Posted by kazvorpal on July 15, 2010
Defenestrate
v. To throw out of a window, or by simile for throwing out, or a lack of windows
A term made famous by the Defenestrations of Prague, the start of a growing tradition of throwing bad politicians out of windows when ousting them from power.
Now, I don’t want to go on a rant here, but America’s foreign policy makes about as much sense as Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at the first Battle of Antietam. I mean, when a neo-conservative defenestrates, it’s like Raskolnikov filibuster deoxymonohydroxinate.
— Dennis Miller, our honorary solecistic sesquipedalian, on The Family Guy
Apple lost its opportunity to defenestrate Windows
— Nick Farrell (2007)
All of this gets defenestrated (right out the window) if we find we cannot trust the Bible regular, day-to-day, earthly information.
— Cliff Walker, March 31, 2008
Etymology: This is a back-construction from the word “fenestrated”, meaning “to have windows”, originating with the original, 17th century Defenestration of the Prague.
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Posted in history | Tagged: apple, battle of antietam, big words, defenestrate, denniss miller, family guy, high vocabulary, history, literature, neo-conservatives, nick farrell, prague, robert fulton, sesquipedalian, the family guy, vocabulary, windows, word of the day, wotd | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on July 14, 2010
Cromulent
adj. Acceptable, or more than acceptable
Wednesday shall heretofore be our day for neologisms and other cromulent amusement…previously, this was done on the weekends
Edna Krabappel: “Embiggens”? I never heard that word before I came to Springfield.
Miss Hoover: I don’t know why. It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
— Lisa the Iconoclast
Don’t get flusterated. Everything I say is perfectly cromulent, and it might do you well to embiggen your vocabulary before you fling accretions my discretion.
— Qui the Promoter, Jade Empire
It’s a perfectly cromulent word
— Dan Conner
Etymology: Crom; Cimmerian solar deity, -ulent Latin (ulentus); “having the quality of”, writer David X. Cohen
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Posted in humor | Tagged: conan, crom, cromulent, dan conner, david cohen, embiggen, high vocabulary, jade empire, lisa, qui the promoter, rosanne, simpsons, vocabulary | 1 Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on July 13, 2010
Osculation
v. To kiss, or come into contact with something or someone in a way that could be referred to as kissing by simile
This may not be the most romantic way to say “kiss”, but it’s certainly among the most interesting
All animals copulate but only humans osculate. Parakeets rub beaks? Sure they do, but only little old ladies who murder schoolchildren with knitting needles to steal their lunch money so that they can buy fresh kidneys to feed overweight kitty cats would place bird billing in the realm of the true kiss.
— Tom Robbins, Wild Ducks Flying Backward (2005)
He kissed the plump mellow yellow smellow melons of her rump, on each plump melonous hemisphere, in their mellow yellow furrow, with obscure prolonged provocative melonsmellonous osculation.
— James Joyce, Ulysses (1923)
According to a famous Yale professor
“Osculation is a sensation that is nice”
— Dean Martin, Tonda Wanda Hoy (1951)
Greetings, Gate. Let’s osculate.
— Daffy Duck, The Wise Quacking Duck (1943)
Etymology: From the Latin osculum, literally “little mouth”
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Posted in humor, poetry | Tagged: ausculate, big words, dean martin, euphemism, euphemisms, high vocabulary, james joyce, kiss, kisses, kissing, liplock, making out, new words, osculate, parakeet, quotations, similes, tom robbins, tonda wanda hoy, ulysses, vocabulary, vocabulary expansion, wild ducks flying backward | 1 Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on July 12, 2010
Hypophora
n. What is hypophora? It is the rhetorical technique of asking a question, then immediately answering it.
This is not to be confused with a “rhetorical question”, which is asked for the sake of convincing the audience, but might not be answered at all. Note that, in fact, people mis-use “rhetorical question” to mean any time a did not need an answer, even when it was not for rhetorical purposes. “Ouch! Why did I do that?” is not a rhetorical question.
Aside from our clever demonstration of the word above, it’s difficult to find famous quotations actually including the word hypophora, but we found some examples of quotations demonstrating the technique:
ARTHUR: Well, I am king!
DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. And how d’you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers!
What makes a king out of a slave? Courage!
What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage!
— Cowardly Lion, The Wizard of Oz, 1939
Is He the God of the Jews only?
Is He not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also
— Romans 3.29
Etymology: Hypo is Greek for “without”, phoros; Greek for “to bear or have”, related to anthypophora; to give an opposing argument, and immediately refute it
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Posted in rhetoric | Tagged: anarcho-syndicalism, bible quotes, cowardly lion, dennis, english, gentiles, holy grail, hypophora, jews, Knowledge, language, lexicon, lingo, monty python, monty python and the holy grail, new testament, oz, paul, paul of tarsis, peasants, pythons, rhetoric, rhetorical question, romans, sesquipedalia, sesquipedalia verba, sesquipedalian, sesquipedalianism, vocabulary, vocabulary words, wizard of oz, word of the day, words | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 24, 2009
Antidisestablishmentarianism
n. A political philosophy opposed to the separation of a religious group (“church”) and a government (“state”), esp. the belief held by those in 19th century England opposed to separating the Anglican church from the civil government.
A quick search produces no noteworthy quotations making use of this word for its actual function. Indeed, it’s not the word of the day because it could possibly be useful to you, but because it’s so commonly utilized by sesquipedalian-wannabes who haven’t the slightest idea what it means.
I’ll be back before you can say ‘Antidisestablishmentarianism‘.
— Edmund Blackadder III
Extraordinary. There’s no other word for it. Antidisestablishmentarianism extraordinary, that is.
— Murphy, Rayman 3
I think we all know why. Anti-taco legislation! Disestablishmentarianism!
Turkatron, Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Etymology Pretty simple, really… Establishment, plus “dis” to end that establishment, plus “anti” to oppose ending it, and with -arianism to refer to it as a cohesive movement.
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Posted in humor | Tagged: antidisestablishmentarianism, antidisestablishmentarianist, antidisestablishmentarianistic, aqua teen hunger force, athf, black adder, blackadder, high vocabulary, lexicon, sesquipedalianism, vocabulary, word of the day, words of the day, wotd | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 24, 2009
Senescence
adj. Growing old; decaying with the lapse of time.
It is by a blend of lively curiosity and intelligent selfishness that the artists who wish to mature late, who feel too old to die, the Goethes, Tolstoys, Voltaires, Titians and Verdis, reach a fruitful senescence.
— Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise (1938)
Senescence begins
And middle age ends
The day your descendents
Outnumber your friends.
— Ogden Nash, Crossing The Border
Etymology
Latin senescere, easy to remember as the same origin as senile and senator.
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Posted in poetry | Tagged: cyril connolly, etymology, high vocabulary, lexicon, ogden nash, senescence, vocabulary, word of the day, wotd | 1 Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 16, 2009
My derring-do allows me to dance the rigadoon around you but by the time I'm through I lose my desideratum. -- Fiona Apple
Desideratum
n. Something that is wished for, or considered desirable.
My derring-do allows me to dance the rigadoon around you but by the time I’m through I lose my desideratum.
Fiona Apple, To Your Love (1999)
A presumption of equality may be contrary to present fact, and yet not contrary to a desideratum. We are not as a fact all equally fit to live, equally responsible, or equally deserving of the protection of the law: but it will hardly be doubted that it would be desirable if we were.
William Ernest Hocking, Present Status of the Philosophy of Law and of Rights (1926)
Etymology
From Latin, desidaratus, same origin as the word “desire”.
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Posted in poetry | Tagged: desideratum, english, fiona apple, high vocabulary, language, lexicon, terminology, vocabulary, vocabulary words, word of the day, wotd | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 13, 2009
Epistolary
adj. Conducted or contained entirely in correspondence
The Screwtape Letters is C.S. Lewis’ most famous epistolary novel.
Today, our social life on Facebook may be centered around entirely epistolary friendships, fervently emailing people we’ve never actually met.
Etymology
Greek, epi: over or near, stol: send. People are more familiar with the noun “Epistle”.
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Posted in Knowledge | Tagged: c.s. lewis, correspondence, email, epistolary, high vocabulary, mail, vocabulary, words | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 11, 2009
Hobbledehoy
n. An awkward boy, especially adolescent.
The son stayed with the third Professor for one more year, and when he came home again and his father asked, “My dimwitted hobbledehoy, what have you learnt?”
— Lemony Snicket, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Nothing but infantilism — the erotic visions of a hobbledehoy behind the barn.
— Henry Seidel Canby, “Mr. O’Hara and the Vulgar School”, a Saturday Review of Appointment in Samarra
Etymology
This is a very iffy one, with completely conflicting origins documented here and there. “hob” is a word used elsewhere to refer to a clown or troublemaker, as in hobgoblin. de hey translates as “of the hedge”, used to mean “wild or feral”. These may comprise some of its 16th century roots.
Note
On weekends, we may include more controversial or amusing words than during the week, but they should still be potentially useful in controversial or amusing situations.
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Posted in humor | Tagged: english, high vocabulary, hobbledehoy, humor, language, lemony snicket, vocabulary, word of the day, words, wotd | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 10, 2009
Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, an allegorical painting by Agnolo Bronzino (1545)
Concupiscence
Any ardent desire, but especially sexual desire; lust.
Good men seek it by the natural means of the virtues; evil men, however, try to achieve the same goal by a variety of concupiscences, and that is surely an unnatural way of seeking the good. Don’t you agree?
— Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
Under a forehead roughly comparable to that of the Javanese or the Piltdown man are visible a pair of tiny pig eyes, lit up alternately by greed and concupiscence.
S. J. Perelman, The Best of S. J. Perelman, Introduction (1947)
Like the use of the word ‘concupiscence‘ in an earlier age to describe sexual desire, the use of the word ‘pollution’ to describe essential aspects of the productive activities of an industrial society represents an attempt to defame an entirely proper human capacity by means of using an evil sounding name for it.
— George Reisman, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (1996)
Etymology
Neoclassical euphemism, adopted from Latin concupiscens, very desirous: com; an intensifier, and cupere, meaning “to long for”. Easy to remember, because Cupid comes from the same root.
Note
With the rise of sexual repression in Christianity, this word sometimes took on a pejorative connotation as a sexual euphamism, but is originally a poetic term for desire in general.
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Posted in poetry | Tagged: agnolo bronzino, boethius, concupiscence, definitions, desire, english, etymology, george reisman, high vocabulary, latin, love, lust, perelman, s.j. perelman, sex, vocabulary, word of the day, wotd | 2 Comments »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 9, 2009
Ben Franklin may be best known for the apothegms he printed in Poor Richard's Almanac, such as "apenny saved is a penny earned", and "haste makes waste".
Apothegm archaic sp: Apophthegm
n. A short witty instructive saying; an aphorism or maxim.
Ben Franklin may be best known for the apothegms he printed in Poor Richard’s Almanac. Julius Caesar did write a collection of apophthegms, as appears in an epistle of Cicero, so did Macrobius, a consular man…they are mucrones verborum, pointed speeches. “The words of the wise are as goads,” saith Solomon. Cicero prettily calleth them salinas, salt-pits, that you may extract salt out of, and sprinkle where you will. — Francis Bacon, “Apophthegms, New and Old” (1625) Etymology As these ten dollar words often are, this one has a neoclassical, Renaissance origin: “To speak plainly”, in Ancient Greek: apo: from; phthengesthai: to speak
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Posted in Knowledge, rhetoric | Tagged: aphorisms, apophthegms, apothegms, bacon, ben franklin, francis bacon, high vocabulary, quotations, quotes, sayings, vocabulary, vocabulary words, word, word of teh day, word of the day, wotd | 1 Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 8, 2009
Cosset
v. To coddle like a pet; to overly indulge; pamper
The things we call aristocracies and reigning houses are the last places to look for masterful men. They began strongly, but they have been too long in possession. They have been cosseted and comforted and the devil has gone out of their blood.
— John Buchan, The Path of the King (1921)
Etymology
From the same root as “kiss”, in Old English “Cossetung” meant “kissing”.
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Posted in treatment | Tagged: aristocracy, coddle, cosset, high vocabulary, pamper, pampering, royalty, spa, vocabulary, word of the day, words, wotd | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 7, 2009
We may appeal to every page of history we have hitherto turned over, for proofs irrefragable, that the people, when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous and cruel as any king or senate possessed of uncontrollable power. -- John Adams
Irrefragable
adj. Which cannot be refuted; indisputable, clearly right, incontrovertible.
We may appeal to every page of history we have hitherto turned over, for proofs irrefragable, that the people, when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous and cruel as any king or senate possessed of uncontrollable power.
— John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson (11-13-1815)
Etymology
Neoclassical Latin, refragari means “to oppose or contest”, the Latin frag means to break, as in fragment and fraction. Same Indo-European root as “break”.
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Posted in Knowledge, rhetoric | Tagged: debate, english, high vocabulary, irregragable, john adams, latin, lexicon, proof, refragari, rhetoric, vocabulary, word of the day, wotd | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 6, 2009
That's why I've cremated this new program called "Booked on Phonics". I'll teach you how to testiculate my way. To computate how it works, I will intersects with a perverted deviant by using one of my own penal implants.
Sesquipedalian
n. A person who uses long words, or a long word, itself.
usage
A pseudointellectual often tries to be sesquipedalian, but is not sufficiently pedantic to know how the words should actually be used. (As with the famous Damon Wayans sketch, at right)
etymology
Roman poet Horace coined the term while mocking words “a foot and a half long”; sesqui – “half again”, pedi – “foot”. The full phrase was actually sesquipedalia verba.
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Posted in rhetoric | Tagged: high vocabulary, horace, lexicon, polysyllabic, pseudointellectual, sesquipedalia verba, sesquipedalian, vocabulary, words | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 5, 2009
Barry Goldwater, delivering a hortatory speech
Hortatory
adj. Giving exhortation or advice; encouraging; exhortatory; inciting; as, a hortatory speech.
Considering the avowed purpose of his work, which is rather hortatory than historical, we are fortunate indeed to be given so much first-hand information by this embittered preacher.
J N L Myres, in R G Collingwood and J N L Myres Roman Britain and the English Settlements (1937) p. 329
Etymology
15th century, neoclassical Latin, Hortati means “to exhort”, an intensified version of Horiri, “to urge”.
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Posted in rhetoric | Tagged: barry goldwater, exhortation, exhortatory, goldwater, goldwater girls, hortatory, public speaking, quotations, rhetoric, speaking, speech | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 4, 2009
We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.
Solecism (plural Solecisms)
n. A grammatical mistake or absurdity, or even simply a non-standard language usage.
- We don’t need no education! (Pink Floyd’s infamous double-negative self-refutation.)
- This is just between you and I. (Hypercorrection to avoid the common, nonstandard “you and me” form in the subject of sentences…in this case, “me” would have been correct, the standard pronoun for the object of a preposition.)
- Surely there is no fitter solecistic archetype than Huck Finn. (While fitter is a valid construction, the grammatical norm in English is to say “more fitting” — an example of how valid language can still be a solecism.)
Etymology:
In ancient Greece, the colony of Soli in Sicily spoke a very corrupted version of Greek, and came to be seen as a model of silly language usage.
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Posted in Grammar / Syntax | Tagged: absurdity, dictionary, english, grammar, high vocabulary, huck finn, huckleberry finn, language, lexicography, lexicon, pink floyd, solecism, soli, syntax, thesaurus, vocabulary, words | 1 Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 3, 2009
We deliberated between da Vinci, Ben Franklin, and Samuel Clemens as the quintessential autodidact
Autodidact (plural: autodidacts)
n. A self-taught person; an automath.
Having taught himself more about the sciences than any teacher of his age already knew, Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest autodidacts.
Etymology
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Posted in Knowledge | Tagged: autodidact, autodidactism, da vinci, education, english, high vocabulary, Knowledge, language, learning, lexicon, pithiness, renaissance man, rhetoric, verbosity, vocabulary, words | 1 Comment »
Posted by kazvorpal on October 3, 2009
Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!
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Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
High-Vocabulary Word of the Day 