GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

eructation\ih-ruhk-TAY-shuhn\ , noun; 1. The act of belching; a belch.

I've been told that a wet dream is a liquid eructation concluding a somnambulant erection.

[Darb]

A massive eructation, measuring 88.8 on the decibel scale, shook the dining room, and was followed by several aftershocks of flatus. Mr. Creosote, from whom the eructation originated, continued dining, entirely unfazed by events.

[MidasKnight]

wow, anything above 85 decibels is considered harmful. Nicely done!

[Darb]

Man, all this talk about food is giving me a serious eructation.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Thursday, March 04, 2010

didactic\dy-DAK-tik; duh-\ , adjective; 1. Fitted or intended to teach; conveying instruction; instructive; teaching some moral lesson; as, "didactic essays." 2. Inclined to teach or moralize excessively; moralistic.

The show trial may be defined as a public theatrical performance in the form of a trial, didactic in purpose, intended not to establish the guilt of the accused but rather to demonstrate the heinousness of the person's crimes.
-- Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism

In class, embarrassed girlish laughter joined the "hee-haws" of our male classmates when centerfolds appeared in the middle of medical lectures, ostensibly to add a wake-up jolt to otherwise uninspired didactic presentations.
-- Frances K. Conley M.D., Walking Out on the Boys

While Cooper offers a nice message about the demands of friendship and the need to share and be flexible, her writing is not the least bit didactic or dogmatic.
-- Stephen Del Vecchio, review of Pumpkin Soup, by Helen Cooper, Teacher Magazine, May 2000

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Didactic comes from Greek didaktikos, "skillful in teaching," from didaktos, "taught," from didaskein, "to teach, to educate."

[Darb]

Feh. Those lazy flaneurs at Dictionary dot com are at it again, trying to fob off recycled WOTDs on us - we already taradiddled and didacted that word to death way back on Oct 5th, 2004.

Ok, someone hop onto the pitching mound and lob us a substitute knuckleball.

[Algot Runeman]

Unfortunately, didactic's second meaning has become the one of greater significance. The shame is that a didact is good at teaching, but, for that reason(?), is disdainfully described. "He is too didactic." The tone usually implies that the listener would really prefer not having to listen.

Maybe that is the problem. Learning, by expert opinion, requires active involvement by the "student". When people claim that someone is too didactic, perhaps they are revealing a personal disconnect. "I am an adult. I must know all that I need to by now. Don't try to teach me anything more."

What! Thou sayest I am being didactic?
Fie on thee and thy flock.
Learn no more. Knowledge block.
Tomorrow, you will miss out on the new trick.

[Algot Runeman]

...lob us a substitute knuckleball.

After listening for the chuckle from all, I decided to lob a knuckleball down the buccal hall (tongue firmly planted therein) and onto the verbal field of play.

I react as a didact to redact didact and enact something else in fact.

With significant further ado I propose to protract my comments lest I be accused of being short. I almost chose to seek another angle, but then the word would have needed to be "protractor", too much to mangle. [Seek ye now, me to strangle?].

Protract (v) prolong, protract, extend, draw out (lengthen in time; cause to be or last longer) "We prolonged our stay"; "She extended her visit by another day"; "The meeting was drawn out until midnight"
Source: Wordnet, http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=protract

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

Some may contend that I protract my grandma's anecdotes too much.
Well, let them contend with my grandpa's ghost and see what happens.

[CodeBlower]

A protracted didactic eructation echoed from the open doorway to Belching 101. Apparently, Dr. Creosote was in top form today.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Friday, March 05, 2010

fealty\FEE-uhl-tee\ , noun; 1. Fidelity to one's lord; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord. 2. The oath by which this obligation was assumed. 3. Fidelity; allegiance; faithfulness.

He was re-elected Governor in 1855, and his administration of the State affairs, both in that and the preceding term of office, was marked by a regard for the public interest rather than party fealty.
-- "Andrew Johnson Dead", New York Times, August 1, 1875

Barbour believed Christian conservatives represented a critical constituency, and he looked for opportunities to display his fealty to them.
-- Dan Balz and Ronald Brownstein, Storming the Gates

The aristocratic O'Sullivans were enriched in return for their promise of fealty to the mighty Democratic party and its rising new leader.
-- Edward L. Widmer, Young America

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Fealty comes from Old French fealté, from Latin fidelitas, "fidelity," from fidelis, "faithful," from fides, "faith," from fidere, "to trust."

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

Though feudalism was long gone, my grandpa actually showed adamant fealty to my grandma by supporting female suffrage.

[Darb]

I heard rumor of a diary in which Gramps reminisced about having to repeatedly swear fealty during heavily didactic B&D sessions, during which he was repeatedly whipped, gummed, forcibly spoonfed pablum, and made to beg for a baby bottle.

Not exactly the sort of tableau vivant that normally wallpapers my imagination.

[CodeBlower]

Not exactly the sort of tableau vivant that normally wallpapers my imagination.

Somehow, I always pictured you as more of a wood-paneling guy anyway.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Tuesday, March 09, 2010

sachet\sa-SHEY\ , noun; 1. A small bag, case, or pad containing perfuming powder or the like, placed among handkerchiefs, etc., to impart a pleasant scent. 2. Also, sachet powder, the powder contained in such a case.

Select a filler of snowflake geranium, polyester fill, or rabbit tobacco –– enough to make the sachet fluffy.
-- Bibby Moore, Growing with gardening: A Twelve-month Guide for Therapy, Recreation, and Education

For a very lovely handkerchief case, take a piece of lamb's wool twelve inches wide and nine inches long; spread thickly with sachet powder.
-- Good Housekeeping

On his return to Paris he removed the black taffeta sachet, in which the poison had been placed, from his neck.
-- Claude-François Méneval, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Napoleon I from 1802 to 1815, Volume 3

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Sachet can be confused with sashay, "to move, easily or nonchalantly."

[Darb]

Sasha sleepily sashayed down the street, sachet in one hand, and sasparilla in the other.

[voralfred]

She sells sea-shells in sachets by the sea shore. The sachets of shells she sells are sea-shells sachets, I am sure!

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

She surreptitiously slipped a couple sachets in the sachem's bed, hoping to subdue the reek of his odorous feet.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Wednesday, March 10, 2010

phantasmagoria\fan-taz-muh-GOR-ee-uh\ , noun; 1. A shifting series or succession of things seen or imagined, as in a dream. 2. Any constantly changing scene.

The significant items in the ensuing phantasmagoria soon appear, however -- a dry well, a house abandoned because of a series of tragedies, a so-called alley blocked at both ends, the statue of a bird looking sadly unable to fly, and the unidentified wind-up bird that creaks invisibly in a nearby tree.
-- Phoebe-Lou Adams, review of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, The Atlantic, November 1997

The new writings more and more take the form of apocalypses -- that is, of supernatural visions which reveal past, present and future under the guise of a phantasmagoria of symbolic persons and animals, divine and diabolical beings, celestial and infernal phenomena.
-- Edmund Wilson, The Dead Sea Scrolls: 1947-1969

David Nixon created this version of the fairy tale -- a phantasmagoria of grim goblins, dancing cushions, flying fish and magical mirrors -- for his former company, BalletMet Columbus, in 1997.
-- Stephanie Ferguson, "Beauty and the Beast", The Guardian, January 6, 2003

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Phantasmagoria is from French phantasmagorie, from phantasme, "phantasm" (from Greek, from phantazein, "to make visible," from phantos, "visible," from phainein, "to show") + -agorie, perhaps from Greek agora, "assembly."

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

OK, OK, I confess. All the stories about my grandma are pure romantic phantasmagoria.
But I can dream, can't I?
Though I did inherit, by way of my late mom, a couple of beautiful 85-year-old fur coats.

[voralfred]

I find it quite appropriate that the phantasmatic Ghost, of all members of the forum, would tell us about phantasmagoria.
Contrariwise, I would not expect Darb to tell us about anorexia, nor SHG our non-bland biker librarian to complain of either agoraphobia or claustrophobia.

[sweetharleygirl]

I am actually a bit claustrophobic...

[voralfred]

How do you manage to spend all your working hours within a closed room, in htat case?

[sweetharleygirl]

Lots of BIG windows!

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Thursday, March 11, 2010

salient\SAY-lee-unt; SAYL-yunt\ , adjective; 1. Shooting out or up; projecting. 2. Forcing itself on the attention; prominent; conspicuous; noticeable. 3. Leaping; springing; jumping.
noun: 1. An outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense. 2. A projecting angle or part.

He was killed during an attack on German positions dug into Ploegsteert Wood on the Ypres salient.
-- Russell Jenkins and Stephen Farrell, "Search begins for family of Flanders fusilier", Times (London), January 10, 2000

He gave science an exciting, positive image when many Americans were skeptical of it, worried that its most salient effect was to disenchant the universe and undercut religion.
-- David A. Hollinger, "Star Power", New York Times, November 28, 1999

The strength of the hypothesis is that it simultaneously explains all these salient features, none of which had satisfactory independent explanations.
-- Paul F. Hoffman and Daniel P. Schrag, "Snowball Earth", Scientific American, January 2000

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Salient derives from the present participle of Latin salire, to leap. Other words deriving from salire are sally, to leap forth or rush out suddenly; and perhaps salmon, the "leaping" fish.