GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)
I just found a way to palliate the rather negative connotations of the three first acceptions of the word epicene by remarking that the noun "ghost" (no reference to our efficacious and indefatigable administrator) is epicene since there is no different appelation for male or female ghosts.
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
Word of the Day Tuesday June 19, 2007
rejoinder \rih-JOIN-dur\, noun: An answer to a reply; or, in general, an answer or reply.
I kept looking for exceptions to his pronouncements, flaws in his reasoning, my constant rejoinders to his critical remarks being "Yes, but . . ."
-- Richard Elman, Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs
The comment immediately drew a sharp rejoinder from a friend.
-- Howard W. French, "Tokyo Displays Mixed Feelings at Premiere of 'Pearl Harbor'", New York Times, June 21, 2001
Chance on an unbelieving clod, and the ultimate rejoinder is ready at hand: "Listen, dummy, it actually happened!"
-- Benjamin Cheever, "Like Watching Tennis", New York Times, August 17, 1997
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rejoinder derives from Old French rejoindre, "to answer, rejoin," from re- + joindre, "to join," from Latin iungere, "to join."
rejoinder \rih-JOIN-dur\, noun: An answer to a reply; or, in general, an answer or reply.
I kept looking for exceptions to his pronouncements, flaws in his reasoning, my constant rejoinders to his critical remarks being "Yes, but . . ."
-- Richard Elman, Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs
The comment immediately drew a sharp rejoinder from a friend.
-- Howard W. French, "Tokyo Displays Mixed Feelings at Premiere of 'Pearl Harbor'", New York Times, June 21, 2001
Chance on an unbelieving clod, and the ultimate rejoinder is ready at hand: "Listen, dummy, it actually happened!"
-- Benjamin Cheever, "Like Watching Tennis", New York Times, August 17, 1997
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rejoinder derives from Old French rejoindre, "to answer, rejoin," from re- + joindre, "to join," from Latin iungere, "to join."
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 Wednesday June 20, 2007
agon \AH-gahn; ah-GOHN\, noun: A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.
Conflicts about moral claims are part of what it means to be human, and a political ideal stripped of sentimentality and the utopian temptation is one committed to the notion that political life is a permanent agon between clashing, even incompatible goods.
-- Jean Bethke Elshtain, Real Politics
It is the irresolvable love-hate agon between men and women that drives all cultures.
-- Lawrence Osborne, "False goddess", Salon, June 28, 2000
Almost every poem Auden wrote in the weeks before and after his arrival in New York portrayed the agon of an artist in combat with his gift.
-- Edward Mendelson, Later Auden
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Agon comes from Greek agon, "a struggle or contest." It is related to agony.
agon \AH-gahn; ah-GOHN\, noun: A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.
Conflicts about moral claims are part of what it means to be human, and a political ideal stripped of sentimentality and the utopian temptation is one committed to the notion that political life is a permanent agon between clashing, even incompatible goods.
-- Jean Bethke Elshtain, Real Politics
It is the irresolvable love-hate agon between men and women that drives all cultures.
-- Lawrence Osborne, "False goddess", Salon, June 28, 2000
Almost every poem Auden wrote in the weeks before and after his arrival in New York portrayed the agon of an artist in combat with his gift.
-- Edward Mendelson, Later Auden
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Agon comes from Greek agon, "a struggle or contest." It is related to agony.
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
Who will describe the epic agon (and also, the agony) of the punster struggling with the WoTDs to find the perfect rejoinder?
How can he palliate his own flagitious penchants towards fecund facility?
To achieve efficacious celerity, or not to achieve it: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to remain intransigent and circumspect until you are sure of attaining insuperable brio
Or to take arms against your keyboard and type, in a trice and with delectation, the first bombast that comes to your lumpen imagination, maybe even a pastiche, to supplant the Great Bard?
How can he palliate his own flagitious penchants towards fecund facility?
To achieve efficacious celerity, or not to achieve it: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to remain intransigent and circumspect until you are sure of attaining insuperable brio
Or to take arms against your keyboard and type, in a trice and with delectation, the first bombast that comes to your lumpen imagination, maybe even a pastiche, to supplant the Great Bard?
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 June 21, 2007
languid \LANG-gwid\, adjective: 1. Drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion; weak; weary; heavy. 2. Promoting or indicating weakness or heaviness. 3. Slow; lacking vigor or force.
Deliberately languid, slow to rise to a dignified height,his handsomely graying wavy hair perfectly combed, Floyd sitsmost of the day with his long legs sprawled under his table.
-- William S. McFeely, Proximity to Death
. . .in the languid heat of Rome, late summer, late afternoon.
-- Matthew Stadler, Allan Stein
With their strength, grace, and endurance, [they] move about naturally, freely, at a tempo determined by climate and tradition, somewhat languid, unhurried, knowing one can never achieve everything in life anyway, and besides, if one did, what would be left over for others?
-- Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Shadow of the Sun (translated by Klara Glowczewska)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Languid comes from Latin languere, "to become faint or weak; to droop; to be inactive."
languid \LANG-gwid\, adjective: 1. Drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion; weak; weary; heavy. 2. Promoting or indicating weakness or heaviness. 3. Slow; lacking vigor or force.
Deliberately languid, slow to rise to a dignified height,his handsomely graying wavy hair perfectly combed, Floyd sitsmost of the day with his long legs sprawled under his table.
-- William S. McFeely, Proximity to Death
. . .in the languid heat of Rome, late summer, late afternoon.
-- Matthew Stadler, Allan Stein
With their strength, grace, and endurance, [they] move about naturally, freely, at a tempo determined by climate and tradition, somewhat languid, unhurried, knowing one can never achieve everything in life anyway, and besides, if one did, what would be left over for others?
-- Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Shadow of the Sun (translated by Klara Glowczewska)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Languid comes from Latin languere, "to become faint or weak; to droop; to be inactive."
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 Monday June 25, 2007
abstruse \ab-STROOS; uhb-\, adjective: Difficult to comprehend or understand.
Einstein's theories of relativity, so abstruse yet so disturbing in the popular press of the 1930s.
-- David J. Skal, Screams of Reason
One should be particularly suspicious when abstruse mathematical concepts (like the axiom of choice in set theory) that are used rarely, if at all, in physics -- and certainly never in chemistry or biology -- miraculously become relevant in the humanities or the social sciences.
-- Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense
What attracts students to the study of a foreign language is not its appearance as an abstruse code saying the very same things that are said more simply in their mother tongue, but, rather, the opening up of a new world by the foreign language.
-- Jackie-Ann Ross, "New Zealand's Educational TV"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstruse comes from Latin abstrusus, past participle of abstrudere, "to push away from any place, to hide," from ab-, abs-, "away from" + trudere, "to push, to thrust."
abstruse \ab-STROOS; uhb-\, adjective: Difficult to comprehend or understand.
Einstein's theories of relativity, so abstruse yet so disturbing in the popular press of the 1930s.
-- David J. Skal, Screams of Reason
One should be particularly suspicious when abstruse mathematical concepts (like the axiom of choice in set theory) that are used rarely, if at all, in physics -- and certainly never in chemistry or biology -- miraculously become relevant in the humanities or the social sciences.
-- Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense
What attracts students to the study of a foreign language is not its appearance as an abstruse code saying the very same things that are said more simply in their mother tongue, but, rather, the opening up of a new world by the foreign language.
-- Jackie-Ann Ross, "New Zealand's Educational TV"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstruse comes from Latin abstrusus, past participle of abstrudere, "to push away from any place, to hide," from ab-, abs-, "away from" + trudere, "to push, to thrust."
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
I feel too languid today for one of the long and abstruse constructions I have used you to, so now you'll have to do with just this.
Too bad for your flagitious penchants...
I just can't help, I like this phrase too much...
Too bad for your flagitious penchants...
I just can't help, I like this phrase too much...
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
After having mentally ejaculated, at great effort, an especially abtruse (and highly hypocritical) addition to his ever growing treatise on the subject of eschatology, Archbishop Pyhrro Perfidious lolled languidly in his wingback chair ... unaware of the diabolical wings he'd already earned for himself in the nether regions of eternity.
Word of the Day Monday July 2, 2007
fractious \FRAK-shuhs\, adjective: 1. Tending to cause trouble; unruly. 2. Irritable; snappish; cranky.
In Marshall's case, the experience of dealing with a clamorous band of younger siblings, earning their affection and respect while holding them to their tasks, proved remarkably useful in later years when dealing with fractious colleagues jealous of their prerogatives.
-- Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer of a Nation
Marcus frequently took a rod to Ambrose's back--with the predictable result of making the boy even more fractious and slow to obey.
-- Roy Morris Jr., Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company
Fractious heirs drink too much and squabble over dock space for their sailboats.
-- Marilyn Stasio, review of Stormy Weather, by Carl Hiaasen, New York Times, September 3, 1995
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fractious is from fraction, which formerly had the sense "discord, dissension, disharmony"; it is derived from Latin frangere, "to break."
fractious \FRAK-shuhs\, adjective: 1. Tending to cause trouble; unruly. 2. Irritable; snappish; cranky.
In Marshall's case, the experience of dealing with a clamorous band of younger siblings, earning their affection and respect while holding them to their tasks, proved remarkably useful in later years when dealing with fractious colleagues jealous of their prerogatives.
-- Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer of a Nation
Marcus frequently took a rod to Ambrose's back--with the predictable result of making the boy even more fractious and slow to obey.
-- Roy Morris Jr., Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company
Fractious heirs drink too much and squabble over dock space for their sailboats.
-- Marilyn Stasio, review of Stormy Weather, by Carl Hiaasen, New York Times, September 3, 1995
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fractious is from fraction, which formerly had the sense "discord, dissension, disharmony"; it is derived from Latin frangere, "to break."
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
Deep in his monitoring chamber, in the bowels of the unmarked building housing the central offices of The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Tom Shelby, senior media censor for the Moral Majority division, stared at his computer console in disgust.
He was connected to a supercomputer, which was monitoring all the network TV feeds across the country, on 15 second time delay, with voice recognition software.
He glanced at the most recent flurry of entries:
Something had to be done !
He slammed his fist in disgust on his desk, and cursed like a drunken sailor ... unaware of the irony, as he himself was quietly being monitored by others.
He was connected to a supercomputer, which was monitoring all the network TV feeds across the country, on 15 second time delay, with voice recognition software.
He glanced at the most recent flurry of entries:
- * Battlestar Galactica, Ch 48
>> Volations: 17 instances of "Frack" (translation: "F*ck")
* Farscape, Ch 9
>> Violations: 23 instances of "Frell" (translation: "F*ck")
* The Simpsons, Ch 4
>> Violations: 13 instances of "D'oh !" (translation: various meanings, all of them violations)
* MTV Music Awards, Ch 51, hosted by Chris Rock
>> Violations: {BUFFER OVERFLOW !}
* Movie, "Beverly Hills Cop", Ch 41
>> Violations: 97 instances of "F*ck", 23 instances "Sh*t", 12 instances of ...
Something had to be done !
He slammed his fist in disgust on his desk, and cursed like a drunken sailor ... unaware of the irony, as he himself was quietly being monitored by others.
Word of the Day Tuesday July 3, 2007
carom \KAIR-uhm\, noun: 1. A rebound following a collision; a glancing off. 2. A shot in billiards in which the cue ball successively strikes two other balls on the table.
intransitive verb: 1. To strike and rebound; to glance. 2. To make a carom.
transitive verb: 1. To make (an object) bounce off something; to cause to carom.
The cart smashed into the steep hillside in explosive caroms and bounces, sending billows of dust and rock into the air.
-- Ev Ehrlich, Grant Speaks
Three blocks away, in the Rue des Jardiniers, four Moroccan children were kicking a filthy soccer ball up and down the street. It caromed off the parked cars, rolled into the gutter, was kicked again, leaving dirty blotches where it had smacked against the vehicles' fenders.
-- Philip Shelby, Gatekeeper
The anger caroms around in our psyches like jagged stones.
-- Randall Robinson, Defending the Spirit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carom derives from obsolete carambole, from Spanish carambola, "a stroke at billiards."
carom \KAIR-uhm\, noun: 1. A rebound following a collision; a glancing off. 2. A shot in billiards in which the cue ball successively strikes two other balls on the table.
intransitive verb: 1. To strike and rebound; to glance. 2. To make a carom.
transitive verb: 1. To make (an object) bounce off something; to cause to carom.
The cart smashed into the steep hillside in explosive caroms and bounces, sending billows of dust and rock into the air.
-- Ev Ehrlich, Grant Speaks
Three blocks away, in the Rue des Jardiniers, four Moroccan children were kicking a filthy soccer ball up and down the street. It caromed off the parked cars, rolled into the gutter, was kicked again, leaving dirty blotches where it had smacked against the vehicles' fenders.
-- Philip Shelby, Gatekeeper
The anger caroms around in our psyches like jagged stones.
-- Randall Robinson, Defending the Spirit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carom derives from obsolete carambole, from Spanish carambola, "a stroke at billiards."
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
The carjacker raced past row after row of new luxury cars. Glancing over his shoulder, a nightstick suddenly caromed off his skull. He stumbled, fell, lay still, among the gleaming ranks of chrome.
Backlit by the sun, the detective stared down at the perpetrator, as quiet and impassive as a carytid statue.
Backlit by the sun, the detective stared down at the perpetrator, as quiet and impassive as a carytid statue.
I used to be almost the only one to carom among the WoTD (except for the indefatigable Ghost who provides them, of course) but I see that Brad has come back and creates a fractious opposition to my previous quasi-monopoly.
If he wants to supplant me I won't give up without an epic agon!
If he wants to supplant me I won't give up without an epic agon!
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
Brad briefly skimmed back through the history of the WOTD thread, looking for an easy way to compare the relative lengths of thread domination by various aspirants to the Throne of WOTD Supremacy ... but as usual, fooling with fractions, however infrequently, invariably left him feeling fractious, and prone to mathematically facetious frivolity.
Fumbling his bottle of anti-alliterative/anti-pun medication, he watched helplessly as it caromed off the desk, scattering tiny pink pills in all directions. He clutched his skull, as his fevered mind began whirling with fractal patterns to approximate the scattering distribution.
Fumbling his bottle of anti-alliterative/anti-pun medication, he watched helplessly as it caromed off the desk, scattering tiny pink pills in all directions. He clutched his skull, as his fevered mind began whirling with fractal patterns to approximate the scattering distribution.
Last edited by Darb on Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
"So...how did it go with Jessica last night?" asked Bill tentatively.
Jeff blew out his cheeks and drained the last of the beer from his glass. "It could have been worse. Neither of us were as fractious as usual. We're done. That's it. Told her I'd go see the divorce lawyer on Monday and get the papers drawn up."
"Just a little more time then, and it'll all be behind you," Bill said.
"Yeah. Hopefully it'll be a quick process for both of us."
"Meantime," Bill said, "we celebrate your rediscovered bachelorhood." He produced a business card from his pocket and handed it to him.
Jeff took it. It was white and in an elegant crimson font read 'Madame Rosette' followed by a phone number. Jeff raised questioning eyes to his friend.
Bill grinned. "Let Madame Rosette's fine harem be your carom, good buddy."
Jeff blew out his cheeks and drained the last of the beer from his glass. "It could have been worse. Neither of us were as fractious as usual. We're done. That's it. Told her I'd go see the divorce lawyer on Monday and get the papers drawn up."
"Just a little more time then, and it'll all be behind you," Bill said.
"Yeah. Hopefully it'll be a quick process for both of us."
"Meantime," Bill said, "we celebrate your rediscovered bachelorhood." He produced a business card from his pocket and handed it to him.
Jeff took it. It was white and in an elegant crimson font read 'Madame Rosette' followed by a phone number. Jeff raised questioning eyes to his friend.
Bill grinned. "Let Madame Rosette's fine harem be your carom, good buddy."
Last edited by felonius on Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
The corrupt antiquities trader watched keenly as the translator tried to palliate the agon in his sneeze-repression reflex by pressing the underside of his nose. However, the eruption was unstoppable, and as the translator let fly with it, the trader leapt forward, seized the valuable scroll, and fled chortling into the depths of the casaba ... disappearing into the omnipresent lumpen masses congregating within.
/me offers Voralfred 2 aspirin tablets, to help alleviate his throbbing aspirations.
/me offers Voralfred 2 aspirin tablets, to help alleviate his throbbing aspirations.
The translator watched the thieving trader go, languidly sinking against the nearest pillar, the epicene figures of the surrounding wall paintings now his only company. He knew there would be no suitable rejoinder to the furious inquiries of his museum director. I think I deserve a palliative for this hardship, he thought, fumbling in his pocket. "To the coming agon," he toasted, and swallowed a little blue number.
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
The book slammed down on the desk like a Jovian thunderbolt.
"You call that a denouement ?!" shrieked the termagantish editor, with stunning celerity. The authoress cringed and sought brief distraction by finishing her bloody mary, and gnawing forlornly on its celery garnish.
"It's a pathetic pastiche of bad Indiana Jones !", she continued, obviously intransigent in her dislike of the book and unswerving in her acrimony towards it's author.
"You call that a denouement ?!" shrieked the termagantish editor, with stunning celerity. The authoress cringed and sought brief distraction by finishing her bloody mary, and gnawing forlornly on its celery garnish.
"It's a pathetic pastiche of bad Indiana Jones !", she continued, obviously intransigent in her dislike of the book and unswerving in her acrimony towards it's author.
I have a notarized memo from Tom Shelby himself, approving my use of that particular neologism. 
"I thought you had a penchant for internecine violence with an archaelogical flair!" demanded the insuperable authoress. "What if I rewrite it and fill it with pseudo-intellectual polyglot references like Dan Brown?"Brad wrote:The book slammed down on the desk like a Jovian thunderbolt.
"You call that a denouement ?!" shrieked the termagantish editor, with stunning celerity. The authoress cringed and sought brief distraction by finishing her bloody mary, and gnawing forlornly on its celery garnish.
"It's a pathetic pastiche of bad Indiana Jones !", she continued, obviously intransigent in her dislike of the book and unswerving in her acrimony towards it's author.
"That man is nothing short of a fecund blessing to this publishing house!" cried the editor, outraged.
"Oh, he's fecund all right," sneered the authoress. Fecund as a result of being redolently full of -- "
"That's quite enough!" said the editor, attempting to stem the flagitious tirade she knew was coming.
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
How about having a few pistacchios to go with the celery?Brad wrote:The authoress cringed and sought brief distraction by finishing her bloody mary, and gnawing forlornly on its celery garnish.
"It's a pathetic pastiche of bad Indiana Jones !"...
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
As a Frenchman, surely you'd prefer a glass of pastis to go with the pastiche ?
I would, undoubtedly, but I did not imagine that the word pastis would be known by any American!Brad wrote:As a Frenchman, surely you'd prefer a glass of pastis to go with the pastiche ?
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]
[i]LMB, The Labyrinth [/i]