Category: Word of the Day

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Word of the Day – Ouroboros

  • Noun:  Ouroboros
    1. a circular symbol that depicts a snake or dragon devouring its own tail and that is used especially to represent the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth
    2.  something (such as a never-ending cycle) that is likened to or suggestive of the Ouroboros symbol
  • Synonyms:
    1. amazingly an Internet search found none…
  • Usage:
    1.  From the section talking about the current Missouri Attorney General, Eric Schmidt: “For the most part, that’s involved fastidiously tracking the latest fronts in the United States’ ongoing culture wars, from mask-mandate mania to critical race theory panic to attacks on trans people — and then suing the shit out of everyone involved. Often that’s the state’s underfunded public schools, which then have to spend what little taxpayer money they’re allotted on fending off the AG’s  legal attacks, which are also funded by taxpayers, thereby creating something of an ouroboros of perfectly wasteful spending. Oh, and he also sued China over COVID-19 — totally on behalf of the people of Missouri, not at all a transparent campaign stunt. ”
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Riverfront Times article A Missouri Voter’s Guide to the Most Batshit Senate Race in History

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

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Supernumerary

Señora and I spent the Fourth of July day floating in the pool of some friends and munching between dips. As people are wont to do under these pleasant circumstances, aided by the benumbing influence of a warm sun and cold libations to the deity of summer, our conversation ranged over a wide range of topics.  Basically anything that popped into our minds. Ms. Sikeston related a story about a male relative that had 3 nipples.  For obvious reasons, he was somewhat embarrassed to go to the beach.

I then began to harp on a pet peeve of mine. There are at least two movies I know of with characters with extra nipples/breasts. Continue reading “Supernumerary”

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Word of the Day – Opprobrious

  • Adjective:  Opprobrious
    1. expressive of opprobrium : scurrilous opprobrious language
    2. deserving of opprobrium
  • Noun:  Opprobrium
    1. something that brings disgrace
    2. public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious
  • Synonyms:
    1. abusive
    2. vituperative
    3. derogatory
    4. disparaging
    5. denigratory
    6. pejorative
    7. insulting
    8. offensive
    9. slanderous
    10. libelous
    11. bitchy
  • Usage:
    1. Asimov raised his hand. “I had read only about a quarter of it, ” he recalls in his memoirs, “when N. stopped me and used an opprobrious barnyard term to describe my writing. I had never heard a teacher  use a ‘dirty word’ before and I was shocked.”
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Joseph Telushkin’s book Words That Hurt Words That Heal.

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

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Word of the Day – Hegira

  • Noun:  Hegira
    1. a journey especially when undertaken to escape from a dangerous or undesirable situation
  • Synonyms:
    1. abandonment
    2. adieu
    3. bow out
    4. congé
    5. decampment
    6. desertion
    7. egress
    8. egression.
  • Usage:
    1. “Nevertheless, though it might mean that they must again pursue their weary hegira, the dominant race did not appear to have crowded the available living space.”
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children.

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

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Word of the Day – Wain

  • Noun:  Wain
    1.  a usually large and heavy vehicle for farm use; a hay wain
    2. Capitalized [short for Charles’s Wain] : big dipper
  • Synonyms:
    1. caravan
    2. carriage
    3. buckboard
    4. buggy
    5. caisson
    6. coach
    7. dray
    8. pushcart
  • Usage:
    1. “Sarloo took him in the common vehicle of the Jocaira, a wheelless wain shaped much like a soup bowl, which moved quietly and rapidly over the ground, skimming the surface in apparent contact.”
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children.

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

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Word of the Day – Sangfroid

  • Noun: Sangfroid
    1. self-possession or imperturbability especially under strain
    2. As an aside – sangfroid (sometimes hyphenated) is an English word from French, if you break down the French… sang refers to blood and froid is cold
  • Synonyms:
    1. aplomb
    2. calmness
    3. equanimity
    4. poise
    5. unflappability
  • Usage:
    1. “If you had said, ‘This, too, shall pass,’ I might have scratched your eyes out, recalls Michele, a mother of two from Arlington, Virginia. ‘If you had urged balance and sangfroid, I would have impaled you on the plumber’s helper.'”
  • Encountered:
    1. While on the throne pursuing my daily inspirational reading… in this case Living Life as a Thank You by Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons

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

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Word of the Day – Manumission

  • Noun: Manumission
    1. the act or process of manumitting especially : formal emancipation from slavery
  • Synonyms:
    1.  emancipation
    2. enfranchisement
    3. freeing
    4. liberation
  • Usage:
    1. “Thorby’s leg hurt for a couple days; otherwise manumission left his life unchanged.”
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy.

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

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Word of the Day – Limn

  • Verb: Limn

    1. depict or describe in painting or words
    2. suffuse or highlight (something) with a bright color or light
  • Synonyms:
    1. delineate
    2. describe
    3. draw
    4. paint
    5. represent
  • Usage:
    1. “…which a pawpaw grove can feel like, especially standing inside of it midday, when the light limns the big leaves like stained glass and suddenly you’re inside something ancient and protective.”
  • Encountered:
    1. Reading the essay Pawpaw Grove in Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights: Essays

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

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Word of the Day – Barratry

  • Noun: Barratry
    1. the purchase or sale of office or preferment in church or state
    2. an unlawful act or fraudulent breach of duty by a master of a ship or by the mariners to the injury of the owner of the ship or cargo
    3. the persistent incitement of litigation
  • Synonyms:
    1. contravention
    2. dereliction
    3. disregard
    4. infraction
    5. infringement
    6. noncompliance
    7. offense
    8. violation
  • Usage:
    1. “But Captain Krausa listened quietly, then answered with real poetry–he accused the Losian of every crime from barratry to  mopery and dopery in the spaceways.”
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy.

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

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Word of the Day – Sophistry

  • Noun:  Sophistry
    1. subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation
    2. sophism
  • Synonyms:
    1.  paralogy
    2. paralogism
    3. false logic
    4. fallacious reasoning
    5. flaw in the argument
    6. inconclusive reasoning
    7. reasoning in a circle
    8. begging the question
  • Usage:
    1. “Privately, he knew that this was sophistry and so did any other Member competent to judge the matter.”
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children.

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