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Posted: 30-08-2008 09:46 Post subject: Word of the Day

(I can't find the old WOTD thread, but if it's still around, please merge this.)

Weird Words: Gossypiboma
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A surgical sponge left within a patient after an operation.

Ammon Shea, who spent a year reading the Oxford English Dictionary
from cover to cover and wrote about it in his book Reading the OED,
commented on this word in a piece on the OUPBlog. He had been told
about it by a surgeon, who called it "a memento that we surgeons
sometimes accidentally leave behind to commemorate our presence in
some poor patient's abdomen."

It's worrying that the condition happens often enough that surgeons
have found it necessary to create a word for it (it's fairly common
in specialist articles and books). It's even more worrying that two
other terms exist to describe cotton or synthetic fibre gauze left
in error in a patient: "textiloma" and "cottonoid".

In both subject and appearance, "gossypiboma" surely fits anybody's
definition of a weird word. Its strange look comes from its being
an amalgam of words from two languages: Latin "gossypium", cotton,
and Swahili "boma", a place of concealment. This leads - surely not
by accident - to a word seeming to contain the ending "-oma" that
denotes a tumour or other abnormal growth (as in carcinoma or
lymphoma), since such growths can develop around alien material
left in the body.

"Gossypiboma" was said in a book on surgery in 2004 to have been
coined in an article of 1994 by A M Patel and others. They may well
have done so, since I've not found an earlier example.

I've no idea how surgeons say it [Julane Marx suggests "malpractice
lawsuit"] but with luck one will be able to tell me.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/qpda.htm

Posted: 13-09-2008 09:35 Post subject:

Here's one that's at the heart of much Forteana:

Weird Words: Mooreeffoc
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Relating to things suddenly seen in a new and different way.

Though this word is rare to the point of never being used in its
ostensible sense, but only as a keyword to initiate discussion, it
has been keeping illustrious company, since its few appearances in
print have been in works by G K Chesterton, J R R Tolkien and
Charles Dickens.

Dickens invented it, if that's the right word. He mentions it in
his autobiography, when he describes his poverty-stricken youth:

In the door there was an oval glass plate, with COFFEE-
ROOM painted on it, addressed towards the street. If I
ever find myself in a very different kind of coffee-room
now, but where there is such an inscription on glass,
and read it backward on the wrong side MOOR-EEFFOC (as I
often used to do then, in a dismal reverie,) a shock
goes through my blood.

In his biography of Dickens, Chesterton said that it denoted the
queerness of things that have become trite, when they are seen
suddenly from a new angle. Tolkien read more into it still in his
work On Fairy-stories:

The word Mooreeffoc may cause you to realise that
England is an utterly alien land, lost either in some
remote past age glimpsed by history, or in some strange
dim future reached only by a time-machine; to see the
amazing oddity and interest of its inhabitants and their
customs and feeding-habits.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/aywq.htm

Posted: 18-09-2008 08:23 Post subject:

Some things here I have to take issue with:

Phwoar, look at that fit stud muffin, says OED
It has been long been a vocabulary staple for lusty builders and ladettes alike.

By Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 6:17PM BST 17 Sep 2008

Now, the word "phwoar" - meaning an "expression of enthusiastic or lubricious approval" - has gained official entry to the English language, appearing in the pages of the latest Oxford English Dictionary of Modern Slang.

The book also provides plenty for readers to give their lubricious approval of, including "stud muffin" - an attractive man - and "arm candy" - a good-looking date.

Both these could presumably be described as "fit", which has become used as common shorthand for "sexually attractive", according to the book.

Its authors said that the growth of the internet had led to young people on both sides of the Atlantic regularly swapping phrases, meaning new American slang terms now lodge themselves in British culture quicker than ever before.

These include "hairy eyeball" - the look made by someone expressing "hostility or disapproval", and "mallrat" - someone who spends too much time hanging around shopping centres.

With origins closer to home is the "oggy", a Cornish word dating back to 1948 used to describe a pasty half filled with meat and vegetables and half with fruit, which has apparently made a culinary comeback.

The new edition of the book also incorporates recent innovations in Cockney rhyming slang, including "Britneys" for beers - to rhyme with the name of the singer Britney Spears.

The creators of the book, which is published by Oxford University Press, said they had aimed to preserve a section of the language that might otherwise be forgotten.

John Ayto, the book's co-editor, said: "Thousands of new slang words and expressions have flooded into the English language, most of them to be flushed away summarily.

"Slang has a reputation for being ephemeral, for coming into the language and then going again."

The book includes 6,000 slang words and expressions, including 350 brand new words, while another 1,000 words have had their existing meanings expanded or altered, he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2976852/Phwoar-look-at-that-fit-stud-muffin-says-OED.html

"Hairy eyeball" was alive and well in my social circles in the UK back in the 1960s.

And Oggy has always been another name for a pasty, of whatever type. (Despite the wide range of types on offer nowadays, the one mentioned in the article isn't really known now - it was the traditional miner's dinner.)

Posted: 04-10-2008 08:55 Post subject:

And more odd words (found by an odd character)...

Man reads entire Oxford English Dictionary Shocked

The Oxford English Dictionary is not everyone's idea of a page turner.

By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:35PM BST 03 Oct 2008

But a man has just completed the mammoth, if not bizarre, task of reading the 22,000-page tome cover to cover.

Ammon Shea, 37, who has been dissecting dictionaries since the age of 10, spent a year absorbing 59 million words, from A to Zyxt - the equivalent of reading a John Grisham novel every day.

Cooped up in the basement of his local library, the removal man from New York would devote up to 10 hours a day painstakingly making his way through all 20 volumes of the OED - helped by cup after cup of very strong coffee.

Every time he came across an interesting word, he jotted it down, fearful that he would not remember its meaning.

Among his favourite discoveries were obmutescence (willfully quiet), hypergelast (a person who won't stop laughing), natiform (shaped like buttocks Cool

) and deipnosophist (a person who is learned in the art of dining.)

He admitted there were times when he almost gave up, frustrated at not being familiar with any of the words on the page.

In his new book, Reading the Oxford English Dictionary: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, he recalls a low point when he started learning words beginning with the letter N.

"Some days I feel as if I do not actually speak the English language, or understand it with any degree of real comprehension," he said.

"It is as if I am visiting a foreign country, armed with one of those silly little tourist phrase book...I may know enough to order a cup of coffee or inquire where the bathroom is."

By the time he reached the 400 pages devoted to words beginning with "un", he said he was "near catatonic, bored out of my mind, and so listless I can't remember why I wanted to read any of this in the first place.

"At this point, telling myself, 'You only have 351 pages of un-words to go', does not seem helpful. I don't quite feel as though I have lost my mind, but it often seems as though it is on vacation somewhere else, just east of sanity."

Why anyone would choose to put themselves through such a task is a question Mr Shea is often asked.

As a self-confessed lover of words who owns a thousand dictionaries, he said that reading the entire OED was a challenge he set himself many years ago.

"The OED, more so than any other dictionary, encompasses the entire history of all English's glories and foibles, the grand concepts and whimsical conceits that make our language what it is today," he said.

"It's a great read. It is much more engrossing, enjoyable and moving to read than you would typically think a non-narrative body of text could ever possibly be."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3129082/Man-reads-entire-Oxford-English-Dictionary.html

Posted: 04-10-2008 09:59 Post subject:

Some more he found:

deipnophobia (fear of dinner parties)

apricity (the warmth of the sun in winter)

mafflard (a stuttering or blundering fool)

onomatomania (vexation at having difficulty in finding the right word)

remord – to remember with regret

unbepissed which means ‘not having been urinated on’ Very Happy

and more here...

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4878295.ece

See how many you can use today! Cool

Posted: 06-10-2008 06:15 Post subject:

Merriam-Webster’s
Word of the Day
October 5

cumshaw

\KUM-shaw\
noun

Meaning
: present, gratuity; also : bribe, payoff

Example Sentence
“I never heard her ask for any cumshaw that weighed less than a ton and which required fewer than a dozen enlisted men and two trucks to move.” (James A. Michener, Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1986)

Did you know?
It was probably British Navy personnel who first picked up "cumshaw" in Chinese ports, during the First Opium War of 1839–42. "Cumshaw" is from a word that means "grateful thanks" in the dialect of Xiamen, a port in southeast China. Apparently, sailors heard it from the beggars who hung around the ports, and mistook it as the word for a handout. Since then, U.S. sailors have given "cumshaw" its own unique application, for something obtained through unofficial means (whether deviously or simply ingeniously). Outside of naval circles, meanings of "cumshaw" range from a harmless gratuity or gift to bending the rules a little to outright bribery.

Posted: 14-10-2008 21:17 Post subject:

Merriam-Webster’s
Word of the Day
October 14

facetious

\fuh-SEE-shuss\
adjective

Meaning
*1 : joking or jesting often inappropriately : waggish
2 : meant to be humorous or funny : not serious

Example Sentence
Gwen was being facetious when she used the word "classy" to describe Bill's brightly colored necktie.

Did you know?
"Facetious" came to English from the Middle French word "facetieux," which traces to the Latin word "facetia," meaning "jest." "Facetia" seems to have made only one other lasting contribution to the English language: "facetiae," meaning "witty or humorous writings or sayings." "Facetiae," which comes from the plural of "facetia" and is pronounced fuh-SEE-shee-ee or fuh-SEE-shee-eye, is a far less common word than "facetious," but it does show up occasionally. For example, in a letter to the editor published in the Seattle Times, August 26, 1995, a reader used the following words to describe a column written by the humorist Dave Barry: "Hey, it's a HUMOR column, based entirely upon facetiae."

Posted: 27-10-2008 09:45 Post subject:

Chambers Slang Dictionary: chavs, chuddies and Sally Gunnell
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 27/10/2008

We know about 'chav'. But what is a 'Croydon facelift'? And when did 'groovy' stop meaning 'stuck in a groove'? Jonathon Green, the man who knows, tells John Preston why slang English is in such rude health; plus extracts from his mammoth new slang dictionary

Back in 1984, Jonathon Green sat down to compile a dictionary of contemporary slang. It would, he thought, be an interesting project, one that might take him a few months, possibly even a year. But things didn't quite work out that way. Nearly a quarter of a century later, he's still at it. His first slang dictionary was praised at the time for its extensive array of 11,500 entries. In Green's latest work, Chambers Slang Dictionary, there are more than 11,500 entries for the letter S alone.

Recent additions to the Chambers Slang Dictionary advertisementTo winch the dictionary onto your knee and open its pages is like entering an orchard full of strange and wonderful fruit. Here, for instance, is 'Croydon facelift', an expression used to describe 'a UK female hairstyle which pulls the hair tightly back from the face.' And then there's the unforgettable 'Winter bush - a pronounced growth of a woman's pubic hair; shaved in the summer, it is allowed to grow in the winter'. As for 'Motherramming'and 'Chocolate chimney sweep', I think we'd better swallow hard and move on. Question

etc.....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slangmain.xml

Posted: 31-10-2008 01:35 Post subject:

May I make a "shout out" (as I believe the youths say) for "Perennibranch" ("having gills in all stages of one's life cycle")- a word which surely no person outside of the field of Salamander-based Zoology has to use, ever, and yet still exists...

Posted: 03-11-2008 11:36 Post subject:

Many interesting words here:

Posted: 15-11-2008 11:03 Post subject:

A topical one:

EPHEBICIDE George Monbiot created this word in an article, "Lest
we forget", in the Guardian on 11 November: "There are plenty of
words to describe the horrors of the 1939-45 war. But there were
none, as far as I could discover, that captured the character of
the first world war. So I constructed one from the Greek word
'ephebos', a young man of fighting age. Ephebicide is the wanton
mass slaughter of the young by the old."

The root appears in a few
English words, including "ephebe", the Greek word filtered through
Latin, meaning a young man aged between 18 and 20 who undertook
military service. "Ephebiatrics" is a rare medical term for the
branch of medicine that deals with the study of adolescence and the
diseases of young adults; an "ephebophile" is a homosexual adult
sexually attracted to adolescents.

Though George Monbiot created it
afresh, there is one previous example of "ephebicide" on record, in
a work of 1979, Saul's Fall: A Critical Fiction. This purported to
be a collection of critical essays about a play by a forgotten
Spanish author, but the whole book, including the play, was an
invention by Herbert Lindenberger, now Emeritus Professor of
Humanities at Stanford University.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/tqzp.htm

Posted: 17-11-2008 09:39 Post subject:

Word featured in The Simpsons becomes latest addition to Collins English Dictionary
A word which suggests a lack of enthusiasm has beaten hundreds of others to become the latest addition to the Collins English Dictionary.

By Daily Telegraph reporter
Last Updated: 10:52PM GMT 16 Nov 2008

Meh, which can mean unimpressed, mediocre or boring, was chosen as the public's entry for the 30th anniversary edition of Collins English Dictionary which will be published next year.

People were asked to recommend a word to a panel of Collins language experts who chose meh because of the frequency of its use in today's English.

Meh was submitted by Erin Whyte from Nottingham who defined it as "an expression of utter boredom or an indication of how little you care for an idea".

The dictionary entry will say meh can be used as an interjection to suggest indifference or boredom or as an adjective to say something is mediocre or boring or a person is apathetic, bored or unimpressed.

Collins said it had been aware of the growing use of meh in written and spoken language for some time.

It said the word which originated in the US and Canada, is widely used on the internet and is now appearing in British spoken English as well as in print media.

Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries, said: "This is a new interjection from the US that seems to have inveigled its way into common speech over here.

"It was actually spelled out in The Simpsons when Homer is trying to prise the kids away from the TV with a suggestion for a day trip.

"They both just reply 'meh' and keep watching TV; he asks again and Lisa says 'We said MEH! - M-E-H, meh!'

"It's now so deeply entrenched on the net that it's also become an adjective, meaning mediocre and also bored.

"Internet forums and email are playing a big part in formalising the spellings of vocal interjections like these. A couple of other examples would be hmm and heh, which are both now ubiquitous online and in emails.

"It shows people are increasingly writing in a register somewhere in between spoken and written English."

Jargonaut, frenemy and huggles were among the other words suggested to the Word of Mouth campaign run by Collins Dictionaries and book chain Waterstone's in June.

Elaine Higgleton, editorial director at Collins Dictionaries, said: "We ran this campaign to encourage the general public to tell us about the words that they use every day when talking with friends, but that aren't in the dictionary.

"Language is used by everyone and we want to make sure that Collins dictionaries include everyone's words."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3467717/Word-featured-in-The-Simpsons-becomes-latest-addition-to-Collins-English-Dictionary.html

Posted: 24-11-2008 03:52 Post subject:

Posted: 05-12-2008 21:48 Post subject:

Merriam-Webster’s
Word of the Day
December 5

golem

\GOH-lum\
noun

Meaning
1 : an artificial being in Hebrew folklore endowed with life
*2 : someone or something resembling a golem

Example Sentence
With the flick of a switch, the scientist brought life to his creation, then watched with awe as the golem rose from the table.

Did you know?
The Hebrew ancestor of the word "golem" meant "shapeless mass," and the original golems started as lumps of clay that were formed into figures and brought to life by means of a charm or a combination of letters forming a sacred word. In the Middle Ages, golems were thought to be the perfect servants; their only fault was that they were sometimes too literal or mechanical in fulfilling their masters' orders. In the 16th century, the golem was thought of as a protector of the Jews in times of persecution. But by the late 1800s, "golem" had acquired a less friendly second sense, referring to a man-made monster that inspired many of the back-from-the-dead creations of classic horror fiction.

Posted: 06-12-2008 00:42 Post subject:

That's a fortean 'un!