January 2010
18 posts
words wholly unrelated
ragbag:
reign & sovereign
the former is from the latin word regnum and is related to regal. the latter is from the latin word superanus and means “chief or principle.”
to do this afternoon: call your boss a SUPERANUS and then laff like a maniac and wink like a lunatic until security is called at which point you can whip out your wheelock’s and tell everyone what superanus actually means in...
Words I use everyday that I never really think...
Tosspot
Tosspot is a British slang insult, which can mean, depending on the context, a drunkard, a masturbator, or an objectionable person.
The word is of Middle English origin, and, until recently, meant exclusively a person who drank heavily. Beer or ale was customarily served in ceramic pots, so a tosspot was a person who copiously ‘tossed back’ such pots of beer. The word “tosspots”...
Words I use everyday that I never really think...
mabelmoments:
Etymology: The origin of pillock is believed to go back to the 16th century meaning penis[1] from the Norwegian word pillicock, presumably akin to the slang Dickhead meaning inept fool[2].
pillock (plural pillocks)
(British, mildly pejorative, slang) a stupid or annoying person; simpleton; fool.
In some parts of Yorkshire (England) a pillock is a large sharpening stone for a...
misc portmanteaux deux
ragbag:
if there is one thing metallica fans like us know, it’s that metallica is a portmanteau of metallic + replica. speaking of portmanteaux, here are a few that i have been dreaming up since posting the first list exactly 400 days ago*.
fauxtest: (faux + protest) when one pretends to object but secretly consents. as in: “i know that you actually want to see the latest rom-com with that...
glimflashy
lapetitebaobab:
wordjournal:
adjective • [obsolete] angry, or in a passion.
From The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.
Wordcount.org →
iainbroome:
thesophie:
littleorphanammo:
afghanibanani:
WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The...
apron translations
laureola:
english: apron german: Schürze french: tablier italian: grembiule sardinian: antalèna
weird that they don’t have anything in common. Usually you can derive from latin.
palinoia
lapetitebaobab:
wordjournal:
noun • (pal-ih-NOI-uh) • compulsive repetition of an act until it is perfect
Five emotions you never knew you had →
thesophie:
victoriaisamess:
Some emotional states only have names in particular languages. Here are some examples:
Fiero (Italian): contented pride in achieving something just for oneself.
Amae (Japanese): the sweet feeling of being dependent on someone else.
Naches (Yiddish): the glow of proud pleasure that only a child can give to its parents.
Schadenfreude (German): the feeling you...
foment →
vb (tr)1. to encourage or instigate (trouble, discord, etc.); stir up2. (Medicine) Med to apply heat and moisture to (a part of the body) to relieve pain and inflammation[from Late Latin fōmentāre, from Latin fōmentum a poultice, ultimately from fovēre to foster]fomentation [ˌfəʊmɛnˈteɪʃən] nfomenter nUsage: Both foment and ferment can be used to talk about stirring up trouble: he was accused of...
confect →
tr.v. con·fect·ed, con·fect·ing, con·fects
1. To make into a confection or preserve.
2. To put together by combining materials:
watch big-titted milfs get hardcored 24/7
ragbag:
thus was the subject line of a piece of spam™ that infiltrated my gmail this morning and all i could think was: look at all that inventive anthimeria!
anthimeria is using one word class as a member of a different word class (eg. using a noun for a verb). this literary device is deftly employed not once, not twice, but thrice in the 6-word, ithyphallic spam header.
the noun phrase, big...
“A shibboleth is, more or less, a linguistic password used to identify a cultural...”
– Word of the day is Shibboleth (via deplorableword)
Empty
Karaoke - “empty orchestra”
Karate - “empty hand”
tristn: ”Yes, but Wikipedia says ‘karate’ is a bit more nuanced:
In this era of escalating Japanese militarism [circa 1932], the name was changed from 唐手 (“Chinese hand”) to 空手 (“empty hand”) – both of which are pronounced karate – to indicate that the Japanese wished to develop the combat form in Japanese style.”
know your foods that end in -tine
ragbag:
a là florentine: a dish characterised by a bed of spinach on which the principle ingredient—topped with a mornay sauce—sits
ballotine: a stuffed meat dish (cf. turducken, geoducken, etc.)
clementine: a citrus fruit hybrid of a tangerine and a seville orange
galantine: a forcemeat wrapped in skin, poached, and usually served cold in aspic
gratiné: a dish served with a browned...
Empty
Karaoke - “empty orchestra”
Karate - “empty hand”