Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Wandering Word Thoughts

A great German word is "Backpfeifengesicht", meaning "a face you badly want to punch".

Hooray for "yarooh" and other backwards words! According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "yarooh" is "a humorous stylized representation of a cry of pain."

Don't you just love some good "semordnilap"? (Read it backwards!)

Yes, we need a word that means "To move hot food around in your mouth". It's "pelinti", a Ghanian word.

TWITO, page 60: "Only Desmond’s gelastic comments made the tedious seminar bearable." "Gelastic" means "pertaining to laughter".


YYUR; YYUB. ICUR YY4me. Or are you?

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Wandering Word Thoughts

Do you know anyone who "worships" Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe? That's "necrolatry" -- worship of the dead.

I suggest bringing back the old-fashioned word "trumpery". (See below.)

Were you feeling some "awumbuk" after the holiday's? That's the feeling of emptiness after your guests leave. (Okay, maybe you weren't feeling that.)

"'Very' is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it invariably weakens what it is intended to strengthen." --Mark Twain. Very true! Ooops.

I imagine you can't ever unsee a "grandissimus". That's the penis of a whale.



Monday, January 02, 2017

Word of the Day: boggler

What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....

boggler (noun)

Someone who hesitates because of fear or doubt

"You have been a boggler ever:
But when we in our viciousness grow hard—
O misery on't !—the wise gods seel our eyes;
In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us
Adore our errors; laugh at's, while we strut
To our confusion."
--William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, scene 13

To be or not to be? Isn't that the question, Will?