Smithereens

smithereens (smi-thə-ˈrēnz)

noun
1. fragments or splintered bits.

Noel and Teddy’s discussion about railway safety had Mary picturing us all smashed to smithereens in a train accident.

Synonyms: atoms, bits, crumbs, dabs, dashes, drops, flyspecks, grains, granules, iotas, mites, modicums, particles, pittances, scraps, shreds, smidgens, specks, touches, traces.

* Of course, the singular form of smithereens would be smithereen, but that's not a very useful word. You are welcome to try, but, as of today, no one has answered the question: how can you use smithereen in a sentence.

** According to one source:

Smithereens is an Irish word. It derives from, or is possibly the source of, the modern Irish 'smidirín', which means 'small fragments'. There is a town near Baltimore, close to the south-west coast of Ireland, called Skibbereen. The name means 'little boat harbour' and it is tempting to imagine sailing ships arriving there from the wild Atlantic by being 'blown to Skibbereen'. The more recent 'Troubles' also bring up images of property/people being dynamited and 'blown to Skibbereen' from all over Ireland. There's no record of any such phrase however, and the similarity between the words Skibbereen and smithereens seems to be no more than co-incidence.

Another enticing notion as to the source of smithereens is that it refers to the shards of metal formed when iron is forged and hammered in a smithy. Again, there's nothing but wishful thinking to support that idea. The actual origin is more prosaic. 'Smiodar' means fragments in Irish. 'Een' is a commonplace diminutive ending, as in colleen (girl), i.e. Caile(country woman) + een. Similarly, smiodar + een lead us to smithereen. As with many words that are inherited from other languages, it took some time for the English spelling to become stable. Both 'smiddereens' and 'shivereens' are recorded in the mid 19th century.

The notion of things being 'broken/smashed/blown to smithereens' dates from at least the turn of the 19th century. Francis Plowden, in The History of Ireland, 1801, records a threat made against a Mr. Pounden by a group of Orangemen: "If you don't be off directly, by the ghost of William, our deliverer, and by the orange we wear, we will break your carriage in smithereens, and hough your cattle and burn your house."

['Hough' is a variant of 'hock' - to disable by cutting the tendons]

Smithereens is one of those unusual nouns that, like suds and secateurs, never venture out by themselves - the word is always plural.

Sesquipedalian

ses-quip-e-dal-i-an (sɛskwɪpɪˈdeɪlɪən)

adjective/noun

1. a word with lots of syllables.

Sesquipedalian is really the opposite of monosyllabic, but far more appropriate!

Synonyms: really long word, verbose.

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 .

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.

Sloomy

sloo-my (slm)

adjective
1. Sluggish or slow.
Superheroes all have limits on earth so as not to ignite the atmosphere. Superman gets faster as he is closer to yellow sunlight, remove all the light and he'd be as sloomy as Clark Kent during one of Superman's benders.

Synonyms: apathetic, crawling, dawdling, disinclined, drowsy, gradual, indolent, lackadaisical, laggard, lagging, leaden, leisurely, lethargic, listless, loitering, moderate, passive, phlegmatic, plodding, reluctant, slack, sleepy, slothful, slow, sluggish, snail like, stagnant, supine, tortoise like.

Saturnine

sat-ur-nine* (sătˈər-nīnˌ)

adjective
1. Melancholy or even sardonic in nature.
Only Werner Herzog can make Where's Waldo saturnine.**

Synonyms: aberrant, abnormal, ailing, brooding, dark, deadly, depressed, despondent, diseased, dreadful, frightful, ghastly, ghoulish, grim, grisly, gruesome, horrid, macabre, malignant, melancholy, moody, morbid, pessimistic, sick, somber, sullen.

* This word has Saturn as its root because astrologers believe that people born under Saturn possess this particular outlook a little more than other people do.
** You really should click this link.

Subterfuge

subterfuge (sŭbˈtər-fyo͞oj)*

noun
1. A deceptive trick to conceal a perceived truth.
As Admiral Richard E Byrd, Floyd Bennet** and Archie Belaney*** have proven, a clever subterfuge is one way of making history.

Synonyms: aspersion, calumniation, calumny, chicanery, deciet, deception, defamation, dishonesty, disinformation, distortion, evasion, fable, fabrication, falsehood, falseness, falsification, falsity, fib, fiction, forgery, fraud, guile, hyperbole, inaccuracy, invention, libel, lie, mendancity, misrepresentation, misstatement, myth, obloquy, perjury, revilement, slander, sweet little lies, tale, tall tale, white lie, whopper.

* When I was a kid, I loved mispronouncing this word as superfudge.****
** Historians have good reason to suspect that Byrd and Bennet lied about flying over the North Pole in 1927.
*** Archie Belaney is the infamous Grey Owl.
**** Superfudge is not the correct pronounciation of this word!

Sycophant

syc-o-phant (skfnt)

noun
1. A parasitic mean flatterer, who falsely sucks up so as to get his/her way without doing any work.
Goddamn you... you... moocher... you... parasite... you suck-up little dick... you freeloading sycophant!

Synonyms: barnacle, dependent, flunky, leech, moocher, parasite, sponge, Stephen Harper.

* Pardon me, I was in an obstreperous mood and had to get that cathartic rant out of my system and am feeling much better now :)

Sophistry

soph-is-try (sŏfˈĭ-strē)

noun
1. What political leaders do when backed into a corner.
2. A plausible, but misleading, argument.
Five years of Harper's sophistry is enough!

Synonyms: a collection of plausible lies.

Scruple

scru-ple (skro͞oˈpəl)

noun
1. A feeling that keeps you from acting on something. We usually blame this on conscience.
His scruples prevented him from participating in the actual killings, but didn't prevent him from helping her hide the bodies.
2. An excuse you use to get out of doing something you didn't want to do in the first place.
I was going to go to Bingo with Aunt Maggie, but I have a scruple about gambling.
3. A stupid fear about doing something you might actually enjoy.
There's nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever. - Alfred Hitchcock

Synonyms: anxiety, caution, compunction, conscience, difficulty, excuse, faltering, hesitancy, hesitation, pause, perplexity, qualms, reconsideration, reluctance, reluctancy, second thought, squeamishness, superego, uneasiness.

Smell-feast

smell-feast* (smel'fst)

noun/slang
1. A sponger with a heightened ability to find and dine at good tables.
Is she really going out with him? He's nothing but a freeloader, a smell-feast!

Synonyms: The character Algernon from the Importance of Being Earnest, bootlicker, deadbeat, freeloader, hanger-on, house cat, idler, leach, sponge, sponger, sycophant, taker, yob.

* I must confess that when I first came upon this term, I thought it an apt description for a variable banquet of odours, not all of them pleasant.

Sashay

sa-shay (s-sh)

verb
1. To walk, strut or flounce, in a fancy - yet casual manner.
2. To walk sideways.
3. To dance the chassé.
Ever since he took his first dance class, McGoo unabashedly sashays about the place, like he thinks he is the cat's meow.

Synonyms: caper, cavort, chassé, dance, flounce, parade, spring, step, strut, swagger.

noun
1. A chassé.
2. A fancy-pants move in square dancing.
Sashay from first position to second position and then come back to first position.

Synonyms: fancy feet.

Self-medication

self-med-i-ca-tion (slfmd-kshn)

noun
1. The use of over-the-counter drugs or other preparations to alleviate an illness or other condition without professional supervision.
Charlie Sheen's drug use in the past could have been a form of self-medication, as well he seems to be screwing a new model/actress/stripper every week (could be hypersexuality, could be him being a horndog).*

*This is from the Healthy Place Web Site.