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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:28 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:obsequious
Their hike in the Redwood Forest kept Sally and Tom craning upwards, looking in wonder at the stately trees.

She angrily muttered, "Why for Pete's sake did they cut a hole in that tree? Couldn't they go around it? Damn vandals!"

He said, "I'm getting a crick in the neck looking at the canopy."

Sally mused, "Just look at how tall they grow. But why do these sequioas grow so straight?"

Tom replied, "They're obsequious to gravity. If they grew crooked they might break or topple."
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 7:16 am
by Algot Runeman
allay

Pronunciation: /əˈlā /
verb
[with object]
1 Diminish or put at rest (fear, suspicion, or worry): the report attempted to educate the public and allay fears
1.1 Relieve or alleviate (pain or hunger): some stale figs partly allayed our hunger

Origin
Old English ālecgan 'lay down or aside'.

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Set aside your worries.
Let me allay your fears.
Though your little mind scurries.
There should be no more tears.

Your mother's at your side.
And Dad is down the hall.
Safely here do you abide.
No matter that you're small.

Though wind may howl and blow.
The house is very strong
Tomorrow, dear, you'll see snow.
And sing a happy song.

So close your eyes and sleep.
And dream of cheerful stuff.
Love wraps you and is quite deep.
And that, son, is enough.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:12 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:allay
...
Set aside your worries.
Let me allay your fears.
Though your little mind scurries.
There should be no more tears.

Your mother's at your side.
And Dad is down the hall.
Safely here do you abide.
No matter that you're small.

Though wind may howl and blow.
The house is very strong
Tomorrow, dear, you'll see snow.
And sing a happy song.

So close your eyes and sleep.
And dream of cheerful stuff.
Love wraps you and is quite deep.
And that, son, is enough.
Aw, how could one reply to such a soul-allaying berceuse, without detracting from its tender message?

Is there a musical score to it?
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 12:47 pm
by Algot Runeman
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No hooray!
No score to play.
Nada, no way.
Null, I say.

Allay away.
Make no delay.
Do wordplay.
Allez, allez!

[E.P.S., Do you have a piano and a ream of blank score sheets handy?]

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 8:53 am
by Algot Runeman
salubrious

Pronunciation: /səˈlo͞obrēəs /
adjective
1 Health-giving; healthy: salubrious weather
1.1 (Of a place) pleasant; not run-down.

Origin
mid 16th century: from Latin salubris (from salus 'health') + -ous.

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Tony Alter

Sam sat in salubrious sunshine as a boy. He needed no added vitamin D in his milk. Sadly, Sam subsequently saw melanoma and then the scar on his skin. Significantly, the sinister skin spot was contained. 34 years since excision and no metastasis.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:20 am
by Algot Runeman
littérateur

Pronunciation: /ˌlitərəˈtər /
noun
A person who is interested in and knowledgeable about literature.

Origin
early 19th century: French.

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The provocateur restauranteur was a well-known littérateur. He served odd foods from around the world while professional voice actors read to the patrons from the French classics.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:50 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:littérateur
...
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...
I think I like Vendémiaire by Antoinette Sucette more than Zola's Germinal.
I prefer to start with the first month rather than the seventh.
I'm sure many littérateurs will agree with me.
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 1:22 pm
by Algot Runeman
For the illustration, Zola and the single word title were the choice to make the cover layout easier to accomplish. :slap:
For sure I cannot be considered a littérateur of any sort, much less of French classics.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 6:19 am
by Algot Runeman
incorporeal

Pronunciation: /ˌinkôrˈpôrēəl /
adjective
1 Not composed of matter; having no material existence: ghostly presences and incorporeal beings
1.1 Law Having no physical existence.

Origin
late Middle English: from Latin incorporeus, from in- 'not' + corporeus (from corpus, corpor- 'body') + -al.

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"Incorporeal. You would swear there wasn't anyone there at all," said one witness when interrogated by the police.

"Yeah. Like. It was totally weird. Just the sound of a fight. The dude twitched and went down hard," said another.

What was all too clear, though, was the bruised and bloody body of the mugger. One minute the mugger had grabbed the old lady's purse as she left the ATM. The next, well, that wasn't clear. It looked like a struggle between the mugger and "something." Nobody was willing to say just what that something was. Shadows obscured his presence. He seemed less than real.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 7:11 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote: ...
For sure I cannot be considered a littérateur of any sort, much less of French classics.
Neither can I.
I've only read, in French, a little Jules Verne and maybe 10 or so books by Henri Vernes (Bob Morane) and lots of SF pulp fiction in the sixties.

BTW: Antoinette Sucette is a figment of my indomitable imagination.
Algot Runeman wrote:incorporeal
...
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...
This incorporeal silhouette is actually a nice representation of my knowledge of high literature.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 7:37 am
by Algot Runeman
decorous

Pronunciation: /ˈdekərəs /
adjective
In keeping with good taste and propriety; polite and restrained: dancing with decorous space between partners

Origin
mid 17th century (in the sense 'appropriate, seemly'): from Latin decorus 'seemly' + -ous.

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I work hard to keep these posts under control, decorous, as it were. I failed, yet again. This example sentence is just as dopey and lame as ever. :slap:

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 9:40 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:decorous
... I work hard to keep these posts under control, decorous, ...
I assume it was a typo and that you mean to keep the pests under control and decorous. Right?
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:35 pm
by Algot Runeman
Right, right, right! Nothing sinister or pestulent about being decorous. Petulant is also out of the question.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:14 am
by Algot Runeman
materfamilias

Pronunciation: /ˌmātərfəˈmilēəs, ˌmätər- /
noun (plural matresfamilias /ˌmäˌtrās-, ˌmātərz-/)
The female head of a family or household. Compare with paterfamilias.

Origin
Latin, from mater 'mother' + familias, old genitive form of familia 'family'.

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Spencer Shier

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Giles took his family duties seriously, driving up from London weekly to pay materfamilias a visit at the manor.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:23 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:materfamilias
...
The female head of a family or household. Compare with paterfamilias.
...
I'm convinced she considered herself to be a nation's enlightened materfamilias, but I'm equally convinced she wasn't really knowledgeable about her citizens' daily lives and their familiar matters.
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 10:04 am
by Algot Runeman
Victoria was unable to access the world as we are today. She even predated radio as a broadcast medium, much less television and today's internet. She was limited to the papers which didn't really display the daily lives of the English people. Even today, the news is focused on sensational stories of flood, famine, mayhem and murder. At best, Victoria would have had a deep anguish over the state of the world and found comfort in the confines of her various royal palaces and retreats.

Materfamilias, only perhaps, but certainly estranged from the commoners, her "family."

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 6:37 am
by Algot Runeman
indissoluble

Pronunciation: /ˌindəˈsälyəb(ə)l /
adjective
Unable to be destroyed; lasting: an indissoluble friendship

Origin
late 15th century: from Latin indissolubilis, from in- 'not' + dissolubilis (see dissoluble).

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The Appalachian chain, no longer near the size of the Rockies proves that while durable, mountain ranges are not indissoluble. The divorce rate shows that love may not endure. Treasure the things which survive the ravages of time and circumstance.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:57 am
by Algot Runeman
surreptitious

Pronunciation: /ˌsərəpˈtiSHəs /
adjective
Kept secret, especially because it would not be approved of: they carried on a surreptitious affair

Origin
late Middle English (in the sense 'obtained by suppression of the truth'): from Latin surreptitius (from the verb surripere, from sub- 'secretly' + rapere 'seize') + -ous.

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"Xrtxmn8ol ucv ytmmnw wesstuc injplis."

This quote is intentionally surreptitious. That it also carries NO meaning is beside the fact. It only looks like an encrypted message. In reality, it is just random letters. Of course it might mean, "We love all the people who visit WotD!" That message is always true.

[Pssst! Keep it under your hat.]

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 11:20 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:surreptitious
It's no use surreptitiously adding much Tabasco to the tureen of Gazpacho.

You may as well do it openly because it will come to light, much sooner than later, and later once again.
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 7:30 am
by Algot Runeman
elegy

Pronunciation: /ˈeləjē /
noun (plural elegies)
1 A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.

2 (In Greek and Roman poetry) a poem written in elegiac couplets, as notably by Catullus and Propertius.

Origin
early 16th century: from French élégie, or via Latin, from Greek elegeia, from elegos 'mournful poem'.

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"Elegy for Jed"
Old Jed lived in a shed Now he's dead. Enough said.
(More must we have to fit the design. That's fine.)

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 8:42 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:elegy
For a long time I've been meaning to write my grandma's elegy.

But alas, the problem is, I can barely rhyme in my mother tongue, let alone in English.

I suggest you consider it a perpetually redeemable but eternally unclaimed rain check. Oh well, until my demise anyway, when sadly it will expire.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 11:27 am
by Algot Runeman
subaudition

Pronunciation: /ˌsəbôˈdiSHən /
noun
A thing that is not stated, only implied or inferred.

Origin
late 18th century: from late Latin subauditio(n-), from subaudire 'understand'.

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The subaudition of Word of the Day is that everyone is welcome to stumble around, adding comments quickly or later, expanding our understanding of the word and its origins. or just plain having fun with us.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 6:10 am
by Algot Runeman
fungible

Pronunciation: /ˈfənjəbəl /
adjective
Law
(Of goods contracted for without an individual specimen being specified) able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable: money is fungible—money that is raised for one purpose can easily be used for another

Origin
late 17th century: from medieval Latin fungibilis, from fungi 'perform, enjoy', with the same sense as fungi vice 'serve in place of'.

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(*) - (*) - (*) - (*) - (*) - (*) - (*) - (*)

All pegs in holes together, aligned for all to see.
One as like another, no difference can there be.
But I'm no peg, not fungible, my voice will e're be free.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 8:15 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:fungible
...
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All pegs in holes together, ...
Are these pegs just as fungible as yours?
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 9:12 am
by Algot Runeman
Those pegs are NOT interchageable. When tooting one's own horn, the trumpeter picks the tune.
Fungible
, no.