but we decided the compilation would certainly be called The Wurst of Mendel's Peas.
October 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
Am I missing something, or do lists no longer tell us how many words there are in them?
October 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word loathe
Today I was suddenly struck with the fear that I may have sometime in the past misspelt this word sans e.
October 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word remarkable link
I pop in and provide a detailed etymology of all words involved, deriving each one from Greek, of course.
October 12, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word sexual reproduction
The "recent pronunciations" at this moment reads "heart-wrenching sexual reproduction. What a capital euphemism!
October 12, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word thot plickens
I've more commonly heard "the thick plottens".
October 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word avocado
I experienced it as referring to both.
October 2, 2010
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