C’mon, how 'bout a real challenge?
“I could think of no words adequate to the occasion. So I belched. Not out of contumely, you understand. It was a sympathetic belch, a belch of brotherhood.”
I thought I read a different word there for a moment.
Troy
Yay Talisker! Thanks for brightening my day!
Okay. Go forth and trick somebody into using bodkin in a post. There’s a word that doesn’t get enough play.
-xtien
Yes, yes. I saw the whole thing unfold too. I had to resist the urge to jump in and mess with it.
Much respect.
-xtien
Actually, does it count if I was looking for an excuse to use that word ever since the challenge was issued?
RIMBOOOOOOOOOOO!*
Rats.
-xtien
[*I’m not sure if I want “Do Not Want” style or “KHAAAAAN!” style for that.]
That certainly cheapens my victory :(
hackneyed
-dictionary.com:
adjective
made commonplace or trite; stale; banal: the hackneyed images of his poetry.
Synonyms:
overdone, overused.
-Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary:
lacking in freshness or originality <hackneyed slogans>
-Cambridge Dictionaries Online:
describes a phrase or an idea which has been said or used so often that it has become boring and has no meaning. The plot of the film is just a hackneyed boy-meets-girl scenario.
-Wiktionary.com:
(comparative more hackneyed, superlative most hackneyed)
- Repeated too often. The sermon was full of hackneyed phrases and platitudes.
Synonyms: banal, commonplace, clichéd, shopworn, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, unoriginal, well-worn
verb
- Simple past tense and past participle of hackney.
[pn: I don’t think I can recall seeing this used as a verb. I like this.]
-Wordsmyth:
made trite or commonplace by overuse, as an expression or phrase.
-Webster’s 1828:
Used much or in common.
- Practiced; accustomed.
He is long hackneyed in the ways of men.
-Compact Oxford English Dictionary:
ORIGIN from the obsolete verb hackney “use a horse for general purposes”, later “make commonplace by overuse”.
[For a more comprehensive sense of the origin of the word, visit this site called World Wide Words. Nifty.
“The countryside around Hackney was pleasant, open, good-quality grassland, which became famous for the horses bred and pastured there. These were riding horses, “ambling horses”, as opposed to war horses or draught horses. Hence hackney became the standard term for a horse of this type.”]
-Wordcount Ranking: 43830
Wait. Did somebody mention Avatar?
-Quotes from Pandora:
-Okay. Enough of that. Let’s return to Gordon for a palate cleanser:
-And finally, a Moment with Bill:
-xtien
I saw “brio” in one thread, and was expecting to see it here.
shibboleths
-dictionary.com:
noun
- a peculiarity of pronunciation, behavior, mode of dress, etc., that distinguishes a particular class or set of persons.
- a slogan; catchword.
- a common saying or belief with little current meaning or truth.
-Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary:
1 a: a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others as as empty of real meaning <the old shibboleths come rolling off their lips—Joseph Epstein> b: a widely held belief <today this book publishing shibboleth is a myth — L. A. Wood> c: TRUISM, PLATITUDE <some truth in the shibboleth that crime does not pay — Lee Rogow>
2 a: a use of language regarded as distinctive of a particular group <accent was…a shibboleth of social class — Vivian Ducat> b: a custom or usage regarded as distinguishing one group from others <for most of the well-to-do in the town, dinner was a shibboleth, its hour dividing mankind — Osbert Sitwell>
-Cambridge Dictionaries Online:
FORMAL a belief or custom that is not now considered as important and correct as it was in the past.
They still cling to many of the old shibboleths of education.
a word, phrase, custom, etc. only known to a particular group of people, which you can use to prove to them that you are a real member of that group.
-Your Dictionary dot com:
-
the test word used by the men of Gilead to distinguish the escaping Ephraimites, who pronounced the initial (s/h) as (s): Judg. 12: 4-6.
-
Any test or password.
-
any phrase, custom, etc. distinctive of a particular party, class, etc.
-Wordsmyth:
-
A slogan, phrase, or belief that characterizes or is held devotedly by a group.
the shibboleths of communism -
a piece of language or a pronunciation that serves as a test of one’s membership in a group.
-Webster Dictionary 1913:
-
A word which was made the criterion by which to distinguish the Ephraimites from the Gileadites. The Ephraimites, not being able to pronounce sh, called the word sibboleth. See Judges xii.
Without reprieve, adjudged to death, For want of well pronouncing shibboleth. Milton.
Also in an extended sense.
The th, with its twofold value, is . . . the [b]shibboleth[/b] of foreigners. Earle.
- Hence, the criterion, test, or watchword of a party; a party cry or pet phrase.
-Online Etymology Dictionary:
1382, the Heb. word shibboleth “flood, stream,” also “ear of corn,” in Judges xii:4-6. It was the password used by the Gileadites to distinguish their own men from fleeing Ephraimites, because Ephraimites could not pronounce the -sh- sound. Figurative sense of “watchword” is first recorded 1638, and it evolved by 1862 to “outmoded slogan still adhered to.” A similar test-word was cicera “chick pease,” used by the Italians to identify the French (who could not pronounce it correctly) during the massacre called the Sicilian Vespers (1282).
-Wordcount Ranking: 71005
-Oh, what the heck…a little history:
-xtien
P.S. This one’s for Jarmo.
squicked
v.
to disturb, unsettle, make uneasy; to cause disgust or revulsion; to gross (someone) out; to freak (someone) out. Also noun, something which causes disgust, revulsion, or uneasiness, or the disgust, revulsion, or uneasiness itself. Also squick (someone) out.
vulgar slang: to gross out; to disgust.
Noun
Something distasteful, vile, disgusting. See ‘squick someone out’.
-Wiktionary:
Believed to have originated as an onomatopoeia in the Usenet newsgroup alt.sex.bondage. Popularized primarily in the newsgroup alt.tasteless.
Noun
- (slang) A source of psychological discomfort.
Verb
to squick (third-person singular simple present squicks, present participle squicking, simple past and past participle squicked)
-
(slang, transitive) To gross out, to disgust.
-
(slang, intransitive) To be grossed out, to experience disgust.
-Urban Dictionary:
- Noun. The physical sense of repulsion upon entering a concept or situation one finds disgusting.
- Noun. A situation or concept which engenders this reaction.
- Verb, transitive. To cause someone to have this reaction.
- Verb, intransitive. To experience this reaction.
The concept of the “squick” differs from the concept of “disgust” in that “squick” refers purely to the physical sensation of repulsion, and does not imply a moral component.
Stating that something is “disgusting” implies a judgement that it is bad or wrong. Stating that something “squicks you” is merely an observation of your reaction to it, but does not imply a judgement that such a thing is universally wrong.
-No Wordcount Ranking.
PLEASE NOTE/SPOILERS: If you have not seen the film Carriers, you should. This day’s quote below won’t hurt you, but clicking the link and reading the rest of the post and the thread will if you haven’t seen the film. WATCH THE FILM…THEN READ THE THREAD!
-And Now A Squicky History:
-xtien
P.S. I now love this word and I’d never heard of this word before sinnick’s post on Friday. Saved it to post for today for reasons that now make no sense. Oh well. Here it is anyway. A few days late.
i love this thread
I’m so happy: I just used the word “tergiversate” in conversation. Still waiting for an appropriate opportunity to use it in print. Apart from this post, I mean.
Heh, I just saw this.
For reasons that I can’t prove right now I think I first heard this word on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Even if that’s not right, it seems like a very whedonesque word, doesn’t it?
- Nick
sinecures
-dictionary.com:
noun
- an office or position requiring little or no work, esp. one yielding profitable returns.
- an ecclesiastical benefice without cure of souls.
Related Forms
sinecureship, noun
sinecurism, noun
sinecurist, noun
-Compact Oxford English Dictionary:
noun
a position requiring little or no work but giving the holder status or financial benefit.
-Wiktionary:
Adjective
- Requiring little work but still receiving ample payment; cushy.
-
- 2010, Mungo MacCallum, The Monthly, April 2010, Issue 55, The Monthly Ptd Ltd, page 28:
However, by the time of World War II (if not before), politics, at least in the federal sphere, was no longer regarded as sinecure for well-intentioned part-timers.
- 2010, Mungo MacCallum, The Monthly, April 2010, Issue 55, The Monthly Ptd Ltd, page 28:
Noun
- A position that requires no work but still gives an ample payment; a cushy job.
-
- 2009, Michael O’Connor, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 25:
In the ADF, while the numbers vary between the individual services and the reserves, employment is no comfortable sinecure for any personnel and thus does not appeal to many people, male or female, especially under current pay scales.
- 2009, Michael O’Connor, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 25:
-MSN Encarta:
noun
- paid job requiring little work: a job or position that requires a regular income, but requires little or no work.
- paid church office without duties: a church office whose holder is paid, but is not required to do pastoral work.
-Wikipedia.org:
A sinecure (from Latin sine, without, and cura, care) means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. Sinecures have historically provided a potent tool for governments or monarchs to distribute patronage, while recipients are able to store up titles and easy salaries.
A sinecure is not necessarily a figurehead, which generally requires active participation in government, albeit with a lack of power. A sinecure, by contrast, has no real day-to-day responsibilities, but may have de jure power.
A sinecure can also be given to an individual whose primary job is in another office, but requires a sinecure title to perform that job well. For example, the Government House Leader in Canada is often given a sinecure ministry position so that he may become a member of the Cabinet. Similar examples are the Lord Privy Seal and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the British cabinet. Other sinecures operate as legal fictions, such as the British office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, used as a legal excuse for resigning from Parliament.
SINECURE (Lat. sine cura, without care), properly a term of ecclesiastical law, for a benefice without the cure of souls (beneficium sine cura) . In the English Church such sinecures arise when the rector has no cure of souls nor resides in the parish, the work of the incumbent being performed by a vicar; such sinecure rectories were expressly granted by the patron; they were abolished by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840. Other ecclesiastical sinecures are certain cathedral dignities to which no spiritual function attached or incumbencies where by reason of depopulation and the like the parishioners have disappeared or the parish church has been allowed to decay. Such cases have ceased to exist. The term is also used of any office or place, to which a salary, emoluments or dignity but no duties are attached. The British civil service and royal household were loaded with innumerable offices which by lapse of time had become sinecures and were only kept as the reward of political services or to secure voting power in parliament. They were extremely prevalent in the 18th century and were gradually abolished by statutes during that and the following century.
-Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856 Edition:
In the ecclesiastical law, this term is used to signify that an ecclesiastical officer is without a charge or cure.
- In common parlance it means the receipt of a salary for an office when there are no duties to be performed.
-Online Etymology Dictionary:
1662, “church benefice without parish duties,” from M.L. beneficium sine cura “benefice without care” (of souls), from L. sine “without” + cura, ablative sing. of cura “care” (see cure).
-Wordcount Ranking: 63509
-xtien
You crepuscular son of a bitch.
Woo hoo!
Crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular crepuscular
What do you think? Too obvious?
My dictionary defines “crepuscular” as being “of or relating to twilight.”
