Word for the day…Weird Words beginning with ‘A’

“Weird and Wonderful Words” is a nifty book edited by Erin McKean. I don’t remember when I bought it, but it has given me many hours of hilarity, as I meander through its pages.

Here are 3 Weird and Wonderful Words beginning with A:
-aboulia means the loss of will or volition. It’s related to the Greek word for ‘thoughtlessness’
-agliff is a verb meaning frightened, it is related to the obsolete word ‘gliff’, meaning ‘to alarm’

and my favorite- alogotrophy, (Greek for ‘protection’) meaning excessive nutrition to any one part of the body resulting in deformity (like Popeye the Sailor Man’s arms!).

Word for the day…a puzzling collection

Word puzzler for the day ……………….
a lively person, a short legged hen and an eel, what do they all have in common?

They are all also known as “grigs”!
Etymology: 1350–1400; Middle English grig, grege, dwarf

Word for the day….The Color Purple (And I’m not talking about the movie!)

I found these two beauties on Word Dynamo, a favorite word website. This test was about various cool names for colors, and as purple is my favorite color, I thought I’d share a couple. First, solferino is a vivid purplish pink.

Also, aubergine is the name for a very dark purple. Curiously enough, the etymology of the word explains it all…[French, from Catalan albergina, from Arabic al-binjn (the eggplant), from Persian bdenjn, bdengn.]

Feel free to share your recent word treasures on this thread!

Phrase for the Day: toot suite

Toot suite means: quickly, immediately, at once. As with many foreign language phrases, it is a corruption of the origin phrase from the French ‘tout de suite’, which literally means ‘all at once’.

In a sentence: When his ex girlfriend arrived, he got out of there toot sweet!

Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=toot+sweet

Word for the day..let’s get legalized!

Word for the day..let’s get legalized!

I’m in the middle of preparing a Living Trust for Wade and I, and I was reading the final document when I came upon this jawbreaker: hypothecate.

hypothecate  (tr.v.)
To pledge (property) as security or collateral for a debt without transfer of title or possession.

Etymology: [Medieval Latin hypothcre, hypothct-, from Latin hypothca, pledge, deposit, from Greek hupothk, from hupotithenai, to give as a pledge, suppose; see hypothesis.]

Source cited: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hypothecate

The reason I prefer the Free Online Dictionary to Wikipedia for my definitions is that the Free Online Dictionary has this cool little function that allows you to hear the word pronounced properly, and, that they have a better etymology section for the words.

Tuesdays Misused or Myth-understood word: wheelbarrow

Tuesday’s Misused or Myth-understood word is… the commonplace wheelbarrow, which many people misspell as wheelbarrel.

Definition and origins: “A wheelbarrow is a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles at the rear, or by a sail to push the ancient wheelbarrow by wind. The term “wheelbarrow” is made of two words: “wheel” and “barrow.” “Barrow” is a derivation of the Old English “bearwe” which was a device used for carrying loads.”

Source cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelbarrow

Enjoy, and share your own Wordy findings with us today!

Word for the day…oh “precious one”

I ran into this word in an ad for radio show guests, and just couldn’t resist sharing it with you….

“Rinpoche or Rinboqê is an honorific used in Tibetan Buddhism. It literally means “precious one,” and is used to address or describe Tibetan lamas and other high-ranking or respected teachers. This honor is generally bestowed on reincarnated lamas, or Tulkus, by default. In other cases it is earned over time, and often bestowed spontaneously by the teacher’s students.”

Source cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinpoche

Meet The FireWalker sigil

Word for the day…sigil (the picture attached to this post is a sigil I drew as a logo for my company FireWalker Publications (it is the Fire Walker!)

Sigil (Noun)
1. seal, signet
2. a sign, word, or device held to have occult power in astrology or magic

Origin of SIGIL- Middle English sigulle, from Latin sigillum
First Known Use: 15th century

Source cited: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sigil

Dead as a doornail….just how dead is it?

My Phrase for the day is “dead as a doornail” which brings to mind “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. But in fact, the saying is much older than that,  from the 14th century. There’s a reference to it in print in 1350, a translation by William Langland of the French poem Guillaume de Palerne:
“For but ich haue bote of mi bale I am ded as dorenayl.”

Langland also used the expression in the much more famous poem The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman, circa 1362:
Fey withouten fait is febelore þen nouȝt, And ded as a dore-nayl.
[Faith without works is feebler than nothing, and dead as a doornail.]

For the whole citation see: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/as-dead-as-a-doornail.html

Tuesdays Word for the day…jink!

This is a cute word and one that simply popped into my mind unbidden, so I couldn’t resist….

jink (verb)- to change direction suddenly and nimbly, as when dodging a pursuer
(noun)- 1. A quick, evasive turn. 2. jinks= rambunctious play; frolic.

Used in a sentence: “She was too quick for him and jinked away every time”.
Etymology: [of Scottish origin, imitative of swift movement]

Source: www.thefreedictionary.com/jink