Expand your vocabulary! Word of the day!

[thebrinkoftime]

There are many Word of the Day programs and websites out there, so you may ask what is the point of doing it on a forum when we've got that? Well the point is, that just learning a word sometimes it isn't enough to be able to use it in the right context.

 

However, if enough people participate, on a forum you can get an idea of how words flow and change in interpretation from person to person that may surprise you, and more specifically from the kind of people who come to GA and like to read gay fiction, i.e. examples of potential readers. Thus, this thread.

 

So participate! Please.

 

Here's the idea:

 

1) Anyone can post a Word of the Day, and multiple people can do so on the same day, but it must come with a definition that is accurate. You can add your own definition or impression, if you like. In fact, that's encouraged. Also, please only post one a day and do not simply copy Words of the Day from other websites, make it your own word of the day. See a word you never knew before? Had that weird thing happen to you where a word you've never encounted before suddenly starts getting used a lot around you?

 

For dictionaries, I recommend Dictionary.com and Oxford. Use whatever you prefer, though.

 

2) If you see it and think something, tell us what that is, that's what makes a forum unique! Give us a moment of your time! Let us know if you know that word. What's your impression of it? Do you think it is pretentious, useless, useful, silly, obsolete? Would you ever use it? Tell us an anecdote about it! Or anything really.

 

Building an impression of the sounds and meanings of various words that various cultures have is an undeniable asset in writing. Accessing your conscious and unconscious word bank can provide helpful triggers when you're searching for the right word, even if you never use the words. Simply learning associations can help!

 

3) Etymology would be nice, but it's not required.

 

4) Foreign words you'd like to introduce are fine, but make sure you are still giving us a dictionary definition in English.

 

So I'll start. I've heard this word before, had a vague idea of what it was, but never really knew.

 

au·gu·ry [aw-gyuh-ree] 

noun, plural au·gu·ries.

1. the art or practice of an augur; divination.

2. the rite or ceremony of an augur.

3. an omen, token, or indication.

 

they heard the sound as an augury of death

 

late Middle English (in the sense 'divination'): from Old French augurie or Latin augurium 'interpretation of omens

 

For some reason, I always thought this had to do with farming. I seem to see this word more in the plural, but I had no idea there were augurs. "So what does your father do?"

 

"He's an augur."

 

"Cool, seen anything in the stars lately?"

 

"Nah, he says the stars are on strike."

Edited September 22, 2013 by thebrinkoftime

[LJH]

It does not augur well that several clients are taking away their business.

 

Great exercise, Brink. I have several dictionaries on my writing desk.

 

hustings pl.n.

Platform from which election speeches were made in former times; any place where political campaigning is carried out; political campaigning, especially for an election.

 

Readers Digest Reverse Dictionary

[Andy78]

I love word games.  I've played them since childhood and there is one word that is an absolute must know if you are to have a chance of winning.  It is actually really only ever used in word games, I've certainly never seen it in stories, newspapers, and have never come across it in everyday speech.  I have never figured out how to incorporate it into a story, but it's not for lack of trying.

 

That word is:

 

Floccinaucinihilipilification (pronounced floksi-nausi-knee-hilly-pilly-fee-cation)

 

Definition: The act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value, or being worthless

 

Etymology: Mid-18th century (earliest known usage 1741).  The word was apparently coined from a line in the book Eton Latin Grammar that listed a series of words that are synonyms for worthless.  There are four Latin words used that have meanings that convey nothingness or worthlessness:  floccus (a wisp or piece of wool), naucum (trifle, as in trifling not the dessert), nihil (nothing) and pilus (a hair)

 

Notable usage:  This word was actually used in a speech by Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg in 2012, and thus became the longest word ever spoken in the British House of Commons.

 

This is accepted as the longest non-technical word in the English language (obviously not counting the 100-letter long invented words that appear in Finnegan's Wake).

[Ron]

There are many Word of the Day programs and websites out there, so you may ask what is the point of doing it on a forum when we've got that? Well the point is, that just learning a word sometimes it isn't enough to be able to use it in the right context.

 

However, if enough people participate, on a forum you can get an idea of how words flow and change in interpretation from person to person that may surprise you, and more specifically from the kind of people who come to GA and like to read gay fiction, i.e. examples of potential readers. Thus, this thread.

 

So participate! Please.

 

Here's the idea:

 

1) Anyone can post a Word of the Day, and multiple people can do so on the same day, but it must come with a definition that is accurate. You can add your own definition or impression, if you like. In fact, that's encouraged. Also, please only post one a day and do not simply copy Words of the Day from other websites, make it your own word of the day. See a word you never knew before? Had that weird thing happen to you where a word you've never encounted before suddenly starts getting used a lot around you?

 

For dictionaries, I recommend Dictionary.com and Oxford. Use whatever you prefer, though.

 

2) If you see it and think something, tell us what that is, that's what makes a forum unique! Give us a moment of your time! Let us know if you know that word. What's your impression of it? Do you think it is pretentious, useless, useful, silly, obsolete? Would you ever use it? Tell us an anecdote about it! Or anything really.

 

Building an impression of the sounds and meanings of various words that various cultures have is an undeniable asset in writing. Accessing your conscious and unconscious word bank can provide helpful triggers when you're searching for the right word, even if you never use the words. Simply learning associations can help!

 

3) Etymology would be nice, but it's not required.

 

4) Foreign words you'd like to introduce are fine, but make sure you are still giving us a dictionary definition in English.

 

So I'll start. I've heard this word before, had a vague idea of what it was, but never really knew.

 

au·gu·ry [aw-gyuh-ree] 

noun, plural au·gu·ries.

1. the art or practice of an augur; divination.

2. the rite or ceremony of an augur.

3. an omen, token, or indication.

 

they heard the sound as an augury of death

 

late Middle English (in the sense 'divination'): from Old French augurie or Latin augurium 'interpretation of omens

 

For some reason, I always thought this had to do with farming. I seem to see this word more in the plural, but I had no idea there were augurs. "So what does your father do?"

 

"He's an augur."

 

"Cool, seen anything in the stars lately?"

 

"Nah, he says the stars are on strike."

 

Augur does have a connection to farming. I learned this word at a very young age when listening to stories told by my grandparents and their siblings (great aunts and uncles) of life in Kentucky. Some when telling the tales used the term augur and some used diviner when describing the need to find a new well to replace one that had run dry. The auger/diviner would use a dowsing rod - a Y shaped rod usually made of some wood such as willow for it's water connection - to scout a property for likely water sources. Apparently the really good ones could use a straight rod made from a sapling. This is a thing that not everyone can do but the people they spoke of hiring were usually successful and well known. This was very useful on the hills and hollers of Kentucky so you didn't have to go all the way downhill to the creek (pronounced - crick) to fetch water. Farmers used augurs to find wells for irrigation.

[Ron]

My word would be - Sophistry. I ran into this word sometime ago in a New York Times article and looked it up. I like the sound of it when saying it out loud. Ha. It is one of those words I look for opportunities to use.

 

 

soph-ist-ry  [sof-uh-stree]

 

noun, plural soph-ist-ries

1. a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.

2. the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.

 

 

trying to argue that I had benefited in any way from the disaster was pure sophistry

 

 

 

mid-14c., from O.Fr. sophistrie, from M.L. sophistria, from L. sophista, sophistes (see sophist).

 

 

It is not especially hard to run into examples of sophistry. Opportunity to call people on it, especially if you want to remain friendly, might be. Although it has been known from experience to stop an argument on a dime: "Argue,argue,argue" - "Oh, that's pure sophistry and you know it." - stops arguing - "What's, sophistry?" - "Look it up." - walk away.

[rustle]

I offer 2 words:

 

fenestration - an opening in the envelope of a building, such as a door or window; also, the act of creating such an opening

 

defenestration - the act of pushing someone out a window

 

The Defenestration of Prague is an artwork depicting one of two historical events, in which members of government were thrown out of a window.

 

In the movie Braveheart, King Edward Longshanks defenestrated his son's male lover.

 

*

Interesting use of the word augur, Ron. In rural Oklahoma and Texas, in the Red River Valley, they preferred "dowser" or "witcher."

[Ashi]

My word would be - Sophistry. I ran into this word sometime ago in a New York Times article and looked it up. I like the sound of it when saying it out loud. Ha. It is one of those words I look for opportunities to use.

 

 

soph-ist-ry  [sof-uh-stree]

 

noun, plural soph-ist-ries

1. a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.

2. the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.

 

 

trying to argue that I had benefited in any way from the disaster was pure sophistry

 

Sophistry is one of my favorite words because we see people doing this a lot in today's society, so it's a very practical word to use in everyday environment.  That word and "pedantry" are very nice reminders to people when an argument is going to the wrong direction.

 

I think the better definition (and easier to understand one) of sophistry should be, "using logic to make a false statement sounds legitimate" when in fact, the argument has no truth in it.  Politicians use sophistry a lot, and I believe this word has the etymology back to the time of Plato or Socrates, which one I don't remember, because one of them was a master of sophistry, so someone used that word to describe him.  A sophistry is completely logical in structure, but with no truth in it, usually due to questionable premises or incorrect use of inductive reasoning.  It is very different from a fallacious statement (which is logically incorrect).  Sophia = wisdom.  Sophistry is an incorrect use of wisdom.

 

My word of the day is:

 

Flâneur [flanuʁ]  French (don't ask me to pronounce this word, please...)

 

1.  An idle man-about-town

2.  A stroller

 

The reason for using French rather than English is because the French word is the term used in philosophy and has a connotation to it.  It's not just any stroller, but a stroller on a crowded cosmopolitan street (like a Parisian street) with an intention to enrich one's culture by speaking with random strangers and acquire their life experience.  It's a French philosophy popularized by Baudelaire around late 1800's.  Wikipedia has a very good definition (I first learned this word from a Philosophy 101 course on DVD), so please click on the word above to read the part I linked to (which is Urban Life, though the entire wiki article is fascinating also). 

 

Another word associated with flaneur is philistinism.... 

 

Philistine

 

1.  a native or inhabitant of ancient Philistia

2.  often not capitalized

 

a :  a person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values

b :  one uninformed in a special area of knowledge

 

A philistine (or a philister) is opposite of flaneur.  In other words, a philistine is someone who doesn't care about culture and is anti-intellectual.

 

So... if a hipster is an intellectual, and a philister is an anti-intellectual, then an anti-hipster is a philister.  Okay, I was just joking, but that statement is a prime example of sophistry. 

 

Edited September 22, 2013 by Ashi

[thebrinkoftime]

 

hustings pl.n.
Platform from which election speeches were made in former times; any place where political campaigning is carried out; political campaigning, especially for an election.

 

 

 I can imagine this being useful for period pieces. It reminds of the word hustling, which also goes along with politics, because it suggests an extremely busy atmosphere.

 

Floccinaucinihilipilification (pronounced floksi-nausi-knee-hilly-pilly-fee-cation)

 

Definition: The act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value, or being worthless

 

Etymology: Mid-18th century (earliest known usage 1741).  The word was apparently coined from a line in the book Eton Latin Grammar that listed a series of words that are synonyms for worthless.  There are four Latin words used that have meanings that convey nothingness or worthlessness:  floccus (a wisp or piece of wool), naucum (trifle, as in trifling not the dessert), nihil (nothing) and pilus (a hair)

This is accepted as the longest non-technical word in the English language (obviously not counting the 100-letter long invented words that appear in Finnegan's Wake).

 

Thanks andy! I know exactly where I can use this word! What a word! So supercalifragilisticexpiallidocious isn't recognized in the dictionary?

 

soph-ist-ry  [sof-uh-stree]

 

noun, plural soph-ist-ries

1. a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.

2. the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.

 

trying to argue that I had benefited in any way from the disaster was pure sophistry

 

I like this word too. I found it out in college from a class on Greek classics. I love not only using it against others, but being a sophist is fun as well.

 

I offer 2 words:

 

fenestration - an opening in the envelope of a building, such as a door or window; also, the act of creating such an opening

 

defenestration - the act of pushing someone out a window

 

I always thought this meant making someone less powerful or castrating them somehow. Interesting true meaning. Has anyone here read A Game of Thrones (I don't actually like those books, but I've read three of them, go figure)? That one pivotal scene near the beginning where two characters are caught doing something nasty and the poor kid gets pushed out the window? That was apparently defenestration!

 

 

My word of the day is:

 

Flâneur [flanuʁ]  French (don't ask me to pronounce this word, please...)

 

1.  An idle man-about-town

2.  A stroller

 

Philistine

 

1.  a native or inhabitant of ancient Philistia

2.  often not capitalized

 

a :  a person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values

b :  one uninformed in a special area of knowledge

 

I've never heard of Flaneur, but it reminds of Ned Flanders from The Simpsons. Sounds flowery, like you could eat it. Philistine on the other hand, is another word I love. I put it in the same category of plebe or plebeian; I let pretentious characters use it to put down others. You know where I learned the word Philistine from? Good old Calvin and Hobbes!

[Cia]

A fav word of mine... coiffure.

 

Coiff/Coiffure: A hairstyle or way to do the hair. French word, of course, circa mid/late Renaissance era.

 

I just like saying the word. It sounds elegant and reminds me of those days and times when going out in public didn't mean throwing on a ball cap or pulling your hair back into an elastic band. When appearance mattered. The first story I ever wrote had this word in it, before I learned not to use all the fancy words I know and like.

[Aditus]

When I watched 'Criminal Minds' last week they used the word 'zugzwang'. I didn't know it was used as a foreign word in the Englsih language.

 

zugzwang ( German  ˈtsuːktsvaŋ)

 

1. a position in which one player can move only with loss or severe disadvantage (chess)

2. ( tr ) to manoeuvre (one's opponent) into a zugzwang

3. force somebody to act

[from German, from Zug  a pull, tug + Zwang  force, compulsion]

[Conner]

So, would bullshit be a synonym for sophistry! 

[Thorn Wilde]

Not a word, per se, but might be useful for people on this site writing period dramas:

 

Backgammon player n.

 

18th century British slang for homosexual

[thebrinkoftime]

I always seem to coiffure and not coiff, though I'm not sure why. Sound-wise, it kind of sounds to me like what a hair style would look like if a giant sneezed and the person's hair went all "blubububu."

 

Zugzwang? Why is it all the German words I know are all so violent? I'm also surprised that showed up on a TV show! Landsakes and poppycakes!

 

I wonder if the back door jokes started from Backgammon player? Or if there was some sort of secret gay society in Backgammon circles?

 

My word of the day is:

 

a·bode [uh-bohd] 

noun

 

1. a place in which a person resides; residence; dwelling; habitation; home.

2. an extended stay in a place; sojourn.

 

verb

a simple past tense and past participle of abide.

 

Origin:
1200–50; Middle English abood  a waiting, delay, stay; akin to abide

 

Holy creole-y! I had no idea that abode could have come about from a derivation of the past tense of abide, but it makes so much sense! I wonder why I never put two and two together before? I also didn't know it had the second meaning, I wonder how you use that second meaning in a sentence?

Edited September 24, 2013 by thebrinkoftime

[Aditus]

 

Zugzwang? Why is it all the German words I know are all so violent? I'm also surprised that showed up on a TV show! Landsakes and poppycakes!

 

Like kindergarten? Rucksack? uber? autobahn? dachshund? doppelganger? gemütlichkeit? hamburger? kitsch? bratwurst?

I think bratwurst is the most violent.

Edited September 24, 2013 by aditus

[Former Member]

For some reason, I always thought this had to do with farming. I seem to see this word more in the plural, but I had no idea there were augurs. "So what does your father do?"

 

That would be an auger.  With an e.

 

My word is!

 

 

be·mused  [bih-myoozd]

adjective

1.

bewildered or confused.

2.

lost in thought; preoccupied.

[Ieshwar]

I saw this at work today. 

 

Cru (noun)

(in France) A vineyard or group of vineyards, esp. one of recognized superior quality.

 

 

I would have associated the word with the French word, "crue", meaning floods, overflowing. Interestingly, 'Cru' comes from the French word, cru (having the same meaning as in English), which I didn't know of course. 

[Cia]

How about...

 

Vagary (noun) vā-gə-rē means an erratic or unpredictable action, occurence, instance. It can also mean an idea that's capricious, whimsical, wild. The dictionary says the word source is latin from the word vagari: to roam which makes sense. You could see this word also as vagaries, which is plural. I used this word last night in chat and a member gagged, reading it totally wrong. LOL

 

Stone weeps at the vagaries of time and nature.

[Ron]

Cru (noun)

(in France) A vineyard or group of vineyards, esp. one of recognized superior quality.

 

 

I would have associated the word with the French word, "crue", meaning floods, overflowing. Interestingly, 'Cru' comes from the French word, cru (having the same meaning as in English), which I didn't know of course. 

 

Cru also means raw in french - as in Crudités, whole or sliced raw vegetables used for dipping in to a complimentary sauce.

 

 

Or, the neighborhood wine and liquor store down on the corner where I used to get my intoxicants. I went on a big trip of five months and came back to Cru being closed. Turned out that one of the partners was selling pot and illegal guns on the side. Right here in Boston, if you can believe it.

[thebrinkoftime]

Bemused is a great word because it sounds like a command, "Be mused, my young artists! So you may create great works of stunning creativity!" No wonder it can mean being preoccupied. Anything that has to do with Greek mythology and more specifically, the Fates, Muses and Furies, I love.

 

Cru is definitely one I've never heard before, even though I'm familiar with crue. Makes me want to get creative with poetry: the crood cru crew crooned to the crooks. Though Ron's explanation reminds of how so many words have a pleasant duality to them. Animal-related words tend to have this a lot.

 

Vagaries reminds me of bestiary as another word that is commonly confused for something else. But there's another word that does too. And it brings me to my Word of the Day, which is one of my favorites:

 

nig·gard·ly [nig-erd-lee]

adjective

1. reluctant to give or spend; stingy; miserly.

2. meanly or ungenerously small or scanty: a niggardly tip to a waiter.

 

adverb

3. in the manner of a niggard.

 

Origin: 
1325–75; Middle English nyggard,  equivalent to nig  niggard (< Scandinavian;  compare dialectal Swedish nygg;  akin to Old English hnēaw  stingy) + -ard

 

Saved by the d, eh? Mwa ha ha ha ha. No seriously, this a great word, it's just a shame that some people tend to misinterpret its usage. Its sound as a great negative adjective has nothing to do with that other awful word.

 

It reminds me of how a lot of words may share similar sounds or spellings but have completely different origins. Like the Youtube star, nigahiga or Ryan Higa, who is a Japanese American from Hawaii. His username is a play on his last name of the Japanese word for "bitter" which is nigai (but Japanese adverbs need not include the "i" all the time). One time, when he was interviewed, somebody misinterpreted his username as if it were English. Kind of ethnocentric if you ask me! Expand your mind!

Edited September 25, 2013 by thebrinkoftime

[Ashi]

While I was writing a PM to someone, it drives nuts to forget about this word....  Thanks ComicFan who helped me with it:

 

Haberdashery (noun)

1. Ribbons, buttons, thread, needles and similar sewing goods sold in a haberdasher's shop.
2. A shop selling such goods.
3. A shop selling clothing and accessories for men, including hats.

The first two definitions are the original English usage.  The third is American English usage of the word.  Usually a haberdashery has a tailor who can do size-fitting and alteration for you, if your suits don't fit.  Given we don't see a lot of tailors around anymore (people buy ready-to-wear clothes in malls nowadays), there isn't really that many haberdasheries around (the only ones I've seen are from J.Crew and Nordstrom).  However, it's still a fun word to use if you are writing a story with an impeccable dresser.

[The Pecman]

A friend of mine just complained to me about the use of the word codswallop in the Harry Potter novels, which I think is hilarious. It's a perfect word to use in lieu of "crap" or other swear words. One character says, "well, I think we should just do what he says," and the other says, "I think that's a lot of codswallop." A perfectly reasonable word, and very appropriate for a fantasy story:

 

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/codswallop

[thebrinkoftime]

Haberdashery is a great word! Just the sound of it is fantastic! It's a shame that it seems to be fading and falling out of favor. I bet a weak-ass word like "internationalism" gets used more often, which is just a travesty.

 

Codswallop is another word that sounds great, but I can't imagine anyone objecting to it. It's a perfectly harmless word and better than the alternative.

 

I've been reading lots of Graeme's stories this week and I find all the New Zealander/Aussie expressions very amusing and charming. One of my favorite differences is this:

 

bow·ser [bou-zer] 

noun Australian and  New Zealand.

 

a gasoline pump at a filling station.

 

Origin:
1930–35;  said to be after S.F. Bowser  and Co., a Sydney manufacturer of gasoline and oil storage systems

 

That's great, isn't it? The King of the Koopas, sworn enemy of Mario and capturer of princesses puts gas in your car!

Edited September 29, 2013 by thebrinkoftime

[Cia]

So, for some reason the word triskaidekaphobia has been stuck in my head. No idea why the fear of the #13 has been lingering but maybe it'll become part of a story or something. But when I was researching it to remember what the hell it means (yes, the word was stuck in my head but not the meaning) I came across a word that I thought might first relate to math but instead it was:

 

Graphophobia n. Fear of writing or handwriting. The origin of this word is Greek: grapho which means to write.

 

Thank goodness we have a whole caboodle of authors not suffering from graphophobia!