In this, our no-doubt awesome inaugural episode my daughter, Elsa, and I discuss words: the good, the bad, and the German. Also our favorite diseases, and why you should definitely go into heavy metal.
Category: words
Jan 21
Supercalawhatever
“Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious, even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious” It takes a bold lyricist to admit when his song is obnoxious in the very lyrics of said song.
May 07
ultima Thule
“The term ultima Thule in medieval geographies denotes any distant place located beyond the ‘borders of the known world’.” Link to the Wikipedia article.
Jan 13
Rozzers
n., British slang term for the police. If you watch Top Gear U.K., you have likely heard James May use this term several times, as in ‘The rozzers are behind me.’ “From ‘Robert’, after Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850), commonly considered the father of modern policing, and who established the Metropolitan Police Force in London (1829). …
Dec 22
Profound
I had never heard this word used as a verb until recently. I was in a small group discussing Facebook. Most of us mentioned that we tended to read posts from people who posted very little. One woman, whom I admire, said she skips posts where the same user is just reposting all of the …
Nov 01
Bausünde
A German word describing an architectural eyesore (literally: “construction sin”). Or, in my opinion, all skyscrapers in any style other than Art Deco. via Better Than English, which has lots of other neat words from other languages.
Oct 28
Humblebrag
n., “a statement in which you pretend to be modest but which you are really using as a way of telling people about your success or achievements.” The word was recently added to the dictionary. Tim Challies, where I first heard the word, has an excellent tutorial on how to humblebrag effectively.
Oct 11
poignard
n., PONE-yerd or PWN-yerd for you gamers out there. As you could probably tell from the way the pronunciation doesn’t match the spelling, the word is indeed French. The Anglicized spelling is ‘poniard,’ and in French or English it refers to a small, tapering dagger. “She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.” –Benedick, from Much …
