Post a word you recently looked up in the DICTIONARY
dollar_bin
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While many poasters couldn't be bothered with the wafer-thin distinctions between there, their and they're and arbitrarily insert apostrophes into the possessive its to form the contraction it's, some of you write beautifully and demonstrate a love of vocabulary. I run across unfamiliar words all the time and I don't mind running to the dictionary to embiggen my understanding of what I just read. Even if I think I know the definition, sometimes I learn of an obscure sense of a word which adds to my appreciation of a work. Feel free to trot out sesquipedalian showpieces (I'm looking at you, callipygian and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis) but I'm really interested in words that have enhanced your working lexicon. Don't be afraid to admit you misunderstood a seemingly common word, I have a "friend" who thought hirsute meant "thin" for years.
discalced
I read this in Cormac McCarthy's novel ???The Road" and from context you can guess the meaning of the word, but the connotations of a religious order were lost to me until I looked up the word. This is the word that inspired this post.
hagiographic
This was used in the New York Times Book Review section to describe a JD Salinger biography (actually they said it was "sympathetic but not hagiographic") but I was surprised I hadn't noticed this word before. Perhaps someone in the Tribe Called Quest documentary thread could have applied this term or denied its applicability.
Feel free to add on, and don't be afraid of being clowned for ignorance???nobody knows every word in the English language.
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discalced
I read this in Cormac McCarthy's novel ???The Road" and from context you can guess the meaning of the word, but the connotations of a religious order were lost to me until I looked up the word. This is the word that inspired this post.
In retrospect, I probably read right past the word in Blood Meridian without even considering its meaning (but thanks to Google Books search I found again):They were discalced to a man like pilgrims of some common order for all their shoes were long since stolen
I had to look up anchorite as well, but it certainly enhances my understanding of what McCarthy was trying to describe.When they set out in the dawn the headless man was sitting like a murdered anchorite discalced in ashes and sark
hagiographic
This was used in the New York Times Book Review section to describe a JD Salinger biography (actually they said it was "sympathetic but not hagiographic") but I was surprised I hadn't noticed this word before. Perhaps someone in the Tribe Called Quest documentary thread could have applied this term or denied its applicability.
Feel free to add on, and don't be afraid of being clowned for ignorance???nobody knows every word in the English language.
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Comments
I looked up surreptitious, to describe the way I take black and white photos. I take pictures that way cause I don't like stage blocking...
I still can't see why this is pronounced the way it is. There is a street in a new urbanism development which has a street called this. People will call me saying "Hey, can you come over to A - N - E- M- O- N- E- today?", they have to spell the schitt out. I don't tell them what the word pronunciation is.
I guess you just have to be there.
I bet a lot of people would get this one wrong if they didn't look it up. "Melliferous? It means sweet smelling, right?"
More or less..
mel??lif??er??ous (me lif?????r ??s)
adjective
producing honey
mel??lif??er??ous (m??-l??f????r-??s) also mel??lif??ic (-l??f????k)
adjective
Forming or bearing honey.
I saw this word in the liner notes of the Vibrators album in the thread about shady covers. Had to look this up, because i hd NO idea what it meant.
It's derived from Greek - think "Antigone." I love the word and the way it sounds.
And dictionaries rule. I can't remember the last word I looked up, but I do it frequently. One of the best ways to appreciate the English language (and language in general) is to see how fluid it is and how promiscuously it takes from other languages.
(This is one of the reasons I even bothered to post in the "Lady Antebellum" thread.)
i dropped it in a conversation and someone accused me of making words up. we went to the websters over it.
Adj. 1. callipygous - pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks; "the quest for the callipygian ideal"
callipygian
shapely - having a well-proportioned and pleasing shape; "a slim waist and shapely legs"
peace, stein. . .
Sometimes I go through long phases of epeolatry. Ask me why?
- spidey
Usually, though, those threads are about dubious music, bad tv, or obscure women, so this is kind of a change of pace.
Anyway: flense. I was reading something with a character named Flense, and I kept thinking that it sounded like a real word.
AWESOME!!!!
i love vocab.
a great vocabulary time waster is www.freerice.com
pul??chri??tu??di??nous
adj.
Characterized by or having great physical beauty and appeal.
1. A visual signaling apparatus with flags, lights, or mechanically moving arms, as one used on a railroad.
2. A visual system for sending information by means of two flags that are held one in each hand, using an alphabetic code based on the position of the signaler's arms.
As an expat, I am constantly looking up Dutch words, and often surprised at both the amount of English words that stem from their Dutch counterparts, (like stoop for instance) and a Dutch word's Yiddish roots (Kaput, Mazzo/mazzel etc)
One of my good friends is a Frenchman and he takes pleasure in teasing me about the English language's habit of creating compound words by joining two already existing ones, whereas in French an entirely new word is created. Think horseshoe, buttplug, cupboard, footpath/sidewalk etc.
Not quite the same, but in the same territory is the fascinating practice of portmateau. (fugly being my personal favorite) I have a habit of pronouncing 'portmateau' incorrectly as portmaneau, a word that as far as I can tell, does not exist.
The last English word I looked up was 'Cromulant'. I was familiar with the word, had the general gist of it's meaning but needed to be sure. The last English word I had to explain to my French friend was 'Insipid'.
Oh, and, Etymology and Entomology are distinctly different, I always end up talking about insects when I mean words.
My English word of the week is 'Git'
This thread needs Gary.
mel??lif??lu??ous
??? ???/m????l??flu??s/ Show Spelled[muh-lif-loo-uhs]
???adjective
1.
sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding: a mellifluous voice; mellifluous tones.
2.
flowing with honey; sweetened with or as if with honey.
Use mellifluous in a Sentence
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Origin:
1375???1425; late Middle English < Late Latin mellifluus, equivalent to Latin melli- (stem of mel ) honey + -flu ( ere ) to flow + -us adj. suffix ( see -ous)
???Related forms
mel??lif??lu??ous??ly, adverb
mel??lif??lu??ous??ness, noun
un??mel??lif??lu??ous, adjective
un??mel??lif??lu??ous??ly, adverb
???Synonyms
1. melodious, musical, dulcet, harmonious.
word is bond.
brained
As in:
Brained, adj: having a brain of a specified kind ???used in combination.
^^^^^^^^
Interestingly not the usage in the quoted AP article (AP uses it as a verb with a double meaning of "beat over the head" and "outsmarted").
I don't consult dictionaries. Dictionaries consult me.
Jesus. Asking a seven-year-old to define that? It's almost a trick question. It's a placeholder, like a pronoun, used to refer to a noun that has already been explicitly used in the sentence:
The problem???which I have already explained to you???will require a painful solution.
The problem???(the problem) I have already explained to you???will require a painful solution.
Last word I looked up? Actually it was one that's already been mentioned, pulchritudinous (already knew what it meant pretty much, just wanted to see the official definition). And BTW, I'll see your pulchritudinous and callipygous and raise you a STEATOPYGIA or steatopygic, which basically means possessing a fat ass. I love the dictionary!
http://www.orthopaedia.com/display/Main/Talar+fractures
And the title of one of my favorite books.
BTW, the three ugliest words in the English language (when said aloud) are:
Brewery
Dreary
Rural
I play word twist. Occasionally I don't know the meaning of a word.
Love my American Heritage unabridged from the 70s. We call it the movie star dictionary, because some celebrities listed.
Also have a 1963 Webster unabridged. Nice plates.
And a handful of little desk references, that google has made obsolete.
In heavy disagreeance. Have no problem with those words. Rural I like alot, actually.
Ointment takes that title.
On the opposite end, we could talk the history of "Cellar Door".
I also love the American Heritage, my third edition is pretty much my go-to for hardcopy, although I use the built in Mac OS X dictionary way more than any printed dictionary. I always thought it was funny that Tony Randall was on their usage panel.
One of my favorite pedals.
- spidey