The NEVERENDING word(s) of the day thread

I knew an elderly gentleman once who used the word 'onanism' exclusively in the sense of 'masturbation.' I could never convince him that this was a misuse, since the Biblical story of Onan clearly indicates that he 'spilled his seed' while with a woman. The proscription, properly interpreted, is against birth control rather than masturbation.

I know, I know. I'm just quibbling again. (Another good word -- to quibble.)


[Edited for spelling typos only]

That story is interesting all the way through, from the daughter in law playing the harlot to her father in law all the way to the baby who went back in and let his twin come out first.

I see I need to find a bible! There is more to this story than I know.

Do the Gideons place Bibles in hotel rooms in Oz? That's where Americans steal theirs.

bacciferous --(adj.) bearing berries, as a bush or a tree.

quaffable- an alcoholic beverage (coined by CdK), a beverage that can be quaffed (real meaning, usually used for beverages that taste good)

quaffage - the act of quaffagement (coined by CdK)

Yes, they do, MA - never thought of stealing one!

Brobdingnagian is a fabulous word - meaning gigantic, of course - from Swift's country of Brobdingnag in "Gulliver's Travels".

If ever a word reflected its meaning in its sound.....

Maladroit is a favourite of mine, too:

maladroit \mal-uh-DROYT\, adjective:
Lacking adroitness; clumsy; awkward; unskillful; inept.

. Weird Words: Popinjay

A vain or conceited person, one given to pretentious displays.

This deeply insulting word is now rather dated or literary. A good
example can be found in Joseph Conrad's short story The End of the
Tether of 1902: "When he looked around in the club he saw only a
lot of conceited popinjays too selfish to think of making a good
woman happy".

Dictionaries say a "popinjay" was also at one time the usual name
for a parrot, and in that lies the origin of the derogatory term.
What could be more gaudily and squawkingly in your face than a
parrot? What more perfect term for an empty chatterer, fop or
coxcomb? Who's a pretty boy, then?

It's an ancient imprecation, already of some age when Shakespeare
used it in Henry IV, but the literal parrot sense goes back even
further, to the latter part of the fourteenth century. It was also
used for a device on a post to shoot at, the archers' equivalent of
the quintain, usually it seems because the mark was a figure of a
parrot. That explains references such as this one, in Old
Mortality, by Sir Walter Scott: "When the musters had been made,
and duly reported, the young men, as was usual, were to mix in
various sports, of which the chief was to shoot at the popinjay, an
ancient game formerly practised with archery, but at this period
with fire-arms".

The word travelled with the bird from Africa and can be traced back
to the Arabic "baba", through Spanish "papagayo" and Old French
"papeiaye". One of the earlier English versions (it had lots of
forms before it settled to the spelling we know now) was "papengay"
but it seems the ending was changed because people thought the name
referred to a sort of jay.

World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2003. All rights
reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org.
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"Specious" just popped into my head:

Specious: showy; having deceptive attraction or allure; having a false look of truth or genuineness.

Why did that specious word pop into your head, Roboita?

discombobulate- to throw into a state of confusion.

I really like that word. I can relate to it!

Merry Andrew, ROFLMAO. You want to know why something popped into my head? Things have been popping into my head for decades--with no rhyme or reason to it. It may have been the sound. Pero, amigo, quien sabe?

Phoenix, I like the word discombobulate too. It's almost onomatopoetic.

Roberta -- I was merely interested in the psychodynamic of your word choice.

psychodynamic (n.) mental process or choice. :-)

My word choice for today is pangolin. Pangolin is an anteater with skin that looks like large scales.

The pshychodynamic for my choice: I'm reading a book about chimpanzees (animals). I watched David Letterman tonight. He recently had shingles. Voila. An animal that looks like it is wearing roofing shingles.

Picayune (adj.)
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Something of small value; an insignificant person or thing.

4. Weird Words: Hobbledehoy
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A clumsy or awkward youth.

You will not find a better description of the type than in Anthony
Trollope's The Small House at Allington: "Such young men are often
awkward, ungainly, and not yet formed in their gait; they straggle
with their limbs, and are shy; words do not come to them with ease,
when words are required, among any but their accustomed associates.
Social meetings are periods of penance to them, and any appearance
in public will unnerve them. They go much about alone, and blush
when women speak to them. In truth, they are not as yet men,
whatever the number may be of their years; and, as they are no
longer boys, the world has found for them the ungraceful name of
hobbledehoy".

But where the world found it is far from clear. The word seems to
have been around at least since the sixteenth century, but was long
distinguished by seeming never to be written the same way twice. It
may well be related to "Hoberdidance" or "Hobbididance", the name
of a malevolent sprite associated with the Morris dance (and whose
name is from "Hob", an old name for the Devil; nothing to do with
hobbits). It may also be linked to "hobidy-booby", an old English
dialect word for a scarecrow. The modern spelling seems to be the
result of popular etymology, which has changed a puzzling word into
something that looks as though it might make more sense.

World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2003. All rights
reserved. The Words Web site is at <http://www.worldwidewords.org>.

chignon: a knot of hair that is worn at the back of the head and especially at the nape of the neck.

I chose this word because it was one of the few in the National Spelling Bee that I had heard of, could define, and could spell!

My favorite national spelling bee word of all time is vivisepulture. It means buryal alive.

(E.A. Poe would have loved this word.)

That word was the tie-breaker in one of the 1990s competitions.