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.
Yay! I was just wondering today my dating-to-high-school question of whether a g in monger is hard or soft (it's hard, apparently). Etymologies, anyone?
I think there is an extant word for someone who is overly excited about the future or technological achievement. Can anyone think of one or make one up whose intent is clearly realised?
"One who bothers God" seems a simpler and more natural definition than "one who bothers by means of God". Also, the second definition has excellent synonyms in the form of fanatic or fundamentalist, while the first seems a very clever way to say in one word what we do not have the English capacity for otherwise.
There's been a decent amount of Italian influence in that part of South America (more in Argentina and Chile, though) -- at any rate, I wouldn't at all be surprised.
*listens for echo* ......egg pasta......egg pasta.......
Neither it nor octopi. Even rhinoceros has been effectively Anglicized by the softening of the c. I find the occasional use of octopodes rather merry and diverting, but platypodes suffers vocalically, in my opinion, because the upsilon has become a short i in the form of y, and thus the archaical forms simply don't flow.
For some reason, though, English has never seriously adopted Greek plurals for any of its words (that I can think of, at any rate), and thus I would approach any claimed English plurals based on Greek rules in the spirit of anything other that classicism or cheerful play with the tendency to cast aspersions.
Had he been Greek and ancient (to the best of my knowledge) he would have pronounced /ˈkokyges/ for κόκκυγες. Sheldon's pronunciation is typical of loose British-classicist transliterations up to the beginning of the 20th century, which would normalize Greek words into Latin and then normalize the Latin into English, thus giving us soft g's for hard, soft and hard c's for k's, and vowel lengthening. Most words introduced in this way are by now bona fide English words, and are better treated as such than as Greek words. But if they are to be thought of as Greek, they ought (in my opinion) to be thought of so in all aspects.
I'm afraid I'm not really referencing anything; I just needed something to compare inconsistent pedants to, and the phrase came to my mind -- perhaps because I would hear people say "ajos y cebollas" every now and then in Peru, but I have no idea if this is an appropriate context for that.
Etymologyically coccyx pluralises to coccyges, as a type-3 Greek noun (from a word cognate with "cuckoo", apparently). But if one does that, one also ought pronounce it with all c's hard. An inconsistent pedant is merely garlic and onions.
Possibly the most interesting words were the ones anomalous to other Spanish. Examples: tallarin for espagueti, chompa for sueter, medias for calzinetas, chanilla for bufanda, chupete for puleta. I also found the first person plural imperfect subjunctive perfect helping verb hubiéramos highly and unintentionally comic.
Now, somebody needs to tell me where all the good pages happened.
Wait wait wait! I just realized, you're the same rubber as put this out. I loved that! I've been going back to it for years and feeling guilty every time!
Well, in this case I'd say a woulda is a volition or desire to perform something, of which one is conscious before his ability to perform such, represented by a coulda (with the shoulda, of course, being obligation). The potentiality, of course, is pre-existent, but that is usually irrelevant to anyone's consideration, as it is only pre-existent in time and not in perception.
In those the a's seem to create a second vowel (schwa, really) with the l's. I guess one could say that the schwa comes from the l's alone (compare homonyms vile and file) or that they aren't really disyllabic, but I don't think I would agree with either of those assertions.
I do wonder, though, if nesting parentheses like that is a terribly big deal. It makes me wince a little at my stylistic ineptitude, and my uncertainty of how to use née for people who I think are probably men.
And, as prolagus (ne(e) Prolagus), only if it's easy to do, otherwise I'll continue adding new comments to correct any errors of mine, as it's really not a terribly big deal.
However, I would like to be able to edit comments again, because I'm certain that I never was Milosrdentsvi, my uncertainty being with respect to Milosrdenstvi, and said ability would save the humiliation of this public record of my gross error.
Is there a word simply for "someone who is sick"? I'm thinking I may just be excessively tired at 2 in the morning, but my mind is running through sick person, convalescent, patient, sufferer, sicko, victim, none of which quite fit...I can think of plenty of unhealthy or unwell adjectives to modify sick people, and many nouns from which someone can be ill, but nothing just to describe the person himself...who do doctors cure?
You know, right, that come Erin McKean's birthday, Grandfather Clause will deliver gifts to all deserving little boys and girls who have been good about using their and its correctly, helped of course by his merry and devoted band of subordinate clauses...
"The Superb Starling has a long and loud song consisting of trills and chatters. At midday it gives a softer song of repeated phrases. There are several harsh calls, the most complex of which is described as 'a shrill, screeching skerrrreeee-cherrrroo-tcherreeeeeet.'" - Wiki
Though "brick-coloured", it seems to be only used in description of anatomy, if the examples are anything to follow. (You never know when you'll need some Practical Remarks on Dropsy!)
Did I really used to be capitalised? I was trying to remember a few days ago and couldn't for the life of me. Have I truly been decapitated? Do I care? Help me out, pundies :(
Thanks to Google Books I found another Rabelais citation for this phrase:
"You'll teach me," said Panurge, "how to recognize flies when I see them floating in milk! By all that's holy, the man's a heretic. And I mean a fully developed heretic, a mangy heretic, a heretic who ought to be burned! His soul's going to be fried by thirty thousand cartloads of devils. And do you know where? By God, my friend, he's going to roast right under Queen Prosperpina's shitting stool, right in that infernal pot where she succumbs to the fecal workings of her suppositories, on the left-hand side of that great caldron, just three feet from Lucifer's claws, dragging him down into Demigorgon's black cave! Hah! the scoundrel!"
Greek en (in) + cheir (hand) + diminutive... in typical use now, a handbook, doubtless influenced by the work by Epictetus of the same name, but originally could mean either handbook or dagger.
I must admit I am quite impressed. Two of these I switched the case on (Intrigante and phariseeism) - one (Zufulo) didn't appear to be a word - and it was a little weird getting castrato right after sexually - but otherwise this is quite a nice assortment of ordinary words, cool words, and words I've never heard of before.
Some rather bad poetry from "Punch", which was, I suppose, the "Onion" of its day. For some reason all the online dictionaries can only come up with the first stanza of this as an example for 'eximious'. I find this deplorable.
I edited my profile a little bit ago, and now I cannot edit my profile or any comments...also, my entire profile is in italics now but I think that's because of the # that I added.
The examples create a fascinating sketch of a character. A man who takes tickets (except when he's away), who owns a merry-go-round (seriously, who doesn't envy him!) whose potential to be in certain places causes alarm to young girls, and who is somehow and tenuously connected with the absconsion of a lap-robe. Aaron Blipper, indeed!
"Blipper is my name -- Aaron Blipper," answered the man. —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair.
"I'm in charge of taking the tickets when Blipper is away." —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
"Don't look!" begged Flossie. "Maybe -- maybe Mr. Blipper is in there!" —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
"Mr. Blipper is a man who owns a merry-go-round he takes to fairs and circuses." —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
"Soon after this Blipper and his outfit left, I missed my coat, and, coming home, we found the lap robe gone." —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
I also love using viz.! I do so in many places, viz. literary essays, school papers, and self-referencing Wordnik comments. Anyone know what it actually stands for?
Another strange thing (explained, no doubt, by the vagaries of Unicode) is that the address bar displays it as ⚜, and the "Most Commented On" in Zeitgeist as some bizarre craudestopper faintly resembling an indented wristwatch.
EDIT: aforementioned craudestopper can be seen in the above paragraph. I had been attempting to say that the address bar displays it rather as the ubiquitous rectangular box, which is also how it appears when I type my comment, but not when I publish it.
EDIT 2: And, of course, in the Zeitgeist itself, the wee beastie looks like a's version all coloured in and miniaturised.
EDIT 3: Just realised, also, that probably none of you will see the craudestopper the same way as I do. In which event, the description was worthwhile.
The etymology I originally heard was that the Lollards would sing their church music (usually Psalms) without musical accompaniment, rather ubiquitously, and were thus said to be going around constantly singing "lol lol lol lol lol", or something of the sort.
lamazia - "it is beautiful". One of the first words I was taught, probably before hello even. There were times (and probably, when I return, will be many more times) when, not knowing how to say anything more useful, my communications consisted of pointing at the scenery and repeating this word often. And believe me, I was being honest.
dila mshvidobisa - a beautiful, wonderful, and typical Georgian mouthful of consonsants is bidding you "good morning!" The counterpart for "good night" is ღამე მშვიდობისა, ghame mshvidobisa.
limonati -- "lemonade", which is actually not lemonade but really really good grape soda. Sodas in Georgia (besides Coke, Pepsi, and Fanta) -- the ones from the local bottler Natakhtari (ნათახთარი... not sure about the transliteration) are fascinatingly flavoured, with varieties commonly drunk such as cherry, raspberry, pear, and tarragon.
With the a as in smackdown, not as in awe-inspiring. The same way he pronounced piano, his two of which he always doughtily defended from torch-and-trebuchet-wielding mobs.
I think the autoantonym comes more strongly in the idiomatic expression "put something on the table" -- that phrase can equally mean present new information or laying old information aside.
Strange, because the general use I know for this idiom is a third one still -- when something said with hurtful intend does not bother the person it is addressed to; rather, because of either the inconsequence of the insult or the imperturbability of the addressee, it is "like water off a duck's back".
a - no, I was just saying that he've as we're using it is generally pronounced disyllabically, as something a little like he'ave. He'd've I was just giving as an example of a 've word with he in it with the vowel completely assimilated, as in I've, we've.
Colloquially I'm comfortable writing should've, but I've never written or seen he've. It would look as strange to me as Should I've taken the left turn?
Well, every other 've contraction is a standard use of perfect aspect: I've gone crazy, you've gone crazy, they've gone crazy, we've gone crazy. You of course notice now the difference: he's gone crazy, she's gone crazy, it's gone crazy. The use of have here appears to be some hidden English idiom for the conditional mood, past tense. I suspect the infinitive, as when compared with the copula: I am frightened, he is frightened; should I be frightened? should he be frightened? -- and even, in fact, in regular verbs, in the solitary regular English conjugation of third person singular: I eat pizza, s/h/it eats pizza; should I eat pizza? should s/h/it eat pizza?
So I'd ask, I guess, about how these other abbreviations sound to your ear: Should I've taken the left turn? Should we've taken the left turn? If you're like me, when you try to say those out loud, you slip in a bit of a vowel between the we and the 've, even when you try to glide them together, dissimilar to the ordinary sort of we've. A much easier vocal blend (though never written out) is the past perfect, he'd've, we'd've.
I was tempted to complain about those two examples, mostly because I've never heard of either of them before. They seem to belong more to a sort of technical jargon than 'proper English'. I mean, everybody knows what a geyser is.
On further thoughts, I decided that writing up a rant wasn't worth it. But there you have it, my rant unranted...
I went camping once with this girl who had concocted an ingenious treat she called a 'banana boat'. She slit a banana down the side, scooped out about half of it, filled the resultant empty space with peanut butter, bar chocolate, and marshmellows, folded everything back up, wrapped in aluminum foil and stuck in the coals till it was all mushy and melty. Sweetest, sugariest, stickiest, messiest banana I've had in my life. And Hercules, was it good.
"What do we want of another breed? Isn't one breed enough? Had is had, and your tricking it out in a fresh way of spelling isn't going to make it any hadder than it was before; now you know that yourself."
"But there is a distinction--they are not just the same Hads."
"How do you make it out?"
"Well, you use that first Had when you are referring to something that happened at a named and sharp and perfectly definite moment; you use the other when the thing happened at a vaguely defined time and in a more prolonged and indefinitely continuous way."
'Why, doctor, it is pure nonsense; you know it yourself. Look here: If I have had a had, or have wanted to have had a had, or was in a position right then and there to have had a had that hadn't had any chance to go out hadding on account of this foolish discrimination which lets one Had go hadding in any kind of indefinite grammatical weather but restricts the other one to definite and datable meteoric convulsions, and keeps it pining around and watching the barometer all the time, and liable to get sick through confinement and lack of exercise, and all that sort of thing, why--why, the inhumanity of it is enough, let alone the wanton superfluity and uselessness of any such a loafing consumptive hospital-bird of a Had taking up room and cumbering the place for nothing. These finical refinements revolt me; it is not right, it is not honorable; it is constructive nepotism to keep in office a Had that is so delicate it can't come out when the wind's in the nor'west--I won't have this dude on the payroll. Cancel his exequator; and look here--"
I don't think this one is actually Lavoisier, but another really cool term from the same early-modern-chemistry course I took. It was the original term for oxygen (contrary to my original assertion on dephlogisticated), because of the current scientific theory of phlogiston, a substance the combination with which would produce fire. Pure oxygen supports combustion better than normal air; thus it was supposed to have more capacity to combine with phlogiston, and naturally this would be because it didn't have any in the first place.
Venus was classically associated with copper (as the sun with gold, moon with silver, Mars with iron, Jupiter with tin, Saturn with lead, and Mercury with...well, you can guess.) So Venus crystals would be an archaic term for a copper oxide. Which one, I won't be able to tell you till I find my source texts again. (See also lunar caustic.)
Well, I decided at laſt to put up the liſt. After creation and deſcription, however, I realiſed that I had lent my Lavoiſier to my younger brother, and furthermore could not find the companion manual on a brief ſearch. So, I ſhall add the entries I already mentioned from butter of antimony and add the reſt when I can actually find my ſource material.
I had a class where we read an old version of Lavoisier, the French chemist. Of course he was referred to as Lavoifier. We had much merriment over philofophy, neceffities, and fuchlike... and, of course, when we got to a certain section where he instructed us to suck the air out of a tube...well, I'll let your imagination take over.
Speaking of "win", excessive use of that word (and its counterpart/nonantonym, "fail") is another sure pathway to morondom. Perhaps a spoken intellectual equivalent to greengrocer's apostrophe.
It's a Georgian word too (მაგარი) adjective meaning hard or strong... when used with the -ა ending (it is) -- მაგარია -- it means something like "great!" (Not completely positive about this. Will need to hit up Georgian friends to hammer it down.)
Not sure re. auto-antonyms in other languages. Certainly can't think of any in Greek. Usually in English the two definitions come from separate root words. In a language etymologically rich but phonologically poor, this creates things like this sometimes.
The only interesting slightly-related fact about Greek is that past and future have their directions swapped from English. You look 'behind you' into the future and 'in front' into the past. We're walking through life backwards, because (naturally) the past is the only thing we clearly see. Go figure.
If the definition below is accurate, I would extremely doubt anything but Latin 'amor' "love" for the amo- part..."maxia" prob. from some English source?
All the etymologies given seem to be for litter (group of animals). I was wondering if litter (trash) could be from the same Latin root whence literature?
Also Czech, "slovník", from "slova" -- though I don't know what the -nik does. Rather doubt it has anything to do with -nik as in 'peacenik'. If I knew a little less Czech I'd be tempted to set it down as one of the language's interminable diminutives, but that wouldn't make sense anyway...
This usage surprised me greatly the first time I saw it. I've seen in a few times since, mostly in archaic concepts, for example in this valediction: "Remember me, who am your faithful and obedient servant..." I guess "who is" would be the modern usage, but I'm pressed to find out why. Somehow everything's moved to the 3rd. sg. when the 'who' is thrown in.
Edit: looking at the examples page there seems distinctly to be "I who am" and "me who am". The former doesn't sound at all odd to my ear, whereas the latter is quite strange.
When I play Scrabble with my friends, we keep all our tiles visible to everybody so that we can play cooperatively; scoring is based on subjective decisions about the prettiness of the word. Essential aim is to make the most interesting board possible.
I like this definition: "A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future."
"Mind, they say, rules the world. But what rules the mind? The body. And the body (follow me closely here) lies at the mercy of the most omnipotent of all mortal potentates — the Chemist."
The longest and only 7-letter alphaliteral that I actually recognised as a word. (Also bellowy, which I discount because it sounds stupid, and beefily, which I discount because I don't want to have to write this twice on two words. aegilops is the actual longest.)
Actually, I'm not incredibly sure exactly how it's pronounced -- I originated it from literary rather than verbal sources, and my Czech isn't the greatest; rolig would be able to pronounce it much closer to actual than I would. But all that said, I've given it how it sounds in my head at milosrdenstvi.
I love this turn of phrase; such a wonderful way to express come what may. "I'll have that blueberry by five o'clock tomorrow, and devil take the hindmost."
The λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυποτριμματοσιλφιοκαραβομελιτοκατακεχυμενοκιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττοπεριστεραλεκτρυονοπτοκεφαλλιοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳοσιραιοβαφητραγανοπτερύγων is listed by Liddell & Scott as "the name of a dish compounded of all kinds of dainties, fish, flesh, fowl, and sauces", and is unimaginatively rendered by lazy translators "bill of fare". Other, nobler-hearted classicists render it in paragraph form, and one edition that unfortunately I don't have with me translated it literally with a lot of hyphens. Wiktionary has definitions of the various foods that make it up. The word appears as the climax of the comedy "Assemblywomen" and IMO is even funnier in context.
Gosh, there's an absolutely beautiful piece of classical music by Bach, one of my favorites, called Air on a G String. But I'm always embarrassed to call it that...I end up calling it Air from the Third Suite, which I guess could also be misinterpreted, but not nearly so readily.
I can't believe you haven't heard of Milo, either, with all the time I've been around...
On another note, I just opened a Dove chocolate -- you know, the kind with the really cheesy inspirational messages on the inside of the wrapper. I like to have a chocolate every now and then, but the wrapper told me, "YOU are that superwoman. Enjoy!" Now, I'm a far cry from anything resembling our bizarrely Nietzschean comic character, but it would take a whole lot more to make me a superwoman...I can't help but feel like I'm either under a stigma or the wrong end of a stereotype or something like that...
By Hercules! You know, I've been coming to Wordienik for all these years practically expiring in my great hope to find a remedy for constipation that isn't as terribly...unnatural...as the one I currently use. And now, my friends, here it is! O, modified rapture!
So I read this phrase a lot in old books. Anybody have a clue as to why they would actually say it this way, instead of "must" or "needs to" as we would in modern syntax?
Personally, I prefer Esquimaux. Did you know you can expect to see that spelling around twice a month? Now get out of here and start wondering where the other one's going to be.
I don't like having to putter all over the website looking for the feedback page, and there's no search that works for profiles yet, but I don't want to make a bookmark So, for my convenience and that of anyone else who wants to use it, this is a link to the feedback page.
"mamao chveno", the vocative of "Our Father"; hence the Georgian name for the Lord's prayer.
I added this to test the ა and ო characters and they seem to have added just fine which suggests to me that they may have just corrupted in the move but aren't incompatible with things newly added. If need be I can reconstruct the words in the list that are messed up...
" To my lorikeet, Buttons, I leave the remaining sum total of all assets in my estate, real and liquid, including cash, securities, land, fine art, jewelry, gold, and McDonald's Monopoly game pieces, because that's the kind of crazy thing that wealthy, mean-spirited old lunatics like me really enjoy."
Not a particularly big deal -- but my list Words from Georgia has some of its characters messed up since the move. As far as I can tell it's only ა and ო (an and on, Unicode U+10D0 and U+10DD) that don't work. Being vowels, however, they're kinda in almost every word...
The story of Sybaris, an ancient and opulent city, is quite amusing. They taught their horses to dance when pipe music was played; and thus their cavalry was utterly useless when they were attacked by a band of musicians.
I think, actually, this is supposed to be cicatrizant. I had been hoping for some really cool definition related to the Greek trix, hair, but apparently not.
I think my chief objection to this list -- although all of them are very nice words indeed -- is that I could far too easily put them all into one sentence.
I get more picky when responding to the questions "How's it going" or "How are you doing" -- doing good is very different from doing well, just like smelling good is very different from smelling well.
Spelled archaically as helpmeet, and both spelled and incorrectly pronounced that way, sometimes even as help meet, and even definitionally interpreted from the modern definitions of those words, by people who as far as their practice of Christianity goes never bothered to notice that the 1600s were over. (Those are interesting sorts of people. Quite often they have the best of hearts while being frightfully backward.)
Re: marky's comment, I've received some fascinating commentary about that from a friend of mine, one of the smartest people I know, who some time ago stopped being a lesbian and now raises two children... Most of it probably wouldn't fly here, so I won't bother to repeat it; still, as I said, it's a fascinating point of view...
I realized today I mostly unconsciously cut out this word, especially in its conjunctionary uses, as much as possible. I wonder if this will be cited as Part of My Unique Style someday when I am a famous writer.
Aren't we all getting a bit high and mighty here! Regular old umbrage ain't good enough for the likes o' ye! Well, now, since you don't want any of it, I'll just take some for myself!
It seems that folks have been pretty encyclopaedic, especially bilby, about what feelings are and aren't, so I don't have a whole lot to add. Reiterating that I have faith in y'all that you're going to work things out. I know it. You've all made awesome things before and you're going to make something awesome again. We just need time for it.
I think, though, that one of the things I liked best about Wordie (or I suppose I should call it YOW) was how practically everything came from the users: the etymologies and examples and often the definitions, as well as the fun conversations and the organisation of everything into lists. What I'm afraid of is that that's going to attenuate on Wordnik, now that we have things pulled from other sources so much more powerfully. I love the Examples -- I've found several awesome books from there already -- and the definitions are so much nicer, if with a little less character, than WeirdNet -- but I don't want to come to see everything that the computers have come up with. I want to see a word and see everything the community's come up with. If I just wanted a pre-written definition or an etymology, I'd go to Merriam-Webster Online.
Basically: user content more to the front! I know a lot of old Wordies in their hearts want the comment page to be the default page again, and I know that's not our goal, but I'm sure with all the bright minds about we'll wake up to some ingenious solution someday. Anyway, I've said enough.
Comments by milosrdenstvi
Show previous 200 comments...
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
milosrdenstvi commented on the word avocado
In Peru, the word is completely different -- palta.
October 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word agelast
I was your agelast June, I think.
October 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word moistly
That is kind of awesome.
September 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word catechetical
Somebody mentioned this word in conversation today and I spent 25 minutes at my wits' end trying to spell it to myself. I think this is my problem:
catechism
catechumen
catechesis
Why on earth are the vowels different?
September 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list mongery
Yay! I was just wondering today my dating-to-high-school question of whether a g in monger is hard or soft (it's hard, apparently). Etymologies, anyone?
September 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list british-insults
bounder.
September 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word vodka
Comes in handy sometimes.
September 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list sports-teams-wed-like-to-see
AH THE LIST NAME HAS AN APOSTROPHE TOO MANY
September 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-from-greek-history-and-philosophy
Excellent words & etymologies! Hope to see more of these.
September 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list lost-for-word
I think there is an extant word for someone who is overly excited about the future or technological achievement. Can anyone think of one or make one up whose intent is clearly realised?
September 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hatred
Any examples that don't survive in modern English?
August 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word God-botherer
"One who bothers God" seems a simpler and more natural definition than "one who bothers by means of God". Also, the second definition has excellent synonyms in the form of fanatic or fundamentalist, while the first seems a very clever way to say in one word what we do not have the English capacity for otherwise.
August 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word cuck
As in a cuck in the liver.
August 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user Telofy
"Telofies" sounds like some unfortunate brand of tissue paper!
August 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word eyen
I was reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the other day and was really delighted to run across the word yye-lyddes.
August 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Perú
There's been a decent amount of Italian influence in that part of South America (more in Argentina and Chile, though) -- at any rate, I wouldn't at all be surprised.
*listens for echo* ......egg pasta......egg pasta.......
*EDIT*: and lo and behold, Wiktionary proclaims:
"...from Italian tagliarini."
August 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word pharyngula
I thought that was a pluteus!
August 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user Telofy
Neither it nor octopi. Even rhinoceros has been effectively Anglicized by the softening of the c. I find the occasional use of octopodes rather merry and diverting, but platypodes suffers vocalically, in my opinion, because the upsilon has become a short i in the form of y, and thus the archaical forms simply don't flow.
For some reason, though, English has never seriously adopted Greek plurals for any of its words (that I can think of, at any rate), and thus I would approach any claimed English plurals based on Greek rules in the spirit of anything other that classicism or cheerful play with the tendency to cast aspersions.
August 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Perú
In fact, I had a non-Cavendish banana, something called "island banana" which was diamond shaped, pink, and rather sweet.
August 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user Telofy
Had he been Greek and ancient (to the best of my knowledge) he would have pronounced /ˈkokyges/ for κόκκυγες. Sheldon's pronunciation is typical of loose British-classicist transliterations up to the beginning of the 20th century, which would normalize Greek words into Latin and then normalize the Latin into English, thus giving us soft g's for hard, soft and hard c's for k's, and vowel lengthening. Most words introduced in this way are by now bona fide English words, and are better treated as such than as Greek words. But if they are to be thought of as Greek, they ought (in my opinion) to be thought of so in all aspects.
I'm afraid I'm not really referencing anything; I just needed something to compare inconsistent pedants to, and the phrase came to my mind -- perhaps because I would hear people say "ajos y cebollas" every now and then in Peru, but I have no idea if this is an appropriate context for that.
August 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user Telofy
Etymologyically coccyx pluralises to coccyges, as a type-3 Greek noun (from a word cognate with "cuckoo", apparently). But if one does that, one also ought pronounce it with all c's hard. An inconsistent pedant is merely garlic and onions.
August 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Perú
Possibly the most interesting words were the ones anomalous to other Spanish. Examples: tallarin for espagueti, chompa for sueter, medias for calzinetas, chanilla for bufanda, chupete for puleta. I also found the first person plural imperfect subjunctive perfect helping verb hubiéramos highly and unintentionally comic.
Now, somebody needs to tell me where all the good pages happened.
August 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list hi-you
Hilo, Hawaii
June 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list hi-you
Do any of us have a Mr. Falutin in our lives?
June 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user hernesheir
Yay! What a wonderful mouthful! თვალჩრელიძე, I'd guess.
June 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word machatschkiite
I want to see a mineral named after a place in Georgia.
June 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word truthiness
Haven't really seen this one in a while. Is it sticking?
June 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Si ursus essem, ursus fabulans essem
Si ursus essem, ursus fufluns essem.
June 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user chelster
and, html fail. Sorry. (Still can't edit my own comments...)
June 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user chelster
Wait wait wait! I just realized, you're the same rubber as put this out. I loved that! I've been going back to it for years and feeling guilty every time!
June 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user chelster
I think contemner is inferier.
June 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list how-do-i-get-boys-to-like-me
Read Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca & other Stoic philosophers. Practice their teachings. All will be well.
Is it important merely to have a boy like you, or does the character of aforementioned boy carry any importance?
June 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word blent
...
A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised, and robed as destinies.
...
Philip Larkin, Church Going
June 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word etymology
As do I - and even my mother, who is an entomologist.
June 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list woulda--coulda--shoulda
Sounds about right.
June 12, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list woulda--coulda--shoulda
Well, in this case I'd say a woulda is a volition or desire to perform something, of which one is conscious before his ability to perform such, represented by a coulda (with the shoulda, of course, being obligation). The potentiality, of course, is pre-existent, but that is usually irrelevant to anyone's consideration, as it is only pre-existent in time and not in perception.
June 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list umbrellas-and-parasols
In Georgia it is a ქოლგა (kolga) but the common and colloquial term is პარაშუტი (parashuti).
June 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Perú
From The Voyages of Milosrdenstvi:
Departure: June 22
Return: August 18
No beautiful alphabet to bring back this time, I'm afraid, but maybe there will be some interesting words in Spanish.
June 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word how to hide the like button
Or alternatively, divid*="connect_widget" -- doesn't get the tweet button, but gets the like button on the main page.
June 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word how to hide the like button
For Chromers: add divid="share" to the blacklist (it gets the tweet button, too).
June 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word brellie
Also brolly.
June 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list woulda--coulda--shoulda
I've personally always woulda'd before I've coulda'd.
June 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word bounced reality check
Where would this be classified in sweet-tooth-fairy taxonomy?
June 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list plurals-of--ox---ocs--and--ocks
aurochsen? auroxen? our oxen?
June 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word talksen
Peace talks (s.) Peace talksen (pl.)
June 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word shocksen
One car has shocks. Two cars have shocksen.
June 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Spocksen
Plural of Spock or Spocks.
June 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word knoxen
Plural of knocks or Knox.
June 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word croxen
Plural of crocs.
June 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word loxen
To go with many bagels, I suppose.
June 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word diamond
In those the a's seem to create a second vowel (schwa, really) with the l's. I guess one could say that the schwa comes from the l's alone (compare homonyms vile and file) or that they aren't really disyllabic, but I don't think I would agree with either of those assertions.
June 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word diamond
Long i, monosyllabic, is represented here by -ia-. I can't think of any other words that do the same. Can anybody?
June 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word humbrella
Gosh, it's late...I'm off to slumbrella...
June 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word humbrella
And a chunderbrella...ah, nevermind.
June 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
I do wonder, though, if nesting parentheses like that is a terribly big deal. It makes me wince a little at my stylistic ineptitude, and my uncertainty of how to use née for people who I think are probably men.
June 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
And, as prolagus (ne(e) Prolagus), only if it's easy to do, otherwise I'll continue adding new comments to correct any errors of mine, as it's really not a terribly big deal.
June 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
However, I would like to be able to edit comments again, because I'm certain that I never was Milosrdentsvi, my uncertainty being with respect to Milosrdenstvi, and said ability would save the humiliation of this public record of my gross error.
:)
June 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
milosrdenstvi can't remember whether he used to be Milosrdentsvi or not. Humbly request a psychologist to help me discover my true identity.
June 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list things-that-roll-things-one-rolls-or-things-one-finds-in-a-roll
and summer, to go with spring.
June 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list things-that-roll-things-one-rolls-or-things-one-finds-in-a-roll
quarters. and jelly morton
June 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list lost-for-word
Is there a word simply for "someone who is sick"? I'm thinking I may just be excessively tired at 2 in the morning, but my mind is running through sick person, convalescent, patient, sufferer, sicko, victim, none of which quite fit...I can think of plenty of unhealthy or unwell adjectives to modify sick people, and many nouns from which someone can be ill, but nothing just to describe the person himself...who do doctors cure?
June 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word prize marrow
This marrow would be in the sense of the WordNet definitions 3 or 5.
June 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word wikipedia
Most of my friends and I call say /wɪkɪ'pidiə/, although I've heard both of yours as well. Neither bothers me too much, I guess.
June 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word grandfather clause
You know, right, that come Erin McKean's birthday, Grandfather Clause will deliver gifts to all deserving little boys and girls who have been good about using their and its correctly, helped of course by his merry and devoted band of subordinate clauses...
June 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word skerrrreeee-cherrrroo-tcherreeeeeet
See Superb Starling.
June 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Superb Starling
"The Superb Starling has a long and loud song consisting of trills and chatters. At midday it gives a softer song of repeated phrases. There are several harsh calls, the most complex of which is described as 'a shrill, screeching skerrrreeee-cherrrroo-tcherreeeeeet.'" - Wiki
June 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Superb Lyrebird
A group of lyrebirds is called a musket, according to Wiki.
June 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word laterite
A laterite -- a member of a certain class of perpetually tardy people.
May 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lateritious
Though "brick-coloured", it seems to be only used in description of anatomy, if the examples are anything to follow. (You never know when you'll need some Practical Remarks on Dropsy!)
May 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word attacked (New Zealand pronunciation)
What is the New Zealand (or new Zealand, as the case may be) pronuncation, anyway?
May 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word attacked (New Zealand pronunciation)
Were you looking for attacked new Zealand pronunciation?
May 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word macadamization
Apparently there were two separate John MacAdams after whom notable things were named. Fascinating.
May 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word tubicide
The slaughter of tubifex tubifex.
May 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word pareidolia
I *love* those cheese graters!
May 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user PossibleUnderscore
can't edit comments :(
May 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word boocoo
Knowing this English pronunciation really confused me when I began French. I knew it was wrong, but I corrected it to /ˈbukoʊ/ instead of /ˈboʊku/.
May 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user PossibleUnderscore
Did I really used to be capitalised? I was trying to remember a few days ago and couldn't for the life of me. Have I truly been decapitated? Do I care? Help me out, pundies :(
May 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list lost-for-word
Well, one of whichbe's words is godge. It has that nice gritty feeling to it, and evokes something that gets lodged in places.
May 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user ethnofinancecologist
I was going to say I found it all a great lark, but I suppose John has spoken :P
May 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user sionnach
Mine was italic a few days ago but seems to have righted itself. Still can't edit posts, though. :(
May 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word cartloads of devils
Thanks to Google Books I found another Rabelais citation for this phrase:
"You'll teach me," said Panurge, "how to recognize flies when I see them floating in milk! By all that's holy, the man's a heretic. And I mean a fully developed heretic, a mangy heretic, a heretic who ought to be burned! His soul's going to be fried by thirty thousand cartloads of devils. And do you know where? By God, my friend, he's going to roast right under Queen Prosperpina's shitting stool, right in that infernal pot where she succumbs to the fecal workings of her suppositories, on the left-hand side of that great caldron, just three feet from Lucifer's claws, dragging him down into Demigorgon's black cave! Hah! the scoundrel!"
May 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list favorite-swearwords
in the name of five hundred thousand millions of cartloads of devils!
May 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word carpet of frogs
brekekekex koax koax.
May 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word smegma
I should not have clicked on this page.
May 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user imposcillator
Nope, I'm just a scholarly imitator...
May 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word woeman
Analogous, no doubt, to foeman.
May 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list hot-names-for-guys
Unfortunately, yarb, you are preceded only by an erm.. - this may or may not be disconcerting.
May 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word peignoir
Complacencies of the peignoir...
May 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word enchiridion
Greek en (in) + cheir (hand) + diminutive... in typical use now, a handbook, doubtless influenced by the work by Epictetus of the same name, but originally could mean either handbook or dagger.
May 25, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word scrivener
When I grow up I want to work in the dead letter office.
May 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word scrivener
Bartleby!!
May 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list shambles
There's a York in England...
May 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user qroqqa
We miss you and your illimitable founts of etymological wisdom!
May 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word prerogative
Often metathesized to perogative, which is wrong.
May 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list doctor-faustus
Is there no mention of topless towers?
May 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Antwerp
Doubtless the same fellow who put the harm in harmony.
May 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list random-list-22-5-2010
I must admit I am quite impressed. Two of these I switched the case on (Intrigante and phariseeism) - one (Zufulo) didn't appear to be a word - and it was a little weird getting castrato right after sexually - but otherwise this is quite a nice assortment of ordinary words, cool words, and words I've never heard of before.
May 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word tortulous
Now who says that "random word" doesn't come up with interesting finds?
May 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word grugru
These quotes are awesome! I've always though that short u had a kind of dirty/grubby feel to it.
May 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list things-you-could-find-in-a-bakery-aisle-and-also-use-in-a-sexually-charged-sentence
and cheesecake...
May 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list things-you-could-find-in-a-bakery-aisle-and-also-use-in-a-sexually-charged-sentence
Buns...
May 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list boys
I foresee a future list: "What I Have In My Pants"
May 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word xebec
Also xebeque.
May 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word moabitess
As mentioned, a female Moabite...Ruth, I suppose, being the paramount example.
May 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word eximious
Some rather bad poetry from "Punch", which was, I suppose, the "Onion" of its day. For some reason all the online dictionaries can only come up with the first stanza of this as an example for 'eximious'. I find this deplorable.
THE HERCULES CHEAP PALETOT.
You've read the death of Hercules,
In classic tale related ;
But there the facts of his decease
Erroneously are stated :
Each schoolboy will at large recite
Fast as his Alphabeta,
How that eximious man of might
Departed on Mount Œta.
The hero, haying ceased to rove,
'Tis said, his labours ended,
To sacrifice to Father Jove,
That mountain steep ascended.
Desirous proper clothes to don,
Such as he would look nice in,
He put a Centaur tunic on,
To offer sacrifice in.
This tunic having been imbued
With Hydra's deadly poison,
Itself unto the wearer glued,
Like plaster with Spain's flies on.
Not to come off—the income-Tax
A blister of the sort is—
It stuck to him like cobbler's wax,
And stung like aqua fortis.
Such direful pangs convulsed his frame,
And pierced through bone and marrow,
That Hercules felt much the same
As toad beneath a harrow ;
Such agonies his nerves did rive,
Did trouble, vex, and tease him ;
He chose to burn himself alive,
As thinking fire would ease him.
Now, this same story is a myth,
Or mystical narration,
In which there is of truth a pith,
Involved in fabrication.
The vest that poison'd Hercules
Was bought from a slop-seller ;
It was the virus of disease
That rack'd the monster-queller.
Twas Typhus, which the garment caught
Of Misery and Famine,
Hands that for some cheap tailor wrought ;
The Hydra-story's gammon.
Such clothes are manufactured still ;
And you're besought to try 'em
In poster, puff, placard, and bill -
— If you are wise, don't buy 'em.
May 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
I edited my profile a little bit ago, and now I cannot edit my profile or any comments...also, my entire profile is in italics now but I think that's because of the # that I added.
May 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Sicut cervus
Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum,
ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsw1kdLqfec
May 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user jnuebel
Welcome to (all of??) you!
May 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Blipper
The examples create a fascinating sketch of a character. A man who takes tickets (except when he's away), who owns a merry-go-round (seriously, who doesn't envy him!) whose potential to be in certain places causes alarm to young girls, and who is somehow and tenuously connected with the absconsion of a lap-robe. Aaron Blipper, indeed!
"Blipper is my name -- Aaron Blipper," answered the man. —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair.
"I'm in charge of taking the tickets when Blipper is away." —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
"Don't look!" begged Flossie. "Maybe -- maybe Mr. Blipper is in there!" —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
"Mr. Blipper is a man who owns a merry-go-round he takes to fairs and circuses." —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
"Soon after this Blipper and his outfit left, I missed my coat, and, coming home, we found the lap robe gone." —The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
May 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ⚜
I guess somebody has to tag this with buotwc10 now, so that we'll remember it when there's voting at the end of the year.
You know...thingy...doodad...whatsit...craudestopper...
May 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word viz
I see -- and videlicet, evidently, means 'that is' or 'to wit' or 'namely'...which, I guess, is the meaning of viz. as well.
May 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word viz
I also love using viz.! I do so in many places, viz. literary essays, school papers, and self-referencing Wordnik comments. Anyone know what it actually stands for?
May 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ⚜
Another strange thing (explained, no doubt, by the vagaries of Unicode) is that the address bar displays it as ⚜, and the "Most Commented On" in Zeitgeist as some bizarre craudestopper faintly resembling an indented wristwatch.
EDIT: aforementioned craudestopper can be seen in the above paragraph. I had been attempting to say that the address bar displays it rather as the ubiquitous rectangular box, which is also how it appears when I type my comment, but not when I publish it.
EDIT 2: And, of course, in the Zeitgeist itself, the wee beastie looks like a's version all coloured in and miniaturised.
EDIT 3: Just realised, also, that probably none of you will see the craudestopper the same way as I do. In which event, the description was worthwhile.
May 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ⚜
May 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Shite Mega-Megahit
*begins declaiming*
Have you ever harked to the jackass wild
Which scientists call the onager?
It sounds like the laugh of a backward child
Or a hepcat on a harmonica.
*glances about suspiciously, and recommences*
But do not sneer at the jackass wild,
There is method in his heehaw,
For with maidenly blush and accent mild
The jenny-ass answers "shee-haw".
May 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lollard
The etymology I originally heard was that the Lollards would sing their church music (usually Psalms) without musical accompaniment, rather ubiquitously, and were thus said to be going around constantly singing "lol lol lol lol lol", or something of the sort.
May 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word milo milk
I love milk!
May 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word flippertigibbet
GLOUCESTER
Know'st thou the way to Dover?
EDGAR
Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Poor
Tom hath been scared out of his good wits: bless
thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend! five
fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as
Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of
stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of
mopping and mowing, who since possesses chambermaids
and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master!
Shakespeare, King Lear IV.i
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-from-georgia
OK, there's half the list fixed. I'll do the rest in another three months.
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ღვინო
ghvino -- wine. (Georgian wine is amazing!)
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ლამაზია
lamazia - "it is beautiful". One of the first words I was taught, probably before hello even. There were times (and probably, when I return, will be many more times) when, not knowing how to say anything more useful, my communications consisted of pointing at the scenery and repeating this word often. And believe me, I was being honest.
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word დილა მშვიდობისა
dila mshvidobisa - a beautiful, wonderful, and typical Georgian mouthful of consonsants is bidding you "good morning!" The counterpart for "good night" is ღამე მშვიდობისა, ghame mshvidobisa.
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word გამარჯობა
gamarjoba - hello. გამარჯობათ (gamarjobat) formally.
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word სამედიცინა
sameditsina - hospital. Here we see the ubiquitous Georgian prefix "sa-" meaning "place of"... making a hospital a "place of meditsin".
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ლიმონათი
limonati -- "lemonade", which is actually not lemonade but really really good grape soda. Sodas in Georgia (besides Coke, Pepsi, and Fanta) -- the ones from the local bottler Natakhtari (ნათახთარი... not sure about the transliteration) are fascinatingly flavoured, with varieties commonly drunk such as cherry, raspberry, pear, and tarragon.
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word პეპელა
pepela - butterfly
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ღრუმბელი
ghrumbeli -- cloud
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ვარსკვლავი
varsklavi - star
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word beetlestomper
*fleas*
May 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word owlery
How about a growlery? Or, following Milne, a Wolery?
May 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Shite Mega-Megahit
*amasses fire extinguishers in a premeditatory manner*
May 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word in a family way
An old circumlocution for pregnant.
May 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word have a bigger fish to fry
The idiom in French translates to "have other cats to beat".
May 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word asparaginous
Most of my family likes asparagus but my mom doesn't. Whenever we cook it, she just sits in the corner, disparaginous.
May 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hot dog etiquette
There's a pretty good hot dog joint in Annapolis. They fix the age of ketchup accountability at 12, not 18.
May 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word pith
"Bread and wine, the pith and nerve of men."
Homer, The Iliad
May 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word unactualized toast
Bread is just toast in an imperfect state.
May 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word flautist
With the a as in smackdown, not as in awe-inspiring. The same way he pronounced piano, his two of which he always doughtily defended from torch-and-trebuchet-wielding mobs.
May 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word vegemite virgin
Gosh, I didn't know that eating vegemite for the first time was such an occasion that called for making a toast to your own food.
May 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word priapically
Often seen in conjunction with elves and backstroke.
May 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word to table a question
I think the autoantonym comes more strongly in the idiomatic expression "put something on the table" -- that phrase can equally mean present new information or laying old information aside.
May 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word flautist
My piano teacher, who was also a flute teacher, would say, "I am not a flautist. I do not play the flaut."
April 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word like water off a duck's back
Strange, because the general use I know for this idiom is a third one still -- when something said with hurtful intend does not bother the person it is addressed to; rather, because of either the inconsequence of the insult or the imperturbability of the addressee, it is "like water off a duck's back".
April 30, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word translate
Whoa! AWESOME new feature!
April 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word he've
a - no, I was just saying that he've as we're using it is generally pronounced disyllabically, as something a little like he'ave. He'd've I was just giving as an example of a 've word with he in it with the vowel completely assimilated, as in I've, we've.
Colloquially I'm comfortable writing should've, but I've never written or seen he've. It would look as strange to me as Should I've taken the left turn?
April 29, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word chose
Awfully useful in French, when I can't think of the right word.
April 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word he've
Well, every other 've contraction is a standard use of perfect aspect: I've gone crazy, you've gone crazy, they've gone crazy, we've gone crazy. You of course notice now the difference: he's gone crazy, she's gone crazy, it's gone crazy. The use of have here appears to be some hidden English idiom for the conditional mood, past tense. I suspect the infinitive, as when compared with the copula: I am frightened, he is frightened; should I be frightened? should he be frightened? -- and even, in fact, in regular verbs, in the solitary regular English conjugation of third person singular: I eat pizza, s/h/it eats pizza; should I eat pizza? should s/h/it eat pizza?
So I'd ask, I guess, about how these other abbreviations sound to your ear: Should I've taken the left turn? Should we've taken the left turn? If you're like me, when you try to say those out loud, you slip in a bit of a vowel between the we and the 've, even when you try to glide them together, dissimilar to the ordinary sort of we've. A much easier vocal blend (though never written out) is the past perfect, he'd've, we'd've.
April 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user doppyeast
Use square brackets.
And welcome to Wordnik.
April 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word aposiopesis
I've known her all my life, but I always called her Miss Pronunciation.
April 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word consummate
It sounds like it could be plausible in British English.
April 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word calliope
My inner classicist is wincing right now.
April 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word cilantrophobe
I love cilantro, myself...
April 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list wordniks-who-proudly-contribute-worthless-stuff--a-lot-of-dumb-comments--and-useless-words-to-the-zeitgeist-page
Don't throw cupcakes at the ducks! *shocked*
April 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Eyjafjallajökull
Stromboli???
April 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word geyser
I was tempted to complain about those two examples, mostly because I've never heard of either of them before. They seem to belong more to a sort of technical jargon than 'proper English'. I mean, everybody knows what a geyser is.
On further thoughts, I decided that writing up a rant wasn't worth it. But there you have it, my rant unranted...
April 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Athenry
Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry
April 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word banana boat
I went camping once with this girl who had concocted an ingenious treat she called a 'banana boat'. She slit a banana down the side, scooped out about half of it, filled the resultant empty space with peanut butter, bar chocolate, and marshmellows, folded everything back up, wrapped in aluminum foil and stuck in the coals till it was all mushy and melty. Sweetest, sugariest, stickiest, messiest banana I've had in my life. And Hercules, was it good.
April 16, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word zed
Thou whoreson zed, unnecessary letter!
April 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Diomedes
Diomedes, master of horses!
April 15, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
JM is doing his best to ameliorate the comment to spam ratio!
April 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word had
"What do we want of another breed? Isn't one breed enough? Had is had, and your tricking it out in a fresh way of spelling isn't going to make it any hadder than it was before; now you know that yourself."
"But there is a distinction--they are not just the same Hads."
"How do you make it out?"
"Well, you use that first Had when you are referring to something that happened at a named and sharp and perfectly definite moment; you use the other when the thing happened at a vaguely defined time and in a more prolonged and indefinitely continuous way."
'Why, doctor, it is pure nonsense; you know it yourself. Look here: If I have had a had, or have wanted to have had a had, or was in a position right then and there to have had a had that hadn't had any chance to go out hadding on account of this foolish discrimination which lets one Had go hadding in any kind of indefinite grammatical weather but restricts the other one to definite and datable meteoric convulsions, and keeps it pining around and watching the barometer all the time, and liable to get sick through confinement and lack of exercise, and all that sort of thing, why--why, the inhumanity of it is enough, let alone the wanton superfluity and uselessness of any such a loafing consumptive hospital-bird of a Had taking up room and cumbering the place for nothing. These finical refinements revolt me; it is not right, it is not honorable; it is constructive nepotism to keep in office a Had that is so delicate it can't come out when the wind's in the nor'west--I won't have this dude on the payroll. Cancel his exequator; and look here--"
From Mark Twain's Italian with Grammar
April 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word brontosaurus
At midnight in the museum hall
The fossils gathered for a ball
There were no drums or saxophones,
But just the clatter of their bones,
A rolling, rattling, carefree circus
Of mammoth polkas and mazurkas.
Pterodactyls and brontosauruses
Sang ghostly prehistoric choruses.
Amid the mastodontic wassail
I caught the eye of one small fossil.
"Cheer up, sad world," he said, and winked-
"It's kind of fun to be extinct."
Ogden Nash (of course)
April 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Humperdink
Properly Humperdinck.
April 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mausoleum
I see we are expected to tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin.
April 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word that that
This is why I rarely if ever use 'that' as a conjuction.
April 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user azeem123
I think this must be an elaborate setup for an Eastern Orthodox April Fools'.
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word butter of antimony
Said list now found at Lavoiſier.
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word dephlogisticated air
I don't think this one is actually Lavoisier, but another really cool term from the same early-modern-chemistry course I took. It was the original term for oxygen (contrary to my original assertion on dephlogisticated), because of the current scientific theory of phlogiston, a substance the combination with which would produce fire. Pure oxygen supports combustion better than normal air; thus it was supposed to have more capacity to combine with phlogiston, and naturally this would be because it didn't have any in the first place.
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mineral butter
I'll have to look this one up again. It sounds frightful.
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Venus crystals
Venus was classically associated with copper (as the sun with gold, moon with silver, Mars with iron, Jupiter with tin, Saturn with lead, and Mercury with...well, you can guess.) So Venus crystals would be an archaic term for a copper oxide. Which one, I won't be able to tell you till I find my source texts again. (See also lunar caustic.)
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word oil of vitriol
Sulphuric acid.
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word martial ethiops
A kind of iron oxide, I think.
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word tendernesses
And if all else fails, try tenderneffes.
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ſ
Well, I decided at laſt to put up the liſt. After creation and deſcription, however, I realiſed that I had lent my Lavoiſier to my younger brother, and furthermore could not find the companion manual on a brief ſearch. So, I ſhall add the entries I already mentioned from butter of antimony and add the reſt when I can actually find my ſource material.
April 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list vowels-only--and-i-mean--only
I don't know if you should count y when it's consonantal as in yo-yo.
Otherwise, wow.
April 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ſ
I had a class where we read an old version of Lavoisier, the French chemist. Of course he was referred to as Lavoifier. We had much merriment over philofophy, neceffities, and fuchlike... and, of course, when we got to a certain section where he instructed us to suck the air out of a tube...well, I'll let your imagination take over.
April 8, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word heterozygosity
Not to mention ა, ე, ი, ო, and უ.
April 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Tomb-Sweeping Day
At first I thought this was some strange synonym for Easter!
April 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user celizane
Welcome to Wordnik! Hope you enjoy your stay.
April 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list pterodactyl-s-game-of-postal-abbreviations
lalalalalalalala
April 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word The Frogs
And, of course the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes itself:
βρεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ,
βρεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ!
Brekekekex koax koax,
Brekekekex koax koax!
April 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word jacob's ladder
Also here, for the pretty atmospheric effect.
April 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lol
Speaking of "win", excessive use of that word (and its counterpart/nonantonym, "fail") is another sure pathway to morondom. Perhaps a spoken intellectual equivalent to greengrocer's apostrophe.
April 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word magari
It's a Georgian word too (მაგარი) adjective meaning hard or strong... when used with the -ა ending (it is) -- მაგარია -- it means something like "great!" (Not completely positive about this. Will need to hit up Georgian friends to hammer it down.)
April 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lol
There is no surer way to sound like a moron than to use this word in spoken conversation.
April 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user trinem
Not sure re. auto-antonyms in other languages. Certainly can't think of any in Greek. Usually in English the two definitions come from separate root words. In a language etymologically rich but phonologically poor, this creates things like this sometimes.
The only interesting slightly-related fact about Greek is that past and future have their directions swapped from English. You look 'behind you' into the future and 'in front' into the past. We're walking through life backwards, because (naturally) the past is the only thing we clearly see. Go figure.
April 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user paulb44
Never heard the word before, but my instinct's telling me to spell that punctiliar.
Welcome to Wordnik!
March 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user trinem
Data's only been running for a few months, so an obscurity like girnels is still pretty spotty on the lookups. The singular, girnel, has 45.
Welcome to Wordnik!
March 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word tempfiles
Yes, please go.
March 31, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word corpuscles
Once, a friend hilariously mispronounced this to rhyme with popsicles.
March 25, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list eggcorns
My sister uses day-in-age for day and age.
March 25, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word rnoresis
The latest dread disease.
March 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Nouakchott
eeekkk!
March 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word stanzo
Call you 'em stanzos?
March 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word syboleth
See shibboleth and sibboleth.
March 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word morays
O tempura! O morays!
March 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word █████
Comes from Greek ██, meaning ██, and ███, meaning ████████ -- hence █████.
March 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word amomaxia
Alternatively, it could be abbreviation for "ammunition"
March 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word amomaxia
If the definition below is accurate, I would extremely doubt anything but Latin 'amor' "love" for the amo- part..."maxia" prob. from some English source?
March 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word cloche
Cloche hats are elegant! I don't wear them personally, being rather of the male persuasion, but I would instantly approve any wearing of such.
March 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word litter
All the etymologies given seem to be for litter (group of animals). I was wondering if litter (trash) could be from the same Latin root whence literature?
March 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list poisons
Mithridates, he died old...
March 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Wordnik
Also Czech, "slovník", from "slova" -- though I don't know what the -nik does. Rather doubt it has anything to do with -nik as in 'peacenik'. If I knew a little less Czech I'd be tempted to set it down as one of the language's interminable diminutives, but that wouldn't make sense anyway...
March 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
*throws a few hyphens in hopes to appease the black-tarantula in the ban---an-a-bunch--*
March 11, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
*begins baking the banana-bread, making sure to add the chocolate chips and the hyphen*
March 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word reel
We're reel happy to have you here...
March 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user dontcry
No... :(
March 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word reel
raggle taggle ruminants?
March 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list hats-off
Oops, forgot to close a quotation mark.
March 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word megalogoi
Singular, of course, being megalogos.
March 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list hats-off
If any of the rest of you slackers needs a reason to start a hat collection, this list will help.
March 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word monadnock
Possible having something to do with the fearsome monads?!
March 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word who am
This usage surprised me greatly the first time I saw it. I've seen in a few times since, mostly in archaic concepts, for example in this valediction: "Remember me, who am your faithful and obedient servant..." I guess "who is" would be the modern usage, but I'm pressed to find out why. Somehow everything's moved to the 3rd. sg. when the 'who' is thrown in.
Edit: looking at the examples page there seems distinctly to be "I who am" and "me who am". The former doesn't sound at all odd to my ear, whereas the latter is quite strange.
March 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word buss
"A small vessel of from fifty to seventy tons, often used in herring fishery."
March 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list words-from-georgia
I really really need to take half an hour and fix this list. Sometime in the eternal tomorrow...
March 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word murder
How about a "cacaphony" of cows?
February 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word anthrax
Also the Greek word for dirt.
February 25, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word head
Navy slang for bathroom. See also rears.
February 25, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word almost almost Solveig
*eats*
*shoots*
*leaves*
February 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word bethimbled
See also bedinner.
February 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word finnish profanity
See also finish profanity.
February 20, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list expressions-of-disbelief-or-disagreement
Love this list!
February 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word kilaminjaro
When you're bored with that, you can try killamanjaro.
February 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word almost Solveig
არაფერს!
February 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers
the...
February 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Exelauno
Well, technically it would be Greek for "I march forth". Simple "march forth" would be "exelaune"
February 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word almost Solveig
ფროგაპლოს, ბაყაყი...
February 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user john
should be center-top of your profile page, to the right of your name
February 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word rhyton
I guess there's no hope of recovery at all now. It's ruined forever. By both of us. And we just keep making it worse.
Crap.
February 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word rhyton
Yarb, you ruined it!
February 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user elizabeth123
Hi!
February 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word illude
When I play Scrabble with my friends, we keep all our tiles visible to everybody so that we can play cooperatively; scoring is based on subjective decisions about the prettiness of the word. Essential aim is to make the most interesting board possible.
February 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
Pavlova is amazing. (Although my experience consisted of apples and chocolate as well.)
February 16, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word time
I like this definition: "A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future."
February 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word the pips
My good friend Philip goes by "Pip" sometimes. Also, there's a kind of amusing Sherlock Holmes story called "The Five Orange Pips".
February 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word almost Solveig
*passes out thread*
*passes out*
February 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word chemist
"Mind, they say, rules the world. But what rules the mind? The body. And the body (follow me closely here) lies at the mercy of the most omnipotent of all mortal potentates — the Chemist."
-- Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White
February 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word almost Solveig
Look over here, guys! Bilby found some thread. Neither of us have any idea what it's here for...
February 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word voxel
Also, a 3-dimensional pixel "volumetric pixel"
February 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word cherries
's Peanut Butter Cups
February 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word almost Solveig
*calls the tune*
February 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word billowy
The longest and only 7-letter alphaliteral that I actually recognised as a word. (Also bellowy, which I discount because it sounds stupid, and beefily, which I discount because I don't want to have to write this twice on two words. aegilops is the actual longest.)
February 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word knotty
Distinguished by being the last 6-letter alphaliteral in alphabetical order.
February 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word The List-Huggers
Almost reminds me of The Lotos-Eaters.
February 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list only-on-wordie
*hugs the cupcakes*
February 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list only-on-wordie
*feels left out of the hug*
February 6, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word preshrunk
As used in "Charlotte's Web".
February 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user milosrdenstvi
Actually, I'm not incredibly sure exactly how it's pronounced -- I originated it from literary rather than verbal sources, and my Czech isn't the greatest; rolig would be able to pronounce it much closer to actual than I would. But all that said, I've given it how it sounds in my head at milosrdenstvi.
February 5, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
I always thought of it as whipped cream, actually...
February 4, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
I have a whole list of songs which are actually about me. Coincidentally enough, some of them are about her, too.
February 3, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Namarrgan
Put it on the bilby feedback page!
February 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user sionnach
Did bilby just misuse you're?!
*aghast*
February 2, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Alembic
February 1, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word curlew
The sea is flecked with bars of gray,
The dull dead wind is out of tune,
And like a withered leaf the moon
Is blown across the stormy bay.
Etched clear upon the pallid sand
The black boat lies: a sailor boy
Clambers aboard in careless joy
With laughing face and gleaming hand.
And overhead the curlews cry,
Where through the dusky upland grass
The young brown-throated reapers pass,
Like silhouettes against the sky.
-- Oscar Wilde
January 28, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word devil-take-the-hindmost
I love this turn of phrase; such a wonderful way to express come what may. "I'll have that blueberry by five o'clock tomorrow, and devil take the hindmost."
January 27, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lepadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimypotrimmatosilphiotyromelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptokephaliokinklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetragalopterygon
Actually, you're both wrong; the proper spelling is lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptokephalliokinklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon.
January 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Sunt
And the 3 pl. of sum.
January 26, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lepadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimypotrimmatosilphiotyromelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptokephaliokinklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetragalopterygon
The λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυποτριμματοσιλφιοκαραβομελιτοκατακεχυμενοκιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττοπεριστεραλεκτρυονοπτοκεφαλλιοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳοσιραιοβαφητραγανοπτερύγων is listed by Liddell & Scott as "the name of a dish compounded of all kinds of dainties, fish, flesh, fowl, and sauces", and is unimaginatively rendered by lazy translators "bill of fare". Other, nobler-hearted classicists render it in paragraph form, and one edition that unfortunately I don't have with me translated it literally with a lot of hyphens. Wiktionary has definitions of the various foods that make it up. The word appears as the climax of the comedy "Assemblywomen" and IMO is even funnier in context.
January 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word de-caf
I have a friend who has a mug with a bunch of cows on it. The smallest is indicated with circle and arrow, and labelled "decaf".
January 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lepadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimypotrimmatosilphiotyromelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptokephaliokinklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetragalopterygon
Oh, Aristophanes. If you hadn't lived, we never would have guessed what we were missing.
January 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word string-theory
Gosh, there's an absolutely beautiful piece of classical music by Bach, one of my favorites, called Air on a G String. But I'm always embarrassed to call it that...I end up calling it Air from the Third Suite, which I guess could also be misinterpreted, but not nearly so readily.
January 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word yo
Philadelphians are fond of it as well. Haven't lived there since I was young but I keep it up out of nostalgia.
January 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word temple
At my school, this is the affectionate nickname for the gymnasium.
January 23, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mistresse
I expect it's a full poetic line.
January 22, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word eldritch
I'd never seen this word before reading H. P. Lovecraft. He manages to stick it at least once into each of his stories.
January 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word trickeries<
What?! A Wordnik paradox!?
Edit: And one that breaks the front page, too. Goats and monkeys!
January 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word fetor
See also foetor.
January 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word chocolate
I can't believe you haven't heard of Milo, either, with all the time I've been around...
On another note, I just opened a Dove chocolate -- you know, the kind with the really cheesy inspirational messages on the inside of the wrapper. I like to have a chocolate every now and then, but the wrapper told me, "YOU are that superwoman. Enjoy!" Now, I'm a far cry from anything resembling our bizarrely Nietzschean comic character, but it would take a whole lot more to make me a superwoman...I can't help but feel like I'm either under a stigma or the wrong end of a stereotype or something like that...
January 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the list davenport
"In coal-mining, a reëntrant corner in a working face."
I don't get it.
January 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word itsypooism
Hey, I say 'tis all the time.
January 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word werewolf
The etymology is pretty cool -- relation to Latin vir never occurred to me before.
January 19, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable
SWEET.
January 18, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word foetor
Eight hours later, the sun is rising, and I really should not have read so much H.P. Lovecraft...
January 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user jameskaren1112
By Hercules! You know, I've been coming to Wordienik for all these years practically expiring in my great hope to find a remedy for constipation that isn't as terribly...unnatural...as the one I currently use. And now, my friends, here it is! O, modified rapture!
January 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the user 100000670125292
I wonder if these 'unreasonable expectations' include 'not being a discommodious jackanapes and spamming on our website'. Think it over, Matthew.
January 14, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word bearthday
10. Days on which you find an a in your berth.
January 13, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word features
I seem to remember case-sensitivity being one of the most exciting things that Wordnik would bring...once...
I wonder if we should have different pages for wound and wound, and the suchlike. That's be clever, eh.
January 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word butter of antimony
Oooh! An old name for a mineral! These are all over Lavoisier (who is great fun to read). Also fun: flowers of zinc, butter of arsenic, martial ethiops, oil of vitriol, Venus crystals, salt of alembroth, phagadenic water, dephlogisticated air, liver ore, magister of bismuth, mineral butter, and lunar caustic.
Butter of antimony, if memory serves, is antimony trichloride.
January 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word derstand
And briefs in briefcases, no doubt.
January 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word must needs
So I read this phrase a lot in old books. Anybody have a clue as to why they would actually say it this way, instead of "must" or "needs to" as we would in modern syntax?
January 7, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mle
After all, it could be Emily.
December 31, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word woty09
I nominate wayz-goose (for record at this page)
December 28, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the list wilfred-j--funks--ten-most-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language--1932--1933
I think he was just jealous, 'cause his name was Wilfred Funk. Things would have been different if his name had been Melody Murmuring...
December 27, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word wayz-goose
Nominated for woty09.
December 27, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word eskimo
Personally, I prefer Esquimaux. Did you know you can expect to see that spelling around twice a month? Now get out of here and start wondering where the other one's going to be.
December 25, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Feedback
I don't like having to putter all over the website looking for the feedback page, and there's no search that works for profiles yet, but I don't want to make a bookmark So, for my convenience and that of anyone else who wants to use it, this is a link to the feedback page.
December 24, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
See comments on მამაო ჩვენო for further about Georgian letters problem.
December 24, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word მამაო ჩვენო
"mamao chveno", the vocative of "Our Father"; hence the Georgian name for the Lord's prayer.
I added this to test the ა and ო characters and they seem to have added just fine which suggests to me that they may have just corrupted in the move but aren't incompatible with things newly added. If need be I can reconstruct the words in the list that are messed up...
December 24, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ice-cream
Should we not call it a punctuation-mark?
December 23, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word apricock
The precocious fruit.
December 23, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word perse
All the examples are wrong!
December 23, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ice-cream
I love hyphenating things like this. It makes me feel so wonderfully Victorian.
December 23, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the list jams--jellies--and-preserves
Hah! Love roll morton!
December 23, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the list jams--jellies--and-preserves
See, that one was pretty obvious. I'm relying on the rest of you Wordnikies for the truly outrageous ones!
December 22, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the user petrbuben
Callicles...
December 22, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lorikeet
Amusing example:
" To my lorikeet, Buttons, I leave the remaining sum total of all assets in my estate, real and liquid, including cash, securities, land, fine art, jewelry, gold, and McDonald's Monopoly game pieces, because that's the kind of crazy thing that wealthy, mean-spirited old lunatics like me really enjoy."
December 22, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word have yourself a merry little christmas
For some reason I always thought a Carol was a bit like a Carmen.
December 22, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word TLA
Three Letter Acronym.
December 21, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word TMI
I have two good friends married to nurses. This TLA is very well used among us.
December 21, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word nicer
Trichobezoars!
December 21, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word settler
If it is somewhere, say, like Catan.
December 21, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mkhedruli
მხედრული in script. Sort of means "military" -- a more efficient alphabet than was used by the church, which came into universal adoption.
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
Not a particularly big deal -- but my list Words from Georgia has some of its characters messed up since the move. As far as I can tell it's only ა and ო (an and on, Unicode U+10D0 and U+10DD) that don't work. Being vowels, however, they're kinda in almost every word...
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word sybaritic
The story of Sybaris, an ancient and opulent city, is quite amusing. They taught their horses to dance when pipe music was played; and thus their cavalry was utterly useless when they were attacked by a band of musicians.
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word lemur
Also a sort of ghost. See the plural lemures.
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word cicatricizant
I think, actually, this is supposed to be cicatrizant. I had been hoping for some really cool definition related to the Greek trix, hair, but apparently not.
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word hebdomadary
A pretty cool synonym for "weekly".
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word rubric
A fascinating etymology for an an annoyingly overused word.
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word adumbrate
A fancy way of saying 'sketch out' or something of the sort
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word ecpyrosis
Destruction by fire!!!
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word concinnity
Awesome in the 19th century. Pretentious in the 21st.
I wonder if I could make a list like that? Probably not; I'm pretty much as pretentious as they come...
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the list found-reading
Added a bunch from "The Name of the Rose". It was kind of useful having both a Latin and English dictionary at hand while going through it!
December 20, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the list wilfred-j--funks--ten-most-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language--1932--1933
I think my chief objection to this list -- although all of them are very nice words indeed -- is that I could far too easily put them all into one sentence.
December 19, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Nebraska
Incidentally, I love that blog.
December 18, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word passing strange
I think 'passing' might be some shortened form of 'surpassingly'...?
December 16, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word good
I get more picky when responding to the questions "How's it going" or "How are you doing" -- doing good is very different from doing well, just like smelling good is very different from smelling well.
December 14, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word gangtelope
I am very confused exactly why this would be pronounced 'gauntlet'??
December 13, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the user dontcry
dc -- if you want, I can come by sometime next week and see if I can fix it for you...
December 13, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the list things-the-world-is-concerned-about-according-to-google
Added all three. In fact, I'm opening this up. Knock yerselves out.
December 12, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word position-by
Doubtless they all came from Positionby.
December 12, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word soupçon
Thanks!
December 12, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word helpmate
Spelled archaically as helpmeet, and both spelled and incorrectly pronounced that way, sometimes even as help meet, and even definitionally interpreted from the modern definitions of those words, by people who as far as their practice of Christianity goes never bothered to notice that the 1600s were over. (Those are interesting sorts of people. Quite often they have the best of hearts while being frightfully backward.)
December 12, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the list joann
Bizarre perhaps for the Northern hemisphere...
December 12, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Wordnik
Nik!
December 11, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the user PossibleUnderscore
Hey, look at me, I notice comments that people put on my profile in...24 days...sorry about that...
Anyway, I already more or less said the whole of it, but here it is for completeness' sake:
Q: What international disasters occurred when the waiter dropped the platter in the restaurant?
A: The fall of Turkey, the ruin of Greece, and the breaking up of China.
As you can see, kind of a childish joke, but the capitonyms reminded me of it. And it still makes me pretty happy imagining it.
December 11, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word soupçon
Could someone pronounce this? I've been wondering my whole life how to pronounce this.
December 11, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the user feedback
Oush...it *may* be something as simple as clearing the cache or even just pressing F5.
December 11, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word [anything] - gate
It's very unfortunate.
December 11, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word fufluns
We must move some pronunciations here.
December 10, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the user jonybolt
Seven hundred different kinds of variegated, undulating, phosphorescent shit, no less.
December 10, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word It sucks
Re: marky's comment, I've received some fascinating commentary about that from a friend of mine, one of the smartest people I know, who some time ago stopped being a lesbian and now raises two children... Most of it probably wouldn't fly here, so I won't bother to repeat it; still, as I said, it's a fascinating point of view...
December 10, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word fantasticles
"the best greek philosopher", if you actually do want to go for a pun, would be Aristotle. "Ariston" = "best" in Greek.
This looks more like something akin to popsicles or icicles.
December 8, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word eleven
I was wondering today how "eleven" came from "one"; certainly not as obvious as "twelve" from "two". The etymologies here didn't help out too much.
Also, first and second. ???
December 7, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word cailin
Nor has there been discovered any attested intelligent usage of EVar. Ever. *grump grump*
December 7, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word a bell in every tooth
I like it! I need to use this about some people!
December 6, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word that
I realized today I mostly unconsciously cut out this word, especially in its conjunctionary uses, as much as possible. I wonder if this will be cited as Part of My Unique Style someday when I am a famous writer.
December 6, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word faulchion
A sort of sword (see falchion. Almost qualifies for my "Words with aunch in them", but not quite.
December 5, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word whyleare
"While ere", a short time ago, just now.
December 5, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word unperfite
Seems to mean something like "uncompleted". Also written as vnperfite.
December 5, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word you're something of a hotdog, aren't you
See look, I have a microphone now. Best decision I've made in at least three days.
December 5, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word bonking
I always thought Little Bunny Foo Foo bopped instead of bonked.
December 4, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word vegemite virgin
Is neat Nutella like neat whiskey?
December 4, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word proseedcake
See crustimoney.
December 3, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word microastrology
First parsed by my brain at least as mic-roast-rology.
December 3, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word I am affronted
Then Tabitha Twitchit came down the garden and found her kittens on the wall with no clothes on.
She pulled them off the wall, smacked them, and took them back to the house.
"My friends will arrive in a minute, and you are not fit to be seen; I am affronted," said Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit.
She sent them upstairs; and I am sorry to say she told her friends that they were in bed with the measles; which was not true.
-- Beatrix Potter, "The Tale of Tom Kitten"
See also soporific.
December 2, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word umbrage
YES -- and even completely innocent people, when told to "look up umbrage", will spell it a la the Potteress. MDJRKL!
December 2, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word the da vinci cod
Ha, ha, ha!
December 1, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the list story-of-a-missing-s
Wasn't there something here about chicken catch-a-tory? Or was that somewhere else?
December 1, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word Umbrage
Aren't we all getting a bit high and mighty here! Regular old umbrage ain't good enough for the likes o' ye! Well, now, since you don't want any of it, I'll just take some for myself!
November 30, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word wordnik
It seems that folks have been pretty encyclopaedic, especially bilby, about what feelings are and aren't, so I don't have a whole lot to add. Reiterating that I have faith in y'all that you're going to work things out. I know it. You've all made awesome things before and you're going to make something awesome again. We just need time for it.
I think, though, that one of the things I liked best about Wordie (or I suppose I should call it YOW) was how practically everything came from the users: the etymologies and examples and often the definitions, as well as the fun conversations and the organisation of everything into lists. What I'm afraid of is that that's going to attenuate on Wordnik, now that we have things pulled from other sources so much more powerfully. I love the Examples -- I've found several awesome books from there already -- and the definitions are so much nicer, if with a little less character, than WeirdNet -- but I don't want to come to see everything that the computers have come up with. I want to see a word and see everything the community's come up with. If I just wanted a pre-written definition or an etymology, I'd go to Merriam-Webster Online.
Basically: user content more to the front! I know a lot of old Wordies in their hearts want the comment page to be the default page again, and I know that's not our goal, but I'm sure with all the bright minds about we'll wake up to some ingenious solution someday. Anyway, I've said enough.
November 29, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word BHAG
I had to look this one up after the discussion on wordnik. It apparently stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
November 29, 2009
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