For those of you confused about the difference between donkeys, asses, and mules (I assume you can identify horses), this is for you. I hope I get all the terminology right, because each creature gets it own word based on gender, species, parentage, and whether or not it (in the case of males) has been …
Tag: words
Nov 07
sagan
n. A unit of measurement equal to at least four billion. It was created as a humorous tribute to astronomer Carl Sagan.
Oct 28
Corn gangsta
n. One who attends a small, rural school in the middle of the Corn Belt, but dresses like he is growing up on the mean streets of Compton. The girls brought this wonderful term home from high school. As far as I know the usage is entirely localized to our school.
Sep 03
Give it a lick and a promise
I first heard this idiom last year some time from a woman at work. At first I thought it meant something vaguely dirty, so I figured I better look it up. It simply means to do a hasty job, or to do a job with the most minimal effort. It’s funny that I first heard …
Sep 01
yeoman’s job
To do a great job and/or perform a loyal service. “He did a real yeoman’s job on that patio.” UPDATE: ‘yeoman’ is pronounced YO-mun, not YEE-O-MAN.
Aug 23
usufruct
YOOS-uh-fruct. n., the right to enjoy the use of another’s property, apart from wasting or destroying it. “It was the bridegroom’s duty and interest to see that the dowry was duly paid. He enjoyed the usufruct of it during his life, and not unfrequently it was employed….” –Archibald Sayce, Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs. It is an …
Aug 16
cacoethes
[KAK-o-EETH-eez] n. an irresistible urge to do something inadvisable. I had never heard this word until reading Jim Shooter’s excellent blog.
Jun 03
muckworm
Any wormlike insect larva that lives and grows in manure. A miser “This was, methinks too high a compliment to pass upon Nabal, to call him the man that liveth. David knew better things, that in God’s favour is life, not in the world’s smiles; and by the rough answer he was well enough served, for …
