How was it used where you saw it? Where was it? I'm pretty sure it's onomatopoeic for the squeak of fearful surprise. Or is that echoic?

Not related to aver (treated here and here), and actually suggested 3 other times (here, here, here), but somehow still un-doctored.

Dictionary.com has another theory for the etymology of loupe: 1905–10; < French, originally an imperfect gem, a mass of hot metal ≪ Germanic; loop3 , lob1 Not particularly satisfying, if you ask me. Making it a 20th century coinage is one pretty big stumbling point. Unless, of course, the two loupes...

For whatever reason, I have a hard time remembering the position of the stress in this word. I keep going for something along the lines of 'ah-fee-ahns'. Influenced by affluence, I guess. Now, if only I could get afinanced, I could get that car I want.

Hey, I even got some Spanish out of this one. Now when I see a menu item that says 'pastor', I'll know that it means something along the lines of 'shepherd's pie' or such. Someone told me it meant pork, and I couldn't figure that one out.

Taken up and treated here.

I may have been born in the Vanderbilt Hospital, but we moved, so I tested out as only 39% Dixie.

I think of apprise mostly in conjunction with 'situation'.

An underling might apprehensively apprise the boss of a less-than-ideal situation. Not just assonance there, but a shared root. Cool!

The recent activity of the sun made me look this one up, and here it is. Borealis and Australis could be tossed in there with it, too. It's been rainy in my world, but perhaps someone out there got a chance to see the show recently.

I'm just quibbling with the 'niggling' bit, as it makes it sound less important than I take the nitty-gritty to be.

I would quibble over 'niggling' details here. Niggling is for micromanagement, nitty-gritty is for the core, the gist of the matter, the really important stuff.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL YOU MOTHERS OUT THERE!

Well, if weltanschauung is a view of the world as we think it should be, is there a word for how we think it actually is? My own weltanschauung is not very happy right now.

And, though it's not a rare word, I had to add weltanschauung to my spell-check dictionary. Harrumph!

A good strong word, I like it. One thing, however, is that it is only about being one-sided over things that could have other sides. One couldn't be tendentious about 2 + 2 = 4, could one?

Journalists today should learn this word. Then they could write about our proditory prior president.