oppugn: \uh-PYOON\

1. to fight against

2. to call in question

how to use in casual conversation:

and i was like "i love the talking heads" and she was like "nuhh uhhh. i oppugn your ass on that shit" and i was like "ohhh, snap".

not to be confused with:

impugn

how it makes me feel:

my initial reaction was that i like it. it gets points for obscurity, brevity,and -pugn. it made me to say "what the hell is that shit...-pugn?! that's nasty! from whence in the sexy bowels of european etiology did that chicken nugget of flavor come from?". then i lmgtfy.com'd myself. (meta-snap?) it's from 15th century british but has latin roots. but apparently impugn has french origins(?). either way it's a pretty cool word. it definitely has some funk on it. mustard, if you will.

from another angle: when i saw the word i immediately though of impugn. (both have the aforementioned mustard.) i was immediately scared that i had been using impugn as oppugn. my high school english teacher once mentioned that it's ok and things happen with words and phrases like this sometimes. she cited the example of how her little girl though that the phrase 'human being' was actually 'human bean'. my friend didn't know that it wasn't 'human bean'. hell, i was 25 before i realized that "for all intensive purposes" was actually "for all intents and purposes" which actually makes a whole hell of a lot more sense. the point: i am pretty damn stupid sometimes and so are you. (the royal you)

=P

next week: i do this while i'm drunk

lets see if i remember how to do this

conniption: \ kuh-NIP-shuhn \

A fit of hysterical excitement or anger.

how to use in casual conversation:

"shut up, man! if you have a conniption about the cloud monkeys in front of those cops they're gonna know we're on shrooms!"

not to be confused with:

contrition

how it makes me feel:

my dad used to always say: "don't have a conniption". who was he talking to?! i was the perfect child! i was never angry! i never raised my voice! NEVER! i wonder if uncouth has been a word of the day in the last two years. if so, the break hasn't been worth it. i feel like i'm really reaching here. but seriously he did say that a lot. so, i guess the answer is nostalgic.

apparently i've forgotten how to format these posts. bear with me.

RATE-A-WORD!

occlude: /uh-klood/

1. to shut in, out, or off.
2. physical chemistry - (of certain metals and other solids) to incorporate (gases and other foreign substances), as by absorption or adsorption.
3. dentistry - to shut or close, with the cusps of the opposing teeth of the upper and lower jaws fitting together.

last week's result:

according to a weighted average of your votes, spoor is a:

3

(2.875 to be precise)

....which sucks because y'all gave gizmo the same rating as spoor. spoor. really? i don't even think spoor deserves to be considered a word. plus, we already have a word for spoor. it's called 'track'. track isn't exciting but it isn't spoor. spoor feels like something someone does to you, not something you do an animal...i.e. "OMG, he took me back to his place, we started making out, i'm totally into it, then all the sudden he starts to spoor me! do i look like someone who'd wanna spoor? freaking pervert!"

impedimenta: /im-ped-uh-men-tuh/

baggage or other things that retard one's progress

how to use in casual conversation:

"i have too much impedimenta to be in a relationship, baby"

not to be confused with:

magenta

how it makes me feel:

impeded. it's a good word. it's a latin derivative. latin is good. i like latin. yet for some reason i just kinda wanna nod my head and go "yup". and be done with it. but that wouldn't be fair to you. i figure you come here to read something. right? so how about this....

a story:

the why isn't important but my friend and I ended up walking home from a party a couple weeks ago. i was pretty hungry so we stopped for a burritos on "the ave".

my friend had to wait for the 44, so as we were walking down the ave to his stop he decided to take his burritos out and try to eat it. just as he took it out of the bag, the obviously intoxicated, heavy-set, young asian man randomly sitting on the stairs jumps up and just grabs at my friend's burrito.

at this point I was still buzzed and confused as shit. the only thing I could think to do was very sternly say "nooooooo!", in exactly the way you would reprimand a child or domestic animal.


apparently that was enough.

the only thing fatty could do was say "noooooo!" back, following it up with "ill stab you!". but seeing as how he said that as he was awkwardly positioning his jolly frame back down onto the stairs we found him on, I didn't take it to be a credible threat and we kept walking.

the moral of the story? don't mess with my friend's burrito or i will scold you!

WORD OF THE WEEK!

subtilize: /suht-l-ahyz/

–verb (used with object)
1. to elevate in character; sublimate.
2. to make (the mind, senses, etc.) keen or discerning; sharpen.
3. to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.
4. to make thin, rare, or more fluid or volatile; refine.
–verb (used without object)
5. to make subtle distinctions or to argue subtly.

vestigial: /ve-stij-ee-uh/

of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a vestige

spoor: /spohr/

–noun
1. a track or trail, esp. that of a wild animal pursued as game.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
2. to track by or follow a spoor.

brannigan: /bran-i-guhn/

1. a carouse.
2. a squabble; brawl.

undercast: /uhn-der-kast/

1. mining - a crossing of two passages, as airways, dug at the same level so that one descends to pass beneath the other without any opening into it.
2. meteorology - an overcast layer of clouds viewed from above


last week's word winner:

squelch

i know, i thought it was a weird result too. i'm gonna chalk this exercise in poor taste up to the fact that none of you had a proper appreciation for gremlins during y'alls childhoods.

gizmo!!!!