GRIDLOCK features three adjacent horizontal 21-letter entries spanning the entire width of the grid in the three middle rows of the puzzle (rows 10, 11 and 12) which intersect with three similar adjacent 21-letter vertical entries running up and down the three middle columns of the grid. For good measure, there are two more 21-letter horizontal entries in the puzzle. Each of these is a string of automobile model names (the clues are the corresponding makes). The puzzle was conceived as the intersection of two three-lane highways with traffic in gridlock.
WIDE OPEN SPACES is remarkable for its paucity of black squares, its many long entries, and its short word list. The limit would be a 21 x 21 grid with no black squares made of 21 across entries and 21 down entries, or only 42 words. WOS contains only 51 black squares (11%) and 112 words, about 75% of which are 8 or more letters long. Reagle does take some liberties with the language, so allow for that.
Answers are unavailable on the Internet to my knowledge, but I've finished the puzzles - they are not impossibly difficult - and can help if there are any nagging problems.
I have URLs for two great crossword puzzles. Would it be inappropriate for me to post those here on Wordie? It's not our mission or purpose, but it is word related, and there may be a few crossword puzzle fans like me among us.
We can't have metonymy without synecdoche. (This was a difficult subject that I once pored over and kept some notes that I thought were helpful and that I'd like to share.)
The following are all nested: a synecdoche is a type of metonymy, which is a type of metaphor, which in turn is a type of trope, which is one of the categories of figures of speech.
(1) Figure of Speech - a word or phrase of figurative language that departs from straightforward, literal language and that is crafted for emphasis, freshness, convenience or clarity. There are two main types: schemes and tropes
(2) Trope - a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of using a word or words to mean something other than what is considered its literal or normal meaning (cf. scheme, the other category of figure of speech, which involves changing the pattern of words in a sentence or letters in a word through omission, repetition, or transposition: "love me do" or "ne'er-do-well").
(3) Metaphor - a type of trope that compares two things (like most elements of the list), as in "the death of music," where music is compared to a living thing, "ignorance is bliss," "the king of beasts, "or "a thirst for knowledge" (cf. irony, another type of trope, where a word means it's opposite, as in "that's just great" or litotes, also a trope, as in "not bad")
(4) Metonymy - a type of metaphor that uses a related object or concept in place of another, as in "the pen is mightier than the sword," where pen represents writing and the sword physical battle, or "the Pentagon" for the Department of Defense.
(5) Synecdoche - a form of metonymy, in which a part stands for the whole, as in "hired hands" or "my new wheels"
How about Pansy? It's still in vogue here in southeastern Missouri (I knew three at one time, but alas, two have passed on).
I have a sister-in-law named Eugenia (who had a mother named Dorcas. I wonder why Dorcas fell out of vogue. Lovely name. "Has anyone seen my Dorcas?" "Yes, she's taking tea with Lady Doofus.")
Hattie, as in Hilo Hattie or Panama Hattie.
Bea, as in Aunt Bea and Bea Benederet
Wilhelmina. Why shouldn't Wilhelm memorialize himself in his daughter's name?
I've known two women named Johnna, which is just as lovely a tribute to her father as Wilhelmina.
Dare we consider Bertie more than just a nickname for Bertha?
Constance (Prudence's sister)
Sybil and Agatha
And then there's Maud(e)
I realize that this is a year late, but in response to RAMINI's question, has anyone heard of the name Fritzi? Yes. FritziRitz was a cartoon character from the comics, originally a bombshell like Betty Boop, but eventually, the more dowdy aunt of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy, a miserable comic strip that was never funny but that I read every Sunday without fail anyway when I was quite young because it was so easy to read and understand.
Well this was unexpected. And flattering. Thank you for including me. As I indicated once before, I'm used to Internet communities being pretty icy and aggressive (as in aggression). This group has been gentle and genteel. Which gives me a sense (please forgive me, proud Americans, but ours is a brutish, "bring 'em on" culture) that the mix is very international.
Now I have a list of the names with which I am most familiar to begin accreteing attributes. Somebody co-authored a book on statistical methods of pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamics (yikes!), but I didn't record it and now that's lost until the next time I stumble upon it (this is the thinking out loud that I mentioned). It's like a game of Clue. Colonel Mustard is in the study. I thought that I could place sionnach in the bay area in Northern California, but then suddenly Spain seemed more right. Am I conflating attributes of two different people? The list of WORDOs will put an end to the speculating. Prolagus is Italian - or else that guy in the movie Breaking Away.
Anyway, cheers, all!
Listening to: "Sure don't know what I'm going for, but I'm gonna go for it for sure."
Two things. All opinions solicited, although I believe that skipva should decide which of these ideas, if any, is helpful.
(1) I added aphthous and subsequently noticed aphtha on the list. These are the same thing, and in my opinion, aphthous should be stricken from the list. However, it is not my list and I didn't want to take the liberty. By the same token, because ophthalmologist appears on the list, we probably don't also want ophthalmology, ophthalmologic, ophthalmological, or ophthalmologically. However, xerophthalmia (a condition of dry eyes) and microphthalmos (abnormal smallness of one or both eyes) are on the list and probably should be. They are sufficiently different in meaning and form from ophthalmologist. Microphthalmos differs in meaning only subtly from microphthalmia, the first, as best I can tell, being the abstract idea of the smallness of eyeballs, the other, the fact of it being the case in an individual - genus and species, type and token. Anophthalmia and anophthalmos are analogous, except pertaining to no eye forming. Probably one of these should be included. I have taken the liberty of adding anophthalmia, in the spirit of monophthong, diphthong and triphthong. But how about ophthalmoscope, which in form is like all of the other ophth- words above, but conceptually, is just as unique relative to ophthalmologist as microphthalmos? I will defer to skipva to decide whether to include ophthalmoscope rather than add it myself.
I realize that I'm splitting hairs here somewhat, but isn't that what we do? And just to torture this subject even further, how about another little exercise in lumping and splitting. Who's up for that?
(2) Can we not find a place in this list for two buddies of 'phth,' namely 'chth' and 'ghth,' which are actually even more rare. I would be interested in the words in which they appear in the same syllable, like chthonic and eighth, not words which split them such as autochthonous and knighthood, although frankly, the latter aren't fundamentally different from ophthalmologist, which also splits the 'ph' and 'th' across syllables. Words which contain the the 'phth' sound in the same syllable, like phthalein and phthisis, are, to me, more special. Those other words are really no more interesting than highchair or earthshaking, and were it not for the monosyllabic 'phth' words, this might not be a category for a list.
It's remarkable to return to my computer after several hours away and find all of this discussion by so many people on a topic such as this.
BTW, how does one go about making an addition like the one I made appear as a gray definition beside the word rather than as a comment. I referenced FAQ and found this: "The definitions come from an open-source project called WordNet. If they don't provide a definition, then Wordie doesn't show one. So far, there is no way to add a definition - but you can add it as a comment on the word page." That's got to be an intrabuccal linguisticism again, n'est ce pas?
An order of Crustacea having the eyes supported on movable stalks. It includes the crabs, lobsters, and prawns. Called also Podophthalmata, and Decapoda.
Thanks. I was hoping somebody that could speak to this with some authority would chime in. I was aware that programmers hid messages to themselves and other programmers in the source code this way, but I didn't realize that this was not the preferred way to do that.
According to the Urban Dictionary, frust is, "the small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until he finally decides to give up and sweep it under the rug."
I'm no expert on this stuff, but I believe that HTML translators ignore anything contained between the less than and greater than signs that isn't recognized as a standard tag. This allows the programmers to write notes in the source code of a web page that don't affect rendering of the code or the page that we see. You can see that code for the page that you're looking at now by entering CTRL + U. The first sentence there, which begins with "!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHT" is, I believe, an example of this.
I had the great good pleasure of visiting Iceland in 2002. Two words that enchanted me were Þingvellir (Thingvellir), a National Park, and Snorri (who could easily have been the eighth dwarf), a common first name. I found myself repeating both words frequently to amuse myself.
My most enduring trivial memories of the trip were a strapping, 300 lb. tour guide named Bekki, the Pizza Hut in Reykjavik that offered tuna (or, tuna fish, if you prefer) as a pizza topping, and the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which, unfortunately, was closed the day we walked by it.
sionnich: I find the same thing happens - if I edit a post in which I've previously entered a (correctly) formatted link, and the edit has nothing to do with the link, it first appears that the link has vanished. However, it generally reappears upon refreshing my browser. (I think this is what you meant, yes?)
Yes, exactly. In fact, the link which gave me problems and resulted in the question - Drinky Crow - is now back on line, on its own. In selected cases, I may start adding the URL right beside the link to be be doubly certain. If you see this odd configuration, you'll know why.
I've been having a terrible time getting the links in my posts operational or to stay operational, even when the formatting appears perfect. Furthermore, sometimes a link will just disappear after editing a remote part of the post, and upon reloading, reappear. Poltergeists! Is anybody else having a similar problem, or is this something more local, like my computer or server?
Wonderful list and a wonderful subject. I just stumbled onto this material recently, and have dug into the subject a little. Information available on the Internet is sparse and sometimes contradictory. I'm concerned about my definition of crottles not agreeing with yours, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to retrace my steps and find it again to see if I made an error copying it.
Michael Quinion discusses the subject. Crottles appears on his list as crottle-eyed. BTW, if you're interested, his list contains several terms not on your list, although he doesn't define any of them: neoflect, spurl, direct-a-tron (and throwatron, staggeratron, sailatron, swishatron), and jigg.
The definition that I found for crottles - the Xes drawn for the eyes of a dead or stuporous character - conflicts with the Wordie definition. Also, you (reesetee) defined oculama as, "The cartoon science of creating eyes." To that, MiaLuthien added, "Also, Xs over a character's eyes to indicate drunkenness or death," so, there's some ambiguity already.
As I indicated, I don't recall where I got the definition of crottles that I provided, but Quinion's use of the term "crottle-eyed" lends some support to the idea that my resource might have been correct. Although Google provides several mentions of Mort Walker, his book on the subject, and lists of many of his cartooning neologisms, even with an earnest effort, I wasn't able to find definitions of these words anywhere except wherever it was that I read that definition of crottles, and from Wikipedia. And this article contained only a handful of definitions, crottles not being among them. So I can't resolve the issue.
Apparently, this is proprietary material, and they want us to buy the book (pictured on the Wiki page). And since you have provided quite a few more definitions as well as provided a citation from Walker, I'm guessing that you bought the book and can sort this out.
If you are into this stuff enough to have bought a book on it, then you might be interested to know that the Cartoon Channel just introduced a new cartoon to its Adult Swim lineup called Drinky Crow. I've seen it just once, and loved it for both the story line of that single episode as well as the animation. Drinky is often depicted with Xes for eyes, as in the YouTube sample here.
(Private joke - For the last ten years, I have lived in a town in rural Missouri (US) called Poplar Bluff, and have long called our own Poplar Bluffoons.)
Of or from El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion), abbreviated L.A.
Melungeons are people found in and around pre-American North Carolina who were free but not considered white, usually because of an infusion of native American and/or Mediterranean blood:
"When the Spanish withdrew from North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia under British pressure, they left behind many part Indian children and probably quite a few Jews, Moors and Muslim slaves."
"Francis Drake stopped at Roanoke for some months on his way back from raiding Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. He had several hundred Muslim seamen with him who had been freed from the Spanish and were being returned to Morocco and the Ottoman Empire."
chained_bear said: "Yaybob, none of us here are strangers to lowbrow. :) Welcome!"
Thanks chained (or is it bear?).
reesetee said: "Yaybob, you get a gold star just for asking. Thanks for that--and welcome to Wordie. (Great screen name, by the way.)"
And thank you too. As I indicated, I'm still getting oriented, and while I prefer to be myself, as I said, I really didn't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable or lose potential friends before making any. You have all been so civil and witty, which, frankly, has been a pleasant surprise.
In the last two or three years, I've experienced three different Internet communities, in succession, brought together for three different reasons, and they have all been different from each other in important ways, but they were all alike in that there was always at least a whiff of rough play or belligerence (one was political, so you can just imagine), and nobody had better wear their heart on their sleeve in any of them. So, this is a welcome change. Secular and liberal if anyone is interested, but I get along well with most conservative theists
One warning. Please be tolerant. I seem to have some kind of dyslexia equivalent when I compose my posts - a dysgraphia if you will - that results in the submission of some gross grammatical errors, probably as a result of all the surgery I do in the process of generating them. At times, it's been more like Medieval torture than surgery, and some truly tortured sentences have resulted. For some reason, even though I look at them before posting, I frequently fail to pick up the error until I see it published.
Fortunately, Wordie lets me edit after posting, so when I do see the problem, I can clean it up before everybody has seen it. It's embarrassing, but I know that it's going to happen repeatedly. It already has - dropped words, sentences that aren't sentences, etc.. It looks careless and sloppy, even though it's likely the opposite is true. I'll spend an hour on a post at times. I just wanted to explain. I don't think that I can do any better.
And one other thing. My posts are longer than average. I like to think "out loud" and I like to freely associate. Some people have not cared for that in the past. I hope that my episodic typos from hell (I hope that the life of that phrase has not expired yet - I still like it) and my at times unfocused musing (like that) will be received as idiosyncracies and not impositions.
Heres a bundle of them that I didn't find in the list
TITTLE - the dot over a lower case letter "i"
CERE - the fleshy part of the beaks of some birds such as the parakeet (budgie) containing the nostrils and situated between the vertical plane of the face and the hard part of the beak.
GLABELLA (also known as the 'Garcia') - is the space between the eyebrows above the nasal bridge.
GRAWLIX – the various squiggles in dialogue balloons in the place of actual dialogue used to denote cussing in comic books.
CROTTLES - in cartooning, the Xes used to replace the eyes to symbolize unconsciousness or death
PLEWDS - in cartooning, sweat droplets that appear around a character's head when working hard or stressed.
BRIFFITS – in cartooning, clouds of dust that hang in the spot where a swiftly departing character or object was previously standing.
HITES - in cartooning, straight, horizontal lines trailing behind something running or straight vertical lines above a falling object an object falling
SQUEANS – in cartooning, stars, birds or similar objects orbiting over the head of somebody just struck in the head.little starbursts or circles that signify intoxication, dizziness, or sickness. EMANATA - straight lines drawn radially around the head to indicate shock or surprise.
INDOTHERM - in cartooning, wavy, rising lines used to denote heat radiating from a hot object
WAFTERON - in cartooning, wavy, rising lines used to denote an intense smell or aroma coming from a strongly smelling object or person
AGITRONS - in cartooning, wiggly lines around an object that is shaking
BLURGITS AND SWALLOOPS - in cartooning, curved lines preceding or trailing after a character's limbs to indicate that they are shaking back and forth
LUCAFLECT - in cartooning, a shiny spot on a curved reflective surface such as chrome or an eyeball
DITES - in cartooning, diagonal, straight lines drawn across mirrors and panes of glass
SOLRADS - in cartooning, radiating lines drawn from something luminous like a lightbulb or the sun.
ANATOMICAL SNUFFBOX -(radial fossa) a triangular deepening on the thumb side of the hand between the back and the side (radial dorsolateral aspect) just above he wrist, best seen with all of the fingers separated as widely as possible and the wrist cocked back as if to look at the fingernails of the extended hand.
PUNT - the indentation at the bottom of wine bottles adding strength to the bottle and reducing its volume.
OBDORMITION - The numbness of a limb “falling asleep�?caused from prolonged pressure on a nerve, usually followed by PARESTHESIAS, or “pins and needles�?
DAG - wool on a sheep's rear clumped and matted by mud and fecal matter.
SANTORUM – the fluid in the rectum after anal intercourse resulting from the mixing of semen and stool and named after former Penn. Senator Rick Santorum in remembrance of his obsessive and judgmental posturing concerning other people’s sexual habits.
MUNTIN – the crossing strips of wood or metal in the glass field of a door or window that separates it into several smaller pieces of glass and holds them together.
MULLION - A vertical strip completely dividing a window into two or more equal fields, a specific type of muntin.
HARP - the metal hoop that a lampshade rests on.
SUSSURUS (or susurration) – a whisper or whispering
SUSPIRATION (or to suspirate) – a sigh (a single deep breath) or sighing
ERUCTATION (or to eruct) – a belch or belching
STERTUATION (or to stertuate) – a sneeze or sneezing
OSCITATION (or to oscitate) – a yawn or yawning
SINGULTATION (or a singultus) – a sneeze or sneezing
TUSSIS – a cough
PANDICULATION – stretching all of the muscles as when tired, often accompanied by a yawn.
This word - Begin/begin - was among the capitonyms that sionnich linked us to earlier, which reminded me of a minor peeve of mine from way back. Why, when transliterating from the Hebrew alphabet into the Roman alphabet, would one choose those letters 'B-E-G-I-N' for a name that is pronounced BAYG'-in, a rhyme with Reagan, Meghann, Fagin and pagan? Wouldn't Baigin or Bagan or Baygin, Beygunn or any number of other spellings have been a better and more helpful choice? Actually, it is hard to come up with a worse choice without appearing to be doing so on purpose.
Host seems legit to me, as in a heavenly host of angels or in the communion host. It's not the same word as the computer word, but it's a homonym. According to "the free dictionary", the heavenly host, meaning either an army or a great number, derives from the Latin word hostis (enemy or stranger), the host that is the consecrated Eucharistis wafer from the Latin hostia (victim or sacrifice), and the computer word - a computer connected to a network and providing facilities to other computers and their users - from the Latin hospes (guest) anybody into rhetoric remember what zeugma is? I just learned last week. I believe that this sentence utilized prozeugma. It’s very interesting that ‘stranger’ is grouped with hostis/enemy rather than hospes/guest. See also "your dictionary"
Yes, job (short "o") isn't Job (long "o"). Is everybody familiar with capitonyms - a special category of near homographs differing in appearance by virtue only of capitalization (August/august, Polish/polish, Reading/reading, tangier/Tangier, nice/Nice are some other well known ones).
It (job/Job) and hex dump are there - how you say in Hinglish - intrabuccally linguistically.
A pleasure, Yarb. I wasn't sure about your interest in scientific names.
Mollusque sure went to town.
I suppose "binned" is polite society's way of saying "sh*t-canned." That would no doubt be due to the fact that sphinx moth doesn't count as an "x" word if its last term isn't an "x" word.
In my week or two on Wordie, I've noticed that most of the group has been fairly demure and relatively sophisticated. I have not. I have tended to gravitate toward low-brow humor. I hope that that is not unwelcome. I think that I took the vagina list as evidence that at least some bawdy humor was tolerated. I wish neither to offend or annoy. If there are any special needs or requests in this area, please let me know.
I realize that this isn’t a humor site, but I had this material prepared for another purpose, and I thought that I’d share it here. These are three YouTube videos, all pretty funny in my estimation. Hopefully, at least one will be unfamiliar to you. The last two are a little ethnic, but I think – at least I hope - not offensive.
You likely have always wondered what the hell lyrics Joe Cocker was singing to A Little Help From My Friends at Woodstock, because they sure as hell aren't the ones everybody else is singing. At last a transcript is available. If only John Belushi had lived to see it.
Continuing in the same vein is this East Indian music video with somebody's interpretation of what the Hindu words sound like in English. This one's a keeper, too. For lack of a better name, here is “My Loony Bun Is Fine, Benny Lava�?
Everybody likes hymns, and with the holidays fast approaching, what could be more timely and welcome. Here's O-mazing Grace (how sweet the sound!). Nobody's going to ever figure these lyrics out. It's bad from the beginning, but don't quit it early. OG teases us at 1:39 with a taste of what is to come, but he doesn’t really takes it up until 2:08. And stay for the riveting finale, beginning around 3:00! This is truly one of the worst musical performances ever, bar none. Truly awful, but stunningly funny.
Nutmeg liver is the pathological appearance of the liver caused by chronic passive congestion of the liver secondary to right heart failure. The liver appears "speckled" like a grated nutmeg kernel
Mingie and Gary were characters in a South Park episode, "A Million Little Fibers." They were Oprah Winfrey's private parts. Just doing my part to advance culture.
As I suspect you already know (but for completeness sake), in addition to John, Juan, Giovanni, Johan, and Johannes, there are also these variants:
János, Ivan, Hans, Sean (and Shawn/Shaun), Shane, Jonas, Ian, Evan, and Owen. There are also several that are men’s names in Europe, but are women’s names in America: Joan (as in Joan Miro), Jann (as in Jann Wenner), Jan (Jan Stenerud), and Jean (as in Jean Jacques Rousseau). The link lists a few dozen more that most people probably wouldn’t recognize.
In case you’re interested, these sixteen substances are each one of three categories of chemicals: the first one and the last two are hormones. The next four are three proprietary names and the generic name of an antifungal drug. The other nine are cholesterol inhibitors and are what is meant by the statins in medicine.
nystatin is the generic name for an antifungal first developed in N.Y. state and marketed as Korostatin®, Mycostatin®, and Flagystatin®
The next nine substances (Pi, F, Pr, R, C, Si, L, M, and A) are structurally related to one another, but not to the three hormones (Ang, End and Som,) or the antifungal drug with four names. They are all HMG-CoA inhibitors (they inhibit cholesterol synthesis). Only F, Pr, R, Si, L, M, and A are prescribed in the US (as Lescol®, Pravachol®, Crestor®, Zocor®, Mevacor® and Lipitor® ; C, formerly sold as Baycol® but later withdrawn, and M, a natural occurring precursor for synthesizing some of the others, are too toxic for use; Pi used in Asia.
Somatostatin (from the brain and gut), endostatin (cleaved from collagen), and angiostatin are naturally occurring hormones. Angiostatin and endostatin inhibits tumor neovascularization, an essential part of tumor growth. They are being studied for therapeutic use against cancers. Somatostatin antagonizes insulin and growth hormone (somatotropin).
I suspect that until they know better, most people wouldn't trust a person described as ingenuous or redoubtable, but might be attracted to one that they were told possesssed cupidity, was libertine or licentious. Wouldn't you rather meet a meretricious, nonplussed, queanly spendthrift with a wizened face and her feet planted firmly in the firmament more than a tripping one with a pulchritudinous face? Temerarious and puissant sound frightened and reserved. Restive and enervated sound calming and charged up respectively. Prosaic speech sounds like it might be flowery, lofty or lauditory, and inflammable sounds a lot safer than flammable.
pravastatin, fluvastatin, pitavastatin and nystatin can be added to this list.
The first three, like rosuvastatin, cerivastatin, simvatatin, lovastatin, mevastatin, and atorvastatin are cholesterol lowering synthetic chemicals called HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. Nystatin is an antibiotic (somatotatin and endostatin are naturally occurring hormones).
MWCD10 must be Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary 10th edition. I havent figured out what reference work W3 refers to. OED is, of course, Oxford English Dictionary
CWM (a glacial hollow on a hillside) has the rare W as a vowel, as does CRWTH (a type of stringed instrument). Both words are in MWCD10. They are pronounced "koom" and "krooth" (rhyming with room and truth). Other such words, not in MWCD10, are TWP (stupid), AWDL (an ode written in the strict alliterative meters), and LLWCHWR (a city-district in Wales). These words are of Welsh origin. The OED includes numerous archaic spellings in which W or V is a vowel.
Words containing no vowels include Q.T. (as in "on the q.t.") and DJ, both of which appear in the main part of MWCD10 and not in the abbreviations section. Other such words include BRRR, GRR, HMMMM, JHVH, MR., MRS., MS, NTH, PFFT, pH, PHPHT, PHT, PSST, SH, SHH, SSSHHHHH, TSK, TSKS, TSKTSK, TSKTSKS, TV, YHWH, ZZZ, HSH (hush, W3), ST (silence, quiet, W3), TCH (vexation or disgust, W3), TCK (surprise or displeasure), and TST (hissed sound enjoining silence, W3). PHFFFT! and SSSSSSS are titles of movies from 1954 and 1973. The OED has TPRW (the sound of a horn). GRRL is in the Macquarie Dictionary, with the alternate spelling GRRRL.
KRK is a Croatian island.
Strc prst skrz krk (Czech for "Put your finger through your throat") appears to have no vowels, but R serves as a vowel in Czech. Bydd y cyllyll yn y cwpwrdd wrth y bwrdd (Welsh for "The knives will be in the cupboard by the table") does not use the vowels a, e, i, o, and u.
The longest common word without an A, E, I, O, or U is RHYTHMS, but these additional words appear in W2: SYMPHYSY, NYMPHLY, GYPSYRY, GYPSYFY. The OED2 has TWYNDYLLYNG(S). And WPPWRMWSTE (in the OED) goes nine letters without an A, E, I, O, or U; GLYCYRRHIZIN (a constituent of licorice) goes eight letters without A, E, I, O, or U. (In all these words, "Y" is a vowel.)
Admittedly, this is a very subjective quality in a word. Still, there must be a degree of objectivity to this trait, since many people will agree that many of these words fit this description.
Comments by yaybob
yaybob commented on the list old-words-that-deserve-revival
moxie
June 25, 2012
yaybob commented on the word crossword
January 23, 2009
yaybob commented on the word crossword
No,not a ton of links. Just these two, because these are remarkable puzzles.
WIDE OPEN SPACES, both .PDF files
GRIDLOCK features three adjacent horizontal 21-letter entries spanning the entire width of the grid in the three middle rows of the puzzle (rows 10, 11 and 12) which intersect with three similar adjacent 21-letter vertical entries running up and down the three middle columns of the grid. For good measure, there are two more 21-letter horizontal entries in the puzzle. Each of these is a string of automobile model names (the clues are the corresponding makes). The puzzle was conceived as the intersection of two three-lane highways with traffic in gridlock.
WIDE OPEN SPACES is remarkable for its paucity of black squares, its many long entries, and its short word list. The limit would be a 21 x 21 grid with no black squares made of 21 across entries and 21 down entries, or only 42 words. WOS contains only 51 black squares (11%) and 112 words, about 75% of which are 8 or more letters long. Reagle does take some liberties with the language, so allow for that.
Answers are unavailable on the Internet to my knowledge, but I've finished the puzzles - they are not impossibly difficult - and can help if there are any nagging problems.
January 23, 2009
yaybob commented on the word crossword
I have URLs for two great crossword puzzles. Would it be inappropriate for me to post those here on Wordie? It's not our mission or purpose, but it is word related, and there may be a few crossword puzzle fans like me among us.
January 22, 2009
yaybob commented on the list metaphors-we-live-by
We can't have metonymy without synecdoche. (This was a difficult subject that I once pored over and kept some notes that I thought were helpful and that I'd like to share.)
The following are all nested: a synecdoche is a type of metonymy, which is a type of metaphor, which in turn is a type of trope, which is one of the categories of figures of speech.
(1) Figure of Speech - a word or phrase of figurative language that departs from straightforward, literal language and that is crafted for emphasis, freshness, convenience or clarity. There are two main types: schemes and tropes
(2) Trope - a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of using a word or words to mean something other than what is considered its literal or normal meaning (cf. scheme, the other category of figure of speech, which involves changing the pattern of words in a sentence or letters in a word through omission, repetition, or transposition: "love me do" or "ne'er-do-well").
(3) Metaphor - a type of trope that compares two things (like most elements of the list), as in "the death of music," where music is compared to a living thing, "ignorance is bliss," "the king of beasts, "or "a thirst for knowledge" (cf. irony, another type of trope, where a word means it's opposite, as in "that's just great" or litotes, also a trope, as in "not bad")
(4) Metonymy - a type of metaphor that uses a related object or concept in place of another, as in "the pen is mightier than the sword," where pen represents writing and the sword physical battle, or "the Pentagon" for the Department of Defense.
(5) Synecdoche - a form of metonymy, in which a part stands for the whole, as in "hired hands" or "my new wheels"
December 27, 2008
yaybob commented on the list antique-names-female
How about Pansy? It's still in vogue here in southeastern Missouri (I knew three at one time, but alas, two have passed on).
I have a sister-in-law named Eugenia (who had a mother named Dorcas. I wonder why Dorcas fell out of vogue. Lovely name. "Has anyone seen my Dorcas?" "Yes, she's taking tea with Lady Doofus.")
Hattie, as in Hilo Hattie or Panama Hattie.
Bea, as in Aunt Bea and Bea Benederet
Wilhelmina. Why shouldn't Wilhelm memorialize himself in his daughter's name?
I've known two women named Johnna, which is just as lovely a tribute to her father as Wilhelmina.
Dare we consider Bertie more than just a nickname for Bertha?
Constance (Prudence's sister)
Sybil and Agatha
And then there's Maud(e)
I realize that this is a year late, but in response to RAMINI's question, has anyone heard of the name Fritzi? Yes. Fritzi Ritz was a cartoon character from the comics, originally a bombshell like Betty Boop, but eventually, the more dowdy aunt of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy, a miserable comic strip that was never funny but that I read every Sunday without fail anyway when I was quite young because it was so easy to read and understand.
December 27, 2008
yaybob commented on the list wordie-challenge
Well this was unexpected. And flattering. Thank you for including me. As I indicated once before, I'm used to Internet communities being pretty icy and aggressive (as in aggression). This group has been gentle and genteel. Which gives me a sense (please forgive me, proud Americans, but ours is a brutish, "bring 'em on" culture) that the mix is very international.
Now I have a list of the names with which I am most familiar to begin accreteing attributes. Somebody co-authored a book on statistical methods of pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamics (yikes!), but I didn't record it and now that's lost until the next time I stumble upon it (this is the thinking out loud that I mentioned). It's like a game of Clue. Colonel Mustard is in the study. I thought that I could place sionnach in the bay area in Northern California, but then suddenly Spain seemed more right. Am I conflating attributes of two different people? The list of WORDOs will put an end to the speculating. Prolagus is Italian - or else that guy in the movie Breaking Away.
Anyway, cheers, all!
Listening to: "Sure don't know what I'm going for, but I'm gonna go for it for sure."
(BTW, what's a challenge in the wordie sense?)
December 20, 2008
yaybob commented on the list phth
Good answer. Graceful and funny.
December 17, 2008
yaybob commented on the list phth
Two things. All opinions solicited, although I believe that skipva should decide which of these ideas, if any, is helpful.
(1) I added aphthous and subsequently noticed aphtha on the list. These are the same thing, and in my opinion, aphthous should be stricken from the list. However, it is not my list and I didn't want to take the liberty. By the same token, because ophthalmologist appears on the list, we probably don't also want ophthalmology, ophthalmologic, ophthalmological, or ophthalmologically. However, xerophthalmia (a condition of dry eyes) and microphthalmos (abnormal smallness of one or both eyes) are on the list and probably should be. They are sufficiently different in meaning and form from ophthalmologist. Microphthalmos differs in meaning only subtly from microphthalmia, the first, as best I can tell, being the abstract idea of the smallness of eyeballs, the other, the fact of it being the case in an individual - genus and species, type and token. Anophthalmia and anophthalmos are analogous, except pertaining to no eye forming. Probably one of these should be included. I have taken the liberty of adding anophthalmia, in the spirit of monophthong, diphthong and triphthong. But how about ophthalmoscope, which in form is like all of the other ophth- words above, but conceptually, is just as unique relative to ophthalmologist as microphthalmos? I will defer to skipva to decide whether to include ophthalmoscope rather than add it myself.
I realize that I'm splitting hairs here somewhat, but isn't that what we do? And just to torture this subject even further, how about another little exercise in lumping and splitting. Who's up for that?
(2) Can we not find a place in this list for two buddies of 'phth,' namely 'chth' and 'ghth,' which are actually even more rare. I would be interested in the words in which they appear in the same syllable, like chthonic and eighth, not words which split them such as autochthonous and knighthood, although frankly, the latter aren't fundamentally different from ophthalmologist, which also splits the 'ph' and 'th' across syllables. Words which contain the the 'phth' sound in the same syllable, like phthalein and phthisis, are, to me, more special. Those other words are really no more interesting than highchair or earthshaking, and were it not for the monosyllabic 'phth' words, this might not be a category for a list.
December 17, 2008
yaybob commented on the word microphthalmos
a developmental anomaly characterized by abnormal smallness of one or both eyes.
December 17, 2008
yaybob commented on the word podophthalmia
It's remarkable to return to my computer after several hours away and find all of this discussion by so many people on a topic such as this.
BTW, how does one go about making an addition like the one I made appear as a gray definition beside the word rather than as a comment. I referenced FAQ and found this: "The definitions come from an open-source project called WordNet. If they don't provide a definition, then Wordie doesn't show one. So far, there is no way to add a definition - but you can add it as a comment on the word page." That's got to be an intrabuccal linguisticism again, n'est ce pas?
December 17, 2008
yaybob commented on the word podophthalmia
An order of Crustacea having the eyes supported on movable stalks. It includes the crabs, lobsters, and prawns. Called also Podophthalmata, and Decapoda.
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the list cops
detective
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the list cops
the man
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word zed
zed's dead
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word chuck-farthing
a game involving throwing small coins
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word nosy parker
a person who meddles in the affairs of others
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word nancy boy
an effeminate male
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word gallinipper
a large mosquito or other insect capable of inflicting a painful bite
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word windlestraw
A person who is tall, thin and unhealthy looking
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word scopperloit
rude or rough play
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word hoddypeak
A blockhead or fool
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word clodhopper
A clumsy, awkward fellow
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word carriwitchit
A pun or conundrum
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word batie-bummil
A useless bungler
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the list nincompoopery
Nice, sionnach. Thanks.
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word -<-@
Thanks. I was hoping somebody that could speak to this with some authority would chime in. I was aware that programmers hid messages to themselves and other programmers in the source code this way, but I didn't realize that this was not the preferred way to do that.
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the user bilby
That means the same thing as vacation, no? Happy holidays.
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word wuziwuk
Waar, natuurlijk, ook ik spreek geen Nederlands.
Ik ben door een wesp gestoken. Kun je me een insekt afwerend? Prettige kerstdagen!
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word wuziwuk
Waar, natuurlijk, ook ik spreek geen Nederlands.
Ik ben door een wesp gestoken. Kun je me een insekt afwerend? Prettige kerstdagen!
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word frust
According to the Urban Dictionary, frust is, "the small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until he finally decides to give up and sweep it under the rug."
Essentially what Yarb said.
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the word -<-@
I'm no expert on this stuff, but I believe that HTML translators ignore anything contained between the less than and greater than signs that isn't recognized as a standard tag. This allows the programmers to write notes in the source code of a web page that don't affect rendering of the code or the page that we see. You can see that code for the page that you're looking at now by entering CTRL + U. The first sentence there, which begins with "!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHT" is, I believe, an example of this.
December 16, 2008
yaybob commented on the user davidsmth606@gmail.com
They've got this stuff automated now at insult-o-matic.com. Some reworked samples of their output:
maggotous vat of vomit
dandruff licking, whimpering pantaloon
toilet-bowl licking rectum
cross-dressing, pus hole
(Just another road kill on the information stupor highway)
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the list icelandic
I had the great good pleasure of visiting Iceland in 2002. Two words that enchanted me were Þingvellir (Thingvellir), a National Park, and Snorri (who could easily have been the eighth dwarf), a common first name. I found myself repeating both words frequently to amuse myself.
My most enduring trivial memories of the trip were a strapping, 300 lb. tour guide named Bekki, the Pizza Hut in Reykjavik that offered tuna (or, tuna fish, if you prefer) as a pizza topping, and the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which, unfortunately, was closed the day we walked by it.
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the user yaybob
Thanks! I've had a ball here already.
sionnich said: I just wanted to say how much I've been enjoying your contributions to the site.
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the list very-funny
sionnich: I find the same thing happens - if I edit a post in which I've previously entered a (correctly) formatted link, and the edit has nothing to do with the link, it first appears that the link has vanished. However, it generally reappears upon refreshing my browser. (I think this is what you meant, yes?)
Yes, exactly. In fact, the link which gave me problems and resulted in the question - Drinky Crow - is now back on line, on its own. In selected cases, I may start adding the URL right beside the link to be be doubly certain. If you see this odd configuration, you'll know why.
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the list flora-and-fauna-ending-in-x
skipvia said: Not...not...Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn! *gasp* Is he ready?
You betcha!
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the word wuwh
what's up with him (her)
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the word wysiwyg
what you see is what you get
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the word figfd figfu
found in gutter face down
found in gutter face up
(useful for medical and police reports)
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the word socmob
standing on corner / minding own business - proof that whatever happened wasn't your fault
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the word walstib
what a long, strange trip it's been
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the word nttawwt
not that there's anything wrong with that
December 15, 2008
yaybob commented on the list very-funny
In case it never appears in the post below this one, this is the URL for the Drinky Crow YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FiNGpCHSE8
December 14, 2008
yaybob commented on the list very-funny
I've been having a terrible time getting the links in my posts operational or to stay operational, even when the formatting appears perfect. Furthermore, sometimes a link will just disappear after editing a remote part of the post, and upon reloading, reappear. Poltergeists! Is anybody else having a similar problem, or is this something more local, like my computer or server?
December 14, 2008
yaybob commented on the list very-funny
Wonderful list and a wonderful subject. I just stumbled onto this material recently, and have dug into the subject a little. Information available on the Internet is sparse and sometimes contradictory. I'm concerned about my definition of crottles not agreeing with yours, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to retrace my steps and find it again to see if I made an error copying it.
Michael Quinion discusses the subject. Crottles appears on his list as crottle-eyed. BTW, if you're interested, his list contains several terms not on your list, although he doesn't define any of them: neoflect, spurl, direct-a-tron (and throwatron, staggeratron, sailatron, swishatron), and jigg.
The definition that I found for crottles - the Xes drawn for the eyes of a dead or stuporous character - conflicts with the Wordie definition. Also, you (reesetee) defined oculama as, "The cartoon science of creating eyes." To that, MiaLuthien added, "Also, Xs over a character's eyes to indicate drunkenness or death," so, there's some ambiguity already.
As I indicated, I don't recall where I got the definition of crottles that I provided, but Quinion's use of the term "crottle-eyed" lends some support to the idea that my resource might have been correct. Although Google provides several mentions of Mort Walker, his book on the subject, and lists of many of his cartooning neologisms, even with an earnest effort, I wasn't able to find definitions of these words anywhere except wherever it was that I read that definition of crottles, and from Wikipedia. And this article contained only a handful of definitions, crottles not being among them. So I can't resolve the issue.
Apparently, this is proprietary material, and they want us to buy the book (pictured on the Wiki page). And since you have provided quite a few more definitions as well as provided a citation from Walker, I'm guessing that you bought the book and can sort this out.
If you are into this stuff enough to have bought a book on it, then you might be interested to know that the Cartoon Channel just introduced a new cartoon to its Adult Swim lineup called Drinky Crow. I've seen it just once, and loved it for both the story line of that single episode as well as the animation. Drinky is often depicted with Xes for eyes, as in the YouTube sample here.
December 14, 2008
yaybob commented on the list denizens
For bilby's demonyms list as well:
Neopolitan - Naples
Niçoise - Nice
Malagasay - Madagascar
Bellifontain - Fontainebleau
Downeaster - region of Maine
(Private joke - For the last ten years, I have lived in a town in rural Missouri (US) called Poplar Bluff, and have long called our own Poplar Bluffoons.)
December 14, 2008
yaybob commented on the word narthex
sionnach said: "It's the attack of the killer anthropomorphic spice-aliens!!"
Therefore, you will...GARFLE THE NARTHAX!
December 13, 2008
yaybob commented on the word bajun
I believe that the (unofficial) demonym for Barbados (officially
Barbadian), is Bajan. Wiki says 'Barbados' derives from the Spanish 'baja mar' (low or shallow sea), hence Bajan.
December 13, 2008
yaybob commented on the word angeleno
Of or from El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion), abbreviated L.A.
December 13, 2008
yaybob commented on the word melungeon
Melungeons are people found in and around pre-American North Carolina who were free but not considered white, usually because of an infusion of native American and/or Mediterranean blood:
"When the Spanish withdrew from North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia under British pressure, they left behind many part Indian children and probably quite a few Jews, Moors and Muslim slaves."
"Francis Drake stopped at Roanoke for some months on his way back from raiding Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. He had several hundred Muslim seamen with him who had been freed from the Spanish and were being returned to Morocco and the Ottoman Empire."
December 13, 2008
yaybob commented on the list flora-and-fauna-ending-in-x
Prolagus said: "Yaybob, are you good at singing? It's a very important requirement for Wordie."
That can’t be right. I think that you’re thinking of Lyricie.
December 13, 2008
yaybob commented on the list flora-and-fauna-ending-in-x
chained_bear said: "Yaybob, none of us here are strangers to lowbrow. :) Welcome!"
Thanks chained (or is it bear?).
reesetee said: "Yaybob, you get a gold star just for asking. Thanks for that--and welcome to Wordie. (Great screen name, by the way.)"
And thank you too. As I indicated, I'm still getting oriented, and while I prefer to be myself, as I said, I really didn't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable or lose potential friends before making any. You have all been so civil and witty, which, frankly, has been a pleasant surprise.
In the last two or three years, I've experienced three different Internet communities, in succession, brought together for three different reasons, and they have all been different from each other in important ways, but they were all alike in that there was always at least a whiff of rough play or belligerence (one was political, so you can just imagine), and nobody had better wear their heart on their sleeve in any of them. So, this is a welcome change. Secular and liberal if anyone is interested, but I get along well with most conservative theists
One warning. Please be tolerant. I seem to have some kind of dyslexia equivalent when I compose my posts - a dysgraphia if you will - that results in the submission of some gross grammatical errors, probably as a result of all the surgery I do in the process of generating them. At times, it's been more like Medieval torture than surgery, and some truly tortured sentences have resulted. For some reason, even though I look at them before posting, I frequently fail to pick up the error until I see it published.
Fortunately, Wordie lets me edit after posting, so when I do see the problem, I can clean it up before everybody has seen it. It's embarrassing, but I know that it's going to happen repeatedly. It already has - dropped words, sentences that aren't sentences, etc.. It looks careless and sloppy, even though it's likely the opposite is true. I'll spend an hour on a post at times. I just wanted to explain. I don't think that I can do any better.
And one other thing. My posts are longer than average. I like to think "out loud" and I like to freely associate. Some people have not cared for that in the past. I hope that my episodic typos from hell (I hope that the life of that phrase has not expired yet - I still like it) and my at times unfocused musing (like that) will be received as idiosyncracies and not impositions.
December 13, 2008
yaybob commented on the list it-has-a-name
Heres a bundle of them that I didn't find in the list
TITTLE - the dot over a lower case letter "i"
CERE - the fleshy part of the beaks of some birds such as the parakeet (budgie) containing the nostrils and situated between the vertical plane of the face and the hard part of the beak.
GLABELLA (also known as the 'Garcia') - is the space between the eyebrows above the nasal bridge.
GRAWLIX – the various squiggles in dialogue balloons in the place of actual dialogue used to denote cussing in comic books.
CROTTLES - in cartooning, the Xes used to replace the eyes to symbolize unconsciousness or death
PLEWDS - in cartooning, sweat droplets that appear around a character's head when working hard or stressed.
BRIFFITS – in cartooning, clouds of dust that hang in the spot where a swiftly departing character or object was previously standing.
HITES - in cartooning, straight, horizontal lines trailing behind something running or straight vertical lines above a falling object an object falling
SQUEANS – in cartooning, stars, birds or similar objects orbiting over the head of somebody just struck in the head.little starbursts or circles that signify intoxication, dizziness, or sickness. EMANATA - straight lines drawn radially around the head to indicate shock or surprise.
INDOTHERM - in cartooning, wavy, rising lines used to denote heat radiating from a hot object
WAFTERON - in cartooning, wavy, rising lines used to denote an intense smell or aroma coming from a strongly smelling object or person
AGITRONS - in cartooning, wiggly lines around an object that is shaking
BLURGITS AND SWALLOOPS - in cartooning, curved lines preceding or trailing after a character's limbs to indicate that they are shaking back and forth
LUCAFLECT - in cartooning, a shiny spot on a curved reflective surface such as chrome or an eyeball
DITES - in cartooning, diagonal, straight lines drawn across mirrors and panes of glass
SOLRADS - in cartooning, radiating lines drawn from something luminous like a lightbulb or the sun.
ANATOMICAL SNUFFBOX -(radial fossa) a triangular deepening on the thumb side of the hand between the back and the side (radial dorsolateral aspect) just above he wrist, best seen with all of the fingers separated as widely as possible and the wrist cocked back as if to look at the fingernails of the extended hand.
PUNT - the indentation at the bottom of wine bottles adding strength to the bottle and reducing its volume.
OBDORMITION - The numbness of a limb “falling asleep�?caused from prolonged pressure on a nerve, usually followed by PARESTHESIAS, or “pins and needles�?
DAG - wool on a sheep's rear clumped and matted by mud and fecal matter.
SANTORUM – the fluid in the rectum after anal intercourse resulting from the mixing of semen and stool and named after former Penn. Senator Rick Santorum in remembrance of his obsessive and judgmental posturing concerning other people’s sexual habits.
MUNTIN – the crossing strips of wood or metal in the glass field of a door or window that separates it into several smaller pieces of glass and holds them together.
MULLION - A vertical strip completely dividing a window into two or more equal fields, a specific type of muntin.
HARP - the metal hoop that a lampshade rests on.
SUSSURUS (or susurration) – a whisper or whispering
SUSPIRATION (or to suspirate) – a sigh (a single deep breath) or sighing
ERUCTATION (or to eruct) – a belch or belching
STERTUATION (or to stertuate) – a sneeze or sneezing
OSCITATION (or to oscitate) – a yawn or yawning
SINGULTATION (or a singultus) – a sneeze or sneezing
TUSSIS – a cough
PANDICULATION – stretching all of the muscles as when tired, often accompanied by a yawn.
December 13, 2008
yaybob commented on the word begin
This word - Begin/begin - was among the capitonyms that sionnich linked us to earlier, which reminded me of a minor peeve of mine from way back. Why, when transliterating from the Hebrew alphabet into the Roman alphabet, would one choose those letters 'B-E-G-I-N' for a name that is pronounced BAYG'-in, a rhyme with Reagan, Meghann, Fagin and pagan? Wouldn't Baigin or Bagan or Baygin, Beygunn or any number of other spellings have been a better and more helpful choice? Actually, it is hard to come up with a worse choice without appearing to be doing so on purpose.
December 12, 2008
yaybob commented on the list computer-science-meets-religion
Host seems legit to me, as in a heavenly host of angels or in the communion host. It's not the same word as the computer word, but it's a homonym. According to "the free dictionary", the heavenly host, meaning either an army or a great number, derives from the Latin word hostis (enemy or stranger), the host that is the consecrated Eucharistis wafer from the Latin hostia (victim or sacrifice), and the computer word - a computer connected to a network and providing facilities to other computers and their users - from the Latin hospes (guest) anybody into rhetoric remember what zeugma is? I just learned last week. I believe that this sentence utilized prozeugma. It’s very interesting that ‘stranger’ is grouped with hostis/enemy rather than hospes/guest. See also "your dictionary"
Yes, job (short "o") isn't Job (long "o"). Is everybody familiar with capitonyms - a special category of near homographs differing in appearance by virtue only of capitalization (August/august, Polish/polish, Reading/reading, tangier/Tangier, nice/Nice are some other well known ones).
It (job/Job) and hex dump are there - how you say in Hinglish - intrabuccally linguistically.
December 12, 2008
yaybob commented on the list flora-and-fauna-ending-in-x
Thanks for the kind words, Yarb. And to others who have been helpful as I get oriented to just what the hell is going on at this site.
December 12, 2008
yaybob commented on the list amber-words
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?
December 12, 2008
yaybob commented on the list portmanteaus
smog
blog
Spam
workaholic
cankles
motel
malware
simulcast
bionic
sitcom
goodbye
brunch
contrail
lox
December 12, 2008
yaybob commented on the list computer-science-meets-religion
host
scroll
canonical order
lotus
oracle
daemon
job
hex dump
December 12, 2008
yaybob commented on the word president obama
President Barack Obama
Praise bro, back mandate.
A barbarian pest mocked.
December 12, 2008
yaybob commented on the list flora-and-fauna-ending-in-x
A pleasure, Yarb. I wasn't sure about your interest in scientific names.
Mollusque sure went to town.
I suppose "binned" is polite society's way of saying "sh*t-canned." That would no doubt be due to the fact that sphinx moth doesn't count as an "x" word if its last term isn't an "x" word.
In my week or two on Wordie, I've noticed that most of the group has been fairly demure and relatively sophisticated. I have not. I have tended to gravitate toward low-brow humor. I hope that that is not unwelcome. I think that I took the vagina list as evidence that at least some bawdy humor was tolerated. I wish neither to offend or annoy. If there are any special needs or requests in this area, please let me know.
December 11, 2008
yaybob commented on the word long pig
Human flesh as food (analogous to venison for deer, mutton for lamb, etc.)
December 11, 2008
yaybob commented on the list pots
tosspot crackpot jackpot sexpot fleshpot stinkpot
December 11, 2008
yaybob commented on the list drinks-which-are-also-islands
How about a Bahama mama? Singapore sling? Maltese slipper? Sicilian Kiss? Java cooler?
December 11, 2008
yaybob commented on the word murex
Genus of tropical sea snail from which a purple dye is derived
December 11, 2008
yaybob commented on the word culex
Genus of mosquito
December 11, 2008
yaybob commented on the word addax
Genus of antelope
December 11, 2008
yaybob commented on the word apteryx
Genus of the kiwi
December 11, 2008
yaybob commented on the word president obama
First president since Zachary Taylor whose first name was conducive to belching.
December 10, 2008
yaybob commented on the word hysterical
I realize that this isn’t a humor site, but I had this material prepared for another purpose, and I thought that I’d share it here. These are three YouTube videos, all pretty funny in my estimation. Hopefully, at least one will be unfamiliar to you. The last two are a little ethnic, but I think – at least I hope - not offensive.
You likely have always wondered what the hell lyrics Joe Cocker was singing to A Little Help From My Friends at Woodstock, because they sure as hell aren't the ones everybody else is singing. At last a transcript is available. If only John Belushi had lived to see it.
Continuing in the same vein is this East Indian music video with somebody's interpretation of what the Hindu words sound like in English. This one's a keeper, too. For lack of a better name, here is “My Loony Bun Is Fine, Benny Lava�?
Everybody likes hymns, and with the holidays fast approaching, what could be more timely and welcome. Here's O-mazing Grace (how sweet the sound!). Nobody's going to ever figure these lyrics out. It's bad from the beginning, but don't quit it early. OG teases us at 1:39 with a taste of what is to come, but he doesn’t really takes it up until 2:08. And stay for the riveting finale, beginning around 3:00! This is truly one of the worst musical performances ever, bar none. Truly awful, but stunningly funny.
December 10, 2008
yaybob commented on the word hugger-mugger
In secret; in a clandestine manner.
December 9, 2008
yaybob commented on the word draftsack
Figuratively meaning a glutton or his big paunch or belly. Literally, a bag of garbage.
December 9, 2008
yaybob commented on the word cumberground
Someone who takes up space.
December 9, 2008
yaybob commented on the word blumpkin
A blumpkin: when a male receives oral sex while taking a dump.
(I knew that I could make a cultural contribution.)
December 9, 2008
yaybob commented on the word goose gossage
Baseball hall of fame relief pitcher.
December 9, 2008
yaybob commented on the word nutmeg liver
Nutmeg liver is the pathological appearance of the liver caused by chronic passive congestion of the liver secondary to right heart failure. The liver appears "speckled" like a grated nutmeg kernel
December 9, 2008
yaybob commented on the word frenchified
To have contracted a venereal disease.
December 9, 2008
yaybob commented on the word american cheese
Yeah, technically it's food, but it's not really edible.
December 9, 2008
yaybob commented on the word snizz
Slang for the vagina
A South Park episode called The Snuke featured a nuclear weapon that was hidden in Hillary Clinton's snizz
December 8, 2008
yaybob commented on the word minge
Mingie and Gary were characters in a South Park episode, "A Million Little Fibers." They were Oprah Winfrey's private parts. Just doing my part to advance culture.
December 8, 2008
yaybob commented on the word john v juan v giovanni v johan v johannes
As I suspect you already know (but for completeness sake), in addition to John, Juan, Giovanni, Johan, and Johannes, there are also these variants:
János, Ivan, Hans, Sean (and Shawn/Shaun), Shane, Jonas, Ian, Evan, and Owen. There are also several that are men’s names in Europe, but are women’s names in America: Joan (as in Joan Miro), Jann (as in Jann Wenner), Jan (Jan Stenerud), and Jean (as in Jean Jacques Rousseau). The link lists a few dozen more that most people probably wouldn’t recognize.
December 8, 2008
yaybob commented on the list statin
In case you’re interested, these sixteen substances are each one of three categories of chemicals: the first one and the last two are hormones. The next four are three proprietary names and the generic name of an antifungal drug. The other nine are cholesterol inhibitors and are what is meant by the statins in medicine.
nystatin is the generic name for an antifungal first developed in N.Y. state and marketed as Korostatin®, Mycostatin®, and Flagystatin®
The next nine substances (Pi, F, Pr, R, C, Si, L, M, and A) are structurally related to one another, but not to the three hormones (Ang, End and Som,) or the antifungal drug with four names. They are all HMG-CoA inhibitors (they inhibit cholesterol synthesis). Only F, Pr, R, Si, L, M, and A are prescribed in the US (as Lescol®, Pravachol®, Crestor®, Zocor®, Mevacor® and Lipitor® ; C, formerly sold as Baycol® but later withdrawn, and M, a natural occurring precursor for synthesizing some of the others, are too toxic for use; Pi used in Asia.
Somatostatin (from the brain and gut), endostatin (cleaved from collagen), and angiostatin are naturally occurring hormones. Angiostatin and endostatin inhibits tumor neovascularization, an essential part of tumor growth. They are being studied for therapeutic use against cancers. Somatostatin antagonizes insulin and growth hormone (somatotropin).
December 6, 2008
yaybob commented on the word hog rubber
a yokel
December 5, 2008
yaybob commented on the word dandisprat
an insignificant person
December 5, 2008
yaybob commented on the word flingdust
flingdust - a harlot or prostitute
December 5, 2008
yaybob commented on the list nincompoopery
Excellent suggestions. This is an open list, so feel free to add whatever you like.
Yes, draffsack. I'll make the necessary edit.
December 5, 2008
yaybob commented on the list deceptively-named-words
I suspect that until they know better, most people wouldn't trust a person described as ingenuous or redoubtable, but might be attracted to one that they were told possesssed cupidity, was libertine or licentious. Wouldn't you rather meet a meretricious, nonplussed, queanly spendthrift with a wizened face and her feet planted firmly in the firmament more than a tripping one with a pulchritudinous face? Temerarious and puissant sound frightened and reserved. Restive and enervated sound calming and charged up respectively. Prosaic speech sounds like it might be flowery, lofty or lauditory, and inflammable sounds a lot safer than flammable.
December 5, 2008
yaybob commented on the list statin
pravastatin, fluvastatin, pitavastatin and nystatin can be added to this list.
The first three, like rosuvastatin, cerivastatin, simvatatin, lovastatin, mevastatin, and atorvastatin are cholesterol lowering synthetic chemicals called HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. Nystatin is an antibiotic (somatotatin and endostatin are naturally occurring hormones).
December 4, 2008
yaybob commented on the list wtht-vwls
I found the following at: http://snipurl.com/7213l
MWCD10 must be Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary 10th edition. I havent figured out what reference work W3 refers to. OED is, of course, Oxford English Dictionary
CWM (a glacial hollow on a hillside) has the rare W as a vowel, as does CRWTH (a type of stringed instrument). Both words are in MWCD10. They are pronounced "koom" and "krooth" (rhyming with room and truth). Other such words, not in MWCD10, are TWP (stupid), AWDL (an ode written in the strict alliterative meters), and LLWCHWR (a city-district in Wales). These words are of Welsh origin. The OED includes numerous archaic spellings in which W or V is a vowel.
Words containing no vowels include Q.T. (as in "on the q.t.") and DJ, both of which appear in the main part of MWCD10 and not in the abbreviations section. Other such words include BRRR, GRR, HMMMM, JHVH, MR., MRS., MS, NTH, PFFT, pH, PHPHT, PHT, PSST, SH, SHH, SSSHHHHH, TSK, TSKS, TSKTSK, TSKTSKS, TV, YHWH, ZZZ, HSH (hush, W3), ST (silence, quiet, W3), TCH (vexation or disgust, W3), TCK (surprise or displeasure), and TST (hissed sound enjoining silence, W3). PHFFFT! and SSSSSSS are titles of movies from 1954 and 1973. The OED has TPRW (the sound of a horn). GRRL is in the Macquarie Dictionary, with the alternate spelling GRRRL.
KRK is a Croatian island.
Strc prst skrz krk (Czech for "Put your finger through your throat") appears to have no vowels, but R serves as a vowel in Czech. Bydd y cyllyll yn y cwpwrdd wrth y bwrdd (Welsh for "The knives will be in the cupboard by the table") does not use the vowels a, e, i, o, and u.
The longest common word without an A, E, I, O, or U is RHYTHMS, but these additional words appear in W2: SYMPHYSY, NYMPHLY, GYPSYRY, GYPSYFY. The OED2 has TWYNDYLLYNG(S). And WPPWRMWSTE (in the OED) goes nine letters without an A, E, I, O, or U; GLYCYRRHIZIN (a constituent of licorice) goes eight letters without A, E, I, O, or U. (In all these words, "Y" is a vowel.)
December 3, 2008
yaybob commented on the list deceptively-named-words
Admittedly, this is a very subjective quality in a word. Still, there must be a degree of objectivity to this trait, since many people will agree that many of these words fit this description.
December 3, 2008
yaybob commented on the word euro
Thanks to sionnach for "a href="URL here" label for target link /a, with the braces replaced by <>"
December 3, 2008
yaybob commented on the word euro
An alternate and little used meaning of the word euro is in reference to a macropodine marsupial pictured HERE
December 3, 2008