26AUG09

rictus:

1. the gape of the mouth of a bird.
2. the gaping or opening of the mouth.

how to use in casual conversation:

"would you shut your rictus?"
"i know you're hungover but i would recommend closing that rictus of yours. flies are laying eggs in there"
"your parakeet has a lovely rictus"

not to be confused with:

ruckus

how it makes me feel:

i like it. it's a good word. it's kind of.....ummmm.......*clears throat*......cute. there. i said it. it's a cute word. why? rictus has six letters; its small, small things are always cute. not marsupials though. their babies are damn ugly. so are infant pandas.

the -ctus ending is sharp but has moxie. rictus, ruckus, rickshaw. all those words have moxie. what is moxie? i don't know. but i know it when i see it and rictus has it.

editorial note:

look, i'm no english wizard. we all know this. my posts are filled with general grammatical errors and if i'm in a hurry i'll botch the spelling and punctuation too. spelling errors and missing words are usually typos. there's no excuse for the punctuation. i admit it. i'm ok with it.

but MW's WOTD is 'dead hand' and correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't that two words? isn't this a phrase? is 'dill hole' a word? no! it isn't! buttress is a word, 'butt pirate' isn't. i don't get MW sometimes.