A word that pricks the long ears of certain Wordnik marsupials. I expect bilby to pop in any second. In the meantime, the word was used in railroad telegraphs to signify "Appearances are doubtful". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
I sent telegrams when I lived in Mexico. I was chargedbytheword, so I sentmanymessages composed of longwords. The cipher book cited here mentions efficiency and secrecy as well. I suppose those secrets ranged from corporate strategies to the protection of presidents, payrolls, and Pinkerton men.
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Every party to agreement should sign and acknowledge before a notary public". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
Very economical railroad telegraph shorthand for "Advertising 1000-mile tickets, great care should be used in phraseology, in order that no exceptions can be taken by our competitors". --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
I find it amusing that the term abstinent was used in telegraphic communications as shorthand for "will not be able to accommodate". --1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code. Of course, "to accommodate" in these communications meant to find lodgings or seats on a train for the agent(s) or person(s) referred to.
A disease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing. --from the definitions.
"His mouthfull of ecstasy (for Shing–Yung-Thing in Shina from Yoruyume across the Timor Sea), herepong (maladventure!) shot pinging up through the errorooth of his wisdom (who thought him a Fonar all, feastking of shellies by googling Lovvey, regally freytherem, eagelly plumed, and wasbut gumboil owrithy prods wretched some horsery megee plods coffin acid odarkery pluds dense floppens mugurdy) as thought it had been zawhen intwo." --Finnegans Wake
It's a tree. Delabechea Lindl., as a genus name, is currently recognized as a synonym of Brachychiton Schott & Endl. of the family Malvaceae. Some systematists place this genus in the Sterculiaceae.
In heraldry, a black band, supposed to represent the knightly belt, charged with the arms of the defunct, and painted on the wall of a church or chapel at the time of the funeral. This variety of the funeral achievement was formerly considered a mark of very high dignity. It is now nearly abandoned.
I like how this word (though I'd spell it differently) appears with uncomeatable in the same sentence. Both are candidates for yarb's lists of human traits.
...one of the small bubbles which form in imperfectly fused glass, and which, when the glass is worked, assume elongated or ovoid forms, resembling the shapes of some seeds.
"The walls of the bungalow, previously described, are topped by an overhanging roof covered with spruce shingles, which have been dipped in oil to produce a rich, warm color, and are laid wide to the weather." --from "A Craftsman Bunglaow: Craftsman House Series of 1905, Number III", in The Craftsman, Gustav Stickley, Editor, 7:336. 1905.
"The slates themselves may be 2" or more in thickness at the eaves, and as wide as 42" anywhere on the roof proper, and still produce a pleasing appearance, granting that the slate is not laid so wide to the weather that the roof is thrown out of scale to the building it is protecting." --House and Garden, 32:33, 1917.
See also the 1919 quotation from Dwellers in Arcady in the examples under building-paper.
In my area, now called bull trout, just to further confuse the name of this threatened species of char. Last winter I caught and released a big one while fishing for steelhead in Idaho's Salmon River.
"A guy extending from the end of a gaff to the ship's rail on each side, and serving to steady the gaff." --from the definitions. How'd the poor guy get to the end of the gaff in the first place?
Goropism, coined by Leibniz. Also Goropianism, after the dutch armchair linguist Johannes Goropius Becanus (1519-1572), who posited that the Brabantic language spoken in the vicinity of Antwerp was the original language from which all others evolved.
Welcome to the Wordnik community! Next to the search bar (where you can look up words) is your screen name. Click on your name to go to your dashboard, create a list, etc. You can add any word you look up to any of your lists or to a new list you can name and create from that word's page.
A quotation from Finnegans Wake seems to me a collaboration between Wordniks bilby and fbharjo: "Go in for scribenery with the satiety of arthurs in S.P.Q.R.ish and inform to the old sniggering publicking press and its nation of sheepcopers about the whole plighty troth between them, ma-lady of milady made melodi of malodi, she, the lalage of lyon — esses, and him, her knave arrant. To Wildrose La Gilligan from Croppy Crowhore."
Local names for The Central American or Mesoamerican river turtle (Dermatemys mawii) include hickatee or, perhaps owing to its cream-colored plastron, tortuga blanca.
The CD&C definition given here is missing the promised quotation. The inferred passage, "I peep'd in at a loose lansket", appears in the play The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed written by John Fletcher in reply to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.
"Then from the starving cagework city a horde of jerkined dwarfs, my people, with flayers’ knives, running, scaling, hacking in green blubbery whalemeat.” --Ulysses
"In virtue of original sin man's deiformity is, in fact, deformed but, even in the virtue of the consideration of original sin, man's situation is still one in which he must further deform himself as an image of God or accept his further deiformity through the powers of grace." John P. Dourley. Paul Tillich and Bonaventure: An Evaluation of Tillich's Claim to Stand in the Augustinian-Franciscan Tradition. 1975, p. 145.
Don't swim against the tide, or with sharks. Don't spit into the wind and do try to keep your head above water. Keep an even keel. Time and tide wait for no man, and women aren't too keen on it either. Your ship probably has come in already. A spare rudder and/or paddle are recommended.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they see nothing but sea --Sir Francis Bacon
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. --King Solomon
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. --Thomas Jefferson
There is nothing quite so good as burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating. --Alfred Hitchcock
I met Sinkey Boone at a sea turtle conference in Florida in the late 1980's. Brash and white-haired, somewhat Hemingwayesque. I came to dislike him because he used to drunk-dial my then girlfriend, a wildlife sculptor who'd exhibited at that and other conferences he attended.
"I, who am not conversant in Indian terms, understand something a little analogous to a fine paid upon the renewal of a lease, such as is paid in this or any other European country." -- Speech of the Rt. Hon. C.J. Fox, 7 June 1790, in Speeches of the Managers and Counsel in the Trial of Warren Hastings, Vol. 2, E.A. Bond, ed. London. Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, p. 356.
n. nautical, rfdef This word needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text }. --from the definitions. It's been reported to Feedbag.
I'm imagining ruzuzu leaving the sporting goods store in her new gumboots.... and this line from The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night shoehorns it's way in: "...preceded by her eunuchs and serving women and clad in the gear her father had given her." (which see, in the examples given for in espalier.)
"And after that she wove a gar-land for her hair. She pleated it. She plaited it. Of meadowgrass and riverflags, the bulrush and waterweed, and of fallen griefs of weeping willow." --Finnegans Wake
As oddball and off-wall as Joyce waxes in his writings, here he is beautifully, simply, poetic.
A closed drainage basin that permits no outflow into bodies of water external to it. Üüreg Lake in western Mongolia lies within an endorheic basin. This lake also bears mention here because its name contains adjacent umlauts.
A device for measuring the degree of anger brought on by depriving someone of chocolate? No. A chocolate temper meter measures the temperature of chocolate during the tempering/crystallization stage of production.
The CD&C definition for meteorite is one of the longest single definitions I've seen at Wordnik. This is where the "and Cyclopedia" part of the lexicon's title asserts itself.
Thanks for the Fomalhaut clarification, ry. I should probably remove the less "formal" of the two names from the list. And thanks for the additions to the list!
Formalhaut is not a star. That would mean it is not a class A star then? Don't tell Formalhaut b (which orbits it), or the dwarf star TW Piscis Austrini, its binary traveling partner. Educate me.
Maybe you've seen Redmond salt at the grocer's. In the little valley community of Redmond UT there is a big red mound of a hill. Beneath the red mound, which is pierced to its red heart by a haul road, lies salt. Ancient sea salt that is mined and milled for the table.
I don't recognize *hnny or *nnyc as four-consonant strings because the wye functions as a vowel as it generally tends to do within longer strings of consonants. My arbitrary rule.
"The symbols of Mithraism offer significant traits which are associated with those sun-cults which have a kathenotheistic approach to the god." --Sukumari Bhattacharji,The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puraṇas. 1970. p.222.
A prison workhouse for female convicts transported to the penal colonies of Australia. Female factories were located in NSW, Queensland, and Van Diemen's Land.
The word may have been spelled as it sounded to the transcriber. I suggest reviewing the spoken record before speculating further. Perhaps the *comb* part was pronounced as in the words combined, combinatorial, etc.
Also known as myzocytosis or cellular vampirism. A form of feeding by means of a feeding tube called a coinoid with which predatory cellular organism pierces the cell wall and membrane of another organism and sucks out the cytoplasm.
“If after years upon years of delving in ditches dark one tubthumper more than others, Kinihoun or Kahanan, giardarner or mear measenmanonger, has got up for the darnall same pur-pose of reassuring us with all the barbar of the Carrageehouse that our great ascendant was properly speaking three syllables less than his own surname (yes, yes, less!)" --Finnegans Wake
In heraldry, denoting a line attached to the collar of a blazoned animal; or noting that the exposed lining of a cloak or other garment is of a different tincture.
"To take a man's watch is to flimp him, it can only be done in a crowd, one gets behind him and pushes him in the back, while the other in front is robbing him." --Brandon, 1839. Poverty, Mendicity and Crime.
"Whoever desires to fatten and strengthen...let him refrain from high-seasoned hodge-podge, French magma, and fish flibrigo" London Magazine XXXI, 612/2, 1762.
Seven-syllable English words such as this one are collected here. As for a term for words in this bloated class, I prefer the pedestrian mouthful in casual speech.
"...like an arrow-fledge, he darts, and, softly lighting, perches by her side." --The Birds of Scotland with Other Poems by James Grahame. Philadelphia, S.F. Bradford, I:10, 1807.
A hamlet or small village. - "On this River of the Maine where the Townes and pleasant Flects lie by the water ... Their Dorpes and Flects walled about." --R. Monro His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment. London. 1637. II:89.
"Storms, commonly called Michaelmas flawers, at that time of the year make sailing...dangerous." --Stackhouse, New History of the Holy Bible..., 1767, VI:417, note.
"We have upon our Coast in England a Michaelmas flaw, that seldom fails." John Josselyn, An Account of the Voyages to New England, 1674, p.54.
"As the winter advances, grenat or claret has become more and more the favorite - it is rich, gay, and generally becoming." --Peterson's Magazine, February 1879.
"This was the name at first given to the red coloring matter derived from aniline, ... although it was a very beautiful color, the more superior color called magenta, ... has completely driven it from the market." --Dictionary of Dyeing and Calico Printing, 1869.
"I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand, a freestone-color'd hand; I verily did think that her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands;" Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1599.
"...is said to be made of the lees of wine from which the tartar has been washed, by burning, in the manner of ivory black. ... fine Frankfort black, though almost confined to copperplate printing, is one of the best black pigments we possess, being of a fine neutral colour, next in intensity to lamp-black, and more powerful than that of ivory. Chromatography, 1835.
"Another color recently popularized is the "crushed strawberry", the fraise color which French milliners introduced last year." Littel's Living Age, Oct. 20, 1883.
Found under the heading "The Names of Colours Given by The Silk Dyers" in Commonplace Book of Benjamin Franklin (1650-1727), The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Transactions, 1906, Vol 10, p. 221.
"By mixing heliotrope and a red a light reddish shade has been obtained which is known as "floxine"; this may be a new shade but it is uncertain whether it will meet with much favor." --Arthur's Home Magazine, 1892.
Nonce word derived from Eccl. I, fid-es implicita. The word is used adjectively, e.g., "fidimplicitary coxcombs" in Blackwood's Magazine 1:470, 1817 and elsewhere.
Pertaining to or connected with the Academy of Della Crusca in Florence; or referring to the Dellacruscan Society of Literature, a name given to a group of English writers residing in Florence in the late 18th century.
A deputation from Athens was sent to inquire of the oracle of Delos how the plague might be stopped. The reply was that the plague would cease when the cubical altar of Apollo was doubled.
An interesting if not uncommon adjective containing a pair of hyphenated opposites, defined by the 1883 Encyclopaedic Dictionary as "without spirit or animation; dull, spiritless". Cf. semianimate, semianimous.
One who buys up as much as possible of any commodity, so that the speculative sellers of it when the time comes to deliver are unable to fulfill their engagements, except by buying of the cornerman at his own price, and are thus driven into a corner. - The Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Vol II Pt. II, p.495; Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., 1883.
I will henceforth call the ʬ bilabial percussive symbol a williwaw, which elsewise denotes a blast of cold air that races down the mountains to the sea.
A nickname for one who threshes with a flail. Lincolnshire dialect, as recorded by Edward Peacock, 1877, A glossary of words used in the wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire. London, The English Dialect Society, p.14.
@thtownse, marky: Just added the previously unlisted mesmerical to my more recent adjectives list "More Adjectival Arcana". All terms on my list were added one by one.
"...the gentle and benevolent mediocrity of church-maintanance, the ignoble hucksterage of piddling tithes?" - Charles Symmons, The Prose Works of John Milton: With a Life of the Author, Vol. 1, 1806, p. 56.
"Because the Sacred Canons," as he says, "forbid living eremitically without rule, without vows, and without profession." - Camaldolese Extraordinary: The Life, Doctrine and Rule of Blessed Paul Giustiniani. 2003.
The etymology gives the origin of the word, rather than the uses to which sabots were put to. Clomping around in wooden boots would require the wearer to invest in a pair of hard-wearing sashoons, no?
“In two of the cases described in the study, the children's toilet seat dermatitis had been caused by their school's use of harsh chemical cleaners, containing ingredients such as didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride and alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride, which have previously been documented to cause severe skin irritation.” --from the Wordnik examples for didecyl.
Spelling phellandrene with an "f" makes this chemical name one gamers and fantasy writers should co-opt as a name for some imaginary race from some imaginary place. Oh - just noticed that Felandra is already out there.
That quantity of spirits that evaporates during the barrel-aging process. As barrels of whiskey are aged in multistory warehouses, those on the upper shelf or floor closest the roof get warmest during the summer. The temperature fluctuations cause more evaporation and more interaction of the whiskey with the barrel than those below experience. This whiskey is finer than the rest, it's the top shelf liquor.
Quelle fromage, fbharjo? None other than that book by Jean-André Roquet about cheese painting -- L'Art nouveau de la peinture en fromage, ou en ramequin, inventée pour suivre le louable projet de trouver graduellement des façons de peindre inférieures à celles qui existent. Marolles, 1755.
It was a satire attempting to deride Jean-Jacques Bachelier's soft-wax encaustic painting technique.
The comment by ruzuzu got me thinking of petrology, and that the mineral fabric of rocks is commonly anisotropic. Then Wordnik's very useful reverse dictionary gave me bianisotropy, which led me to bianisotropic.
The recent New York Times article featuring Wordnik has alerted a wave of SEI spammers to a new venue to post their website address in the form of List names and comments on their usernames. Wordnik does admit, on its Community storefront, to over 80,000 Wordniks. If just one of us bought Ugg(ly) boots or went to a treatment center in Alaska or Alabama, the world would be a better place, right?
When I see fly-half I think of the 1971 western film Red Sun, in which the samurai played by Toshirō Mifune suddenly halves a buzzing pesky mosquito with his sword.
The proposition that an infinite monkey hitting computer keys at random would, eventually, reproduce all the lists and all the words found at Wordnik, if given an infinite amount of time. What's time to a monkey?
This day one plays a monarch, the next a private person; here one acts a tyrant, on the morrow an exile; a parasite this man to-night, to-morrow a precisian; and so of divers others. --An Excellent Actor, from Character Writings of the Seventeenth Century, 1891, p. 87.
Here's an adjective one doesn't meet every day, unless one is working in the collections at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, or other institutions with extensive beetle collections.
I encountered claim-notices all the time in the open badlands south of Price, Utah. They consisted of a stout piece of rebar hammered into the ground with the notice folded and stuffed into a plastic pill jar that was itself wired to the bar.
The Cretaceous Morrison Formation there had rich deposits of dinosaur bone and fossil wood that lapidarists and rock-hounds combed the countryside for. The porous sandstone stream deposits also were where uranium minerals collected in quantity. I never determined whether the claims were for the fossils or the uranium, and I never did anything to get myself shot at.
Closest I've come is a plank with 4 different strands stapled to it, each duly labeled. I see them all the time in antique shops. Or maybe it's the same plank seen over and over in the same shop as I revisit in search of things I collect.
Glad to see Bubbles over on your clown list. I wish Wordnik could inform us just how many clowns named Bubbles there are out there scaring children at present. The talking iPhone 4S is of no use on this question; I asked it.
The ivory-billed woodpecker produced a nasal "hant", "kint", or "kent" likened by Alexander Wilson to the sound of a toy tin trumpet, and by Audubon to a clarinet. Kint was a local nickname for the bird.
On Ftumch, Wikipedia says "The premise of his appearance is that if anyone utters his name then he shall appear, yet he doesn't appear very often because 'Ftumch' is such an unusual name. He is heard to say 'No-one ever says Ftumch. Why couldn't I be called William?'"
A crown-like structure in the milkweed flower, internal to and protruding above the corolla, formed from fleshy appendages of the adnate stamens or staminodes. The elements of the coronet are, among the many species, variously boat-shaped and horned.
See visuals at Asclepias. In the example with red-orange and yellow flowers, the red-orange structures are the petals, the yellow the coronet.
"I have frequently seen them netting with a very coarse needle filled with twine, and using their thumb, to form the stitch, instead of a netting-pin." --The English Review, Vol. 13, 1850. p. 216.
--To find a word you can't think of, enter a synonym into the search box, hit return, then check the list of similar words provided.
--If you're looking for a definition and other information for a word, enter word into the search box and hit return.
--If your searched word returns no definition, check your spelling of it, and try any alternative spellings you can think of or find. Many a definition lurks behind an alternate spelling, or, in the case of proper (capitalized, upper case) nouns and adjectives, behind a lower case rendering. Some words that weren't listed in the dictionaries indexed by Wordnik may not have a definition listed yet.
The milkfish, an important food fish in southeast Asia and some islands of the Pacific. Milkfish have been farmed in the Philippines and elsewhere for at least 8 centuries.
The terms chapnut, and chapnet, were specified in the official list of the Pewterers' Company (Britain) records for 1612-1613 as a vessel weighing 6 or so to the pound. These terms are applied to a type of salt-cellar, and the term vessel itself was a hypernym for pewterware in general.
Cf. French choppineaux or chaupineaux, synonyms for the burette later called a cruet, also fashioned in the past from pewter.
"The heart case of Richard Coeur de Leon was found at Rouen in 1838, and that of Charles V in 1862, and one has been found at Holbrook in Suffolk. All these these seem to have been made of pewter." -- H. J. L. J. Massé, The Pewter Collector - A Guide to English Pewter with some Reference to Foreign Work, 1921, p 117.
"The heart case of Richard Coeur de Leon was found at Rouen in 1838, and that of Charles V in 1862, and one has been found at Holbrook in Suffolk. All these these seem to have been made of pewter." -- H. J. L. J. Massé, The Pewter Collector - A Guide to English Pewter with some Reference to Foreign Work, 1921, p 117.
Comments by hernesheir
Show previous 200 comments...
hernesheir commented on the word apehood
Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "Will prepare the application". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word apedom
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand meaning "Will not prepare the application of". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906. Compare apehood.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word aorta
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: railroad telegraph shorthand for "Has not made application".
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word antipode
A word that pricks the long ears of certain Wordnik marsupials. I expect bilby to pop in any second. In the meantime, the word was used in railroad telegraphs to signify "Appearances are doubtful". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anosmia
Term once used in railroad telegraph communications to mean "Does not answer". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anserous
anserine
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anserine
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand meaning "has been answered". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word aneurism
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Is any further amount necessary? --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word obongo
This is a racist slur term exposing the half-wit who repeats it. The Wordnik lister excepted.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list 1906-railway-cipher-code
I apologize for flooding the Comments feed with repetitive citations from the Standard Cipher Code.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anchovy
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Can it be altered?" --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list 1906-railway-cipher-code
I sent telegrams when I lived in Mexico. I was chargedbytheword, so I sentmanymessages composed of longwords. The cipher book cited here mentions efficiency and secrecy as well. I suppose those secrets ranged from corporate strategies to the protection of presidents, payrolls, and Pinkerton men.
January 20, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word arabesque
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand notation for "Everything can be satisfactorily arranged". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list culi---wine-tasting-adjectives
See the list Wine Tasters' Notes to see examples of some of these terms in use.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word apricot
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: Telegraphers' shorthand notation meaning "advise what arrangement you make".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word appletart
Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "Has any arrangement(s) been made? --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anthrax
Railroad telegraphers' notation meaning "When may we expect an answer?" --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anthem
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Unable to give definite answer".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word antennule
Railway telegraphers' shorthand meaning "If we have no answer by". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word annular
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: Railroad telegraphers' shorthand notation for "Cannot reduce the amount".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word annoyous
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand meaning "Amount is not correct". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anhinga
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: Telegraphers' shorthand for "amount in question is"...
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word angleworm
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand notation meaning "What is the total amount of debit? --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word angina
Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "What is correct amount?" --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word androgyn
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: Railroad telegraphers' notation meaning "You must alter".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anarchism
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand notation meaning "should not be allowed". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anapest
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: Railway telegraphers' shorthand meaning "Has not been allowed (to)".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word amphibious
Railroad telegraphers' notation meaning "Will you allow? --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word amorous
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: Railroad telegraphers' notation meaning "What will you allow (for)?"
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word amnesia
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand notation meaning "Can you make an allowance on account of?" --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word amicably
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "car equipped with air brake".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word amenable
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand meaning "will make no agreement". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word ambrosia
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: telegraphers' shorthand for "No agreement probable (unless)".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word amaranth
Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "Agreement cannot be cancelled". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word altruism
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: telegraphers' shorthand for "usual terms of agreement".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alphabet
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "likely to reach an agreement. --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alpaca
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: telegraphers' shorthand for "Insist on the adoption of the agreement as advised".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word almond
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Every party to agreement should sign and acknowledge before a notary public". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alluvium
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "are willing to agree". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list the-rolling-stones
Andrew Loog Oldham
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list the-rolling-stones
Jagger/Richards = The Glimmer Twins
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alkanet
US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906: telegraphers' shorthand for "Why did you not agree?"
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alizarin
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "What are terms of agreement?" --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word aliquot
US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906: telegraphers' shorthand for "Is a special agreement necessary?".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alimony
Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "Do they agree to?". --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alienist
US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906; railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Your agent has not settled".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alevin
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Would like the following agents to meet me (at) (on)". --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alcohol
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code; telegraphers' shorthand for "Make transfer of agency at".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word albuminoid
Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "Have wired general freight agent". --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word alate
US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906; telegraphers' shorthand for "agent's balance sheet shows large balance; investigate and report".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word ailment
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "May we appoint agent for you?. --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word aglossal
US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906; telegraphers' shorthand for "advice(s) from _____ not satisfactory".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word phaneroglossal
Having a conspicuous tongue. The rock band Kiss leaps to mind.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word aghast
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Will advise you promptly of any change". --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word afflatus
US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906; telegraph shorthand for "Advise us what to do".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word afflict
Railroad telegraph shorthand for "advise what can be done" --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adventist
Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "Do you think it advisable (to)?" --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adverb
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Have you acted under legal advice?". --1906 US Railway Association Standard Cipher Code.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adroit
1906 US Railway Association Standard Cipher Code; telegraph shorthand for "Shall we change the advertisement?".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adoral
Very economical railroad telegraph shorthand for "Advertising 1000-mile tickets, great care should be used in phraseology, in order that no exceptions can be taken by our competitors". --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adobe
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code; telegraph shorthand for "will take advantage of".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adiposity
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "willing to make advance on terms offered. --1906 US Railway Association Standard Cipher Code.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adequately
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, telegraph shorthand for "goods are in demand and price will advance">.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adelphous
Railroad telegraph shorthand for "advance on cost and charges. --US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word actinoid
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code used in telegraphic communications to mean "The action you have taken is not approved".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word acrobat
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "action taken is not satisfactory" --1906 US Railway Association Standard Cipher Code.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word acrimony
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, shorthand for telegraph communications and meaning "action deferred until further notice".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word acorn
Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "take immediate action and advise". --1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word acid
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code meaning "action taken is satisfactory".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word achieve
Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "What will be the expense of action?" --1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word acetylene
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code shorthand meaning "Have you begun action?"
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word acetate
Shorthand for "you can deliver here following freight to relieve accumulation". --1906 US Railway Association Standard Cipher Code.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word accursed
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code meaning "your account is debited with".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word abstinent
I find it amusing that the term abstinent was used in telegraphic communications as shorthand for "will not be able to accommodate". --1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code. Of course, "to accommodate" in these communications meant to find lodgings or seats on a train for the agent(s) or person(s) referred to.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word absinth
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, shorthand for "expect you to accomodate".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word abrasive
Shorthand code for the phrase "accident reported to our No. _____ was caused by". --1906 US Railway Association. Standard Cipher Code.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word aboveboard
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, shorthand for "Would advise you not to accept".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word abominate
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code meaning "do not accept until all conditions are satisfactory".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word abnormal
US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code for the phrase "your modified conditions acceptable".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word ablative
1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code, shorthand for "subject to immediate acceptance".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word abiology
US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code for "As soon as accepted".
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word abdominal
US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code meaning "When will we receive abstracts of freight _____ for month of _____?"
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word abetting
US Railway Association Standard Cipher Code for "Will you accept?"
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word glassworks
Added to The Glassworks list for ruzuzu.
January 19, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word nanodynamite
Wow cool bilby! Thanks.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word salmon
“And be that semeliminal salmon solemonly angled, ingate and outgate.” --Finnegans Wake
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word semeliminal
“And be that semeliminal salmon solemonly angled, ingate and outgate.” --Finnegans Wake
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word stere
5°F at 9:00 this a.m. I could sure use a stere or two of cordwood just now.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list distinguishing-marks
I appreciate your contributions, ry.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word nanosandwich
For example; nanopastrami; nanoclub; nanocheeseburger.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hot-windy
Thanks, bilby.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word wind
A disease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing. --from the definitions.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word perflatile
Exposed to the wind; open to the breeze.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hot-windy
What do you make of the definition, bilby?
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word non-scrabble
Yes non-scrabble is not a valid Scrabble word.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hornypipe
You said it, Man.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word googling
"His mouthfull of ecstasy (for Shing–Yung-Thing in Shina from Yoruyume across the Timor Sea), herepong (maladventure!) shot pinging up through the errorooth of his wisdom (who thought him a Fonar all, feastking of shellies by googling Lovvey, regally freytherem, eagelly plumed, and wasbut gumboil owrithy prods wretched some horsery megee plods coffin acid odarkery pluds dense floppens mugurdy) as thought it had been zawhen intwo." --Finnegans Wake
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word jack-in-a-bottle
It's a bird.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hedge-jug
It's a bird.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word feather-poke
It's a bird.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word archilowe
Mac: "I shall return."
Arnie: I'll be back."
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word gouty-stem
It's a tree.
January 17, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word drift-bottle
A bottle used for the same purpose as a drift-cask (which see).
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word bottle-cod
It's not a fish. Or a bottle.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word delabechea
It's a tree. Delabechea Lindl., as a genus name, is currently recognized as a synonym of Brachychiton Schott & Endl. of the family Malvaceae. Some systematists place this genus in the Sterculiaceae.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word bottle to throttle rule
Among pilots: No flying within 24 hours of consuming alcohol.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word George
n. obsolete A kind of brown loaf.
Not sure if this is a loaded word of a more specific type.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word katagelasticism
Nice find, ruzuzu!
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word crackle
Hey! Read that definition yesterday while looking at glass terms!
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word fantasticate
Hode: Lord, please fantasticate this meal of which we are about to partake.
Clevis: Hank, You know you caint fantasticate grits any more than they already are.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word sphincter of Oddi
Almost a collective. A sphincter of oddities in ein ampulla of kaltes Vater.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word litre
In heraldry, a black band, supposed to represent the knightly belt, charged with the arms of the defunct, and painted on the wall of a church or chapel at the time of the funeral. This variety of the funeral achievement was formerly considered a mark of very high dignity. It is now nearly abandoned.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word antiguggler
Never mind the fork. Stick an antiguggler in it.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word unamalgamatible
I like how this word (though I'd spell it differently) appears with uncomeatable in the same sentence. Both are candidates for yarb's lists of human traits.
January 16, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word there’s so
sap sucker - My Dad's favorite euphemism.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word seed
...one of the small bubbles which form in imperfectly fused glass, and which, when the glass is worked, assume elongated or ovoid forms, resembling the shapes of some seeds.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word flash
Interesting tidbits from the definitions:
To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different color.
To expand, as blown glass, into a disk.
A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., used for coloring brandy and rum, and giving them a factitious strength.
A language, created by a repressed minority to maintain cultural identity, that cannot be understood by the ruling class; for example, Ebonics.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word cistern
The receptacle into which glass is ladled from the pots to be poured on the table in making plate-glass, or in casting glass; a cuvette.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word lutjang
It's a fish.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hemdurgan
It's a fish.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word punt
milen
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list salt-and-pepper
bitnoben
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word salt
In heraldry, a bearing representing a high decorative salt-cellar, intended to resemble those used in the middle ages.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word fining
n. The act of imposing a fin�. --from the definitions.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word flag
Another coinc - this one the British fourpence or groat.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word siege
n. Stool; excrement; fecal matter. Wouldn't last long on
n. The floor of a glass-furnace.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word muff
A blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet. --from the definitions.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list the-glassworks
The list 2300°F also contains glassmaking terms.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word poppywash
coincwash
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list traits--bad
scumbaggery?
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word gazzettino
One for the listers of coinc and currencies.
(next day edit: Was going to correct typo to coins, but laughingly decided to leave it coinc).
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word besan
chickpea
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word wide to the weather
"The walls of the bungalow, previously described, are topped by an overhanging roof covered with spruce shingles, which have been dipped in oil to produce a rich, warm color, and are laid wide to the weather." --from "A Craftsman Bunglaow: Craftsman House Series of 1905, Number III", in The Craftsman, Gustav Stickley, Editor, 7:336. 1905.
"The slates themselves may be 2" or more in thickness at the eaves, and as wide as 42" anywhere on the roof proper, and still produce a pleasing appearance, granting that the slate is not laid so wide to the weather that the roof is thrown out of scale to the building it is protecting." --House and Garden, 32:33, 1917.
See also the 1919 quotation from Dwellers in Arcady in the examples under building-paper.
January 15, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word ferroics
Brave deeds accomplished with the use of iron implements or weapons.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Dolly Varden
In my area, now called bull trout, just to further confuse the name of this threatened species of char. Last winter I caught and released a big one while fishing for steelhead in Idaho's Salmon River.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word upland trout
I've been hunting these for years with no success.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list lost-for-word
At one time I called one of those folks my major professor, ruzuzu. Perhaps amnesioplagiarist. But see cryptomnesia and it's examples.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word vang
"A guy extending from the end of a gaff to the ship's rail on each side, and serving to steady the gaff." --from the definitions. How'd the poor guy get to the end of the gaff in the first place?
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word cologne umber
One for the pigment listers. Yoinked to the list In the Colorhouse.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word corneous lead
A chlorocarbonate lead mineral. phosgenite.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word stegosaurus
Same context: once-fine ex-girlfriend
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list list-of-heraldry-terms
Thanks for wastel, ry!
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word anismus
Never to be confused with animism.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word goropism
Glad you picked up on the Leibniz connection so quickly, ruzuzu.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Goropism
goropism
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Goropianism
goropism
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word goropism
Goropism, coined by Leibniz. Also Goropianism, after the dutch armchair linguist Johannes Goropius Becanus (1519-1572), who posited that the Brabantic language spoken in the vicinity of Antwerp was the original language from which all others evolved.
January 14, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word melassigenic
Perhaps ruzuzu might consider this word for her sugar list.
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word jean dimmock
soot-black
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word fairhead
Nice visuals for this valid Scrabble word, especially that of the dog crossing the fallen stone plinth skybridge.
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word cow tree
Pass the cocoa please.
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word jean dimmock
tumtum?
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list curry--1
Just the food words. I don't need combs, brushes, or favors.
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word bindwith
Ethnobotanist: "What do you use this plant for?"
Informant: "To bind with."
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word pisang-ayer
It's a tree, Palmer.
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word heckler's veto
Sorry, can't hear you over the shouting.
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word quadricovariant
A Hessian, bare and bootless in the mathematics dodge.
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Wronskian
See definition at wronskian...a Pole.
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word farce
Ha. Great one, bilby!
January 12, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word pogonion
Why yes, it is a metal protruberance. A Schrade Uncle Henry pocket knife, of middling size. Now Uncle Henry belongs on another list I can think of.
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Ring of the Fisherman
The wearer of which being the Pope. Piscatory Ring, Annulus Piscatoris, Anello Piscatorio.
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word NOD
In some or many cases, an understatement for sure.
The etymology provided illustrates how dumb and undiscerning computers have remained.
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word sowdwort
I'd like to find other attested words containing the string *wdw.
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word sowdwort
One for ruzuzu's wort list.
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*mbcl crumbcloth
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word poundwort
One for ruzuzu's worty list.
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word crepitation râle
See crepitation rale.
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word boxberry
One for the berry listers.
January 11, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word pogonion
Chopping a pogonion makes the eyes water.
January 10, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word janus cloth
Because it's January.
January 10, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word kakalaioa
It's a tree.
January 10, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word nicker-pecker
You're correct to guess this names a certain bird.
January 10, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word double daric
See the definition of daric, an ancient Persian coin.
January 10, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adelfisch
...lavaret (which see).
January 10, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list oats
oat of allegiance. Haha bilby. Am not aware of gluten-free varieties. I should, given the *celiacs* in my sphere.
January 10, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word gammoning-fish
It's not a fish.
January 10, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word kowhai
It's a tree. With nice visuals. And birds in.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word sinapize
To impregnate with mustard...
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word suggillation
ecchymosis
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word karaoke-thon
Like the example says.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word telescope-word
See, spyglass is not a telescope-word.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word water-quintain
A sporting game like ski-joring, but on water, from a canoe.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word tilter
A tilt-up or tip-up used in ice-fishing.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the user judithce
Welcome to the Wordnik community! Next to the search bar (where you can look up words) is your screen name. Click on your name to go to your dashboard, create a list, etc. You can add any word you look up to any of your lists or to a new list you can name and create from that word's page.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word nation of sheepcopers
See first comment under S.P.Q.R.ish.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word megafundum
I like the way megafundum and microchasm play off one another in the example sentence from Finnegans Wake. A bit of method to his madness.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word S.P.Q.R.ish
A quotation from Finnegans Wake seems to me a collaboration between Wordniks bilby and fbharjo: "Go in for scribenery with the satiety of arthurs in S.P.Q.R.ish and inform to the old sniggering publicking press and its nation of sheepcopers about the whole plighty troth between them, ma-lady of milady made melodi of malodi, she, the lalage of lyon — esses, and him, her knave arrant. To Wildrose La Gilligan from Croppy Crowhore."
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word carberry
gooseberry
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*thbl - frothblower
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word warrandice lands
See warrandice.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word sac-a-lait
It's a fish.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word wait-a-while
It's a wattle. Tree, that is.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word cap-a-pie
Same context: codpiece, ornithopter, hovercar.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word rat-tat-too
Dude, seriously. You didn't mean rat tattoo?
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word felon-herb
From the definitions: "Either of two plants reputed to cure felons:"... (which see)
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word prickshaft
It's an arrow.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word worm-punch
While this term has to do with spirituous liquors, neither tequila nor punchbowl is involved.
January 9, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word painted turtle
The only North American turtle whose native range extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list turtles
My nascent list of turtle terms.
The fine list of tortoises and turtles by kalayzich is well-worth a visit.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word stink-rat
It's a turtle.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word skilpot
From the Dutch word for turtle, schildpad.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hickatee
Local names for The Central American or Mesoamerican river turtle (Dermatemys mawii) include hickatee or, perhaps owing to its cream-colored plastron, tortuga blanca.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Archelon
The head of this extinct turtle measured up to a meter long.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word clouded tiger
An evocative name, to me.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hills of circumdenudation
So far, no novelist, gamer, or subdivision developer has ever found this place.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word qutrit
...is not a valid Scrabble word.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list restless
Feeling flisky? Dissipate that pent-up nervous energy by contributing a few words to this list.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word cabin fever
cf. space-hunger
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Oliver
A young eel.
January 8, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word gaub
The large fruit contains a viscid pulp which is used as gum in bookbinding, and in place of tar for covering the seams of boats.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hoppings
Great visuals for the term hoppings, just added to the list English Customs.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word golden sequence
The Veni Sancte Spiritus composed by Robert I, King of France. One of the more popular hymns of the Middle Ages. Sung for the mass at Whitsuntide.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word uvulopalatopharyngoplasty
Twelve different letters among its 25. One short of half the alphabet.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word opisthopulmonate
A term for you, mollusque.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word sardonyx
Great of you to notice the heraldry sense, ruzuzu. New one for me.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word crossrow
The alphabet.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word headmold shot
In its presence a phrenologist's fingers to go all nervous and twitchy.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word crossbones
☠, which see.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word wabbler
From the definitions: n. One who or that which wabbles. Specifically—
Annoyingly incomplete, as is the example provided.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word lansket
The CD&C definition given here is missing the promised quotation. The inferred passage, "I peep'd in at a loose lansket", appears in the play The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed written by John Fletcher in reply to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word rill-mark
Truly, "writ in water".
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hot-potato routing
What got left off the syllabus in safe food-handling class.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word fabric blindness
Leishman: The King has no clothes. Ziff: What King?
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word blubbery
"Then from the starving cagework city a horde of jerkined dwarfs, my people, with flayers’ knives, running, scaling, hacking in green blubbery whalemeat.” --Ulysses
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list distinguishing-marks
SPQR, watermark and rubric all added in their turn. Thanks lads!
Now that the leitmotif and rubric have been suggested by the terms already on the list, I'll open it for public additions.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word kafon
Wonderful bilby. Thanks for sharing the link.
January 7, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word malsker
I tend to meander while I malsker.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word deiformity
"In virtue of original sin man's deiformity is, in fact, deformed but, even in the virtue of the consideration of original sin, man's situation is still one in which he must further deform himself as an image of God or accept his further deiformity through the powers of grace." John P. Dourley. Paul Tillich and Bonaventure: An Evaluation of Tillich's Claim to Stand in the Augustinian-Franciscan Tradition. 1975, p. 145.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word bigwig
See buzz-wig.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word full-bottomed
"Having a large bottom, as a wig of the kind formerly in common fashionable use." --from the definitions.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word scratch
A kind of wig covering only a portion of the head. --from the definitions.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word pulvil
Scented wig powder. Bay rum for me please.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word black rod
See Black Rod.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list distinguishing-marks
Thanks for DOC, bilby.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Kant Centrum
The lacemaking school in Bruges.
January 6, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word paternoster while
One must wonder who holds the world record.
January 5, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word ensigncy
Because the burst of nasals hard up against the esses are fun to say.
January 5, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word AOC
appellation d'origine contrôlée
January 5, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word ogygian
I'm looking for other terms that contain the string *gyg.
January 5, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word advice boat
This just in, on the last tide:
Don't swim against the tide, or with sharks. Don't spit into the wind and do try to keep your head above water. Keep an even keel. Time and tide wait for no man, and women aren't too keen on it either. Your ship probably has come in already. A spare rudder and/or paddle are recommended.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they see nothing but sea --Sir Francis Bacon
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. --King Solomon
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. --Thomas Jefferson
There is nothing quite so good as burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating. --Alfred Hitchcock
January 5, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word vomiting-boiler
Stand back!
January 5, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word turtle excluder device
I met Sinkey Boone at a sea turtle conference in Florida in the late 1980's. Brash and white-haired, somewhat Hemingwayesque. I came to dislike him because he used to drunk-dial my then girlfriend, a wildlife sculptor who'd exhibited at that and other conferences he attended.
January 5, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Study Latin
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres
January 5, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Gentleman Jim
A poem bearing the title Gentleman Jim appeared in newspapers and quaint anthologies in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
January 4, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word small magnetic moments
See definition at quantum spin liquid.
January 4, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word quantum spin liquid
...of which the definition gives us the lovely phrase "small magnetic moments".
January 4, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list the-pound
One runs across the occasional word that bears the old Wordie tag ghosted. troglodyke being one such word.
January 4, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word special
--from the examples: British, colloquial A special constable. --Like those portrayed by Monty Python.
January 4, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word peshcush
"I, who am not conversant in Indian terms, understand something a little analogous to a fine paid upon the renewal of a lease, such as is paid in this or any other European country." -- Speech of the Rt. Hon. C.J. Fox, 7 June 1790, in Speeches of the Managers and Counsel in the Trial of Warren Hastings, Vol. 2, E.A. Bond, ed. London. Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, p. 356.
January 4, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word yeuky
What a hair shirt feels like.
January 4, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word absquatulate
To flee a sasquatch.
January 3, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word twenty-second
A triple octave. In a musical scale 3x8=22. Try it on your piano.
January 3, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rshr - undershrieve and a sometime synonym, undershrub.
January 3, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word marble-silk
Yoinked to my Silk list. Thanks!
January 3, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list marbles
Nice list!
January 3, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list boots--1
5345.4 bogomips is a nice round number.
January 3, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word highhole
It's a bird.
January 3, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word adolescenturate
An inkhorn word meant to mean behaving foolishly.
January 3, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word gentle wind
(usually refreshing)
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word tank-worm
Did anyone think to tell India about this?
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word cleanlily
An adverb easier written than cleanly spoken.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word counterbuff
A counterbuff may sometimes result in a shiner.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word kettle fur collector
May your kettles always be furless.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word wemless
An immaculate adjective you don't meet every day.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word illesive
I too am an adjective you don't meet every day.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list antique-names-female
Theodocia
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word skywave
A small part of me wants to label this magical thinking.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Cactus Curtain
A 13-km barrier of Opuntia cactus planted by Cuba in 1961 to prevent its citizens from escaping/defecting onto the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word Miss Blyden
A Christmas drink popular in the British Virgin Islands, defined by the
Caribbean Dictionary / Wiwords as a "drink made from prickly pear steeped in rum, sweetened with sugar, and buried for many days."
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word nōchtli
Nahautl term for the fruit of a species of Opuntia.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word salmospotspeckled
"...her nude cuba stockings were salmospotspeckled,..." --Finnegans Wake
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word rattling
n. nautical, rfdef This word needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text }. --from the definitions. It's been reported to Feedbag.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word xocotl
ruzuzu I cereus-ly am not aware of any cactus lists.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list boots--1
I'm imagining ruzuzu leaving the sporting goods store in her new gumboots.... and this line from The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night shoehorns it's way in: "...preceded by her eunuchs and serving women and clad in the gear her father had given her." (which see, in the examples given for in espalier.)
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word fallen griefs of weeping willow
"And after that she wove a gar-land for her hair. She pleated it. She plaited it. Of meadowgrass and riverflags, the bulrush and waterweed, and of fallen griefs of weeping willow." --Finnegans Wake
As oddball and off-wall as Joyce waxes in his writings, here he is beautifully, simply, poetic.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list boots--1
Ah bilby, I see you added Puss-in. Sabotage!
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word hardtack
Sometimes, it's a tree, but almost never a duricrust.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*tchw - stitchwort
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word endorheic basin
A closed drainage basin that permits no outflow into bodies of water external to it. Üüreg Lake in western Mongolia lies within an endorheic basin. This lake also bears mention here because its name contains adjacent umlauts.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word glacial horn
The Matterhorn, for one.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word sandur
An outwash plain formed of glacial sediments at a glacier's terminus. Icelandic.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word janus-cord
A fabric for New Years Day.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word rattinet
Rhymes with satinet.
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word wurraluh
But is he a friend of the bilby?
January 2, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rtsf - heartsfoot
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word antiabecedarian
One wonders whether an antiabecedarian brims with joy when mojibake abound.
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word spate
"And call a spate a spate." --Finnegans Wake
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word coneywink
"A coneywink after the bunting fell." --Finnegans Wake
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*wmpr - bowmpriss.
My arbitrary rule.
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word timoneer
"But where was Himself, the timoneer?" --Finnegans Wake
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word xocotl
This term belongs on cactus and Nahautl lists. Oye! ruzuzu!
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word caldo de charral
A local fish broth from the (Lago de) Patzcuaro region of Michoacán.
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the list no-place-places
Wonderful list! It's smack-dab where it should be.
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word eremo
Good place for an eremite.
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word spherical excess
In Fashion Photography, the difference between a model's true anatomy and the airbrushed version of same.
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word spherical triangle
"Shaped like a cupped guitar pick", he imagined to himself.
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word mojibake
Cf. clbuttic mistake, and especially the examples given for clbuttic, which see, ruzuzu.
January 1, 2013
hernesheir commented on the word axiopiston
Credible; worthy of being believed.
December 31, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word gratia indebita
Undeserved grace.
December 31, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word euctical
I'm an adjective you don't meet every day.
December 31, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word misproud
I'm an adjective you don't meet every day.
December 31, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word teratologousi
(our adversaries) "speak things portentous and unintelligible".
December 31, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ratchet-pawl
Hey, I just ran across this term yesterday, with its dog and detent, while exploring latch and its kindred.
December 31, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word camik
kamik
December 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word haa
It's a tree.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word joran
One for the listers of names of the winds of the world.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word glissaune
It's a fish.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cubdrawn
...hence, fiercely hungry.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bean caper
It escalated into The Milagro Beanfield War.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word levant
"Used only in the imperative, in the exclamatory phrase levant me, a mild imprecation much like blow me!" --from the definitions.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word muck-sweat
What's in your wallet?
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word quickbeam
It's a tree.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flesh wound
I just looked up flesh unwound. There aren't any visual aids there either.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hatted-kit
I believe cow-warming originated in the Highlands of Scotland.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word noddypoll
No relation to gossypol.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ungka-puti
Neat that you got to see a gibbon, bilby. My invocation of the British historian was an attempt at paronomasia.
December 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ungka-puti
A type of primate, according to Gibbon.
December 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cat-harping
He strummed the feline "with feeling", using a cat-hairpin as a plectrum.
December 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word oxycaltrop
One for the sponge spicule terminology list.
December 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hatted-kit
Pass the cow to this end of the table, please.
December 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word shad-wash
No relation to hogwash.
December 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word paddock-rud
Everything has a(nother) name.
December 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word kipe
"Upturned lower jaw of a male salmon at the end of its life as it returns to fresh water to spawn." --from the definitions.
December 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word chocolate temper meter
A device for measuring the degree of anger brought on by depriving someone of chocolate? No. A chocolate temper meter measures the temperature of chocolate during the tempering/crystallization stage of production.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word conch
"To refine the flavour and texture of chocolate by warming and grinding, either in a traditional concher, or between rollers." --from the definitions.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tacahout
Golly.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word jhow
Another one for the tree and shrub listers.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bromatologist
When all else fails, they suggest a dose of Bromo-Seltzer?
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word regulome
Even water can be an important regulome entity.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word adscititiously
And ititi in the middle of it all.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word algum
It's a tree. Ostensibly.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word meteorite
The CD&C definition for meteorite is one of the longest single definitions I've seen at Wordnik. This is where the "and Cyclopedia" part of the lexicon's title asserts itself.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word caroteel
One wonders if carrots are ever contained therein.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list stars
Thanks for the Fomalhaut clarification, ry. I should probably remove the less "formal" of the two names from the list. And thanks for the additions to the list!
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list stars
Formalhaut is not a star. That would mean it is not a class A star then? Don't tell Formalhaut b (which orbits it), or the dwarf star TW Piscis Austrini, its binary traveling partner. Educate me.
December 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word chelingue
It's a boat.
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list five-consecutive-consonant-strings
*ghtgl - nightglass
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list items-to-which-we-are-attracted
chicken liver
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cherpumple pie
A Matryoshka doll inside a big Fabergé egg inside a snow globe.
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cherpumple pie
a church-mouse inside a flaming piano in the bucket of a cocked trebuchet.
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word revel-rout
Collectively speaking, a rabble of rousers.
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word piñon-bird
And tucking the pinion of a piñon-bird into his hatband, he wandered the slow hills collecting pine nuts.
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word theotheca
Not my new favorite word, but it is fun to say when the monstrance comes 'round.
Cf. expositorium, ostensorium.
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word exotospore
Sharply pointed at each end, and thicker in the middle. If you say so.
December 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mazurka
Sonny's Mazurka is a very popular Irish session tune.
December 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word buffalo-jack
It's a fish.
December 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word manifoldness
multeity
December 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word vulvovaginal
Three vees appear in the first six letters of this term.
December 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cablish
All this cablish has been a windfall for the small-time firewood sellers.
December 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word otopiesis
Did someone say pie? Anymore I don't hear so well.
December 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dracontine
To me, dracontine is not so draconian a term as draconian.
December 23, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word redgullet
It's a fish.
December 23, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word boar-grunt
It's a fish.
December 23, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word thrênos
threnody
December 23, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list salt-and-pepper
A unique salt and pepper for the gourmand or gourmet, featuring piment d'Espelette.
December 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list salt-and-pepper
Maybe you've seen Redmond salt at the grocer's. In the little valley community of Redmond UT there is a big red mound of a hill. Beneath the red mound, which is pierced to its red heart by a haul road, lies salt. Ancient sea salt that is mined and milled for the table.
December 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word London moment
No matter how you care to spin it
A London moment runs rings 'round a New York minute.
December 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fiery-sh⊚rt
There you go again.
December 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word black-horse
It's a fish.
December 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word goroon shell
It's large, and handsome.
December 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word kram-kram
Common name of the panicoid grass Cenchrus biflorus.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sloughgrass
Species of the genus Beckmannia are commonly called sloughgrass.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
I don't recognize *hnny or *nnyc as four-consonant strings because the wye functions as a vowel as it generally tends to do within longer strings of consonants. My arbitrary rule.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*ghgr - sloughgrass
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word wallaby-grass
Various species of the grass genus Austrodanthonia are known as wallaby-grass.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Kosmothanatosphobia
The end of the world will be remembered by means of a cosmic cellotaph.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Corruption Perceptions Index
Transparency International's map is interesting.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word pov
Great catch, bilby!
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word boza
One for the listers of fermented drinks.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rdgr - yardgrass, cordgrass.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*tchn - natchnee, et al.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word busaa
Another one for the liquor-listers.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word shaojiu
Liquor listers: Cf. baijiu.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mwenge
One for the spirituous drinks listers. This one from Uganda featuring fermented bananas and sorghum.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word impeke
One from Burundi for the spirituous drinks listers.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mao-tai
Another one for the spirituous drink listers.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*hnsh - johnshore
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
Thanks bilby and dclose73 for your visits and additions.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hureek
A grass, Paspalum scrobiculatum, said to render the milk of cows that feed upon it narcotic and drastic. --from the definitions.
December 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*nchl - trenchless, et al.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rchl - torchless, et al.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word kathenotheistic
Cf. henotheistic.
"The symbols of Mithraism offer significant traits which are associated with those sun-cults which have a kathenotheistic approach to the god." --Sukumari Bhattacharji,The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puraṇas. 1970. p.222.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word female factory
A prison workhouse for female convicts transported to the penal colonies of Australia. Female factories were located in NSW, Queensland, and Van Diemen's Land.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sopogy
ghee
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Land of Steady Habits
It's a.k.a. The Nutmeg State.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*lltr - falltrank, illtreat.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Pennsylvania
Great visuals.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list names-of-u-s--states-which-appear-on-the-five-dollar-bill
I like this list. I also like the miniscule spider on the upper left shelf of the shield at the upper right corner of the 1$ bill.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word common of turbary
"Oh no, here he comes again with his shovel and barrow."
"Yeah, I know. I'm thinking of giving him a pellet stove for his birthday."
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Lanai
Lived and worked there one whole summer.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word pineapple
It's a fish.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word thinktanker
A person with a crude superabundance of midnight oil to burn.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word snowflight
It's a bird.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word polyphloisbic
...and hoisting the giant pearly shell to his ear, he heard the echoes of Poseidon's polyphloisbic pronouncements.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word philologaster
One who dabbles, poorly, in philology.
December 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word prisehead
Do tell.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word whistlefish
One for The Organism Orchestra list.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word doitkin
One for the Wordnik coin and money listers.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lushburg
One for the Wordnik coin and money listers.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word elevator surfer
Never met one.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mold of jolly
...from the definition of macédoine, which see.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fairy armadillo
Have a super-sparkly day.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word piquillin
It's a bush.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word leucoethiops
Cf. albino.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cauline
The coloring matter of red cabbage. It is largely used in the coloring of bogus wines. --from the definitions.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lipochrin
Oh dear. I don't think frogapplause will like this term at all.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list latin-words-for-medical-prescription
quaquaquaqua
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word puffing-pig
It's a porpoise. No, really.
December 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bogie engine
Gotta get off this bogie train, man.
December 18, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word comball
The word may have been spelled as it sounded to the transcriber. I suggest reviewing the spoken record before speculating further. Perhaps the *comb* part was pronounced as in the words combined, combinatorial, etc.
December 18, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word countermark
"An artificial cavity made in the teeth of horses that have outgrown their natural mark, to disguise their age." --from the definitions.
December 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word halleluiatic - alleluiatic
A new pair for my Less the Initial, Still the Same list.
December 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word veneficiously
By poison or by witchcraft. Take your pick.
December 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word myzotrophy
Also known as myzocytosis or cellular vampirism. A form of feeding by means of a feeding tube called a coinoid with which predatory cellular organism pierces the cell wall and membrane of another organism and sucks out the cytoplasm.
December 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word shield of pretence
The Handbook of Heraldry, John Edward Cussans, Chatto and Windus, 1882, p. 69.
December 16, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list five-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rthsp - birthspot
December 16, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word comball
I hope ESPN finds out whether or not he's a red-publican.
As for comball, perhaps "a word as cunningly hidden in its maze of confused drapery as a fieldmouse in a nest of coloured ribbons" --Finnegans Wake
December 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lock-weir
Look me up sometime.
December 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list 2-x-3-vowels
Great idea for a list!
December 13, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word twitterlitter
James Joyce fecit.
"...ere the hour of the twattering of bards in the #twitterlitter between Druidia and the Deepsleep Sea..." --Finnegans Wake
December 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list five-consecutive-consonant-strings
*ckspr -thickspread
December 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*cksp - lickspigot, et al.
December 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list yakima-locksmith
Look! Another locksmith list! Wordnik is now your one-stop go-to site for up-to-date picklock lists!
December 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tubthump
“If after years upon years of delving in ditches dark one tubthumper more than others, Kinihoun or Kahanan, giardarner or mear measenmanonger, has got up for the darnall same pur-pose of reassuring us with all the barbar of the Carrageehouse that our great ascendant was properly speaking three syllables less than his own surname (yes, yes, less!)" --Finnegans Wake
December 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flanches
John Edwin Cussans. The Handbook of Heraldry. 1882. p. 71.
December 11, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word uniparty
Hello, word. Define yourself.
December 11, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word marshalling
In heraldry, the arrangement of various coats-of-arms on one shield to depict the several matches and alliances of a family. Latin cumulatio armorum.
December 11, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list never-on-craigslist
HaHa Mr. Prolagus, and nice to see your usename!
December 11, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sanglier
Cf. marcassin.
December 11, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word marcassin
Here piggy piggy.
December 11, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lunel
French muscat and an ancient heraldry symbol. What a combination.
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word in point
In heraldry, an element extending itself to all points of the escutcheon.
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word per long
A term used by the ancient heralds to denote a charge that exceeds its normal length.
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Lochabar-axe
An axe with a long handle and long broad blade.
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lined
In heraldry, denoting a line attached to the collar of a blazoned animal; or noting that the exposed lining of a cloak or other garment is of a different tincture.
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tag
The flock of definitions herein contains references to sheep.
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list payola
hush money
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flood-wood
Like snowplow and dough-trough, the two elements of the word flood-wood are eye-rhymes. Pronounced, they don't rhyme.
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flogster
Ahem!
December 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flocoon
Who knew?
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word gimped
Buttons that are gimped remain attached longer than those that aren't. I've resorted to using unwaxed dental floss for gimping in a pinch.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word indentilley
In heraldry, also blazoned indented per long.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flittern
Rhymes with bittern.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flisky
I get this way sometimes.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flimper
See comments under flimp.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flimp
"To take a man's watch is to flimp him, it can only be done in a crowd, one gets behind him and pushes him in the back, while the other in front is robbing him." --Brandon, 1839. Poverty, Mendicity and Crime.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list sunny-isles-fl-locksmith
spammer
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flibrigo
"Whoever desires to fatten and strengthen...let him refrain from high-seasoned hodge-podge, French magma, and fish flibrigo" London Magazine XXXI, 612/2, 1762.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flaycrake
A scarecrow. Also flay-crake. Yorkshire dialect.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flexecutive
Clumsy, as are many coinages from the business world.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word librocubicularist
Seven-syllable English words such as this one are collected here. As for a term for words in this bloated class, I prefer the pedestrian mouthful in casual speech.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fraise
Berry convincing dialog, bilby!
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word invected
In heraldry, the exact reverse of engrailed.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hanchet
In heraldry, a bugle-horn.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hausse
In heraldry, used to describe a chevron and fesse that are placed higher than ordinary.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word gyronways
Same as gyronwise.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word griping
An old heraldry term used when the paws or claws of an animal, or the hands of a person, hold or grasp any thing.
December 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word genuant
I'm an adjective you don't meet every day.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fleg
A random blow or kick (Scots).
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fleech
A rather unflattering verb.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word arrow-fledge
"...like an arrow-fledge, he darts, and, softly lighting, perches by her side." --The Birds of Scotland with Other Poems by James Grahame. Philadelphia, S.F. Bradford, I:10, 1807.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hell-black
"In hell-black night endur'd," -- Shakespeare, King Lear, 1605.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flect
A hamlet or small village. - "On this River of the Maine where the Townes and pleasant Flects lie by the water ... Their Dorpes and Flects walled about." --R. Monro His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment. London. 1637. II:89.
In heraldry, short form of flected.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word borasque
A sudden storm or squall accompanied by lightning and thunder.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flawer
"Storms, commonly called Michaelmas flawers, at that time of the year make sailing...dangerous." --Stackhouse, New History of the Holy Bible..., 1767, VI:417, note.
"We have upon our Coast in England a Michaelmas flaw, that seldom fails." John Josselyn, An Account of the Voyages to New England, 1674, p.54.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flankard
Rhymes with tankard, my Dear.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word grenat
"As the winter advances, grenat or claret has become more and more the favorite - it is rich, gay, and generally becoming." --Peterson's Magazine, February 1879.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word grasshopper-green
"Visiting-dress: The dress is of grasshopper-green fine cloth." --Young Ladies' Journal, April 1895.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word gendarme blue
"Bonnet, of gendarme blue satin, brim and curtain in plush to match." --Sylvia's Home Journal, January 1879.
"(which, strictly speaking, is a bluish green) such as appears in the "eye" or ring of a peacock feather." --Silk Goods of America, 1880.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word garter blue
"The Countess Spencer wore garter blue velvet." --London and Paris Ladies' Magazine of Fashion, June 1882.
December 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fulvid
"a deep yellow Colour." --Glossographia Anglicana Nova, 1707.
"or fulvous, of a yellowish, dusky colour, Lion tawny." --English Dict., 1717.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fuschine
"This was the name at first given to the red coloring matter derived from aniline, ... although it was a very beautiful color, the more superior color called magenta, ... has completely driven it from the market." --Dictionary of Dyeing and Calico Printing, 1869.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word French ultra
"A beautiful bright blue; it is adapted for ladies' drapery - rather too powerful for pearly tints or flesh." --Ladies' Manual of Art, 1890.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word freestone
"I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand, a freestone-color'd hand; I verily did think that her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands;" Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1599.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list packed--spatially
Geology and chemistry speak of hexagonal close packing and cubic close packing of atoms or ions in crystalline structures. Abbreviated "hcp" and "ccp".
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word shade calendar
"Other red tints are registered on the shade calendar as "Roi", "Pivoine", and "Francois Premier."" --Arthur's Home Magazine, 62:685, 1892.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mousquetaire
Arthur's Home Magazine, 62:865, 1892.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Frankfort black
"...is said to be made of the lees of wine from which the tartar has been washed, by burning, in the manner of ivory black. ... fine Frankfort black, though almost confined to copperplate printing, is one of the best black pigments we possess, being of a fine neutral colour, next in intensity to lamp-black, and more powerful than that of ivory. Chromatography, 1835.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fraise
"Another color recently popularized is the "crushed strawberry", the fraise color which French milliners introduced last year." Littel's Living Age, Oct. 20, 1883.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flowerdeline
Found under the heading "The Names of Colours Given by The Silk Dyers" in Commonplace Book of Benjamin Franklin (1650-1727), The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Transactions, 1906, Vol 10, p. 221.
December 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word floxine
"By mixing heliotrope and a red a light reddish shade has been obtained which is known as "floxine"; this may be a new shade but it is uncertain whether it will meet with much favor." --Arthur's Home Magazine, 1892.
December 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flammid
Flame-colored; red.
"the flammid Carbuncle, purple Amethyst." --W. Folkingham, 1610, Art of Survey, i, iii, 5.
December 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flagartie
Flouncing; boisterous.
December 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fiumara
A flooded river, a mountain torrent, or the dry bed left by it.
December 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bald-buzzard
osprey
December 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rstm - firstmost
December 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fipsworth
That which may be bought or sold for a fip, which see.
December 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word finger-puff
Who knew?
December 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list cattle
Just found and added finchbacked, 'zuzu.
December 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fillowite
E.S. Dana named this mineral after A.N. Fillow, upon whose land the mineral occurred.
December 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fillizetta
Florio, 1598: "filiselle, a kind of coarse silke, which we call filosetta or flouret silke.
December 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word filiole
One for the listers of architectural elements.
December 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fidimplicitary
Nonce word derived from Eccl. I, fid-es implicita. The word is used adjectively, e.g., "fidimplicitary coxcombs" in Blackwood's Magazine 1:470, 1817 and elsewhere.
December 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fidibus
A tobacco pipe lighter.
December 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word feudigrapher
A surveyor of farms and freehold lands.
November 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fetch-candle
fetch-light
November 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ferdful
Inspiring fear, awesome, dreadful..
Wary, timorous, full of fear, cautious out of fear of offending.
November 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*ldsp, feldspathose, et al.
November 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fecket
I prefer those made of cashmere or merino wool.
November 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word featously
I'm an adverb you don't meet every day.
November 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word feaberry
One for the fruit and berry listers.
November 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word favoursome
"Pray Phoebus, I prove favoursome in her fair eyes." --Ben Johnson, Cynthia's Revels, iv, iii, written in 1599.
November 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fawnguest
A fawning parasite, a sycophant, a toady; one who robs or swindles under the guise of friendship.
Also recorded as fawneguest and fawn-guest.
November 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word favel
One for the horse and/or color listers.
November 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word favificous
Relating to that which makes, or the making of, a honeycomb.
Cf. faviform; L. favus.
November 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fautive
Tending to favor; favorable.
From L. fautivus, from L. favere, to favor.
November 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fattrels
Cf. Fr. fatraille, trash, trumpery, things of no value.
November 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word confarreation
A Roman sacrament of marriage, of sorts.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ichthyoallyeinotoxic
Relating to ichthyoallyeinotoxism, hallucinogenic fish poisoning.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word baby-farmer
An old British term for one who undertakes the charge of children for a fixed sum.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word farined
Powdered, as with cosmetics.
"Our effeminate farined gallants." --John Evelyn's Sylva, 1776, p.230.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ferrandine
One for those who list varieties of fabric.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word farciminous
John Watson, The Medical Profession in Ancient Times, New York Academy of Medicine, Baker and Godwin, 1856, p.178.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word budgerook
It's a coin.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bazarucco
It's a coin.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word famulary
Pertaining to or belonging to servants.
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word familistery
Cf. phalanstery
November 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fallalish
Tawdry; gaudy; garish; cheap.
November 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word falked
Rare and obsolete adjective meaning falcate or crooked.
November 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word adlubescence
Pleasure; delight.
November 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word facetely
Pleasantly witty or humorous.
November 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dvergr
I still like this word. Alot.
November 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word amygdaliform
Cf. amygdaloid, amygdaloidal
November 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word serdab
Also sirdab.
November 24, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cerge
cierge
November 24, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mound-maker
It's a bird.
November 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word autoletic
Interesting.
November 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Ternate
It was during his second stay on Ternate that Alfred Russell Wallace first experienced an earthquake. The world of books is full of such trivia.
The Malay Archipelago, Vol. II.
November 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word gum-dammer
dammar gum
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word endorsed
In heraldry, same as sepurture.
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sepurture
In heraldry, endorsed is sometimes used.
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list beets
I encountered a Beet Dump Rd. in my peregrinations in SW Idaho this past summer.
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word septuncial
Of seven ounces; of seven parts of a whole.
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word septinsular
An adjective for the Wordnik listers of island terms.
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word depeculator
peculator
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word departingly
Not continuously.
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word septifarious
Not quite "every which way".
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word seplasiary
From Seplasia, the name of a street in Capua where perfumers sold their wares. Recorded from the 1650's.
November 20, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sennight
Half a fortnight.
November 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word demi-castor
For the hat listers.
November 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word demi-hag
One for the listers of weaponry.
November 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word demi-ditone
One for Wordnik's listers of musical terms.
November 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Della Cruscan
Pertaining to or connected with the Academy of Della Crusca in Florence; or referring to the Dellacruscan Society of Literature, a name given to a group of English writers residing in Florence in the late 18th century.
November 18, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Delian problem
In mathematics, the duplication of a cube.
A deputation from Athens was sent to inquire of the oracle of Delos how the plague might be stopped. The reply was that the plague would cease when the cubical altar of Apollo was doubled.
November 18, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word delatorian
This is a sneaky and clever adjective.
November 18, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fufluns
Fufluna - in Etruscan.
November 18, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word degreed
In heraldry, furnished with steps. Also degraded.
November 18, 2012
hernesheir commented on the user dddfdgff
Glad everything is wonderful, but we're quite averse to spam here.
November 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word indihiscent
See indehiscent for the correct spelling, where it is variously defined.
November 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word deflagrable
An adjective you don't meet every day.
November 16, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list some-words--2
The search string *some returns unwholesome, foursome, acrosome, episome, gaysome, and many additional words appropriate for this list.
November 16, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word selenigenous
selenic
November 16, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word decenovary
Relating to the number nineteen. decenoval.
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word decenoval
decenovary
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
dearworthly - *rthl
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rthf, mirthful et al.
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dernly
Sadly, the adverb dernly is used ever so very infrequently.
dearnly
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dead-wort
An old British term for the elder plant, Sambucus.
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word deadly-handed
"The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed." --Shakespeare, Henry VI.
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dead-alive
An interesting if not uncommon adjective containing a pair of hyphenated opposites, defined by the 1883 Encyclopaedic Dictionary as "without spirit or animation; dull, spiritless". Cf. semianimate, semianimous.
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word day-wearied
"The old, feeble, and day-wearied sun". --Shakespeare, King John.
November 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list tar--1
You could start by searching the string *tar*.
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tide
There are some nice visuals associated with this term.
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word will-willet
It's a bird.
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word daywoman
Hyphenated as day-woman, which see, by Shakespeare in Love's Labour's Lost.
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word throughgoing
A noun you don't meet every day.
Example sentences use this term adjectivally.
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list weaponized-animals
archer-fish, dart-snake?
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word damson-cheese
A conserve of fresh damsons pressed to the consistency of cheese.
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word damasin
A silk damask containing gold or silver flowers in the fabric.
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word damaluric
A has-to-do-with-cattle word for ruzuzu.
November 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list weaponized-animals
Great list, reminiscent (to me) of the Bird Fish and Organism Orchestra lists.
November 13, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dagger-cheap
The Dagger was a low tavern in Holborn mentioned by Ben Johnson and others. It's fare was presumably dirt-cheap and nasty.
November 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word shonk
I'm tickled that bilby lives a day ahead of me. 11/9/12 = 11/10/12. Time zone maths.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cyphonism
Some might consider cyphonism a form of torture.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cymbal-doctor
If you say so, Century Dictionary.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cygnet-royal
In heraldry, a swan bearing a ducal crown around its neck. A gold chain is fixed to the crown and is swept back over the bird's back.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Leitch's blue
cyanine
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cyanosed
Normally, this term has nothing to do with bluenose, unless the latter becomes cyanotic due to acrocyanosis.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cutty-gun
A short tobacco-pipe.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cut and birn
The Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Vol II. Pt. II, 1883, p. 632.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cursorary
Shakespeare wasn't too hasty to use this word in Henry V.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word curney
granular, full of grains.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word curlerous
churlish, niggardly
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word guzzunder
Goes under the bed, with a lid please, after one has gone.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word curlew-knot
It's a bird-bird.
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word curcuma-paper
Who knew?
November 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ghutra
Cf. shemagh.
November 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word moliminously
I'm an adverb you don't meet every day.
November 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cube-cube
The Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Vol II, Pt. II; 1883, p. 600.
November 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cubilose
One wonders what it tastes like...
November 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cub-drawn
An adjective you don't meet every day.
November 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word crush-hat
One for the Wordnik hat-listers.
November 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cornerman
One who buys up as much as possible of any commodity, so that the speculative sellers of it when the time comes to deliver are unable to fulfill their engagements, except by buying of the cornerman at his own price, and are thus driven into a corner. - The Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Vol II Pt. II, p.495; Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., 1883.
November 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word animé
Straight to my heraldry terms list! Thanks, ruzuzu.
November 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cooper's hammer
Also called a flue-hammer.
October 31, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mad-doctor
Cf. alienist.
Visuals for this term are amusing, albeit incorrect.
October 31, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list pasta-all-sorts
Perhaps because puttanesca is a sauce others have not included this term in their lists of pasta varieties.
October 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word consectary
Cf. consectaneous.
October 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word canorously
I can't adequately nor melodiously sing the praises of this fine adverb.
October 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word solenostomous
Possessing a long, pipefish-like nose.
October 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word trigly
I'm an adverb you don't meet every day.
October 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bianchetto
One for the Wordnik coin and currency listers.
October 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word confabulatory
confabular
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word confabular
The consumption of condensed beer rendered Mort decidedly confabular.
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word conducent
conducive
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word condensed beer
A British patent for condensed beer was taken out by P. E. Lockwood in 1875.
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word curly quotes
I will henceforth call the ʬ bilabial percussive symbol a williwaw, which elsewise denotes a blast of cold air that races down the mountains to the sea.
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word concreture
Cf. concrement.
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word concrement
Its a noun. Cf. concreture.
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word concinnate
concinnous
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word concinnous
Cf. concinnate.
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word court-bubble
From the Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Vol II, Pt. II, p. 534. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. 1883.
October 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mikadoate
The Mikado ate his sword.
October 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word excalcarate
I'm an adjective you don't meet every day, even among cowboys.
October 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lunular
crescentic
October 26, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word multicultism
Interesting that the string -ulti- appears twice in this non-reduplicative term.
The Wordnik definition provided is evidently a mismatch.
October 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cucullately
I'm an adverb you don't meet every day.
October 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word complicate
Uses of complicate in its adjectival senses are infrequent.
October 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word grindlestone
Unpleasant, when applied to one's nose, or suspended about one's neck.
October 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word crushworthy
Not a valid Scrabble word.
October 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word xiquipile
Great find, reesetee!
October 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hypocraterimorphous
hypocrateriform
October 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hypocrateriform
Shaped like a salver. hypocraterimorphous
October 25, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word spirits of hartshorn
Cf. bone-spirit.
October 24, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bone-spirit
Add this to your Halloween fare.
October 24, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word rafflecap
A disorderly person.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word knapstraw
See, bangstraw, a contemptuous term for one who threshes grain.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hell-stang
hell-gad
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hell-gad
A form of spear or goad used for catching eels. Also hell-stang. Lincolnshire.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word poundkeeper
Cf. pinder.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hawbaw
Cf. hawbuck
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hawbuck
Also hawbaw in the Lincolnshire dialect.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hackslaver
An idle, dissolute man or boy. Lincolnshire dialect.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word eel-leap
An eel-trap made of wicker-work.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word clothead
A foolish stupid person. Lincolnshire dialect.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*xtwh, betwixtwhiles.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bassin
Lincolnshire dialect. A dressed sheepskin.
October 22, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bangstraw
This term posesses five consecutive consonants. The preceeding link lists 5-consonant strings I've encountered.
This list contains words with 5 consecutive consonants.
October 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bangstraw
A nickname for one who threshes with a flail. Lincolnshire dialect, as recorded by Edward Peacock, 1877, A glossary of words used in the wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire. London, The English Dialect Society, p.14.
October 19, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word entozoötic
An infrequently encountered adjective I'm not all that keen to internalize.
October 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word stroobly
Oh, that's a good one, Erin.
October 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word convolutive
I'm an adjective you don't meet every day.
October 17, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word compunct
"As for feelings of guilt, well, she's about as compunct as a cowbird who lays her eggs in anothers' nest."
September 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dedolent
I'm a seldomly used adjective.
September 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word anchoritish
anchoritic
September 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ventriloquially
I'm an adverb you don't meet every day.
September 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word extra-ovular
extraovular
July 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list b-adjectival-arcana-a
@thtownse, marky: Just added the previously unlisted mesmerical to my more recent adjectives list "More Adjectival Arcana". All terms on my list were added one by one.
July 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word besottedly
I'm an adverb you don't meet every day.
July 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word patient-centered
This adjective is being bandied about by certain political spokespersons with increasing frequency these past few days.
July 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word incogitative
Contrast with unthinking.
June 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list five-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rchch, archchaplain.
June 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list four-consecutive-consonant-strings
*rchc, archconservative, et al.
June 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fogcoat
The fogcoat goes on a road during resurfacing, after the chipseal is applied.
June 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word do-re-mi
fais do-do, a Cajun hootenanny.
June 30, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word prelately
It's an adjective. prelatical, prelatial
June 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tripersonal
I'm an adjective you don't meet every day.
June 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hucksterage
"...the gentle and benevolent mediocrity of church-maintanance, the ignoble hucksterage of piddling tithes?" - Charles Symmons, The Prose Works of John Milton: With a Life of the Author, Vol. 1, 1806, p. 56.
June 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list hunting-cries
Great list!
June 28, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word allow cars to stop less frequently
traffic calming devices
June 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word allow cars to stop less frequently
traffic calming devices
June 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word reshoring
reshore
June 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word reshore
A word I've seen and heard floating around the punditscape.
reshoring
June 21, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list genes--1
Seems like I remember the fly guys at IU Bloomington talking about a "son killer" gene when I haunted the place.
June 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list rare-books
Thanks for the interesting article, ruzuzu!
May 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list ghh
My personal preference would be to exclude high-hat from this list of single words.
May 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list coal-mining-terms
You might find some more terms In The Collieries.
May 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word rasher
It's a fish.
May 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word eel-mother
Thanks ruzuzu, for adding eel-mother to my list of things eel!
May 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mafficky
I'm a word you don't meet every day.
May 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word eremitically
"Because the Sacred Canons," as he says, "forbid living eremitically without rule, without vows, and without profession." - Camaldolese Extraordinary: The Life, Doctrine and Rule of Blessed Paul Giustiniani. 2003.
May 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word eremitical
eremitic
May 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word televisor
Now that this word is listed I can go back to watching my shows.
April 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word backstun
Do the folks of Chester use a pizzastun, one wonders.
April 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list five-consecutive-consonant-strings
A rare 5-consonant string in English: *chthr - see synechthry. I'm looking for other examples.
March 16, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word eschar
The terms kame and eskar are bona fide periglacial geology and geomorphology terms.
March 16, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word pockmanky
A nice Scots term for those who don't feel so pretentious as to say portmanteau.
March 15, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word endosiphocylinder
Another one of those seven-syllable paleontology terms.
March 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word nummuloidal
Shaped like a nummulite; that is, shaped like a coin or button.
March 14, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word noir impérial
kaiserschwarz
March 13, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ferrofluidic
Fun to say.
March 13, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hypo-eutectic
Here's an adjective you don't meet every day.
March 13, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lincrusta
A langosta ceiling would go well with a prawn-like marble mantlepiece.
March 13, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word clutterment
I hope your day is free of clutterment, and beset with pastries and other dainties.
March 13, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word chel
I believe chelp is Yorkshire dialect for talk, speech. Uttered somewhat throatily and incoherently if BBC comedies are to be believed.
February 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word graithly
This word is both adjective and adverb.
Cf. gradely.
February 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word salleting
In most cases this should be tossed, though gently.
February 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hirsutocastaneous
I still like this fine adjective.
February 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word stone-climber
It's a hellgrammite.
February 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word kalesa
A 2-wheeled horse-drawn carriage of the Philippines. Also written qalesa.
February 29, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Argus-eyed
Here's an adjective you don't meet every day.
January 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word headrace
See the extract.
So we are instructed in the definitions given.
January 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word double hyphen
Thanks for this, ruzuzu!
January 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hirsutocastaneous
See the definition for hirsutocinereous.
January 12, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word apoptosome
Soda, a pop to some.
January 11, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word apoptosis
The postapoptotic part comes afterwards.
January 11, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word puttoo
A term for Wordnik's listers of fabrics.
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word changthangi
It's a goat.
Wiki this.
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word serpent-eater
It's a bird. Wait, it's a goat.
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word pilulous
The tiny balls that form on one's woolens with wear are pilulous, if not trifling. Use a fabric shaver or de-piller if you must.
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sabotage
The etymology gives the origin of the word, rather than the uses to which sabots were put to. Clomping around in wooden boots would require the wearer to invest in a pair of hard-wearing sashoons, no?
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word clithe
The plant burdock, clide, or clive.
See Clive for a definition of clive.
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word electric pig
Cf. pig-hole.
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Christ-cross-row
See definition at christcross-row.
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word boatswain
It's a bird.
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word torrefying
That hot oven is absolutely torrefying.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word toilet seat dermatitis
“In two of the cases described in the study, the children's toilet seat dermatitis had been caused by their school's use of harsh chemical cleaners, containing ingredients such as didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride and alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride, which have previously been documented to cause severe skin irritation.” --from the Wordnik examples for didecyl.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word elongase
Compared to the names of many other organic molecules, this one is rather short.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word putrescin
"Originally found in putrefying cadavers", the definition states. Now where is it found?
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ornithin
"...obtained from the urine of chickens after feeding them with benzoic acid."
Now whatcha gonna do with it?
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hobornob
I like the example provided by Wordnik.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the user deinonychus
I've been enjoying the odd and unexpected fish names, and anything biological and paleontological. Welcome.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lin
See definitions at Lin.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word isoxazolyl
This term contains the last three letters of the alphabet.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word alcuronium
This substance is by no means a cure-all.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cajuputene
I would never had known cajuputene was obtained by cohobation. Thank you, CD&C!
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word inodorate
Well I don't smell anything.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word felandrene
Spelling phellandrene with an "f" makes this chemical name one gamers and fantasy writers should co-opt as a name for some imaginary race from some imaginary place. Oh - just noticed that Felandra is already out there.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list chemical-soup
We exist in a chemical soup of our own making.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word intellectual barbecue (barbeque)
Cf. Spanish grillar, "to contentedly whistle and chirp while cooking meats over a grate, outdoors".
;>}
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word amphichroic
I used to tape litmus strips to my kites as a kid. Sometimes they'd come back blue.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word light-stuff
You act like you been huffin' light-stuff, Man.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Immedial
See definition at immedial.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Lanacyl
See definition at lanacyl.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word amphichroic
Turns red if it's in a blue state, and blue if it's in a red state, without regard to politics.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word french-tub
See the definition at french tub.
January 9, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word efferous
Cf. ferine.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sumpter-cloth
It's like a cape, for a horse.
footcloth
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list isograms
pitpit
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word pitpit
It's a bird.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list spinning
Perhaps halching belongs here? I like the reference to the spinning-mule, and the usage of cop in the ball-of-yarn and top-of-something senses.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mantinada
One wonders how many improvised mantinadas resemble the familiar
"I've never seen a purple cow, I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you one thing now, I'd rather see than be one.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word contraparallelograms
This word has twenty letters, as do these.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word panteleologism
"pantooleologism" = averring that any tool is the right tool for the job.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tout-ensemble
Considering the whole enchilada, nine yards, or shebang, like a Frenchman.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word big-endian
That said, little-endian and bi-endian are additional states of endianness. I looked it up.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word exscind
The string *xsc appears to be uncommon in English.
Click on the string to see some words so far indexed by Wordnik.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word B-s particle
Why you little speck of #/$!
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word clairschacher
harper, harpress
The former term is an English occupational surname.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word harpress
I've known a few harpresses. They all seemed a little bit strange to me.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word angel's share
That quantity of spirits that evaporates during the barrel-aging process. As barrels of whiskey are aged in multistory warehouses, those on the upper shelf or floor closest the roof get warmest during the summer. The temperature fluctuations cause more evaporation and more interaction of the whiskey with the barrel than those below experience. This whiskey is finer than the rest, it's the top shelf liquor.
January 8, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fromage
Quelle fromage, fbharjo? None other than that book by Jean-André Roquet about cheese painting -- L'Art nouveau de la peinture en fromage, ou en ramequin, inventée pour suivre le louable projet de trouver graduellement des façons de peindre inférieures à celles qui existent. Marolles, 1755.
It was a satire attempting to deride Jean-Jacques Bachelier's soft-wax encaustic painting technique.
January 7, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word colorhouse
*favorited*
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word categorematically
To paraphrase Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz film, "Beautiful! What a nadverb!"
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word anisotropy
The comment by ruzuzu got me thinking of petrology, and that the mineral fabric of rocks is commonly anisotropic. Then Wordnik's very useful reverse dictionary gave me bianisotropy, which led me to bianisotropic.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word crank
By the definitions, one might also call an "ill-tempered, infirm eccentric" a crank crank crank.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bobblefoot
Oh dear.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word jenny-crudle
It's a bird.
jenny-wren
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word jacking-motion
Hamlet told the players "Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus,", but he wasn't speaking of a jacking-motion, No, not at all.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word halching
I would have never guessed.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word edacity
Jean Valjean's edacity gave him the audacity to steal bread for his sister's children.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bundling
Receiving phone and internet service as a "package deal". The two services sleep in the same bed but don't take their clothes off.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word onion-couch
It's a grass. Cf. couch grass.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hambletonian
This word doesn't mean "possessing horse-sense", but it does concern horses.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lets technical skill carry him into such excesses of ugliness
I like the idea. I think this occasionally about some of the rock 'n' roll guitar solos I hear - pure showmanship sans music.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word inanimation
"Lifelessness, dullness", versus "a vivifying influence". This word at once implies and means it's near opposite.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mattamore
Merriam-Webster gives the etymology of mattamore as
French matamore, from Arabic maṭmūrah something buried or hidden.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word red-fender
It's a turtle.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hell-box
One encounters all types in a printing-house. The bruised and condemned are consigned to the hell-box.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word whoremasterly
An adjective you don't meet every day.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word uarango
It's a tree.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word spam
The recent New York Times article featuring Wordnik has alerted a wave of SEI spammers to a new venue to post their website address in the form of List names and comments on their usernames. Wordnik does admit, on its Community storefront, to over 80,000 Wordniks. If just one of us bought Ugg(ly) boots or went to a treatment center in Alaska or Alabama, the world would be a better place, right?
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fly-half
When I see fly-half I think of the 1971 western film Red Sun, in which the samurai played by Toshirō Mifune suddenly halves a buzzing pesky mosquito with his sword.
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word infinite monkey theorem
The proposition that an infinite monkey hitting computer keys at random would, eventually, reproduce all the lists and all the words found at Wordnik, if given an infinite amount of time. What's time to a monkey?
January 6, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word kerykeion
Nice visuals.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word greenheart
One of the woods traditionally used to make fishing rods.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word electric pig
Good one, ruzuzu, or is it Voldemort?
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word windlestraw
It's a bird.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word jackstraw
It's a bird.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word anchovy
Who knows how to plait a hair-sieve these days?
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word precisian
This day one plays a monarch, the next a private person; here one acts a tyrant, on the morrow an exile; a parasite this man to-night, to-morrow a precisian; and so of divers others. --An Excellent Actor, from Character Writings of the Seventeenth Century, 1891, p. 87.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word seriscission
Essentially, surgically cutting or dividing soft tissue by tightening a loop of silk thread around it. Sort of like paring cheese with a wire.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bacological
Pertaining to things the sericulturalist concerns himself with.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sericigenous
Producing silk.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list zing-went-the-strings
kin - A primitive Chinese instrument of the cittern kind, with from five to twenty-five silken strings CD&C.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tramosericeous
Here's an adjective one doesn't meet every day, unless one is working in the collections at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, or other institutions with extensive beetle collections.
L. trama, weft; LL sericeous, silken.
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word coothay
A type of satin, for the Wordniks who list fabric names. With stripes!
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word nestiatria
Starve a cold....
January 5, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word claim-notice
I encountered claim-notices all the time in the open badlands south of Price, Utah. They consisted of a stout piece of rebar hammered into the ground with the notice folded and stuffed into a plastic pill jar that was itself wired to the bar.
The Cretaceous Morrison Formation there had rich deposits of dinosaur bone and fossil wood that lapidarists and rock-hounds combed the countryside for. The porous sandstone stream deposits also were where uranium minerals collected in quantity. I never determined whether the claims were for the fossils or the uranium, and I never did anything to get myself shot at.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list barbed-wire
Fine list!
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list barbed-wire
Closest I've come is a plank with 4 different strands stapled to it, each duly labeled. I see them all the time in antique shops. Or maybe it's the same plank seen over and over in the same shop as I revisit in search of things I collect.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list bubbles--1
Glad to see Bubbles over on your clown list. I wish Wordnik could inform us just how many clowns named Bubbles there are out there scaring children at present. The talking iPhone 4S is of no use on this question; I asked it.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cubicuboctahedron
*...put's Rubik's cube on the "easy-to-solve-has-web-cheats" shelf with the 2 bent nails puzzle and it's friends.*
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list bird-songs
The ivory-billed woodpecker produced a nasal "hant", "kint", or "kent" likened by Alexander Wilson to the sound of a toy tin trumpet, and by Audubon to a clarinet. Kint was a local nickname for the bird.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word libanomancy
A unfolding frankincense smoke-curl revealed to me that libanomancy is not yet found on any of the divination or -mancy lists.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dephlegmatory
A gentleman ought keep a muckender and handkercher to hand so one's expectorations don't countermand one's trousers and shirtfront, or those of his companions.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word miosis
I can see it in your eye.
How'd you lose the other one by the way?
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word gripingly
Not to be confused with grippingly.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word brat
Cf. definitions of bratchet. One wonders if that word figures in the uncertain etymology of brat.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sashoon
For stuffing your shoon so your calves don't chafe.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word nonic
You're welcome, yarb. Cheers!
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dephlegmatory
Say it. Spit it right out for all to hear.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word nonic
The nonic beer glass provided in the image below is spot on!
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word radevore
A type of fabric.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word antipudic
A fig leaf, for one.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word happy birthday
January 4th: Felicitations, Louis Braille and Isaac Newton.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bac
It's a boat.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hicon
Otherwise known as a CT scanner.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word calver
The culinary uses of this word are interesting.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word brazenry
Neither this word nor any its definition is a term used in heraldry, so far as I can determine.
(I'm joking).
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the user Voldemort
Maybe Beetlejuice and Ftumch were busy.
On Ftumch, Wikipedia says "The premise of his appearance is that if anyone utters his name then he shall appear, yet he doesn't appear very often because 'Ftumch' is such an unusual name. He is heard to say 'No-one ever says Ftumch. Why couldn't I be called William?'"
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word coronet
A crown-like structure in the milkweed flower, internal to and protruding above the corolla, formed from fleshy appendages of the adnate stamens or staminodes. The elements of the coronet are, among the many species, variously boat-shaped and horned.
See visuals at Asclepias. In the example with red-orange and yellow flowers, the red-orange structures are the petals, the yellow the coronet.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word netting-pin
A knitting needle or needle used in net-making.
"I have frequently seen them netting with a very coarse needle filled with twine, and using their thumb, to form the stitch, instead of a netting-pin." --The English Review, Vol. 13, 1850. p. 216.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word elder-rob
This juicy word belies or conceals it true meaning.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dvergr
Cf. German Zwerg, dwarf.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word brushite
The mineralogists were right, about the shite.
See also metabrushite.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word may-hill
When the invalid is climbing may-hill, it is best to have plenty of breadberry to hand.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word may-hill
Example sentence at May-hill.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dzo
A sort of Tibetan beefalo.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word targeman
A shield-bearer, hypaspist, escudero, scutifer, armiger.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word carritch
Scots. catechize.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list tandem-repeat
Well, janglingly comes close.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word poke-bonnet
I'll tip this hat to someone's list.
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word muscadel
One doesn't immediately think "pear", does one?
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word enlevé
A heraldry term.
enhanced
January 4, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word vectis
Beat you to it, zuzu!
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word vectis
Another one of those things never for sale on craigslist.
Oh! Time for a new list.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the list things-that-can-and-should-be-set-on-fire-and-hurled-out-of-a-trebuchet
Me too.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word B-girl
b(ar)1 + girl. --from the Etymologies.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ladies-putting
That's some definition!
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word shode-pit
Then he threw the bloody instrument of murder into the foul water that had collected in a old shode-pit.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cockboat
A boat, but not a banana boat.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cariole
Then we got all modern with our false etymologies and called them carryalls.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word nidering
Neither gold nor silver can save you, you nidering nithing.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cork-headed
cork-brained
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word shallow
It's a fish.
rudd
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word calgon
Calgon, uppercase, is a trademarked, registered name/brand. See here.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tripartite
...divisa in partes tres, as Julius Caesar put it in the opening sentence of De Bella Gallica, as every young scholar used to know.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word May-hill
See May-hill in context in the example from Samuel Johnson here, but see the CD&C definition of the term over at may-hill.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cast
A cast of hawks - two hawks simultaneously released by a falconer, presumably after a brace of partridges.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the user crafiqkhan@gmail.com
Welcome crafiqkhan
--To find a word you can't think of, enter a synonym into the search box, hit return, then check the list of similar words provided.
--If you're looking for a definition and other information for a word, enter word into the search box and hit return.
--If your searched word returns no definition, check your spelling of it, and try any alternative spellings you can think of or find. Many a definition lurks behind an alternate spelling, or, in the case of proper (capitalized, upper case) nouns and adjectives, behind a lower case rendering. Some words that weren't listed in the dictionaries indexed by Wordnik may not have a definition listed yet.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hamesecken
Apparently, home invasions also occurred in the days people lived in hames. Nothing changes, an' a' that.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cirio
One example sentence suggests cirio is a cactus. This is incorrect. Neither of the desert species cited in the definition are in the cactus family.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word siderosthen
One must search long for a dictionary entry containing the phrase "fat gas-producers", as does the one for this word.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fimbriate
A fine example of fimbriate flower petals is found in the visuals for the snake cucumber entry, which see.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word porcupine-machine
Still, I'd like to see a porcupine-machine go head-to-head with an electric pig.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word electric pig
Good one, WordNet.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the user herbdoctor
Ha! Good one herbdoctor.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word scomfish
It's not a fish.
strangle, smother
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word noscononge
It's a fish.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ziege
It's a fish.
Also called the sabre carp.
January 3, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word zander
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word wrymouth
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word wobbegong
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word whiff
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word stingbull
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word weever
It's a fish, and it happens to be one type used to make bouillabaisse.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word walu
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word boalee
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word trumpeter
It's a fish, a member of the Organism Orchestra.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tenpounder
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bullseye
It's a fish.
Certain species of the family Pempheridae are called bullseyes.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sweeper
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word swallower
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word snoek
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tournure
Very nice, yarb. Thanks for this word. I'm tempted to read this book, one which you've mentioned before here.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word toothpony
It's a fish, Gazza minuta.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word slipmouth
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sillago
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word scuppaug
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word scup
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word scat
It's a fish.
These fish, of family Scatophagidae, eat algae and feces.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word rudd
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word roundhead
It's a fish.
Members of the family Plesiopidae are known as roundheads, longfins, or spiny basslets.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word searcher
It's a fish.
The largest species of ronquil, Bathymaster signatus.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ronquil
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word rohu
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word rock beauty
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ridgehead
It's a fish.
Members of the family Melamphaidae are called ridgeheads.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word quillback
It's a fish, not a porpentine.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word pollan
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word vendace
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word schelly
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word gwyniad
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word pirarucu
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word píntano
It's a fish also known as the sergeant major.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word panga
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word oldwife
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word nase
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mudskipper
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mummichog
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word redfingers
It's a fish.
A species of the genus Cheilodactylus, which name contains all the vowels and the wye, once.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word morwong
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tarakihi
It's a fish. The Maori name for the morwong.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word midshipman
It's a fish that hums loud enough to be heard by humans.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word medaka
It's a fish of the rice paddies in Japan.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mahseer
It's a fish.
Unofficially, the national fish of Pakistan. British anglers in India called them the Indian salmon.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word parore
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word luderick
It's a fish, a.k.a. parore.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word luvaro
It's a fish.
luvar, louvar
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word louvar
It's a fish. Also luvar, luvaro.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word loosejaw
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mudsucker
It's a fish, but it's also a bird; it's a nickname for the woodcock.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hogchoker
It's a fish.
Not many words contain the string *gch.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lined sole
It's a fish, not part of a shoe.
Achirus lineatus
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word leatherjacket
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word leaffish
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word knifejaw
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cockabully
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word kokopu
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word inconnu
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ide
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hoki
It's a fish.
You might have unknowingly eaten one in your McDonald's filet-o-fish sandwich.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word duckbill
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dhufish
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word greeneye
The visuals for this term return your gaze.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word greeneye
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word graveldiver
It's a fish.
These inhabitants of cold northeastern Pacific tide pools and gravel bars may burrow 25 down feet into the substrate, according to Wikipedia.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bemidewiskawed
It's a fish.
From the etymology given for cisco: Canadian French ciscoette, from Ojibwa bemidewiskawed, "the (fish) with oily skin".
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cisco
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word catalufa
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bummalo
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bombil
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Bombay duck
Yep - it's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word boga
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bleak
It's a fish.
Guanine extracted from the scales is used in the manufacture of artificial pearls.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word earth-lard
Funny name for a beetle grub, the cockchafer larva.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word blackchin
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word barreleye
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word Chanos chanos
The milkfish, an important food fish in southeast Asia and some islands of the Pacific. Milkfish have been farmed in the Philippines and elsewhere for at least 8 centuries.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bangus
It's a fish.
See Chanos chanos.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word ayu
It's a fish.
年魚 --"year fish" is another name, since its life spans but one year.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word aholehole
I repeat, it's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word crapet
It's a fish.
From the Canadian French word crapet. The fish names crappie, croppie and crappé all derive from this term.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sac-au-lait
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word paper-mouth
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word growler
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word kiver
It's a fish.
Also kivy.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dollardee
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word stonecat
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word penny-dog
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tope
It's a fish, a bird, or a stupa. You pick.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word smooth-hound
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word manazo
It's a fish.
A shark also known by the name smooth-hound.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word biltong
Juvenile bronze whaler shark meat produces "good biltong" -- Coastal Fishes of Southern Africa, p. 57, by Phillip C. and Elaine Heemstra.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word musselcracker
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lyre gurnard
It's a fish; and a member of the Organism Orchestra.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word seamoth
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word slimehead
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word short alfonsino
It's a fish; Centroberyx spinosus.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word velifer
It's a fish.
January 2, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word gowdnook
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word saury
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word taimen
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hucho
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word hornpout
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word goujon
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word schal
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word mathemeg
It's a fish, but is it also a nematognath?
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word docmac
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word lazera
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word piracatinga
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word stone-lugger
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bullycod
It's a fish.
Cf. shanny, bully
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word guffer
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word clubbock
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word tompot
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word molly miller
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word shanny
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bulcard
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word binny
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bloater
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word cunner
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bergall
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word finpike
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word bichir
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word poppy-fish
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word palometa
It's a fish.
Nice visuals, except for the last image, a paloma, which is a bird.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word barrelfish
It's a fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word dollarfish
It's a fish, but it's also but the name is also applied to the echinoid called a sand dollar.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word fatfin
It's a fish. A science fiction fish.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word the big-endian-little-endian distinction
See comments at endian.
January 1, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word back-slanging
You wouldn't. Would you?
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word mustardvillars
Type of fabric, for those who keep track of such things.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word cvccccvcvcc
The pawnbroking mockprudish landgravess, who was not forthcoming about her naphtholism, chided her landscapist for his workshyness.
All highlighted words have the same pattern of vowels and consonants, and are tagged cvccccvcvcc.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word Idaho
Nice visuals.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word septillion
n. The cardinal number equal to 1024.
n. Chiefly British The cardinal number equal to 1042.
A trillion trillion: 1 followed by 24 zeros, 1024.
A billion quintillion: 1 followed by 42 zeros, 1042.
(OCR errors in the definitions)
Nothing adds up for me lately.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word treloobing
The word leachate comes to mind, but is quickly overtaken by the childrens' song:
Here we go looby loo
Here we go looby light
Here we go looby loo
All on a Saturday night
You put your right foot in...
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word wash-off
Perhaps a word of interest to those who list dyes and dyestuffs.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word Newhousia
All five vowels, once each, in this genus name for a seaweed (a brown alga) in the family Dictyotaceae.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word mamaloi
Since you asked, yes, there is indeed a papaloi too.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word ravensbill
A name for a ewer. Cf. hawksbill.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word hawksbill
A ewer of very large size. Cf. loggerhead, a name of a type of inkstand.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word loggerhead
A name for a form of pewter inkstand.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word bima
Welcome bkenn! The term is defined at bimah. Always check alternative spellings - definitions are frequently hiding among them.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word chapnet
See chapnut.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word chapnut
The terms chapnut, and chapnet, were specified in the official list of the Pewterers' Company (Britain) records for 1612-1613 as a vessel weighing 6 or so to the pound. These terms are applied to a type of salt-cellar, and the term vessel itself was a hypernym for pewterware in general.
Cf. French choppineaux or chaupineaux, synonyms for the burette later called a cruet, also fashioned in the past from pewter.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word pewter
"The heart case of Richard Coeur de Leon was found at Rouen in 1838, and that of Charles V in 1862, and one has been found at Holbrook in Suffolk. All these these seem to have been made of pewter." -- H. J. L. J. Massé, The Pewter Collector - A Guide to English Pewter with some Reference to Foreign Work, 1921, p 117.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word heart case
"The heart case of Richard Coeur de Leon was found at Rouen in 1838, and that of Charles V in 1862, and one has been found at Holbrook in Suffolk. All these these seem to have been made of pewter." -- H. J. L. J. Massé, The Pewter Collector - A Guide to English Pewter with some Reference to Foreign Work, 1921, p 117.
December 31, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word thurndell
A old term from Wiltshire, England, also written thirdendale or thriddendale, for a pot that holds about 3 pints of liquid.
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word bimbelotier
toymaker
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word counterfette
Sometimes used to mean porringer.
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word sadware
The larger varieties of pewter wares. British pewterers called themselves sadware-men.
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word squillery
scullery
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word bilby
Same context: rôle, contretemps, vasectomy.
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word bilbous
Maybe bilbous should mean bilby-like.
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word a garnish of pewter
12 platters, 12 plates, 12 dishes, all pewter.
See this list.
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word pointrel
Cf. scorper.
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word nayword
A hiss and a nayword.
December 30, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word prestidigitateur
Un célèbre, no doubt.
December 30, 2011
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