What Word Did You Learn Today?

[king ubu]

eupeptic

Yes indeed - great word!

As for "praxis", in german it's most common ... a doctor's office (what do you actually call that?) is called "Praxis", meanings 1b and 2 are common usage (not 1a, I think).

[Larry Kart]

You know, I'm not sure I was using "eupeptic" correctly when I said that Szell's Prokofiev 5th was eupeptic. What I meant was "fizzily energetic" and/or bright-eyed and bushy tailed -- more so that way than the piece should be IMO.

[Scott Dolan]

"Blowed".

As in, "I done blowed the snow off of the sidewalk over yonder".

[Leeway]

Iris Murdoch novels tend to be vocabulary builders. The latest word I had to look up was: exiguous. Not something you would expect to find in a novel.

ex·ig·u·ous

igˈzigyo͞oəs,ikˈsig-/

adjective

formal

1. 1.

   very small in size or amount.

   "my exiguous musical resources"

   synonyms: meager, inadequate, insufficient, small, scanty, paltry, negligible,modest, deficient, miserly, niggardly, beggarly; More

Edited February 6, 2014 by Leeway

[king ubu]

You know, I'm not sure I was using "eupeptic" correctly when I said that Szell's Prokofiev 5th was eupeptic. What I meant was "fizzily energetic" and/or bright-eyed and bushy tailed -- more so that way than the piece should be IMO.

I guess you didn't then ... but it fits (some) Karajan like a glove

[JSngry]

Still, learned a new word.

[Jerry_L]

ad·um·brate transitive verb \ˈa-dəm-ˌbrāt, a-ˈdəm-\

ad·um·brat·ed ad·um·brat·ing

Definition of ADUMBRATE

1

: to foreshadow vaguely : intimate

2

: to suggest, disclose, or outline partially <adumbrate a plan>

3

: overshadow, obscure

— ad·um·bra·tion noun

— ad·um·bra·tive adjective

— ad·um·bra·tive·ly adverb

Edited February 6, 2014 by Jerry_L

[Jerry_L]

Stertorous is a medical term used to express a respiratory sound characterized by heavy snoring or gasping. It is caused by partial obstruction of airway above the level of the larynxand by vibrations of tissue of the naso-pharynx, pharynx or soft palate. (This distinguishes it from stridor which is caused by turbulent air flow below or in the larynx). It is low pitched, nonmusical and occurs during the inspiratory phase only. In general terms it is a snoring or snuffly sound. The patient is said to suffer from stertor. Stertorous breathing will be audible in the epileptic patient during the post-ictal phase following a tonic-clonic seizure.

[BillF]

How about "stercoraceous"?

"The stable yields a stercoraceous heap" (William Cowper, The Task 1785)

[Spontooneous]

I'm a back-to-monocoraceous guy myself.

[A Lark Ascending]

'hagiolatry'

Seems to conflate hagiography and idolatry.

Never heard it before but John Eliot Gardener uses it in his Bach book to describe responses to the composer over the years.

I've always used hagiography but I suspect that might be specific to written accounts that promote people to sainthood.

[BillF]

I'm a back-to-monocoraceous guy myself.

[JSngry]

Clickbait

[JSngry]

Normcore

[BillF]

Normcore

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/feb/27/normcore-the-next-big-fashion-movement

[king ubu]

meretricious

[paul secor]

My wife was reading a book and came to a phrase which mentioned "a herd of elephant". Sounded odd to her and to me. I checked the dictionary and elephant can be both singular and plural. News to me, perhaps not to others.

[jlhoots]

rompecabezas

[BillF]

sub rosa

Had seen it before, but didn't know the meaning (= in confidence.)

[paul secor]

While reading Penelope Lively's Dancing Fish and Ammonites, I came across "palimpsest" - "Something having usu. diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface" - in the context in which she places it.

For that matter, I didn't know what Ammonites were - "A member of a Semitic people who in Old Testament times lived east of the Jordan between the Jabbok and the Arnon".

edit - I'm just finishing reading the Penelope Lively book and Find that she uses ammonite with it's alternative meaning - a type of fossil.

I had assumed she would be using the first meaning I posted, since she lived in the mid-east as a child.

Edited March 25, 2014 by paul secor

[BillF]

Manichaean keeps coming up - perhaps because I can never grasp what it means. :-(

[aparxa]

Hubcap.

Thanks Alison!

[JSngry]

dedifferentiated

[Chuck Nessa]

undedifferentiated.

[JSngry]

whoa...