GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

[MidasKnight]

EPS, Laurie and VorAlfred ... why are you not a part of our book club discussions?

[laurie]

After a while the churchgoers started calling the bishops crooks, in the rather pejorative and rude meaning.

Ah, a rather common happening wih those in power...

[Algot Runeman]

vesicant

Pronunciation: /ˈvɛsɪkənt, ˈviː-/

technical
adjective
tending to cause blistering.

noun
an agent that causes blistering.

Origin:
late Middle English: from late Latin vesicant- 'forming pustules', from the verb vesicare, from vesica 'bladder'


Peta Hopkins

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Hot water is a vesicant. It is also a requirement for good coffee. Sip carefully.
Lye is a vesicant. No matter what, keep it OUT of your coffee.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

EPS ... why are you not a part of our book club discussions?

Erm ... wouldn't I have to get serious?

[Algot Runeman]

Erm ... wouldn't I have to get serious?

Even if that were possible, the answer would be "No."

However, you would have to be able to read.
You've demonstrated an occasional flair at reading in this forum topic.
You are, therefore, qualified to join the reading group. Just be aware, If you want in for March 1, you need to read 700 pages of Drood by Dan Simmons in three days!!!

[MidasKnight]

700? Mine is nearly 1000 pages ... and I will NOT be done

[Algot Runeman]

gazillionaire

Pronunciation: /gəˈzɪljənɛː/

noun
informal
an extremely rich person: it’s really not hard to look fabulous when you’re a gazillionaire in your early 20s

Origin:
1980s: from gazillion, on the pattern of millionaire


Dudus Maximus

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Of course, the magazine cover poses a question gazillionaires don't need to ask.

[laurie]

I thought I'd become a gazillionaire playing Jeopardy!.

Then I met Watson...

[Algot Runeman]

gravid

Pronunciation: /ˈgravɪd/

adjective
1 technical carrying eggs or young; pregnant: the retroverted gravid uterus
2 full of meaning or a specified quality: the scene is gravid with unease

Origin:
late 16th century: from Latin gravidus 'laden, pregnant', from gravis 'heavy'


Andreas Kristensson

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George was grateful his wife was gravid. His gazillions would have somewhere to go when the child grew up.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

gravid

Out of a gazillion competitors, one single spermatozoon won the race to make my grandma gravid. All in all, grandma was quite happy with it, and she didn't really mind that, for a matter of only months, her fur coats didn't close any more.

Then, twenty-three years later, my dad inflicted the same on my mom. But neither did she mind toting me around.

Though I could have wished for a sister sperm cell to have hit a second target and made mom doubly pregnant. I think I would have liked having a twin sister. Grandma's fur coats would have been put to good use once again. In spite of BB ...

[laurie]

Gravid is a word I first heard in church. When I was 4 or 5, it was not considered "proper" to use the word pregnant during sermons, so at Christmas mass the priest talked about Mary being gravid instead.

Many little voices whispering "What's that?" ensued.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

The first time I heard the word spoken was at a professional convention in London, thirty years ago. Because my mother had never been in England, I had asked her to accompany me instead of my wife who prefered to stay at home.

The last night we had the convention's ceremonial closing dinner in the venerable grand Guildhall. We were seated facing each other, next to two British ladies, both in the twenties. The young woman next to me was, I had noticed, visibly pregnant. They were lively chatting about pregnancy and babies, I believe, though it was hard to follow, because of the crowd's din reverberating in the hall.

The young ladies had tried to include mom in the conversation but her knowledge of English was too limited to TV shows, so mom mostly listened. At the mention of the word "gravid" though, she suddenly perked up, lifted her plate and said in a loud and clear voice: "Oh yes, please. Put it on my potatoes."

[voralfred]

(...) At the mention of the word "gravid" though, she suddenly perked up, lifted her plate and said in a loud and clear voice: "Oh yes, please. Put it on my potatoes."

Being a native speaker of a latin language, I had the opposite experience. For some reason the word "gravy" never came during my english classes in school, and the first time I went to England, I was nonplussed by the fact that waiters would ask something like "Do you want on your potatoes something that would cause you to become very fat?" It did seem very weird to me, as a "commercial" trick.

I'm not referring to the actual meaning of "gravid"=pregnant" but at the original meaning of "gravis" in latin

(...)
Origin:
late 16th century: from Latin gravidus 'laden, pregnant', from gravis 'heavy'

[Algot Runeman]

megalopolitan

Pronunciation: /mɛɡəˈlɒp(ə)ləˈpɒlɪt(ə)n/

adjective
of or denoting a very large city: megalopolitan traffic

noun
an inhabitant of a very large city.

Origin:
mid 17th century: from megalo- 'great' + Greek politēs 'citizen' + -an


C. Frank Starmer

☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲

Matt was a meglalopolitan maven.
He though the city a glorious haven.
He visited the steppes one summer instead.
The wide open spaces just filled him with dread.

[laurie]

C. Frank Starmer



I'm not a British city, but I play one on TV...


Man, that is one megalopolitan traffic jam!

[Algot Runeman]

It was the traffic jam that caught my interest. I had not noticed the signs which suggest the UK.
The image source indicates the photo is of megapolitan Bangkok. Is that a part of the UK these days?

[Algot Runeman]

chupacabra

Pronunciation: /tʃuːpəˈkabrə/

noun
an animal said to exist in parts of Latin America, where it supposedly attacks animals, especially goats.

Origin:
Spanish, literally 'goatsucker', from chupar 'to suck' + cabra 'goat'


Wikimedia Commons

⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟---⚞⚯⚟

Sid sat. He tried not to breath. Before him, the chupacabra licked its chops after killing and draining Sid's dog.
Before he could do anything else, a sasquatch walked in from the left, holding hands with a yeti.
Sid promised himself that today was the very last time he'd drink tequila to help swallow his LSD.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

chupacabra

Once on an April Fools' Day, my grandma's couturier decided to put one over on her.

He announced that he had received a batch of rare pelts. As the fur appeared bristly with all the hairs pointing sideways, he wanted her advice on how to design a new garment with this Chupacabra fur from Tierra del Fuego.

But grandma didn't fall for it. She had visited many a zoo and recognised it for what it was: it was plain Tasmanian Capybara fur. Whereupon grandma gently chided him for having been had, because it actually was - she said - Amazon Siren, nicknamed Lorelei by German trappers.

[voralfred]

It was the traffic jam that caught my interest. I had not noticed the signs which suggest the UK.
The image source indicates the photo is of megapolitan Bangkok. Is that a part of the UK these days?

The road signs are hardly legible, but do not look like latin alphabet. Bangkok is thus quite probable. The Union jacks on signs for the pub only indicate that it is british (or, more probably, pseudo-british type).

(...)
But grandma didn't fall for it. She had visited many a zoo and recognised it for what it was: it was plain Tasmanian Capybara fur. Whereupon grandma gently chided him for having been had, because it actually was - she said - Amazon Siren, nicknamed Lorelei by German trappers.

Well, this was probably as rare a pelt as a Chupacabra's or an Amazon Siren's one, then. All zoologists of the world would fly to Tasmania in a hurry for the off-chance to to see a capybara there!

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

... All zoologists of the world would fly to Tasmania in a hurry for the off-chance to to see a capybara there!

Of course zoologists won't hurry to Tasmania.
They would google first, just like you did. You may as well admit it.

[Algot Runeman]

nubbin

Pronunciation: /ˈnʌbɪn/

noun
chiefly North American
a small lump or residual part: nubbins of bone or cartilage

Origin:
late 17th century: diminutive of nub


Katheryn Collins

------------------------------------------------------O-----------------------------------------------------

Sara didn't have an outie. She wished she did. She'd been doomed by her genetics to an innie. The piercing solved her problem, though the severed umbillical still was just a nubbin.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

nubbin

Frankenstein's creature didn't have a pierced navel nubbin. No navel and no navel lint either!

He had a pierced noggin instead.

Spoiler: show

[voralfred]

[
They would google first, just like you did. You may as well admit it.

I admit it, I admit it...

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

I admit it, I admit it...

I do too.

Not so long ago, in an episode of "The Big Bang Theory", Sheldon Cooper gave a cafeteria table lecture about the Capybara. That's when *I* googled for it ...

[Algot Runeman]

millinery

Pronunciation: /ˈmɪlɪnəri/

noun (plural millineries)
[mass noun]
women’s hats: her designer millinery
the trade or business of a milliner: she is contemplating a new career in millinery


rattyfied

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Mark dropped his career in the military to pick one up in millinery.
Maybe he'd have been wiser to choose being a hairdresser in the 21st century.
Hats off to him for his desire?