Word of the Day

[Scheherazade]

soupçon N [S] MAINLY HUMOROUS
a very small amount:

"Milk in your coffee?" "Just a soupçon, please."

Do I detect a soupçon of sarcasm in what you just said?

'They can't kill you unless it's for money,' said Catseye. But now tehre was a soupçon of doubt in his voice.

From Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

[Taliesin]

Tom Swiftie
A Tom Swifty (or Tom Swiftie) is a phrase in which a quoted sentence is linked by a pun to the manner in which it is represented as having been said. Tom Swifties may be considered a type of Wellerism.

e.g:
"I'll never stick my arm in the lion's mouth again," Tom said offhandedly.
"Let's go downstairs," said Tom to the robber condescendingly.
"I used to be a pilot," Tom explained.
"I just love camping!" Tom said, intently.

Wikipedia article

[Scheherazade]

prolix ADJ.

1.Tediously prolonged; wordy: editing a prolix manuscript.

2.Tending to speak or write at excessive length.

prolixity N

boring verboseness

ROMEO

What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
Or shall we on without apology?

BENVOLIO

The date is out of such prolixity:
We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
After the prompter, for our entrance:
But let them measure us by what they will;
We'll measure them a measure, and be gone.

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1.4

[Jay]

eat humble pie
to admit that you were wrong
After boasting that his company could outperform the industry's best, he's been forced to eat humble pie.

eat humble pie
to be forced to apologize abjectly or admit one's faults in humiliating circumstances

[Scheherazade]

platitude n [C] DISAPPROVING

a remark or statement that may be true but is boring and meaningless because it has been said so many times before:

Milosevic doesn't mouth platitudes about it not mattering who scores as long as the team wins.

platitudinous Adj FORMAL DISAPPROVING

I put an end to this gibberish by suggesting Valeria pack up her few belongings immediately, upon which the platitudinous colonel gallantly offered to carry them into the car.

From Lolita by Nabokov


source

[Scheherazade]

hagiography noun

1 [C or U] a biography in which the writer represents the person as perfect or much better than they really are, or the tendency to write so many admiring things about a person that it is not realistic

2 [U] SPECIALIZED writings about the lives of holy people such as saints

hagiographic adjective LITERARY

The biography has been criticized for being too hagiographic.

source

He had a peculiarly vicious version of reverse hagiography; the desire to cut his subject down to size.

from Possession A.S. Byatt

[Taliesin]

bower
noun [C] LITERARY
a pleasant place under the branches of a tree in a wood or garden
link

[Nightshade]

Biblophil,-phile:
1) lover of books
2)a collector of books.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/defi...7278&dict=CALD
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bibliophil

I thought it was a real word I noticed somewhere some one said they'd made it up

You do realise what this means? It means Biblophobia exsists.

[Scheherazade]

lackadaisical adjective FORMAL

lacking enthusiasm and effort:

The food was nice enough but the service was rather lackadaisical.


lackadaisically adverb

source

[Pensive]

Ah Scher, "lackadaisical" is such a difficult and a long word.

[Scheherazade]

Ah Scher, "lackadaisical" is such a difficult and a long word.

I agree with you, Pensive; I learnt it only yesterday, too.

If you read it slowly, though, it is kind of funny: lack-a-daisy-cal!

[RJbibliophil]

April 1st 2006
Odontophobia-noun-a fear of teeth and/or dentists

http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?odontophobia

Fortunately I do not suffer from odontophobia!

[RJbibliophil]

Why not have 2 words since there hasn't been any for a long time. :P


toxophilite (tok-SOF-uh-lyt) noun

One who is fond of or expert at archery.

[Coined by Roger Ascham (1515-1568), scholar and writer, as a proper
name and
the title of his book Toxophilus, from Greek toxon (bow) + -philos
(loving).]

Roger Ascham was the tutor for teenager Elizabeth, future Queen
Elizabeth I.
His book Toxophilus was the first book on archery in English. It was a
treatise on archery but it was also an argument for writing in the
vernacular: in English. You could say he shot two birds with one arrow.
---------------------------------------------------------------
fletcher (FLECH-uhr) noun

A maker of arrows.

[From Middle English fleccher, from Old French flechier, from fleche
(arrow).
Ultimately from Indo-European root pleu (to flow), which also gave us
flow,
fly, float, fleet, pulmonary, and pluvial.]

[Scheherazade]

Philippic n.

1. Any of the orations of Demosthenes against Philip of Macedon in the fourth century B.C.
2. Any of the orations of Cicero against Antony in 44 B.C.
3. A verbal denunciation characterized by harsh, often insulting language; a tirade.

source

The talk, as usual, had veered around to the Beauforts, and even Mr van der Luyden and Mr Selfridge Merry, installed in the honorary arm-chairs tacitly reserved for them, paused to listen to the younger man's philippic.

from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

[RJbibliophil]

Xenophobia-noun- extreme dislike, hatred or fear of foreigners, their customs, their religions, etc.

Link