If it can apply to soup, I guess we could speak of a cup of tenuous tea.
Isn't 'weak tea' also an idiom for a weak argument? Or am I confusing that with something similar?
Search found 8543 matches
- Fri Sep 20, 2024 7:30 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Tenuous
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2958
- Fri Sep 20, 2024 7:03 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Quandary
- Replies: 1
- Views: 67488
Re: Quandary
Not to waste an opportunity to post a reply to a lonely word, I'll mention that squander also leaves etymologists in a quandary over whence it cometh. It doesn't seem to be related to this one, though.
- Thu Sep 19, 2024 9:17 am
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Bot or Spider?
- Replies: 1
- Views: 41
Bot or Spider?
I've noticed that among our "users" are computer scanning sweepers that go under two different names, Bot and Spider. Does anyone out there know the difference?
- Thu Sep 19, 2024 7:08 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Calisthenics
- Replies: 1
- Views: 54626
Re: Calisthenics
A bit buried by the k and just one l, but the beauty is there in kaleidoscope, too.
It's also part of a fairly popular name, at least on IMDb - Calista, which comes from Callisto.
It's also part of a fairly popular name, at least on IMDb - Calista, which comes from Callisto.
- Thu Sep 19, 2024 6:23 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Vaccinate
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2835
Re: Vaccinate
Vaccinations help cow the aggression of many diseases, making them cower, turn tail, and flee, like the cowards they are. Or so we hope.
By the way, the cow words are all not related. Moo!
By the way, the cow words are all not related. Moo!
- Wed Sep 18, 2024 10:48 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Rapacious
- Replies: 5
- Views: 5827
Re: Rapacious
Well, here's rapscallion's Good Word treatment. It has nothing to do with onions, shallots, leeks, or a style of so-called music.
- Wed Sep 18, 2024 7:27 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Rapacious
- Replies: 5
- Views: 5827
Re: Rapacious
A rapacious lust for power seems to be the guiding principle of many would-be world leaders.
- Wed Sep 18, 2024 7:25 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Corroborate
- Replies: 1
- Views: 7175
Re: Corroborate
I do like how some words and their roots can trick you. I saw that roborare root and automatically started to think of how a robot could fit into the meaning of corroborate. Oops.
- Wed Sep 18, 2024 6:02 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Impresario
- Replies: 1
- Views: 265
Re: Impresario
Taken up and treated here.
- Tue Sep 17, 2024 10:17 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Remedy
- Replies: 1
- Views: 5138
Re: Remedy
Many feel that, rather than being remedial institutions, our correctional facilities, i.e. prisons, have become oubliettes, where we dump people to forget about them.
- Tue Sep 17, 2024 6:51 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Sclerotic
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2744
Re: Sclerotic
It seems a natural evolution that all organizations become sclerotic. A "This is how we've always done it" kind of thing.
One quibble, MS is Multiple, not Muscular.
One quibble, MS is Multiple, not Muscular.
- Mon Sep 16, 2024 10:26 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Nugatory
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2869
Re: Nugatory
Depending on the circumstances and application, giving someone a noogie can be nugatory or not.
I regularly spend a nugatory evening of a Thursday in a local pub, playing trivia.
Would blue laws be considered nugatory?
I regularly spend a nugatory evening of a Thursday in a local pub, playing trivia.
Would blue laws be considered nugatory?
- Mon Sep 16, 2024 8:21 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Paronym
- Replies: 2
- Views: 45893
Re: Paronym
The question regarding normal is a trick! Both words, normalcy and normality, are valid words. Normalcy is more used in math, but it's real, not a goof by Warren Harding.
- Mon Sep 16, 2024 6:35 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Cathedra
- Replies: 2
- Views: 68
Re: Cathedra
Catheter and cathedral do share a link, but only in the PIE kata- part of the words. Catheter is kata- plus hienai, whereas cathedral is kata- plus hedra. Interestingly, hienai, which means to send, is from the PIE ye-, to throw or impel. Which means we've come full circle, in slang at least. To yee...
- Sun Sep 15, 2024 10:29 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: BILLION
- Replies: 13
- Views: 15507
Re: BILLION
16 years late, but I'll jump on the bandwagon and say merestone would be a cool Good Word, too. Have to admit, I first glossed over it as milestone, which it could be in the sentence above, but not everywhere. How it differs from a cairn might be an interesting topic to go into.