Hi mollusque. Do you know of any alphabet/font source showing reversed letters that could be C & P-d. Here's a sample that gave me the idea from Teresa's FrogBlog:
See, we've all had that Wordnik moment of "that word doesn't look right". From Phil Plait ("Bad Astronomer" on twitter): "Had to type the word "gauze" for a post going up tomorrow. The word looks wrong no matter how I spell it. Gauze. Gawz. Gouze. Snooki."
An Expy is a exported cartoon character. It's happening a lot to the Cathy character that was just retired from the comics. More here. (link found in a Frogapplause comic strip comment)
Let’s play a game. We’ll each name three consecutive outcomes of a coin toss (for example, tails-heads-heads, or THH). Then we’ll flip a coin repeatedly until one of our chosen runs appears. That player wins.
Is there any strategy you can take to improve your chance of beating me? Strangely, there is. When I’ve named my triplet (say, HTH), take the complement of the center symbol and add it to the beginning, and then discard the last symbol (here yielding HHT). This new triplet will be more likely to appear than mine.
The remarkable thing is that this always works. No matter what triplet I pick, this method will always produce a triplet that is more likely to appear than mine. It was discovered by Barry Wolk of the University of Manitoba, building on a discovery by Walter Penney.
"In analyzing the difference between the recognition awakening to Reality and the theoretical acceptance without recognition, it seems that in the latter instance there is a quality that might be called mediative distance, while in the case of recognition there is the closeness of immediacy." Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Experience and Philosophy p. 258
Acronym: High Earner, Not Rich Yet. Those earning $250K - $500K/year and most at risk in the event of non-extension of the Bush tax reductions. Apparently those making more than $500K (the "rich") wouldn't feel the pinch of a return to previous tax brackets. Heard on PBS's The News Hour.
Hey, T., I got an email with some aviation-related content that you might be interested in. I can fwd it to you if I had an eddress. You might be able to use one of your many Frog Blog tools to make it available to the "Froggistas", dunno, but you'd enjoy it anyway.
From Roman times, in the public baths a stick with a sponge attached to one end was used to perform the function of toilet paper today. Grasping the stick by the sponge end is getting the wrong end of the stick. (via NPR's Says You)
Hey, r_t. You are seriously remiss in the pronunciations arena. What's up wif dat?! I expected at least a bird whistle or two, yes? Come on, you can do it! "Skreeeee"
If there will be a sea battle tomorrow, then that fact is true today and has always been true. Our future is thus inevitable. What freedom is left to us?
On the other hand, if statements about the future are neither true nor false today, then how can God have perfect foreknowledge of the future?
"Marc Hauser professor of psychology and anthropological biology at Harvard takes a more nuanced view, arguing that people are possessed of what he calls humaniqueness, a suite of cognitive skills including the ability to recombine information to gain new understanding, a talent animals simply don't have."
--Time magazine article "Inside The Minds of Animals" Aug. 16, 2010
“It makes no more sense to talk of changing the future than it does to talk of changing the past. Suppose that I decide to change the future, by having coffee for breakfast tomorrow instead of my usual tea. Have I changed the future? No. For coffee for breakfast was the future. It has been objected to me that the above argument is perhaps misleading. For, it has been said, there is quite clearly a sense in which I can change the future and not the past, and this is because my acts of will determine the future and not the past — I cannot undo what has been done. Now I do not wish to deny that we can causally affect the future and not the past, and indeed this causal directionality of time is part of the problem of the ‘direction of time.’ Nevertheleless I would reiterate that the fact that our present actions determine that future would be most misleadingly expressed or described by saying that we can change the future. A man can change his trousers, his club, or his job. Perhaps he may even change the course of world history or the state of scientific thought. But one thing that he cannot change is the future, since whatever he brings about is the future, and nothing else is, or ever was.”
– J.J.C. Smart, Problems of Space and Time, 1964 (via futilitycloset.com)
"Narratively, William Pitt singlehandedly brings about the novel's first 'cute-meet' (a Hollywood term I only just learnt, meaning the scene in a film where the future romantic interests meet for the first time...}"
--Response in interview with David Mitchell re his The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet on LibraryThing's "State of the Thing" e-newsletter
Related to where on the field of play the player lines up: a quarter of the way back behind the line of scrimmage. Cf. half back, full(y) back. There used to be a "three quarter" back position. All this according to NPR's Says You
Hi, T. Interesting. I'm a bit mystified meself. One thing about pilots and watches however: the joke has always been that pilots have the BIGGEST watches. They've got to have all those pilot-type bells and whistles: elapsed time, multiple timezone capability, 24-hour function face...all that keen stuff! Btw, I've never owned anything like that (well, almost never :o))....
Edit: I think your idea about advertising cleverness is right. Must say, I've never seen anything like it, although I've spent plenty of time around airports (which is a natural place for such a product's advertising campaign).
Also known as a baggage drill. The offloading of the flight crew's personal bags from the aircraft and onto the crew bus to proceed to the crew rest facility, and vice versa.
Palinism (pal’ in-i-zem) n. A non sequitur offered by a politician of great ambition who confuses notoriety with achievement. (from twitter feed #pleasegoaway)
Well I'm crushed! I don't know if I can go on without being able to feed Tink and Toink Turtle. I hope it isn't the harbinger of computer doom. Oi yoi!
The French will eat almost anything. A young cook decided that the French would enjoy feasting on rabbits and decided to raise rabbits in Paris and sell them to the finer restaurants in the city.
He searched all over Paris seeking a suitable place to raise his rabbits. None could be found. Finally, an old priest at the cathedral said he could have a small area behind the rectory for his rabbits.
He successfully raised a number of them, and when he went about Paris selling them, a restaurant owner asked him where he got such fresh rabbits.
The young man replied, "I raise them myself, near the cathedral. In fact, I have a hutch back of Notre Dame."
‘The activists had many things ready for an attack on the soldiers,’ Lev-Rom said, ‘including, for instance, a box of 20-30 slingshots with metal balls; these can kill. There were also all sorts of knives and many similar things. These are what they call “cold” weapons, as opposed to live fire. It was quite clear that a lynch had been prepared.’
An excuse you might give your boss for being late to work?
"I set half the clocks in my house ahead an hour and the other half back an hour Saturday and spent 18 hours in some kind of space-time continuum loop, reliving Sunday (right up until the explosion). I was able to exit the loop only by reversing the polarity of the power source, exactly e*log(pi), of the clocks in the house while simultaneously rapping my dog on the snout with a rolled up Times. Accordingly, I will be in late, or early."
A boy asks his father to explain the differences among irritation, aggravation, and frustration.
His father picks up the phone and dials a number at random. When the phone is answered, he asks, "Can I speak to Alf, please?"
"No! There's no one called Alf here," says the person who answered the phone.
His father hangs up. "That's irritation," he says.
He picks up the phone again, dials the same number, and asks for Alf a second time. "No-there's no one here called Alf. Go away. If you call again I shall telephone the police," the person says.
His father hangs up and says, "That's aggravation."
"Then what's frustration?" asks his son. The father picks up the phone and dials the same number a third time.
"Hello, this is Alf. Have I received any phone calls?" he asks casually.
I first ran across this phrase in the Walt Kelly Pogo comics. Pretty sure it means "the genuine article" with maybe a taste of the cat's pajamas or bee's knees? Maybe bilby will add his two cents?
Here's a takeoff based on the song and prefaced with this proviso:
"Because of heavy processing requirements, we are currently using some of your unused brain capacity for backup processing. Please ignore any hallucinations, voices or unusual dreams you may experience. Please avoid concentration-intensive tasks until further notice. Thank you."
Example: We are the new mobile audio-animatrons. You will see many of us around the park. Do not be alarmed, we are perfectly programed, and nothing can go worng.
I'll remember this, thanks. I sometimes spoonerize herd of turtles into turd of herdles. Used to make my copilots laugh. Oh, I was a wild and crazy jet jockey!
"It is Gerald Hawkins and also Alexander Thom to whom we must give credit for reviving serious interest in archaeoastronomy. Hawkins' articles in Nature and Science and finally his book Stonehenge Decoded (1965) drew the attention of astronomers, archaeologists, and the public to the fascinating story of Stonehenge. Hawkins named his studies astroarchaeology, by which he meant the application of astronomy to the understanding of ancient structures." --Ray A. Williamson, Living the Sky - The Cosmos of the American Indian, 1984, p. 12-13
A correspondent of the Drawer is involved in domestic perplexities. He writes:
‘I got acquainted with a young widow, who lived with her step-daughter in the same house. I married the widow; my father fell, shortly after it, in love with the step-daughter of my wife, and married her. My wife became the mother-in-law and also the daughter-in-law of my own father; my wife’s step-daughter is my step-mother, and I am the step-father of my mother-in-law. My stepmother, who is the step-daughter of my wife, has a boy: he is naturally my step-brother, because he is the son of my father and of my step-mother; but because he is the son of my wife’s step-daughter so is my wife the grandmother of the little boy, and I am the grandfather of my step-brother. My wife has also a boy: my step-mother is consequently the step-sister of my boy, and is also his grandmother, because he is the child of her step-son; and my father is the brother-in-law of my son, because he has got his step-sister for a wife. I am the brother of my own son, who is the son of my step-mother; I am the brother-in-law of my mother, my wife is the aunt of her own son, my son is the grandson of my father, and I am my own grandfather.’
– Harper’s Magazine, April 1865 (via futilitycloset.com)
"I don't have regrets - yet - about using the word foederati to describe Pakistani troops working with the American security services, in the first sentence of an article for the London Review of Books. It's an archaic term from the Roman Empire, but it is also a precise way to describe the relationship between the US and certain key allies: not colonial, not feudal, not contractual, and not exactly voluntary, either, just an understanding that, in certain circumstances and in exchange for certain favours, troops will be supplied to fight in an American cause. Perhaps it is a word, like albedo, whose time has come again." --"From albedo to zugunruhe" by James Meek
A wealthy New York businessman who sent his two daughters to the University of California's Los Angeles campus in the hope that they would find something unusual to study there that would stir them out their apathy. He was considerably alarmed, however, when they wrote back to tell him that they both had decided to specialize in research on ancient Egyptian plumbing.
He immediately sent them a telegram which read, "Under no circumstances will I support a couple of Pharaoh Faucet Majors!"
Cushing Biggs Hassell’s thousand-page History of the Church of God (1886) is notable for a single sentence — on page 580, beginning “The nineteenth is the century …”
It’s six pages long, with 3,153 words, 360 commas, 86 semicolons, and six footnotes. Many regard it as the longest legitimate sentence ever published in a book.
Essentially it’s one long indictment of the 19th century, proving for Hassell that “after all our progress, this is still a very sinful and miserable world.” Why he felt he had to show this in a single sentence is not clear.
In 1997, University of Edinburgh linguistics professor Geoffrey K. Pullum submitted the following letter to the Economist:
‘Connections needed’ (March 15) reports that Russia’s Transneft pipeline operator is not able to separate crude flows from different oil fields: ‘they all come out swirled into a single bland blend.’ This is quite true. And worse yet, the characterless, light-colored mix thus produced is concocted blindly, without quality oversight, surely a grave mistake. In fact, I do not recall ever encountering a blinder blander blonder blender blunder.
It “would have been a true first in natural language text,” Pullum wrote, “a grammatical and meaningful sequence of five consecutive words in a natural context that are differentiated from each other by just a single character.” Alas, the Economist chose not to print it.
One of my favorite birds. A real lovable little clown! Rallying/mating call "fee bee bee bee" (listen to it at pronunciation for mountain chickadee); if you whistle it in the mountains where they abound you'll soon have 'em answering and flocking around.
The reading aloud of false and injurious-to-reputation printed matter. Aside: invented as a sort of mnemonic kludge for keeping libel and slander in the ole memory banks.
At a posh Manhattan dinner party, a Latin American visitor was telling the guests about this home country and himself. As he concluded, he said, "And I have a charming and understanding wife but, alas, no children."
As his listeners appeared to be waiting for him to continue, he said, haltingly, "You see, my wife is unbearable."
Puzzled glances prompted him to try to clarify the matter: "What I mean is, my wife is inconceivable."
As his companions seemed amused, he floundered deeper into the intricacies of the English language, explaining triumphantly, "That is, my wife, she is impregnable!"
I read it back when I went through a teaching credential program and then taught for *shudder* a year. Great book. I also enjoyed his How To Survive In Your Native Land.
I ditto yarb's use as with Spanish speakers, but otherwise I go with chilly or chillay depending on whether the universe zigs or zags at that moment. Just think of all the parallel realities that creates!
Hey c_b! This was in my inbox this morning and I thought I'd pass it along to you. Interesting that tappen somehow escaped mention. Hope it's never had your eyetracks on it before.
I want to be a bear......
If you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.
Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.
If you're a bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you are sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.
If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.
If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.
"...There is in fact an ‘Ariadne’s thread’ out of the cavern of illusions; realms that are ‘like’ dreams, whilst not strictly speaking being dreams..." --Lee Horstman, BEYOND THE GODS
" It meticulously dissects the myriad protean tricks authoritarianism employs to maneuver its subjects into place and keep them there. Access to information and accountability for one's conduct are essential for the brave new world that might emerge if the reptant strain of authoritarianism in humankind does not destroy this world first in the name of knowing better." (from a review, on Amazon.com by Ford Greene, Esq., of The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power)
I first and only time I ever heard this word used was by my girlfriend speech pathologist; "You're perseverating!" It was a good lesson: I never forgot it, nor do I perseverate (uh huh).
"For decades, New Yorker writer Alastair Reid has been collecting words, weird ones. In Ounce, Dice, Trice, the words play tricks on each other and on the reader. gongoozler, piddocks, mumruffin. Reid twists them into rhymes and draws odd connections between them in this book part dictionary, part gonomony receptacle...With black-and-white sketches by painter Ben Shahn, Ounce, Dice, Trice amounts to great fun for the average gongozzler (idle person) of any age." –The Bergen County Record
Huh! I'm not getting this. I see James Bond and the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything, but get lost in the middle. Somebody he'p me please!
Alas, never got a shot of it. Lots of ho-hum shots of the horizon and some neat clouds but nothing memorable. Usually any worthwhile event was gone before being camera-ready. It was easier and more fun to compose poetry(!).
trivet, do you hail from Ojai? Saw it under pink moment. I'm a born-and-raised Santa Barbaran. Used to go play golf in Ojai and one of my favorite places there is the Krotona Library.
For years, South African miners have been finding disks and spheres like this one (see picture and more info here.). Usually brown or red, the objects can measure up to 10 centimeters in diameter, and like this one they’re often engraved with parallel grooves or ridges.
Like dontcry and gangerh, I've done a pronunciation that doesn't show on my profile page. The pron., at the word page (zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba), works but doesn't show on the profile page. Maybe there's some delay? I haven't yet experimented with any others yet...
Physical exercise is good for you. I know that I should do it daily but my body doesn't want me to do too much, so I have worked out this program of strenuous activities that do not require physical exercise.You are invited to use my program without charge.
Hmmm, I just noticed that there's no option to see my collected past comments, which I thought might be a way around the "recent activity" lack. Is that also in the works, John?
I haven't got time to search all thru the comments but I've been wanting to say that I miss the "recent activity" option we had on Wordie. Am I missing some version of it on Wordnik?
I can't always remember what the heck I did last and recent activity was a no-brains way to find it.
seanahan, have you read Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy? Recommended. I read Anathem last Spring and really enjoyed it. Very different direction for him. The guy's amazing...
"...a late 19th-century invention, offering live relay of theatrical or musical performances to the home phones of subscribers (Marcel Proust among them)."
"If there were a drunk button, I buy one." Penn State student on NPR's This American Life, bemoaning the execrable taste of Natural Lite beer and Vladamir vodka, the cheapness of which make them obligatory products for binge drinking at the number one-rated party-school.
"Microastrology is not based on the movements of the planets but rather the orbits of electrons around atoms and the passage of quarks through time and space. You can get a reading and it will be incredibly accurate but only for that nanosecond." --Joe Choo
"....Peter Lamborn Wilson on what he calls the Technopathocracy of modern society: complete disconnection, lack of community and Internet-mediated insanity, and the Intentional Community as the solution...He makes the incredibly salient point that “dropping out” of Internet culture now is the same as “dropping out” of the mainstream in the 60s."
N. -- Laid-off workers who use exit packages to maintain the standard of living they enjoyed while still employed.
"Former bank CEO Paul Joegriner is a member of what might be called the severance economy--unemployed Americans who use severance pay and savings to maintain their lifestyles."
A tax on plastic surgery, call it a "Botax", is on the table, as senators desperately try to come up with creative ways to fund $1 trillion in health care reforms."
"The Earl of Sandwich is famous for being the man behind a word that most people never thought was named after anyone, a man both anonymous and eponymous or, to coin a term, anonyponymous."
"There was a woman named Mary Frisbie who made pies in Connecticut," Marciano tells Renee Montagne. "Students would throw around her pie plates after they had finished her pies, and kind of like you would say, 'Incoming!' they would say, 'Frisbie!' just to give people the heads-up that there was something spinning and flying coming at their head.
Meanwhile, the Wham-O corporation, producer of the hula hoop, was having trouble selling its own flying disk, awkwardly named "The Pluto Platter".
They went around to college campuses, knowing that this was where trends started," Marciano says. "To their surprise, in the Northeast, people were already throwing flying disks, and they had this name 'Frisbie' for it.
For trademark purposes, "Frisbie" became "Frisbee," and a sensation was born.'
--On-air interview by NPR of John Bemelmans Marciano about his book Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words
A leotard is a unisex skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the torso but leaves the legs free. It was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1842–1870), about whom the song "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" was written. (Wikipedia)
John, it appears that comments can't be edited? The comment I added to spoony was all borked up and I couldn't do anything about it...or am I just an idiot?
This is probably more than you wanted to know, but what the hay!:
"Words and music by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn (1923). One of the most successful nonsense songs of the 1920s. The writers got their idea by overhearing a Greek fruit peddler tell a customer: "Yes, we have no bananas." Frank Silver and Irving Cohn introduced their song in a New York restaurant, but it failed to catch fire. Then, in 1923, Eddie Cantor saw the song in manuscript while Make It Snappy (a revue in which Cantor was then starring) was playing in Philadelphia. Held over in that city for an extended run, the show needed some new material, since people were coming to see it a second time. Cantor decided to interpolate "Yes, We Have No Bananas" in one of his routines, one Wednesday matinee. The audience response was so enthusiastic that Cantor had to sing chorus after chorus; the show was stopped cold for over a quarter of an hour. Cantor now made the song a permanent part of his act, and he always brought down the house with it. His Victor recording became a best seller--one of many successful releases of this number. By the end of 1923 everybody was singing it throughout the country. In the Music Box Revue of 1923 it was ridiculed in a performance in which it was presented in the grand-operatic manner of the Sextet from Lucia de Lammermoor--the performers being Grace Moore, John Steel, Joseph Santley, Frank Tinney, Florence Moore and Lora Sonderson. It was interpolated in the motion-picture musical Mammy, starring Al Jolson (Warner 1930); Eddie Cantor sang it on the soundtrack of the motion-picture musical The Eddie Cantor Story (Warner 1954)"
--American Popular Songs, David Ewen, Random House, 1966
“Neuroceuticals is a term I coined to describe future neuropharmaceuticals that have very low if any side effects, so that they may be used by healthy humans. There are three categories of neuroceuticals: cogniceuticals for memory, emoticeuticals for emotions, and sensoceuticals focused on sensory systems.�?
--Zack Lynch, author of The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World
My answer to Will Shortz's NPR on-air puzzle challenge. To wit: "The challenge is to find a chain of "C" words to connect "carbon" to "circuit." Will's chain has seven words between "carbon" and "circuit." The answer doesn't have to match Will's, but each word has to start with "C," and each has to combine with the words before and after to make a compound word or familiar two-word phrase."
Now pigeonhole. "LONDON (Reuters) - About 16,000 words have succumbed to pressures of the Internet age and lost their hyphens in a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary."
According to an NPR piece I heard today, Lester Young, the great saxophonist coined the slang usage of the word "bread" to mean money. See also, "cool"
According to an NPR piece I heard today, Lester Young, the great saxophonist coined the slang usage of the word "cool" as a culturally favorable adjective. Also, "bread" to mean money.
"He moved toward me lightly. His left hand palpated my chest and armpits, moved down my flanks and hips. I was glad I'd left my gun in the car, but I hated to be touched by him. His hands were epicene."
This isn't an aviation term, but relates to the military. Anybody who's been to bootcamp or had marching training will know the term. A group of men form up in lines ("fall-in")and are told to "taller-tap". If you're taller than the man standing in front of you, tap him on the shoulder and move ahead of him. Repeat until nobody needs to tap and move. In very short order the formation is height-graded and ready for further marching commands, e.g., "Ten-hut! Riot-hace! Dress-right-dress! Layeft hace! Fowad harch! Your left, your left, your left-riot-left. *sung in cadence*'Well I don't know but I've been told, Army grub is hard and cold. Sound off!' 'ONE! TWO!', hear it again 'THREE! FOUR!', one,two,three,four 'ONE!TWO!*pause*THREE-FOUR!!'"
So there's your little glimpse into the harrowing experience of military bootcamp. Enjoy it and avoid it if you can...
C_b. If you don't want to remember/type in numbers, just run the "charmap" program on your PC (don't know about Apple) and you can select/copy the symbols there. It's a little like looking for a needle in a haystack 'tho, sometimes.
Identifying moniker for radio communication between pilots and controlling agencies (or members of a flight formation). One of the best I've known amongst the fighter jocks: "fortune"; one of the worst: "rat".
Bar rat, toper. "Nearer the main street there were a few tourist hotels with neon signs like icing on a cardboard cake, red-painted chili houses, a series of shabby taverns where the rumdums were congregating."
Thanks c_b! I'll put on my thinking cap and add some place nicknames to your list. BTW, I noticed the keyboard shortcuts you "found" a couple of months ago. Did you use "charmap" or what?
Reducing waste by limiting consumption. "Precycling is being thoughtful at the point of purchase in addition to at the point of throwing out." --Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug. 4, 2009
"Pynchonesque multitudes crowd into the picture. Tight-lipped federales, stoner lawyers, ex-con neo-nazis with a big thing for show tunes--they tumblesault in every page or two, each bearing, maybe, a piece of the puzzle."
Richard Lacayo, Time Magazine review of Pynchon's Inherent Vice
In a wine vineyard, when the grapes begin to take on color (red for red grapes and yellow for green grapes) and sugar begins to heighten during maturation. Harvest is not far off.
"...the nocebo phenomenon wherein a patient produces the symptoms of a misdiagnosed disease, even to the degree of dying on the day that the doctor gave as the expected time to live, although the particular disease was not present."
"At the University of Toronto, Dr. Mayberg, Zindel Segal and their colleagues first used brain imaging to measure activity in the brains of depressed adults. Some of these volunteers then received paroxetine (the generic name of the antidepressant Paxil), while others underwent 15 to 20 sessions of cognitive-behavior therapy, learning not to catastrophize. That is, they were taught to break their habit of interpreting every little setback as a calamity, as when they conclude
from a lousy date that no one will ever love them."
Exhausted after a long day of insisting that one must never end a sentence with a preposition, the English teacher took a book about Australia up to her daughter's bedroom.
"Mommy," said the girl, "what did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?"
"If a biological brain wants to develop a new cognitive capacity, it must pay a price. The currency in which the price is paid is sugar. Additional energy must be made available and more glucose must be burned to develop and stabilize this new capacity."
"...the dream Ego does not know that it is dreaming. It does not realize the signals it is turning into an internal narrative are self-generated stimuli--in philosophical jargon, this feature of the dream state is a "metacognitive deficit." The dream Ego is delusional, lacking insight into the nature of the state it is itself generating."
--Thomas Metzinger, The Ego Tunnel, p. 138
In lucid dreaming, this is not the case, for the dreaming Ego is conscious it is dreaming/creating the dream state.
Every generation has an argot to describe the confusing terrain of joblessness — the dole, deadbeat dads, UB40, and so on — and the lexicon of younger casualties in the most severe American economic downturn since World War II speaks volumes. See also: Funemployment, Unemploymentality.
Foreign Object Damage. Big concern on airport runways, ramps and taxiways, where jet engines can suck up stray objects like scraps of metal, screws and bolts, tools (even people). FOD control is a perennial prevention program in aviation.
"F**k it, I got my orders." Military acronym (also FIGMO) for one's attitude toward present duties with assignment orders for a new gig (or mustering-out) in hand. "Not my job, Bob, I'm FIGMO!" Also related to short (for short-timer, soon to be "separated" from active duty military]. "I'm so short I'm walking under doors!"
(n) Bluejay (Usage: In the vicinity of Dothan, Ala., bluejays are often called "roller birds" because when chinaberries are ripe, the birds sit in the trees and gorge themselves until they grow drunk. Then they tumble out of the trees and roll on the ground...)
I'm getting a 500 application error when I try the cloud feature on tags. Is that a temporary deal? It worked before, I believe.
Edit: works normally except on the tag ghosted (so far anyway).
Edit: found some others. Appears to relate to the size of the word collection tagged. The larger the collection the greater opportunity for 500 app error.
(Via Time: n.--A method of sneezing used to prevent the spread of swine flu. "...last week teachers reminded students that if they have to sneeze, to put their mouths into the crook of one of their elbows. The students started calling that the Dracula Sneeze, and we picked up on that..."
According to Nina Totenberg (NPR legal correspondent) a "sherpa" (presumably N.Y. Senator Chuck Shumer) will guide/lead Sonia Sotomayor in "making the rounds" on Capitol Hill in her quest to "unroil the waters" leading to the Supreme Court.
The word originated from Latin "as" (plural asses) which was a copper coin and the monetary unit in ancient Rome. The word for ten asses was decussis, from Latin decem (ten) + as (coin). Since ten is represented by X, this spawned the verb decussare, meaning to divide in the form of an X or intersect.
n., recession-induced comfort eating. "Stressed out Britons have piled on 20 million stone in a year trying to 'comfort eat' their way through the recession, according to a report out today. The condition--dubbed the credit munch--has seen three in five Britons put on weight in the past 12 months." --the U.K.'s Daily Express, May 11, 2009 (via Time Magazine)
"Make no mistake. I take these children seriously. It is not possible to see too much in them, to overindulge your casual gift for the study of character. It is all there, in full force, charged waves of identity and being. There are no amateurs in the world of children."
I was just looking at the blink and marquee pages for the first time in a coon's age. Has John disabled those features? NOT that I want to use 'em of course! :o)
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown were descendants of Pullman porters — that distinctive and distinguished figure from yesteryear — the uniformed African-American train worker, who forged his way into the middle class.
Coined by David Steinberg during a skit where he, acting the part of a zany-disturbed patient, suddenly had a notion to change the piece midstream before his partner, the "psychiatrist" entered the room. He signaled the change with the announcement "Okay, you can send in the patient, now." The partner, upon his entrance and without missing a beat became the patient and they improvised onward. Booga booga arose somewhere in the ensuing action.
I learned this listening to Michael Feldman's interview of David Steinberg on Whad'Ya Know?
I still remember the joke wherein I first heard "booga booga" and had no idea of its origin. I doubt that David Steinberg had the same connotation in mind that the joke depends on...
"At Candyality, a store in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, business has jumped by nearly 80 percent compared with this time last year, and the owner, Terese McDonald, said she was struggling to keep up with the demand for Bit-O-Honeys, Swedish Fish and Sour Balls."
Here's Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud" as rendered by Jean Lescure's "N+7″ procedure, replacing each noun with the seventh following it in a dictionary:
Metaphor is made up of the thing known vs. the thing unknown, the metaphrand. The intention of the metaphor is to illuminate the metaphrand by giving it some of the features of the metaphier. E.g., "My love is like a red, red rose." "love" is the metaphrand, "rose" is the metaphier.
Metaphor is made up of the thing known vs. the thing unknown, the metaphrand. The intention of the metaphor is to illuminate the metaphrand by giving it some of the features of the metaphier. E.g., "My hatred was a burning coal in my heart." Hatred = metaphrand, burning coal = metaphier.
See lexulous.com for an online scrabble-type game. It used to be named Scrabulous and was available on Facebook (it was removed after Hasbro brought suit--later dropped--against the creators.)
Kids game from my childhood days. There was something magical about assuming another name and being a swashbuckler. "Well, Pete, looks like they're after us now! We'd better find a good hideout." "You're right Joe, I know of a secret cave where they'll never find us; let's saddle up and make tracks." See cap gun.
A new OED word. "...a good example of an old word that is new to the dictionary..." --Graeme Diamond, Principal Editor, New Words, Oxford English Dictionary
I think the book is 2000 Most Challenging And Obscure Words by Norman W. Schur (Galahad Books, NY, 1994). I just picked it up at a swap meet for a buck!
Edit: I see that the book is a compilation in one volume of two previous works by the author.
Interesting to find one's blind spots. Until I heard David Brooks use this word in reference to Barak Obama's policy decisions out of the starting blocks, I saw/heard it only as the name of an insurance company--which used the rock of Gibraltar as its logo! :o)
Hi whichbe. Your question puzzled me until I did a search and found it in my own comments. It stands for I plus Not-I equals Everything. I evidently never got around to adding its acronym when I was on my Jan Cox tear back then. I originally had trouble with adding my preferred version (I + Not-I = Everything) due to restrictions on symbols John had early on, thus the ipn-iee and not following up properly on a referent.
Hey Bilby. Re: your comment on hate, I edited my original comment to make it clearer. I doubt however, that you're gonna find much 'joy' anyway. IPN-IEE stands for I Plus Not-I Equals Everything. I evidently forgot to add the acronym to my list back when I was on my Jan Cox tear.
I enjoyed ...Dangerous Things too. I think Philosophy In The Flesh is the best of all. Also, Where Mathematics Comes From (collaboration with Nunez) is great and I highly recommend it.
When the Confederate soldiers returned to their homes after the Civil War, they found little to do. So they went north looking for work. They were called a name that arose out of a tool they were carrying. A hoe.
The soldiers were walking the back roads, riding and jumping on trains, and sleeping out in the countryside hoping to find some kind of work. They were called hoe boys, which came to be called hobos.
Comments by oroboros
Show previous 200 comments...
oroboros commented on the word maraschino
Anagram of 'harmonicas'
December 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word middle aisle
To 'middle aisle it' is to get married.
December 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word dunkadoo
The American Bittern - a wading bird. I'm astounded reesetee hasn't listed this!
December 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word eat crow
Crow tastes awful!
December 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word thriftaholic
Bargain junkie.
December 2, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pootle
"Things pootled along gently for a while, until Lucy and Ben secured support for the project from the Arts Council,..."
December 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word hostitute
A flight attendant who subsidizes his/her airline salary on the side.
December 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word frienditute
A distant relative of hostitute.
December 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word refudiation
Yet another "palindrone".
November 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the word ghoti
Gone ghotion.
November 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mosquito
An inhabitant of Moscow?
November 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the word foozle
Foozler - a poor golf shot.
November 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bipolar
Bipolar Bear
November 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word boomeringue
Speed Bump cartoon 11/10/2010.
November 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the list double-trouble
Thanks, Erin. Done. :o)
November 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the user mollusque
Thanks, amigo. I'll give it a look. My surmise was right that you were the go-to guy on this! :o)
November 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the user mollusque
Hi mollusque. Do you know of any alphabet/font source showing reversed letters that could be C & P-d. Here's a sample that gave me the idea from Teresa's FrogBlog:
http://obituarytypo.blogspot.com/2010/11/think.html
The trouble is that C & P doesn't work on that image and also the letters are a limited selection even if it could be done.
I haven't a clue how I could make one up for myself via, say, photographic process image reversal.
November 2, 2010
oroboros commented on the word preta
A wandering ghost.
October 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the word up
up
dn
October 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word scenius
Communal genius.
October 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word oxymoron
A baby with alphabet blocks is an oxymoron?
October 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word blond bombshell
Phrase arose from the 1933 movie "Bombshell" starring Jean Harlow (who became the blond bombshell).
October 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word make no bones about it
Reference to the unwelcome appearance of bones in your soup.
October 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pie in the sky
Comes from a song: "Joe Hill" (Joe Hill and the Preacher and the Slave).
October 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word geek
Geek evolution
(via SoG on twitter)
October 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word stranger danger
Eek!
October 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word woomeister
Deepak Chopra?
October 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word woo woo
Also see woomeister.
October 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word an era midst its arena
See apocalypse.
October 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word apocalypse
The Four Palindromes of the Apocalypse
An era, midst its dim arena
Elapses pale.
No, in uneven union
Liars, alas, rail.
– Leigh Mercer (via futilitycloset.com)
October 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gauze
See, we've all had that Wordnik moment of "that word doesn't look right". From Phil Plait ("Bad Astronomer" on twitter): "Had to type the word "gauze" for a post going up tomorrow. The word looks wrong no matter how I spell it. Gauze. Gawz. Gouze. Snooki."
October 16, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Expy
An Expy is a exported cartoon character. It's happening a lot to the Cathy character that was just retired from the comics. More here. (link found in a Frogapplause comic strip comment)
October 11, 2010
oroboros commented on the word marrowsky
A Polish Spoonerism.
October 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word prosopography
Group biography or study of a group of people.
October 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word balneographer
One who writes about or talks about people taking baths.
October 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word strategy
Let’s play a game. We’ll each name three consecutive outcomes of a coin toss (for example, tails-heads-heads, or THH). Then we’ll flip a coin repeatedly until one of our chosen runs appears. That player wins.
Is there any strategy you can take to improve your chance of beating me? Strangely, there is. When I’ve named my triplet (say, HTH), take the complement of the center symbol and add it to the beginning, and then discard the last symbol (here yielding HHT). This new triplet will be more likely to appear than mine.
The remarkable thing is that this always works. No matter what triplet I pick, this method will always produce a triplet that is more likely to appear than mine. It was discovered by Barry Wolk of the University of Manitoba, building on a discovery by Walter Penney.
From
October 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mediative
"In analyzing the difference between the recognition awakening to Reality and the theoretical acceptance without recognition, it seems that in the latter instance there is a quality that might be called mediative distance, while in the case of recognition there is the closeness of immediacy." Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Experience and Philosophy p. 258
October 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word HENRY
Acronym: High Earner, Not Rich Yet. Those earning $250K - $500K/year and most at risk in the event of non-extension of the Bush tax reductions. Apparently those making more than $500K (the "rich") wouldn't feel the pinch of a return to previous tax brackets. Heard on PBS's The News Hour.
October 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word the real McCoy
Etymology here.
October 4, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gramptastic
Usage citation here.
October 2, 2010
oroboros commented on the user frogapplause
Hey, T., I got an email with some aviation-related content that you might be interested in. I can fwd it to you if I had an eddress. You might be able to use one of your many Frog Blog tools to make it available to the "Froggistas", dunno, but you'd enjoy it anyway.
September 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word raze
The un-raise.
September 27, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Eiffel Tower
Street address: 5 Avenue Anatole France
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word watermelon
66 ft. 11 inches is the current world record for spitting a watermelon seed. Set in 1989. (via NPR's Says You)
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word cool as a cucumber
Derivation: mid-1600s; lying on a bed of cucumbers to lower body temperature.
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word dhan
Village cattle (according to NPR's Says You)
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word allotment
Cf. allocation
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word caveat
Cf. disclaimer
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word restrict
Cf. restrain
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word imbue
Cf. instill
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word unsubstantial
Cf. insubstantial
September 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the user reesetee
RT, do you check your gmail acct (shown on your flickr profile) infrequently? I sent something there you might find interesting. Bird related.
September 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word vuvuzela
An EXCELLENT use of the vuvuzela! Oh, yeah!
September 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word baltimore chop
See Baltimore chop.
September 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the word baltimore chop
Where a batted ball bounces so high in the infield the fielder hasn't time to throw the batter out after catching it.
September 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the word wrong end of the stick
From Roman times, in the public baths a stick with a sponge attached to one end was used to perform the function of toilet paper today. Grasping the stick by the sponge end is getting the wrong end of the stick. (via NPR's Says You)
September 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Weed Eaters
There is a Weed, California.
September 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word scordatura
Obscure usage here.
September 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word self-intersecting reflexicon
A grid that inventories its own contents.
September 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the list sports-teams-wed-like-to-see
I wondered about that. Figured that sports can have teams but now see my error. I'll fix it.
September 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the user frogapplause
Hey, T. Don't know if this is blog material or not, but here it is anyway. As a retired pilot I've gotta love this guy!
September 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the user bilby
Hey, bilby. Thanks for your suggestion. I opened the "Teams we'd like to see" list, if you're interested in adding more...
September 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the user ruzuzu
Hi 'zuzu. I opened the "Teams we'd like to see" list. Go for it!
September 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the list sports-teams-wed-like-to-see
Done! Thanks, bilby.
September 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the word theodicity
A vindication of the justice of God in permitting evil to exist.
September 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word epitaph
Epitaph for a dentist: Don't intrude on the Good Dentist, he's busy filling a cavity.
September 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the user reesetee
Hey, r_t. You are seriously remiss in the pronunciations arena. What's up wif dat?! I expected at least a bird whistle or two, yes? Come on, you can do it! "Skreeeee"
September 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word abasiophilia
This figures in Michael Connelly's latest book Scarecrow.
September 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word future
The Problem of Future Contingents
If there will be a sea battle tomorrow, then that fact is true today and has always been true. Our future is thus inevitable. What freedom is left to us?
On the other hand, if statements about the future are neither true nor false today, then how can God have perfect foreknowledge of the future?
(from futilitycloset.com)
September 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word schooled
An interlacing of SHOE + COLD.
September 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word fleetness
An interlacing of FETES + LENS.
September 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word calliope
An interlacing of CLIP + ALOE.
September 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word chainlet
An interlacing of CANE + HILT.
September 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word similarly
An interlacing of SIR + ILL + MAY.
September 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word spouts
An interlacing of SOT + PUS.
September 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word liberate
LibEraTe
September 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the list we-weirdly-go-weirdwards
Okay, fbharjo, you got it!
September 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the user ruzuzu
Thanks for the Wordnik activity summary, ruzuzu! A big vuvuzela toot for you!! :oD
September 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word scoteography
n.,The art of writing in the dark.
September 4, 2010
oroboros commented on the word square grouper
What is a square grouper?.
A bale of flotsam marijuana.
September 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word hogshead
Two hogsheads = one butt.
August 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word face cord
Half a cord: 2' x 4' x 8'
August 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word elephant
A unit of paper measurement.
August 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word zolotnik
= one-sixth of an ounce
August 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word butt
126 gallons. Composed of two hogsheads.
August 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word disk
disk = underlying technology is magnetic
disc = underlying technology is optical
August 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word disc
disc = underlying technology is optical
disk = underlying technology is magnetic
August 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word humaniqueness
"Marc Hauser professor of psychology and anthropological biology at Harvard takes a more nuanced view, arguing that people are possessed of what he calls humaniqueness, a suite of cognitive skills including the ability to recombine information to gain new understanding, a talent animals simply don't have."
--Time magazine article "Inside The Minds of Animals" Aug. 16, 2010
August 27, 2010
oroboros commented on the word future
“It makes no more sense to talk of changing the future than it does to talk of changing the past. Suppose that I decide to change the future, by having coffee for breakfast tomorrow instead of my usual tea. Have I changed the future? No. For coffee for breakfast was the future. It has been objected to me that the above argument is perhaps misleading. For, it has been said, there is quite clearly a sense in which I can change the future and not the past, and this is because my acts of will determine the future and not the past — I cannot undo what has been done. Now I do not wish to deny that we can causally affect the future and not the past, and indeed this causal directionality of time is part of the problem of the ‘direction of time.’ Nevertheleless I would reiterate that the fact that our present actions determine that future would be most misleadingly expressed or described by saying that we can change the future. A man can change his trousers, his club, or his job. Perhaps he may even change the course of world history or the state of scientific thought. But one thing that he cannot change is the future, since whatever he brings about is the future, and nothing else is, or ever was.”
– J.J.C. Smart, Problems of Space and Time, 1964 (via futilitycloset.com)
August 25, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Chuckey
See bilby's comment at turducken.
August 25, 2010
oroboros commented on the word cute-meet
"Narratively, William Pitt singlehandedly brings about the novel's first 'cute-meet' (a Hollywood term I only just learnt, meaning the scene in a film where the future romantic interests meet for the first time...}"
--Response in interview with David Mitchell re his The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet on LibraryThing's "State of the Thing" e-newsletter
August 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word nyetwork
A Russian computer network gone awry?
August 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word quarterback
Related to where on the field of play the player lines up: a quarter of the way back behind the line of scrimmage. Cf. half back, full(y) back. There used to be a "three quarter" back position. All this according to NPR's Says You
August 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word frank
Is an autantonym: open v. shut in (as in a frank or sty).
Thanks to ruzuzu.
August 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the list autantonyms
Interesting, ruzuzu. Thanks, I'll add it.
August 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word number
After a number of injections my jaw got number.
August 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the user frogapplause
Hi, T. Interesting. I'm a bit mystified meself. One thing about pilots and watches however: the joke has always been that pilots have the BIGGEST watches. They've got to have all those pilot-type bells and whistles: elapsed time, multiple timezone capability, 24-hour function face...all that keen stuff! Btw, I've never owned anything like that (well, almost never :o))....
Edit: I think your idea about advertising cleverness is right. Must say, I've never seen anything like it, although I've spent plenty of time around airports (which is a natural place for such a product's advertising campaign).
August 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word tardis
Use in "Dog eat Doug" cartoon strip
August 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word cooser
A great big horse. (Scottish derivation)
August 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word for the birds
Derived from birds pecking in the excrement of horses left in the streets.
August 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word to wing it
Related to activity/preparation in the stage wings by an understudy.
August 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word to be caught flat footed
Derives from the sport of horse racing.
August 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word baggage drill
See bag drag.
July 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bag drag
Also known as a baggage drill. The offloading of the flight crew's personal bags from the aircraft and onto the crew bus to proceed to the crew rest facility, and vice versa.
July 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the word limoncello
Info and recipe here.
July 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the list bad-guys
Hey R-t, how about fingersmith?
Pickpocket/thief
July 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word tiger
banjo : ferns :: pecan : ?
July 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the user mollusque
Great work, mollusque! I can't say the whole sentence without taking a breath in there somewhere! :oD
July 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the list eggcorns
Just saw this for the first time. Nice work sionnach! How by enlarge?
July 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the user mollusque
Thanks, m. Pitch is added. Good one.
July 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the user mollusque
Hi, mollusque. This is right up your alley in case you haven't see it:
Ross Eckler coined the sentence Unsociable housemaid discourages facetious behaviour.
Each of the five words contains the five major vowels in a different order.
(From futilitycloset.com)
July 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the user hernesheir
Thanks for the input (for toot-toot list), hernesheir.
July 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the user frogapplause
Interesting. I can feed the turtles and click the balls with the Mozilla browser but the Chrome browser has stopped working for those activities.
Edit: Now working again. I sent a bug report to Chrome and they fixed it.
July 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the user hernesheir
Yay, cilantro!
July 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Palinism
Palinism (pal’ in-i-zem) n. A non sequitur offered by a politician of great ambition who confuses notoriety with achievement. (from twitter feed #pleasegoaway)
July 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the user frogapplause
Well I'm crushed! I don't know if I can go on without being able to feed Tink and Toink Turtle. I hope it isn't the harbinger of computer doom. Oi yoi!
July 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the word prevenche
A grayish, purplish blue.
July 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word infantry
The segment of the army "without speech" (infant).
July 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word lychnobite
Many military and airline pilots fit this word.
July 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gaposis
According to NPR's Says You: having a gap between one's front teeth.
July 11, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bottega
Studio of a master artist where apprentices are trained.
July 11, 2010
oroboros commented on the word philumenist
One who collects matchbooks.
July 11, 2010
oroboros commented on the word demo
A contranym in the sense of demolish v. promote.
July 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the user mollusque
Thanks, m., but I'm unclear how demo is contranymic. Demo as in demolish v. demo as promote?
Btw, I'm a big fan of your work!
July 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word two kilo mockingbird
Harper Lee's fat feathered friend?
June 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the list scrabble---monetary-units
A good resource for crossword puzzling too, eh?
June 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word idioglossia
Indeed it is! Wittgenstein must be spinning in his grave!
June 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word asemic writing
Connection to speaking in tongues(glossolalia)? Cf. idioglossia.
June 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word zzyzx
An unusual usage.
June 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word kiwiclock
Here's one on frogapplause's Frog Blog.
June 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bananosecond
Shouldn't that be: "Yes, we have no....."?
June 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word twitchy chicken
The most advanced feather-based entertainment device available to the public!
June 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bananosecond
Time between slipping on a banana peel and smacking your melon on the pavement = 1 bananosecond
June 27, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pizza
A pizza with radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi*z*z*a --via Reddit.com
June 27, 2010
oroboros commented on the word cubizen
Overworked and underpaid cubicle esne.
June 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pepper
It's half peas, don'tcha know!
June 16, 2010
oroboros commented on the user hernesheir
Thanks, hernesheir, for your inputs on my "one for the money" list. I'll get to puttin' 'em in pretty soon, I hope! :o)
June 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the word rabbit
The French will eat almost anything. A young cook decided that the French would enjoy feasting on rabbits and decided to raise rabbits in Paris and sell them to the finer restaurants in the city.
He searched all over Paris seeking a suitable place to raise his rabbits. None could be found. Finally, an old priest at the cathedral said he could have a small area behind the rectory for his rabbits.
He successfully raised a number of them, and when he went about Paris selling them, a restaurant owner asked him where he got such fresh rabbits.
The young man replied, "I raise them myself, near the cathedral. In fact, I have a hutch back of Notre Dame."
June 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word love
"Like a thousand tiny ninjas attacking your brain"
June 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word immortality
Addyears to yours!
June 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word anagram
Oh no! The Anagram Kid!
June 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word lynch
‘The activists had many things ready for an attack on the soldiers,’ Lev-Rom said, ‘including, for instance, a box of 20-30 slingshots with metal balls; these can kill. There were also all sorts of knives and many similar things. These are what they call “cold” weapons, as opposed to live fire. It was quite clear that a lynch had been prepared.’
--www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/ , 31May2010
June 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word irony
What the carpenter's nail felt like?
June 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word weird
The weird thing is...
May 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word grawlix
After a certain age...
May 27, 2010
oroboros commented on the word weirdward
Beating upwind into the weird.
May 25, 2010
oroboros commented on the word eye tracks
...show up on paper trails.
May 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word paper trail
for eye tracks?
May 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word yessireebob
darn tootin'!
May 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the word choners
"I put on clean choners and then shimmied into the black tights and added a skirt." Sue Grafton, U is for Undertow, 2009
May 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word magna cum laude
Cf. summa cum laude
May 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word summa cum laude
Cf. magna cum laude
May 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word poetoasties
Corny (and crypto-) poetry ala Palin's resignation speech mishmash.
May 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word doctrine of stale demand
The equivalent of "use it or lose it".
May 16, 2010
oroboros commented on the word defect
The defect in the party led him to defect to the other side of the aisle.
May 16, 2010
oroboros commented on the word phthongometer
Rats! I hoped this word had something to do with skimpy underwear.
May 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Shite Mega-Megahit
*hides chained_bear's vat behind ruzuzu's tat*
May 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word excuse
An excuse you might give your boss for being late to work?
"I set half the clocks in my house ahead an hour and the other half back an hour Saturday and spent 18 hours in some kind of space-time continuum loop, reliving Sunday (right up until the explosion). I was able to exit the loop only by reversing the polarity of the power source, exactly e*log(pi), of the clocks in the house while simultaneously rapping my dog on the snout with a rolled up Times. Accordingly, I will be in late, or early."
May 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word frustration
Father's Lesson
A boy asks his father to explain the differences among irritation, aggravation, and frustration.
His father picks up the phone and dials a number at random. When the phone is answered, he asks, "Can I speak to Alf, please?"
"No! There's no one called Alf here," says the person who answered the phone.
His father hangs up. "That's irritation," he says.
He picks up the phone again, dials the same number, and asks for Alf a second time. "No-there's no one here called Alf. Go away. If you call again I shall telephone the police," the person says.
His father hangs up and says, "That's aggravation."
"Then what's frustration?" asks his son. The father picks up the phone and dials the same number a third time.
"Hello, this is Alf. Have I received any phone calls?" he asks casually.
May 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word sandwich
"sammich" Also, see comment under english.
May 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word english
What if languages were people? Also, see sammich.
May 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Ponzo Illusion
Why does the moon look so huge at the horizon?
May 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word whelve
To cover with an inverted bowl (via futilitycloset.com). "It's time for your haircut, kid. Prepare to get whelved." :o)
May 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the user reesetee
Hey Tb, in case you haven't seen this: Behind the scenes of "Hummingbirds". New photographic technology reveals heretofore unseen behavior.
May 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word hummingbird
Here's a 9-minute video of some incredible hummingbird photography using new technology: "Behind the scenes of "Hummingbird".
May 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word murphy's law
A supplement to sionnach's variations via NPR's Says You:
~ Left to themselves things will always degenerate.
~ Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
May 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word glaikit
According to NPR's Says You: showing a lack of common sense and good judgement.
May 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word blimbing
According to NPR's Says You: a shot in billiards where the cue ball hits two cushions before hitting the object ball.
May 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word hot dog etiquette
Jeez, Kobayashi ate 17.7 pounds of cow brains...in 15 minutes!! Gaaahh
May 8, 2010
oroboros commented on the word doe-eyed chat up party
A PBS talking head's characterization of the British Liberal Democratic Party.
May 8, 2010
oroboros commented on the word dinkum oil
I first ran across this phrase in the Walt Kelly Pogo comics. Pretty sure it means "the genuine article" with maybe a taste of the cat's pajamas or bee's knees? Maybe bilby will add his two cents?
May 8, 2010
oroboros commented on the list tunie-and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda
Only you, c_b, would sing this to her spawn! :o)
May 8, 2010
oroboros commented on the word waltzing matilda
Here's a takeoff based on the song and prefaced with this proviso:
"Because of heavy processing requirements, we are currently using some of your unused brain capacity for backup processing. Please ignore any hallucinations, voices or unusual dreams you may experience. Please avoid concentration-intensive tasks until further notice. Thank you."
CRACKING COMPUTERS
May 8, 2010
oroboros commented on the word verbogeny
The art, practice, process, act, or habit of coining words.
Example: Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
--from here
May 8, 2010
oroboros commented on the word worng
A failed error diagnostic. (from Dan'l Oakes)sic
Example: We are the new mobile audio-animatrons. You will see many of us around the park. Do not be alarmed, we are perfectly programed, and nothing can go worng.
May 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word proctonomics
Extracting numbers from a dark place.
Example: but "random numbers" sounds so much nicer than rectally extracted data points. How about "Proctonomics"?
May 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Pyrrhic Compromise
Pyrrhic Compromise
A solution to a problem that maximally pisses off all the parties involved.
Example: Intelligent design of a universe driven by natural selection! Is that a pyrrhic compromise, or what?
May 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word double dog dare
How 'bout double devil-dog dare?
May 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bedbug
Interesting article here about bedbugs bedeviling the rich.
May 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word a dog's breakfast
See dog's breakfast.
May 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word off in a cloud of whale dust
I'll remember this, thanks. I sometimes spoonerize herd of turtles into turd of herdles. Used to make my copilots laugh. Oh, I was a wild and crazy jet jockey!
May 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word archaeoastronomy
"It is Gerald Hawkins and also Alexander Thom to whom we must give credit for reviving serious interest in archaeoastronomy. Hawkins' articles in Nature and Science and finally his book Stonehenge Decoded (1965) drew the attention of astronomers, archaeologists, and the public to the fascinating story of Stonehenge. Hawkins named his studies astroarchaeology, by which he meant the application of astronomy to the understanding of ancient structures." --Ray A. Williamson, Living the Sky - The Cosmos of the American Indian, 1984, p. 12-13
May 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word grandfather
A correspondent of the Drawer is involved in domestic perplexities. He writes:
‘I got acquainted with a young widow, who lived with her step-daughter in the same house. I married the widow; my father fell, shortly after it, in love with the step-daughter of my wife, and married her. My wife became the mother-in-law and also the daughter-in-law of my own father; my wife’s step-daughter is my step-mother, and I am the step-father of my mother-in-law. My stepmother, who is the step-daughter of my wife, has a boy: he is naturally my step-brother, because he is the son of my father and of my step-mother; but because he is the son of my wife’s step-daughter so is my wife the grandmother of the little boy, and I am the grandfather of my step-brother. My wife has also a boy: my step-mother is consequently the step-sister of my boy, and is also his grandmother, because he is the child of her step-son; and my father is the brother-in-law of my son, because he has got his step-sister for a wife. I am the brother of my own son, who is the son of my step-mother; I am the brother-in-law of my mother, my wife is the aunt of her own son, my son is the grandson of my father, and I am my own grandfather.’
– Harper’s Magazine, April 1865 (via futilitycloset.com)
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word redneck
You know you're a redneck if you've ever used a barstool as a walker.
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pharmacist
Farm helper?
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word parasites
Views from the Eiffel Tower?
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Bernadette
The act of torching a mortgage?
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word counterfeiter
Handyman who specializes in building kitchen cabinets?
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word avoidable
What a torrero does best?
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word heroes
What a guy in a skiff does?
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word arbitrator
A chef who leaves Arby's to work at Wendy's?
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word eclipse
What a Cockney barber does at work?
May 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word beg the question
"I think 'a' is 'x' because 'x' is 'a'." begs the question. "Fessbinder's a nerd because under "nerd" in the dictionary you'll find his picture."
May 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word table
"Let's table it" is to "put it on the back burner". Table is an autoantonym: table an offer (present it) v. table, withdraw.
May 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word to table a question
I'm with thtownse. "Let's table it" is to "put it on the back burner". Table is an autoantonym: table an offer (present it) v. table, withdraw.
Cf., beg the question.
May 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gonfalon
I'm wondering if Kurt Vonnegut's granfalloon (Cat's Cradle) was inspired by this word.
May 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word terrazo
See terrazzo.
May 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word foederati
"I don't have regrets - yet - about using the word foederati to describe Pakistani troops working with the American security services, in the first sentence of an article for the London Review of Books. It's an archaic term from the Roman Empire, but it is also a precise way to describe the relationship between the US and certain key allies: not colonial, not feudal, not contractual, and not exactly voluntary, either, just an understanding that, in certain circumstances and in exchange for certain favours, troops will be supplied to fight in an American cause. Perhaps it is a word, like albedo, whose time has come again." --"From albedo to zugunruhe" by James Meek
April 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word book
The world's thinnest book: The Amish Phone Directory...or, maybe, Spotted Owl Recipes by the EPA?
April 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the list words-waiting-in-the-wings
Thanks for the kind words. 'Preciate it! :>)
April 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the word flipitor
New Drug: Flipitor - Increases life expectancy of commuters by controlling road rage and the urge to flip off other drivers.
April 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word teabiscuit
A plebeian cookie rises to the stature of a champion.
April 25, 2010
oroboros commented on the word spronk
The stub of a broken tooth (from NPR's Says You)
April 25, 2010
oroboros commented on the word poop deck
The kennel floor?
April 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the list i-know-that-word-but--somehow--it-doesnt-look-familiar
I agree it can be "induced" by overlong staring at a word.
April 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pigment
When you dream in color it's a pigment of your imagination. :P
April 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the list the-character-analysis
laconic?
April 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word burtram's smart rub
The massage parlor that was also a palindrome.
April 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word banana boat
Six-foot, seven-foot, eight-foot BUNCH!!
April 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the list words-good
Cued by ululate.
April 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the list words-good
Huh! I half expected to see queue in this list. Huh!
April 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pharaoh
I just knew I'd get some *groans*! :o)
April 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pharaoh
Off to School...
A wealthy New York businessman who sent his two daughters to the University of California's Los Angeles campus in the hope that they would find something unusual to study there that would stir them out their apathy. He was considerably alarmed, however, when they wrote back to tell him that they both had decided to specialize in research on ancient Egyptian plumbing.
He immediately sent them a telegram which read, "Under no circumstances will I support a couple of Pharaoh Faucet Majors!"
April 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the word chemgrass
Original name for
April 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word orchestrion
Pat Metheny has re-invented this turn-of-the-twentieth-century contraption.
April 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bathyscape
See bathyscaphe.
April 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the user stuartjhall
AMF, sjh.
April 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the word run-on sentence
Cushing Biggs Hassell’s thousand-page History of the Church of God (1886) is notable for a single sentence — on page 580, beginning “The nineteenth is the century …”
It’s six pages long, with 3,153 words, 360 commas, 86 semicolons, and six footnotes. Many regard it as the longest legitimate sentence ever published in a book.
Essentially it’s one long indictment of the 19th century, proving for Hassell that “after all our progress, this is still a very sinful and miserable world.” Why he felt he had to show this in a single sentence is not clear.
Here's it is.
(via futilitycloset.com)
April 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word vermillion
"In 'Paint-by-Number' how many zeroes in a vermillion?" --from a Frazz cartoon
April 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word platitude
"A web-footed, duck-billed mammal's approach to life." --Frazz cartoon
April 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word transcendently, world-bestridingly awful
The Comic Tragedian
"...Coates was so transcendently, world-bestridingly awful at his chosen craft that he attracted throngs of jeering onlookers."
April 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word aiee
That would also be the sound I would make falling from a tree!
April 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word blinder blander blonder blender blunder
In 1997, University of Edinburgh linguistics professor Geoffrey K. Pullum submitted the following letter to the Economist:
‘Connections needed’ (March 15) reports that Russia’s Transneft pipeline operator is not able to separate crude flows from different oil fields: ‘they all come out swirled into a single bland blend.’ This is quite true. And worse yet, the characterless, light-colored mix thus produced is concocted blindly, without quality oversight, surely a grave mistake. In fact, I do not recall ever encountering a blinder blander blonder blender blunder.
It “would have been a true first in natural language text,” Pullum wrote, “a grammatical and meaningful sequence of five consecutive words in a natural context that are differentiated from each other by just a single character.” Alas, the Economist chose not to print it.
--from futilitycloset.com
April 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word fauxhemian
...and douchoisie. The new hipster slurs.
April 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word douchoisie
See fauxhemian.
April 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word fauxhemians
See douchoisie.
April 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word fauxhemians
...and douchoisie. The new hipster slurs.
April 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word moonstruck
I got moon-mugged once; I was being followed by a moonshadow!
April 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word organ donor
Poor Mr. Potatohead!
April 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word joke
Knock, knock...
April 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word devil
Oh, the malevolence! *shudder*
April 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word quiverings
Was it Henry Miller who first wrote quivering quim? Rings a bell, somehow....
March 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bibliobiblogulation
The act of falling asleep on your keyboard whilst blogging about a book review after a bottle of wine.
March 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the user sivasamy
Wrong port sivaseamy.
March 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the word hug
Gimme a hug nile gimmu a Coke.
March 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word logomnesia
See this list.
March 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word philately
Soup to Nutz
March 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word grawlix
AsteriskMan - Grawlix Translator
March 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word snowpire
Frank & Ernest
March 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word dim sum
Faint total?
March 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word escargot
A sibilant shipment?
March 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gumbo
Chewy suitor?
March 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word fish 'n chips
Shards of split atoms?
March 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mostest
The hostess with the mostest!
March 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word prodigiousness
prodigiosity?
March 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word prodigiousness
Agnes
March 25, 2010
oroboros commented on the word googly eyes
Calvin was good at making these, and so was Hobbes. Watterson! What a cartoonist!
March 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word wiwi
A Frenchman living in New Zealand is a Kiwi wiwi.
March 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
"Your banana or your life."
March 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the word zoo'd
At ruzuzu's behest.
March 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the word doozy rat
For ruzuzu.
March 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the word doozy rat in a sanitary zoo'd
This, thanks to sionnach and ruzuzu.
March 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the list words-waiting-in-the-wings
Done, but I'd like to put the palindrome in my DYSLEXIC'S DELIGHT list, okay?
March 20, 2010
oroboros commented on the user treeseed
Treeseed! Wherefore art thou?
March 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the user 532958574
I hope that's not your SS#! Regards from Col. KellRoy.
March 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gynandromorph
Yep, looks like it rt. You be a wizzard o' odds, me thinks. Thanks.
March 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mountain chickadee
I'm glad y'all like it. Chickadees are my special pals!! :o)
Interesting 'zuzu, that song will never be the same....
March 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the word snowpire
A creature of the snowpocalypse
March 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word a secretive bird
Are you sure this isn't supposed to be secretary bird? The topknot looks familiar.
March 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
Ah ha, gotcha! *focuses binoculars*
March 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bluegrass
According to B.C. Comic's Wiley's Dictionary: The result of running over a smurf picnic with your lawnmower.
March 18, 2010
oroboros commented on the word geloscopy
It would be fun if this word had a connection to:
"He had a broad face and a little round belly,
that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly."
March 15, 2010
oroboros commented on the word kitler
Video of a kitler who has befriended a crow.
March 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bleat house
Old MacDonald had a sheep....in the barn.
March 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word a christmas carom
NPR's Says You) sez: A bad bounce at a holiday billiards tournament.
March 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word a tale of two cuties
Biography of the original Doublemint Twins.
March 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word transparent
Contranym: invisible v. obvious.
March 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word variety
Contranym: one type v. many types.
March 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word flog
Contranym: promote aggressively v. punish harshly.
March 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mishla
Moonshine made from bananas.
March 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the user buyantivirus84
Monty Python's favorite canned protein.
March 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
Huh! I'll try it tomorrow morning...
Edit: tried it a couple of times and the jury is still out.
March 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
How to peel a banana.
March 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word shiterature
Literature for sitting on the "throne"?
Not for the squeamish!
March 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word rocococity
Holy moly! I was going to add this to my list Words Waiting in the Wings and find that Edward FitzGerald used it in a letter! Ah, great minds.... :)
March 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mountain chickadee
One of my favorite birds. A real lovable little clown! Rallying/mating call "fee bee bee bee" (listen to it at pronunciation for mountain chickadee); if you whistle it in the mountains where they abound you'll soon have 'em answering and flocking around.
More info and image here.
March 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word slibel
The reading aloud of false and injurious-to-reputation printed matter. Aside: invented as a sort of mnemonic kludge for keeping libel and slander in the ole memory banks.
March 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word uranium
Get yours here! (see customer reviews)
March 12, 2010
oroboros commented on the word chimerascape
See maya and lila.
March 12, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gynandromorph
NPR story
March 12, 2010
oroboros commented on the word impregnable
See unbearable.
March 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word inconceivable
See unbearable.
March 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word unbearable
At a posh Manhattan dinner party, a Latin American visitor was telling the guests about this home country and himself. As he concluded, he said, "And I have a charming and understanding wife but, alas, no children."
As his listeners appeared to be waiting for him to continue, he said, haltingly, "You see, my wife is unbearable."
Puzzled glances prompted him to try to clarify the matter: "What I mean is, my wife is inconceivable."
As his companions seemed amused, he floundered deeper into the intricacies of the English language, explaining triumphantly, "That is, my wife, she is impregnable!"
March 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word the way it spozed to be
I read it back when I went through a teaching credential program and then taught for *shudder* a year. Great book. I also enjoyed his How To Survive In Your Native Land.
March 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word sage hen
Mascot of Pomona College in California. It runs in circles when startled - not a good survival strategy :/.
March 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word louster
To bustle or scramble about.
March 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word louster
A lobster with parasites?
March 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word semantic satiation
I wonder if this has any relation to perseveration.
March 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word prodigal son
The wastrel who returns to the welcoming arms of his father, much to the dismay of the model brother.
March 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word E-rrelevant
See e-force.
March 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word captionym
The monkeys got captionym in only a few minutes; a long way from all of Shakespeare's works, granted, but still impressive!
reesetee: you know about right-click 'inspect element', right?
March 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Chile
I ditto yarb's use as with Spanish speakers, but otherwise I go with chilly or chillay depending on whether the universe zigs or zags at that moment. Just think of all the parallel realities that creates!
March 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the user chained_bear
Hey c_b! This was in my inbox this morning and I thought I'd pass it along to you. Interesting that tappen somehow escaped mention. Hope it's never had your eyetracks on it before.
I want to be a bear......
If you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.
Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.
If you're a bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you are sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.
If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.
If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.
Yup...... I want to be a bear!
March 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word lol
Field Guide to the Acronymical Kingdom
March 5, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Ariadne's thread
"...There is in fact an ‘Ariadne’s thread’ out of the cavern of illusions; realms that are ‘like’ dreams, whilst not strictly speaking being dreams..." --Lee Horstman, BEYOND THE GODS
March 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word sagan
A unit of measure equal to at least 4 billion, according to NPR's Says You.
February 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word blooperang
A mistake that comes back to haunt you.
February 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word murgatroyd
A unit of oenological measurement equal to 66 bottles of champagne according to NPR's Says You.
February 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word jean dimmock
legolicious
February 26, 2010
oroboros commented on the word reptant
" It meticulously dissects the myriad protean tricks authoritarianism employs to maneuver its subjects into place and keep them there. Access to information and accountability for one's conduct are essential for the brave new world that might emerge if the reptant strain of authoritarianism in humankind does not destroy this world first in the name of knowing better." (from a review, on Amazon.com by Ford Greene, Esq., of The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power)
February 25, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mau
Egyptian (ancient?) for cat. Means "seer". (This, according to Darby Conley in his Get Fuzzy comic strip.)
February 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the word perseverate
I first and only time I ever heard this word used was by my girlfriend speech pathologist; "You're perseverating!" It was a good lesson: I never forgot it, nor do I perseverate (uh huh).
February 21, 2010
oroboros commented on the word nook
"Nook" contains two antonyms.
February 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the user reesetee
RT: surprised not to see one of your bird lists shown under mumruffin!
February 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gonomony
"For decades, New Yorker writer Alastair Reid has been collecting words, weird ones. In Ounce, Dice, Trice, the words play tricks on each other and on the reader. gongoozler, piddocks, mumruffin. Reid twists them into rhymes and draws odd connections between them in this book part dictionary, part gonomony receptacle...With black-and-white sketches by painter Ben Shahn, Ounce, Dice, Trice amounts to great fun for the average gongozzler (idle person) of any age." –The Bergen County Record
February 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bic
Marcel Bich
February 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word square-dance
Unhip hop?
February 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gallinipper
Used on NPR's Says You show today.
February 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word hoodang
A ball.
February 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word appsberger syndrome
Using your GPS app everyday to navigate to the home you've lived in for the last twelve years. (Heard on NPR's Wait, wait, don't tell me!)
February 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word The Beer Prayer
The Beer Prayer
Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hollowed be thy drink.
I will be drunk,
At home as in the travern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us.
And lead us not into incarceration,
But deliver us from hangerovers.
For thine is the beer. The bitter and the lager
Forever and ever,
Barmen.
February 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the user mollusque
Thanks, mollusque, for severer.
February 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the list bi-sonics
Done! Thanks, M.
February 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word lovedove
Used in Teresa's frogapplause comicstrip, today (13Feb10).
February 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word ol' fuzzbuddy
Hobbes?
February 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mushfaker
One who repairs umbrellas.
February 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mother
You know you're a mother when you count the sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they're equal.
February 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the list hey-hey-it-s-my-monkey
What, no minkey mounts!? :o) I see monkey back guarantee is a shared whimsy.
February 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word almost Solveig
*applauds ecstatically from the mosh pit*
February 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Australian salute
I've done this more than a few times in a number of places in Australia. Ancient history now though, sorry to say...
February 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word The Monkey
A dance. Wiki link
February 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word hickey
See monkeybite.
February 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word monkeybite
Another term for a hickey.
February 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the user frogapplause
You're right! Good 'un, Ms Frog. :o)
February 8, 2010
oroboros commented on the word cherries
Please take a seat Ms. Witherspoon = Chair, Reese.
February 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pople
The summer fur of a squirrel.
February 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word libkin
A place to sleep in.
February 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word houghmagandy
*hands bilby a confection out of sionnach's new, elaborate dispenser*
February 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word monkey back guarantee
This is an especially useful thing if you're not happy with your monkey!
February 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word chromophore
Chromophores -> photovoltaic cells.
February 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word not even wrong
I.e., unfalsifiable. Wikipedia. Also see gobbledygook.
February 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the user frogapplause
I love the lame blog too!! Btw, T., I think you want built rather than build for the new clicking balls. Or, maybe, builded? :o)
February 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word a day at the beach
In golf, taking more than 3 or more shots to get out of a sandtrap.
January 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the word the four horsemen left side
In bowling: the 1, 2, 4 and 7 pins.
January 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the word dizzen
To dance until one falls down. (according to NPR's Says You)
January 31, 2010
oroboros commented on the word square wheel
Animation (thx to Frog Blog).
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word puzzle palace
"Puzzle Palace on the Potomac" --Ronald Reagan
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the list this-is-one-lame-ass-list
How can we leave out shit-ass?!
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the list atomic-numbers
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111 is prime. (via futilitycloset.com)
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word 17
When I was seventeen, it was a very good year. Frank Sinatra
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word 0079977042
Yoiks! Just reviewed 7457 and, yes, I shoulda knowed!
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word 0079977042
Huh! I'm not getting this. I see James Bond and the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything, but get lost in the middle. Somebody he'p me please!
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Squoze
I must say I'm puzzled by "my girl and her mother". Is that girlfriend?
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the list my-words-are-numbered
The 'teens'? thirteen,fourteen,fifteen,sixteen,seventeen,eighteen,nineteen.
January 30, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pentapopemptic
If you've been divorced five times, you're a pentapopemptic!
January 29, 2010
oroboros commented on the list iwhat
MAXiPad - the next generation (via twitter)
January 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word jazzy snazzy pizzazzy whizzbang gizmo
iPad
MadTV's 2005 iPad prediction.
January 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word jazzy snazzy pizzazzy whizzbang gizmo
Ooh! Ooh! Must have!
January 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word jazzy snazzy pizzazzy whizzbang gizmo
Description for Apple's new whichever what's gonna be brang out today! (Maybe)
January 28, 2010
oroboros commented on the word de-caf
Are the cows mugging?
January 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy
Made me all warm and toasty to read!
January 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Everett Dirkson
The "wizard of ooze".
January 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word noop
The point of the elbow.
January 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word buttonwood agreement
In 1792, 24 stockbrokers sat under a buttonwood tree and agreed to deal only with each other, it was the beginning of the NYSE.
January 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word neato
"No me moleste mosquito, just let me eat my burrito." neato keen!
January 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word kettlebell
Looks a little like a very heavy kettle without a spout.
January 24, 2010
oroboros commented on the word which building has Elvis left
Elvis left? Right.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word brumate
Reptile Brumation.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word brumate
Interestingly enough, I ran across this word in a cartoon (Little Dog Lost by Steve Boreman, 1/23/2010).
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word string-theory
Physics or women's swimwear?
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Dodrantal
Geez, I thought it had to do with irate Pentagon employees!
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word peckable
Hamgerbers on the Porch!
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word learner's permit
Provisional license for student driver, usually limited to some specific duration (e.g., six months in California).
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pilot's halo
Alas, never got a shot of it. Lots of ho-hum shots of the horizon and some neat clouds but nothing memorable. Usually any worthwhile event was gone before being camera-ready. It was easier and more fun to compose poetry(!).
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word peckable
All this hilarity has made me a bit peckish!
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the list the-wordie-banana-song
Just ganghbusters! :o)
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the user trivet
trivet, do you hail from Ojai? Saw it under pink moment. I'm a born-and-raised Santa Barbaran. Used to go play golf in Ojai and one of my favorite places there is the Krotona Library.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the list those-aren-t-cats-and-dogs
Reesetee, your link on green sun is broken. I notice that pilot's halo isn't on the list. Recommended.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word green sun
Also, when conditions are right (much rarer than green flash conditions) the "green ray".
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pilot's halo
I've seen this many, many times. It was always a special sight, no matter how often seen...like a beautiful sunset.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Ouagadougou
You've gotta love the flow of this word. My gullfren Ouagadougou Lulu loves to watch Zulus do the Hula.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the user feedback
Whoops! Now public. Thanks, PossibleUnderscore.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Eltanin Antenna
The oceanographic research ship USNS Eltanin discovered this off the Antarctic coast in 1964, at a depth of 13,500 feet — that’s 2.5 miles down.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Klerksdorp Sphere
For years, South African miners have been finding disks and spheres like this one (see picture and more info here.). Usually brown or red, the objects can measure up to 10 centimeters in diameter, and like this one they’re often engraved with parallel grooves or ridges.
January 23, 2010
oroboros commented on the word aquabib
I like my water in scotch! :o)
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the user feedback
Like dontcry and gangerh, I've done a pronunciation that doesn't show on my profile page. The pron., at the word page (zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba), works but doesn't show on the profile page. Maybe there's some delay? I haven't yet experimented with any others yet...
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the user dontcry
Huh! dontcry's and gangerh's minute silence prons both are inop.
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
Learn this by heart and it'll come in handy in any roadside sobriety testing you might have to endure!
Click on the "pronunciation" link for a sample recitation.
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Himself in the altogether
Well, I'm altogether indifferent. :^)
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word whip
Answer to the riddle:
"At a Cambridge dinner, Arthur C. Clarke asked Clive Sinclair, 'What was the first human artifact to break the sound barrier?'"
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word sustention
See opitulation'
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word furtherance
See opitulation.
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word opitulation
"Without thy help, recruit, support,
Opitulation, furtherance,
Assistance, rescue, aid, resort,
Favour, sustention, and advance?"
--From Ode to a Thesaurus by Franklin P. Adams.
January 22, 2010
oroboros commented on the word tenderloin
District in San Francisco where the cops got such lucrative bribes they could afford steak for every meal. (via NPR's Says You)
January 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word modus operandi
See opus moderandi.
January 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word opus moderandi
Spoonerism of modus operandi.
January 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word exercise
Physical exercise is good for you. I know that I should do it daily but my body doesn't want me to do too much, so I have worked out this program of strenuous activities that do not require physical exercise.You are invited to use my program without charge.
1) Beating around the bush
2) Jumping to conclusions
3) Climbing the walls
4) Swallowing my pride
5) Passing the buck
6) Throwing my weight around
7) Dragging my heels
8) Pushing my luck
9) Making mountains out of molehills
10) Hitting the nail on the head
11) Wading through paperwork
12) Bending over backwards
13) Jumping on the bandwagon
14) Balancing the books
15) Running around in circles
16) Eating crow
17) Tooting my own horn
18) Climbing the ladder of success
19) Pulling out the stops
20) Adding fuel to the fire
21) Opening a can of worms
22) Putting my foot in my mouth
23) Starting the ball rolling
24) Going over the edge
25) Picking up the pieces
January 17, 2010
oroboros commented on the word ballpark figure
"At the UPS cargo phone center where I worked, a woman called and said, 'I need a baseball quote.'
I immediately answered with Yogi Berra's famous 'It ain't over 'til it's over!'
There was a brief moment of silence before the woman asked, 'What was that?'
'You asked me for a baseball quote,' I responded, 'and that was the first thing that came into my head.'
'Oh!' she replied. 'My husband told me to call and get a baseball quote.'
I asked if she wanted to ship something, and she said she did. Then it dawned on me: 'Do you mean you want a ballpark figure?'"
(found in cyberspace)
January 16, 2010
oroboros commented on the word fusillanimity
The attitude of the NRA?
January 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word mookarectomy
mook-a-rectomy
January 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word q
The only letter that does not appear in any U.S. state name.
January 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word unnoticeably
Has all the vowels in reverse order.
January 14, 2010
oroboros commented on the word william shakespeare
Anagram: I'll make a wise phrase.
January 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word animosity
Anagram: is no amity.
January 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word softheartedness
Anagram: often sheds tears
January 13, 2010
oroboros commented on the word fuck
The f-word reviewed.
January 11, 2010
oroboros commented on the word calva
A scalp with no hair. (via NPR's Says You)
January 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word nunting
Adj., ungainly, awkward
January 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word squonk
A mythical beast that weeps continually at its own ugliness. When surprised it dissolves entirely into tears. (via futilitycloset.com)
January 10, 2010
oroboros commented on the word features
Hmmm, I just noticed that there's no option to see my collected past comments, which I thought might be a way around the "recent activity" lack. Is that also in the works, John?
January 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pwllheli
A place in Wales!
January 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pwllheli
Pwllheli Vice
January 9, 2010
oroboros commented on the word features
I haven't got time to search all thru the comments but I've been wanting to say that I miss the "recent activity" option we had on Wordie. Am I missing some version of it on Wordnik?
I can't always remember what the heck I did last and recent activity was a no-brains way to find it.
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Rhinocirrhosis
Song by the Bikinians Also, see rhinoceroses.
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Pilgrim
Yes, their crispness was divine!
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word rhinoceroses
Rhinocirrhosis: a problem developed by heavy-drinking rhinocerwursts.
Edit: I just discovered that this is a song by the Bikinians. Click on the word for link.
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word tongue-twister
It’s said that police sergeants in Leith, Scotland, used this tongue-twister as a sobriety test:
The Leith police dismisseth us,
I’m thankful, sir, to say;
The Leith police dismisseth us,
They thought we sought to stay.
The Leith police dismisseth us,
We both sighed sighs apiece;
And the sigh that we sighed as we said goodbye
Was the size of the Leith police.
If you can’t say it, you’re drunk.
(via futilitycloset.com)
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word rabbit
How do you catch a unique rabbit? Unique up on it!
How do you catch a tame rabbit? Tame way, unique up on it!
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word psychopath
How crazy people get through the forest?
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word wreck
What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches? A nervous wreck!
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word job
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word subordinate clause
Santa's helper.
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word Pilgrim
Why did the Pilgrims' pants always fall down? Because they wore their belt-buckle on their hat!
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word frostbite
What you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? See snowpire.
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word polaroids
What Eskimos get when they sit on the ice too long?
January 7, 2010
oroboros commented on the word intimate
I will intimate to my intimate.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word warts and all
When Oliver Cromwell sat for his portrait he insisted he be portrayed "warts and all" or he wouldn't pay the artist.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word footloose and fancy free
Derivation: free of shackles (footloose); free of romantic entanglements (fiancee).
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word start from scratch
Derivation: the starting line for a horse race is know as the scratch.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word roturier
A self-made man; commoner who made good. --According to NPR's Says You
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gurn
To show the teeth, to snarl.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word moderate
We need a moderate to moderate.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word buffet
The wind buffeted the buffet.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word pitcher's mound
Sixty feet and six inches from home plate. Why the six inches? It's a misprint in the original specifications of the game (via NPR's Says You).
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word yo-yo
The second oldest toy (after doll). Via Says You.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word martinizing
The McDonald's of dry cleaning. A franchise for rapid dry cleaning.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the word zinc
An ingredient in many shampoos.
January 3, 2010
oroboros commented on the user seanahan
seanahan, have you read Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy? Recommended. I read Anathem last Spring and really enjoyed it. Very different direction for him. The guy's amazing...
January 2, 2010
oroboros commented on the word bristol stool scale
Ask Dr. Stool your poop questions!
January 2, 2010
oroboros commented on the user chained_bear
Hey! I think c_b's awesome too! A bit distracted these days with a new lil monkey, but still awesome...
January 2, 2010
oroboros commented on the word ambidextrous
Ambidextrous is ambidextrous. The first half of the word is from the left half of the alphabet; the second half from the right half.
January 1, 2010
oroboros commented on the word particularly
See link in comment under similarly.
December 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word similarly
"I can never pronounce the word 'similarly'."
December 29, 2009
oroboros commented on the word nip and tuck
The dynamic occurring when hightailing it from the junkyard dog.
December 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word hightail
Cf. nip and tuck.
December 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word 仲
How 'bout "caged bird sings"?
December 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pizelle
Italian waffle cookies (I think)
December 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the word theatrophone
"...a late 19th-century invention, offering live relay of theatrical or musical performances to the home phones of subscribers (Marcel Proust among them)."
--From OED notes, December 2009
December 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the word spurious
Cf. specious.
December 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the word specious
Cf. spurious.
December 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the word tessellation
See an animated one here.
December 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word drunk button
"If there were a drunk button, I buy one." Penn State student on NPR's This American Life, bemoaning the execrable taste of Natural Lite beer and Vladamir vodka, the cheapness of which make them obligatory products for binge drinking at the number one-rated party-school.
December 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word veni vidi vici
Pronounced "wenee, weedee, weekee" in Latin.
December 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sex
Sex euphemisms.
December 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word orgle
The gargling sound made by a female(?) llama in heat.
December 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pokenook
A dark or inaccessible corner in a woman's handbag.
December 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word jower
To mumble or complain under one's breath.
December 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word guntz
The whole lot, the whole way. The whole nine yards.
December 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word buffalo
Naked greeting?
December 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word hindermate
Opposite of helpmate.
December 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word gnathodynomometer
See gnathodynamometer.
December 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word gnathodynamometer
Measures the force of closing jaws.
December 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word disdrometer
Measures the size and speed of rain drops.
December 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word grathodynomometer
Should be gnathodynomometer.
December 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word zymometer
Measures the degree of fermentation in a solution.
December 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word microastrology
You could be right, u! More info.
December 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word microastrology
"Microastrology is not based on the movements of the planets but rather the orbits of electrons around atoms and the passage of quarks through time and space. You can get a reading and it will be incredibly accurate but only for that nanosecond." --Joe Choo
December 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word aasvogel
A bird, according to reesetee & mollusque.
November 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word eebree
Scottish for eyebrow.
November 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the list list-of-onyms
phantonym
November 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word weasel
Pop! goes the weasel.
November 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word technopathocracy
"....Peter Lamborn Wilson on what he calls the Technopathocracy of modern society: complete disconnection, lack of community and Internet-mediated insanity, and the Intentional Community as the solution...He makes the incredibly salient point that “dropping out” of Internet culture now is the same as “dropping out” of the mainstream in the 60s."
--dangerousminds.net (for video interview with Wilson)
November 25, 2009
oroboros commented on the word severance economy
N. -- Laid-off workers who use exit packages to maintain the standard of living they enjoyed while still employed.
"Former bank CEO Paul Joegriner is a member of what might be called the severance economy--unemployed Americans who use severance pay and savings to maintain their lifestyles."
--WSJ, Nov 10, 2009
November 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word structure
STRUcTure. A strut is a structure.
November 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mein
See comment under mine.
November 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mien
mine (English), mien (French), and mein (German) are synonyms and anagrams in three languages.
November 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mine
Mine (English), mien (French), and mein (German) are synonyms and anagrams in three languages. (via futilitycloset.com)
November 22, 2009
oroboros commented on the word moonglade
How 'bout moonshine? :o)
November 22, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sweat
sWEaT
November 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word vegetable
VegEtAbLe
November 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word botax
"A Botax? Senate committee gets creative
A tax on plastic surgery, call it a "Botax", is on the table, as senators desperately try to come up with creative ways to fund $1 trillion in health care reforms."
--Fox News
November 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fragrance
Ahh, in fragrance is France! FRAgraNCE
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word tavern
Many people aver in tAVERns.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous
See also anonyponymous.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word tantalize
Also see anonyponymous.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dispose
DispOSE
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word casino
caSINo
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word apprehensive
We might be apprehensive when we aren't apprehensive of what's going on.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word gamble
GAMblE.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word excavate
exCAVatE. Make a cave.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word motorcycle
moTOrcYcle. A boy toy.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word anonyponymous
"The Earl of Sandwich is famous for being the man behind a word that most people never thought was named after anyone, a man both anonymous and eponymous or, to coin a term, anonyponymous."
--Anonyponymous by John Bemelmans Marciano
Also, see comments under frisbee.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word frisbee
"There was a woman named Mary Frisbie who made pies in Connecticut," Marciano tells Renee Montagne. "Students would throw around her pie plates after they had finished her pies, and kind of like you would say, 'Incoming!' they would say, 'Frisbie!' just to give people the heads-up that there was something spinning and flying coming at their head.
Meanwhile, the Wham-O corporation, producer of the hula hoop, was having trouble selling its own flying disk, awkwardly named "The Pluto Platter".
They went around to college campuses, knowing that this was where trends started," Marciano says. "To their surprise, in the Northeast, people were already throwing flying disks, and they had this name 'Frisbie' for it.
For trademark purposes, "Frisbie" became "Frisbee," and a sensation was born.'
--On-air interview by NPR of John Bemelmans Marciano about his book Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word scintillescent
Contains seven pairs of letters, no singles.
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word leotard
A leotard is a unisex skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the torso but leaves the legs free. It was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1842–1870), about whom the song "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" was written. (Wikipedia)
November 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word stimthought
Instructions for conquering Everest: 1. put one foot in front of the other. 2. repeat. See, easy!
Instructions for 'achieving' enlightenment: 1. enter a small dark closet. 2. Find your shadow. 3. Embrace it. There! Nothing to it!
November 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word worst
BEST and WORST are synonyms when used as verbs:
he bested his opponent, he worsted his opponent
But they’re antonyms when used as adjectives, adverbs, or nouns:
the best player, the worst player
it best suits his skills, it worst suits his skills
I am the best, I am the worst
November 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word blind date
Duffy's take.
November 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sandwichocracy
-cracy, the most -tastic suffix!
November 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word america
Find your state!
November 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word robber
One who's looking for a lift?
November 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word clueless
"I don't know what I'm doing, but..."
November 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word explosion
Kaboom!
November 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fart
Hey, Jay! Pull my finger! (click on a hand)
November 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word kiss
You deserve a kiss today.
November 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word journey
It's not the destination...
November 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor's porch day
Zucchini and the power of suggestion.
November 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word zucchini weenie
See one here.
November 5, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor's porch day
See a picture of the zucchini weenie at frogapplause's Frog Blog. (It's in there somewhere!)
Edit: Here it is!
November 5, 2009
oroboros commented on the user frogapplause
Glad to be of assistance, Teresa. Everything's working normally now with Google Chrome.
November 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word xeropthalmia
Condition characterized by dryness of the eyes. Check Dictionary.com for more.
November 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word zufolo
Also spelled zuffolo.
November 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word deepen
Sounds like the letters D P N.
October 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word esquire
Sounds like the letters S K Y R.
October 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word exile
Sounds like the letters X I L.
October 29, 2009
oroboros commented on the word entity
Sounds like the letters N T T.
October 29, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sake
Benefit.
October 29, 2009
oroboros commented on the word aviator
Sounds like the letters A V A T R.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word esteem
Sounds like the letters S T M.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word seedy
Sounds like the letters C D.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word essay
Sounds like the letters S A.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the list gramograms-words-that-sound-like-letters
Thanks whichbe! I'm slowly adding 'em.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word jail
Sounds like the letters J L.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word arrestee
Sounds like the letters R S T.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word escapee
Sounds like the letters S K P .
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word enemy
Sounds like the letters N M E.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word excesses
Sounds like the letters X S S.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word icy
Sounds like the letters I C.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word decay
Sounds like the letters D K.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word array
Sounds like the letters R A.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word empty
Sounds like the letters M T.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word immensity
Sounds like the letters M N C T.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word obesity
Sounds like the letters O B C T.
October 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word unusual
Laid up in the hospital, James Thurber passed the time doing crossword puzzles.
One day he asked a nurse, “What seven-letter word has three u’s in it?�?
She said, “I don’t know, but it must be unusual.�?
(via futilitycloset.com)
October 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word wordnik
What, that I'm an idiot? :o)
October 22, 2009
oroboros commented on the word spoony
Puts one in mind of "spoonerism", except spoonerism derives from the name of
October 22, 2009
oroboros commented on the word wordnik
John, it appears that comments can't be edited? The comment I added to spoony was all borked up and I couldn't do anything about it...or am I just an idiot?
BTW, nice work on the new look!
October 21, 2009
oroboros commented on the word consummate
consumMATE
October 21, 2009
oroboros commented on the word link
Create links between words and enter your definition of the relation between them (and see what others think as well here.
Takes a bit of exploration/practice with the cursor...
October 21, 2009
oroboros commented on the word bee
Nectar inspector?
October 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word grill
Slang for face or mouth (smile). "Aloysius slammed Gandolph in the grill".
October 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word yes we have no bananas
This is probably more than you wanted to know, but what the hay!:
"Words and music by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn (1923). One of the most successful nonsense songs of the 1920s. The writers got their idea by overhearing a Greek fruit peddler tell a customer: "Yes, we have no bananas." Frank Silver and Irving Cohn introduced their song in a New York restaurant, but it failed to catch fire. Then, in 1923, Eddie Cantor saw the song in manuscript while Make It Snappy (a revue in which Cantor was then starring) was playing in Philadelphia. Held over in that city for an extended run, the show needed some new material, since people were coming to see it a second time. Cantor decided to interpolate "Yes, We Have No Bananas" in one of his routines, one Wednesday matinee. The audience response was so enthusiastic that Cantor had to sing chorus after chorus; the show was stopped cold for over a quarter of an hour. Cantor now made the song a permanent part of his act, and he always brought down the house with it. His Victor recording became a best seller--one of many successful releases of this number. By the end of 1923 everybody was singing it throughout the country. In the Music Box Revue of 1923 it was ridiculed in a performance in which it was presented in the grand-operatic manner of the Sextet from Lucia de Lammermoor--the performers being Grace Moore, John Steel, Joseph Santley, Frank Tinney, Florence Moore and Lora Sonderson. It was interpolated in the motion-picture musical Mammy, starring Al Jolson (Warner 1930); Eddie Cantor sang it on the soundtrack of the motion-picture musical The Eddie Cantor Story (Warner 1954)"
--American Popular Songs, David Ewen, Random House, 1966
October 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word piccolo
Get Rob soused?
October 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word picolo
A unit of volume of champagne; equal to 1/4 bottle (187.5 ml).
October 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word castanets
Put Funicello and O'toole in a play?
October 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word harmonica
Wound Lewinsky?
October 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word neuroceutical
“Neuroceuticals is a term I coined to describe future neuropharmaceuticals that have very low if any side effects, so that they may be used by healthy humans. There are three categories of neuroceuticals: cogniceuticals for memory, emoticeuticals for emotions, and sensoceuticals focused on sensory systems.�?
--Zack Lynch, author of The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World
October 10, 2009
oroboros commented on the word carbon copy cat calling card carrying case closed circuit
My answer to Will Shortz's NPR on-air puzzle challenge. To wit: "The challenge is to find a chain of "C" words to connect "carbon" to "circuit." Will's chain has seven words between "carbon" and "circuit." The answer doesn't have to match Will's, but each word has to start with "C," and each has to combine with the words before and after to make a compound word or familiar two-word phrase."
October 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word macropicide
Latin "macropus" = kangaroo (via Dictionary.com)
October 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pigeon-hole
Now pigeonhole. "LONDON (Reuters) - About 16,000 words have succumbed to pressures of the Internet age and lost their hyphens in a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary."
October 1, 2009
oroboros commented on the user gangerh
Interesting, gangerh. I like it! :)
September 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word brazil nut effect
:-)
September 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word cheerio effect
Not a good feeling from a British aloha!
September 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word brazil nut effect
A seeming paradox, but with several possible explanations.
Also see Cheerio effect.
September 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word brazil nut effect
Thanks to frogapplause!
September 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word phantonym
Here's a list of them.
September 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word national punctuation day
Rats! Found out about it three days late! September 24th
September 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word ultraultimate
"Penultimate, some writers are surprised to learn, does not mean ultraultimate."
Jack Rosenthal, NY Times article On Language 9/25/09
See penultimate and "Phantonyms" list.
September 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word abearance
demeanor, behavior. And a good word for a chained_bear list! :o)
September 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word multi-tasking
I prefer multi-basking. (word from "Speed Bump" cartoon).
September 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word yooper
Upper Peninsula Michiganite.
September 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word ultraultimate
"Penultimate,some writers are surprised to learn, does not mean ultraultimate."
--Jack Rosenthal, NY Times article "On Language" 9/25/09
September 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word ale
X-word clues: "draft pick" & "inn-take".
September 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word eva
Samoa's official plant (according to NPR's Says You)
September 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word arena
"fan setting" (X-word clue)
September 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word gloves
Ofttimes when I put on my gloves,
I wonder if I’m sane,
For when I put the right one on,
The right seems to remain
To be put on, that is, ‘tis left;
Yet if the left I don,
The other one is left, and then
I have the right one on.
But still I have the left on right;
The right one, though, is left
To go right on the left right hand
All right, if I am deft.
– Ray Clarke Rose
(via futilitycloset.com)
September 25, 2009
oroboros commented on the word swan song
Trumpeter's tune?
September 25, 2009
oroboros commented on the word malvertize
Fraudulent ad along the lines of phishing.
September 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word chained bare
Oooohhh, this is just precious. Do you suppose c_b's seen it? (are you kidding! She sees everything!)
September 11, 2009
oroboros commented on the word wordnik
Oh, man, I'm gettin' goosebumps!! WONDERFUL NEWS, John. Congratulations-cubed! *staring off into the middle distance, counting blessings to come*
September 10, 2009
oroboros commented on the word imagineer
"One who imagines the future and engineers towards it"
--
September 7, 2009
oroboros commented on the word epigone
Cf. epitome.
September 7, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pussyrat
A good ole Southern boy barged into a brothel one night saying "I want some pussyrat now!!"
September 7, 2009
oroboros commented on the word danelectro guitar
Nat Daniel was a pioneer of the electric guitar. Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward marketed his guitars under the brand names Silvertone and Airline, respectively.
September 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word jabberwocky
Jabberwocky Spell-checked
`Twas billing, and the smithy toes
Did gyre and gamble in the wage:
All missy were the brogues,
And the mime rats outrage.
"Beware the Jabber Wick, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujube bird, and shun
The furious Bender Snatch!"
He took his viral sword in hand:
Long time the Manxwomen foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tutu tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in offish thought he stood,
The Jabber Wick, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffing through the tulle wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The viral blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabber Wick?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O crablouse day! Callow! Allay!'
He chortled in his joy.
`Twas billing, and the smithy toes
Did gyre and gamble in the wage;
All missy were the brogues
And the mime rats outrage.
--via futilitycloset.com
September 1, 2009
oroboros commented on the word discombobule
A tiny particle of discombobulation.
August 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word luftwaffle
The Germans are starting a chain of breakfast eateries, Luftwaffle House, to compete with its American waffle rival.
August 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sweat equity
What you build with elbow grease.
August 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word bread
According to an NPR piece I heard today, Lester Young, the great saxophonist coined the slang usage of the word "bread" to mean money. See also, "cool"
August 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word cool
According to an NPR piece I heard today, Lester Young, the great saxophonist coined the slang usage of the word "cool" as a culturally favorable adjective. Also, "bread" to mean money.
August 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word downhill
"Things are really going downhill now, yikes!"
"At last, it's all downhill now!"
August 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word attractive nuisance
That old broken-down, rusty thresher or tractor sitting out in the field that attracts kids who will play on it and possibly hurt themselves.
August 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word springe
Noose, trap, snare for small game animals.
August 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word hedgehog
Why is it that hedgehogs just can't share the hedge? :op
August 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word nail salon grapevine
Iffn you don't hear it here, it ain't worth hearin'. See dang network.
August 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dang network
The good ole boys is on top o' everything; toasty hot news! See nail salon grapevine.
August 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word crap
Asian pronunciation of an STD?
August 25, 2009
oroboros commented on the word jinx
Joe Btfsplk!
August 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the word epicene
"He moved toward me lightly. His left hand palpated my chest and armpits, moved down my flanks and hips. I was glad I'd left my gun in the car, but I hated to be touched by him. His hands were epicene."
--Ross Macdonald, The Moving Target
August 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the word taller-tap
This isn't an aviation term, but relates to the military. Anybody who's been to bootcamp or had marching training will know the term. A group of men form up in lines ("fall-in")and are told to "taller-tap". If you're taller than the man standing in front of you, tap him on the shoulder and move ahead of him. Repeat until nobody needs to tap and move. In very short order the formation is height-graded and ready for further marching commands, e.g., "Ten-hut! Riot-hace! Dress-right-dress! Layeft hace! Fowad harch! Your left, your left, your left-riot-left. *sung in cadence*'Well I don't know but I've been told, Army grub is hard and cold. Sound off!' 'ONE! TWO!', hear it again 'THREE! FOUR!', one,two,three,four 'ONE!TWO!*pause*THREE-FOUR!!'"
So there's your little glimpse into the harrowing experience of military bootcamp. Enjoy it and avoid it if you can...
August 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the user chained_bear
C_b. If you don't want to remember/type in numbers, just run the "charmap" program on your PC (don't know about Apple) and you can select/copy the symbols there. It's a little like looking for a needle in a haystack 'tho, sometimes.
Here's some I copied for instance: ێϊǼ♥♫▒ﯓ
August 22, 2009
oroboros commented on the word organon
Organon: Aristotilian logic: A = x or not-x.
Neo Organon: Francis Bacon: scientific method
Tertium Organon: Ouspensky: A = x and not-x.
August 21, 2009
oroboros commented on the word bumbershoot
See brolly.
August 21, 2009
oroboros commented on the word freemium
A free service/product that is supported $-wise by those who sign up/pay for the premium edition.
August 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word albookooky
Albuquerque, NM.
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pauciloquent
Pauciloquent is as pauciloquent does!
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pauciloquent
Pauciloquent as a clam.
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word flat-hatting
Here's some flat-hatting.
I did my share of high-speed, low-level chasing sheep around in southwest Texas. Dumb, but exhilarating! I survived...
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word call sign
Identifying moniker for radio communication between pilots and controlling agencies (or members of a flight formation). One of the best I've known amongst the fighter jocks: "fortune"; one of the worst: "rat".
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word moron bay
Morro Bay, CA to some sniffy and envious inland neighbors.
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word rumdum
Bar rat, toper. "Nearer the main street there were a few tourist hotels with neon signs like icing on a cardboard cake, red-painted chili houses, a series of shabby taverns where the rumdums were congregating."
--Ross Macdonald, The Moving Target
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the user chained_bear
Thanks c_b! I'll put on my thinking cap and add some place nicknames to your list. BTW, I noticed the keyboard shortcuts you "found" a couple of months ago. Did you use "charmap" or what?
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word content
Are you content with the content?
August 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word quagged
Buried in the details to the extent of indecisiveness. Obsessed with details. (via NPR's Says You)
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word gazinta
Any device that goes into another device, e.g., an electrical plug into a wall socket.
I also vote for: any container, say, for leftovers. "Hey, gimme a gazinta for this tuna salad." Synonym for doggie bag.
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word nintendocide
Killing off your character in a videogame in order to go do something more important. (via NPR's Says You)
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word tsantsa
According to NPR's Says You: a shrunken head.
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word geekolator
The person in the office who can tell you what the geeks are talking about; one who can actually talk to tech support. (Via NPR's Says You)
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word scrolly
A webpage requiring so much scrolling that when you reach the bottom you can't remember what's at the top. (via NPR's Says You)
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dook
According to NPR's Says You: A wood plug driven into a wall to hold a nail.
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word precycling
Reducing waste by limiting consumption. "Precycling is being thoughtful at the point of purchase in addition to at the point of throwing out." --Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug. 4, 2009
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word tumblesault
"Pynchonesque multitudes crowd into the picture. Tight-lipped federales, stoner lawyers, ex-con neo-nazis with a big thing for show tunes--they tumblesault in every page or two, each bearing, maybe, a piece of the puzzle."
Richard Lacayo, Time Magazine review of Pynchon's Inherent Vice
August 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word shinbone
A device for finding furniture in the dark. (via NPR's "Car Talk")
August 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word congressional sausage factory
Heard on an NPR interview. You con't want to look too closely at what goes in to things made there!
August 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word ipn-iee
"I + Not-I = Everything. --Jan Cox
August 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word crapanddiarrhea
Carpinteria, CA as the uppity and irreverent Santa Barbarans call it.
August 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word san bedarnedifiknow
San Bernardino, CA, as my grandfather used to kid us kids!
August 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word zucchini weenie
A hot-dog inserted into a cored zucchini and deep-fried. Big at the San BedarnedifIknow Fair!
August 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word biker
........__O
......_"\<,_
.....(*)/ (*)
.......................
August 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word bivvy sack
Also bivvy bag, the waterproof sack that holds your tent and/or sleeping bag.
August 11, 2009
oroboros commented on the word veraison
In a wine vineyard, when the grapes begin to take on color (red for red grapes and yellow for green grapes) and sugar begins to heighten during maturation. Harvest is not far off.
August 10, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fourth outfielder
Baseball: not good enough to play an outfield position outright, but good enough to be used as a substitue in a pinch.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word third rail
In politics, Social Security benefits. Don't touch 'em!!
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fifth disease
"Slapped cheek syndrome" (from red rash on cheeks) a mild viral disease (fifth in frequency of rash-producing maladies in early childhood).
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word the twins
Two of Peter Pan's lost boys.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word nibs
One of Peter Pan's lost boys.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word slightly
One of Peter Pan's lost boys.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word curly
One of Peter Pan's lost boys.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word tootles
One of Peter Pan's lost boys.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word six flags over texas
The flags: U.S., Texas, Confederate, Mexican, Spanish, French. All have flown over Texas in its history.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word deuce coupe
A hot-rod fashioned from a 1932 Ford coupe.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fion
According to NPR's "Says You": A piece cut out from a fish and used for bait. Scandinavian origin.
August 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dramedy
E.g., Woody Allen films.
August 8, 2009
oroboros commented on the word oese
Platinum wire.
August 8, 2009
oroboros commented on the word no breast
Righto, congrats!
August 7, 2009
oroboros commented on the word gloaming
Crepuscular
August 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word crepuscular
Gloaming
August 6, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dwindle
Fritter
August 5, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fritter
Dwindle
August 5, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sheath soliloquies
You got it!
August 5, 2009
oroboros commented on the word wanderer
Yep, it's planet. Good going.
August 5, 2009
oroboros commented on the word head foot
Yah, likin' it.
August 5, 2009
oroboros commented on the word wanderer
Nope. Try again. This one's not all that hard, but one never knows about such things, do one? :)
August 5, 2009
oroboros commented on the word little sheath
Vagina?
August 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word apple-gourd
Pumpkin?
August 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word head foot
Cephalopod?
August 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word palindrone
A speech that makes as much sense backwards as forwards? (Especially a resignation speech)
August 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word nocebo
"...the nocebo phenomenon wherein a patient produces the symptoms of a misdiagnosed disease, even to the degree of dying on the day that the doctor gave as the expected time to live, although the particular disease was not present."
The Abundance Matrix, p. 5
August 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word catastrophize
"At the University of Toronto, Dr. Mayberg, Zindel Segal and their colleagues first used brain imaging to measure activity in the brains of depressed adults. Some of these volunteers then received paroxetine (the generic name of the antidepressant Paxil), while others underwent 15 to 20 sessions of cognitive-behavior therapy, learning not to catastrophize. That is, they were taught to break their habit of interpreting every little setback as a calamity, as when they conclude
from a lousy date that no one will ever love them."
August 2, 2009
oroboros commented on the word coffin
"Strange Discovery"
July 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word brain bucket
Designer Brain Buckets.
July 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sewer
Betsy Ross v. main.
July 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word midshipman fish
The male plainfin midshipman fish hums a song for a mate in the sea...for hours!
July 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word accompaniment
ACCompanimENT: A scarf, say, is an accompaniment and an accent.
July 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word free
FrEE: free v. fee
July 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word before
bEfoRE
July 30, 2009
oroboros commented on the word preposition
Exhausted after a long day of insisting that one must never end a sentence with a preposition, the English teacher took a book about Australia up to her daughter's bedroom.
"Mommy," said the girl, "what did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?"
(via futilitycloset.com)
July 29, 2009
oroboros commented on the word metabolic price of cognitive capacity
That's one Pop-Tart more than I ate for lunch! Good goin' c_b. Must be why my brain's thumpin' like a washing machine in the spin cycle. *holds head*
July 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the list let-s-play
Hi Treeseed. How 'bout mumbletypeg?
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mumblety-peg
Also mumblypeg.
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mumblypeg
Also mumblety-peg; mumbledepeg.
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word smidgen
A half pinch; 1/32 of a teaspoon.
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word horsepower
See manpower.
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word manpower
One-tenth of a horsepower.
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word daunch
To daub or plaster with adhesive mud.
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sweb
To swoon and faint.
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word idiot walk
The final survey of an area, say, a hotel room, to check for personal items inadvertently left behind.
July 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dead-endednesses
Comprised of 1 - A, 2 - Ns, 3 - Ss, 4 - Ds, 5 - Es. (Via Futility Closet).
July 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word temperamentally
Five words joined: T, EM, PER, AMEN, TALLY. (Thanks to Futility Closet)
July 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word nastygram
"When a rightsholder sends a nastygram to Amazon, you don't get a say in whether to treat the claim as valid or bogus."
--"Amazon's Orwellian deletion of Kindle books", boingboing, July 20, 2009 (Cory Doctorow)
July 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word three-toed tree toad
A he-toad loved a she-toad
That lived high in a tree.
She was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was he.
The three-toed tree toad tried to win
The she-toad's nuptial nod,
For the three-toed tree toad loved the road
The two-toed tree toad trod.
Hard as the three-toed tree toad tried,
He could not reach her limb.
From her tree-toad bower, with her V-toe power
The she-toad vetoed him.
– Anonymous
July 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word excess
See moderation for success.
July 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word moderation
"Moderation is a fatal thing; nothing succeeds like excess" --Oscar Wilde
July 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word snow white
"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted." --Mae West
July 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word coffin
Oblong hexagonal container (wide at the shoulders) as opposed to a casket which is a rectangular box.
July 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word metabolic price of cognitive capacity
"If a biological brain wants to develop a new cognitive capacity, it must pay a price. The currency in which the price is paid is sugar. Additional energy must be made available and more glucose must be burned to develop and stabilize this new capacity."
Thomas Metzinger, The Ego Tunnel, p. 43
July 11, 2009
oroboros commented on the word metacognitive deficit
"...the dream Ego does not know that it is dreaming. It does not realize the signals it is turning into an internal narrative are self-generated stimuli--in philosophical jargon, this feature of the dream state is a "metacognitive deficit." The dream Ego is delusional, lacking insight into the nature of the state it is itself generating."
--Thomas Metzinger, The Ego Tunnel, p. 138
In lucid dreaming, this is not the case, for the dreaming Ego is conscious it is dreaming/creating the dream state.
July 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word unemploymentality
See funemployment.
July 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word paycation
Every generation has an argot to describe the confusing terrain of joblessness — the dole, deadbeat dads, UB40, and so on — and the lexicon of younger casualties in the most severe American economic downturn since World War II speaks volumes. See also: Funemployment, Unemploymentality.
July 3, 2009
oroboros commented on the word facelift
"Happiness is the best facelift." --Joni Mitchell
July 2, 2009
oroboros commented on the word club fed
Low security prison for relatively short-term non-violent offenders...where Bernie Madoff won't be spending his time behind bars.
July 2, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dunmovin
A place in the Owen's Valley of California, east of the Sierra Nevada and west of the White Mountains.
July 1, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pie-hole
"Shut yer pie-hole, or get it hit!"
July 1, 2009
oroboros commented on the word poorgeoisie
"Poorgeoisie and those who pretend to be less wealthy have been with us for years. What has changed is that many of them no longer have to pretend."
--Wall Street Journal, Jun 17, 2009
June 29, 2009
oroboros commented on the list place-names-of-distinction
How about Dunmovin' (in California). Surprised not to see Lake Titicaca.
June 29, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fod
Foreign Object Damage. Big concern on airport runways, ramps and taxiways, where jet engines can suck up stray objects like scraps of metal, screws and bolts, tools (even people). FOD control is a perennial prevention program in aviation.
June 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word suck hind tit
Not a good position to be in.
June 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fiigm
"F**k it, I got mine!" Let the hindmost suck hind tit.
June 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fiigmo
"F**k it, I got my orders." Military acronym (also FIGMO) for one's attitude toward present duties with assignment orders for a new gig (or mustering-out) in hand. "Not my job, Bob, I'm FIGMO!" Also related to short (for short-timer, soon to be "separated" from active duty military]. "I'm so short I'm walking under doors!"
June 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word goat
(G)reatest (O)f (A)ll (T)ime
June 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word toyestermorrowday
NOW in the Land of One Hand Clapping.
June 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word monkey's wedding
A confused situation.
--Dictionary of American Regional English
June 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dry land fish
Mushrooms.
--Dictionary of American Regional English
June 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word roller bird
(n) Bluejay (Usage: In the vicinity of Dothan, Ala., bluejays are often called "roller birds" because when chinaberries are ripe, the birds sit in the trees and gorge themselves until they grow drunk. Then they tumble out of the trees and roll on the ground...)
--Dictionary of American Regional English
June 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word flannel cake
Appalachian usage for pancake.
--Dictionary of American Regional English
June 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word lucy bowles
Regional slang for diarrhea; loose bowels.
--Dictionary of American Regional English
June 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word rantum scoot
An outing with no definite destination.
-Dictionary of American Regional English
June 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pungle
To shell out; plunk down (money); to pay up. From Spanish Poner, to put; pongale: "put it down".
June 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word autodefenestration
Or, throwing your car out the window!?
June 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word apposite
Kangaroo word: APposiTe
June 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word shopportunity
Heard this somewhere and surprised it's virgin territory...
June 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word bugs
I'm getting a 500 application error when I try the cloud feature on tags. Is that a temporary deal? It worked before, I believe.
Edit: works normally except on the tag ghosted (so far anyway).
Edit: found some others. Appears to relate to the size of the word collection tagged. The larger the collection the greater opportunity for 500 app error.
June 2, 2009
oroboros commented on the word anecdotalist
C_b, you deserve an award from a BIG college as far as I'm concerned! And that's no excrement!! :o)
June 2, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dracula sneeze
(Via Time: n.--A method of sneezing used to prevent the spread of swine flu. "...last week teachers reminded students that if they have to sneeze, to put their mouths into the crook of one of their elbows. The students started calling that the Dracula Sneeze, and we picked up on that..."
--Reuters, April 27, 2009
June 1, 2009
oroboros commented on the word benedict arnold schwarzenegger
Yah, probably so, but I edited the list intro to include them. The page really is an outlet for Says You! word play.
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word harold lloyd bridges
Scuba-diving silent film star?
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word winslow homer simpson
Doughnut-loving seascape artist?
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word jesse norman rockwell
Diva painter?
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mary shelley winters
Frankenstein on the Poseidon?
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word benedict arnold schwarzenegger
Traitorous Kalifornia governor?
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word nazar
A gift given TO a superior, more in homage than a bribe.
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word telephonophobia
Interesting this is not in someone's phobia list! Fear of telephones. Heard on NPR's Says You today.
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sherpa
According to Nina Totenberg (NPR legal correspondent) a "sherpa" (presumably N.Y. Senator Chuck Shumer) will guide/lead Sonia Sotomayor in "making the rounds" on Capitol Hill in her quest to "unroil the waters" leading to the Supreme Court.
May 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word decussate
The word originated from Latin "as" (plural asses) which was a copper coin and the monetary unit in ancient Rome. The word for ten asses was decussis, from Latin decem (ten) + as (coin). Since ten is represented by X, this spawned the verb decussare, meaning to divide in the form of an X or intersect.
May 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word perioeci
People living on the same parallel of latitude but on opposite meridians such that midnight for one is noon for the other. Singular: perioecus.
May 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word credit munch
n., recession-induced comfort eating. "Stressed out Britons have piled on 20 million stone in a year trying to 'comfort eat' their way through the recession, according to a report out today. The condition--dubbed the credit munch--has seen three in five Britons put on weight in the past 12 months." --the U.K.'s Daily Express, May 11, 2009 (via Time Magazine)
May 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word potato hole
Hole dug in a dirt floor to keep the vittles cool.
The title of the latest Booker T. Jones release--first in twenty years!
May 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the word children
"Make no mistake. I take these children seriously. It is not possible to see too much in them, to overindulge your casual gift for the study of character. It is all there, in full force, charged waves of identity and being. There are no amateurs in the world of children."
--Don DeLillo, White Noise
May 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word snackrifice
Or, maybe one that starts one! :o)
May 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word features
I was just looking at the blink and marquee pages for the first time in a coon's age. Has John disabled those features? NOT that I want to use 'em of course! :o)
May 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word radical
&radic
May 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word hippocrite
A very large, river-loving two-facer with wiggling ears.
May 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word rhopalic
Another of Borgmann's snowballs:
I am not very happy acting pleased whenever prominent scientists overmagnify intellectual enlightenment, stoutheartedly outvociferating ultrareactionary retrogressionists, characteristically unsupernaturalizing transubstantiatively philosophicoreligious incomprehensiblenesses anthropomorphologically. Pathologicopsychological!
May 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word novemdecillion
With a number this big you can measure the Milky Way galaxy in cubic inches!
May 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word vigintillion
1 followed by 63 zeros. Can't imagine what a virgintillion might be. Maybe an gross exaggeration of the Jihadist's reward in paradise?
May 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the list word-chemistry
More fun with chemical element symbols.
May 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the list chemical-element-abbreviations
A chemical element symbol puzzle.
May 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word oh hell-kite
"All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?"
--Macduff, upon hearing of his family's murder in Macbeth
May 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word writhes
Contains 11 personal pronouns (including possessives): I; it; its; he; his; her; hers; she; we; their; theirs!
May 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word patent
See some goofy patents here.
May 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pullman porter
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown were descendants of Pullman porters — that distinctive and distinguished figure from yesteryear — the uniformed African-American train worker, who forged his way into the middle class.
NPR Morning Edition, May 7, 2009
May 8, 2009
oroboros commented on the word skookum
Makes me think of a bunch of cannibals building a fire for the Missionary Soup they anticipate. "Hey, skookum!" :-)
May 1, 2009
oroboros commented on the word ball o' wan
bottle of wine
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word petroleum
Secret of the Universe: "The smell of petroleum pervades throughout..."! See ethyl formate.
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word windjammer
A musician in a circus band.
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word hardscape
Structures in a particular landscape.
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word crunk
Combination of crazy and drunk.
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word booga booga
Coined by David Steinberg during a skit where he, acting the part of a zany-disturbed patient, suddenly had a notion to change the piece midstream before his partner, the "psychiatrist" entered the room. He signaled the change with the announcement "Okay, you can send in the patient, now." The partner, upon his entrance and without missing a beat became the patient and they improvised onward. Booga booga arose somewhere in the ensuing action.
I learned this listening to Michael Feldman's interview of David Steinberg on Whad'Ya Know?
I still remember the joke wherein I first heard "booga booga" and had no idea of its origin. I doubt that David Steinberg had the same connotation in mind that the joke depends on...
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word raspberry
See ethyl formate.
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word rum
See ethyl formate.
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word ethyl formate
Rum 'n raspberries: the flavor/smell of the galaxy?!
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word opposite marriage
"...choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage..."
Carrie Prejean
April 26, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fake umbrage
I see your point c_b. If a typo of 'take' then not so obviously a mistake. Ah well, I try...
April 24, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fake umbrage
See Moro reflex and God knows how many other umbrage takings on Wordie!
April 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mind's eye
Just learned this has a Shakespearean origin: Hamlet.
April 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word frizzen
"He raked the frizzen open against the bartop and dumped the priming out and laid the pistol down again."
--Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
April 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word awap
"The huge and carved paneled doors hung awap on their hinges and a carved stone Virgin held in her arms a headless child."
--Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
April 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word gamewagon
See snarl.
April 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word snarl
"The little painted horses stopped shifty and truculent and a vicious snarl of flies fought constantly in the bed of the gamewagon."
--Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
April 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word squail
"There were buzzards squatting among the old carved wooden corbels and he picked up a stone and squailed it at them but they never moved".
--Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
April 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word great crested grebe
Left-hand-only QWERTY words (thanks to futilitycloset.com).
Reesetee, take note! ;o)
April 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word ciceronian
If pronounced keekeronian everybody will be puzzled except for the Latin geeks...and the haplessfully heckalomaniacally huddled herky-jerks.
April 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word irony
Sheesh, busted for DUI while sitting on your bar stool!?
April 1, 2009
oroboros commented on the word card deck
How many letters are in ACE KING QUEEN JACK TEN NINE EIGHT SEVEN SIX FIVE FOUR THREE TWO?
Fifty-two.
--futilitycloset.com
March 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word extensively
See comment under extension.
March 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word extension
The word EXTENSION can be rearranged into the words ONE, TEN, and SIX.
String together the numbers 1, 10, and 6 and you get 1106.
Add them and you get 17.
The word EXTENSIVELY can be rearranged into the words SIXTY and ELEVEN.
String together the numbers 60 and 11 and you get 6011.
Add them and you get 71.
--futilitycloset.com
March 31, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mazer
See mazzard.
March 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mazard
See mazzard.
March 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mazzard
Slang for the head or face; also, mazard or mazer. HAMLET: "Chapless and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade."
--From Slang and its Analogues, Past & Present compiled by J.S. Farmer.
March 28, 2009
oroboros commented on the word candyality
"At Candyality, a store in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, business has jumped by nearly 80 percent compared with this time last year, and the owner, Terese McDonald, said she was struggling to keep up with the demand for Bit-O-Honeys, Swedish Fish and Sour Balls."
From a NYT article online 3/24/09
March 25, 2009
oroboros commented on the word aphanapteryx
Etym.: Gr. aphanes, invisible; Gr. pterux, a wing;
A ground bird, incapable of flight (now extinct).
See John's Errata Blog for Mar 22, 2009
March 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word liquidity
Liquidity is when you look at your 401K and wet your pants!!
March 23, 2009
oroboros commented on the word the giving tree
Molly Shannon's tree forte?
March 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the word dingy
Bi-sonic as in dingy blond: dirty v. dingbatty.
March 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the list silent-m-or-n
Here are some more: limn, condemn, contemn, solemn
March 19, 2009
oroboros commented on the word earworm
Que Sera, Sera's been the earworm curse para mi, par excellence! For some idiot reason, always in the shower...go figure!
March 18, 2009
oroboros commented on the word earworm
I don't know how this really contributes to the conversations on this page, but I'm puttin' it here anyway!
Earworm Protection?
March 17, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sorcery
An activity where spelling counts! :)
March 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word oulipo
An example (from futilitycloset.com):
Here's Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud" as rendered by Jean Lescure's "N+7″ procedure, replacing each noun with the seventh following it in a dictionary:
The Imbeciles
I wandered lonely as a crowd
That floats on high o'er valves and ills
When all at once I saw a shroud,
A hound, of golden imbeciles;
Beside the lamp, beneath the bees,
Fluttering and dancing in the cheese.
Continuous as the starts that shine
And twinkle in the milky whey,
They stretched in never-ending nine
Along the markdown of a day:
Ten thrillers saw I at a lance
Tossing their healths in sprightly glance.
The wealths beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling wealths in key:
A poker could not be but gay,
In such a jocund constancy:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What weave to me the shred had brought:
For oft, when on my count I lie
In vacant or in pensive nude,
They flash upon that inward fly
That is the block of turpitude;
And then my heat with plenty fills
And dances with the imbeciles.
March 16, 2009
oroboros commented on the word metaphrand
Metaphor is made up of the thing known vs. the thing unknown, the metaphrand. The intention of the metaphor is to illuminate the metaphrand by giving it some of the features of the metaphier. E.g., "My love is like a red, red rose." "love" is the metaphrand, "rose" is the metaphier.
Julian Jaynes
March 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word metaphier
Metaphor is made up of the thing known vs. the thing unknown, the metaphrand. The intention of the metaphor is to illuminate the metaphrand by giving it some of the features of the metaphier. E.g., "My hatred was a burning coal in my heart." Hatred = metaphrand, burning coal = metaphier.
Julian Jaynes
March 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word scrabble
See lexulous.com for an online scrabble-type game. It used to be named Scrabulous and was available on Facebook (it was removed after Hasbro brought suit--later dropped--against the creators.)
March 15, 2009
oroboros commented on the word scrabble
A sentence constructed with the 100 letter-tiles of Scrabble:
COUNTRYMEN, I AM TO BURY, NOT EULOGIZE, CAESAR; IF EVIL LIVES ON, BEQUEATHING INJURY, GOOD OFT EXPIRES: A PALSIED, AWKWARD DEATH!
From futilitycloset.com
March 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word pete and joe
Kids game from my childhood days. There was something magical about assuming another name and being a swashbuckler. "Well, Pete, looks like they're after us now! We'd better find a good hideout." "You're right Joe, I know of a secret cave where they'll never find us; let's saddle up and make tracks." See cap gun.
March 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word cap gun
Cowboys and Indians, yay! "Pow,pow,kapwiiiinnnng!" "Pow, pow, got ya!"
March 14, 2009
oroboros commented on the word humanly
A new OED word. "...a good example of an old word that is new to the dictionary..." --Graeme Diamond, Principal Editor, New Words, Oxford English Dictionary
March 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word lifestyler
A new OED word. One who moves to the countryside in search of a simpler, slower lifestyle.
March 13, 2009
oroboros commented on the word achey-breaky
This is a new OED word.
March 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the list odorific
Yeasty; cheesy?
March 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the user reesetee
Hey! Just noticed you hit the big two-oh-kay. Congratulations!...but you're making me feel waaaay underwordied! :-)
Oh, and here's something you'll get a kick out of (I hope):
X@#!% Birds.
March 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word hershey
My goodness! A line drawn in the sand of the chocolate desert (dessert?)! :-)
March 10, 2009
oroboros commented on the word swasivious
Alas, obsolete.
March 10, 2009
oroboros commented on the list most-obscure-words
I think the book is 2000 Most Challenging And Obscure Words by Norman W. Schur (Galahad Books, NY, 1994). I just picked it up at a swap meet for a buck!
Edit: I see that the book is a compilation in one volume of two previous works by the author.
March 10, 2009
oroboros commented on the word scaphocephalic
Having a long, narrow (boat-shaped) skull.
March 10, 2009
oroboros commented on the word key pawn moving
End-game maneuvers? From NYT crossword titled SOUND MOVES.
March 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word clay man exemption
A tax break for Gumby? From NYT crossword titled SOUND MOVES.
March 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word gray toile of china
Drab oriental fabric? From NYT crossword titled SOUND MOVES.
March 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word sea love approval
Blessing for a shipboard romance? From NYT crossword titled SOUND MOVES.
March 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word mine dover matter
Excavate at the White Cliffs? From NYT crossword titled SOUND MOVES.
March 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word may doubt a will
Might not believe a witty Rogers? From NYT crossword titled SOUND MOVES.
March 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word fleshpot
Fleshpot is a phonetic reversal of top-shelf, i.e., containing the same sounds in reverse.
--From futilitycloset.com
March 8, 2009
oroboros commented on the word ponzipaloosa!
Do you think, maybe, that ponzipalooza might be a better rendition? -paloosa carries muddying connotations of horse to my mind. Love your list!
March 4, 2009
oroboros commented on the word poetry
“Ape Owe ‘Em�?
When fur stews can this sill leer I'm,
Toot rye tomb ache theme e'en ink Lear,
Youth inked wood butt bee weigh sting thyme;
Use eh, "It's imp lean on scents shear!"
Gnome attar; Anna lies align!
Nation mice lender verse says knot–
Fork rip tick poet real Ike mine,
How Aaron weal, demesnes allot.
– Deems Taylor (seen at Futility Closet)
February 12, 2009
oroboros commented on the word one thousand five
The smallest integer whose name contains all five vowels (according to futilitycloset.com).
January 27, 2009
oroboros commented on the word prudential
Interesting to find one's blind spots. Until I heard David Brooks use this word in reference to Barak Obama's policy decisions out of the starting blocks, I saw/heard it only as the name of an insurance company--which used the rock of Gibraltar as its logo! :o)
January 25, 2009
oroboros commented on the word grimace
Did I just hear Tom Brokaw pronounce "grimaces" with a long a? Wow!
January 21, 2009
oroboros commented on the word laphroaig
And before the word was the peat! ;o)
January 20, 2009
oroboros commented on the user hernesheir
Thanks for your input hernesheir. Some of 'em are already on my Toot toot, beep beep list.
January 8, 2009
oroboros commented on the list lifehacking
Imperience. Introception. (Franklin Merrell-Wolff)
December 31, 2008
oroboros commented on the word shadow
See shadow self.
December 31, 2008
oroboros commented on the word shadow self
Jungian Psychology. See also: I plus Not-I equals Everything.
December 31, 2008
oroboros commented on the user whichbe
Hi whichbe. Your question puzzled me until I did a search and found it in my own comments. It stands for I plus Not-I equals Everything. I evidently never got around to adding its acronym when I was on my Jan Cox tear back then. I originally had trouble with adding my preferred version (I + Not-I = Everything) due to restrictions on symbols John had early on, thus the ipn-iee and not following up properly on a referent.
December 31, 2008
oroboros commented on the user bilby
Hey Bilby. Re: your comment on hate, I edited my original comment to make it clearer. I doubt however, that you're gonna find much 'joy' anyway. IPN-IEE stands for I Plus Not-I Equals Everything. I evidently forgot to add the acronym to my list back when I was on my Jan Cox tear.
December 31, 2008
oroboros commented on the word i + not-i = everything
See I plus not-I equals everything.
December 31, 2008
oroboros commented on the list metaphors-we-live-by
Well, I must say I'm gratified for this interest on everybody's part. 'Zactly why I created the list in the first place...I, uh, think!!
December 29, 2008
oroboros commented on the list metaphors-we-live-by
I enjoyed ...Dangerous Things too. I think Philosophy In The Flesh is the best of all. Also, Where Mathematics Comes From (collaboration with Nunez) is great and I highly recommend it.
December 28, 2008
oroboros commented on the list metaphors-we-live-by
Thanks for your input, Yaybob. Your "tropical tour" is a good recap.
December 27, 2008
oroboros commented on the word first ladies rule the state and state the rule ladies first
A word palindrome.
December 21, 2008
oroboros commented on the word hoe boy
When the Confederate soldiers returned to their homes after the Civil War, they found little to do. So they went north looking for work. They were called a name that arose out of a tool they were carrying. A hoe.
The soldiers were walking the back roads, riding and jumping on trains, and sleeping out in the countryside hoping to find some kind of work. They were called hoe boys, which came to be called hobos.
From a "Click and Clack" Radio Show Puzzler.
December 17, 2008
oroboros commented on the word hobo
See hoe boy.
December 17, 2008
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