Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Unsoulclogged

un-soul-clogged (n-sl-klgd)

adjective
1. Happiness or contentment after a period of upset.
Since I got home, I've been
unsoulclogged and I owe it all to my wonderful family.

Synonyms: blessed, blest, blissful, blithe, can't complain, captivated, cheerful, chipper, chirpy, content, contented, convivial, delighted, ecstatic, elated, exultant, flying high, gay, glad, gleeful, gratified, happy, intoxicated, jolly, joyful, joyous, jubilant, laughing, light, lively, looking good, merry, mirthful, on cloud nine, overjoyed, peaceful, peppy, perky, playful, pleasant, pleased, sparkling, sunny, thrilled, tickled, tickled pink, up, upbeat, walking on air.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Consanguinity

consanguinity (knsn-gwn-t, -sng-)

noun
1. Relationship by blood or by a common ancestor.
My daughter and cousin are both in Toronto right now with no other relatives. When I told my grandmother that they were going to a big family dinner tonight, she said they were like her, going out in the world and building their own families, without depending on notions of
consanguinity.
2. A close affinity or connection.
Part of my hesitance to spend time with my estranged relatives is that it will be awkward at a time when we might expect
consanguinity.

Synonyms: affiliation, affinity, agnate, blood-relationship, brotherhood, cognate, connection, family tie, filiation, kin, kindred, kindredship, kinship, lineage, race, sisterhood, strain.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Inamorata

in-a-mor-at-a (inˌaməˈrätə)

noun
1. A female lover or woman with whom one is in love.
Your inamorata misses you.

Synonyms: ladylove, mistress, paramour, sweetheart, woman.

Lacuna

la-cu-na (l-kyn)

noun
1. A language gap, which occurs when there is no direct translation in the target language for a lexical term found in the source language.
There's no wonder we have trouble expressing our feelings. A great lacuna exists in the English language when some languages have twenty or more words for love and we have just one.
2. An absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing, often referring to an ancient manuscript or similar.
The recent lacuna in my blog happened because I moved across the country and got rather busy with real life.
3. A blank gap or missing part.
The lacuna in my blog should be filled with inamorata, consanguinity, primogenitor, beleaguer, requisition, sanctity, delectation, unsoulclogged, allegro, effervescence, succor and thermogenic.

Synonyms: break, cavity, depression, gap, hiatus, interim, interval, opening, space .

Friday, August 12, 2011

Exegesis

ex-e-ge-sis (eksiˈjēsis)

noun
1. The interpretation of any literary passage, but especially scripture.
Although it ignores the patriarchal heterosexistist tradition, my exegesis of the passage "Thou shalt not lie with a woman as thou wouldst lie with a man" is that God loves the lesbians! The movie, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, is evidence that I'm not alone in that interpretation.

Synonyms: criticism, hermeneutics, interpretation, literary criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, reading, revealing, unmasking.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Doohickey

doo-hic-key* (do͞oˌhikē)

noun
1. A thing (used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall).
You're absolutely correct, dear! so far we haven't seen a single good-looking pair of legs...a single sequin-encrusted dohickey ...no firm, rounded breasts! this show is a disaster, complete and utter disaster (modified Frank Zappa lyric)!

Synonyms:
dohingy, thingamabobber, thingamadoo, thingamajig, thingamajigger, whatchamacallit.

* Not to be confused with "dohickey," which wordnik.com politely describes as an "alternate" spelling of "doohickey." In other words, you may not remember what the thing is, but you better not forget how to spell the substitute word for it!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Apostatize


a-post-a-tize (əˈpästəˌtīz)

verb
1. To give up or renounce one's position or belief.
Thank the goddess that the 2011 Wonder Woman pilot episode didn't get picked up. Adrianne Palicki, though adorable, plays a Wonder Woman who has entirely apostatized core characteristics of the original Wonder Woman. The original Wonder Woman supported the U.S. military out of her love and devotion to Captain Steve Trevor. Adrianne Palicki's character dumps Steve to aid local police and the F.B.I., while running a corporation that markets action figures of her character to pay for her staff and flat screen T.V.'s.*

Synonyms: abandon, abscond, back out, break faith, change sides, cross, depart, desert, fall away from, forsake, go, go back on, go over, go over the fence, lapse, leave, pull out, quit, rat, rebel, reject, renege, renounce, revolt, run out, schism, sell out , spurn, take a walk, tergiversate, tergiverse, turn, turn coat, walk out on, withdraw.

* Someone even went so far as to call her a topless robot.
** I had to include Jacaranda's Wonder Woman Song in here somewhere.
*** For the purists, the original Wonder Woman appears below.


Monday, August 8, 2011

Earhorn

ear-horn (ərhôrn)

noun
1. A passive funnel-like amplification cone designed to gather sound energy and direct it into the ear canal.
My favorite use of an earhorn in English literature is when Reepicheep tries to introduce Eustace Scrub to an elderly dwarf using an earhorn. Of course, the dwarf mishears Eustace's first name and asks, with some indignation and a little bit of snark, "Useless? If he's useless, why did you bring him to me?"

Synonyms: bone anchored hearing aid, cochlear implant, ear horn,* ear trumpet, hearing aid.

2. An eggcorn for eggcorn.
An earhorn is idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase that also bears a phonetic likeness.

Synonyms: eggcorn.

* Sometimes, I just like to make words into compound words.

Snark

snark (snärk)

noun
1. A snide remark.
Having not seen her for a few years, I didn't expect to be greeted with such snark.

Synonyms: abase, abuse, affront, aspersion, black eye, blasphemy, cheap shot, contempt, contumely, derision, despite, discourtesy, disdainfulness, disgrace, disrespect, ignominy, impertinence, impudence, incivility, indignity, insolence, invective, libel, mockery, obloquy, offense, opprobrium, outrage, put-down, rudeness, scorn, scurrility, shame, slam, slander, slap, slap in the face, slight, snub, superciliousness, taunt, unpleasantry, vilification, vituperation.

2. A graph in which every node has three branches, and the edges cannot be coloured in fewer than four colours without two edges of the same colour meeting at a point.
Much to Fonzie and Freddie's confusion, Mel insisted on laying out the new rules for the house in a snark displayed on HD TV.

Synonyms: a graph.

3. A fluke or unrepeatable result or detection in an experiment.
The pursuit of alchemy begun with a snark in the kitchen of Gandalph's grandmother.

Synonyms: accident, blessing, break, contingency, fluke, fortuity, fortunate, fortune, good fortune, good luck, incident, lucky break, odd chance, quirk, stroke of luck, windfall.

4. A creature invented by Lewis Carroll.
"For, although common Snarks do no manner of harm,
Yet I feel it my duty to say,
Some are Boojums---'' The Bellman broke off in alarm,
For the Baker had fainted away.
- From The Hunting of the Snark.
Synonyms: boojum.

verb
1. To speak in snide remarks.
"I know you are, but what am I?" she snarked.
2. To snort.
Mel snarked at Amanda when Amanda put away the cat treats.
Synonyms: abase, affront, aggravate, annoy, blister, curse, cut to the quick, debase, degrade, deride, dishonor, disoblige, dump on, flout, gird, humiliate, injure, irritate, jeer, libel, mock, outrage, pan, provoke, put down, revile, ridicule, roast, scoff, slam, slander, slight, sneer, snub, step on one's toes, taunt, tease, underestimate, vex .

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Supercilious

sup-er-cil-i-ous (so͞opərˈsilēəs)

adjective
1. The quality of demonstrating arrogant superiority to those around them.
After much deliberation at a bar with my best friend last week, we decided that the one quality all of my deadly exes and current love interests bore in common was a supercilious self-confidence. Is that just another way of saying I'm attracted to assholes?
2. Expressive of contempt.
The last thing my love sent me was a supercilious emoticon. It's hard to keep one's hopes up under such circumstances - delusional even.

Synonyms: arrogant, asshole, bitchy, bossy, cavalier, cocky, condescending, contemptuous, dick, disdainful, egomaniac, egotistic, haughty, high-and-mighty, imperious, insolent, lofty, nervy, overbearing, patronizing, proud, putting on airs, scornful, snobby, superior, uppity, vainglorious.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Gajillion

ga-jil-li-on (gäjzilyən)

noun
1. An unspecified large number.
Since I've been home, I feel like a gajillion pounds have been lifted off my shoulders. I think I'm going to be ok.

Synonyms: bajillion, bazillion, bunch, dillion, eleventy, fantillion, gadjillion, gagzillion, gazillion, gobs, godzillion, grillion, hojillion, kabillion, kajillion, katrillion, killion, robillion, loads, heaps, oodles, scads, skillion, squillion, tons, umptillion, zillion.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Bifarious

bi-far-i-ous (bye-FAIR-ee-us)

adjective
1. Two-fold or double.
In parting, I found his attitude toward me bifarious. On the one hand, he was sad to see me leaving, so much so that he would almost break down into tears. On the other hand, my leaving seemed like such an imposition, such a burden to him, that he would lash out in sudden fits of anger. In truth, I currently feel hostage to his bifarious manner and my leaving tomorrow is a great consolation to me.
2. Ambiguous.
I want to go back to my favorite dress shop before and buy all of my favorite things in green because green is the most bifarious colour; it can be earthy or jealous, greedy or full of life. I'm not sure if Kermit was right about how easy it is being green because I would wear it all the time.
3. In two rows on either side of.
Kermit blends in with the bifarious leaves.

Synonyms: ambiguous, bifold, binary, binate, coupled, double, dual, dualistic, duple, duplex, duplicate, duplicated, geminate, paired, repeated, second, twice, twin, two times, twofold.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Isacoustic

is-a-cous-tic (ī′sə ko̵̅o̅stik)

noun
1. A line or curve, upon a diagram of acoustic intensities, drawn everywhere through points of equal intensity of sound.
She was always hearing melodies in her head, making up songs in her dreams. Having never learned to read music, she recorded them on paper with isacoustic lines.

Synonyms: wiggly line.

* When I first saw this word, I thought it might be a typo, leaving out the space between is and acoustic, like in the sentence: "This version of Fiona Apple's Inside and Out is acoustic," but it's not and, being a nerd, I think that's pretty cool.