Interesting words you learned today
- Thread starter slcboston
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apparently not 
An intumescent is a substance which swells as a result of heat exposure.
Let's not even go to the place where I was giving my manager a basic grammar lesson ( I mean jeez, he's 25 and he doesn't know what a noun is? I had to explain all sorts. The red ball. Ball is a noun, you know like the name of an object. Red describes the noun and is what we call an adjective. See spot chase the ball...) much to the amusement of several customers. The amusement factor was probably helped by the fact that my manager is not only an arse, but oddly immune to sarcasm....
An intumescent is a substance which swells as a result of heat exposure.
Let's not even go to the place where I was giving my manager a basic grammar lesson ( I mean jeez, he's 25 and he doesn't know what a noun is? I had to explain all sorts. The red ball. Ball is a noun, you know like the name of an object. Red describes the noun and is what we call an adjective. See spot chase the ball...) much to the amusement of several customers. The amusement factor was probably helped by the fact that my manager is not only an arse, but oddly immune to sarcasm....
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Normosmic.
It means able to smell. That's the kind of word you get to learn when you discover you have a rare genetic condition.
It means able to smell. That's the kind of word you get to learn when you discover you have a rare genetic condition.
clochard:
not just a bum... not just a French bum... but a Parisian bum, apparently a specifically local and colorful Parisian homeless person at that.
Only the French would have a word like this.
not just a bum... not just a French bum... but a Parisian bum, apparently a specifically local and colorful Parisian homeless person at that.
Only the French would have a word like this.
clochard:
not just a bum... not just a French bum... but a Parisian bum, apparently a specifically local and colorful Parisian homeless person at that.
Only the French would have a word like this.
Ha, I thought you meant the other kind of bum for a second there, which would have been even stranger!
Deshabille: A state of undress. One of those word I so instantly love I know I'll probably go out of my way to get it as much as possible in my writing, so my characters can expect a shot in the arm for their sex lives.
Well, I do know lots of other words for that *other* kind of bum... though as an American, I generally don't use "bum" unless it's for the homeless.
Or the sports teams I root for when they lose.
Or the sports teams I root for when they lose.
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filibustered
It was on a test I took and I had no clue what it meant, but it stuck in my mind for some reason so when I got home I dictionary.com-ed it. It's some political term (how can they even expect me to know that?) about using "irregular or obstructive tactics to impede the legislation".
It was on a test I took and I had no clue what it meant, but it stuck in my mind for some reason so when I got home I dictionary.com-ed it. It's some political term (how can they even expect me to know that?) about using "irregular or obstructive tactics to impede the legislation".
If you're an American I would presume they expected you to know it because it is not only a political tactic, but a very specific one unique to the Senate.
A filibuster is, contrary to dictionary.com, a legitimate means of obstruction where a Senator can speak on any topic at all - even reading the phone book - for as long as he/she chooses, in order to block a vote on legislation. It is a formal tool in the Senate, and requires a 2/3rds (at least off the top of my head I think it's two thirds) vote to overcome it.
It's been used rather famously in the past, and threatened numerous other times, so I would hesitate to categorize it as "irregular."
And if you're not an American, but studying politics, you still ought to know it.
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I am an American, but not a very political one; my test was absolutely irrelevant to politics, because it was judging my vocabulary skills. You're defining a noun, but do you happen to know what the verb one means? I marked it as the right answer and I'm really curious if I got it right or not. Too bad I can't remember in what context it was used.
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Perspicacity: keeness of mental perception and understanding.
I came across this in Elizabeth Kostova's Historian.
Sounds like something Julie Andrew's character would have said in the Sound of Music.
I came across this in Elizabeth Kostova's Historian.
Sounds like something Julie Andrew's character would have said in the Sound of Music.
That's a really cool one. Even more fun to say. Per-spic-AC-ity, it's like going up and down a mountain. I love words that make you take a little run up, if that makes any sense!
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It did make me pause during reading and say 'hummm...'
Words I've never heard before help me remember the mystery that life still is.
Words I've never heard before help me remember the mystery that life still is.
I believe Himmler had something simmler
But I understand Dr. Goebals had no problem.
koine
\koy-NAY\
noun
Meaning
1 capitalized : the Greek language commonly spoken and written in eastern Mediterranean countries in the Hellenistic and Roman periods
*2 : a dialect or language of a region that has become the common or standard language of a larger area
\koy-NAY\
noun
Meaning
1 capitalized : the Greek language commonly spoken and written in eastern Mediterranean countries in the Hellenistic and Roman periods
*2 : a dialect or language of a region that has become the common or standard language of a larger area
lad-lit--story with strictly guy-related things
I didn't think the term existed. I had only heard the term chick-lit, but never lad-lit. I mean, I got most of the information from Libba Bray, who in an interview said she hated the term-chick lit, and that she had never heard anyone call a book with strictly guys guy-lit. And she's a New York Times Bestselling author!
*shrugs*
I didn't think the term existed. I had only heard the term chick-lit, but never lad-lit. I mean, I got most of the information from Libba Bray, who in an interview said she hated the term-chick lit, and that she had never heard anyone call a book with strictly guys guy-lit. And she's a New York Times Bestselling author!
*shrugs*
cabotage
\KAB-uh-tahzh\
noun
1 : trade or transport in coastal waters or airspace or between two points within a country
2 : the right to engage in coastal trade or transport
... I like when a word doesn't even come close to meaning what I expect it to when I first see it.
\KAB-uh-tahzh\
noun
1 : trade or transport in coastal waters or airspace or between two points within a country
2 : the right to engage in coastal trade or transport
... I like when a word doesn't even come close to meaning what I expect it to when I first see it.
battue
it's pronounce bat-TOO and this is when you beat the trees or the grass or the bushes to spook out game when you're hunting...
I'd never known there a term for it
it's pronounce bat-TOO and this is when you beat the trees or the grass or the bushes to spook out game when you're hunting...
I'd never known there a term for it
also something I didn't know the term for:
growlet: @#$%! ... no, that's what it is. The growlet is when comics characters swear.
hypaethral: 1 : having a roofless central space 2 : open to the sky
growlet: @#$%! ... no, that's what it is. The growlet is when comics characters swear.
hypaethral: 1 : having a roofless central space 2 : open to the sky
I thought it was Dude-Lit. To me, lad would point more at pre-pubescent to pubescent males. Synonyms of lad = boy, youth, young man, schoolboy.
yeah, lad-lit is YA but more commonly MG books aimed at boys. I would think the equivalent of Chick-lit is Bromance.
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