WORD OFF!!!

this week's battle:

gaucherie:

1 : lack of social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkwardness; crudeness; tactlessness.
2 : an act, movement, etc., that is socially graceless, awkward, or tactless.

vs.

pabulum:

1 : food; especially : a suspension or solution of nutrients in a state suitable for absorption
2 : intellectual sustenance
3 : something (as writing or speech) that is insipid, simplistic, or bland

last week's word winner:

eldritch

i voted for popinjay. but apparently 54% of you have another opinion on the matter. speaking for myself, eldritch sounded a little too 'lord of the rings'.

readerettes: don't forget to vote

ameliorate:

to make or become better, more bearable, or more satisfactory; improve;

how to use in causal conversation:

"i'm trying to ameliorate my occupational situation"
"i never thought someone could ameliorate pizza. good job."

not to be confused with:

eviscerate

how it makes me feel:

i like the word. it's another one of those words that sounds like the opposite of it's meaning. it sounds like it should be a word associated with removal of something from another, i.e. "i'm going to ameliorate you of your teddy bear if you don't shut the hell up kid!" when in fact that sentence makes no sense at all. you could ameliorate the teddy bear though. give him little flashing LED lights for eyes and make him bigger and stronger and capable of holding you ever so gently when you cry yourself to sleep at night while whispering gentle yet affirming statements of your overall worth as a human being after a long night of drinking on his tab at a seedy bar where you threw up in the alley and he was kind enough to bring you a wash cloth and help you stumble back to your apartment. that kind of thing.

editorial note:

amelia earhart was an aviatrix. tell me that doesn't kinda sound hot. go on....say it.

sinuous:

1. having many curves, bends, or turns; winding
2. indirect; devious
3. characterized by a series of graceful curving motions
4. botany. sinuate, as a leaf.

how to use in casual conversation:

"...that sinuous mothertrucker"
"the drunken trail he blazed along the cities' sidewalks was sinuous and wobbly"

not to be confused with:

sinusoid

how it makes me feel:

it's a pretty word. it lends itself to other pretty words. even one of its' definitions is pretty: "characterized by a series of graceful curving motions" that just sounds elegant. it sounds like a pinkies-up cocktail party where everyone is wearing tuxedos and talking about ostentatious things, like candelabras and fine china and stock portfolios. however much like an event so described, the word is boring. it's a word that could talk for hours and never actually say anything. it's window dressing - literary furbelow. i wouldn't say it sucks, at least not as a word, but it's a rather mediocre WOTD.

cavort:

1. to prance or caper about.
2. to behave in a high-spirited, festive manner; make merry.

how to use in casual conversation:

"let's go cavort somewhere"
"would you quit your damn cavorting and help me clean up this dead marmoset?"

how to use if'n you're johnny cash:

"then i heard my dream was back downstream cavortin' in davenport, and i followed you, big river, when you called." (johnny cash ain't go no use for no terminal 'g')

not to be confused with:

contort

how it makes me feel:

it's not the greatest WOTD. it's short and generally well known but it's a fun word. i mean not so much in the prancing sense, but in the high-spirited-merry-making sense because let's face it, prancing is kind of gay no matter what you do. not that there's anything wrong with prancing or being gay, but merry-making is universal and if someone needs to prance during that process ok, but lets not make prancing a requirement for cavorting. maybe i just feel this way because i'm a bad prancer. whatever. i do think everyone should have to caper at least once or twice though.

editorial note:

enjoy your weekend. go cavorting. or whatever it is you do.

assiduous:

1. constant; unremitting
2. constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive

how to use in casual conversation:

"he is usually assiduous in his work, i don't know what's going on here"
"being an inherently lazy man, this lifestyle seems too assiduous for me to maintain."
"that girl has one assiduous backside!"

not to be confused with:

assibilate

how it makes me feel:

brilliant! the glory of the presence of the term 'ass' in american slang as a semi-edgy/bad word for ones' gluteus maximus is that any word, any actual legitimate word with 'ass-' as a prefix automatically becomes funny. it's the original 'that's what she said'

i.e.
"hell man, you're assiduous"
"oh yeah? your face is assiduous"

and assibilate? jeez. i could have a freaking field day with that one. the prefix and the suffix are a 12 year old word geeks' wet dream. oh wait. 12 year old word geeks have real wet dreams. you know what i'm talking about though. asserverator? that entry wouldn't stop. it would go on and on for pages. blogspot wouldn't know what to do with it's self. i would win an award for it. "longest and most perverse blog entry that wasn't NSFW".

editorial note:

dictionary.com actually has an entry for the word asshat. MW does not.

WORD OFF!

this week's battle:

eldritch: eerie; weird; spooky

vs.

popinjay: a strutting supercilious person

last week's word winner:

logorrhea

i can't really say i'm surprised. it really was the better of the two words. we're all familiar with the phrase 'diarrhea of the mouth' but who knew there was an actual word for it that shares a suffix with diarrhea. however it was a close race and logorrhea only won by three votes, one of those votes being mine. so here's to pink (as a verb) for making a great showing.

readerettes - don't forget to vote!

enhance:

heighten, increase; especially : to increase or improve in value, quality, desirability, or attractiveness

how to use in casual conversation:

"this WOTD enhances my desire to write a letter to MW about their shabby word-sleuthing"

"the WOTD is supposed to enhance your vocabulary"

"the only thing that could enhance the crappiness of this WOTD is if MW had slipped it into a phrase"

not to be confused with:

entrench

how it makes me feel:

i do not feel enhanced. the only thing enhanced this morning is my desire to make fun of MW. MW's ability to affect a wider audience of word-loving geeks could be enhanced by them not using everyday words as WOTDs. how will we further be enhanced from here? will they enhance our mental word banks with the word "four"?

four: an enhanced version of the number three.

or better yet, maybe they'll enhance their site with a new "linking verb of the day" or LVOTD:

aren't: an enhancement to ain't.

perhaps tomorrow they will enhance their reputation and give us something worthwhile, like they did yesterday. ahh, yesterday, when they enhanced us so.

ok i'll stop.

editorial note:

the dictionary.com entry for today is worth checking out.

laodicean:

lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics

how to use in casual conversation:

"i'm uncomfortable voting for a mayoral candidate who previously demonstrated a laodicean attitude toward local affairs"
"i wouldn't call you ignorant, you're just kinda laodicean"

not to be confused with:

laodamia (yeah i know, this one was a stretch)

how it makes me feel:

given my options today, laodicean seemed like the better route. it's fairly obscure, odd spelling and phonetics. and quite frankly equivocate is not a good WOTD but we'll get to that in a minute.

i have to say there is something about this word that bothers me. i won't go into the specifics because there's two things you don't talk about in mixed company and i routinely hint at one of those two things on this blog and i'm trying to be inclusive. but personal prejudices aside, it is a good WOTD.

editorial note:

it's a very human tendency to assume that what is going on in our own little universes translates across the cosmos and to every other living creature we encounter, but it seems like a lot of weird things have been happening. everyday since last thursday has involved some weird bass-ackwards thing going on. again, not going into specifics but the last 5 days have been filled with overwhelmingly improbable events coming to fruition - set to a personal soundtrack of the sleater-kinney discography. and then, MW drops the preferable WOTD over dictionary.com. am i the only one who feels a disturbance in the force? does this have something to do with the equinox? am i alone here or what?

quodlibet:

1 : a philosophical or theological point proposed for disputation; also : a disputation on such a point
2 : a whimsical combination of familiar melodies or texts

how to use in casual conversation:

"i have a quodlibet for you: the chicken came first because jesus wanted it that way and that's why easter eggs are blasphemy."

not to be confused with:

hell. you can't confuse this with anything.

how it makes me feel:

pretty damn good. this is a great WOTD. nine letters, awkward phonetics, excellent definition, not recognized by spell check. and here's the kicker...

IT CAME FROM MW!

i know, right? i was shocked too. and the dictionary.com word of the day was alacrity. i love alacrity. i chose MW over dictionary.com. it's like......surreal maaaaaan.

ab ovo: from the beginning

how to use in casual conversation:

"play that song again boys, ab ovo"
"ab ovo, there were tacos and woe, it was good"

not to be confused with:

an oboe

how it makes me feel:

i'm kind of torn here. first of all it's from MW and you know how i feel about them. but it's latin. i like latin. i wish i spoke it but i have more pressing things to do with my time. but if i ever win the lottery i'm going to learn latin and lay around a palatial apartment and have half-naked women feed me grapes a la caesar. caesar was a badass. yeah.

right....so yeah it's in latin, but it isn't a word! it's two, or three depending on your perspective. if MW wanted to start a site called weirdasslatinphraseoftheday.com i would totally get behind that, but they haven't. this is a phrase and therefore cannot truly be evaluated as a WOTD and is a shining example of why MW, a well respected name in dictionaries and geekism in general, makes me drink myself to sleep at night. ok, so that's an exaggeration but i still don't get how they could be so inept sometimes and so genius others.

editorial note:

roman buffs and people who watched waaaaay too much history channel back in the day when all they did was run world war II documentaries and stuff on ancient western civ would do well to check out the 'did you know' on the entry for ab ovo. it's fascinating stuff.

WORD OFF!

logorrhea:

1. pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech.
2. incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisome volubility.

vs.

pink(verb):

1 a : to perforate in an ornamental pattern b : to cut a saw-toothed edge on
2 a : pierce, stab b : to wound by irony, criticism, or ridicule

so it may not seem like a fair fight. but when you consider the value of using the word 'pink' as a verb, it just might have a fighting chance against logorrhea.

i've noticed that the word that tends to win is the one i bash the least. so this week i'm going to limit my comments in order to let the voting process take a more organic course.

google-readerites: don't forget to vote!

last weeks word winner:

malapropism

lucubration:

1. laborious work, study, thought, etc., esp. at night.

2. the result of such activity, as a learned speech or dissertation.
3. Often, lucubrations. any literary effort, esp. of a pretentious or solemn nature.

how to use in casual conversation:

"suddenly it became clear that this project may require some lucubration"

"the massive ball of rubber bands was a pitiful lucubration to his insomnia"

not to be confused with:

lubrication

how it makes me feel:

it's another good WOTD from dictionary.com i usually have very few complaints against them. i believe i have said before that they are fairly consistent with the good WOTDs. not like MW.

HOWEVER - i have also said before that MW is a mixed bag. yes they throw you some pretty wonky crap, but sometimes they give you something good. today they had something good. not as good as dictionary, but i felt it appropriate to give MW a nod today.

crapulous:

1. given to or characterized by gross excess in drinking or eating.
2. suffering from or due to such excess.

how to use in casual conversation:

"i awoke on your floor crapulous, the midday sun beating me about the face and chest."
"in spite of the revelrie of all these summer nights, the ensuing mornings could only be described as crapulous"
"i feel absolutely crapulous"

not to be confused with:

crap

how it makes me feel:

crap. crapulous. craptastic. crap on a cracker. crap in a conch shell......crap-on-your-cranium.

oh boy. this one is a jem. i mean a real-life bona-fide kick butt WOTD. i'm actually surprised i've never stumbled across this one given how many times i have in fact been crapulous. i think the guys over at dictionary.com might have had one too many at sunday happy hour last night. bless them for it.

editorial note:

my friend has a thing called the third beer theory. it says that by the time you've had three beers you have a 75% chance of drinking six, a 35% chance of drinking 12 and a 10% chance of falling asleep on a city bus and waking up without your glasses to an old woman yelling at you to "get the ____ off of her bus". something to think about...

puissant:

powerful, mighty, potent

how to use in casual conversation:

"wow! this weed is puissant"

"i am omni-puissant"

"don't be such a puissant"

not so be confused with:

puisnest

how i feel about it:

good word

good word of the day

double entendres galore

editorial note:

wednesday was a challenging day. by the time it was over all i wanted to do was eat a giant meal and fall asleep. so when i got home i picked up a pizza and sat down to watch the obama healthcare speech. 90 minutes later i had eaten an entire pizza and washed it down with a liter of coke. yesterday i woke up with every indication of why that had been a bad idea. i don't regret any of the previous evening's gluttony because i needed it. but yesterday, in recognition of the fact that i had just put my small intestine through digestive hell, i thought it would be a good idea to load up on fruits and veggies. i dedicated myself to ONLY eating fruits and veggies for as long as possible. i kinda failed right out of the gate when i got a french roll to accompany my $13 lunch salad (1.66 lbs @$7.99/lbs) but it was a damn tasty salad. i even threw on some bell peppers just for the sake of trying something new. i ate it for dinner too. what's the point of all this you ask? there isn't one. have a nice weekend.

10SEP09

slough:

1. the cast-off skin of a snake

2. a mass of dead tissue separating from an ulcer

3. something that may be shed or cast off

how to use in casual conversation:

"i realize parts of you are sloughing off right now, but you could be a little nicer"

"i'm going to slough you like a bad habit"

not to be confused with:

slough

how it makes me feel:

i try to be honest about these things. i try to be honest about most things. you want honesty? this makes me feel gross. let's ignore the fact that once again MW has given us some sophomoric crap and tried to pass it off as a WOTD. let's ignore the fact the WOTD on MW's open dictionary had 'baby mama' displayed for a good part of yesterday. the word is pronounced like "sluff". there is another slough that's pronounced like "slo" or "slew" but this one ain't it. slough(sluff) is kinda nasty, and not like 'ohhh-you're-so-nasty' nasty but like 'holy-crap-this-sewer-is-nasty' nasty. the only time i've really heard this term used was in biology class referring to a perfectly normal, natural phenomenon - which is none the less still kinda gross. whether you're capable of sloughing(sluffing) or not, i think we could all agree on this at some level. so not only is slough(sluff) a weak entry, but it reminds me of an important and understandable biological process which most all of us would do away with if we could. oh biology....

09SEP09

ladies and gentlemen. boys and girls. wordoftheduh proudly presents this week's word battle. in this corner, weighing in at 11 letters, wearing the green trunks, the saddest word to ever make you laugh - malapropism *pause for applause*

and in the red corner, the greatest greek killer since lamb gyros landed in the states, holder of the featherweight title for six letter words that represent the number nine - ennead

it's 9-9-9. i know. merriam-webster had to try to pull something festive out. kudos to them...still a bad WOTD. malapropism is a great word. i like most words with mal- prefixes, especially malcontent. malcontent gets me all hot under the collar. but it isn't a good WOTD. neither are bad in and of themselves but neither are terribly impressive either.

last week's word winner (unless something crazy happens in the next 20 hours):

bibelot

08SEP09

refulgent:

shining brightly; radiant; gleaming

how to use in casual conversation:

"as we got away from the city the the refulgent cosmos suddenly appeared"
"you're refulgent, did you get some last night?"

not to be confused with:

repugnant

how it makes me feel:

i am not refulgent today. the sighs emminating from the cube farm i spend my weekdays haunting tell me that i'm not alone. i don't know what it is about a 3 day weekend that makes you need another weekend. at least it'll be a short week.

refulgent is a good word. it's nice and long and has a peppy/posi feel. for some reason it makes me think of folgers coffee. i don't know why. phonetically speaking - it's not exact sweet to the ears. actually it's kind of an ugly word in that department. it's a 7-beer-word. it has a very nice personality and i'd use it but i probably wouldn't call it the next day. maybe that was a bad joke. maybe...

04SEP09

gadabout:

1. a person who moves about restlessly or aimlessly, esp. from one social activity to another.
2. a person who travels often or to many different places, esp. for pleasure.

how to use in casual conversation:

"i think i'll be a gadabout and go to both parties"
"anthony bourdain is my favorite gadabout"
"what in the hell are you so gadabout?"

not to be confused with:

gadfly

how it makes me feel:

a little crazy to tell you the truth. so i'm like gadabout - ok, not bad. lets do that. then i thought about gadfly. then i thought 'whats with the gad- prefix? i'm not seeing the link between gadfly and gadabout' which led me here. then it was gad vs. Gad which involved god or God depending on your perspective and i'm looking for the connection but concluding that gad- might have had something to do with gadabout but might not have necessarily been a player in the origin of gadfly and i am so glad i'm going away for the long weekend because this kind of stuff is going to make my head explode.

editorial note:

have an amazing weekend. i'll be back on tuesday. try to remember that just because it's called labor day doesn't mean you should be doing anything important.

03SEP09

WORD OFF!!!!

bibelot vs. carom

this weeks word off is of a positive nature. i found both of these words to be good WOTDs. not by virtue of the words themselves (which are sort of boring) but because of their obscurity.

bibelot is kind of strange. it's a big word for small things. three syllables for the substantively insignificant clutter that you're stangely obliged to carry through life by some odd sentimental gravity.

carom doesn't sound like a word. its sound like a noise you make when someone punches you in the (non-gender specific) hey-hey. also, its definition doesn't correspond itself to its phonetic effect. carom is dull sounding. what it's meant to represent is one of the most exciting occurances in physics - bouncing. bounce. strike. rebound. ricochet. carom? don't know if that really flows...

last weeks word loser:

truckle

02SEP09

inflammable:

1 : flammable
2 : easily inflamed, excited, or angered

how to use in casual conversation:

"inflammable means flammable? what a country!" - Dr. Nick
"watch out - that acetonitrile is inflammable"
"that dude makes me inflammable. i just want to slap that grin right off his face"

not to be confused with:

flammable

how it makes me feel:

quite frankly i'm a little miffed. i went to dictionary.com and saw that their word of the day was abecedarian. freaking a! great word, tons of potential for usage... but i thought i'd take a look at merriam-webster just to see what was going on with them. what do i get? INFLAMMABLE?!?!?! you've got to be kidding me.if you ask me, this WOTD belongs in the kids section. yes, inflammable means flammable. yes, it's counter-intuitive. yes, it's fun thing to learn...in EIGTHTH GRADE! MW has really been off their game recently. you can't just grab any old word and have it be a WOTD. a WOTD needs to have gumption. inflammable has not one gram of gumption.

01SEP09

fecund:

1. producing or capable of producing offspring, fruit, vegetation, etc., in abundance; prolific; fruitful
2. very productive or creative intellectually

how to use in casual conversation:

"you're pretty fecund when it comes to making those crepes there Al"
"your pussy is extremely fecund. how many kittens has she had?"

how to use in casual sing-along-at-a-bad-religion concert:

"hey mother mercy can your loins bear fruit forever? is your fecundity a trammel or a treasure?"

not to be confused with:

feck

how it makes me feel:

an associate of mine told me that she likes this word but doesn't think it's a good WOTD. i'm inclined to agree with her. but then her and i are both intimately familiar with the lyrical work of one brett gurewitz, so to us it's not terribly new and that might have an effect on our opinions. she's also smarter than me and might just be bored with the word altogether. either way i'm tired and under caffinated. i also don't like coffee. i'm an earl grey man myself. i mean i'm an Earl-Grey-man not an "earl grey" man. you know what i mean. it's like the difference between saying "i'm an ass-man" or "i'm a boob-guy" as opposed to "i'm an ass......man" or "i'm a boob.......guy"

so in conclusion, it's a good word, bad WOTD.

enjoy your tuesday.