GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Post by **Kvetch** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:41 pm

76 WotDs, by my count - that is indeed reason to be scared...

Sadly, my WotD density has fallen.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 11:41 pm

showoff

Post by **Ghost** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:55 am

Word of the Day for Monday January 16, 2006

capricious \kuh-PRISH-us; -PREE-shus\, adjective: Apt to change suddenly; whimsical; changeable.

Molly was a capricious woman. Her moods were unpredictable, her anger petty and vicious.
--Rand Roberts and James Olson, John Wayne: American

The Countess was a capricious minx, by turns seductive and aloof.
--Saul David, Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency

Mathematics is logical; people are erratic, capricious, and barely comprehensible.
--Bruce Schneier, Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Capricious comes, via French, from Italian capriccio, "a shivering, a shudder," finally (influenced by Italian capra, goat) "a whim," from capo, "head" (from Latin caput) + riccio, "hedgehog" (from Latin ericius).

Post by **Darb** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:58 pm

GHOST: how crass ... posting that particular word as the WOTD, right below Tollbaby. Have you no shame ?

Post by **Ghost** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 8:25 am

Word of the Day for Tuesday January 17, 2006

comity \KOM-uh-tee\, noun: A state of mutual harmony, friendship, and respect, especially between or among nations or people; civility.

comity of nations, noun: 1. The courteous recognition by one nation of the laws and institutions of another. 2. The group of nations observing international comity.

In Athens last week, E.U. leaders offered a picture of comity as they formally signed accession treaties with 10 new members.
--James Graff, "Can France Put a Cork In It?" Time Europe, April 28, 2003

Despite the image of civil-military comity during World War II, there were many differences between Franklin Roosevelt and his military advisers.
--Mackubin Thomas Owens, "Sniping," National Review, April 2, 2003

Short-term initiatives in 1919 became longer-term strategies for bringing the two pariahs, Germany and Russia, into the comity of nations.
--Kenneth O. Morgan, "Lloyd George and the Lost Peace: from Versailles to Hitler, 1919-1940," English Historical Review, June 2002

Everyone hopes that Saddam Hussein will honour his agreement with Kofi Annan and that Iraq will be received back into the comity of nations.
--Marrack Goulding, "A wider role for the UN," New Statesman, March 13, 1998

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comity is from Latin comitas, from comis, "courteous."

Brad: Yes, that was not an act of comity, idiosyncratic would have been more accurate.

Tollbaby: I do apologize.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:50 am

what *am* I going to do with the two of you? Brad..... I will shortly have a driver's license, and the freedom to harass the United States at will..... beware, old man!

Post by **Darb** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 12:43 pm

Your threated visitation comes across as a serendipitous act of propitious comity rather than committed act of precipitous calumny. Idle threats involving welcome gestures don't frighten me.

Post by **wolfspirit** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:40 pm

so, that means I can see you in person again, as I should bother to get one of those drivers liscense thingys soon as well, and I already have the ability to harass Canada at will.

Besides, Brad has harassed the ladies for years. It's the only thing he can do other then look at them, or else the missus will be after him.

wolfspirit

Post by **Darb** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:23 pm

Scott, you're perhaps too young to appreciate this now (and this isn't meant to sound patronizing), but there will eventually come a day, several decades hence, when you'll truly grok this in fullness. Let's use steak as an analogy. Suppose you really love steak ... you're gaa gaa for good steak.

Now suppose you're fortunate enough to have the luxury of eating steak on a regular basis, several times a week (and sometimes several times a day) for a period of MANY YEARS.

After a few steady years of of non-stop steak eating ... and after a while it won't matter as much if it's chicken-fried steak, marinated t-bone steak, skirt steak (my favorite), steak with green peppercorn sauce, steak tartare, steak diane, or steak tollbaby ... after many years, even if you're Superman, your appetite for steak will gradually begin to diminish a tad. You'll perhaps eat it a little bit less often than you used to, and your relationship with the act of steak consumption will become a bit more philosophical and the topic of much humor and social discussion. Sometimes, even just discussing steak, among fellow steak consumers (and sometimes the odd vegan or two), will be enough to satisfy you - you won't even need to eat it to get satisfaction from it.

Trust me - when a group of people who've overindulged in steak get together to discuss/jest about steaks and steak eating, the conversation alone is often better than eating a good steak yourself in real life.

In any case, this overlong reply on the subject of coition is my selfless act of comitas for the day.

Post by **Kvetch** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:26 pm

Brad, your use of steak as an extended metaphor disturbs me.

Post by **Darb** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:29 pm

Exactly the sort of reply I'd expect from a vegan.

<---- for not remembering to include a WOTD in your post.

Post by **Kvetch** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:38 pm

bring it, bitch:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ostentatiously, Dr Drachmapetros quaffed his drink, a farrago of deliquescing body parts, evanescent embalming fluid, unctous green-bubbling-ooze(TM) and other aberrant gewgaws, in an attempt to crack the hauteur of the officious demagogue who was threatening to trammel his afflatus and immure his greatest creation based on a mere cavil about the venial damage done by his creation's capacious footprints and the jocund claim that the comity of his mob allowed them to claim a legal quorum.
"I am adamant that will not capitulate to your adventitious demands" he blustered, as day segued into night, the lambent alpenglow of the nearby mountains fading to dappled subfusc sepia, and the rubicund effulgence of the burning torches casting the nearby conurbation into harsh backlighting. "I am a paladin, a votary of what is a truly recondite, indeed, almost ineffable area of study - and I should not be interrupted by your capricious whimsies."

Holding a nosegay to his face to stave off the maelstrom of scents from Drachmapetros' drink, the loquacious confrere leading the deputation replied. "We tire of your querulous and mawkish yet vociferous claims to be an exegete among the digerati - claims of great palpable dubiety to say the least. Not to mention your assiduous and sempiternal denial of the benefits of tmisis and the beneficence of laconic language. Indeed, your logorrhea has been bruited as offensive enough to our mores to allow your immediate and propitious immolation to appease the puissant goddess of linguistics, who is a real virago. Thus the onus is upon you to demonstrate that your subterfuges were laudable and that you are not just a twisted voluptuary who occupies himself writing billets-doux to corpses.
And please provide that defense _without_ calling upon your sesquipedalian lexicon - we are not overcome by such oneiric lassitude that we would not venture to provide some form of tocsin, where your person will no longer remain sacrosanct"

Summoning what aplomb he could, Dr Drachmapetros smiled with panache while he used his prestidigititive skills to press the button that would summon his kobold redivivus from it's alfresco sylvan lair. If he could not wheedle his way out of a mobbing, or at a pinch offer pelf as a dissuador, at least his carapaced creation was hale enough to put his opponents to flight.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:39 pm

wolfspirit wrote:so, that means I can see you in person again, as I should bother to get one of those drivers liscense thingys soon as well, and I already have the ability to harass Canada at will.

Besides, Brad has harassed the ladies for years. It's the only thing he can do other then look at them, or else the missus will be after him.

wolfspirit

woo

well, you're welcome to visit any time, but I wouldn't recommend right now, since it's -40 out.

Post by **wolfspirit** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:45 pm

Kvetch, you are teh God of WOTD!!!!!!

I bow down to your mightyness.

Seriously.

wolfspirit

Post by **Ghost** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:10 am

Word of the Day for Wednesday January 18, 2006

quondam \KWAHN-duhm; KWAHN-dam\, adjective: Having been formerly; former; sometime.

A quondam flower child, she spent seven years at the Royal College of Art, before becoming a lecturer at Edinburgh School of Art.
--"Interview: Cool, calm collector," Independent, December 13, 1997

For the unregenerate "peasant" . . . had gone there with the successful glass distributor, shrewd investor, versatile talker, and quondam bon vivant whose motto was "The best is good enough for me."
--Ted Solotaroff, Truth Comes in Blows: A Memoir

There was an exception to this in the form of Mrs Edna Parsons, a formidable Englishwoman who had once been the Prince's nanny and now served as proctor, supervising his behaviour. She was about fifty and true to her quondam profession, she could be quite strict.
--David Freeman, One of Us

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quondam comes from the Latin quondam, "formerly," from quom, "when."

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:09 am

Oh come on now... you just made that one up. That sounds like a word I'd use (like misled -- pronounced "mizzled", meaning "somewhat foggy and confused)

I was 25 before I realized I was reading it wrong. I'd *HEARD* the word "misled" used out loud, of course, but whenever I'd see it in print, my brain would read it as "mizzled"....

And Kevin knows I can't say the word "Serendipity" to save my life. I have to think about it each and every time (well, okay, I read the word off a sewing pattern when I was 4 years old and didn't hear it said out loud until I was in my early 20s...).

blueworld · Post by **blueworld** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:40 pm

I had a hard time with "subtle" for many years. I'd read it and heard it but it took my brain a long time to connect the two.

All my vocabulary comes from books...

-blueworld, quondam mispronouncer of "subtle"

Post by **Kvetch** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:52 pm

Epitome is my personal bugbear.

(Epi)(tome), as opposed to (epito)(me)

Post by **Ghost** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:07 am

Word of the Day for Thursday January 19, 2006

ergo \UR-go; AIR-\, adverb: Therefore; consequently.

The general observation has always been: Dogs form packs; the leader of the pack is the strongest, wisest, and largest individual; a human being among dogs fits that description; ergo we are the leader of any dog pack.
--Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Dogs Never Lie About Love: Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs

Armani isn't interested in fashion that moves on (ergo he isn't interested in fashion).
--Sinead Lynch, "The waist land," Times (London), October 9, 2000

People who do not suffer fools gladly, gladly suffer flatterers. (Ergo, flatterers are no fools.)
--Richard Stengel, You're Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ergo is from Latin ergo, consequently, therefore.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:41 am

Kvetch wrote:Epitome is my personal bugbear.

(Epi)(tome), as opposed to (epito)(me)

*gasp*.... you mean it's pronounced the second way????!??? um.....

I'm gonna go hide under a rock now.

Post by **Darb** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:12 am

I've always pronounced it ih-pit-uh-me

/~ move over, TB, I'm joining ya under there. ~/

Post by **Ghost** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:41 pm

eâ€¢pitâ€¢oâ€¢me n. 1. A representative or example of a class or type: â€œHe is seen... as the epitome of the hawkish, right-of-center intellectualâ€

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:02 pm

Brad wrote:I've always pronounced it ih-pit-uh-me

/~ move over, TB, I'm joining ya under there. ~/

No, Brad, I think you have it right.... i'm the one who's been reading it wrong all these years LOL (however, I think I have pronounced it properly out loud, just never thought about how it would be written! Now how's THAT for a brainfart?)

Post by **Ghost** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:05 am

Word of the Day for Friday January 20, 2006

susurration \soo-suh-RAY-shun\, noun: A whispering sound; a soft murmur.

. . . the soft susurration of the wind through a stand of whistling thorn.
--Ann Jones, "Kenya on horseback," Town & Country, August 1, 1994

Across the road I can make out the grassy park that runs along the sand and hear, in the distance, the steady susurration of the Atlantic Ocean.
--Michael Dirda, "Excursions," Washington Post, January 2, 2000

There was the predictable noise of offence being taken on the Conservative side of the House. But it was low and muted, a mild susurration in the backwoods rather than an outraged gust of anger.
--Andrew Marr, "Making a prime minister of the President," Independent, March 30, 1994

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Susurration is from Late Latin susurratio, from Latin susurrare, "to whisper, to mutter," from susurrus, "a whispering, a muttering."

/can you hear me now

Post by **Ghost** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:41 am

Word of the Day for Monday January 23, 2006

incommunicado \in-kuh-myoo-nuh-KAH-doh\, adverb or adjective: Without the means or right to communicate.

Western diplomats in Cuba said yesterday that the fact that the six have been held incommunicado for so long suggests that the Cubans fear they pose a security threat.
--Daniel McGrory, "Cuba to explain why it is holding six Britons," Times (London), October 25, 2000

This was Morrison's last despatch. Shortly after it was sent, the Boxers cut the telegraph line. Peking was not only besieged, but incommunicado.
--Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume One, 1900-1933

They went underground, they sought an underworld of codes and shadows: incognito, incommunicado, and quietly dissident.
--Martin Amis, "Survivors of the Cold War," New York Times, October 5, 1997

[H]e was held incommunicado for 72 hours, his phone lines cut.
--Joseph Finder, "By Any Other Name," New York Times, June 9, 1996

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Incommunicado comes from Spanish incomunicado, past participle of incomunicar, "to cut off," from in- (from Latin) + comunicar, "to communicate," from Latin communicare, from communis, "common."

/me can't talk know