Category: Word of the Day

Posted on

Word of the Day – Cyberchondria

Word of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many on my landing page.  Words have always fascinated me, and I am a fan of all types of word play, especially puns.  I have a hard time not looking up a word that I am unfamiliar with or not sure of the definition. I like those authors that stretch me by throwing in unexpected terms.   

  • Noun: Cyberchondria
    1. unfounded anxiety concerning the state of one’s health brought on by visiting health and medical websites
  • Synonyms:
    1. hypochondriac
    2. valetudinarian
    3. valetudinary
    4. hypochondriast
    5. hypochrondriast
    6. melancholico
    7. neurotic
    8. malade imaginaire
    9. obsessive person
    10. morbid person
  • Usage:
    1. “Working with our mortality in a meaningful way can be challenging. For one, we live in a death-averse culture in which comforting and life-affirming ways of thinking and talking about illness and death are rare. Further, the unprecedented nature of Covid-19, as well as an increase in self-diagnosis via the internet (“cyberchondria”), has been associated with an overall rise in health anxiety..”
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading the Guardian piece: Illness and death are facts of life – Buddhism teaches us to be mindful but not fearful of it

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day – Ablute

Word of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many on my landing page.  Words have always fascinated me, and I am a fan of all types of word play, especially puns.  I have a hard time not looking up a word that I am unfamiliar with or not sure of the definition. I like those authors that stretch me by throwing in unexpected terms.   

  • Verb: Ablute
    1. abluted; abluting; ablutes
      chiefly British
      : to wash one’s body : to perform one’s ablutions : bathe
  • Synonyms:
    1.  bath
    2. cleansing
    3. decontamination
    4. lavation
    5. purification
    6. shower
  • Usage:
    1. “ Like the orientation of toilet paper, shower times are surprisingly divisive. One group swears you need a morning shower to make the most of your day. The evening team, on the other hand, holds that anyone who doesn’t wash before bed is a grimy heathen whose sheets are besmirched by filth. Some people – compromisers – suggest you can get the best of both worlds by abluting twice a day. “
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading the fluff piece: There is a perfect time to shower – and it’s not when you think in The Guardian

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day – Vituperative

Word of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many on my landing page.  Words have always fascinated me, and I am a fan of all types of word play, especially puns.  I have a hard time not looking up a word that I am unfamiliar with or not sure of the definition. I like those authors that stretch me by throwing in unexpected terms.   

  • Adjective: Vituperative
    1. uttering or given to censure : containing or characterized by verbal abuse
  • Synonyms:
    1. abusive
    2. outrageous
    3. insulting
    4. vitriolic
    5. obscene
  • Usage:
    1. “The increasingly vituperative public discourse around Oslo, the threats and incitement, and the spike in acts of terror aimed at derailing the peace process were taking their toll.”
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day -Inveigh

Word of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many on my landing page.  Words have always fascinated me, and I am a fan of all types of word play, especially puns.  I have a hard time not looking up a word that I am unfamiliar with or not sure of the definition. I like those authors that stretch me by throwing in unexpected terms.   

  • Verb: Inveigh
    1. to protest or complain bitterly or vehemently
  • Synonyms:
    1.  admonish
    2. berate
    3. blast
    4. castigate
    5. censure
    6. condemn
    7. except
    8. expostulate
    9. kick
    10. lambaste
    11. object
    12. protest
    13. rail
    14. remonstrate
    15. vituperate
  • Usage:
    1. “Begin inveighed against the kibbutzniks as ‘millionaires lolling around their swimming pools,’ code for Ashkenazi elite, and won the support of Israel’s Mizrachim”
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

Subscribe to Curmudgeon Alley

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day – Putative

Word of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many on my landing page.  Words have always fascinated me, and I am a fan of all types of word play, especially puns.  I have a hard time not looking up a word that I am unfamiliar with or not sure of the definition. I like those authors that stretch me by throwing in unexpected terms.   

  • Adjective: Putative
    1. commonly regarded as such
    2. assumed to exist or to have existed.
  • Synonyms:
    1.  presumed
    2. presumptive
    3. reputed
    4. supposed
    5. accepted
    6. alleged
    7. assumed
    8. hypothetical
    9. imputed
    10. reported
  • Usage:
    1. “When a former Navy SEAL with ties to a raft of Trumpworld figures landed in Haiti nearly a decade ago, his putative mission was to lead raid and rescue operations that would recover a missing American child.”
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading an article on my Google news feed from The Daily Beast: How Ex-SEAL on Child Rescue Mission Became Island Kingpin The article caught my attention as I was imagining a modern day Lord Jim, not an article on corruption in Haiti, that is pretty much a given.

Subscribe to Curmudgeon Alley

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day – Puerile

  • Adjective: Puerile
    1. behaving in a silly way, not like an adult
  • Synonyms:
    1. childish
    2. immature
    3. juvenile
    4. infantile
    5. childlike
    6. unsophisticated
    7. simplistic
    8. naïve
  • Usage:
    1. “The driver of the other car was behaving in a very puerile manner with that particular gesture.”  Okay, not an exact quote, but close.
  • Encountered:
    1.  While watching a Wondrium (Great Courses) offering: Think like a Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day -Gainsay

  • Verb: Gainsay (gainsaid, gainsaying, gainsays)
    1. to declare to be untrue or invalid (intransitive verb)
    2. contradict, oppose
    3. gainsayer is the noun
  • Synonyms:
    1.  deny
    2. refute
    3. reject
    4. contradict
    5. disavow
    6. disclaim
    7. negate
    8. repudiate
    9. disallow
    10. disown
    11. disaffirm
    12. disconfirm
    13. disprove
    14. rebut
    15. challenge
  • Usage:
    1. “The sons of the Achaeans shouted applause at the words of Diomed, and presently Nestor rose to speak. “Son of Tydeus,” said he, “in war your prowess is beyond question, and in council you excel all who are of your own years; no one of the Achaeans can make light of what you say nor gainsay it, but you have not yet come to the end of the whole matter.”
  • Encountered:
    1.  While listening to Samuel Butler’s prose translation of The Iliad

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day -Halcyon

  • Adjective: Halcyon
    1. characterized by happiness, great success, and prosperity : golden
      —often used to describe an idyllic time in the past that is remembered as better than today — the halcyon days of youth
    2. calm, peaceful
    3. prosperous, affluent
  • Synonyms:
    1.  bucolic
    2. pastoral
    3. still
    4. balmy
    5. gentle
    6. golden
    7. happy
    8. harmonious
    9. serene
    10. tranquil
    11. untroubled
  • Usage:
    1. “I was living in Jerusalem during those halcyon days of the Oslo peace process and the hope it generated, and as soon as travel from Israel into Jordan was permitted, I decided to go there on my own to see what I could see. “
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day -Malheureusement

  • Adverb: Malheureusement
    1. to express regret about what you are saying
  • Synonyms:
    1. Unfortunately
    2.  Unhappily
    3. Unluckily
    4. Regrettably
  • Usage:
    1. “If you used this word, malheureusement, in TEXAS. It might get you an ass whooping. “
  • Encountered:
    1.  In an email from my cousin Perry, who grew up in the wild hinterlands of west Texas, riding his horse Rocinante and tilting at working oil wells with his Mexican buddy Sancho Panza.
    2. He encountered this  French derivative word via WordDaily.

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

Download as PDF

Posted on

Word of the Day -Palimpest

  • Noun: Palimpest

    1. writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased
    2. something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface
  • Synonyms:
    1. article
    2. document
    3. text
    4. diploma
    5. papyrus
    6. scroll
  • Usage:
    1. “In some cases, the long history of expulsions echoes down the years in the changing names of a particular place; a living palimpest in which one period of history is erased and replaced by another. “
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

Download as PDF