Bodacious

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Dr. Goodword
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Bodacious

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Feb 23, 2016 11:21 pm

• bodacious •

Pronunciation: bo-day-shês • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: (US slang) 1. Unrestrained, outspoken, brazen, bold and audacious. 2. Exceptional, excellent, or outlandishly striking.

Notes: Although we are still listing this word as slang, it is slowly but surely making its way into mainstream US English. It has been used as an adverb, bodaciously, and the noun, bodaciousness, is already all over the Web.

In Play: All who are remarkable in what they do qualify for today's adjective: "That bodacious gossip, Minnie Pearl, is telling everyone in town that I'm a transvestite just because I wore my kilt in the Memorial Day parade!" (Good thing you didn't play your bagpipes, or she might spread the rumor that you strangle cats, too.) We humans are not the only things in the world that can be bodacious: "Merlin came to the garden party in the most bodacious necktie I have ever seen."

Word History: Today's Good Word is a blend of bold + audacious. It is common in many English dialects for L to drop out or become U before the consonants P, B, T, D, K, G. Words like help and milk are pronounced [heup] and [miuk] where this occurs. After O, the U would not be heard, leading to the current spelling: bodacious. This word was particularly popular in the US South even before it was popularized in the comic strip about the southern mountain man, Snuffy Smith. Today you will hear it from coast to coast in the US though rarely elsewhere in the English-speaking world. (Today we thank Jerry Kersten for being so bodacious as to suggest this peculiar Good Word for our series.)
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Slava
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Re: Bodacious

Postby Slava » Fri May 20, 2016 6:50 am

It seems I was unintentionally correct then, in my "translation" of the title of President Obama's book: "The Bodacity of Hope." :)
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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