Word of the Day Wednesday November 14, 2007
flaneur \flah-NUR\, noun: One who strolls about aimlessly; a lounger; a loafer.
Burrows and Wallace show how New York embraced the idea of the flaneur -- of the disinterested, artistically inclined wanderer in the city, of what they call "city watching."
-- Jed Perl, "The Adolescent City", New Republic, January 22, 2001
The restricted hotel lobby has replaced the square or piazza as a public meeting place, and our boulevards, such as they are, are not avenues for the parade and observation of personality, or for perusal by the flaneur, but conveyor belts to the stores, where we can buy everything but human understanding.
-- Anatole Broyard, "In Praise of Contact", New York Times, June 27, 1982
Baudelaire saw the writer as a detached flaneur, a mocking dandy in the big-city crowd, alienated, isolated, anonymous, aristocratic, melancholic.
-- Ian Buruma, "The Romance of Exile", New Republic, February 12, 2001
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Flaneur comes from French, from flâner, "to saunter; to stroll; to lounge about."
GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)
Hey, no fair ... that was already a previous WOTD back on April 13th, 2005 and also on Aug 12th, 2004.
The supervening recidivism saliently evincing that he was more a potboiler-producing flaneur than a fructuous factotum, intent on providing only nec plus ultra linguistic bibelots, Ghost lost the fealty of the bellicose Brad, who inimically hectored him.Brad wrote:Hey, no fair ... that was already a previous WOTD back on April 13th, 2005 and also on Aug 12th, 2004.
Edit: this is the secondtime I used a WOTD before Ghost posted it!!
Last edited by voralfred on Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:18 am, edited 2 times in total.
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
Word of the Day Thursday November 15, 2007
hector \HEK-tur\, noun: 1. A bully.
transitive verb: 1. To intimidate or harass in a blustering way; to bully.
intransitive verb: 1. To play the bully; to bluster.
At both ends of the escalators, attendants . . . hector and berate any passenger who steps out of line.
-- Jeffrey Tayler, "A Means of Transport", The Atlantic, February 1998
. . .salespersons who glom onto you and relentlessly hector you until you buy a service agreement.
-- Dave Barry, "Service Calls", Washington Post, September 2, 2001
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Hector derives from Greek Hektor, in Greek mythology the chief Trojan warrior and the eldest son of Priam, King of Troy.
hector \HEK-tur\, noun: 1. A bully.
transitive verb: 1. To intimidate or harass in a blustering way; to bully.
intransitive verb: 1. To play the bully; to bluster.
At both ends of the escalators, attendants . . . hector and berate any passenger who steps out of line.
-- Jeffrey Tayler, "A Means of Transport", The Atlantic, February 1998
. . .salespersons who glom onto you and relentlessly hector you until you buy a service agreement.
-- Dave Barry, "Service Calls", Washington Post, September 2, 2001
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Hector derives from Greek Hektor, in Greek mythology the chief Trojan warrior and the eldest son of Priam, King of Troy.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
S Adams
Word of the Day Friday November 16, 2007
aggrandize \uh-GRAN-dyz; AG-ruhn-dyz\, transitive verb: 1. To make great or greater; to enlarge; to increase. 2. To make great or greater in power, rank, reputation, or wealth; -- applied to persons, countries, etc. 3. To make appear great or greater; to exalt.
All over the country, trial lawyers and activist judges are locked into an embrace cemented by their mutual contempt for democratic self-government and their desire to aggrandize their own power at its expense.
-- Rich Lowry, "The Gore Hard Core", National Review, November 20, 2000
It looks to me instead that one rising power center . . . is seeking to aggrandize itself by discrediting the principal alternative.
-- David Frum, "Diary", National Review, April 30, 2003
I think that using your public-sector contacts to aggrandize yourself when you leave . . . creates a view that the public sector is for sale.
-- Marcy Kaptur, quoted in "Connections and Then Some," by Greg Schneider, Washington Post, March 16, 2003
These small worlds periodically featured pageants or fetes to aggrandize local despots as they celebrated such occasions as empire-building marriages or the birth of an heir.
-- Robert Greskovic, Ballet 101
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Aggrandize comes from French agrandir, from Old French, from a-, "to" (from Latin ad-) + grandir, "to grow larger," from Latin grandire, from grandis, "large."
aggrandize \uh-GRAN-dyz; AG-ruhn-dyz\, transitive verb: 1. To make great or greater; to enlarge; to increase. 2. To make great or greater in power, rank, reputation, or wealth; -- applied to persons, countries, etc. 3. To make appear great or greater; to exalt.
All over the country, trial lawyers and activist judges are locked into an embrace cemented by their mutual contempt for democratic self-government and their desire to aggrandize their own power at its expense.
-- Rich Lowry, "The Gore Hard Core", National Review, November 20, 2000
It looks to me instead that one rising power center . . . is seeking to aggrandize itself by discrediting the principal alternative.
-- David Frum, "Diary", National Review, April 30, 2003
I think that using your public-sector contacts to aggrandize yourself when you leave . . . creates a view that the public sector is for sale.
-- Marcy Kaptur, quoted in "Connections and Then Some," by Greg Schneider, Washington Post, March 16, 2003
These small worlds periodically featured pageants or fetes to aggrandize local despots as they celebrated such occasions as empire-building marriages or the birth of an heir.
-- Robert Greskovic, Ballet 101
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aggrandize comes from French agrandir, from Old French, from a-, "to" (from Latin ad-) + grandir, "to grow larger," from Latin grandire, from grandis, "large."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
S Adams
Since Mr. McBoo seems to be temporarily AWOL (away without living), here are the missing words:
Restive \RES-tiv\, adjective:
1. Impatient under restriction, delay, coercion, or opposition; resisting control.
2. Unwilling to go on; obstinate in refusing to move forward; stubborn.
He turned restive at the least attempt at coercion.
-- Ouida, Held in Bondage
Broadcasters, along with the commercial gambling industry, have grown increasingly restive under the advertising prohibition.
-- Linda Greenhouse, "Justices Strike Down Ban on Casino Gambling Ads", New York Times, June 15, 1999
The people remarked with awe and wonder that the beasts which were to drag him to the gallows became restive, and went back.
-- Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II
He proved as ready a scholar as he had been indocile and restive to the pedant who held the office of his tutor.
-- William Godwin, Caleb Williams
Restive comes from Medieval French restif, from rester, "to remain," ultimately from Latin restare, "to stand back, to remain behind," from re-, "back" + stare, "to stand."
Comport \kum-PORT\, transitive verb:
1. To conduct or behave (oneself) in a particular manner.
intransitive verb:
1. To be fitting; to accord; to agree -- usually followed by 'with'.
Considered friendly and funny in private, the queen has a formal, remote air in public that some people attribute to shyness and others say is a reflection of her belief that, as monarch, she should comport herself with dignity and restraint.
-- Sarah Lyall, "Tradition and Personality Keep Elizabeth Far From Her Subjects", New York Times, September 5, 1997
Her aides comport themselves like members of a cult, their faces a jittery mix of adoration and fear.
-- Maureen Dowd, "Siamese Senators", New York Times, May 26, 1999
It comports with the clear meaning of the U.S. Constitution.
-- "Making War the Legal Way", Denver Rocky Mountain News, March 26, 1998
Fairchild says he decides cases "to comport with previous law and also with justice."
-- Cary Segall, "Fairchild Keeps on Judgin'", Wisconsin State Journal, August 1, 1999
Comport comes from Medieval French comporter, "to conduct," from Latin comportare, "to carry, to bring together," from com-, "with, together" + portare, "to carry."
Flout \FLOWT\, transitive verb:
1. To treat with contempt and disregard; to show contempt for.
intransitive verb:
1. To mock, to scoff.
noun:
1. Mockery, scoffing.
The thorough training in the fine points of lyric writing that he has received from Hammerstein has made Sondheim highly critical of those lyricists who flout the basic techniques of the craft.
-- "Sondheim: Lyricist and Composer", New York Times, March 6, 1966
Seth and Dorothy were completely mystified by Janis's determination to flout as many social conventions as she could.
-- Alice Echols, Scars of Sweet Paradise
Who put your beauty to this flout and scorn
By dressing it in rags.
-- Tennyson, Idylls of the King
Flout comes from Middle English flouten, "to play the flute."
Extirpate \EK-stur-payt\, transitive verb:
1. To pull up by the stem or root.
2. To destroy completely.
3. To remove by surgery.
A plant growing where it shouldn't is a weed. An object for which you have no need or sentimental attachment is garbage. Extirpate the one, toss the other.
-- Philip Kennicott, "The Symphony's Misbegotten 'Moon'", Washington Post, January 14, 2000
There had been no great missionary impulse in the Turkish incursions, no urge to extirpate the old ways.
-- Fouad Ajami, "The Glory Days of the Grand Turk", New York Times, May 2, 1999
If Soviet espionage or capitalist plots against the Soviet Union are malignant growths, it requires a professional to extirpate them by methods as unkind to random bystanders as radiation may be to healthy tissue.
-- Robert Leachman, "Super Thrillers and Super Powers", New York Times, February 19, 1984
Extirpate derives from Latin ex(s)tirpare, "to tear up by the root, hence to root out, to extirpate," from ex-, "from" + stirps, "the stalk or stem or a tree or other plant, with the roots."
Despite having long since gone to his eternal rest, Mr. McBoo was feeling uncharacteristically restive.
He'd always diligently comported himself in the proper manner of undead spirits, but the new family that moved into his primary haunt last month was flouting all the usual rules. Just last week, after attempting to scare the bejebus out of the couple's youngest daughter, the little girl giggled, grabbed a nearby bottle of Spray n Wash, and spritzed him (and his sheets) right out of her room !
Mr. McBoo was mortified, and at a loss as to what to do next. He couldn't simply extirpate them, because then he'd be stuck with them for all eternity - and he'd already tried (and failed) to scare them away. After pondering the problem for several days, he believed his only option involved digging some dirt on the couple, and whispering the results in the right ears in order to get them to leave.
His demeanor grave, Mr. McBoo set forth on his fact finding mission ...
He'd always diligently comported himself in the proper manner of undead spirits, but the new family that moved into his primary haunt last month was flouting all the usual rules. Just last week, after attempting to scare the bejebus out of the couple's youngest daughter, the little girl giggled, grabbed a nearby bottle of Spray n Wash, and spritzed him (and his sheets) right out of her room !
Mr. McBoo was mortified, and at a loss as to what to do next. He couldn't simply extirpate them, because then he'd be stuck with them for all eternity - and he'd already tried (and failed) to scare them away. After pondering the problem for several days, he believed his only option involved digging some dirt on the couple, and whispering the results in the right ears in order to get them to leave.
His demeanor grave, Mr. McBoo set forth on his fact finding mission ...
Wiseacre \WY-zay-kuhr\, noun:
One who pretends to knowledge or cleverness; a would-be wise person; a smart aleck.
All across the United States, journalists and other wiseacres would soon have a field day with the popular mayor's personal problems and public trials.
-- Herbert Mitgang, Once Upon a Time in New York
A wiseacre on the Oakland to Los Angeles shuttle this week said the next technological leap would be implanting cell phones into people's heads. He was kidding -- we think.
-- Chuck Raasch, "California is November prize for candidates", USA Today, August 24, 2000
Wiseacre comes from Middle Dutch wijssegger, "a soothsayer," from Old High German wissago, alteration of wizago, "a prophet."
Voralfred: Non-sequitur ... dunno if we ever bothered to explain it, but "Mr. McBoo" is a punnish neologism, combinging "Boo" (a childish onomatopaea used to surprise/scare each other) and Mr. Magoo (who was a cartoon popular in the 60's & 70's, featuring a wealthy but woefully near-sighted stubborn bumbling and laughably quixotic old man). This kind of gag is fairly obvious to us middle-aged Americans, but I keep forgetting that it might be rather inscrutible to non-native English speakers.
Ya know, I always thought Ghostie bore a passing resemblance to the delightfully perspicuous Capt. Gregg. I must say, if I were a ghost, I could think of a lot of worse places to haunt than a beautiful spinster/writer's oceanside boudoir.
I just saw the movie To Kill A Mockingbird and simultaneously I am reading the book. I haven't finished the book yet, but I learned two things:felonius wrote:Addendum: I originally called Ghost "Mr. Boo" in homage to the largely-unseen phantom neighbour character Boo Radley from the 1960 American novel To Kill A Mockingbird, and Brad added the "Mc" later.
1) According to Miss Maudie, it is not polite to say "Mr. McBoo". Henceforth, I'll refer to Ghost as "Mr. McArthur"
2) From what he wrote in a different thread,
Brad wrote:"Cmon, Man ... DROWN IT ! My mother was SOUTHERN - in my family, the gravy is the meal, and the rest of the plate is the garnish. If I can still see the food, there's not enough gravy. I want that plate to gasp for air!"
I now know that Brad is a reincarnation of Walter Cunningham.
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
What decided Ghost to extirpate himself from this thread, comport as a flaneur and flout his quotidian responsibility of providing us with nec plus ultra linguistic bibelots? Maybe he felt plangent of being our bête noire... after all the flummery that was sent at him. But what broke his perfervid bravado?
Little bellicose Miss Chelsea Dubois' Spray N Wash indurate effrontery?
Brad's recidivism in myrmidonic hectoring? (all the more surprising because Achilles, king of the Myrmidons, was the one who killed Hector!
)
Felonious' mordacious corporate gallow humour?
Or my own wiseacre-ish (sp?) threat to call him Mr McArthur?
Little bellicose Miss Chelsea Dubois' Spray N Wash indurate effrontery?
Brad's recidivism in myrmidonic hectoring? (all the more surprising because Achilles, king of the Myrmidons, was the one who killed Hector!
)Felonious' mordacious corporate gallow humour?
Or my own wiseacre-ish (sp?) threat to call him Mr McArthur?
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
If you tell me where to find them, what time window (in GMT), I volunteer for two days in a row (per week) with the proviso, if I miss the first one I'll post two on the second day, and I'll do my utmost not to miss that one (unless I'm absent altogether, as duly advertised on the ON/OFF board). These two days must be between monday and thursday included, not friday.
Is this proposal agreeable to you?
Is this proposal agreeable to you?
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
Word of the Day for Thursday November 22, 2007
deipnosophist \dyp-NOS-uh-fist\, noun:
Someone who is skilled in table talk.
At the age of six his future as a deipnosophist seemed certain. Guzzling filched apples he loved to prattle. Hogging the pie he invariably piped up and rattled on.
-- Ellis Sharp, "The Bloating of Nellcock"
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Deipnosophist comes from the title of a work written by the Greek Athenaeus in about 228 AD, Deipnosophistai, in which a number of wise men sit at a dinner table and discuss a wide range of topics. It is derived from deipnon, "dinner" + sophistas, "a clever or wise man."
Word of the Day for Friday November 23, 2007
postprandial \post-PRAN-dee-uhl\, adjective:
Happening or done after a meal.
A gourmand who zealously avoids all exercise as "seriously damaging to one's health," he had caviar for breakfast and was now having oysters for lunch, whetted with wine, as he fueled himself for a postprandial reading at the Montauk Club in Brooklyn.
-- Mel Gussow, "The Man Who Put Horace Rumpole on the Case", New York Times, April 12, 1995
When I wake up in the morning, I can have my usual breakfast -- a slightly bizarre concoction of three kinds of cold cereal topped with grapes and a cup of decaf -- and then stagger back to bed for a postprandial snooze.
-- Sylvan Fox, "It's Less Hectic Staying Put In One Place", Newsday, April 3, 1994
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Postprandial is from post- + prandial, from Latin prandium, "a late breakfast or lunch."
Word of the Day for Saturday November 24, 2007
somniferous \som-NIF-uhr-uhs\, adjective:
Causing or inducing sleep.
He has gone outside the usual channels of stodgy academic journals and somniferous lectures.
-- David Gibson, "Separating Christ from Christianity", The Record (Bergen County, NJ), June 9, 1996
And some cities are eschewing the somniferous art museum to invent newer, hipper institutions that honor our fascination with contemporary culture: technology, space flight, and even rock 'n' roll.
-- Heidi Landecker, "Art Transplant", Architecture, March 1998
Filmed on location in England and using quotes from letters and other documents of Pilgrim leaders, this video is rich in detail and information. Its major drawback--and one that may affect its effectiveness with its intended student audience--is that it's as dull as dillweed, primarily due to a somniferous narration.
-- J. Carlson, "The Mayflower Pilgrims", Video Librarian, November 11, 1996
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Somniferous comes from Latin somnifer, "sleep-bringing," from somnus, "sleep" + ferre, "to bring."
Word of the Day Sunday November 25, 2007
recumbent \rih-KUM-bunt\, adjective:
1. Reclining; lying down.
2. Resting; inactive; idle.
While the lovers' intricately carved tombs -- with their host of angels surrounding the recumbent figures of the deceased -- draw crowds, the soaring space of the Gothic cathedral and the peaceful abbey cloisters seem to swallow and silence the busloads of visitors.
-- Jill Knight Weinberger, "Monuments To Love's Labors", New York Times, August 15, 1999
Winser was still recumbent but in his frenzy he was trying to writhe his way back onto his knees, kicking and twisting like a felled animal, struggling to wedge his heels under him, half rising, only to topple back again onto his side.
-- John le Carré, Single & Single
Mr. Bloom, semi-recumbent on a reclining chair, speaks in long sentences, interrupting himself with long parenthetical remarks that contain parentheses of their own.
-- Richard Bernstein, "A Perennial Scrapper Takes On God and the Bible", New York Times, October 24, 1990
Recumbent comes from the present participle of Latin recumbere, "lie back, to recline," from re-, "back" + -cumbere "to lie."
Word of the Day for Monday November 26, 2007
foundling \FOWND-ling\, noun:
A deserted or abandoned infant; a child found without a parent or caretaker.
Some of her desires were more altruistic: she wanted to "send Phyllis to school for a year, take Auntie May for a winter in the Isle of Pines," and "raise foundlings."
-- Tim Page, Dawn Powell: A Biography
Then one day her daughter returns home with a foundling, an abandoned baby boy.
-- Charles R. Larson, Washington Post, September 26, 1999
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Foundling comes from Old English foundling, fundling, from finden, "to find" + the suffix -ling.
Word of the Day for Tuesday November 27, 2007
kvetch \KVECH\, intransitive verb:
1. To complain habitually.
noun:
1. A complaint.
2. A habitual complainer.
People kvetched when someone else wouldn't relinquish his position.
-- Barry Lopez, "Before the Temple of Fire.", Harper's Magazine, January 1998
They begin to look like malcontents who kvetch about the weather so much that they don't notice the sun coming out.
-- David Shenk, "Slamming Gates", The New Republic, January 26, 1998
Time for my biennial kvetch about the West End theatre.
-- Simon Hoggart, "Hose bans, petrol mania: saying 'don't panic' always triggers chaos", The Guardian, November 4, 2000
He's just a very up person, she says, which is odd, because he is also a big complainer, a class-A kvetch.
-- Penny Wolfson, "Moonrise", The Atlantic, December 2001
He had difficulty getting American publishers for his later novels, partly because of his self-created image by then as a crusty old kvetch.
-- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "What Kingsley Can Teach Martin", The Atlantic, September 2000
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Kvetch comes from Yiddish kvetshn, "to squeeze, to complain," from Middle High German quetzen, quetschen, "to squeeze."
sorry if this formatting is not quite the same as the ol one, and for stopping before catching p fully but I must run. I had to go at least to last tuesday's word
deipnosophist \dyp-NOS-uh-fist\, noun:
Someone who is skilled in table talk.
At the age of six his future as a deipnosophist seemed certain. Guzzling filched apples he loved to prattle. Hogging the pie he invariably piped up and rattled on.
-- Ellis Sharp, "The Bloating of Nellcock"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deipnosophist comes from the title of a work written by the Greek Athenaeus in about 228 AD, Deipnosophistai, in which a number of wise men sit at a dinner table and discuss a wide range of topics. It is derived from deipnon, "dinner" + sophistas, "a clever or wise man."
Word of the Day for Friday November 23, 2007
postprandial \post-PRAN-dee-uhl\, adjective:
Happening or done after a meal.
A gourmand who zealously avoids all exercise as "seriously damaging to one's health," he had caviar for breakfast and was now having oysters for lunch, whetted with wine, as he fueled himself for a postprandial reading at the Montauk Club in Brooklyn.
-- Mel Gussow, "The Man Who Put Horace Rumpole on the Case", New York Times, April 12, 1995
When I wake up in the morning, I can have my usual breakfast -- a slightly bizarre concoction of three kinds of cold cereal topped with grapes and a cup of decaf -- and then stagger back to bed for a postprandial snooze.
-- Sylvan Fox, "It's Less Hectic Staying Put In One Place", Newsday, April 3, 1994
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Postprandial is from post- + prandial, from Latin prandium, "a late breakfast or lunch."
Word of the Day for Saturday November 24, 2007
somniferous \som-NIF-uhr-uhs\, adjective:
Causing or inducing sleep.
He has gone outside the usual channels of stodgy academic journals and somniferous lectures.
-- David Gibson, "Separating Christ from Christianity", The Record (Bergen County, NJ), June 9, 1996
And some cities are eschewing the somniferous art museum to invent newer, hipper institutions that honor our fascination with contemporary culture: technology, space flight, and even rock 'n' roll.
-- Heidi Landecker, "Art Transplant", Architecture, March 1998
Filmed on location in England and using quotes from letters and other documents of Pilgrim leaders, this video is rich in detail and information. Its major drawback--and one that may affect its effectiveness with its intended student audience--is that it's as dull as dillweed, primarily due to a somniferous narration.
-- J. Carlson, "The Mayflower Pilgrims", Video Librarian, November 11, 1996
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Somniferous comes from Latin somnifer, "sleep-bringing," from somnus, "sleep" + ferre, "to bring."
Word of the Day Sunday November 25, 2007
recumbent \rih-KUM-bunt\, adjective:
1. Reclining; lying down.
2. Resting; inactive; idle.
While the lovers' intricately carved tombs -- with their host of angels surrounding the recumbent figures of the deceased -- draw crowds, the soaring space of the Gothic cathedral and the peaceful abbey cloisters seem to swallow and silence the busloads of visitors.
-- Jill Knight Weinberger, "Monuments To Love's Labors", New York Times, August 15, 1999
Winser was still recumbent but in his frenzy he was trying to writhe his way back onto his knees, kicking and twisting like a felled animal, struggling to wedge his heels under him, half rising, only to topple back again onto his side.
-- John le Carré, Single & Single
Mr. Bloom, semi-recumbent on a reclining chair, speaks in long sentences, interrupting himself with long parenthetical remarks that contain parentheses of their own.
-- Richard Bernstein, "A Perennial Scrapper Takes On God and the Bible", New York Times, October 24, 1990
Recumbent comes from the present participle of Latin recumbere, "lie back, to recline," from re-, "back" + -cumbere "to lie."
Word of the Day for Monday November 26, 2007
foundling \FOWND-ling\, noun:
A deserted or abandoned infant; a child found without a parent or caretaker.
Some of her desires were more altruistic: she wanted to "send Phyllis to school for a year, take Auntie May for a winter in the Isle of Pines," and "raise foundlings."
-- Tim Page, Dawn Powell: A Biography
Then one day her daughter returns home with a foundling, an abandoned baby boy.
-- Charles R. Larson, Washington Post, September 26, 1999
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foundling comes from Old English foundling, fundling, from finden, "to find" + the suffix -ling.
Word of the Day for Tuesday November 27, 2007
kvetch \KVECH\, intransitive verb:
1. To complain habitually.
noun:
1. A complaint.
2. A habitual complainer.
People kvetched when someone else wouldn't relinquish his position.
-- Barry Lopez, "Before the Temple of Fire.", Harper's Magazine, January 1998
They begin to look like malcontents who kvetch about the weather so much that they don't notice the sun coming out.
-- David Shenk, "Slamming Gates", The New Republic, January 26, 1998
Time for my biennial kvetch about the West End theatre.
-- Simon Hoggart, "Hose bans, petrol mania: saying 'don't panic' always triggers chaos", The Guardian, November 4, 2000
He's just a very up person, she says, which is odd, because he is also a big complainer, a class-A kvetch.
-- Penny Wolfson, "Moonrise", The Atlantic, December 2001
He had difficulty getting American publishers for his later novels, partly because of his self-created image by then as a crusty old kvetch.
-- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "What Kingsley Can Teach Martin", The Atlantic, September 2000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kvetch comes from Yiddish kvetshn, "to squeeze, to complain," from Middle High German quetzen, quetschen, "to squeeze."
sorry if this formatting is not quite the same as the ol one, and for stopping before catching p fully but I must run. I had to go at least to last tuesday's word
Last edited by voralfred on Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:07 am, edited 3 times in total.
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]