Word lovers unite for rice.

Thanks to Carolyn, I've been hooked on this game all day (not good since I'm in a boring meeting... or wait.. maybe it is good). If you're good at words and definitions then this is for you: FreeRice.com

Dreary

Dreary

1. Dismal; bleak.
2. Boring; dull: dreary tasks.
3. Dark and depressing: black, bleak, blue, cheerless, dark, desolate, dismal, gloomy, glum, joyless, somber, tenebrific.
4. Arousing no interest or curiosity: boring, drear, dry, dull, humdrum, irksome, monotonous, stuffy, tedious, tiresome, uninteresting, weariful, wearisome, weary.

Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Today is a little dark and dreary. Mostly it's just gray and misty outside, but of course it is Monday and what could be darker? This is the kind of day that makes me want to go home, brew a nice cup of coffee or tea, and curl up on the couch with slippers, blankets, movies and some knitting. Sitting at my computer at work with my space heater on at my feet is a poor substitute. Which is not to say that I don't love this weather - I adore it and am excited that winter is coming to the land of room temperature year round. I just wish I were anywhere but here.

Seriously.

Disclaimer: If you don't like cursing, stop reading now. Sorry Dad!

It's Friday and I'm making words up. From my chat history:

"There's another grant that I have to 'un-fuck up.'"

Clearly it is time to go home.

Deep thoughts on words.

Conversations with my love about our vacation:

So we'll sleep in till 8am, have some breakfast and de-boat. Hmmm, I guess that's disembark...except its deplane. Too confusing.

deplane

1. To disembark from an airplane.

disembark

1. To go ashore from a ship.
2. To leave an aircraft or other vehicle.
3. To remove or unload (cargo or passengers) from a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle.

deboat

1. YOU'RE AN IDIOT.


ETA:

Wes' contribution: "Deboat is down at Dedock just down at deend of deroad."

My Word Made the Cut

New dictionary includes 'ginormous'

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - It was a ginormous year for the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster. Along with embracing the adjective that combines "gigantic" and "enormous," the dictionary publishers also got into Bollywood, sudoku and speed dating.

Things that sound dirty but aren't.

scrutator (skroo-TAY-tuhr)

noun.

One who investigates.

The wrong word.

So I've been wondering what to post all day. This just seems to be one of those days where I don't have too much to say. I'm not as hurt and upset as I was yesterday, but I wouldn't say things are hunky dory. I think I'm in the acceptance phase of the ending of this chapter of my life and I'm just waiting for the new chapter to start.

So I was thinking that I'd just post a word. Not just any word, but a word that sort of descibes how I feel. Usually I'm pretty good with definitions, but my first choice of a word was the wrong one.

co·pa·cet·ic

fine; completely satisfactory; OK.

I had always used the word in the context of "things aren't going well, but they're not going badly - they're just going," but apparently that's not the case.

So even though it has less panache, I'm going to go with this one:

pass·a·ble

Satisfactory but not outstanding; adequate.

P.S. Just in case:

pa·nache

a grand or flamboyant manner; verve; style; flair.

Things that sound dirty, but aren't.

Last week Beth wrote a post about words that sound dirty but aren't. She had lots of contributors and it was a great read. (I added UVULA - the dingywidget that hangs down in the back of your throat.)

So I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this week's theme at A Word A Day by Anu Garg was "Words that Seem Risque."

Today's word:

vomitorium (vom-i-TOR-ee-uhm) noun, plural vomitoria

A passageway to the rows of seats in a theater.

[From Latin vomitorium, from vomere (to discharge).]

Vomitoria in ancient amphitheaters helped the audience to reach their seats quickly and then, at the end of the performance, leave at an equal speed (hence the name). Thousands of seats could be filled in minutes. The suggestion that a vomitorium was the place for the ancient Romans to vomit during a feast has no basis.

Today's Word Is...

PROCRASTINATION


pro·cras·ti·nate (verb)

1. to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost.
2. to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.
3. to postpone or delay needlessly.

pro·cras·ti·nat·ion (noun)

1. the act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying or defering an action to a later time
2. slowness as a consequence of not getting around to it

Synonyms: averseness, dalliance, dawdling, dabbling, delay, delaying, frittering, frivolling, idling, loafing, loitering, playing, demurral, hold-up, impediment, interval, lag, postponement, putting off, reprieve, retardation, retardment, stall, stay, stop, stoppage, surcease, suspension, tarrying, wait

Here's how I deal with my old friend procrastination:

1. Get out a clean sheet of paper.
2. Make a list of all the things that need to be done.
3. Return to the Internet.
4. Do the list tomorrow.

Change: the 6 letter f-word.

CHANGE

Noun
* to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one's name; to change one's opinion; to change the course of history.
* to transform or convert
* to substitute another or others for; exchange for something else, usually of the same kind
* to give and take reciprocally; interchange
* to transfer from one (conveyance) to another
* a variation or deviation: a change in the daily routine.
* the supplanting of one thing by another.

Verb
* to become different
* to become altered or modified
* to become transformed or converted
* to pass gradually into
* to make a change or an exchange


Synonyms: about-face*, addition, adjustment, advance, break, compression, contraction, conversion, correction, development, difference, distortion, diversification, diversity, enlargement, innovation, metamorphosis, modification, modulation, mutation, novelty, permutation, reconstruction, refinement, remodeling, reversal, revision, revolution, shift, surrogate, switch, tempering, transformation, transition, transmutation, turn, turnover, variance, variation, variety, vicissitude, accommodate, adapt, adjust, alter, alternate, commute, convert, diminish, diverge, diversify, evolve, fluctuate, make innovations, make over, merge, metamorphose, moderate, modify, modulate, mutate, naturalize, recondition, redo, reduce, reform, regenerate, remake, remodel, renovate, reorganize, replace, resolve, restyle, revolutionize, shape, shift, substitute, tamper with, temper, transfigure, transform, translate, transmute, transpose, turn, vacillate, vary, veer, warp

In other words:

My co-worker has moved to a different area of the building. My boss is about to be replaced (he was interim). The world has shifted on its axis and I don't like it. Not one effing bit.

Vocabulary Revisited:

pimp

noun

1. a person, esp. a man, who solicits customers for a prostitute or a brothel, usually in return for a share of the earnings; pander; procurer.
2. a despicable person.
3. Australia and New Zealand. an informer; stool pigeon.

verb (used without object)

4. to act as a pimp.

verb (used with object)

5. to act as a pimp for.
6. to exploit.

Today this word is used for much more. Apparently it means to "sell" your friends.

Usage:

"I pimped you to that girl over there. She's diggin' ya now."

"I was pimpin' you to that guy. He wants your number."

Or in the professional sense:

"I pimped you to my boss and he's interested in your resume."

Go figure.

Cranky

crank·y
adj. crank·i·er, crank·i·est

Definition: Having a bad disposition; peevish.

Synonyms: bad-humored, bearish, bitchy, cantankerous, choleric, crabby, cross, crotchety, disagreeable, grouchy, grumpy, hot-tempered, ill-humored, irascible, irritable, mean, ornery, quick-tempered, snappish.

Causes: Money, work, homework, annoying people, chores.

Proceed at your own discretion.

A question every naughty kid has thought of.

How does a word become a swear word?

Gotta love those Google RSS feeds.

Peter Piper Picked a Peck...

So what the heck is a peck?

According to my favorite Dictionary.com:

peck

1. A unit of dry volume or capacity in the U.S. Customary System equal to 8 quarts or approximately 537.6 cubic inches.
2. A container holding or measuring a peck.

Informal. A large quantity; a lot: a peck of troubles.

Fun word of the evening.

be·twixt
adv. & prep.
Between.

Idiom:
betwixt and between
In an intermediate position; neither wholly one thing nor another.

[Middle English bitwixt, from Old English betwix.]

Use it in a sentence:

Betwixt Buddy and me, we enjoyed our end of the night walk greatly. What a beautiful night. Sweet dreams all!

WOTD:

One might ask what I'm doing up so damn early, as this is not my norm. Commencement day is upon us folks! And here's the much anticipated word of the day:

persiflage (PUR-sih-flazh) noun

Light-hearted or flippant treatment of a subject; banter.

Word of the Day

gorgonize or gorgonise (GOR-guh-nyz) verb tr.

To paralyze, petrify, or hypnotize.

[After Gorgon, any of the three monstrous sisters Stheno, Euryale,
and Medusa in Greek mythology, who had snakes for hair. They turned
into stone anyone who looked into their eyes.]

Nostalgia Redux

nos·tal·gi·a
n.
A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.

So the debate of the night is, can one be nostalgic for things one never had?

Case in point:

Tonight on my way out of class, I meandered through the quad to find the USC Marching Band getting ready for an impromptu concert. I believe it's a "first night of finals" tradition. Anyhow, out in front of the main library (Leavey) at 10pm, they start up at full volume and spirit. After several songs they start "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac, and the percussion section actually jumps into the pool/fountain in front of the library managing to drench anyone who couldn't get away fast enough. To some this sounds childish, and while I grant you it's definitely a college occurence, the band is amazingly good and it was a pleasure to listen and to watch.

The debate? This wasn't an experience I had in college. I went to college in the midwest where when finals rolled around it was either colder than a witches tit or hotter than hell. We didn't have a football team to speak of, much less a marching band. So this isn't really a thing of my past.

Rather it was a little treat that I got to enjoy in the present. Something I might have missed had I not been there at that exact point and place in time. Who knew a kind of depressed day could end with a little sunshine?

Wait... what was I going to say?

esprit d'escalier

Thinking of a witty remark too late; hindsight wit or afterwit.
Also such a remark.


Hmm... I'll probably think of something witty to say right after I hit the "publish" button.

Word of the Day

hu·bris
n.
Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance
“There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris” (McGeorge Bundy).