Thanks, hiama.
Waiting with baited breath, are you? :wink:
bated breath, crossed fingers, linked arms, clenched teeth, squared shoulders and stiff upper lips
Fantastic! I will be here to-morrow; the definitions should be interesting with a word like-- the one that you gave.
Clary, that sounds painful.
and difficult to type, eat, sleep ...
I'm curious... sooo curious...
Naj
Thanks for the reminders, dev!!!
I'm so sorry to be so late.... I was away from my computer....
I sent my bluff just a second ago.....
What a great word!!!
PaL
:-)
You think that's tough, jespah, I ate three spoonfuls of earthworms trying to get "baited" breath. They're kind of like Gummy Bears but without the sugar.
I'm not on the bluff received list but I'm also not on the slacker list so I assume my bluff was received. Mine's the really stupid one. -rjb-
The correct spelling is actually bated breath but it's so common these days to see it written as baited breath that there's every chance it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary writers. Examples in newspapers and magazines are legion; this one appeared in the Daily Mirror on 12 April 2003: "She hasn't responded yet but Michael is waiting with baited breath".
It's easy to mock, but there's a real problem here. Bated and baited sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the first vowel (a process called aphesis); it has the meaning "reduced, lessened, lowered in force". So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing through terror, awe, extreme anticipation, or anxiety.
That's from an authoritative website!
(I use bate as a verb, from time to time.)
I used to be very good indeed at bating which would make me a ..........can't remember think it begins with m.............
(oops have I stepped over the boundary of impropriety ?)
...jumped over it, and landed gracefully on both feet...
(nice dismount)
Alright, children, settle down! Being a (virgin) dasher, this was really fun! Great bluffs!! I'm just glad I know the answer! George knew the answer, so he gets 3 points.
NEPHELOCOCCYGIA -
1. The condition of having a forked tail.
2. Lower back pain
3. A hazy mist cloud most commonly found at densely populated urban areas.
4. Animal habit of sniffing other animal's backsides.
5. A condition which effects a small population in which certain pressure against the coccyx stimulates erotic response.
6. A phenomena that effects only people when they look to the skys on cloudy days but does not effect intellectual felines and canines.
7. A highly virulent strain of pathogenic bacteria
8. Perception of a Sentient subjective mind while viewing water-vapor shapes.
9. Inner-cranial surgery
10. Seeing pictures in the clouds
11. The mediaeval term for inflammation of the eyelids: blephartis.
12. A particularly nasty gram positive bacteria, producing nasty red weals and rashes on one's body
13. The muscle in the throat used to blow bubbles
Ooh! I'll have to think more about this one...
10 for me too. Hey guys..I'm back in B-dash i missed you all sooooo much :-) hootey patootey!!
I'll go for 8 just to be different
Gonna go with 2 just be different from the different guy. :-D
