No posts. Show all posts
No posts. Show all posts
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
"Another word comes to the lexicographer, pleading for admittance to the dictionary." —Hans Steng.
Words Worth the Adventure of Discovery • By John Horlivy
Purpose
I look for words that strike me as somehow curious, odd, or puzzling; more sophisticated than colloquial; and seemingly expressive of more meaning and nuance than I have thus far been able to attach to them. These words tend to appear in Time, Newsweek,The New York Times, the New Yorker. Once I've got a word that has piqued my interest, I launch into perusals of my dictionaries and specialty word books, as well as of language sites on the grid, looking for adventures, adventures that lead to discoveries, discoveries which I then share with you in my postings. I hope you will enjoy the time you spend reading my adventures — J.C.H.
"Another word comes to the lexicographer, pleading for admittance to the dictionary." —Hans Steng.
Followers
Common Abbreviations:
AHD4 = American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Ed.
Brewer = Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Burchfield = The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, Third Ed, Ed. R.W. Burchfield
EB = Encyclopedia Britannica
Garner = Dictionary of Modern American Usage
Morris = Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, Ed. William and Mary Morris
NOAD = New Oxford American Dictionary
OAWT = Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus
OED = Oxford English Dictionary
OLED = Online Etymology Dictionary
RUWH = Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
SOED = Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
WOD = Webster's Online Dictionary
WP = Wikipedia.com
WIII = Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged
Labels
- aardvark (1)
- ab ovo (1)
- absquatulate (1)
- ad unguem (1)
- ailurophilia (1)
- also hoyden and romp (1)
- ambit (1)
- apotheosis (1)
- arch (1)
- arrectis auribus (1)
- atavism (1)
- atavistic (1)
- auto-da-fe (1)
- autodidactic (1)
- autodidacticism (1)
- automagically (1)
- badinage (1)
- bing (1)
- bloviate (1)
- bonhomie (1)
- bonne bouche (1)
- borborygmus (1)
- breviloquence (1)
- bricoleur (1)
- brio (1)
- bruit v.i. (1)
- cache • cachet (1)
- cashier (1)
- Cassandra (1)
- celerity (1)
- channelfido (1)
- chestnut (1)
- circumbendibus (1)
- compatchment (1)
- compendious (1)
- conceit (1)
- crepitation (1)
- defenestration (1)
- desideratum (1)
- detrital (1)
- detritus (1)
- disambiguate (1)
- discomfit (1)
- dweeb (1)
- dweeby (1)
- dyspeptic (1)
- dysphemism (1)
- emend (1)
- empyrean (1)
- ensorcell (1)
- ersatz (1)
- eschew (1)
- expatiate and expostulate (1)
- extemporanea (1)
- factotum (1)
- farrago (2)
- fatuous (1)
- feck (1)
- feckless (1)
- feral (1)
- filial (1)
- Fletcherize (1)
- gantlet v. gauntlet (1)
- gimlet-eyed (1)
- grandee (1)
- grandiloquence (1)
- h/t (1)
- hagiography (1)
- hat tip (1)
- holus-bolus (1)
- HT (1)
- ineluctably (1)
- je ne sais quoi (1)
- kakistocracy (1)
- kerfuffle (1)
- laconic (1)
- lacuna (1)
- lagniappe (1)
- lethologica (1)
- Lever of Archimedes (1)
- limberly (1)
- louche (1)
- maven (1)
- metonymy (1)
- mewl mewling (1)
- mirific (1)
- mot juste (1)
- myriad (1)
- nonce (1)
- nonce word (1)
- omerta (1)
- otiose (1)
- pace (prep.) (1)
- palimpsest (1)
- Pastiche (1)
- pawky (1)
- pellucid (1)
- penultimate (1)
- penumbra (1)
- peripatetic (1)
- pixilated (1)
- plutoed (1)
- Potemkin Village (1)
- prevaricate (1)
- protean (1)
- pullulating (1)
- quaternary (1)
- quidnunc (1)
- quotidian (1)
- ratiocinate (1)
- rejectamenta (1)
- relume (1)
- riposte (1)
- risibility (1)
- rubberneck (1)
- sanguine (1)
- sclerotic (1)
- self-empretzelment (1)
- sesquipedalian (1)
- shadenfreude (1)
- skirl (1)
- skosh (1)
- snark (1)
- sniglet (1)
- sobriquet (1)
- sockdolager (1)
- solecism (1)
- solipsism (1)
- sprezzatura (1)
- stairwit (1)
- stentorian (1)
- Struthious (1)
- stultiloquence (1)
- sub rosa (1)
- subfuscous (1)
- sui generis (1)
- tchotchkes (1)
- tertium quid (1)
- thunkard (1)
- tomboy (1)
- tortuous (1)
- tumbrel or tumbril (1)
- ugsome (1)
- venal (1)
- verbicide (1)
- void (1)
- wet signature (1)
- woodshedded (1)
- Zythum (1)