Wonder of Words

Borborygmus

2009-08-27T07:15:00.002Z

Thanks to my good friend Carole for this very delicious word.

A simple definition from www.dictionary.reference.com:

"a rumbling or gurgling sound caused by the movement of gas in the intestines."

If you want to go more technical, here's the definition from www.medterms.com

Borborygmus: Bowel sounds, the gurgling, rumbling, or growling noise from the abdomen caused by the muscular contractions of peristalsis, the process that moves the contents of the stomach and intestines downward. The plural is borborygmi.

Bowel sounds are normal. Their absence can indicate intestinal obstruction. Bowel sounds may also be temporarily absent after abdominal surgery.

The word "borborygmus" has been rumbling around the English language for some 200 years. Its earliest known use in English dates to 1796. The word arrived from New Latin, but traces its way back to the Greek "borboryzein," which means "to rumble."

Scobberlotch

2009-03-26T16:33:00.003Z

A most satisfying word to roll around on the tongue. A verb meaning "to loaf around, doing nothing in particular", from Language Change: Progress or Decay? by Jean Aitchison (1981). I found this word thanks to a visit to my other blog, Nodamblog by author Karen Harrington's blog

Squabble

2009-02-20T16:54:00.002Z

What people do when they disagree about allowable words in Scrabble.

Tingo

2008-12-18T17:29:00.003Z

From "Toujours Tingo" by Adam Jacot de Boinod, tingo is a short, easily-remembered Easter Island word, and it means borrowing items one by one from a friend's house, until there are none left.

A "tingoing" friend is probably best avoided.

Snickleway

2008-08-11T14:47:00.004+01:00

A Yorkshire word which means an alleyway. Wonderful, or what?

A snickleway

Photo courtesy of www.york360.co.uk

There was a picture of a Snickleway here, but it seems to have vanished, and despite putting in the code several times, it has remained vanished. Maybe Blogger is having a hissy fit, or something. :-(

Proletariat

2008-06-03T08:37:00.002+01:00

The lowest social order, a rather horrid word in meaning, in my opinion, but quite pleasing to roll around in the mouth. :-)

Dopameme

2008-03-24T13:54:00.002Z

A word invented by Diane Jacobs, which she has very kindly loaned to this blog. Thanks, Diane, I like it. :-)

Dopameme

Combination of the name of a neurotransmitter in the brain involved in feeling pleasure, "dopamine", and the term "meme" as coined by Richard Dawkins meaning a thought virus.

A "Dopameme" is a feel-good idea which:

1. forms part of a belief system (like "new age" notions or pseudo/antiscience)

2. keeps people from learning to see the world rationally

3. stubbornly persists through generations, because the emotional comfort or pleasure it provides the person who harbours it ensures it will be replicated frequently in that individual's brain and easily passed on to others via social and conversational contact

4. gets recycled endlessly through books sold at spiritual and self-help bookstores, thus helping support the economy, thus further ensuring its continued survival

wimperklimpernd

2008-03-12T10:04:00.003Z

This is a delicious word that I found on Netty's German blog here: http://sternenhimmel.wordpress.com/.

Not understanding more than four words of German, of which wimperklimpernd is not one, I had to use translation tools to find the meaning. While Google Translate helpfully gave me the English translation as "wimperklimpernd", Reverso's delightful suggestion was "lash-tinkling". What a wonderful expression. :-)

Coincidence

2008-01-10T17:22:00.000Z

Joe May of Big Rapids, Michigan, suggests this word for two reasons:

"1) It is how I found this blog.

2) When I was an English teacher, I took delight in any young reader who made an attempt to verbalize a word they had only seen in print. Naïve is one such commonly mispronounced word by novices. For me personally, it was the word coincidence. When I spoke the word for the first time in fourth grade, I said the word “coin” at the beginning. I now remember that incorrect articulation every time I see the word."

My word was "moustache", which for several years I pronounced as "moustake", and had no idea what it meant. :-)

Anybody else have some good ones?

Goomah

2008-01-09T22:36:00.000Z

If ever there was a good reason for not becoming a mafioso's girlfriend, mistress or moll, this horribly ugly word is it.

Contumely

2007-12-10T14:53:00.001Z

It's a misleading kind of word, because the -ly ending gives it the appearance of an adverb or adjective, when it is a noun, and means insolence, rudeness, or contempt.

To make it into an adverb or adjective, you cannot add -ly to the existing -ly, otherwise you'd end up with contumelyly, which looks odd and sounds silly.

Contumely's adjective is contumelious, and it's adverb is contumeliously.

Don't confuse it with contumacious, which is a different word entirely.

Jologs

2007-11-15T10:58:00.000Z

Suggested by Lotus Flower: A Filipino colloquial word meaning "non-uppity types". Jologs may also mean "uncouth". Many thanks to Lotus Flower.

Further explanations from Urban Dictionary here.

Tchotchke

2007-08-05T09:50:00.000Z

Sounds like a cross between a sneeze and a hiccup.

From the Yiddish, meaning a bauble or trinket.

A very long German word (80 letters)

2007-07-29T20:59:00.000Z

DONAUDAMPFSCHIFFAHRTSELEKTRIZITAETEN-
HAUPTBETRIEBSWERKBAUUNTERBEAMTENGESELLSCHAFT

The word above means: "the club for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services" (name of a pre-war club in Vienna).

Please keep it in a safe place. I can only let you have the one copy. There should not be a hyphen, but without one I cannot fit the damn thing on the page.

Thanks to http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words11.html
which is the link to follow if you are after very, very long words.

Crap

2007-05-22T10:21:00.000Z

I think most of us know what this one means.

Quixotic

2007-01-23T14:05:00.000Z

As defined by the Merriam-Webster: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/quixotic

From Don Quixote -- Marked by rash, lofty, romantic ideals, or extravagantly chivalrous action, and also meaning capricious and unpredictable

Fludge

2007-01-18T21:17:00.000Z

This is the first word that I have invented, so I am rather excited about it.

A fludge is the thick wodge of dog hair that accumulates under the door, and has to be poked out with a ruler or a piece of cardboard called a defludger.

The door was jammed with a black and white fludge; tutting, Annabelle made a defludger from a piece of cereal packet, and pushed the fludge free, before dropping it into the bin.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fludge&defid=0

Hidalgo

2007-01-13T10:46:00.001Z

This word, meaning a minor Spanish noble, always conjures up for me a swashbuckling figure with a long bony nose, crow-black curly hair and bejewelled fingers, dressed in tight breeches and thigh-length boots, astride a prancing horse.

Plenipotentiary

2007-01-11T14:55:00.001Z

I chose this grandiose word today because I like saying it. Not a word that can be fed into conversation too often, but very satisfying on the right occasion. From the Latin plenus, full and potens, power, it is both an adjective meaning something conferring full power, and a noun referring to a person who wields that full power.

Oligopoly

2007-01-08T14:30:00.000Z

This is a most satisfying word to pronounce, and is much used by turkeys when conversing amongst themselves.

Listen to any group of turkeys, and you will hear them muttering "Oligopoly, oligopoly, oligopoly."

Meaning a market that is dominated by a very small number of sellers, the word comes from the Latin oligos, few, and polein, sell.

Anonymous says:

Oligo + Poly

Little + A lot

And it's completely Greek. It's used even today.

Thanks, Anonymous, for the correction.

Vespiary

2007-01-06T20:07:00.000Z

A vespiary is another name for a nest of wasps or hornets. It comes from the Latin, vespa, meaning a wasp.

Puzzle

2007-01-05T21:16:00.001Z

A bewildering or perplexing question (something with which I am currently struggling).

From the Middle English word opposal.

Kualanapuhi

2007-01-04T17:44:00.001Z

A Hawaiian word, which describes an officer who keeps flies off a sleeping king by waving a feather brush.

Pangram

2007-01-02T22:43:00.001Z

A sentence or phrase in which every letter of the alphabet appears. From the Greek pan, every and gramma, letter

Pangrams do not usually make much sense: A very bad quack might jinx zippy fowls.

More pangrams here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram

spendthrift

2007-01-01T15:17:00.001Z

One who spends money foolishly, or extravagantly. From the Old English word "spenden".

A truly excellent example of a vowel-impoverished word, with only two out of eleven letters. Also notable for having five consonants together. I like it!