Tag Archives: dictionary

June 17, 2017 · 7:16 pm

New words to live by: “Shill hanging” or “Shanging”

Time, once again, for New words to live by. This is a word or phrase not currently in use in the U.S. English lexicon, but might need to be considered. Other words, such as obsurd, crumpify, subsus, flib, congressed, and others, can be found by clicking on the tags below. Today’s New Word is created by taking two nouns and creating a compound word. Without further waiting, shill hanging or sometimes called a shanging.

OLD WORD
Shill, n. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.

Hanging, n. 1.) a suspending or temporary attaching. 2.) a form of capital punishment by which someone is suspended by the neck with a gallows, gibbet, tree limb or similar method until dead.

NEW WORD
Shill hanging or Shanging, n. The act of temporarily suspending somebody with obsequious words of praise, flattery, or even falsehoods in order to keep from being suspended, firmed, or hung out dry from his or her position.

Other forms of the word:
Shanger, n. = person who does the shanging.

Shang, v. = the act of shill hanging.

The other day when the president held his first public shanging. Each cabinet member in turn introduced himself or herself, and then proceeded to shang the president with unctuous flattery.

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May 21, 2017 · 8:16 pm

New words to live by: “White liners”

Time, once again, for New words to live by. This is a word or phrase not currently in use in the U.S. English lexicon, but might need to be considered. Other words, such as obsurd, crumpify, subsus, flib, congressed, and others, can be found by clicking on the tags below. Today’s New Word is created by taking an adjective and a noun and creating a compound word. Without further waiting, white liner.

OLD WORD
White, adj. Reflecting nearly all the rays of sunlight or a similar light. For example, new snow. The margins of many printed pages.

Line, n. A mark or stroke ling in proportion to its breadth, often made with a pen, crayon, marker, pencil, or other tool on a surface. For example, the white lines on a highway dividing two lanes.

NEW WORD
White liner, n. 1. Any person or thing that crowds the margins or marked edges or lanes of a highway. For example, a person who rides the white center lines of a highway. Or, somebody who parks right on the line of a parking space.

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March 26, 2017 · 11:30 pm

New words to live by: “Scraggle”

Time, once again, for New words to live by. This is a word or phrase not currently in use in the U.S. English lexicon, but might need to be considered. Other words, such as obsurd, crumpify, subsus, flib, congressed, and others, can be found by clicking on the tags below. Today’s New Word is created by taking an adjective and creating a noun form of the word. Without further waiting, scraggle.

OLD WORD
Scraggly, adj. 1. Irregular, uneven, jagged. 2. Unkempt, ragged.

NEW WORD
Scraggle, n. 1. Something or someone ragged or unkempt, often in a small patch. 2. Something or someone jagged, irregular, or uneven.

Somewhere between the stickers and thorns, vines and broken branches, scraggles of grass and clay soil in front of me was the voice.

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February 25, 2017 · 11:59 pm

New words to live by: “Awesomocity”

Time, once again, for New words to live by. This is a word or phrase not currently in use in the U.S. English lexicon, but might need to be considered. Other words, such as obsurd, crumpify, subsus, flib, congressed, and others, can be found by clicking on the tags below. Today’s New Word is created by combing an adjective and a noun. Without further waiting, Awesomocity.

OLD WORDS
Awesome, adj. 1. Inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear. 2. Exhibiting or marked by awe.

Velocity, n. 1. Swiftness, speed, rapidity of motion. 2. Mechanics. The rate of change of position of a body in a specified direction.

NEW WORD
Awesomocity, n. The speed and direction with which your awesomeness becomes known to others.

His awesomocity was so fast and complete, it was almost impossible to tell where it began and where it ended. It seemed to be instantaneous: everywhere and all at once.

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January 14, 2017 · 8:14 am

New words to live by: “Falsetto light”

Time, once again, for New words to live by. This is a word or phrase not currently in use in the U.S. English lexicon, but might need to be considered. Other words, such as obsurd, crumpify, subsus, flib, congressed, and others, can be found by clicking on the tags below. Today’s New Word is created by combing sound and light. Without further waiting, Falsetto light.

OLD WORDS
Falsetto, n. 1) an unnaturally or artificially high-pitched voice or register, especially in a man. 2) a person, especially a man, who sings with such a voice.

Light, n. 1) something that makes things visible or affords illumination: all colors depend on light.
2) Physics.
1. electromagnetic radiation to which the organs of sight react, ranging in wavelength from about 400 to 700 nm and propagated at a speed of 186,282 mi./sec (299,972 km/sec), considered variously as a wave, corpuscular, or quantum phenomenon.
2. a similar form of radiant energy that does not affect the retina, as ultraviolet or infrared rays.

NEW WORD
Falsetto light, n. 1) an unnaturally or artificially high-pitched light or focus shining obsessively on something trivial, unimportant, or misdirected at the expense of losing focus on more important. For example, focusing on missing car keys while the car is being stolen. 2) To loudly trumpet or lay claim to an accomplishment you had little to do with and have little right to claim.

In a sentence: By using falsetto light, the candidate was able to make the press the issue instead of the questions the press was asking that the candidate was not answering.

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December 25, 2016 · 11:28 pm

Sadly, ‘Puppy’ Isn’t Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year | The Huffington Post

Source: Sadly, ‘Puppy’ Isn’t Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year | The Huffington Post

“Surreal” is Merriam-Webster’s (yes, the dictionary) word of the year.

“Surreal” won out over “puppy,” “flummadiddle,” and “fascism,” which were all trending earlier this month.

The announcement comes after Oxford Dictionaries’ choice of “post-truth” and Dictionary.com’s choice of “xenophobia” for their respective Word of the Year picks.

Merriam-Webster defines surreal as “marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream,” with its synonyms being unbelievable and fantastic.

dictionary publisher established their choice due to the high volume of lookups “surreal” received in 2016.

The word spiked after the Brussels terror attacks in March, the coup attempt in Turkey, the terrorist attack in Nice, and the U.S. election in November, according to the site.

Merriam-Webster editor at large Peter Sokolowski noted in a press release how unusual it was that the word had been so frequently searched.

“Historically, surreal has been one of the words most searched after tragedy, most notably in the days following 9/11, but it was associated with a wide variety of stories this year,” he said.

“Surreal” was an even more surprising winner for Word of the Year when you consider that both “puppy,” “flummadiddle,” and “fascism” were all trending this month. “Fascism” was leading the pack for a while, but in an effort to, you know, not have “fascism” be the Word of the Year, the folks at Merriam-Webster sent out a call to arms to ask people to search literally anything else.

But don’t worry: this election was not rigged. Merriam-Webster assured us all weeks ago that they’d select a winner appropriately.

“Our Word of the Year cannot be rigged. We encourage people to look up new words at all times, particularly if those words are strange 19th-century Americanisms or words for adorable doll-like creatures, but our Word of the Year is based on year-over-year increase in lookups,” they said on their site. “We look for a word which got a high number of lookups and increased dramatically in popularity when compared to previous years.”

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October 22, 2016 · 7:22 am

New words to live by: “Cackle pants”

It is time, once again, for New words to live by. This is a word or phrase not currently in use in the U.S. English lexicon, but might need to be considered. Other words, such as obsurd, crumpify, subsus, flib, congressed, and others, can be found by clicking on the tags below. Today’s New Word is created by combing a sound and a noun. Without further waiting, Cackle pants.

OLD WORDS
Cackle, v. 1. To chatter noisily; prattle. 2. Laugh in a broken, shrill manner. 3. To utter a broken, shrill sound or cry, like a hen.

Pants, n. A loose- (or sometime tight-) fitting garment for the lower part of the body with leg portions that usually reach the ankle.

NEW WORD
Cackle pants, n. 1. The sound of slightly stiff new pants, particularly wool, worn for the first time. Sometimes accompanied by static electricity sparks. 2. Somebody who has noisy flatulence. Don’t mind, Uncle Bob, he’s a bit ripe, but that’s because he’s a cackle pants. 3. A politician or person seeking public office who speaks in platitudes, generalities, banalities, conspiracies, circular or empty rhetoric. Sometimes demeaning and often predicting dire consequences if not elected.

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September 24, 2016 · 10:40 pm

Hey, brother, can you spare a slang word?

Endangered American Slang Needs Your Help

Won’t you consider adopting a word or two?

https://electricliterature.com/endangered-american-slang-needs-your-help-2551a782012a#.s1nrvqukl

by Dani Spencer

If you’re from Delaware, Maryland, or Virginia and think having shat fall from your pinetrees is abnormal, then we have news for you: you are among the many Americans losing touch with your historical regional dialect. And let’s be frank: can our language, our literature really afford to lose fleech, fogo or goose drownder?

Okay, poop jokes aside, the Dictionary of American Regional English views the potential extinction of 50 American words and phrases as no laughing matter. DARE and the global podcasting platform Acast have joined forces and are starting a campaign to bring these colloquialisms back to “their former glory.” The game plan is for hosts of various programs on Acast’s network to start using these at risk words, in hopes that their millions of listeners will adopt them into their vocabulary.

dialect-mapThis is not a bad strategy considering the growing popularity of podcasts in the U.S. The president of Acast, Karl Rosander, believes “learning through audio is a hugely effective educational method,” and “vummed” that there will be a vernacular revival.

And what about the written word? Well, readers, study up, make a point of using a few of these expressions in your own writing. Let’s all of us do Faulkner proud.

Here’s the full DARE list of endangered words and phrases:
Barn burner: a wooden match that can be struck on any surface. Chiefly Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Maryland.
Bat hide: a dollar bill. Chiefly south-west.
Be on one’s beanwater: to be in high spirits, feel frisky. Chiefly New England.
Bonnyclabber: thick, sour milk. Chiefly north Atlantic.
Counterpin: a bedspread. Chiefly south and south midland.
Croker sack: a burlap bag. Chiefly Gulf states, south Atlantic.
Cuddy: a small room, closet, or cupboard.
Cup towel: a dish towel. Chiefly Texas, inland south region.
Daddock: rotten wood, a rotten log. Chiefly New England.
Dish wiper: a dish towel. Chiefly New England.
Dozy: of wood, decaying. Chiefly north-east, especially Maine.
Dropped egg: a poached egg. Chiefly New England.
Ear screw: an earring. Chiefly Gulf States, lower Mississippi Valley.
Emptins: homemade yeast used as starter in bread. Chiefly New England, upstate New York.
Farmer match: a wooden match than can be struck on any surface. Chiefly upper midwest, Great Lakes region, New York, West Virginia.
Fleech: to coax, wheedle, flatter. South Atlantic.
Fogo: An offensive smell. Chiefly New England.
Frog strangler: a heavy rain. Chiefly south, south midland.
Goose drownder: a heavy rain. Chiefly midland.
I vum: I swear, I declare. Chiefly New England.
Larbo: a type of candy made of maple syrup on snow. New Hampshire.
Last button on Gabe’s coat: the last bit of food. Chiefly south, south midland.
Leader: a downspout or roof gutter. Chiefly New York, New Jersey.
Nasty-neat: overly tidy. Scattered usage, but especially north-east.
Parrot-toed: pigeon-toed. Chiefly mid-Atlantic, south Atlantic.
Pin-toed: pigeon-toed. Especially Delaware, Maryland, Virginia.
Popskull: cheap or illegal whiskey. Chiefly southern Appalachians.
Pot cheese: cottage cheese. Chiefly New York, New Jersey, northern Pennsylvania, Connecticut.
Racket store: a variety store. Particularly Texas.
Sewing needle: a dragonfly. Especially Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Massachusetts.
Shat: a pine needle. Chiefly Delaware, Maryland, Virginia.
Shivering owl: a screech owl. Chiefly south Atlantic, Gulf states.
Skillpot: a turtle. Chiefly District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia.
Sonsy: cute, charming, lively. Scattered.
Spill: a pine needle. Chiefly Maine.
Spin street yarn: to gossip. Especially New England.
Spouty: of ground: soggy, spongy. Scattered.
Suppawn: corn meal mush. Chiefly New York.
Supple-sawney: a homemade jointed doll that can be made to “dance”. Scattered.
Tacker: a child, especially a little boy. Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania.
Tag: a pine needle. Chiefly Virginia.
To bag school: to play hooky. Chiefly Pennsylvania, New Jersey.
Tow sack: a burlap bag. Chiefly south, south midland, Texas, Oklahoma.
Trash mover: a heavy rain. Chiefly mid-Atlantic, south Atlantic, lower Mississippi Valley.
Tumbleset: a somersault. Chiefly south-east, Gulf states; also north-east.
Wamus: a men’s work jacket. Chiefly north-central, Pennsylvania.
Whistle pig: a groundhog, also known as woodchuck. Chiefly Appalachians.
Winkle-hawk: a three-cornered tear in cloth. Chiefly Hudson Valley, New York.
Work brittle: eager to work. Chiefly midland, especially Indiana.
Zephyr: a light scarf. Scattered.

[Editor’s note: Similar article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/these-50-american-slang-words-are-in-danger-of-disappearing_us_57d2ba4ae4b06a74c9f423dd ]

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May 15, 2016 · 5:14 pm

New words to live by: “Democrazy”

It is time, once again, for New words to live by. This is a word or phrase not currently in use in the U.S. English lexicon, but might need to be considered. Other words, such as obsurd, crumpify, subsus, flib, congressed, and others, can be found by clicking on the tags below. Today’s New Word is a compounding of two nouns into a new word. Without further waiting, democrazy (demo-crazy) is the new word for this month.

OLD WORDS
Democracy, n. a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. Or, to borrow from U.S. President Lincoln: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people….”

Crazy, n. 1. Mentally deranged, senseless, insane. 2. Unsound, impractical.

NEW WORD
Democrazy, n. 1. The illusion of democracy or the democratic process obscured by the insanity of money, the senselessness of political debates over inane subjects (e.g., hand size), and the impractical notion that whoever is elected can fix it all. 2. Every four-year mental lapse in judgment and sanity where the supreme power is invested in money and those who have. 3. Any subset thereof, in which elections can be for state, local, and non-Presidential offices. 4. The last stage of democracy before it goes totalitarian.

Campaign sold out

Campaign sold out

Example:
See your local newspaper or most any TV channel between now and November. Plenty of examples exist there.

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August 9, 2015 · 11:10 am

New words to live by: “citybilly” and “hill slicker”

It is the first or second weekend of the month and time, once again, for a new word to live by. This is a word or phrase not currently in use in the U.S. English lexicon, but might need to be considered. Other words, such as obsurd, crumpify, subsus, flib, congressed, and others, can be found by clicking on the tags below. Today’s New Word is a compounding of word and a suffix two words. Without further waiting, citybilly and hill slicker are the new words / phrases for this month.

Old Words
Hillbilly, n. a person from a remote or backwoods area, usually meaning somebody from the Appalachian Mountains in the southern U.S.

City slicker, n. a term, often meant disparagingly, for a natty dressed, worldly focused city dweller.

New Words
Citybilly, n. second, even third generation hillbilly who has moved to the city but retains many if not most of their hillbilly ways. Also, those who act like hillbillies in the city even if they have been city dwellers for some time/generations.

Hill slicker, n. city person who has moved to the country, but still retains many of his or her city ways and expects the same big city amenities in the country setting. Think of the wife, Lisa Douglas, in TV sitcom Green Acres.

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