Agreed, good word. Especially as I need to be chary of how I pronounce it. I am in the habit of making the first syllable sound like the first syllable of "generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless". I must unlearn that and be fruitful in my pronunciation.

Does this help? OK 1839, only survivor of a slang fad in Boston and New York c.1838-9 for abbreviations of common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings (cf. K.G. for "no go," as if spelled "know go"); in this case, "oll korrect." Further popularized by use as an...

More on the mysterious etymology:

http://www.patrickchaplin.com/Oche.htm

This reminds me of an irregular Latin verb:

spito, spitere, hocktui, splatum.

A year late, but timely nonetheless:

The great oxymoron here is that Labor Day is the day we don't labor.

Whence cometh the redundant "u" anyways?

Okay, it's only mid-September, but it is time to start thinking of what costume you and/or your children will don for the last day of October.

I've recommended a 20's mob theme to one couple I know. Will anyone out there don a university don's duds?

Can't we all just get along?

Love,

Rodney King

By coincidence, Mr. King is in the news again, this time on what we hope is a happier note; he's getting married.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11245542

The article ends with the above quote.

Looks like someone really wants to see this word treated. Here's a longer post from the 1st of the month: http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=28352

It's still a good word, even 4 weeks later.

Good word. I've always liked the phrase "stultifyingly dull."

There is also the "Slavsya" chorus in the Glinka opera "A Life for the Tsar." Slava is also the short form of many Russian/Slavic names. If you recall the great cellist Rostropovich, his first name was Mstislav. He would most likely have been called Slava by friends and relatives...

Speaking of living and learning, I just found out that 3 feet don't always make a yard.

Turns out the two words look the same, but have different etymologies.

This one's a rarity, too. In the sense that it can take opposite adverbs and still have the same meaning.

Scrub Up.
Scrub Down.

My first thought was on the aquatic side: small eels.

Electrifying!

For the bookies out there, see this additional oddity: Conger. Quite a different definition, eh?

And let us not forget the crossword puzzle standard, alee.

Its opposite is aweather.

Two questions:

1) whence cometh that British "u"?
2) is there any real difference between mold and mould, or is it just the British "u"?