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Word Of The Day

GeorgeP said:
What ever your taking can I have some please :)
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(That'd just be two fizzy Vitamin C tablets, a 75 mg Asprin, 3 odourless garlic tablets and a random Omega 3 capsule....not so much substance abuse as sustenance adduce.....

And @rynner2 , I'm not a 'she', I'm just an old cow)

Anyway, my self-created new word (cf autoneologism), which I invented at least three decades ago, is...

Anadigitabulaecessionism

......the infuriating habit displayed by many a flawed orator, during the commencement phase of eg a ranting statement, or a heart-felt soliloquy, wherein the perpetrator appears feverishly-possessed of the intention to expound a tabulated list of erudite points (using the fingers of one hand as counters) but, then singularly-fails in this enterprise after mumbling just the first or second 'digit'.

A variation upon this theme (but with a similar level of immediate and annoying nonsequentialness) is when people chant "Ayy!" for their first point, followed by saying "Twoo!" for their second proposition, then just descending into a chaotic jumble of non-numericised ramblings.
 
Ermintrude said:
And @rynner2 , I'm not a 'she', I'm just an old cow)


Anadigitabulaecessionism
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Ermintrude, your not an old moo but a funky little wotsit.;)

Ever thought of taking up Monopoly for a living? You word knowledge could be the beginning of extra income :)
 
How the word 'tunnel' went from France to England and back
The Vocabularist Words unpicked

The Channel Tunnel has been the focus of riots and fires in recent weeks. It is noteworthy that the word "tunnel" itself moved from France to England and then back again.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives as its first definition of tunnel, from the 15th Century, "a net for catching partridges".
It is true that it was used to mean the sort of tube-shaped net into which birds can be coaxed. A beautiful engraving from 1678 shows partridges being gently herded into a tunnel by a man wearing a cow-skin.
It was usual for the stalker to pose as a cow or horse (the origin of the phrase "stalking horse") so as to make the birds step away in front of him, rather than fly away as they would from a man.
Another tunnel net in the same picture is used for quails, lured to it by the calls of other quails in cages.

But there were many other early uses of the word "tunnel" for something tubular, such as a chimney or a funnel. That's not surprising because the word comes from tonneau (formerly tonel) which has meant a barrel in French since at least the 12th Century.
It is a diminutive of the word tunne or tunna used for a barrel and then for one of a particular size, and therefore as a measure of capacity and weight - giving us both ton(ne) and tun in English.

Now since tunnel already meant a tube it was no great leap, as Britain built its canals and railways, to use it for a tube-shaped passageway though a hill or under a river.
In 1765, a letter in the Manchester Mercury described how engineer James Brindley was "driving a large tunnel through the center" of Castle Hill, near where the River Medlock joins his Bridgewater Canal, to enable barges to take coal closer to the centre of the town.

And as French dictionaries acknowledge, in the 19th Century the French took the word back in its English form.
There is always resistance to borrowing foreign words into French and "souterrain" is sometimes used instead, but "tunnel" was preferred by the builders of the St Etienne-Lyons railway as early as the the 1820s, and anyway it is French in origin and actually looks quite French.
The celebrated underground funicular in Istanbul built in 1875 is called "Tünel" mimicking the French pronunciation rather than the English.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-33647830

A ship's tonnage originally referred to the number of tuns of wine it could carry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnage
 
Heard on "Fry's English Delight" (the recent neologisms episode, Radio 4)

'floordrobe'
(noun) that versatile item found underfoot within teenage bedrooms that can be used for walking upon, and also for storing clothing / books / CDs etc. Easily searched through, decorative, and highly-functional.
 
One of my favourites - Petrichor.


Petrichor (/ˈpɛtrɨkɔər/) is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word is constructed from Greek, petra, meaning ‘stone’, + ichor, the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.

The term was coined in 1964 by two researchers, Isabel Joy Bear (Australian) and Roderick G. Thomas (British), for an article in the journal Nature.[1][2] In the article, the authors describe how the smell derives from an oil exuded by certain plants during dry periods, whereupon it is absorbed by clay-based soils and rocks. During rain, the oil is released into the air along with another compound, geosmin, a metabolic by-product of certain Actinobacteria, which is emitted by wet soil, producing the distinctive scent.
 
Has anyone on FB subscribed to the Grandelequent Word of the Day? I get some very amusing posts to my timeline....
 
Here's an odd one, from World Wide Words newsletter:

Werifesteria

Leonie Bell wrote to ask about this word, which is circulating in social media. It’s said to be Old English, meaning “to wander longingly through the forest in search of mystery”. Its popularity suggests that it meets an inchoate spiritual desire for a term to sum up a concept that hasn’t previously been possible to articulate briefly. To be mundane about it, however, the evidence suggests it was created in late 2014 by an unknown person out of thin air. No record of it exists before then and there’s no root in Old English for forests or longing or wandering that matches anything in the word. It’s an intriguing neologism, a minor mystery of its own, and I would love to uncover the process of thought that led the anonymous author to create it.

I'm sure this describes the attitudes of many Forteans, however!
 
Word of the day is Supercalifragilsiticexpialiadocious ... thank you Mary Poppins ..

 
Swifty said:
Word of the day is Supercalifragilsiticexpialiadocious
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Ah, that takes me back!

"In 1968 Pattisson and MacDonald-Smith won the gold medal in the Flying Dutchman class in the Olympic Games on their boat Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, which was shortened by race officials to Superdocious.[5] Notes from the race indicate that its dominating length of lead mirrored the length of name. :) The boat is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Pattisson

...which is only a couple of miles from here!
 
rynner2 said:
the evidence suggests it was created in late 2014 by an unknown person out of thin air. No record of it exists before then and there’s no root in Old English for forests or longing or wandering that matches anything in the word. It’s an intriguing neologism, a minor mystery of its own, and I would love to uncover the process of thought that led the anonymous author to create it.

I'm sure this describes the attitudes of many Forteans, however!
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I once knew one of the two people who claim to have invented the word "spod" some time around 1989 (give or take a few years).

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/spod

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spod

Also a term that could describe some of us :)
 
rynner2 said:
I'm on Old Speckled Hen, but I don't have a clue what's she's on about either!
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Old Speckled Hen :cool: .... I was in a pub in Mickleover, Derbyshire on a day off from the pub I was a barman at and had three draught pints of the stuff. The strange thing was, the top half of me felt sober but my legs wouldn't work properly. An old guy was sat next to me and asked me if I knew how the ale got its name .. it turns out it has nothing to do with chickens but an old MG car that rolled of the assembly line back then in factory produced canary yellow. When people who owned these cars pranged them, they'd inevitably take them to a local garage (instead of coughing up the cash for a factory re-paint) that would patch up the paintwork with the nearest available shade of yellow although it rarely matched .... hence the name ... Speckled Hen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Speckled_Hen
 
farnarkling...

Farnarkeling is a sport which began in Mesopotamia, which literally means ‘between the rivers’. This would put it somewhere in Victoria or New South Wales between the Murray and the Darling. The word Farnarkeling is Icelandic in structure, Urdu in metre and Celtic in the intimacy of its relationship between meaning and tone.

Farnarkeling is engaged in by two teams whose purpose is to arkle, and to prevent the other team from arkeling, using a flukem to propel a gonad through sets of posts situated at random around the periphery of a grommet. Arkeling is not permissible, however, from any position adjacent to the phlange (or leiderkrantz) or from within 15 yards of the wiffenwacker at the point where the shifting tube abuts the centre-line on either side of the 34 metre mark, measured from the valve at the back of the defending side’s transom-housing.


As explained in a sentence, or two, by the indomitable John Clarke...


https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCQQuAIwAWoVChMIle7en-6syAIVQTWUCh0xawP8&url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFOImv3aTyo&
 

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Wow, that's impressive @MungomanII ...I am immediately reminded of the aerobics segment within Mornington Crescent, when playing the Tillsbury move without showing a full hand (and it would appear I'm not alone in making that connection, see http://parslow.com/mornington/move.pl?358 )

I'm in breathless awe of the flawless delivery from Mr John Clarke (someone who might almost manage to out-Clive James)

Here are some neoclassics for your delectation and potential application in the days and weeks appending from the hereuntowith......

http://www.slow-journalism.com/infographic-for-want-of-a-better-word

Afterclap (v) To clap or continue clapping after most applause has ceased

Beerboarding (n) Attempting to extract information from a person by getting them drunk

Carcolepsy (n) A condition causing a passenger to fall asleep soon after a car journey begins

Chairdrobe (n) A pile of clothes left on a chair. See also ‘floordrobe’

Dadcore (n) Clothes stereotypically
worn by fathers, viewed as a fashion trend

Epiphanot (n) An idea that seems like an amazing insight to the conceiver, but is in fact pointless, mundane, stupid or incorrect

Eye cabbage (n) An unattractive person; the complete opposite of eye candy

Lukewarmer (n) Person who believes in climate change, but not as a potentially catastrophic phenomenon

Shebagging (n) Taking up an extra seat in public with a handbag etc. See also ‘manspreading’
 
davidplankton said:
A place name.
Arkengarthdale.
Sounds like something from Tolkien.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkengarthdale
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Young Garth had recently returned from his 6 years at a rather toff Grammar school, and was out re-exploring the local countryside with his mate Jeb.

He was getting on Jebs wick with his constant reference to words and their origins, used by those of a more Southern disposition, to describe land forms. On espying a particular land form which they'd both grown up knowing, Garth said, 'now that Jeb, is a glacial valley', whereupon Jeb immediately replied - 'ArkenGarthDale'....

(Sorry David, I couldn't help myself.)
 
davidplankton said:
*Enters coat cupboard, scans the garments hanging on the wall and selects the one with the label sewn inside that says 'Mungoman II'*
Here ya go Mate! :p
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You beat me to it David...
 
Braconid scores Camborne's Brett Smitheram 176 points to make him World Scrabble Champion
By wbchris | Posted: September 06, 2016

Engineer Richard Trevithick's title of being Camborne's most famous son may be under threat after a recruitment consultant was crowned king of the wordsmiths by returning from France as the Scrabble World Champion. Brett Smitheram, 37, originally from Camborne and educated at Truro School, toppled fellow Brit Mark Nyman in the final in three straight nail-biting rounds in the city of Lille.
Brett played in a gruelling 34 games over five days taking on competitors from the USA and the rest of the English speaking world as well as Thailand, Pakistan and Nigeria.

His top scoring words included BRACONID – a parasitic wasp worth 176 points, JELUTONG – a tree which scored 96 points and DOUZEPER – a kind of cloth for 110 points.

"To be honest it's still sinking in and I'm finally getting a chance to look at the trophy and think about what's happened," said Brett.
"Yesterday (Monday) I barely had a moment to myself and had every news agency in London calling me, as well as doing a live interview with Australian broadcaster ABC in the evening. Sara Cox even dedicated a song to me on her show on BBC Radio 2, playing Word Up live on air.

Brett, who now lives in London, has been playing Scrabble for 20 years and trained for the event by going for runs, walking and learning every seven or eight-letter word in the dictionary which amounted to nearly 70,000 words.
"I could barely think by the end as the second game in the final really took it out of me," Brett added.
"But I am absolutely thrilled to have won, it was a closely fought championship and Mark was a very impressive opponent to play.

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"I was 176 points behind with six moves left but ended up winning by 48 points. It was a bizarre and emotional turn of events."

Brett still regularly visits family and friends in Cornwall and scooped a cool 7,000 euro prize pot by winning the competition.

http://www.westbriton.co.uk/braconi...ble-champion/story-29688430-detail/story.html

Hands up anyone who knew any of those three words before. The result seems to show that pasty-power is good for your memory! :p
 
I love ironic words such as dyslexia, which in its self is difficult to spell but my word of the day is
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
it is one of the longest words in the dictionary — and, in an ironic twist, is the name for a fear of long words.

Sesquipedalophobia is another term for the same phobia.
 
Souleater said:
I love ironic words such as dyslexia, which in its self is difficult to spell but my word of the day is
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
it is one of the longest words in the dictionary — and, in an ironic twist, is the name for a fear of long words.

Sesquipedalophobia is another term for the same phobia.
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Is there a word for coming across a host of golden daffodils?
 
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