Comments by colleen

  • Viggo Mortensen, in Esquire

    November 1, 2015

  • portmanteau of very + awesome.

    October 15, 2015

  • fbharjo and ruzuzu, gentle Wordies of old! hello!

    September 18, 2012

  • hey ruzuzu, long time no see! glad you like this one, I remember it took me ages to put all these in back on the old Wordie. :)

    February 23, 2012

  • Hey Madmouth! I am here, just quiet. Real life keeps getting in the way.

    August 4, 2010

  • I'm on celestial mechanics at the moment... I'm going to enjoy pawing through all the lists I've missed!

    August 19, 2009

  • hi, fbharjo! how's tricks?

    August 19, 2009

  • life got weird, but I am returned. :))

    August 19, 2009

  • @bilby, hello to you all!

    August 19, 2009

  • @Prolagus, I never got this comment! otherwise I'd have had some sassy comeback.

    January 30, 2009

  • French: tightrope

    July 25, 2008

  • featured on Kottke.org today!

    July 15, 2008

  • thanks apepch7, but Hecate isn't traditionally associated with American folk magic, which is the purpose of this particular list.

    June 12, 2008

  • the art of being an asshat.

    April 20, 2008

  • mollusque, this is both a general 'things that might be found in one's junk drawer' and a pastiche of all the junk drawers I have loved before.

    and by slug I mean both the bullet and the fake quarter. :D

    April 15, 2008

  • HAH. you had me going for a minute. I need more coffee, clearly.

    April 11, 2008

  • a cheerio? really? O.o

    April 11, 2008

  • wiki tells me that hacek = caron! *adds*

    April 11, 2008

  • thank you, Prolagus! a memory from when I was (badly) learning Slovak... :)

    April 11, 2008

  • Oh, I love this book, these books, Pavic is possibly my favorite writer in the world.

    sionnach, the difference is a paragraph which changes everything. and by lexicon novel, it means that it is written in the form of a dictionary, as the title suggests - although it really more of an encyclopedia, I would say. like an epistolary novel is written in the form of letters, you know?

    ahh ahh *flaphands* I just can't tell you how much I love Pavic.

    March 21, 2008

  • frindley, that is the best idea I've heard in forever.

    March 20, 2008

  • a state of being. a state of mind.

    compare: humanity

    March 1, 2008

  • maybe this place would be less of a tip if I had some quality office girls.

    January 18, 2008

  • aka microwave oven.

    January 18, 2008

  • 1) past tense of spell

    2) dreadful-tasting wheat product

    January 18, 2008

  • that's the one!

    January 17, 2008

  • reesetee, apparently we get the same newsletter. :)

    January 17, 2008

  • Lower Shebobia is a real place in Nova Scotia... I think. :D One of my colleagues uses it to refer to any place remote, which is (pardon the pun) miles above the usual Bumfuck variations you hear from most folks.

    January 2, 2008

  • in New Orleans, folks from St. Bernard parish, specifically Chalmette, are called chalmations.

    December 27, 2007

  • « »

    December 27, 2007

  • December 27, 2007

  • SUCH a drag, life without Wordie...

    December 18, 2007

  • thanks, bilby! that's a good one!

    December 18, 2007

  • Rumors of my death &c &c, bilby! Please feel free to drop suggestions on any of my lists. If I'm going for a specific gestalt in my own mind, I may not take them, but I always appreciate them! :)

    December 18, 2007

  • Hey, reesetee! I'm just getting started on it, I've been so busy that I hadn't had time to properly Wordie. Hope to correct that soon...

    December 18, 2007

  • thanks, adrift! you're off to a great start yourself!

    December 4, 2007

  • Does it not also refer to actors who perform said tragedies? The singers of goat songs, as it were?

    November 18, 2007

  • oh! and one more thing, re what mollusque mentioned: in Firefox you can also navigate your tabs with ctrl-page up and ctrl-page down -- page up moves you to the left through your open tabs, and page down to the right.

    November 15, 2007

  • reesetee, I don't know when I started saying holy carp but it was probably around the same time I started saying oh my dog.

    A bit late on it, but new window/new tab/&c makes no nevermind to me, I have my browser so rigged that links do what I want them to no matter what you code. :D I think this may really a preference issue, not a practicality issue?

    November 15, 2007

  • Holy carp, John, I was away awhile and the layout tweaks you've made in that time are fantastic. I'm off to poke the site with a sharp stick and see what else is new.

    November 14, 2007

  • My mother is Irish and doesn't say booger, she says bogie; when I was small and picked up this word at school (as an insult) she thought I was calling my brother a bugger instead of a snot, and I got quite a hiding.

    October 24, 2007

  • Well, you COULD spit it at people! To each their own. :D

    October 18, 2007

  • John, I'm thiefing some of these for my maccheroni list. there are so many I missed!

    October 18, 2007

  • Originally it's a Persian name for white people -- feringhee or farangi. It was used in India as a slur for English people up to a point as well.

    October 18, 2007

  • I have a couple of those resources in my del.icio.us, uselessness, for the occasions that I can't remember either the html or the ALT code.

    October 17, 2007

  • Being picky about fake French brings me to a new low, so I think it's time for bed. :D

    (Bonne liste!)

    October 16, 2007

  • Doing the backstroke through your piles of gold!

    October 16, 2007

  • should it not be Jacques Penné avec le lettre c?

    October 16, 2007

  • c_b, apparently the uml tag only works on vowels. I was just now trying to make a Spinal Tap joke and it refused to put the umlaut on the n where it belongs. :D

    October 16, 2007

  • Is it a time zone issue, perhaps? Do you have to set the default time zone?

    Anyway, it looks all right to me. It's not terribly intrusive and I suspect that with a bit of exposure the eye will just wander right by them. :)

    October 16, 2007

  • CB:

    ü

    & u uml ;

    without the spaces

    October 16, 2007

  • Hee. Oh, UD. User-generated content at its finest.

    October 16, 2007

  • And the award for most chavtastic sentence on Wordie (so far) goes to...

    October 16, 2007

  • Unrelated to nerf herder, one of the greatest insults in the galaxy.

    October 16, 2007

  • John, I just happened to notice on Facebook that you mentioned ads? Would that be as in advertisements?

    edit ah, question answered by available evidence. :)

    October 16, 2007

  • Also called a sap bush in some parts.

    October 13, 2007

  • If I was to make a list of words learnt from "Bloom County," this would be on top of it.

    October 12, 2007

  • To Do: alchemy list.

    October 11, 2007

  • skipvia, all you had to do was say Cheerwine and we'da known what state you was from. ;)

    I believe that strictly speaking soda has sodium bicarb to make the fizz (hence the name, yes?) and that there is a water that is just aerated, but I am not sure what it is called.

    October 11, 2007

  • You say "regular."

    October 10, 2007

  • It is a gorgeous turn of phrase, yes. I do love GBS. :)

    October 10, 2007

  • I think that Dr. John does as well!

    October 10, 2007

  • I geeked out mightily for a moment, there, huh?

    October 10, 2007

  • Eee, I love this song. Awesome list. :)

    October 10, 2007

  • Ah, that was me, John, on misuse. :)

    October 10, 2007

  • Yes, actually "Rohirric" is just Anglo-Saxon, or Englisc, if you prefer. :)

    Has anyone done a Tolkien list?

    October 9, 2007

  • There is also the Old Entish meaning...

    October 9, 2007

  • Some days I check the comments feed and I wonder, I really wonder.

    October 9, 2007

  • Hmm. Where you lose me is at the assessment "stupid people." A number of phenomenally intelligent people are terrible at verbal communication.

    October 8, 2007

  • And since I'm at it, as for mesmerize, mesmerism appears to come from the surname of one Austrian Dr. Friedrich Anton Mesmer, who came to live and work in Paris, this leading to the nouning of his surname as mesmérisme. So less German and more Austro-French?

    There's room for a ouija pun here but I can't seem to spin it just right...

    October 8, 2007

  • This is where a citation would've been handy -- I completely agree with sionnach, but out of curiosity I checked the OED to see if there was someting I was missing. The definition of mogul to which betsyshane must be referring is

    "A bump on a ski slope, by which a skier's progress may be impeded."

    which appears to come from

    "German regional (Austria) Mugel hillock."

    October 8, 2007

  • the Fifth Pillar of Islam: pilgrimage to Mecca

    October 7, 2007

  • the Fourth Pillar of Islam: fasting during Ramadan

    October 7, 2007

  • the Third Pillar of Islam: giving alms

    October 7, 2007

  • Second Pillar of Islam: prayer

    October 7, 2007

  • the First Pillar of Islam: profession of faith.

    October 7, 2007

  • John, thanks for reminding me to add the rest of the pillars.

    October 7, 2007

  • I'm pretty sure the title of the book is Cry, The Beloved Country.

    October 6, 2007

  • final destination, ultima thule?

    October 6, 2007

  • "appears in lists" IS vawes but it doesn't seem to work for words listed by only one person?

    and I'll pass on the sandwich and have a tea, there's a love.

    October 6, 2007

  • thanks, trivet! I have a Thing.

    October 5, 2007

  • There but for the grace of spellcheck go I.

    October 5, 2007

  • Now I should like it very much if someone would teach me how to remember the correct spellings of Cincinnati and Mediterranean. :D

    October 5, 2007

  • The mnemonic I was taught to for spelling this was to remember the "carib bean grows in the caribbean."

    October 5, 2007

  • and then two seconds after posting the below I get an email:

    today is weirdassed.

    October 5, 2007

  • I'd rather have a lame-ass list than a broke-ass list.

    October 5, 2007

  • Mm, yeah. That would be the rougarou, if she was down thattaway...

    October 3, 2007

  • Point!

    October 3, 2007

  • I didn't add font names to my own typography list, or I'd have been here for years. This list is lovely.

    October 3, 2007

  • You'd be amazed what you find in Mississippi.

    October 3, 2007

  • Now, I thought symbology was some wanky term that the writer of "The DaVinci Code" coined as a synonym for talking shite. :D

    October 3, 2007

  • "Pants" is also an expression of badness, such as, "I'm pants at checkers." or "This day has been absolute pants."

    October 3, 2007

  • It's just a death portent, like the "Hound of the Baskervilles." Sometimes just seeing it is enough, sometimes it, pun intentded, dogs you a bit before you die.

    wiki entry, which covers most of the bases.

    October 2, 2007

  • Just don't wear them on an escalator!

    October 1, 2007

  • Kewpid, would that be killing of vegans?

    *innocent face*

    September 30, 2007

  • "Murder of cows" is a nice visual pun, though, isn't it?

    September 30, 2007

  • Yes, Esfah�?n nesf-e jah�?n ast.

    September 30, 2007

  • Well! Now I know. :)

    September 30, 2007

  • faraway, I missed this comment, sorry! Thank you! I have a bit of a thing for that book, and for Rushdie in general. :)

    September 30, 2007

  • I imagine it has to do with being red...?

    September 30, 2007

  • jochen, did you know you can leave your quote on the word itself? :) Great list!

    September 30, 2007

  • But fbharjo, they haven't any teeth...

    September 29, 2007

  • Personally, I always think of Kilgore...

    September 28, 2007

  • Would that be "SCREW-ta-tor" or "screw-TATER"?

    September 28, 2007

  • Thanks, 82! You will find that I make all kinds of hands. ramblehands, gimmehands, explainyhands... although offline they do look rather like the same oblique gesture. Hmm. *musehands*

    September 28, 2007

  • TRUE. It is an old-timey madeupical word!

    You're going to have to accept that you've been living a lie.

    September 27, 2007

  • This word is, in fact, madeupical.

    September 27, 2007

  • PAST HISTORY. *shakes people by the lapels*

    September 27, 2007

  • Oh, I remember now! The question, by nurse, doctor or other healthcare worker, "Do you have a past history of n?"

    Drives me batshit.

    September 27, 2007

  • Did I? I may have. I don't remember either, reesetee! :)

    Speaking of things that I don't remember, there's a redundancy I hear in the doctor's office that annoys me, but I can't quite recall it. Something to do with health history.

    September 27, 2007

  • No, in law. But I worked in bookstores for many years. :)

    September 26, 2007

  • isbn number. *shudder*

    September 26, 2007

  • I had missed that, thanks, trivet!

    September 26, 2007

  • Dang, beaten to the pun.

    September 26, 2007

  • And the ever popular "ATM machine."

    September 26, 2007

  • "chai tea" makes my head hurt in the same way that "ISBN number" does. GAH.

    September 25, 2007

  • Yes! I'm still inputting them, and then I'll get to the descriptions... sometime when it's not 2:30 in the morning. :D

    September 24, 2007

  • see: mastiff

    September 24, 2007

  • and a molosser is my dog!

    September 24, 2007

  • see: vagabond

    September 24, 2007

  • Gosh, fbharjo, I just was not putting mendicant together with mendacious -- I was thinking of the wandering ascetic definition of it, mendicant monk, like.

    September 24, 2007

  • I don't know how I missed this. Excellent.

    September 23, 2007

  • Hee! I can't repeat most the things my father said while driving... Come to think of it, that's probably why I'm a Deadwood fan. ;)

    September 23, 2007

  • brilliant!

    September 22, 2007

  • The rain set early in tonight,

    The sullen wind was soon awake,

    It tore the elm-tops down for spite,

    and did its worst to vex the lake:

    I listened with heart fit to break.

    When glided in Porphyria; straight

    She shut the cold out and the storm,

    And kneeled and made the cheerless grate

    Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;

    Which done, she rose, and from her form

    Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,

    And laid her soiled gloves by, untied

    Her hat and let the damp hair fall,

    And, last, she sat down by my side

    And called me. When no voice replied,

    She put my arm about her waist,

    And made her smooth white shoulder bare,

    And all her yellow hair displaced,

    And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,

    And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,

    Murmuring how she loved me--she

    Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor,

    To set its struggling passion free

    From pride, and vainer ties dissever,

    And give herself to me forever.

    But passion sometimes would prevail,

    Nor could tonight's gay feast restrain

    A sudden thought of one so pale

    For love of her, and all in vain:

    So, she was come through wind and rain.

    Be sure I looked up at her eyes

    Happy and proud; at last I knew

    Porphyria worshiped me: surprise

    Made my heart swell, and still it grew

    While I debated what to do.

    That moment she was mine, mine, fair,

    Perfectly pure and good: I found

    A thing to do, and all her hair

    In one long yellow string I wound

    Three times her little throat around,

    And strangled her. No pain felt she;

    I am quite sure she felt no pain.

    As a shut bud that holds a bee,

    I warily oped her lids: again

    Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.

    And I untightened next the tress

    About her neck; her cheek once more

    Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:

    I propped her head up as before

    Only, this time my shoulder bore

    Her head, which droops upon it still:

    The smiling rosy little head,

    So glad it has its utmost will,

    That all it scorned at once is fled,

    And I, its love, am gained instead!

    Porphyria's love: she guessed not how

    Her darling one wish would be heard.

    And thus we sit together now,

    And all night long we have not stirred,

    And yet God has not said a word!

    (Robert Browning)

    September 22, 2007

  • another fascinating take on the evolution (or devolution) of language is in the novel "Cloud Atlas."

    *ramblehands*

    it's getting late where I am.

    September 22, 2007

  • And here I thought you must be a "Deadwood" fan.

    September 22, 2007

  • d'oh!

    September 22, 2007

  • You're very welcome.

    Sometimes I have to remind myself that English's parentage is beyond bastardy -- what do you call it when it's got a half dozen parents and none of them legitimate? :)

    September 22, 2007

  • On the contrary, palooka, I think you RAISED the level of discourse for a bit there. I. Well. I apologize for knocking it back down. :D

    September 22, 2007

  • September 22, 2007

  • I didn't know it was still in print, honestly. It came out when I was a freshman in college and I have never met another person who was not a linguist that had read it. Bless the internets! :D

    September 22, 2007

  • Having just outed myself as a Star Wars Dork, I will now proceed hence. :D

    September 22, 2007

  • Or like "padawan"?

    September 22, 2007

  • One of the most fascinating reads ever is Pinker's "The Language Instinct." I'm not sure if it's still in print, but I really recommend it.

    Uselessness, I hear what you're saying and you're right, of course. As npydyuan (how on earth do you pronounce that?!) said, we all have some hot-button (mis)uses, and meme happens to be one of them for me.

    September 22, 2007

  • :D

    September 22, 2007

  • I think that there are words which change meanings over time and adaption, and there are words that don't and ought not to! Y/N? Is my shameful inner prescriptivist getting the better of me? :D

    September 22, 2007

  • Actually, 82, I thought memesta was clever! I'm absolutely in favor of madeupical words, as John says -- my issue is with the people who... how to put it? I think I must turn to the words of a man greater than I: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

    September 22, 2007

  • And yet perversely fascinating!

    September 21, 2007

  • the widespread misuse of this term on the web is probably a meme unto itself.

    and pronounced, I believe, as meem. not mehm, not mimi, people: meem.

    oh, so many rants, so little time...

    September 21, 2007

  • not even a little! from the OED:

    1. a. Unhealthy, corrupt, diseased; causing disease. Formerly esp. of a bodily humour. Now arch. and hist.

    2. a. Of a person or other agent: that commits or has committed a sin or an offence; sinning, offending; culpable.

    b. Of an action or thing: offensive; sinful.

    September 21, 2007

  • It's been considered a delicacy for centuries. Um. *hands*

    September 21, 2007

  • I think it's a dreadfully misused word -- I have heard at least two people misuse it when they wanted zeitgeist, which was funny. and sad. and... sad.

    September 14, 2007

  • Is it the word qua the word you hate, or is it the pretentious wankery it represents?

    *innocent face*

    September 14, 2007

  • cool, jennarenn? my ruse is working! ;)

    September 13, 2007

  • No, no, you do make a good point about competition. It's best to avoid fostering that, and I see how the stats would do so.

    September 13, 2007

  • Seconded, I would love to see traffic stats. Mostly because I am an egomaniac. :D

    September 12, 2007

  • If I copy this word from you, does that make me one?

    September 12, 2007

  • Wretched.

    September 11, 2007

  • Mm, what palooka said. We're here to share language, not to box it up, yes, yes -- but our lists as entities unto themselves are personal. This isn't to say someone else couldn't or shouldn't make their own list of, say, sailing words, or kinds of fish, but the copying of a list in its entirety would be rather like plagiarism.

    Again I think it's all common sense and golden rule stuff!

    September 9, 2007

  • two shakes of a lamb's tail?

    September 8, 2007

  • I really think that the only rule Wordie needs is "don't be a jerk." The rest will sort itself. :)

    September 8, 2007

  • It's old-timey.

    September 8, 2007

  • Thou shalt indicate facetiousness with helpful asterisks?

    September 8, 2007

  • I don't think there's any such thing as word theft, good lord. Let us not succumb to Wordie fascism, shall we?

    September 7, 2007

  • *facepalm*

    September 7, 2007

  • Well, there's room for ten on the tablet, seanahan. Perhaps we should get a committee on up the mountain?

    September 7, 2007

  • I'm pretty sure the First Commandment of Wordie is Thou shalt not harsh another Wordie's buzz.

    and if it isn't, it should be.

    September 7, 2007

  • Anglo-Ind. A great man, distinguished personage. Often affixed as a title to an officer's name.

    -OED

    September 2, 2007

  • many thanks, until you are better paid.

    September 2, 2007

  • John, what happened to the all-time wordiest list? I've been getting 404s on it.

    September 2, 2007

  • Scanning really quickly I thought this entry was for Papa Chango.

    September 1, 2007

  • it's a title, isn't it? feminine of raja or rai? my best friend growing up was called Rani.

    September 1, 2007

  • should one be launched from a catapeltic, the end result might well be catalepsy!

    August 30, 2007

  • A. adj. Pertaining to a catapult. B. n. A catapult.

    August 29, 2007

  • Sossing through seamless waters, piloted in

    by sea-horse and fluent dolphin:

    Ah! how the cannons roar,

    How jocular the bells as They

    Indulge the peccant shore.

         -W.H. Auden, "Under Sirius"

    August 29, 2007

  • yeah, it works as html, but I did not try putting it in as a word, not being sure the special character would translate.

    August 28, 2007

  • in its most correct form, it would be mediæval, with a ligature, but I seemed to recall something about those not working well in Wordie?

    August 28, 2007

  • I am really powerfully ignorant of the goings-on of the internets. :)

    oh, Marzipanda, forgive us, wherever you may be!

    August 27, 2007

  • well, John, shows what I know! :)

    perhaps some nice programmer who enjoys Wordie will step up...

    August 27, 2007

  • in mediaeval architecture, frequently confused with gargoyle

    August 27, 2007

  • I'd love to get notifications of comments on lists and on individual words, instead of having to subscribe to umpteen feeds, but I worry that generating all those emails would kill the servers.

    August 26, 2007

  • it is also a mediocre Led Zeppelin tribute album.

    August 26, 2007

  • fantastic word, and it reminded me to add bliaut, which is not at all similiar.

    August 25, 2007

  • mmmm. fruitcake.

    August 25, 2007

  • this is a great list! gives me the creeps. :D

    August 25, 2007

  • it's all true.

    August 24, 2007

  • may I suggest xenophobia or the more poetic jingoism?

    August 23, 2007

  • hee. I leave you alone for a day...

    August 23, 2007

  • a baritone oboe

    August 23, 2007

  • A hole or opening at the foot of a wall, the bottom of a fence or hedge, etc., esp. one allowing the passage of hares, rabbits, or sheep; a narrow passage or entrance in a beehive.

    -OED

    August 19, 2007

  • reesetee, we have to stop meeting like this.

    July 21, 2007

  • see also handbag

    July 20, 2007

  • see also brick

    July 20, 2007

  • loupea, I've just seen it in another place, apparently Houghton Mifflin sends it round every year.

    July 3, 2007

  • thank you! i have more to add to it, as with so many of my lists... i seem to always get on wordie at about one in the morning and then peter out halfway through a new list. :D

    June 22, 2007

  • See also:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bork#.22Bork.22_as_verb

    June 22, 2007

  • state of being blob-shaped.

    coined by kat, june 12 2007.

    June 12, 2007

  • The port city of Tyre was the ancient capital of Phoenicia and was best known for the production of purple dye extracted from the murex sea snail.

    - National Geographic

    May 17, 2007

  • reesetee, that is brilliance.

    May 1, 2007

  • one who commits a misdemeanor

    March 25, 2007

  • Anglo-Indian: carrier-of (howdah-wallah), purveyor-of (chai-wallah), worker-at (office-wallah).

    March 11, 2007

  • A mud-flow of volcanic ash mixed with water. (OED)

    March 11, 2007

  • The dating of volcanic eruptions and other events by studying layers of tephra. (OED)

    March 11, 2007

  • Geol.

    Dust and rock fragments that have been ejected into the air by a volcanic eruption.

    (OED)

    March 11, 2007

  • this is excellent, arby. thank you.

    March 11, 2007

  • as in a card game, or an alcoholic.

    March 11, 2007

  • see also lecher.

    February 19, 2007

  • as coined, I believe, by William Safire: one who investigates phraseology.

    February 18, 2007

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