GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

[laurie]

Proper millinery is still a requirement at Royal Ascot...




But fascinators are now a big no-no.

[Algot Runeman]

gallimaufry

Pronunciation: /ˌgalɪˈmɔːfri/

noun
[in singular]
a confused jumble or medley of things: a glorious gallimaufry of childhood perceptions

Origin:
mid 16th century: from archaic French galimafrée 'unappetizing dish', perhaps from Old French galer 'have fun' + Picard mafrer 'eat copious quantities'


Audra Morrison

369636963696369636963696369636963696369636963696369636963696

The planned sweater would be a gallimaufry of colors.

[Algot Runeman]

It is Open Education Week and WotD participants can help.

A couple of online friends, Karen Fasimpaur and Brad Emerson started a new dictionary a couple of years ago. Using a tool they developed the Kids Open Dictionary Builder they are gathering definitions that can be freely used in schools. The tool can easily build glossaries that are legal to duplicate and reproduce for classrooms. (Mass duplication of definitions from a commercial dictionary is copyright infringement!)



As you can see, the project has collected over 9000 words, but you can also see there are many more to do. The dictionary is usable as it is, but YOU can make it better. Even if you only contribute a single definition, you can pat yourself on the back for making a contribution to Open Education Week.

Hey! You can go even further. Tell your word-loving friends about the Kids Open Dictionary Builder and urge them to get involved. Spread the word.

[laurie]

OMG, that is amazing -- Having a resource like that would have been heaven in my teaching days!!!

I'm in...

[Algot Runeman]

OMG, that is amazing -- Having a resource like that would have been heaven in my teaching days!!!

I'm in...

Tell all your (wordy) friends. Or maybe just tell all your friends.

[Algot Runeman]

burg

Pronunciation: /bəːg/

noun
1 an ancient or medieval fortress or walled town.
2 North American informal a town or city.

Origin:
mid 18th century: from late Latin burgus (see burgess). burg (sense 2) is from German Burg 'castle, city'


wo men

♜☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷♜☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷♜

Karl contemplated the McBurger in his hand as he walked below the walls of Burg Niederalfingen. Which is more famous , he wondered, the walls of Jericho which came tumbling down in the song or the city of Hamburg because of the sandwich bearing its name?

[laurie]

Ich bin ein Hamburger... mit fritten!

[Algot Runeman]

mirage

Pronunciation: /məˈräZH/

noun
an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions, especially the appearance of a sheet of water in a desert or on a hot road caused by the refraction of light from the sky by heated air.
something that appears real or possible but is not in fact so: the notion that the public is pro-business is a mirage

Origin:
early 19th century: from French, from se mirer 'be reflected', from Latin mirare 'look at'


Matthieu Aubrey

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Today's word was a mirage. The email announcing it didn't come this morning.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

mirage

The Fata Morgana as a mirage was introduced by Morgana Le Fay.

As she herself couldn't distinguish a superior mirage from an inferior one without her glasses, her frequent bumping into lampposts was no hallucination. It was the recurring fate of Morgana, very early on predicted by her optician, Merlin of Camelot Inc., if she persisted to go shopping without wearing her spectacles.

[laurie]

...her optician, Merlin of Camelot Inc....

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

Ich bin ein Hamburger... mit fritten!

Actually his teleprompter read:

"Ich bin ein Berliner ... mit Pudding."

I'm glad he cut it short. Imagine the laughter in the Kremlin if he hadn't.

Spoiler: show

recipe here

demo here

Local guys, carrying large trays, walk up and down the Belgian North Sea beaches, hawking their "Boules de Berlin". The sweet delicacy is especially appreciated by children, hungry after swimming and cavorting in the waves.
Any "Berliners" that accidentally drop in the sand are eagerly and immediately scavenged by the sea-gulls constantly patrolling along the surf.

[Algot Runeman]

herstory

Pronunciation: /ˈhərstərē/

noun (plural herstories)
history viewed from a female or specifically feminist perspective.

Origin:
1970s: from her + story1, analogous formation based on the form history


mollypop
See also "Rosie the Riveter"

❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂

Visitors to WotD always enjoy the herstory of "grandmother and her furs" presented proficiently by E.P.S.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

herstory

I'm afraid I can't use this image to illustrate herstory reminiscences about my dear grandmother.

Clearly it is not a photograph of her. When grandma was that age, colour film wasn't available yet.

Fortunately for the afficionados, I did find a B&W print in an old hardcopy album and scanned it for your pleasure. She was a pretty child, wasn't she?

Spoiler: show

[Algot Runeman]

anchorite

Pronunciation: /ˈaNGkəˌrīt/

noun
historical
a religious recluse.

Derivatives
anchoritic
Pronunciation: /ˌaNGkəˈritik/
adjective

Origin:
late Middle English: from medieval Latin anchorita (ecclesiastical Latin anchoreta), from ecclesiastical Greek anakhōrētēs, from anakhōrein 'retire', from ana- 'back' + khōra, khōr- 'a place'


St Stev

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An anchorite withdraws from society to be less distracted by the daily humdrum.

[voralfred]

Your illustration for anchorite somehow made me think of an ammonite

[Algot Runeman]

Your illustration for anchorite somehow made me think of an ammonite

I'm guessing there is a connetion. "Hermit" crabs occupy the shell of a snail which has a spiral of successive "cells" like the ammonite fossils (though apparently not directly related) as the soft parts of the animal grow larger. Anchorites are frequently described as occupying "cells" in their dwellings. The are separating from the world like hermits. Hmm, does that help explain how so many convicts "find religion" while locked up?

[Algot Runeman]

enamor

Pronunciation: /iˈnamər/

(chiefly British enamour)
verb
(be enamored of/with/by)
be filled with a feeling of love for: it is not difficult to see why Edward is enamored of her
have a liking or admiration for: she was truly enamored of New York

Origin:
Middle English (formerly also as inamour): from Old French enamourer, from en- 'in' + amour 'love'


Gregory Jordan

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

I am enamored with the sunset in the photo.

How do I use the present tense enamor in a real sentence?
I want to enamor that flimflammer aboard the windjammer, but mostly feel the urge to peg him down with a clawhammer so the law can throw him in the slammer.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

enamor

To make sure I would enamour myself with my lady friend, Amor (= Cupido in Latin) shot an arrow through my unarmoured left ear.

He hadn't realised that it was redundant because I had been secretly enamoured with her for quite a long time.

The little sh1t should have hit her heart instead of my brain. Not only was my love still unrequited, but, to make matters worse, my left ear's hearing lost 20 % acuity.

A much overrated Amor :

[Algot Runeman]

clerihew

Pronunciation: /ˈklerəˌhyo͞o/

noun
a short comic or nonsensical verse, typically in two rhyming couplets with lines of unequal length and referring to a famous person.

Origin:
1920s: named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956), the English writer who invented it



The art of Biography
Is different from Geography.
Geography is about maps,
But Biography is about chaps.

❝.....❞ ❝.....❞ ❝.....❞ ❝.....❞ ❝.....❞ ❝.....❞ ❝.....❞

Local yokel's attempt a clerihew.

He tried to tell his grandma's story.
With keyboard faults galore, see?
With eagle eye, mistress laurie spied
Spelling errors! E.P.S now cried.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

clerihew
...
He tried to tell his grandma's story.
With keyboard faults galore, see?
With eagle eye, mistress laurie spied
Spelling errors! E.P.S now cried.

Pretending to be St. John Lord Merrydew,
Algot's dry clerihew irreverently grew.
But his detective's ambition forsooth
Was fraught in Mankiewicz's Sleuth.

[Algot Runeman]

clairaudience

Pronunciation: /kle(ə)rˈôdēəns/

noun
the supposed faculty of perceiving, as if by hearing, what is inaudible.

Derivatives
clairaudient
adjective & noun

Origin:
mid 19th century: from French clair 'clear' + audience, on the pattern of clairvoyance


Matt Leahy

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What's the clairaudience controversy? I constantly hear ringing in my ears. I know it's there even if everybody under 50 says they don't hear it.

[Algot Runeman]

couth

Pronunciation: /ko͞oTH/

humorous
adjective
cultured, refined, and well mannered: it is more couth to hold your shrimp by the tail

noun
good manners; refinement: their hockey team had more talent but less couth

Origin:
late 19th century: back-formation from uncouth


Kathryn Parker



The uncouth youth
Confronted Ruth.
She, herself, was couth, in fact;
She offered him, sweetly, his teeth to extract.

[voralfred]

couth

Pronunciation: /ko͞oTH/

humorous
adjective
cultured, refined, and well mannered: it is more couth to hold your shrimp by the tail

noun
good manners; refinement: their hockey team had more talent but less couth

Origin:
late 19th century: back-formation from uncouth

(...)
The uncouth youth
Confronted Ruth.
She, herself, was couth, in fact;
She offered him, sweetly, his teeth to extract.

How uncouth of you, really, to steal EPS's line!

[Algot Runeman]

Line Thief: Humble apologies to all...

Though it may not actually make a dent in E.P.S.' practice of toothsome remarks.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

...
She offered him, sweetly, his teeth to extract.

How uncouth of you, really, to steal EPS's line!

This calls for a Flemish expression on my part:
"Je moet de bluts met de buil nemen."
Tiens, ça se traduit mal en Français, parce que 'bluts' et 'buil' se traduisent tous les deux par 'bosse'.

It translates to English only slightly better.
A 'bluts' is an inward dent (like a dent in your car), while a 'buil' is a bump or outward dent (like a lump on your head)
"You got to take dent and bump together."
The expression actually means: 'The good and the bad must be taken together." or "Pro and con average out."

There must be equivalent French and English idiom, but I don't know those.

... make a dent ... toothsome remarks.

Nice wordplay there.