Today's word is "bromide", meaning: "a tired or meaningless remark" or "a tiresome or boring person" or “a statement that is intended to be soothing”.
The term was popularized in the title of Gelett Burgess's 1906 book "Are You a Bromide?"
Today the word is “confusticate” meaning: “to confuse, confound or perplex” or “to make [something] obscure, unclear or unintelligible”.
To “confusticate” is “to make confused and frustrated”. To be “confusticated” is “to be confused and frustrated”.
I am not a fan of “confustication”.
Today the word is “resistentialism”; defined as: “the theory that inanimate objects demonstrate hostile behavior, hatred or malice toward us”, or “seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects".
The word was coined by humourist Paul Jennings, spoofing the word “existentialism”.
Today’s word is "Nice Nelly": “one who is excessively concerned with maintaining the appearance of propriety and/or respectibilty” or “an overly fastidious person” or “a prude”.
“Nice Nellies" are concerned with appearing honest, caring, and virtuous, not actually being honest, caring and virtuous.
Today's word is “palimpsest":
1) a writing surface reused after partially or completely erasing the original.
2) a thing reused but showing traces of its earlier form.
In 1984, Orwell writes: "All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed exactly as often as was necessary."
Today's word is "mucro trucido utriusque". Translated from the Latin as "the sword slays both"; which is to say: hurtful things, said or done, harm both parties and leave their marks upon all of us; good and bad alike.
Today's word is "polylemma" meaning: “a choice involving multiple undesirable options”. Check out "Hobson's choice" or "Buridan's ass".
M. Hunt, in his NYT (3/5/87) “A Common-Sense Guide to Health Insurance”, writes: "… 'medical consumers' are confronted not by a mere dilemma but by a 'polylemma'…”
Today the word is “infandous”; meaning: “extremely odious” or “too odious to be expressed or mentioned” or “unspeakably odious”.
It seems the last time it was mentioned in the OED was 1708. It could be used to describe the feeling in the world of Harry Potter towards Voldemorte.
Today's word is "sitzfleisch", a German word meaning "the ability to sit through or tolerate something boring" or "to endure/persist in a task" or “to sit still and get through the task at hand”.
It is often used of the ability to wait out a problem in the hopes it will just go away.
Today's word is "macarize" (macarise, makarize). Meaning: "to account or call (a person, etc.) happy or blessed."
In 1818, R. Whately writes: "A man is admired for what he is, 'macarized' for what he has, praised for what he does".
Today's word is "smouge", which is “to take, secretly, more than one's rightful share” or “to make false (tax) returns and keep the difference”.
It could also be, specifically, “a Government member, or officer of an organisation, falsifying official expense records”.
Today's word is "scurryfunge". A "scurryfunge" is a hasty tidying of the house between the time you see a potential visitor approaching, and the time the knock sounds on the door. I have heard it referred to as "a flurried neatening".
Today's word is "adhocracy": “a flexible and informal style of organization and management, characterized by a lack of bureaucracy” or “a bureaurcracy characterized by inconsistency and lack of planning”.
Today's word is "ad hominem", meaning (1) appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or other personal considerations rather than to intellect or reason or (2) attacking an opponent personally instead of answering the argument. You may recognise this as common practice amongst our elected officials.
Today the word is "patchery", which dates from at least the mid-1500s, and means "knavery", "roguery"; "trickery", "cheating", or "any form of deception".
Shakespeare, in Timon of Athens (v.i.95), uses it: "You heare him cogge, See him dissemble, Know his grosse 'patchery'."
Today’s word is "quiff", that is "a clever trick, ploy, or stratagem to achieve a desired end, especially by unorthodox, irregular, or time-saving means" or “a dodge" or "a trick" or “any smart, tricky, or novel or improvised way of doing a thing” or "a trick or artifice that makes a job easier".
Today's word is "bite-sheep". In the 1500s, a pun on “bishop".
It is an insult to those in Ecclesiastical authority who prey upon those who ought to be protected.
The Bishops (shepherds) who would "put the bite" on their parishioners (sheep, flock). Still quite a usable word today, unfortunately.
Today's word is "piggle": “to fiddle or toy with” or “to niggle or worry at”, as a pig rooting through, or playing with it's food.
It also means “to uproot” or “to pick or scrape at (especially with a pointed instrument or with the fingers)”.
To "piggle off" is “to pick or work something off”.
Today the word is “in petto” meaning “privately”, “in secret”, “in reserve” or “in a person's heart or mind”. “In petto” also means “in miniature” or “on a small scale” or “in short”.
Kipling writes, in “Kim”: “He represents in petto India in transition—the monstrous hybridism of East and West.”
Today's word is "puthering", which means "pouring with rain". The word dates from around 1900 and comes from the word "puther" which is a "cloud of smoke, dust, or steam" (the "puther" covered the mountainside after Mount St Helens erupted). To be "puthery" is to be sultry.
Today from the Old English, some “love words “:
luftācen - love-token
luflic - amiable, loving
lufiend - lover
lufian – to love, cherish
lufiendlic - lovely, beautiful
lufsumnes - pleasantness, kindness
Happy Valentines Day!
Today's word is "tartle", meaning "to hesitate when you are introducing someone whose name you can't quite remember” or “the uncomfortable pause as your brain searches for a name to put with a face”.
For me a name is a word and words can get jumbled in my post-brain-surgery mind. I "tartle" often.
Today's word is fairly common: "alacrity".
It means "liveliness, sprightliness; briskness, speed; cheerful readiness or willingness.... or an instance of this."
In Shakespeare's Richard III v. v. 26:
“I haue not that 'alacrity' of spirit Nor cheere of mind that I was wont to haue."
Today the word (phrase) is “pas si bête”, meaning: “not so foolish” or “nothing that foolish” or “not that stupid” or “not so bad”.
In Fraser's Magazine, June of 1840, W. Thackeray, writes: “I am not holding up the whole affair as a masterpiece - 'pas si bête'.”
Today the word is "passepartout" (obsolete, Old French): "a person who may go anywhere". It now means "a thing giving a person the right or opportunity to go anywhere" or "a key that opens any (or many) doors: a master key".
It occasionally is used in reference to a passport.
Today the word is “widdershin” or to “go widdershins”, which means to “go in the contrary direction” or “to travel contrary to the course of the sun” or “to go the wrong way” or “to move to the left” (“left” being “sinester”)...or, more simply put: “counter-clockwise”.
Today the word is “misway” which is “a false path” or “the wrong way”.
To “go misway” is “to be diverted or go astray” or “to go, or to make a decision, which is amiss”.
Chaucer writes: “Love makith all to goon myswey.” and: “It is to douten that thou ne be makid weery by mysweyes.”
The word today is "ninguid", meaning either "snowy" or "covered in snow".
It is now an obsolete word, relegated to history in usage...but I think it is worthy of re-visiting it's usage.
In 1656, in Glossogaphia, T. Bount writes his definition of the word: "Ningid or Ninguid, where much Snow is."
Today's word is "curfew" which comes to us from Old French (13c). The original French “couvre feu" translates - "to cover the fire".
When “the fire” was covered at the watch tower, or at the center of town, it was time for any and all good citizens to be "abed".
Today the word is "manxome", which is a nonsense word invented by Lewis Carroll to describe the Jabberwock in his poem ‘Jabberwocky’ (in Carroll's 1879 work Through the Looking-glass). "He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought.”
“Manxome" means "fearsome” or “monstrous".
