Search found 2580 matches
- Thu Sep 25, 2014 2:56 pm
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Sassy
- Replies: 4
- Views: 7605
Re: Sassy
As I understand it, sass is a back-formation from sassy, not the other way around. You are correct according to the Online Etymology Dictionary : sass (n.) "impudence," 1835, back-formation from sassy . The verb is first recorded 1856, from the noun. Related: Sassed; sassing. Sass (n.) as...
- Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:32 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: New Words in the ODO
- Replies: 3
- Views: 9779
Re: New Words in the ODO
It took this long for GIF to get into a dictionary?
As for Cray (Crazy; I had to follow the link to look it up), my first thought was one of the first supercomputers, the Cray series of computers. They looked like Victorian settees.
As for Cray (Crazy; I had to follow the link to look it up), my first thought was one of the first supercomputers, the Cray series of computers. They looked like Victorian settees.
- Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:17 pm
- Forum: Site News
- Topic: Books that Should be Written
- Replies: 14
- Views: 49820
Re: Books that Should be Written
This has been going on a very long time. I remember from grade school, back in the 60s, some stickers with book names:
The Yellow River by I. P. Daley
Brown Spots On The Wall: A Chinese Mystery by Hu Flug Poo
The Yellow River by I. P. Daley
Brown Spots On The Wall: A Chinese Mystery by Hu Flug Poo
- Wed Jul 16, 2014 12:55 pm
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Pyknic
- Replies: 1
- Views: 6469
Pyknic
Not an outdoor meal, but perhaps the result of too many outdoor meals. Few of us would say, "Let's have a pyknic!" pyk· nic (pĭk ' nĭk) ADJECTIVE: Having a short stocky physique. ETYMOLOGY: From Greek puknos, compact OTHER FORMS: pyk'nic (Noun) SOURCE: the NEARLY USELESS FACTOID section of...
- Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:11 am
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: New Oxymoron
- Replies: 2
- Views: 8196
Re: New Oxymoron
...So is anyone hit by the atomic bombs or the drones any less dead for all this humanitarianism? Indeed, humanitarian warfare is a tragic oxymoron. Someone once said, "War is Hell!" No, for any particular person, dead is dead, no matter if it's from small arms fire, Zyklon-B, being burie...
- Tue Jan 07, 2014 11:13 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: molasses in January
- Replies: 8
- Views: 16746
Re: molasses in January
Speaking of "kick the bucket," have any of you ever seen the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?" At the beginning, Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante) runs over a cliff and is thrown from his car. Four cars of people go over to help him. As he dies, one of his legs straightens out...
- Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:56 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Tagline graveyard
- Replies: 3
- Views: 9732
Re: Tagline graveyard
Long ago I updated that first tag line: "The secret to a long marriage is to remember that divorce is too expensive and murder is too risky: you can't afford the first, and you can't afford to get caught for the second." I used to work with a guy who went through probably four of five marr...
- Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:22 pm
- Forum: Site News
- Topic: Odd Links on Internet Explorer
- Replies: 9
- Views: 30273
Re: Odd Links on Internet Explorer
Gailr said: "Friends don't let friends use Internet Explorer."
[sob]
And here all these years I thought Gailr was my friend. :- (
[/sob]
[sob]
And here all these years I thought Gailr was my friend. :- (
[/sob]
- Fri Dec 27, 2013 7:18 pm
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Effable
- Replies: 18
- Views: 31773
Re: EFFABLE
This word stretches from the sublime to the silly. Shrinklits: Seventy of the World's Towering Classics Cut Down to Size includes a summary of Lolita. It includes the line, "She was ineffable and yet, as effable as she could get." With the rise of the euphemism "effing," I wonde...
- Fri Dec 27, 2013 7:06 pm
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Gobbledygook
- Replies: 2
- Views: 6532
Re: Gobbledygook
Strange, but I just ran across a page on Mental Floss called " 12 Horrible Gobbledygook Words We Reluctantly Accepted. " Serendipity? It made me wonder if #10, " demote ," the opposite of " promote ," should be " conmote ." (EGAD! The Old Buzzard still remembe...
- Wed Aug 01, 2012 3:47 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Pun Times
- Replies: 287
- Views: 893976
- Wed Aug 01, 2012 12:48 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Actor Andy Griffith
- Replies: 4
- Views: 10267
I think Andy Griffith was a much better actor than his stereotype country bumpkin roles such as Will Stockdale or Andy Taylor. His character in A Face in the Crowd was Mr. Hyde to Sheriff Taylor's Dr. Jekyll. If you've neve seen it, look for it. He plays a character you'd never suspect could exist i...
- Wed Aug 01, 2012 12:19 pm
- Forum: WELCOME HOME!
- Topic: More of a thief than a giver
- Replies: 23
- Views: 72352
Since this thread is going down the toilet, I think I will put my two cents in. ...He later made millions with Dr. Simmons' Patent Regulator. This wonderful medicine was made from alcohol, sugar and phenolphthalein. It did the job but not gently. ... Phenolphthalein is an acid-base indicator, clear...
- Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:41 am
- Forum: WELCOME HOME!
- Topic: E or A?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 39237
Practice vs. Practise
I'd say it depends on which variant of English you speak:
prac·tise
VERB:
&
NOUN:
Chiefly British
Variant of practice.
OTHER FORMS:
practis·er(Noun)
- Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:42 pm
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: GIT
- Replies: 5
- Views: 9170