What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
RANTIPOLE [RAN-ti-pohl] (noun, adjective or verb)
A wild, reckless person
"This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that she did not altogether discourage his hopes."
--Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) (TWITO, page 122)
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
MUMPSIMUS [MUMP-sih-muss] (noun)
Someone who adheres to old ways that are obviously wrong
"The best of the joke is, that Johnston, who seems here to have deserted for a moment the old mumpsimus, contradicts himself in the very next page, and having laughed at ‘broken’ metaphors in one breath, attempts, in the next, to ‘reduce’ one, after a manner of surgery almost as awful as that of Warburton himself."
--T. D., "On the use of Metaphors" in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, (1825) (TWITO, page 92)
Hmm. Who might we apply this word to? I’m thinking of a certain mumpsimus from a certain political party. Maybe you are, too, even if it isn’t the same party. That’s politics.
The illustration is from the 1894 book Laughable Lyrics: A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, etc. by Edward Lear.
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
ABOULOMANIA [ay-BOO-lo-MAY-nee-uh] (noun)
Pathological indecisiveness
"Chocolate or strawberry? Cursing his aboulomania, Sylvester continued to stare at the ice-cream parlor’s menu." (TWITO, page 9)
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
MAKEBATE [MAYK-bayt] (noun)
A person who creates discord or conflict
"I am no makebate,
no inciter of quarrels," said Nelson. "I simply think that a discussion of one’' religion shouldn't be taboo in polite company." (TWITO, page 86)
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
TOURBILLON [toor-bee-YON] (noun)
A whirlwind or vortex
"In this state of things, had I accepted and returned home, do you think that a seat upon the bench would have removed me from the tourbillon of politics?"
--John Quincy Adams, letter (1811) (TWITO, page 148)
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...
FANFARONADE [FAN-fer-uh-NAID] (noun)
Empty boasting, arrogant bluster
"We laugh at the fanfaronade of the French, but never in my life did I see fanfaronade approaching in extravagance to the fanfaronade of this piece, and every burst of vapour was received by the audience with bouts of applause."
--"Diary of a Constant Reader," in The London Magazine (1826) (TWITO, page 52)
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....
HOOROOSH [who-ROOSH]
(noun)
An uproar, a great fuss
"What a hooroosh aloft there! I
would e’en take it for sublime, did I not know that the colic is a noisy
malady."
--Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851) (TWITO, page 68)
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....
CONGLOBATE [KONG-lo-bate] (verb)
To form into a globe or ball
"He decided to conglobate all of his string into a sort of weird planetesimal."
--Michael Gates, The Word I'm thinking Of (2013)
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....
TOHUBOHU [TOE-hoo-BO-hoo] (noun)
Chaos, confusion
"...it is now easy to see that this bird is the
Creator walking in chaos, brooding over the primitive mish-mash or tohu-bohu, and finally hatching the egg
of the world."
--Viktor Rydberg, Rasmus Björn Anderson, James William Buel, Teutonic Mythology (1907)
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