Wordnik.com: Amber words: Comments

Comment by bilby, 24 days ago

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:14:02 +0000

luke

Comment by bilby, 3 months ago

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:43:20 +0000

madding?

Comment by mollusque, 5 months ago

Sun, 31 May 2009 16:48:00 +0000

Scaredy?

Comment by sionnach, 11 months ago

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:19:44 +0000

There is a second, reasonably common, phrase involving "craythur": "Stick to the craythur", so I must, with regret, leave it off the list.

Comment by bilby, 11 months ago

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:26:40 +0000

Wicket? Can't agree there. Craythur came up yesterday.

Comment by yaybob, 11 months ago

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:50:31 +0000

This is a terrific idea - giving this concept a name. I shall add it to my vocabulary and begin posting them when I notice one.

How about wicket? fair-weathered? tuck? unbeknownst?

Comment by sionnach, about 1 year ago

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:55:35 +0000

Thanks, sarra. Duly added.

Comment by sarra, about 1 year ago

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:21:58 +0000

I submit fro, and beck.

Comment by sarra, about 1 year ago

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:55:42 +0000

abetting too, though I was reminded of it just now by seeing it alone!

Comment by sarra, about 1 year ago

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:57:13 +0000

pique has two separate applications, but little more. Might it count?

dander is like haw for me: mostly, it stands alone. betwixt too, to a lesser degree.

Comment by mollusque, over 2 years ago

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:02:13 +0000

Does zoot qualify? It never had a much of separate existence, though OED2 does list zoot-shirt and zooty.

Comment by reesetee, over 2 years ago

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:12:36 +0000

Wouldn't that be great? A knell of joy. :-)

Comment by yarb, over 2 years ago

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:23:37 +0000

Ha. I read (and dare I say enjoyed) that poem at university but no, memorisation was not required.

Even here though the sense is of departure, death. Could one, for example have a knell of joy?

Comment by sionnach, over 2 years ago

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:36:01 +0000

yarb: Guess you didn't have to memorize Gray's "Elegy' in school then?

Elegy written in a Country Churchyard

THE Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

and on, for many more stanzas .....

Comment by yarb, over 2 years ago

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:27:34 +0000

Knoll is not an amber word for me, nor I suspect for other non-American post-Kennedy English speakers. Knell, on the other hand, is fossilised in "death knell".

Comment by sionnach, over 2 years ago

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:28:38 +0000

I'm adding knoll to this list because it seems to me that, ever since November 1963, it is inextricably linked to the adjective grassy.

Comment by reesetee, over 2 years ago

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:52:59 +0000

Quite so. Tough list--I love the challenge!

Comment by sionnach, over 2 years ago

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:42:50 +0000

I've seen haw used to designate a kind of shrub; also, given the prevalence of the term "to off s.o." in the context of assorted TV reality shows of the "Survivor" genre, I reluctantly rejected "offing" as it could now plausibly appear in sentences such as "who are the WAAMU tribe offing this week?"

Comment by reesetee, over 2 years ago

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:29:10 +0000

How about fritz, as in "on the fritz"? Then there's haw ("hem and haw"), offing ("in the offing"), and umbrage ("take umbrage").

Comment by sionnach, over 2 years ago

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:32:35 +0000

how about trollop? perhaps brazenness is already intrinsic to trollopdom.

considered, but not included gibbous, briny, fatted, scruff, because I have seen these words refer to something other than the moon, the deep, a calf, or one's neck, though rarely. Similarly, unsung.

on the fence about reflux, nitty, beck

Comment by seanahan, over 2 years ago

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:13:55 +0000

I prefer to use hussy by itself, and pair brazen with harlot. I believe I first saw the latter paired in a Clive Cussler novel.

Comment by trivet, over 2 years ago

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:13:44 +0000

You're right, even if I still think that brazen & hussy go together like rama lama ding dong.

How about wreak?

Comment by pamelad, over 2 years ago

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:25:34 +0000

Escutcheons only come with blots.

Comment by sionnach, over 2 years ago

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:21:20 +0000

I'm guessing you are thinking of 'brazen hussey', but since brazen shows up in other contexts, e.g. 'to brazen it out', I don't think it's eligible. 'Hearth' doesn't seem like a word that occurs in only one phrase. I'm on the fence about 'hale'.

Comment by trivet, over 2 years ago

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 12:16:59 +0000

Neat list!

brazen, hither/thither, hale, betwixt, hearth, flotsam, brimstone?

Comment by sionnach, over 2 years ago

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:58:22 +0000

In some sense, simply being on this list should imply that no further explanation of the word in question is necessary, because the reader should be able to associate it immediately with the single expression in which it occurs, obviating the need for further explication.

if you know what i mean..