Wabble

This is another spelling for wobble, but also, the larva of a botfly, Cuterabra emasculator, that infests squirrels and other rodents, rendering the males sterile. There’s something I didn’t know and maybe didn’t want to know.

We all know crack is wack, which is also another spelling for whack. And if you add an “e”, as in wacke, you have a poorly sorted sandstone containing fragments of rock and minerals in a clayey matrix. And, I’m sure that’s the first time I’ve ever used the word, “clayey” in a sentence.

Wacked out, wacko, and wacky are the next three entries on the first page of “W” - so this entry has at least three times as many words for this letter than most other posts in this blog.

It must be the coffee!

Ubiquitous

Ubiety and ubique are second and third, after uakari, of the words not capitalized in the U section. Uakari is any of several medium-sized, tree-dwelling Amazon basin monkeys of the genus Cacajao, the only New World monkeys having a short tail: all are now rare.

Ubiety means, the property of having a definite location at any given time; state of existing and being localized in space. It sounds like it has something to do with math or logic, as in, how can something not be in a location at any given time?

Ubique is Latin for everywhere. So, of course lead to ubiquitous, which means pretty much the same thing.

By the way, remember what I said about the dominance of the letter, “S”? We have six letters remaining, including, “U” and all of those letters combined occupy about 60% of the number of pages dedicated to the letter, “S”. I’m just saying.

Three Quarters, Now

That’s how far along I am with this project. The letter T rests squarely in the position that is one quarter from the end of the alphabet. There are only six letters remaining, after I post this entry for T.

Thus, we begin. That there are two words after, “tab” which work well for this post, I’ll choose the one that appeals to me, or at least is less unappealing. Thank you for your indulgence.

Tabanid is a bloodsucking fly, where tabard is an article of clothing. Therefore, we begin with tabard. Webster says it is a loose outer garment, sleeveless or with short sleeves, esp. one worn by a know over his armor and usually emblazoned with his arms. There are two more definitions, which I’ll have to fill in later, as I am over-tired and ready to retire.

For now, this is it.

BR

OK, I’m back at it. 

2. an official garment of a herald, emblazoned with the arms of his master. 3. a course, heavy, short coat, with or without sleeves, formerly worn outdoors.

Now, onto the letter, “U”.

Syzygy

There’s a word for you! It means an alignment of three celestial objects, as the sun, the earth, and either the moon or a planet. Syzygy in the sun-earth-moon system occurs at the time of full moon and new moon.

Yes, this is a second entry for the letter, “s”, because nearly 250 pages of the dictionary are dedicated to words that begin with this letter. Nothing else comes close!

Enjoy!

Sabadilla

It’s a little late to be starting this, but since I’ve learned yet another new word, I’m commited to posting something tonight.

I’ll fill in the blanks tomorrow, after my first cup of java. For now, let me say; this is about a plant that I think may be common to the desert area. Here is a link to an image and a page about it.

It is used at a homeopathic remedy for allergies - according to this website.

Ridiculous

If you only knew me, you’d know this word carries some weight with me. Now I use it to describe something that is truly wonderful, like endive stuffed with fig butter, a mixture of nuts, and a wine reduction. This ridiculously scrumptious delight was created by Mandy Calvano, one of our good friends, one of our bowling buddies, new President of ACT I. The fig butter was made by Lisa Stevens, from figs grown on a tree right outside the window of the room I’m in now, as I write this. Nice, huh?

Ridiculous also describes how I sometimes feel when I’m writing this late at night. Less than an hour ago, I was nodding off in front of the TV, and now I’m having trouble holding my head steady as I type. It’s a good thing my fingers know what they’re doing.

Retire to the bedroom, I must.

Enjoy.

Qadi or Qaf or Qaid

There are times, I suppose, when even the most respected of authors, book sellers, publishers, or what have you, will “let you down and leave you flat.” I quoted that, because it’s a line from a Beatles song.

Every one of these words is about some Muslim thing or is an Arabic letter, so I don’t have much use for the definitions, or the words, for that matter. 

If you look down the column, (by that, I mean the first column in the Q section) you’ll see another entry for qasida, an Arabic poem, unually in monorhyme, that may be satirical, elegiac, threatening, or laudatory. That’s just great. I won’t be using that, either. And, yes, I had to look up “elegiac” - which means mournful - how sad!

Also, Webster made me do the work, to find out the definition for Caid, which was the only definition of Qaid. Only thing is, I now have new information about two words for a Muslim tribal chief, judge, or senior official. So, if I ever find myself in a situation where this knowledge is useful, I’ll have it.

That was sarcasm, which almost never translates well with the written word. 

It’s a good thing I’m writing this for me. At least someone here gets my humor!

Ozostomia

This is nearly the last entry in the “O’s” and no, that was not leading you to say the word, Ozone, which is on the same page.

Our word of the day means bad breath, something I often have. 

Since I’m nearly down and out today, due to illness this morning, I’m sure my breath is pretty well matched with that of an average dragon.

That’s all I’m going to say, at least, until I’m feeling better.

No joy.

Nabokov or Naismith

Not sure of the necessity of limiting this to words only, I’ve chosen a couple of names here.

Naismith (James) is listed as a U.S. physical-education teacher and originator of basketball. Who knew?

Nabokov (Vladimir or Vladimirovich) is listed as a U.S. novelist, short-story writer, and poet, born in Russia. Now, whenever I hear his name, I think of Lolita and its message of wretchedness, which is ridiculous, since I’ve never read the story. On the other hand, the Internet can provide a pretty clear understanding of the meaning of things. You might also learn that our subject was a lepidopterist.

Thanks to, The Police, for their lyrics in “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”, which include a reference to Nabokov. This prompted me long ago to find the meaning of such things.

Naturally, I’m far more concerned with information on a writer than I could ever be with basketball.

Notice we are nearly never knowing nothing now. Nice?

Once, back in grade school, I found a sentence with the word, “had” in it many times in succession and it made sense. I’ll have to see if I can find that again. Oh, never mind.

 

 

Macaronic

Nope, it’s not like pasta. Webster’s says, composed of or characterized by Latin words mixed with vernacular words or non-Latin words given Latin endings. There are four other definitions, but I like that one, so I’m going to look for examples.

Here’s the wikipedia on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaronic_language

OK, the broader definition includes mixtures of languages and there are more examples of this to support the content of this blog post. For instance, wikipedia cites a book, by Brian P. Cleary, entitled, “What Can I C’est?” - which is a nice play on English/French combinations.

That’s all for now. I’m not feeling well and it’s late.

Enjoy!

Keep It Up!

Remember my, “Because It’s Easy” post? In that one, I pulled my dusty dictionary off the shelf and found the word, “ba”; then found the definition on Wiktionary to be incongruent with my Webster’s version. That was a good lesson and I’ll repeat that bit of research here.

Ba is an Egyptian concept of the soul, the spirit that lives on after death. 

Today’s word, ka, is the life force, or the spiritual entity, believed to live in the body during life and to survive it after death. The big difference between the two, according to Wikipedia, is the corporeal version of Ba, versus the more ethereal quality of Ka. 

Thanks, Google, for search - as I found this resource explaining the five parts of the Egyptian soul. Who knew? 

This is definitely one of those, “writing to learn” projects. If I run this project for a year, I’ll be through the dictionary 12 times. In a few years, I’ll be ready for Jeopardy.

Jape

This is the first word after half a page (1023, to be exact) of words that start with japan. Yes, I know I did not capitalize there, because there is a word, japan, before the word, Japan. That definition is all about hard, durable, black varnishes - but this post is about jape, which means to jest or joke.

Here we go, a new word (for me) about being funny - how funny! Jape also means to mock, make fun of, and as a noun, it is a trick or practical joke. If I had more material ready for this topic, the rest of this post would be filled with japery.

Here’s one for you: Say this out loud…. What do you call a fish with no eyes? “fsh”

I’m going to need something fresh for Thursday, so if you’ve heard a good one, send email. 

Find my email address at rouzell.com.

Ikebana

“Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so.” Those lyrics are from an old, one-hit wonder band, the Vapors. In this song the idea of taking pictures gets twisted a bit. Later lyrics include,”I want a doctor to take your picture, So I can look at you from inside as well” - suggesting complete obsession with the subject.

What does it mean? What does that have to do with this? Other than this is the second consecutive subject of a blog post that is something Japanese, nothing. I just like the song and it makes me smile.

So, we are up to the letter, “i” in the dictionary and I found this word somewhere between ignorance and illegitimate, so there it is. Ikebana is, according to Webster’s, the Japanese art of arranging flowers. Although the true history of the craft is listed as unidentified in Wikipedia, the future of the practice is likely to be bright, given the sources of instruction available today. 

If you’ve come this far, thank you for reading my blog. If I had not started this project, I would know nothing about Happi or Ikebana. Maybe it’s the same for you?

Happi Coat

This is something I should wear, for the suggestive power it certainly must have. Yes, I realize it’s not spelled like happy. However, it sure sounds the same to me.

We should all have some garment we can don, to make ourselves feel content.

Speaking of content, this is all this is. A Happi (a.k.a., Happi Coat) is a Japanese straight sleeved coat traditionally worn only at festivals. Today, you can find several online vendors of this clothing article.

One more article in a series, this is designed to satisfy my need to post something daily. Or, at least, I’ll post something each weekday.

That’s all for tonight.

Enjoy!

Gaffle

If you are following along, you’ll note that each post is on a word from the dictionary, a to z. Since I am working on posting something every day (or at least, every weekday) this project should last about a month. This is in response to a post I read recently about posting every day, as part of a 30-day plan to become a better blogger.

OK, that said, we move onto the word of the day. Gaffle means to take hold of, or to seize, as one’s own. This is something I need to do with my future. As in, I’ve been not so good at planning for the days, weeks, months and years to come. This means that I am not forward looking, or forward thinking. I just kind of deal with things as they come along. This leaves me often feeling as if I have nothing to look forward to, so it is not good for my usual optimistic outlook.

Well, gee, aren’t we having a little bit of pity here? Gaffle the meaning in this post, if you will and see if it applies at all to your situation. I once knew a guy who would say; “Failure to plan, is a plan to fail.” I never agreed with that philosophy, as I thought failure to plan was no plan at all, so it certainly was not a plan to fail. Nobody would make that plan.

The point is, I suppose, if you have no plans, your future is mostly cloudy, with a chance of rain. 

Enjoy it, anyway!

Fabaceous

One of my friends, an associate from several networking groups, uses the word, “fabulous” quite often. When I found fabaceous in the dictionary, I was hoping it had some meaning that might contradict fabulous, so I might use it at some appropriate time to be contradictory.

Well, it doesn’t have a meaning that’s anything close to what I was hoping it would be. In fact, it means beans! Yes, that’s right. It’s just another word for leguminous, or leguminosae - like a bean.

I suppose the word beans could be used in a number of ways. As in, “he doesn’t know beans about SEO.” Or, as one of my former supervisors used to like to say, “cool beans!”, when he meant, fabulous.

So, back to our subject, that would become; “his knowledge of SEO is less than fabaceous” and “fabaceously chilly!” OK, enough of that.

Just to reiterate something I said not so long ago; be careful with “information” you get from online resources. Having just looked up, “use the word beans in a sentence”, I kid you not when I say this. On the website linked below, you’ll find a sentence that ends with, “two beans of light.” Maybe it’s just me, but I find that funny!

Beans in a sentence, on Reference.com

 

Funding

Taking a cheap way out here, so I’ll have to post another “F-word” later today. Using an “F-word” can be fun, after all! If you have not been following along, I’m posting a new word each day, to help me with a 30-day project; and using the alphabet approach to make it easy to find new content.

I’m still in the concept phase (although the first chapter is written, as is the outline) of my book. When I’m thinking about how I’m going to get some money behind the project, I often think of the Gates Foundation and wonder if Bill and Melinda might like my idea.

What prompted me to write about this again is something I read on thegatesnotes website. Bill is discussing a book written by Jared Diamond. That last paragraph made me laugh and I have a deep and serious appreciation for humor, especially among very cerebral people. In this case, there was even some math involved, statistics, and old age in the equation. You know I love that!

Click here and scroll to the bottom for the quote.

I was going to put the quote directly in this post, but I recently read somewhere that “click here” is still very useful. So, do it.

Enjoy!