Put in an interesting or word or a word that is vaguely understood or often misunderstood. You know what I'm talking about. A word you see over and over again that you just skip over without looking it up. Or a foreign word that the author doesn't explain, so you just avoid it.
Here's a word that you'll never use, but it's interesting to look at and sound out.
Mirepoix--mîr-pwä′, mere-pwa'.
A combination of diced onions, carrots, celery and herbs sautéed in oil or butter as used in French cooking.
It may win the championship title for words with superfluous consonants.
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coluber2001
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Sat 29 Jan, 2022 09:14 am
Anemone, a-nem'-o-ne
It's got to roll off your tongue.
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jespah
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Sat 29 Jan, 2022 09:28 am
@coluber2001,
distaff - pronounced like it's spelled.
It's a stick or spindle onto which wool or flax is wound for spinning. But if you hear or read it these days, it more likely is for its secondary meaning, of or concerning women.
Definition of lugubrious
1: MOURNFUL
especially : exaggeratedly or affectedly (see AFFECTED entry 2 sense 1a) mournful
dark, dramatic and lugubrious brooding
— V. S. Pritchett
the tour de force of lugubrious cliche is ten times longer than this review
— Martin Amis
2: DISMAL
a lugubrious landscape
lugubrious cello music
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izzythepush
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Sat 29 Jan, 2022 10:30 am
@jespah,
Sir Toby Belch : Excellent; it hangs like flax on a distaff; and I
hope to see a housewife take the between her legs
and spin it off.
Twelfth Night (Mucky old Shakespeare.)
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coluber2001
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Sun 30 Jan, 2022 09:33 am
Stotting
A type of running behavior of mammals especially common in deers and antelopes where the animal springs into the air with all four legs in unison.
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coluber2001
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Mon 31 Jan, 2022 12:02 pm
Chamois
Sham-waa'
Shammy
A small antelope.
A small sheepskin used for drying and usually pronounced shammy.
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coluber2001
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Tue 1 Feb, 2022 11:56 am
surreptitious
sûr″əp-tĭsh′əs
adjective
Obtained, done, or made by clandestine or stealthy means. synonym: secret.
Done or made by stealth, or without proper authority; made or introduced fraudulently; clandestine; stealthy.
stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements)a1
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edgarblythe
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Tue 1 Feb, 2022 12:15 pm
fe·cund | \ ˈfe-kənd , ˈfē- \
Definition of fecund
1: fruitful in offspring or vegetation : PROLIFIC
a fecund breed of cattle
2: intellectually productive or inventive to a marked degree
a fecund imagination
a fecund source of information
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Frank Apisa
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Tue 1 Feb, 2022 12:48 pm
Prerogative.
Often used incorrectly...more often pronounced incorrectly...and even more often spelled incorrectly.
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Mame
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Tue 1 Feb, 2022 02:52 pm
Here's a word many people use incorrectly. Often they use it as they would 'composed', with an OF after:
Definition of comprise
transitive verb
1 : to be made up of
The factory was to be a vast installation, comprising fifty buildings.
— Jane Jacobs
The play comprises three acts.
2 : COMPOSE, CONSTITUTE
… a misconception as to what comprises a literary generation.
— William Styron
… about 8 percent of our military forces are comprised of women.
— Jimmy Carter - WRONG
3 : to include especially within a particular scope
… civilization as Lenin used the term would then certainly have comprised the changes that are now associated in our minds with "developed" rather than "developing" states.
— The Times Literary Supplement (London)
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coluber2001
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Thu 3 Feb, 2022 02:31 pm
False flag
"A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party."
The origin of the term originated from the act of pirates flying the flag of the ship they intended to raid.
It is believed by some that members of the the Nazi party set fire to the Reichstag, then blamed members of the the Communist Party who were arrested. This gave the Nazi party the majority.
"The Nazi leadership and its coalition partners used the fire to claim that Communists were planning a violent uprising. They claimed that emergency legislation was needed to prevent this. The resulting act, commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, abolished a number of constitutional protections and paved the way for Nazi dictatorship."
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edgarblythe
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Thu 3 Feb, 2022 04:29 pm
I knew a man who came across preclude somewhere and adopted it into his sales pitch as a repairman. Problem was, he thought it a synonym for includes. I don't know how many times he used it before learning the difference.
preclude
verb [ T ] formal
US /prəˈkluːd/ UK /prɪˈkluːd/
to prevent something or make it impossible, or prevent someone from doing something:
His contract precludes him from discussing his work with anyone outside the company.
The fact that your application was not successful this time does not preclude the possibility of you applying again next time.
preclude
First, scientists are undergoing longer training periods, which precludes them from applying for grant money at a young age.
From Ars Technica
This was to encourage innovation and investment in private infrastructure and preclude unnecessary government intervention.
From The Atlantic
That's why legal niceties don't preclude barring access to alcohol until age 21, though one's majority is attained at age 18.
From Los Angeles Times
They shouldn't be precluded from donating money to a worthwhile cause just because the governor's wife is heading up the effort.
I knew a man who came across preclude somewhere and adopted it into his sales pitch as a repairman. Problem was, he thought it a synonym for includes. I don't know how many times he used it before learning the difference.
preclude
verb [ T ] formal
US /prəˈkluːd/ UK /prɪˈkluːd/
to prevent something or make it impossible, or prevent someone from doing something:
His contract precludes him from discussing his work with anyone outside the company.
The fact that your application was not successful this time does not preclude the possibility of you applying again next time.
preclude
First, scientists are undergoing longer training periods, which precludes them from applying for grant money at a young age.
From Ars Technica
This was to encourage innovation and investment in private infrastructure and preclude unnecessary government intervention.
From The Atlantic
That's why legal niceties don't preclude barring access to alcohol until age 21, though one's majority is attained at age 18.
From Los Angeles Times
They shouldn't be precluded from donating money to a worthwhile cause just because the governor's wife is heading up the effort.
I worked for a while in construction. Had a boss whose favorite expression to indicate "I don't care either way" was, "Ahhh, six of one, a dozen of another!"
Whenever he used it, everyone on the crew would look down and give a headshake.