Word of the Day. Post it Here

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Captain Kremmen, Aug 16, 2007.

  1. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    :bravo::roflmao::xctd:
     
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  3. Zardozi Isvara.... . 1S Evil_Lau Registered Senior Member

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    Ambaji

    A central district in Asia. Center known for being the game . Also a hindu diety.
     
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  5. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Vulcan
    An elusive planet, once thought to exist between Mercury and the Sun.

    It was predicted by the French mathematician Urbain le Verrier, who had previously postulated the existence of Uranus using the same method.

    The announcement caused a great deal of Sun-watching, and it was seen many times transiting the sun's disc, its non-existence not proving a barrier to its observation it seems.

    If le Verrier had thought a little more laterally , it might have led to the theory of Relativity being credited to the French, though they possibly claim it anyway.

    Mr Spock, of the Enterprise, was from a different Vulcan. A hot red planet, it may be in homage to the original.

    Etymology
    Vulcan was the Roman God of fire, and Ironworking.
    A good name for a planet so close to the Sun.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(planet)
     
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  7. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    "Ker-" is a common prefix in American English, used to lighten the tone of a statement and give it an air of humor or whimsey.

    A problem's just a toy balloon.
    They'll be bursting soon.
    They're just bound to go pop.
    Whoops, there goes another problem, ker-plop.

    . . . Frank Sinatra, "High Hopes"

    It's a variant of "ka-". "Ka-pow" is a sound children make when pretending to fire guns while playing Cowboys & Indians. I don't suppose kids play that one any more. It would have to be called "Members of the Guild of Professional Rodeo Athletes and the American Federation of Cattle Herding Specialists Making War on Native Americans."
     
  8. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    It's from the Latin word vulcanus, "volcano."
     
  9. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, the God's domain was underneath Mount Etna.
    A fire God was particularly powerful in late summer when his whim might destroy a years work. A festival was held in which fires (non-crop ones) were burnt to please and placate him.
     
  10. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    identity crash

    Sudden and catastrophic collapse of an individual's ability to keep all the threads of his or her online identity straight when the individual joins one too many social networks.

    I was ok keeping up with Facebook, Flickr, and Myspace, but after throwing lawlink, Last.fm, and Orkut into the mix, I had a total identity crash and forgot what went where.
     
  11. Zardozi Isvara.... . 1S Evil_Lau Registered Senior Member

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    ahmadanag

    city in asian subcontinent infested with cobra snakes
     
  12. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Some indian places have a snake festival. Snakes are captured and fed sweetened milk to keep them happy while they are paraded. Then they are set free the next day.

    On this section you need to provide an etymology.
    it's like an entrance fee.

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    Nag is indian for snake. Can you find the meaning of ahmada?
     
  13. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    It's often the Arabic name Ahmed, which is romanized in a variety of ways. Like Ahmadinejad. In fact I was sure this word was going to be a topical joke about him.

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  14. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Wide Stance

    A euphemism for a homosexual, especially one who is closeted.

    This is coined from the transparent defense of Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho), to charges of disorderly conduct, stemming from his apparent solicitation of an undercover officer, underneath the partition of a restroom stall.

    Prior to pleading guilty, Sen. Craig attempted to explain his behavior by claiming that his shoe touched the officer's underneath the partition because he had a "wide stance", when going to the bathroom.

    Genevieve is really crushing hard on the varsity QB. Someone should tell her that the dude has a wide stance.
     
  15. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Abacus
    The first calculating mechanism.

    Etymology

    The word abacus comes to us by way of Latin as a mutation of the Greek word abax.
    In turn, the Greeks may have adopted the Phoenician word abak, meaning "sand",
    although some authorities lean toward the Hebrew word abhaq, meaning "dust."

    Irrespective of the source, the original concept referred to a flat stone covered with sand (or dust)
    into which numeric symbols were drawn. The first abacus was almost certainly based on such a stone,
    with pebbles being placed on lines drawn in the sand.
    Over time the stone was replaced by a wooden frame supporting thin sticks, braided hair,
    or leather thongs, onto which clay beads or pebbles with holes were threaded.


    From
    http://www.maxmon.com/1000bc.htm
    (which has information aout other mechanical methods of calculation)
     
  16. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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  17. Zardozi Isvara.... . 1S Evil_Lau Registered Senior Member

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    interesting. The website you posted has a logo of a hand. This is symbolic to the term of Our next word:

    Ahimsa
    The practive of non violence among the living
     
  18. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Pork Barrel Spending
    The corrupt practise of allocating money and projects to areas
    with the objective of securing votes. There is a theory that a major factor
    driving US foreign policy is the supply of employment and manufacting work for sensitive constituencies.



    Etymology
    From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_barrel

    Pork barrel politics refers to government spending that is intended to benefit constituents
    of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions
    or votes. The term is thought to have originated on Southern United States plantations,
    where slaves were allocated the unwanted remainder of slaughtered pigs, or the "pork barrel."
    Typically it involves funding for government programs whose economic
    or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread
    among all taxpayers. Public works projects and agricultural subsidies
    are the most commonly cited examples, but they do not exhaust the possibilities.
    Pork barrel spending is often allocated through last-minute additions to appropriation bills.
    A politician who supplies his or her constituents with considerable funding is said to be
    "bringing home the bacon."
     
  19. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Earworm

    A song that sticks in your mind, and will not leave no matter how much you try.

    The best way to get rid of an earworm is to replace it with another. Be prepared to become a jukebox.

    worst examples: "Mmmbop" by Hanson, "Toxic" by Britney Spears, "Quit Playin Games With My Heart" by Backstreet Boys, or any damn Hilary Duff song.

    best examples: "This Love" Maroon 5, "Hey Ya" Outkast, "Memory" Sugarcult, and any Lauryn Hill song.
     
  20. Zardozi Isvara.... . 1S Evil_Lau Registered Senior Member

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    OIL

    any of a large class of substances typically unctuous, viscous, combustible, liquid at ordinary temperatures, and soluble in ether or alcohol but not in water: used for anointing, perfuming, lubricating, illuminating, heating, etc.

    1. a substance of this or similar consistency.

    2. refined or crude petroleum.
     
  21. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

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    3,634
    Here's one I've always liked:

    Grognard, usually pronounced "Gron'-yard"
    This word has several different applications, but generally conveys the sense of "die hard veteran (or fan)," and, often, sometimes an disgruntled, die hard veteran.

    Etymology
    (Fr. "grogner" meaning to snarl, grunt or grumble and Fr. "grognon" meaning grouch or curmudgeon)

    It originated as a slang term used by Napoleon for his older veterans of the Grenadiers à Pied de la Garde Impériale (Grenadier Footsoldier of the Imperial Guard). In the 1970's it was adopted by table-top wargamers to describe the "old guard" of the genre who hung in there despite the fact that felt they were being replaced by punk kids. From there it came to be used to refer to any "die hard" fan of a particular game or genre of games (computer, role-playing or wargames) who are slavishly loyal to that game (or genre) but also highly critical of it.

    I've been using it to describe people addicted to MMORPGs who constantly gripe about perceived problems with a game, but seemingly spend every waking hour obsessed with it nonetheless. Grognards of this sort also tend to be the ones who declare that the sky is falling everytime game developers introduce a substantial tweak to the gameplay.
     
  22. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    Only in the USA, the term is not used in wargaming circles in the UK, except occasionally on the net.
     
  23. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Hebrew and Phoenician are very closely related languages. It's obviously the same word, so the distinction is not a serious problem.
    Interesting that the Chinese invented a positional calculating device, at a time when no positional decimal numbering system had yet been adopted by Europeans. Fibonacci finally brought over the Indian/Arabic positional system of decimal numerals around 700 years ago, but it was not adopted by anyone except mathematicians--not even businessmen--for a couple of centuries more.
    It is not actually "corrupt." It is perfectly legal, it is done openly, and it is a common way for members of Congress to get the few extra votes they need from colleagues for passage of a bill they (and their constituents) feel is genuinely important. It may be sleazy, it may be clumsy, it may be the dark side of our wacky system of representative democracy, but it is not corrupt.

    President Eisenhower coined the term "military-industrial complex" fifty years ago, in his warning that U.S. military policy might some day be perturbed by greed. Many of us who opposed the Vietnam War felt that much of its support came from the Orwellian-named "defense" industry and the West Coast economies that prospered from its throw-away productivity. Indeed, when the Cold War ended, the brutal recession suffered by the people of Los Angeles was called the "Perestroika Dividend."
    I don't think this is the origin of the phrase, "bringing home the bacon," which is more commonly applied to breadwinners.
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