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WISENHEIMER

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 11:25 pm
by Dr. Goodword
• wisenheimer •

Pronunciation: wai-zên-hai-mêr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: (Slang) 1. A smart aleck, a wise guy, a know-it-all; an upstart who makes conceited, insolent comments. 2. Someone whose jokes are funny only to himself or herself.

Notes: English, of course, wallows in a plethora of facetious words, mostly contrived by us Americans, who seem to play with English more than work with it. Wisenheimer is up (or down) there with gobbledegook, snollygoster, high-falutin', to just touch the tip of the iceberg.

In Play: Wisenheimers are conceited people who think that they know it all: "The wisenheimer told Lucy that if she had the sense the good Lord gave a goose, she would not have served up a swan instead of a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner." A wisenheimer's sense of humor never jibes with our own: "Sorry, ma'am; some wisenheimer told me this was the men's restroom."

Word History: Today's Good and funny Word is a concoction of the adjective wise + German -enheimer found in such surnames as Oppenheimer, Frankenheimer, Schottenheimer. The implication comes from the turn of the century when the most brilliant scientific minds were assumed to be in Germany. This "ending" in words like Oppenheimer is really the suffix -er "person who", also found in English, added to Oppenheim, the name of a town. Heim is a German equivalent (and relative) of English home, so Oppenheim originally referred to the estate of a 6th century German nobleman by the name of Obbo. (Although he can be something of a wisenheimer, Larry Brady was just doing his usual good job in suggesting this very Good Word for our series)

Re: WISENHEIMER

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 2:00 am
by Stargzer
. . . (Although he can be something of a wisenheimer, Larry Brady . . .
MOI? :shock:

:wink:

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 2:33 am
by gailr
Toi.

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:47 am
by Perry
Oui. Tet toi et soiu bel. (I can't vouch for my spelling though.) Just kidding :!: :!: :!: