GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

[Algot Runeman]

marlinspike

noun
a pointed metal tool used by sailors to separate strands of rope or wire.

Origin:
early 17th century (originally as marling spike): from marling, present participle of marl ‘fasten with marline’ (from Dutch marlen 'keep binding') + spike


Chris Clayson on Flickr

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Ben sat on the hatch cover, splicing the halyard. Tomorrow, his marlinspike work would be tested when the ship tried to ride out the hurricane called Mariah. [Loved that song as a kid]

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

While browsing for news about hurricane Irene, I found an extraordinary WotD, worth wildly interjecting. Just the word, mind you, I'm ignoring the grammatical error.

In a page of Air Cargo World's website Kforsythe wrote:

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) announced that LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports reopened to both arriving and departing flights on August 29. Experts say this signals good news for New York, which beared the brunt of Irene’s wrath and was declared a state of emergency by President Barack Obama.

P.S. I can see, Algot, that you do have power, which makes me assume that you're OK.
Have all you guys weathered the hurricane all right?

[Algot Runeman]

E.P.S.

...New York, which beared the brunt of Irene’s wrath...

It appears radio and TV personalities are unable to bear the brunt. Maybe they have finally become bored with the topic. [Do such people ever get bored with hearing themselves talk? I never get tired of adding a WotD or a follow-up comment. I also love to "hear" my words, I guess.]

http://thesaurus.com/browse/brunt reveals a long list of synonyms, full of power, but a wimpy list of antonyms for "brunt."

[Algot Runeman]

sycophantic

adjective
behaving or done in an obsequious way in order to gain advantage: a sycophantic interview

Derivatives
sycophantically
Pronunciation:/-ˈfantɪk(ə)li/
adverb


NoMoon on Flickr

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Mr. Jobs: Let me begin by assuring you that you are nearly a god to me. I have an iPhone, two iPads, several iPods, an iMac and wear iGlasses.
I remain sycophantically yours,
Joe Fanboi.

[MidasKnight]

I despies Apple products in general. It baffles me that they are so popular.

Incidently, sycophantic was a word I had to look up JUST LAST NIGHT while reading the end of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo!

Great timing.

[Algot Runeman]

dirigisme

noun
state control of economic and social matters.

Derivatives
dirigiste
Pronunciation:/ˌdiriˈZHēst, ˌdirē-/
adjective

Origin:
1950s: from French, from the verb diriger, from Latin dirigere 'to direct'


evansonline on Flickr

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Dirigisme brings to mind the Marxist experiment of the Soviet Union era. The book 1984 by George Orwell seems the literary examination of today's Word of the Day.

Beyond those examples, I'll remain mum. Politics is a difficult topic of conversation face-to-face. Keyboard-to-keyboard, it can't be much better.

[I may not have access to an Internet connection the next couple of days. Bear with the hiatus. Play among yourselves.]

[Algot Runeman]

brainiac

noun
informal
an exceptionally intelligent person.

Origin:
1950s: from the name of a superintelligent alien character of the Superman comic strip, from a blend of brain and maniac


bicholoco on Flickr

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Bob wanted to be a brainiac, but his mother wouldn't let him.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

brainiac
an exceptionally intelligent person.

Originally I was born a brainiac. A real genius, you know?
But then, in the maternity ward, they switched me with an other baby. <Sniff> <Sniirrff!>

[Algot Runeman]

woul

verb
[no object]

give a loud plaintive cry like that of a cat.

Origin:

early 16th century: imitative


rahen z on Flickr

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Mark sat holding his head in his hands. Every few minutes, he emitted a miserable woul. He couldn't help himself.

[umsolopagas]

EPS' gandmother let out a woul as the bizarre looking infant in her arms grabbed a fistful af her untidy flowing locks

[Algot Runeman]

acolyte

noun
a person assisting a priest in a religious service or procession.
an assistant or follower: she runs the department through a small group of acolytes

Origin:
Middle English: from Old French acolyt or ecclesiastical Latin acolytus, from Greek akolouthos 'follower'


wallyg on Flickr

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Arnold approached the priest boldly. In spite of that, the priest handed him the censer. Good, humble acolytes were no longer easy to find.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

woul
... a plaintive cry ...

acolyte
... a person assisting a priest ...
Arnold approached the priest boldly. In spite of that, the priest handed him the censer. Good, humble acolytes were no longer easy to find.

Back out the door and out of earshot, Arnold gently banged his head against the wall and muttered his feisty woul of frustration. Quite incensed, he vowed to find a deserted clearing in Sherwood Forest to loudly caterwaul and decry the perceived injustice together with his acolyte brethern.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

flabbergast
...

As suggested by Laurie:

A six year old goes to the hospital with her mother to visit her Grandpa. When they get to the hospital, she runs ahead of her mother and bursts into her Grandpa's room.

"Grandpa, Grandpa!" she says excitedly, "When Mom is here, talk like Kermit!"


Flabbergasted, Grandpa sputters, "What?".

"Make noises like a frog! Mom said that as soon as you croak, we're all going to France to see EuroDisney!!!"

P.S.
Originally negotiations were held to build EuroDisney in Limburg province, Belgium. It would have afforded enormous short and long term employment for a largely polyglot population. But a bunch of squabbling shortsighted Belgian politicians sank the project, the idiots. Discouraged, the Walt Disney Company went to France instead.

To show the politicians what we missed Disneyland Paris Moves to Belgium for the Summer

... Sand Sculpture Festival in Blankenberge ... the whole park has been recreated ... also plenty of appearances by characters straight out of the Disney and Pixar universe. From Pirates of the Caribbean to Main Street USA ...

See pictures here.

[Algot Runeman]

dressage

noun
the art of riding and training a horse in a manner that develops obedience, flexibility, and balance.

Origin:
1930s: from French, literally 'training'


Stefan Sager on Flickr

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Ben didn't do dressage. While he felt the horse was both flexible and obedient, he was certain his horse was completely unbalanced. Neither Ben nor his horse were of an age to wear dresses, either.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

dressage

The Wiener Lippizzaner of the Spanish Riding School are experts at it.

And during shows horses and riders actually do wear parade dress.

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: show

[Algot Runeman]

egotism

noun
[mass noun]
the fact of being excessively conceited or absorbed in oneself: in his arrogance and egotism, he underestimated Gill

Origin:
early 18th century: from French égoïste, from Latin ego 'I'
Usage

On the difference between egotism and egoism, see egoism (usage)


jan.tito on Flickr

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Does painting a self portrait actually qualify as egotism?

If you are self-identified as egotistic, you might want to grab a copy of the unofficial group logo. Of course, you probably don't acknowledge that there is a group, unless you count "me, me, me" as a group of three.

[laurie]

Does painting a self portrait actually qualify as egotism?

If you paint more than one, the answer is "Yes, Vincent" .

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

If you paint more than one, the answer is "Yes, Vincent" .

Oh, grant him a little indulgence.

He had to paint to earn the money to buy gas to make his Van Gogh.

[Algot Runeman]

vilification

noun
abusively disparaging speech or writing: the vilification of minority groupings


SS&SS on Flickr

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Vilification of elected officials has become a national "passtime", though it is nothing new.
Politicians, though a significant minority group, wield power beyond their numbers because they get the votes of their constituents.

[Algot Runeman]

kibosh

noun
(in phrase put the kibosh on) informal
put an end to; dispose of decisively: he put the kibosh on the deal

Origin:
mid 19th century: of unknown origin


Rakka on Flickr

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In our consumptive society, have we finally reached the point when we buy things and simply discard them without ever using them?

Does this put the kibosh on everything?

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

kibosh

That reminds me of "Pish & Tosh" ...

Could that have been a comical duo like Abbott & Costello?

But ... http://www.word-detective.com/2008/08/1 ... osh/[quote]... there’s an old chestnut, almost certainly apocryphal, about a linguistics professor lecturing his class on negation in English grammar. “In English,” he says, “a double negative forms a positive. However, in some languages, a double negative remains a negative. But there isn’t a single language, not one, in which a double positive can express a negative.” Whereupon a voice from the back of the room pipes up, “Yeah, right.”[/quote]

[Algot Runeman]

shovel-ready

adjective
informal
(of a building project) at the stage where workers can be employed and construction can begin: one of the goals of this bill is to get funding into infrastructure projects that are shovel-ready


WSDOT on Flickr

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Separator before my wordplay attempt?? A set of spades to be used for the ground-breaking...Get it? Shovel-ready, indeed.

[ Substitute separator: Han symbol for shovel: ]
鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁 鍁

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

shovel-ready
...

Okay, guys!
Shovels ready? ON THREE ...

[Algot Runeman]

scabbard

noun
a sheath for the blade of a sword or dagger, typically made of leather or metal.
a sheath for a gun or other weapon or tool.

Origin:
Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French escalberc, from a Germanic compound of words meaning 'cut' (related to shear) and 'protect' (related to the second element of hauberk)


public.resource.org on Flickr

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D'Artagnio, the Italian who wanted to join the French Musketeers, almost made it until he slipped when returning his sword to its scabbard.

[Separator: Caution sign, Unicode U-2621 <-- because you better use caution every time you return a sword to its sheath.]

[Algot Runeman]

lodestar

noun
a star that is used to guide the course of a ship, especially Polaris: figurative she was his intellectual lodestar

Origin:
Middle English: from lode in the obsolete sense 'way, course' + star


Odalaigh on Flickr

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Lars leaned over the binnacle to get the best view of his compass possible.
His forbears crossed the seas with just a lodestone, or so he had heard.
Clouds and rain for days had prevented the more accurate navigational use of the lodestar, Polaris.

(Fortunately, his radar, GPS, VHF marine radio and satphone were completely functional.)