I have to say, after much careful reflection over many years, that the word snarky is seriously one of my favorite words. Just look at it. Say it to yourself. Say it out loud. It’s perfect.
Also, GyRo567, I’m pretty disappointed that you didn’t work menarche into your post. :)
As far as menarche, I’ll freely admit that I was just trying to have a bit of impulsive, selfish fun with the words, and that ‘menarche’ didn’t really fit in with the repetitive little batch I picked. 'Twould have been wiser simply to quip “Insufficient rigor in definition.”
Also, it’s obvious that you may now practice your very vicious vivisection techniques on my body. You get to keep one organ for every word I stole from Word of the Day. Bonus points for non-vital organs.
a training technique, used esp. among runners, consisting of bursts of intense effort loosely alternating with less strenuous activity.
Origin 1950-55; < Sw fart speed + lek play
-The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
n.
An athletic training technique, used especially in running, in which periods of intense effort alternate with periods of less strenuous effort in a continuous workout.
A workout using this technique.
[Swedish: speed play : fart running, speed (from fara, to go, move, from Old Norse; see per-2 in Indo-European roots) + lek, play (from leka, to play, from Old Norse leika).]
-Wikipedia.org:
Fartlek, which means “speed play” in Swedish, is a form of conditioning which puts stress mainly on the aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of the exercise. The difference between this type of training and continuous training is that the intensity or speed of the exercise varies, meaning that aerobic and anaerobic systems can be put under stress. Most fartlek sessions last a minimum of 45 minutes and can vary from aerobic walking to anaerobic sprinting. Fartlek training is generally associated with running, but can include almost any kind of exercise.
Fitness Benefits
One of the main reasons for the success of fartlek training is that it can be adapted to the needs of the individual. Unlike continuous training, fartlek training can benefit participants of field games such as football, field hockey, ultimate frisbee, lacrosse, soccer, and rugby, as it develops aerobic and anaerobic capacities which are both used in these sports. To take this a step further, athletes can make the most of the flexibility of fartlek training by mimicking the activities which would take place during their chosen sport or event. It improves aerobic capacity.
Fartlek in American Culture Fartlek Hill in Quantico, Virginia, on the grounds of United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School, is named after Fartlek training, as the hill is the central part of Fartlek-type physical training evolutions regularly throughout the training cycle.
Fartlek is a form of road running or cross country running in which the runner, usually solo, varies the pace significantly during the run. It is usually regarded as an advanced training technique, for the experienced runner who has been using interval training to develop speed and to raise the anaerobic threshold. However, the ‘average’ runner can also benefit from a simplified form of Fartlek training, to develop self-awareness and to introduce variety into the training program.
Thanks for letting me in on this. I missed Shoot Club this week and this post reminded me of being there and hearing Supertanker and Gordon talk WoW over in the corner. It’s like reading (or hearing) a language you know–or thought you knew–but just cannot understand.
Beautiful. Makes me want to start a non sequitur thread. But I suppose that “Random Thought Thread” covers that (though I’ve never looked at it).
characterized by excessive piousness or moralistic fervor, esp. in an affected manner; excessively smooth, suave, or smug.
of the nature of or characteristic of an unguent or ointment; oily; greasy.
having an oily or soapy feel, as certain minerals.
Related Forms: unctuously, adverb unctuousness, unctuosity, noun
[pn: Wow. Unctuosity. What a word.]
-The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
adjective
characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness: "the unctuous, complacent court composer who is consumed with envy and self loathing: (Rhoda Koenig).
Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.
Containing or composed of oil or fat.
Abundant in organic materials; soft and rich: unctuous soil.
These adjectives mean insincerely, self-servingly, or smugly agreeable or earnest: an unctuous toady; gave the dictator a fulsome introduction; oily praise; oleaginous hypocrisy; smarmy self-importance.
-Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary:
1 a: FATTY, OILY b: smooth and greasy in texture and appearance.
2: PLASTIC <fine unctuous clay>
3: full of unction; especially: revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality.
-Cambridge Dictionaries Online:
describes people or behavior expressing too much praise, interest, friendliness, etc., in a way that is false and unpleasant.
-Wiktionary.org:
(of a liquid or fatty substance) Oily or greasy.
1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Ch. 96:
“In a word, after being tried out, the crisp, shrivelled blubber, now called scraps or fritters, still contains considerable of its unctuous properties.”
[pn: 10th grade AP English pays off at last. Hooray.]
(of a wine, coffee, etc.) Rich, lush, intense, with layers of concentrated, soft, velvety flavor.
1872, Bayard Taylor, Beauty and The Beast; and Tales of Home, ch. 3:
“The halls and passages of the castle were already permeated with rich and unctuous smells, and a delicate nose might have picked out and arranged, by their finer or coarser vapors, the dishes preparing for the upper and lower tables.”
(by extension, of a person) Profusely polite, especially unpleasantly so and insincerely earnest.
1919, Stephen Leacock, The Hohenzollerns in America, ch. 8:
“In superior circles, however, introduction becomes more elaborate, more flattering, more unctuous.”
-The Online Plain Text Dictionary:
(a.) Bland; suave; also, tender; fervid; as an unctuous speech; sometimes insincerely suave or fervid.
(a.) Having a smooth, greasy feel, as certain minerals.
(a.) Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; fatty; oily; greasy.
-Webster’s 1828:
Fat; oily; greasy.
Having a resemblance to oil; as the unctuous feel of a stone.
1387, “oily”, from O.Fr. unctueus “greasy”, from L. unctus “act of anointing”, from pp. stem unguere “to anoint” (see unguent). Fig. sense of “blandly ingratiating” is first recorded 1742, perhaps in part with a literal sense, but in part a sarcastic usage from unction in the meaning “deep spiritual feeling” (1692), such as comes from having been anointed in the rite of unction.
As long as I was just quoted, I should say that one of my favorite words sounds quite similar to “unctuous”: quincunx. I occasionally have a chance to say “unctuous” out loud, but it’s pretty hard to engineer an appropriate occasion to say “quincunx”.
Hoon is a derogatory term used in Australia and New Zealand to refer to a youngish person who engages in loutish, anti-social behavior. In particular, it is used to refer to one who drives in a manner which is anti-social by the standards of contemporary society, that is, fast, noisily or dangerously. Hoon activities can include speeding, burnouts, and doughnuts, or screeching tires. Those commonly identified as being involved in “hooning” or street racing are young, predominantly commodore drivers who are male although increasingly female drivers in the age range of 17 and 35 years.
[pn: Nice wording.]
Other Meanings
At the turn of the 20th Century in Australia, the term “hoon” (and its rhyming slang version “silver spoon”) had a different meaning: one who lived off of immoral earnings (i.e. the proceeds of prostitution - a pimp or procurer of prostitutes).
Linguist Sid Baker in his book The Australian Language suggested that “hoon” (meaning “a fool”) was a contraction of Houyhnhnm, a fictional race of intelligent horses which appears in Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift.
Anti-hoon legislation in Australia
The term “hoon” has obtained semi-official use in Australia, with police and governments referring to legislation targeting anti-social driving activity as “anti-hoon laws”.
-Urban Dictionary:
(1) To travel at speed in a confined area, or do burnouts in a public road in traffic…
(2) To show off in a dangerous manner, mostly with a vehicle or engine powered item…
[pn: Yeah…I’m not doing number two. Go look it up yourself.]
In the British political context, a member of the British Labor Party.
Somebody who engages in the following activities whilst in control of a motor vehicle:
[ul]
[li]High speed driving (often > 40 K’s over)
[/li][li]The deliberate loss of traction of 1 or more meals
[/li][li]The deliberate loss of control of a vehicle, better known as “drifting”
[/li][li]Participating in illegal (drag) racing
[/li][li]The performance of other acts, such as burnouts, donuts, or fishtails
[/li][/ul]
Most hoons have no regard for traffic laws and are rude to police officers however this is not necessarily the case.
-Wiktionary.org:
noun
(Australian, slang) a lout.
(Australian, New Zealand, slang) One who drives excessively quickly, loudly, or irresponsibly; a street drag racer often driving heavily customized cars.
verb
to hoon (third-person singular simple present hoons, present participle hooning, simple past and past participle hooned)
(Australian, New Zealand, slang) To drive excessively quickly, loudly, or irresponsibly.
Dutch
noun
hoon f. (no plural, no diminutive)
An instance of mocking.
verb
First person singular present tense and imperative of honen.
I would love if those quotes from Qt3 posters had the usual link the thread in question. Does Xtien just copy paste the text, or does he hit quote button so we can get the actual post link?
Dear Word Detective: Here in Australia we “whinge” where Americans “whine.” “Whinge” is a fabulous word and many Americans with whom I have had contact have latched onto it. My Macquarie dictionary doesn’t note it as slang and its use is very widespread in the land up over (who said south was down, north was up anyway?). Is it a derivation of “whine” and where do both words come from? An American friend, encountering “whinge” for the first time, defined it as a “whining binge,” which is very creative and I wish it were true but alas I fear it is not. – Sara Clarke, Australia.
Nope, sorry, although “whining binge” has a nice ring to it. “Whinge” (which rhymes with “hinge”) has always been common in the U.K. and Australia, but it seems to have hired itself a North American press agent recently. It’s showing up more and more in U.S. media, and I’ve received a number of questions about “whinge” in just the last month. Cynic that I am, I suspect that the increased visibility of “whinge” may be due to the inveterate Anglophilia of certain upper strata of U.S. society. It is, for instance, now routine to hear well-off young people in New York City pretentiously refer to their “flat,” meaning their apartment. Personally, I find that sort of play-acting vaguely pathetic, but your mileage may vary.
In any case, “whinge” is basically the same word as our good old-fashioned “whine,” meaning “to complain peevishly.” Both whinge" and “whine” are ultimately from the Germanic “hwinan,” meaning “to whine.” The “ge” ending of “whinge” is evidence of its origin as the Scots and Northern English form of “whine,” much as “clenge” and “ringe” were at one time the Northern forms of “cleanse” and “rinse.”
“Whinge” is, for a word newly trendy in America at least, remarkably old. It comes directly from the Old English word “hwinsian,” and first appeared in its modern English spelling in the early 18th century.
-Urban Dictionary:
To whine or complain in an annoying manner. Note that this is a REAL word, and that it’s different from all the idiots who posted “winge”. I’m shocked that “winge” was picked as a word of the day.
[pn: Hilarious.]
-Online Etymology Dictionary:
whine: O.E. hwinan “to wizz or whistle through the air” (only of arrows), also hwinsian “to whine” (of dogs), ultimately imitative of origin (cf. O.N. hvina “to whiz” GER. weihern “to neigh”). Meaning “to complain in a feeble way” is first recorded 1530. The noun is from 1633. The northern form of O.E. hwinsian survives in dial. whinge “to complain peevishly”.
[pn: Another one of my favorite words, yet I don’t think I’ve ever used it. To be honest I thought my friend who uses it regularly made it up–like his personal bastardization of whine–and it was therefore proprietary. Henceforth I shall use it with impunity.]
From the days of old Demon. Remember that most people on this forum are at least a decade older than us and are slowly decaying into baldness and over-eating.