February 2012
6 posts
Judas goat →
claytoncubitt:
“A Judas goat is a trained goat used at a slaughterhouse and in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared. Judas goats are also used to lead other animals to specific pens and onto trucks. They have fallen out of...
Someone's Idea Of The 100 Most Beautiful Words in... →
Ailurophile A cat-lover. Assemblage A gathering. Becoming Attractive. Beleaguer To exhaust with attacks. Brood To think alone. Bucolic In a lovely rural setting. Bungalow A small, cozy cottage. Chatoyant Like a cat’s eye. Comely Attractive. Conflate To blend together. Cynosure A focal point of admiration. Dalliance A brief love affair. Demesne Dominion, territory. Demure Shy and reserved....
website
wordnik
The difference between 'discreet' and...
mariposima:
Please learn it.
Thx.
January 2012
8 posts
addlepated →
adj.
1. Befuddled; confused.
2. Eccentric; peculiar: “[Her] estates … are odes to addlepated excess, a melange of priceless antiques and thrift-store horrors” (Michelle Green).
3. Senseless; mad: “led the addlepated charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava” (Thomas Flanagan).
sierramissed asked: I typed wordporn into the url in hopes of finding a good blog. I think I did.
Breaking News: Orange is called orange because...
orang·y, orang·ey (-n-j) adj. Word History: Oranges imported to China from the United States reflect a journey come full circle, for the orange had worked its way westward for centuries, originating in China, then being introduced to India, and traveling on to the Middle East, into Europe, and finally to the New World. The history of the word orange keeps step with this journey only part of the...
Janopause →
mappeal:
Janopause n. The practice of abstaining from alcohol for the month of January.
Example Citation :
The Janopause describes the post-Christmas abstinence from anything remotely pleasurable.
Look around your workplace and you’ll see people on the Janopause everywhere. They’ll be the ones with a litre bottle of Brecon Carreg on their desks, a packet of pumpkin seeds and an...
Is 'blunter' a word?
moledro
theantidote:
n. a feeling of resonant connection with an author or artist you’ll never meet, who may have lived centuries ago and thousands of miles away but can still get inside your head and leave behind morsels of their experience, like the little piles of stones left by hikers that mark a hidden path through unfamiliar territory.
(via dictionaryofobscuresorrows:)
Word of the Day: Sanctimonious
mabelmoments:
Goes really well with git.
December 2011
2 posts
“in·am·o·ra·ta [in-am-uh-rah-tuh, in-am-] Show IPA
noun, plural -tas.
a woman...”
– My favorite word today! Inamorata | Define Inamorata at Dictionary.com (via missspite)
Hypnobate
somnambulatorie:
n. a sleepwalker
In Fain v. Commonwealth, 78 Ky. 183, the defendant, a somnambulist, had gone to sleep in a public room in a hotel, and on being roughly awakened by a stranger, drew a pistol and killed him, imagining himself in danger. The court observed: ‘If the prisoner is and has been afflicted in the manner claimed and knew, as he no doubt did, his propensity to do ...
November 2011
1 post
6 Types of Love
Eros a passionate physical and emotional love based on aesthetic enjoyment; stereotype of romantic love
Ludus a love that is played as a game or sport; conquest; may have multiple partners at once
Storge an affectionate love that slowly develops from friendship, based on similarity
Pragma love that is driven by the head, not the heart
Mania obsessive love; experience great emotional highs...
October 2011
8 posts
14 Punctuation Marks That You Never Knew Existed →
via Katherine Gray
lazenby:
Subject–verb–object (I see him) English, German, Dutch, Romance languages, Bulgarian, Chinese, Swahili
Subject–object–verb (I him see) Japanese, Mongolian, Basque, Turkish, Korean
Verb–subject–object (See I him) Classical Arabic, Insular Celtic languages, Hawaiian
Verb–object–subject (See him I) Fijian, Malagasy, Mayan (Tzotzil), Old Javanese
Object–subject–verb (Him I see)...
1 tag
Word of the Day: Gymnophoria
richmilner:
mabelmoments:
The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you
Is also this the correct term for when I’m too drunk/tired to undress for bed, so I mentally undress myself by way of a compromise, only to awake at 3am in a sweat-sodden stupor?
I have also done the thing in the morning where I mentally wash, dress and leave for work without even getting out of bed. It’s like...
2 tags
words wholly unrelated
ragbag:
[what the] dickens & [charles] dickens
“what the dickens” has long been the catchphrase of my parole officer. i always assumed it had something to do with charles dickens and was some whacky victorian euphemism—the way saying jiminy christmas is a way of not saying jesus christ. it turns out that “what the dickens” predates charles dickens and the victorian era by several centuries....
brilliantlydisruptive:
dareling
dare /de(ə)r/ v. To have the courage to do something. n. A challenge, esp. to prove courage or boldness.
darling /ˈdär-liNG/ adj. Used as an affectionate form of address to a beloved person. n. One that is greatly preferred; a favorite.
dareling /de(ə)r-liNG/ n. An affectionate form of address for a favorite, who has the courage to love...
1 tag
Word of the Day: Nudiustertian
mabelmoments:
The day before yesterday
3 tags
Word of the Day: Widdiful
mabelmoments:
one who deserves hanging
September 2011
8 posts
Neologism →
A neologism ( /niːˈɒlədʒɪzəm/; from the Greek νέο-, néo-, “new”, and λόγος, lógos, “speech”, “utterance”) is a newly coined term, word or phrase, that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event. Neolexia...
Factitious →
1.: produced by humans rather than by natural forces
2 a : formed by or adapted to an artificial or conventional standard
b : produced by special effort :
cuneiform →
cu·ne·i·form
(kyn—fôrm, ky-n-)
adj.
1. Wedge-shaped.
2. a. Being a character or characters formed by the arrangement of small wedge-shaped elements and used in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian writing.
b. Relating to, composed in, or using such characters.
3. Anatomy Of, relating to, or being a wedge-shaped bone or cartilage.
n. 1. Writing typified by...
Solicitous →
so·lic·i·tous
[suh-lis-i-tuhs]
adjective
1. anxious or concerned (usually followed by about, for, etc., or a clause): solicitous about a person’s health.
2. anxiously desirous: solicitous of the esteem of others.
3. eager (usually followed by an infinitive): He was always solicitous to please.
4. careful or particular: a solicitous housekeeper.
Inchoate →
in·cho·ate [in-koh-it, -eyt or, especially Brit., in-koh-eyt] adjective 1. not yet completed or fully developed; rudimentary. 2. just begun; incipient. 3. not organized; lacking order: an inchoate mass of ideas on the subject.
cowabunga
motleyglue:
PRONUNCIATION:(kou-uh-BUHNG-guh)
MEANING:interjection: An expression of surprise, joy, or enthusiasm. ETYMOLOGY:The word was the cry of Chief Thunderthud, a character in the children’s television program Howdy Doody. The word was later adopted by surfers. It was popularized by its use on the animated show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Earliest documented use: 1954.
2 tags
Bellend
jhnbrssndn:
(Noun): Fool, oaf, person acting stupidly.
(Adjective): Of poor quality, e.g. “That pizza place was pretty bellend, come to think of it”.
(Verb): To act foolishly or stupidly, e.g. “Piers Morgan was bellending for Britain on Celebrity Apprentice”.
See also
August 2011
1 post
Liniment →
(or embrocation), from the Latin linere, to anoint, is a medicated topical preparation for application to the skin. Preparations of this type are also called balm. Liniments are of a similar viscosity to lotions (being significantly less viscous than an ointment or cream) but unlike a lotion a liniment is applied with friction; that is, a liniment is always rubbed in.
July 2011
2 posts
21 reasons why I love English.
glasgow-kiss:
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there was no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the...
June 2011
5 posts
Phantosmia →
bestofwikipedia:
Phantosmia, or olfactory hallucinations, involves smelling odors that are not derived from any physical stimulus. These phantom odors can range from rotting flesh to a spring meadow, though most cases report unpleasant aromas. In some cases phantosmia has even led to the afflicted individual to believe that both the odor and source in fact exist, a condition known as olfactory...
Puns
ajsolorio:
It might make me a nerd but here’s some puns I found funny:
The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because...
nevver:
Top 100 words and phrases to avoid
1. It’s the economy, stupid. 2. A week is a long time in politics. Or variants thereof, such as, “If a week is a long time in politics then a month seems an eternity.” 3. What part of x don’t you understand? Although this one seems to have nearly died out already. 4. Way beyond, or way more. 5. Any time soon. 6. “Events, dear boy,...
April 2011
4 posts
Critique Vocabulary (a list I compiled in class...
artlistpro:
“studio practice”
poetry
gesture
scale
moment
incongruous
inauthentic
generous/generosity
precious
precocious
theater/set/prop-like
manifestation
angst/struggle
ground/space/display
“the artist’s hand”
craft
narrative/voice
“the sublime”
ephemeral
mainstream/popular culture
juxtaposition
imbued
bemused
logic
allegory/metaphor
How many of these can...
“The study of railways, or a general interest in them as a hobby, is sometimes...”
– en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trainspotting_(hobby)
(via michael palin / television documentaries)
this is my kind of information.
[interestingly, this bit doesn’t exist on wiki prime, which lacks a seperate page for trainspotting as a hobby.]
(via ultralaser)
Erotomania is a type of delusion in which the...
pronouncing sex words 101
ragbag:
you are on a first date with an attractive chinese literature doctoral candidate from an accredited university in cambridge. and you, being the tru-playa that you are, are doing everything right. your eyebrows have been waxed at the proper angles. you pop your pinky like the duchess of devonshire while sipping your vin blanc. you order duck a l’orange and not one of the more vulgar...
March 2011
8 posts
proper pronunciations and how to lose friends
ragbag:
if you’re a masochistic pedant like me, then one of your favourite activities is using correct pronunciations which seem wrong, waiting for someone to correct you, and then telling that someone how you read in a dictionary once that your pronunciation is the correct one and their way is actually barbarous and laughable.
i do this all the time with the prefix quasi-, which is properly...
helpmeet
austinkleon:
OED definition:
helpmate (also helpmeet) noun a helpful companion or partner, esp. one’s husband or wife.
ORIGIN late 17th cent. (as helpmeet): from an erroneous reading of Gen. 2:18, 20, where Adam’s future wife is described as “an help meet for him” (i.e., a suitable helper for him). The variant helpmate came into use in the early 18th cent.
Found in this article on W.B. and...
Outre →
a. 1. Out of the common course or limits; extravagant{2}; bizarre; outlandish{2}; as, an outré costume. My first mental development had in it much of the uncommon - even much of the outré. - E. A. Poe.
