The Internet Book Database of Fiction

tinhorn

/ˈtɪnhɔːn/
noun
North American
informal
A person who pretends to have money, influence, or ability.

Origin
"petty but flashy," 1857, from tin + horn (n.); originally of low-class gamblers, from the tin cans they used for shaking dice.

I am an amateur wordsmith and a tinhorn artist. It does not stop me from enjoying the game.

Algot Runeman wrote:tinhorn
...
I am an amateur wordsmith and a tinhorn artist. ...

The sum of pips on opposite faces of a die is always 7.

Your illustration shows the five and the two on adjacent faces. Your dice also have opposite chirality.

That makes you either a tinhorn or a cheater.

E.P.S,

I am both a tinhorn and decidedly non-standard.

predate1

/priːˈdeɪt/
verb
[with object]
Exist or occur at a date earlier than (something)

predate2

/priːˈdeɪt/
verb
[with object]
(of an animal) act as a predator of; catch and eat (prey).

Origin
1940s: back-formation from predation.

==========

Like the predator he was, his planning long predated the actual prom event. The poor girl didn't stand a chance.

They eventually married and recently celebrated their 50th anniversary.

ectopic

/ɛkˈtɒpɪk/
adjective
Medicine
In an abnormal place or position.
noun
An ectopic pregnancy.

Origin
Late 19th century: from modern Latin ectopia ‘presence of tissue, cells, etc. in an abnormal place’ (from Greek ektopos ‘out of place’) + -ic.

==========

Though it was ectopic and only semi-functional, Victor's extra arm seemed to have a mind of its own and was willing to share its opinions.

I wonder if having an ectopic extra arm made Victor ecstatic ? Anyway, if your drawing is to be believed, Victor was not ectomorph. Not endomorph either. He could be mesomorph, but with his clothes on, one could not really tell. I guest he was just averagemorph, apart from his extra arm, that is !

Algot Runeman wrote:ectopic

On the one hand Victor's ectopic arm seems a powerfull lure full of ecstatic promise to girls.

On the other hand it reminds me of Larry Niven's Gil 'the Arm' Hamilton, but he has an invisible psychic third arm with weak telekinetic powers. Though often extremely useful.

And on the third hand there are the Moties. Their three arms are their quite normal anatomy.

gloaming

/ˈɡləʊmɪŋ/
noun
the gloaming
literary
Twilight; dusk.

Origin
Old English glōmung, from glōm ‘twilight’, of Germanic origin; related to glow.

==========

At the gloaming
I am roaming.
And my mouth is foaming.
Because it is Halloween!

thunderbird

/ˈθʌndəbəːd/
noun
1 (in some North American Indian cultures) a mythical bird that brings thunder.
2 Australian Either of two thickheads (birds) which become noisy before and during thunderstorms.
The golden whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis) and the rufous whistler (P. rufiventris), family Pachycephalidae

==========

The thunderbird flew high over the plains, soaring east ahead of the bank of clouds. Thunder and heavy rain would soon follow.

The word Thunderbird stroke a chord in my memory, but I just couldn't put a finger on it.
So I googled it. But the first pages were all about messaging , and though I did vaguely remember that at one time I knew it was the name of some messaging platform, I knew this was not what I remembered. So I had to go to "Advanced Search" to get rid of all these false positives, and then I found it !

A glorious automobile !

I owned one, once.

daisy-cutter


noun
informal
1 British (in sport) a ball hit or bowled so as to roll along the ground.
2 An immensely powerful aerial bomb that derives its destructive power from the mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder with air.

Origin
Late 18th century (in the sense ‘a horse that lifts its feet only slightly from the ground’); the bomb is so named because it explodes just above ground level.

==========

Bob, a commonplace American, was not entirely clear on the rules of either cricket or polo. He sort of understood that a daisy-cutter was a bit like a "grounder" in baseball, but felt that horses were somehow involved.

eidolon

/ʌɪˈdəʊlɒn/
noun
literary
1 An idealized person or thing.
2 A spectre or phantom.

Origin
Early 19th century: from Greek eidōlon, from eidos ‘form’.

==========

Two eidolons met over lattés at the coffee shop. After a few dates, they decided that they were not suited to each other. Do personality quirks matter?

flinders

/ˈflɪndəz/
plural noun
Small fragments or splinters.

Origin
Late Middle English: probably of Scandinavian origin and related to Norwegian flindra ‘chip, splinter’.

==========

The lightning blasted the tree's trunk to flinders.

inutile

/ɪnˈjuːtɪl/
adjective
formal
Useless; pointless.

Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin inutilis, from in- ‘not’ + utilis ‘useful’.

Important question of the day: Is inutile a useless word?



[This illustration MAY need a note. Some from recent generations might not recognize this land-line phone socket from the mid 20th century.]

Algot Runeman wrote:inutile
...
Late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin inutilis, from in- ‘not’ + utilis ‘useful’.
...

It is also contemporary French.

Perhaps my mentioning this is inutile?

E Pericoloso Sporgersi wrote:

Algot Runeman wrote:inutile
...
Late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin inutilis, from in- ‘not’ + utilis ‘useful’.
...

It is also contemporary French.

Perhaps my mentioning this is inutile?

Well, as far as I am concerned, I knew this word in contemporary French already. But it might not be totally inutile to mention that fact, there might be some people who ignore this word and can only say: "Ça sert à rien, ce truc !"

bastide

/baˈstiːd/
noun
1 (in southern France) a country house.
1.1 historical A fortified village or town in France.

Origin
Early 16th century: via Old French from Provençal bastida.

==========

Bob, who had lived on a farm all of his life, was somewhat let down during the tour of a series of bastides in southern France. He felt he understood a country house just fine from home.

inutile, bastide....
Not so long ago we had conversant and phare, and not much before those pelage !
Is this an english WOTD
ou un "mot du jour" français ?

Algot Runeman wrote:bastide

Je connais très bien et depuis longtemps le mot bastide.

I love the French pork sausage "Au Pays des Bastides". I consider it a delicacy.

Hi, EPS
If the weather is /Si le temps est clement, and therefore the/ et ainsi la bastide not too /pas trop obscure, you could draw there a /tu pourrais y dessiner un croquis of this delicious pork sausage /de ce délicieux saucisson de porc.
Just remember, the pig is a /Souviens-toi seulement, le cochon est un digitigrade !



.... and all of these words are later than September 10th, 2018, none before page 321 of this thread.

boast

/bəʊst/
verb
1 reporting verb (no object)
Talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities.
2 with object (of a person, place, or thing) possess (a feature that is a source of pride)
noun
An act of talking with excessive pride and self-satisfaction.
3 (in squash) a stroke in which the ball is made to hit one of the side walls before hitting the front wall.

==========

Let us immediately squash any effort to boast. Our accomplishments are a result of shared effort, not of individual brilliance (no matter how accurate that description might be).



[Programming note: Today's word is a substitution (un échange, si vous voulez) for the ODO-offered rodomontade. One does not wish to exacerbate the impression of an overly francophone word list.]

wrangle

/ˈraŋɡ(ə)l/
noun
A dispute or argument, typically one that is long and complicated.
verb
1 no object Have a long, complicated dispute or argument.
2 North American with object Round up, herd, or take charge of (livestock)

Origin
Late Middle English: compare with Low German wrangeln, frequentative of wrangen ‘to struggle’; related to wring.

==========

You may have heard that cowboys wrangle a herd of cows or a remuda of horses. Nobody has success with cat wrangling!

Algot Runeman wrote:wrangle

When I was an athletic and svelte young man (dental school student, regrettably long ago), I used to wear Wrangler jeans that accentuated my long, muscular legs and my flat stomach.

Time does fly and I'm much less muscular and not svelte at all any more.

Svelte...
Nope.

But I have managed to wrangle a wrinkle or two over the years.

abecedarian

/ˌeɪbiːsiːˈdɛːrɪən/
adjective
1 Arranged alphabetically.
2 Rudimentary; elementary.

Origin
Early 17th century (as noun, in the sense ‘a person who is learning the alphabet or is engaged in elementary education’): from late Latin abecedarius ‘alphabetical’ (from the names of the letters a, b, c, d) + -an.

===============

"It's abecedarian, my dear Watson!" [Sentences not uttered by Sherlock Holmes]