Assorted Afflatuses
Word of the Moment
I've given up on finding the time to dig up a weird, but wonderful word every week. So I'm rechristening the Word of the Week, the Word of the Moment. If I run across something I like, I'll post it.
studied carelessness; the art or study of making something appear effortless
"Thanks to her mastery of sprezzatura, only Emily's closest friends realized it took her three hours to don a pair of socks."
the poisoning one with cheese or another dairy product
"Shamus' objected to his editor's advice to kill his novel's antagonist, Le Duc de Fromage, by tyrotoxism."
the consumption of raw food, usually meat
"Despite the recent samonella outbreak, Larry, a dyed-in-the-wool omophagist, insisted the waiter serve him chicken tartare."
the technical term for beekeeping
"Barry felt betrayed when he learned apiculture concerned bees."
Pardon the brief (and entirely unplanned) hiatus…
a secret dungeon with access solely through a ceiling trapdoor
"Fearing her husband's insatiable hunger, Lady Honger stashed her haggis in the oubliette."
make contradictory or evasive statements
"Unprepared for the moderator's question, Fredrick Candidate began to tergiversate."
a loud thudding sound, esp. one made by an exploding bomb or shell
"To train her ghetto ear, Marie listened to crumps for hours on end."
a concentrated artillery bombardment
"King Monarch was forced to discharge Commodore Dominion after his excessive stonking lost the kingdom three frigates."
I feel compelled to feature this word, not because it is particularly esoteric or unique — though I do like the way it sounds — but rather because so many people so frequently misuse it.
read thoroughly or carefully
"Pressed for time, Anne could not peruse the newspaper, as she usually did, opting instead to skim the arts and leisure section."
an insignificant person
"Jonathan choked on his triple-soy-cinnamon-chocolate caffe latté when his client, on trial for manslaughter, tried to justify his reckless speeding by calling the victim, 'Just another dandiprat.' "
a tightrope walker
"Millie, the circus funabulist, drew the line when she was asked to walk over a vat of hot marshmallow cream."
casual lack of concern; indifference
"Alfred's pet sea cucumber suffered an early demise when his insouciance allowed a Sushi chef into his living room."
exceedingly idealistic, unrealistic and impractical
"Charles spent twelve years alphabetizing his collection of antique records before his wife declared the project quixotic."
kill (someone) by strangulation, typically with an iron collar or a length of wire or cord
"Unable to tolerate the airline's abysmal food, Paige threatened to garrote the flight attendant with her seat belt."
having a ready insight into and understanding of things
"Many voters admired the Prime Minister's perspicacious nature, though some of the same voters disliked his tendency to chew gum."
a red brown resinous substance collected by honeybees from tree buds, used by them to fill crevaces and to seal and varnish honeycomb
"Phil stopped frequenting Steve's Shellfish Shack when he discovered that the chef made his lobster sauce with propolis; he always thought it was too brown."
an elaborate table decoration in the shape of a ship for holding such things as table napkins or condiments
"Allen's hatred for his neighbor Chuck rose to new levels when he saw that his nef, which took him hours to fold, had been destroyed by his nefarious neighbor."
the rosy light of the setting or rising sun seen on high mountains
"Three years after learning the word, Gwendolyn finally had a chance to see the alpenglow when she reached to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro."
This week's word is not quite as esoteric as normal, however, it does serve another purpose, which any intelligent person should be able to infer after reading my sample sentence.
making or expressing a plea, esp. to someone in power or authority
"Joseph considered the word 'begging' too incongruous and too blunt for use in his letter to Northwestern University, so he used suppliant instead."
(usually wolds) a piece of high, open, uncultivated land or moor
"When Sophie and Michel found themselves in the middle of the wolds they regretted leaving the gummy bears in the car."
Sorry for the complete lack of content. I've been rather busy.
(of a springbok or other antelope) leap in the air with an arched back and stiff legs, typically as a form of display or when threatened
"The other antelopes in the heard deemed Roger incompetent after he pronked into a cliff face."
Nautical an imaginary line on the earth's surface cutting all meridians at the same angle, used as a standard method of plotting a ship's course on a chart
"The ship's captain was very unhappy when he discovered the sailors had drwan thumbs instead of rhumbs on the ship's course log."
An arrangement of five objects with four at the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth at its center, used for the five on dice or playing cards, and in planting trees
"When the drill sergeant ordered each group of men into a quincunx, only the astrologist's group managed the feat."
Supposedly having the power to avert evil influences or bad luck
"The apotropaic duck affixed to the businessman's car always inspired strange looks, but Sven insisted it prevented collisions."
Light rain; drizzle
"Caught in the mizzle, Bob donned his trusty umbrella hat."
The title of the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has prompted me to make the world "hallow" this week's word. Many people mistake hallows for hollows, which does not even have a similar root, much less the same meaning.
archaic a saint or holy person
"Many people do not realize that Halloween has its origins in a religious holiday: All Hallow's Eve."
Unfortunately, my MovableType installation did not correctly publish this article on Monday morning, as it usually does. Anyway, the word is chimera.
A thing that is hoped or wished for, but in fact is impossible to achieve
"Ned's resolution to end world hunger with his Visa card proved to be a chimera."
Happy holidays!
And, in the spirit of the season, the word for this week relates to teddy bears.
A person who collects or is very fond of teddy bears
"Jamal's wife looked on the verge of tears when Phil, the world-renound arctophile, scoffed at the vintage 1930's Chiltern growler she had given him."
I pulled the bear's specs from this eBay auction.
Looking or sounding sad or dismal; mournful or gloomy in an affected or exaggerated way
"Hannah's friends could not help but find her lugubrious after she spent two months cloistered in her room, mourning the loss of her toe ring."
This week's word also deals with a strange disorder of the human mind.
An inability to recognize human faces; face-blindness
"The president's diplomatic effort flopped after he mistakenly referred to the German Prime Minister as an al-Qaeda operative, featured recently on the news, due to his mild case of prosopagnosia."
I love esoteric words. And while one cannot often make use of words like uxorious or halitosis, I still enjoy knowing what those words mean. So, I have decided to begin a new feature, my "Word of the Week." Each week, I hope to find some esoteric word and post it here. I have no doubt that some words will be both more esoteric and more interesting than others, but I intend to do my level best to choose something unique each week.
For this week, the word is:
The mental condition in which the victim believes he or she is an ox.
"Despite the best efforts of his therapist, Roger continued to suffer from a chronic case of boanthropy."
