Today's word of the day is:

T

Tom_

Active Member
OFC Regular
Ichthyologist. (Noun) // A person who studies fish.

Why is ichthyologist the word of the day? Well for starters -- it is simply fun to say, causing you to click your tongue in multiple ways. But more importantly, fish are friends and not food, and who else better to educate us on that than an ichthyologist? (Which I'm sure Bruce the Shark holds an honorary degree in.)

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On a side note, I realize how pointless and irrelevant this post is, but like trivia -- it helps to pass the time.
 
Involution, n. : Has several technical meanings, but in general parlance means a state of being complex or involved.

From old words meaning curling inward.

I've only seen it written once and from the context it implies a sort of crazed concentration or self-absorption with a task.
 
Telemachus said:
Involution, n. : Has several technical meanings, but in general parlance means a state of being complex or involved.

From old words meaning curling inward.

I've only seen it written once and from the context it implies a sort of crazed concentration or self-absorption with a task.
Click to expand...

Learned a new word today! Thanks!
 
Quixotic. (Adjective) // Foolishly idealistic, often in a romantic sense.

I've always found this word interesting, seeing how its origins stem from the novel, Don Quixote, in which the titular character, famously and wildly decides to engage in fanastical quests -- often magnified in importance through his imagination. What makes it interesting to me is that a character can be so well written and iconic, that it has influenced society to adopt a term in their honor.

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Thank you to my fellow contributors and readers -- it is always a pleasure to learn or be reminded of new/forgotten words!
 
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Peripatetic. (Noun) // A wanderer or traveler from place to place.

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I came across this word when I was much younger while reading Calvin and Hobbes. Unlike Calvin, who is blessed with a diverse and impressive vocabulary (but somehow still finds a way to fail every exam), I was forced to consult a dictionary in order to understand the joke. In the end, however, it has become one of my favorites due to how easily it rolls off the tongue.

Despite being, what I consider, quite humorous, I think this joke also opens us up to some introspection. I certainly enjoy being able to quickly fire back a retort when being insulted, (George Costanza can certainly learn a thing or two from Calvin's desire to be prepared), I also wonder if life is too short to even bother responding to insults. Maybe we would just be happier if we accepted that sometimes people get emotional and say things they may not really mean. Then again, I should also probably just get off my soap box.

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The jerk store called.
 
Stove, v.
I have only ever seen this written once, and I found it a very annoying sentence. The one and only Cormac McCarthy says it, if I recall correctly, in one of the first paragraphs of Blood Meridian.

"Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove."

I've heard several definitions of the word. Google says it's something broken by being forced in on itself or" piercing it roughly", while other definitions says it means smashing something into little pieces.

Looking up a the big Dipper in the midst of a meteor shower, I'd be inclined to go with the latter, as I imagine the Dipper shape might be made less intelligible, as though smashed, if enough shooting stars fired through it. I don't know if I've seen the Leonids.
 
One more from cryptic Cormac.

Scree, n.

I like this word because it's an ultra specific, but non-technical term. I remember in No Country For Old Men, when Llewellyn escapes the truck and the dogs by scrabbling down a ledge and jumping into a river (again, I'm only pretty sure I'm remembering that right.)

It is a mound made of, or a slope covered with, small broken stones or gravel primarily found at the base of a cliff, crag, mountain, etc.
 
I'm reading a book called "A Personal Narrative of Two Years' Imprisonment in Burma" (1862) by Henry Gouger which is recounting of the events prior to and of the aforementioned Imprisonment. The British annexed the whole of Burma while he was in the region as an adventuring entrepreneur.

I'm only on the introductory segment, but it promises to be a gruesome and meticulous tale of torture, woe, and the old timey git-up-n-go.

I like these old books because they have lots of cool out-of-fashion words.

Mendicant, n. - I've seen this word elsewhere, but it's not terribly common. A Mendicant is a member of a religious order who subsist entirely on alms. While the term is most commonly used to refer to ascetic friars and monks of Christendom, it is used by Mr. Gouger to refer to the Buddhist monks who eschew all temptations and all worldly possessions. Each day, he says, they walk solemnly through the village accepting donations. Each time they are given a donation by a woman, they hastily avert their eyes lest they fall into the sin of lust.

The word derives from old terms for beggars.

Dilatory, adj. - Henry Gouger is doing what all good 1800's explorer would do and is hiring natives to head upriver into uncharted jungle. He has purchased boats and the natives are victualling them while he recovers from a minor illness in Rangoon. The process is very slow and delayed, possibly intentionally, perhaps not, maybe through incompetence, but that is general meaning, to be delayed for a long period.

This word comes from old Latin words for "deferring" or "delaying."
 
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