Wednesday, 23 January 2013

These words are all courtesy of Word Dynamo  

bezoar

noun

1. a small stony concretion which may be found in the stomachs of certain animals, especially ruminants, and which was once used as an antidote for various ailments.
2. a wild goat with flat scimitar-shaped horns, found from Greece to Pakistan. The ancestor of the domestic goat, it was the best-known source of bezoars.

Origin: late 15th century (in the general sense 'stone of concretion'): from French bezoard, based on Arabic bāzahr,bādizahr, from Persian pādzahr 'antidote'.

flibbertigibbet

noun

a frivolous, flighty, or excessively talkative person.

Origin: late Middle English: probably imitative of idle chatter.


gobo

noun

1. a dark plate or screen to shield a lens from light.
a) theatre a partial screen used in front of a spotlight to project a shape
b) a shield used to mask a microphone from extraneous noise.

Origin: 1930s, perhaps of go between.


ort

noun

(usually orts) archaic or dialect

a scrap or remainder of food from a meal.

Origin: late Middle English: from Middle Low German orte 'food remains', originally a compound of which the second element is related to 'eat'.



quincunx

noun (quincunxes)

1. an arrangement of five objects with four at the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth at its centre, used for the five on a dice or playing card, and in planting trees.
2. [mass noun] Astrology an aspect of 150°, equivalent to five zodiacal signs.

Origin: mid 17th century: from Latin, literally 'five twelfths', from quinique 'five' + uncia 'twelfth'.


slumgullion


noun

cheap or insubstantial stew.

Origin: late 19th century: probably an invented word.



Sunday, 16 December 2012

These are from here.

12 Enjoyable Names for Relatively Common Things 


  1. box tent : the plastic table-like item found in pizza boxes
  2. jamais vu : that feeling of seeing something for the first time, even though there’s nothing new about it
  3. paresthesia : that tingling sensation when your foot falls asleep
  4. grawlix : the string of typographical symbols comic strips use to indicate profanity (“$%@!”)
  5. caruncula : the small, triangular pink bump on the inside corner of each eye
  6. badinage : another word for playful banter
  7. rhumba : a group of rattlesnakes
  8. dringle : to waste time by being lazy
  9. agraffe : the wire cage that keeps the cork in a bottle of champagne
  10. wings : those back flaps on a bra
  11. rasher : a single slice of bacon
  12. purlicue : the web between your thumb and forefinger

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

From Briar!

Barbe a papa means candy floss in French but literally translates as dad's beard.

Oh and I learnt the greatest word the other day in one of the classes, no idea how we got on to it but the word for bow tie is noeud papillon which literally translates as knotted butterfly.

Monday, 26 November 2012


alacrity

noun
[mass noun]

brisk and cheerful readiness.

Origin: late Middle English: from Latin alacritas, from alacer 'brick'




Sunday, 25 November 2012

Another Dictionary For You

Here


word
a compact weapon of many varieties, each comprising sharp edges and barbs, with an entirely inadequate grip.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

paean

noun

1. a song of praise or triumph

2. a creative work expressing enthusiastic praise

Origin: late 16th century: via Latin from Greek paian 'hymn of thanksgiving to Apollo' (invoked by the name Paian, originally the Homeric name for the physician of the gods).



canoodle

verb
informal

kiss and cuddle amorously

Origin: mid 19th century (originally US): of unknown origin

Sunday, 4 November 2012

bellicose

adj.

demonstrating aggression and a willingness to fight

Origin: Late Middle English: from Latin  bellicosus 'warlike', from bellum 'war'

parse

verb
[with object]

1. resolve (a sentence) into its component parts and describe their syntactic roles

2. computing analyse (a string or text) into logical syntactic components

noun
computing

an act of parsing a string or a text

Origin: Mid 16th century: perhaps from Middle English pars 'parts of speech', from Old French pars 'parts' (influenced by Latin pars 'part')