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Tom Kelley oroboros's Comments

Comments by oroboros

  • Hanky panky at the old ancestral home?

    May 18, 2013

  • The smallest and least healthy bird in the nest (according to NPR's *Says You*).

    May 4, 2013

  • A sheep that's never been sheared.(according to NPR's *Says You*).

    May 4, 2013

  • Birth and death dates of a life, say on a gravestone (according to NPR's *Says You*)

    May 4, 2013

  • Clever crossword clue "back to front?" for "ier" entry.

    May 1, 2013

  • Nice analysis, ry. Above and beyond the call of duty; good work.

    Apr 30, 2013

  • Formal junglewear (from Wiley's Dictionary - B.C. Comics)

    Apr 30, 2013

  • See sensuousnesses.

    Apr 30, 2013

  • @shari. I simply have wordnik.com/community bookmarked and have no problem accessing the site. I note that your profile is private so I was unable to comment there directly. I don't know if that adds any complication to your access or not. Anyway, good luck and enjoy our Wordie community.

    Apr 20, 2013

  • Eavesdropper? (crossword puzzle clue/answer)

    Apr 20, 2013

  • @fbharjo: Also a river.

    Apr 17, 2013

  • Pleased to introduce you to Futility Closet. A ton of interesting stuff there that I imagine you're discovering on your own. Cheerio!

    Apr 16, 2013

  • Attributed to P.J. Casteel here.

    Apr 16, 2013

  • Attributed to Allen Ginsberg here.

    Apr 16, 2013

  • Nickname for a USAF Academy graduate. Also, if I remember correctly, the term for a U.S. Coast Guard pilot.

    Apr 16, 2013

  • Attributed to Shiela Heldenbrand here.

    Apr 15, 2013

  • Attributed to Morty Sklar here.

    Apr 15, 2013

  • Attributed to Carol DeLugach here.

    Apr 15, 2013

  • Attributed to Fletcher Copp here.

    Apr 15, 2013

  • "Broken" broken? (attributed to: Keith Abbott here. Also see bork)

    Apr 15, 2013

  • Hey! Congrats on your Gravity's Rainbow list mention. Pinchon: an amazing wordsmith. Now go to work on David Foster Wallace. :o)

    Apr 10, 2013

  • Connecticut kids were called pumpkin heads because cut pumpkins were used as a guide for cutting hair; the original "bowl cut" (heard on NPR's Says You)

    Mar 30, 2013

  • A cushioned bleacher seat (according to NPR's Says You)

    Mar 9, 2013

  • A foul aroma (according to NPR's Says You)

    Mar 9, 2013

  • See comment under host.

    Mar 4, 2013

  • Host is the Czech word for guest according to futilitycloset.com.

    Mar 4, 2013

  • Guatemalan head covering. (according to Says You)

    Mar 2, 2013

  • What you use to start the car in Boston? (thanks to NPR's Says You)

    Feb 23, 2013

  • Some of the pines in my area: Sugar pine (a 5-needle pine holding largest cone title - by length. Also my favorite pine), Coulter pine ("big cone pine" holding title of largest cone by mass), Digger pine (named for the "Digger" indians who harvested its large seeds)

    Feb 9, 2013

  • An all female theatre production. (from Wiley's Dictionary, B.C. Comic)

    Feb 9, 2013

  • Neat list, trivet! How 'bout puzzlement? If I remember correctly, Yul Brenner used it in a new way in The King and I.

    Feb 8, 2013

  • How about umbrellaphilic?

    Feb 5, 2013

  • I wonder if this word has anything in common with agio?

    Feb 5, 2013

  • Good work, Tank. T(h)anks! :o)

    Feb 4, 2013

  • Al - O - Ne (aluminum, oxygen, neon)

    Feb 2, 2013

  • Ba - Rb - I - E (barium, rubidium, iodine, einsteinium)

    Feb 2, 2013

  • W - As - Te (tungsten, arsenic, tellurium)

    Feb 2, 2013

  • H - Ar - P (hydrogen, argon, phosphorus).

    Feb 2, 2013

  • K - Ni - Fe (potassium, nickel, iron)

    Feb 2, 2013

  • A medical quack. (according to NPR's Says You)

    Feb 2, 2013

  • An autantonym: Military battle vs. marital accord.

    Jan 26, 2013

  • To examine the papers of a ship to discover a smuggling operation. (according to NPR's Says You)

    Jan 26, 2013

  • Ambiverts make the best sales-types; they can listen as well as be proactive in their sales interactions. Heard on NPR's Weekend Edition.

    Jan 1, 2013

  • I've heard the British pronunciation ("swaythe") many times and in different venues; often enough that I'm going to put it in my 'Bi-sonic' list.

    Dec 20, 2012

  • The early chaos that formed the world, according to NPR's Says You.

    Nov 17, 2012

  • The wing-tip device makes the wing more efficient by inhibiting the natural flow of air from the high pressure area below the wing to the low pressure area above the wing. This high-to-low flow is what generates the dangerous wing-tip vortex which can upset aircraft in the wake of the generating aircraft.

    Oct 18, 2012

  • A toy store. (via NPR's Says You)

    Sep 1, 2012

  • Thanks for your input, p_a. Added.

    Aug 11, 2012

  • Tibetan beer. (according to NPR's Says You)

    Jul 28, 2012

  • "...There are many drawbacks to the use of the word 'consciousness.' In the first place it is used in half a dozen different senses by philosophers and psychologists, and in the second place it suffers from the great drawback that it has no active verbal form. One can say 'to be conscious of' but not 'to conscious' such-and-such an object. There is the word 'awareness' and the dubious coined derivative 'awaring,' which I have also occasionally pressed into service, but it is ugly and not very current. The best term is one that was coined by E. D. Fawcett in his The World as Imagination, Zermatt Dialogues, etc. The term in question is consciring – i.e. “knowing together” - and has as its correlative, for the content-form, the word conscitum (plural, conscita. I should certainly have availed myself of these coinages but, unfortunately, they are not as yet sufficiently widely current to be generally understood and, moreover, a great deal of the book had been written before I came across Fawcett's writings..."

    --From Sri Krishna Prem’s “The Yoga of the Bhavagad Gita”: APPENDIX A – NOTE ON THE TERMS CONSCIOUSNESS AND FORM

    Jul 27, 2012

  • Contranymic in the sense of resolve = firmness and resolve = to ease, soften, as a problem. Also one of the bi-sonics: solve again v. determination, firmness..

    Jul 8, 2012

  • HARD: Employed, as “I hard him to do the job.” Also a man’s name, as “Mah wife’s a cousin of Hard Hughes.”

    Jul 2, 2012

  • PRAYED: A large public procession, usually including a marching band. “That was some prayed they had downtown.”

    Jul 2, 2012

  • TOAD: The past tense of tell. “Ah toad you never to do that.”

    Jul 2, 2012

  • RULE: Nonurban, as “He comes from the rule area.”

    Jul 2, 2012

  • FORCED: A large group of trees, as “Lemme showya mah pine forced.”

    Jul 2, 2012

  • An English poet (1788 - 1824).

    Jul 2, 2012

  • As the plural of cola brand Pepsi, this word qualifies for my bi-sonics list.

    Jun 28, 2012

  • I added orp to my potpourri II list and the page still shows "orp has not been added to any list yet" although I verified that it is in fact on my list. Ditto for destinated

    Jun 17, 2012

  • The inability to accept bad news (via NPR's Says You)

    Jun 9, 2012

  • @ ruzuzu: Très whimsical. Love it!

    Jun 2, 2012

  • See pernoctation.

    Jun 1, 2012

  • According to NPR's Says You: a rowdy party or celebration.

    May 19, 2012

  • An ambush; attack. Heard on NPR's Says You.

    May 19, 2012

  • Pomposity (according to NPR's Says You)

    May 12, 2012

  • Illinois State University mathematician Phil Grizzard points out that a person born on Nov. 30, 1999, is a “stopwatch baby” — the date always displays her age in months, days, and years. For example, today, 5/4/12, such a person has been alive for 5 months, 4 days, and 12 years. (Europeans can swap the month and day — the principle still works.)

    A caveat: In December we must “make change” by setting the month to 0 and adding 1 to the year. So this Christmas, 12/25/12, a stopwatch baby will be 0/25/13 — 0 months, 25 days, and 13 years old.

    --via futilitycloset.com

    May 5, 2012

  • A force of nature to be reckoned with indeed! (via Baby Blues comic strip 4/26/12)

    Apr 26, 2012

  • Huh! Can't even make the pronunciations play at "hot dog"....go figure. ACK!

    Apr 25, 2012

  • So, the feedback page is otiose? 'Zu, are you able to create pronunciations? I'm having no luck at all. Is it broke? Can we access pronunciations of old?

    Apr 25, 2012

  • Instrument invented by Lewis Carroll for writing in the dark while still half asleep.

    Mar 31, 2012

  • A wonderful spoonerism.

    Mar 31, 2012

  • Oh lordy, 'zu. Now I'm infected too! *arrgh* :o)

    Mar 24, 2012

  • Dinkum Good, genuine, honest.

    General Australian. From 1908 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

    In Australian English, this is often used in the combination ‘fair dinkum’ as well, which was current from 1890 (AND), meaning ‘fair play’; and ‘dinkum oil’ meaning ‘genuine information’.

    --Source here

    Mar 24, 2012

  • Thanks, 'zu. I probably would have found it eventually if I'd spent more time. Cheers!

    Mar 16, 2012

  • Huh! Thanx fbharjo and ruzuzu; tried to go to your profile pages and say it but...huh! I'm a dope or, uh, something....

    Mar 15, 2012

  • Thanks, 'zu. But this can come about w/o repetition in my experience. I guess it belongs in the category of brain fart? :o)

    Feb 27, 2012

  • How about a word for the feeling or sensation when seeing a common word where it suddenly seems strange and unaccountable? Had that happen once with the word maid! Gotta be one of them déjà-type words, me thinks.

    Feb 27, 2012

  • It's 120 miles high.

    Feb 25, 2012

  • Some one who's sick of reading? (From Wiley's Dictionary - B.C. cartoon 2/25/12)

    Feb 25, 2012

  • An implement for decorating Ukrainian Easter eggs.

    Feb 18, 2012

  • Time spent trying to get tech support on the line.

    Feb 18, 2012

  • Cut inches off yards? --NYT crossword clue

    Feb 16, 2012

  • MOW (inverted) = MOW

    Feb 16, 2012

  • A joke ending with a pun. --Heard on NPR's Says You

    Feb 11, 2012

  • In an unsuccessful fox hunt, to assuage the down spirits of the hunters the leader of the hunt would pick out a steeple seen in the distance and issue the challenge of a race to it among the riders. A sort of "last one there is a rotten egg!" dare. --Heard on NPR's Says You.

    Feb 4, 2012

  • According to NPR's Says You the security blanket was an actual product for securing babies in their cribs and not dreamed up by Charles Schultz.

    Feb 4, 2012

  • A David Foster Wallace-ism. To wit: "Meredith Rand is one of only a handful of females at the REC that every male with an opinion on such matters agrees is totally, wrist-bitingly attractive." --The Pale King p.447

    Very evocative, don't you think? :o)

    Feb 4, 2012

  • Not sure what you mean, Erin. I've not come across it. Does it refer to an aircraft exploding in flight?

    Feb 3, 2012

  • From cyberspace:

    C = carbon
    Ho = holmium
    Co = cobalt
    La = lanthanum
    Te = tellurium

    CHoCoLaTe - Better living through chemistry!

    Feb 3, 2012

  • A long dog with short legs that runs on a Rube Goldberg-type mechanism to turn a spit of roasting meat. --Heard on NPR's Says You

    Jan 28, 2012

  • To shroud, especially with plants and greenery. Heard on NPR's Says You

    Jan 21, 2012

  • Mnemonic for the planets of the solar system.

    Jan 20, 2012

  • Mnemonic for the colors of the spectrum (e.g., rainbow).

    Jan 20, 2012

  • The following is related by an eminent naturalist: ‘A young lady was sitting in a room adjoining a poultry yard, where chickens, ducks and geese were disporting themselves. A drake came in, approached the lady, seized the bottom of her dress with his beak, and pulled it vigorously. Feeling startled, she repulsed him with her hand. The bird still persisted. Somewhat astonished, she paid some attention to this unaccountable pantomime, and discovered that the drake wished to drag her out of doors. She got up, and he waddled out quietly before her. More and more surprised, she followed him, and he conducted her to the side of a pond where she perceived a duck with its head caught in the opening of a sluice. She hastened to release the poor creature and restored it to the drake, who by loud quackings and beating of his wings testified his joy at the deliverance of his companion.’

    – Ballou’s Monthly Magazine, May 1870 (via futilitycloset.com)

    Jan 20, 2012

  • Be careful lest ye precipitate precipitate actions!

    Jan 19, 2012

  • Usage example here

    Jan 16, 2012

  • Sounds Like A Plan

    Jan 14, 2012

  • A traveller who complains about everything. --heard on NPR's Says You

    Jan 14, 2012

  • Gum-like substance similar to myrrh. --heard on NPR's Says You

    Jan 14, 2012

  • Just sliding by? (clue on NPR's Says You)

    Jan 14, 2012

  • Hi Shirley! Looks like you survived the Friday 13th menace, eh? :oD

    Jan 14, 2012

  • To buff a shoe bottom prior to finishing. --heard on NPR's Says You

    Jan 7, 2012

  • First women in the USA to receive a driver's license. --heard on NPR's Says You

    Dec 31, 2011

  • Inventor of the potato chip. Originally known as Saratoga chips. --heard on NPR's Says You

    Dec 31, 2011

  • Discrete v. discreet.

    Most of us can testify to it. After two or three heaping portions of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and Waldorf salad you’re bursting at the seams. You’re so sated that you had to discretely place a crumpled napkin over that uneaten turkey wing on your plate. --Ingrid Spilde

    Despite the usage gaff, the article Why You Always Have Room for Dessert is an interesting read.

    Dec 30, 2011

  • A counterfeit seal (as on a document). Heard on NPR's Says You.

    Dec 17, 2011

  • One of the two children of the Pillsbury Doughboy (Popper's the other). Heard on NPR's Says You.

    Dec 17, 2011

  • See Bun bun.

    Dec 17, 2011

  • One of the two children of the Pillsbury Doughboy (Popper's the other). Heard on NPR's Says You.

    Dec 17, 2011

  • Bermuda grass. Heard on NPR's Says You

    Dec 17, 2011

  • Can't look up cash money -- "500 server error"

    Dec 14, 2011

  • This book has a prominent place in my library it was one of those that initially set my feet upon the path...

    Dec 14, 2011

  • To adjust to a new environment. Heard on NPR's Says You.

    Dec 10, 2011

  • To hold, as a lion, at bay. Heard on NPR's Says You

    Dec 3, 2011

  • Oooh, exotic!

    Dec 3, 2011

  • First palindromic phrase I've seen using google. :o)

    Dec 1, 2011

  • Thanks for mirror rim - nice!

    Dec 1, 2011

  • Heavens to Murgatroyd!! 1000 STFs, fbharjo!!?? Lawdy, what creativitinessness...ness. Gud wurk!

    Nov 22, 2011

  • *ponders where to add his first comment on the beta-test wordnik* * basks in undeserved glory* *wonders about shamelessness and other character flaws*

    Nov 22, 2011

  • Aviation slang term for the aircraft autopilot.

    Nov 19, 2011

  • Tea served at a high (dinner-type) table; contrast with Low Tea served on a coffee table. (according to NPR's Says You)

    Nov 5, 2011

  • The marble targeted by a shooter in a game of marbles. (according to NPR's *Says You*)

    Nov 5, 2011

  • A weevil; a variety of English wheat worm, according to NPR's Says You.

    Oct 29, 2011

  • A foolish thing, according to NPR's Says You.

    Oct 29, 2011

  • Guiness Book of World Records shortest time to carve one? 54.72 seconds (2001) --via NPR's Says You

    Oct 29, 2011

  • The opposite of wreak havoc? (B.C.'s Wiley's Dictionary)

    Oct 29, 2011

  • Nice, sionnach. *like* Gutlevel chives? Mmmm, that's some tall chives.

    Oct 22, 2011

  • n. “A bright appearance in the horizon, under the sun or moon, arising from the reflected light of these bodies from the small rippling waves on the surface of the water”

    (Nathaniel Bowditch, The New American Practical Navigator, 1837) --via futilitycloset.com

    Oct 22, 2011

  • An especially small Englishwoman? (from BC cartoon - Wiley's Dictionary)

    Oct 20, 2011

  • Cheaper than a day rate?

    Oct 20, 2011

  • Strange Brew.

    Oct 17, 2011

  • "There seems to be a problem with your credit card, Mr. Kent." (Strange Brew 'toon)

    Oct 17, 2011

  • Hey! Word it up, dude.

    Oct 17, 2011

  • I didn't think there was any way to quietly jam fufluns into tail pipes! What's your secret 'zu? Ninja training? :o)

    Oct 16, 2011

  • Well, it appears that I can't add words to my "potpourri" list; not at the list page or the word page (with checkmark). Jesus Cristo y Madre de Dios!

    Edit: Doh! I was trying to add a word that was already on that list (toothsome). Still, what produced the confusion in the first place is that the word page for toothsome shows no checkmark in my potpourri list box. And that's still the case: no checkmark, but I've verified it's on the list at the list page. Go figure! :o/

    Oct 11, 2011

  • To try to propel a boat forward by abrupt movements of one's body; "ooching forward". (according to NPR's Says You)

    Oct 8, 2011

  • To inadvertently collide with a wall or door. (According to NPR's Says You)

    Oct 8, 2011

  • An irrational fear of convergent sequences.

    Oct 2, 2011

  • To attend a party to which one hasn't an invitation. (according to NPRs Says You)

    Sep 3, 2011

  • Ordaine to be a minister?

    Aug 27, 2011

  • “People are never so ready to believe you as when you say things in dispraise of yourself; and you are never so much annoyed as when they take you at your word.” --Somerset Maugham (Notebooks)

    Aug 27, 2011

  • A number between 6 and 7.

    Aug 20, 2011

  • Erin: Yes, still tiny font (with Chrome browser). @bilby,'zu,sionnach, erin et al., hanks for the rib tickling irreverence!

    Oh, and I have the same experience with pronunciation that dontcry has...

    Aug 13, 2011

  • How do I access my recent comments? Try as I might, all I can access is comments from the first two weeks of my presence on Wordie. There is no "continue to next page" option.

    Aug 7, 2011

  • "The person who fetches the midwife". (via NPR's Says You)

    Aug 6, 2011

  • Corruption of "Old Nick" - the Devil. (via NPR's Says You)

    Aug 6, 2011

  • Erin, is the translate feature going to make a comeback eventually? And is the font size in the comment box while entering and/or editing comments going to remain so tiny?

    Aug 6, 2011

  • @Erin. Much improvement in comment/edit comment option. Thanks!

    Aug 5, 2011

  • I've got one of the originals with the chrome runners and reusable cloth bag. Remarkably, it came with this house I bought 10 years ago...

    Aug 5, 2011

  • via Dan Piraro.

    Aug 5, 2011

  • Desktop computer. Everybody else's using fondleslabs!

    Aug 3, 2011

  • Kipple and Things : How To Hoard and How Not To Mean.

    Aug 2, 2011

  • An Uh, Er, Um Essay

    Aug 2, 2011

  • What sionnach said. Yes.

    Aug 1, 2011

  • iPad, iPhone, etc. See grandpa box.

    Jul 31, 2011

  • A variety of green bean. Rattlesnake Pole Bean.

    Jul 31, 2011

  • Comment function is intermittent. The whole site is abominably slow. Edit: comment option works, but EXTREMELY slowly. Ditto for edit option; or it seems to work only intermittently.

    Jul 31, 2011

  • Fear of the color purple.

    Jul 31, 2011

  • A variety of carrot (according to Says You)

    Jul 30, 2011

  • A variety of bean (according to Says You)

    Jul 30, 2011

  • A variety of tomato (according to Says You)

    Jul 30, 2011

  • Related to musical instruments (pipes), not steam pipes. (via Says You)

    Jul 30, 2011

  • thanks milos and dharma

    Jul 16, 2011

  • Thanks, dharma, for your input. Added!

    Jul 15, 2011

  • I agree with Pro and frogapplause: the site really has the feel of reference emphasis. I miss the "first listed by" and other such personalizing features. Another thing that strikes me, although it may be transitory, is surprisingly long wait times.

    Jul 9, 2011

  • To cut meat into small pieces. (heard on NPR's Says You)

    Jul 9, 2011

  • A euphemistic insincere phrase; a verbal air kiss. E.g., "Oh we must have lunch ..." (according to NPR's Says You)

    Jul 9, 2011

  • A messed up kiss?

    Jul 8, 2011

  • See comment under spatula.

    Jul 8, 2011

  • Fun to say?

    Jul 8, 2011

  • A Norwegian dance, according to NPR's Says You.

    Jul 2, 2011

  • First seen in D. F. Wallace's Infinite Jest.

    Jul 2, 2011

  • What happened to the translation feature on the word page? Has it just been deleted or forgotten...or, again, am I just missing something?

    Jun 25, 2011

  • bRAdburY. Ray Bradbury, Sci-Fi author extraordinaire.

    Jun 25, 2011

  • bRAdburY: Ray Bradbury, SciFi author extraordinaire.

    Jun 24, 2011

  • Thanks, mollusque for your kangaroo word suggestion. Definitely "outside the box". :o)

    Jun 24, 2011

  • Hey! Good one, mollusque, thanks.

    Jun 24, 2011

  • I'm just waaaaaaay outta the loop! (but wanted to link the cartoon at least).

    Jun 24, 2011

  • A young female pig...who knew?

    Jun 24, 2011

  • Is this like pwn?

    Jun 24, 2011

  • For more discussion of "grey v. gray" see here. In a nutshell: Gray = color; grey = colour.

    Jun 24, 2011

  • It would be nice to have the option, on the word page (in addition to adding the word) to delete a word from one's list as opposed to having to go to the list page and deleting it there. Or am I overlooking something?

    Jun 24, 2011

  • Also May gray. Especially applies to the Southern California Spring, early Summer weather patterns.

    Jun 24, 2011

  • See June gloom.

    Jun 24, 2011

  • 'zu --> :oD

    Jun 24, 2011

  • Thanx for your input, marky. I see your account isn't public? Sorry I can't return the favor of perusing any of your lists.

    Jun 24, 2011

  • See also, Dyslexic's Dread.

    Jun 18, 2011

  • Truly an amazing tour de force. What a mind!

    Jun 15, 2011

  • Yeah, he was sporting lint!

    Jun 15, 2011

  • Bar hopping; pub crawling (via NPR's Says You)

    May 28, 2011

  • An encouraging cry to hunting dogs in pursuit of prey.

    May 28, 2011

  • I've used 'perfuct' for years. Very satisfying!

    May 28, 2011

  • Huh! Sionnach beat me to the punch. Joke was meant to come after 'colour'.

    May 25, 2011

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