syllabary 10-31-08
from Tom Morse
I was so happy because I was able to use the word "syllabary" today. It's an alphabet of symbols for syllables. Japanese has 3 different alphabets. It has Congi(sp?), which is borrowed from Chinese. Then it has Hiragana and Katagana(sp?) which are 2 syllabaries, each with the identical 48 syllables--the exact same identical sounds, but different characters. Hiragana is used for Japanese syllables, and Katagana is used for the same syllables in transliteration of foreign languages like: "RA-DJO" (for radio). To graduate from high school in Japan. you need to know how to write with 1,945 different characters. . . . . [WTF?]
pantoum 10-30-08
via Teri K
It's a very complicated form of poetry. . . . like a villanelle. I like the spooky mystical sound of the word, evoking monks and superheroes . . . of poetry. Apparently it was Malaysian. I think there's a band called Maroon Pantoum.
gasket 10-29-08
from Julia G
The little rubber strip around the fridge door is loose, so now you really have to be sure you close it tightly. [I've always loved this word, as it conjures greasy garages and the expression "blew a gasket."]
philtrum 10-28-08
from Stuart Pitchel
I think I might have made up this word. It means this little snot canal right here (points to upper lip, below nose). Nope, . . . it's a real word . . . The philtrum allows humans to express a much wider range of emotions.
punky 10-27-08
from Holly Hartman
“punky"--used to mean sick, under the weather. Last week I had a cold and Frankie said she was sorry I was “feeling punky,” which delighted me enormously, and I kept recalling (and enjoying) this word throughout the week. Yesterday I woke up and thought “Finally, I don’t feel punky anymore!” The word made me glad then, too.
epiphany 10-26-08
from Mason Pitchel
"What's an epiphany?"--It's from the Simpson's movie. Something Homer said: "Uh . . .What's an epiphany?"
rapscallion 10-25-08
from Margaret Muirhead
"other favorite word"
skedaddle 10-24-08
from Margaret Muirhead
"a favorite word"
scrolled 10-23-08
from Tim at my request
the woodworking word to describe when spirals are carved into wood . . . as tree trunks naturally do, visible in cut-away, in logs stacked in a woodpile imitating peaks of breakers: splash. lash. ash.
misto 10-22-08
from Ariel
It's teabag tea, with foamy milk . . . and can I have three honeys with that?
amber10-21-08
trying to find just the right word for the color I love . . . not "gold" because it's not metallic . . . not orange, but there's orange and yellow in it . . . tree sap, honey, reds of maples, less brown . . . color of the sun . . . but not yellow. Maybe honey with plenty of sun in it. A yellow garnet. Definitely there was Amber all over the world yesterday. HItting the trees, the highways, the houses, spraying from the trees in the leaves' turning. Amber glare in my eyes.
fungible 10-20-08
from Auntie Ruth
Well, i always think of it as 'changeable' or 'in flux' or 'flexible,
but i have it a little askew....:
(esp. of goods) being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind.
(especially of goodmans?? only once in a great while is this true of us..., as in when one auntie can babysit instead of another auntie. )
petard 10-19-08
from Rebecca Ennen via her blog:
"Lately I've been complaining that I can't get through a day without a conversation about Sarah Palin. Blah blah blah, she's so terrifying/awful/hilarious. So, hoist to my own petard, I'm blogging about her--after three months, I know I know it's ridiculous.
But not as ridiculous as this: sheitel.com is now selling a Sarah Palin wig. Yes folks, now you in the modest-haircovering Orthodox world can look like Our Sarah, lovin' Jews for Jesus and hatin' that mean old goverment (shoo! git back on the side of the American people!) and stylin' the bouffant. I loves it"
ansisters 10-18-08
another made-up word, this one seen on the wall of the museum at the National Parks Service National Women's Rights Center in Seneca Falls. Clearly, our ansisters are a part of our herstory. Word to my ansisters!
chune 10-17-08
via Chris De'vlin
Got this from lissnn to CHris's Mix'sizz on the interweb yesterday. "'eavy chunes" was said (and typed) a LOT. Someone e'd me a VERY 'EAVY one today. Wanna lisn?
joystick 10-16-08
what we used to have, before Gameboy and Wii; somehow "joystick" says it best!
dardedel 10-15-08
from Manoucher Parvin
via Carol Cartier:
[Parvin writes in the intro to his novel-in-verse Dardedel]
"Do you know this Persian word, dardedel?
In English we would call it a heart-to-heart talk, yet a dardedel is so much more than heart to heart, and so much more than talk.
Darde means ache. Del means heart. But put together they mean one and another sharing the most private, sincere and important things. Dardedel unchains us from the burdens of our isolation and loneliness. By uniting our soul with another soul, our deepest thoughts and feelings are set free, without the shame of judgment or the fear of betrayal. It is this absolute trust that makes dardedel so special and so sacred."—Manoucher Parvin, 2003
fuchsia 10-14-08
via Lisa Sinicki, IWP
I remember when this was my favorite flower and favorite color. I 'discovered' it in one of my dad's girlfriends' homes. The glamor was unbearably attractive. I wanted to BE a fuchsia flower or live in one.
What struck me about this word was the ungodly spelling of it. It luks layk it shood be prrnownst "fucksha" awr spelt "fuschia". No?
swivet 10-13-08
from Chris Halter
A state of exasperation, panic, or extreme irritation. I think it's one of those old-timey words that has fallen out of use. When I use it no one knows what I mean. My mother used to say it all the time, e.g., "So-and-so was in a real swivet!" or "Don't get yourself into a swivet."
fabulist 10-12-08
from LLisa
It's stories that are like fairy tales. Like Italo Calvino's }The Baron in the Trees{, about a Baronet who gets so mad at his sister, he decides he's not ever going to come down from his trees, and then he has to figure out how to just live in his trees.
davenport 10-11-08
via Pop Nihoff
After his stroke, Bob forgets a lot of words for things, but 'davenport' was automatic, and when he said it I was the one who drew a blank. "What's a davenport?" I said.
It's where he used to fall asleep many a night. Sofa. Couch. These words were more difficult to summon. I like davenport. I think my grandparents used to have me sleep there too, when I was little. Maybe it's a New York thing, or a 1950s thing. Or older.
chapel pie 10-10-08
cheese melted on top of apple pie. A good way to have pie for breakfast.
se-tenant 10-09-08
from Ruth Goodman
(found on the "s" stamp in alphabetilately)
se-tenant....as in joined;
as in... sarah and the cosmos.
a group of stamps that differ in color, value, or design but are printed together on the same sheet and are collected without separating the stamps.
wilhelm scream 10-08-08
I don't know why wilhelm is such a great modifier for scream, but it is!~ It's the official name of a certain movie sound effect recorded and reused ad nauseum: the wilhelm scream. It sounds like . . . eaagahhrrrgh!
uxorious 10-07-08
from Rob K. Nihoff
obsessively submissive or devoted to one's wife.
whipsaw 10-06-08
from a news anchor describing how the economic crisis is affecting average folks.
It means: to defeat in two ways at once. a defeat from two directions. a flexible two-person crosscut saw.
cush 10-05-08
via David Sedaris (again)
I couldn't believe this was a real verb. David S. mentioned watching TV shows about why a camel won't cush. And I had to wonder what would a camel do if it could cush. Could I cush too? so, . . . I went to and found this "Here is a little trick you can use on a camel if they don't want to koosh. Run the leg rope around the camels other front leg to keep them on their knees, and just wait. They will eventually get tired and go the rest of the way down."
So I guess it has two spellings. It's a command and an action "lie down" but camels lie down in a weird way folding front legs forward, then back legs back, and they have a reputation for stubborness, so cushing on command is a feat.
aggressive 10-04-08
from cheerleading days . . .
This is a hard word for me to spell and to be, even though we had a chant that basically spelled it out:
"Be a-g-g-
r-e-s-s-i-v-e!
Be aggressive!"
I always seem to forget the second 'g.' (too many g's and not enough r's in "ggr")
wobbly 10-03-08
from Winnie the Pooh: "My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling, but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places." -- Pooh Bear
swale 10-02-08
via Katherine Paterson's book about the monarch butterfly; geographic term for a low depression that follows the shape of the land, like a river, but earthy and vegetated. It can be dry in dry times and can be wet and marshy when it acts as a run-off channel for water during wet times.
barcalounger 10-01-08
my mnemonic device to remember the title of the movie I want to see: Barcelona