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Thread: Word Of The Day

  1. #471
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    Apr 2009
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    34,432
    BUMFUZZLE verb (buhm-fuhz-eh l)

    verb

    1. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. to confuse or fluster.


    Quotes

    This holyfied lady's jest tryin' to bumfuzzle us.
--*Joan Hess,*Mischief in Maggody, 1988

"This is an attempt to bumfuzzle," said the President.
--*William Safire,*"On Language: The Way We Live Now," New York Times Magazine, November 14, 1999



    Origin

    Bumfuzzle comes from bum-, an expressive prefix, perhaps to be identified with the initial syllable of bamboozle, and fuzzle “to confuse,” perhaps expressive alteration of fuddle. It’s been used in English since around 1900.

  2. #472
    One or two proper "Bumfuzzlers" on here, I can tell you!

  3. #473
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    34,432
    Quote Originally Posted by The Bedlington Terrier View Post
    One or two proper "Bumfuzzlers" on here, I can tell you!
    I was thinking just the same BT

  4. #474
    My very favourite new word! BUMFUZZLER!

  5. #475
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    Apr 2009
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    34,432
    BALLON noun (French ba-lawn)

    noun

    1. Ballet. the lightness and grace of movement that make a dancer appear buoyant.


    Quotes

    For a ballerina she had pretty much zero ballon at this point. Her feet dragged across the floor like the last two dodoes.
--*Charles D'Ambrosio,*"Screenwriter," The New Yorker, December 8, 2003

Ballon: A quality of movement by which the impression is given that the dancer, by a reversal of the laws of gravity, is continuously thrown off the ground, instead of pushing himself away from it, and should not be confused with elevation, which is more concerned with the height of the dancer's jumps.
--*Leo Kersley and Janet Sinclair,*A Dictionary of Ballet Terms, 1953



    Origin

    Ballon is a French term used especially in ballet, describing a dancer who appears to be floating in the air while executing a jump or other movement, like “His Airness,” Michael Jordan. Earlier English spellings of the word include balonne, baloune, and balloone as well as balloon. The original sense of the word in the early 17th century was “ball,” specifically a large, sturdy, inflated leather ball hit with the arms protected with wooden boards or kicked like a soccer ball. By the late 17th century ballon and balloon had developed the meaning “a large globular glass vessel” used for chemical distillation; and by the late 18th century, balloon (thus spelled) also meant “a round, flexible, airtight bag that rises into the air when inflated with heated air or gas.” Balloon becomes the standard English spelling in the late 17th century. Ballon, as a ballet term, entered English in the 19th century.

  6. #476
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    MEMBRANOPHONE noun (mem-brey-nuy-fohn)

    noun

    1. any musical instrument, as a drum, in which the sound is produced by striking, rubbing, or blowing against a membrane stretched over a frame.


    Quotes

    To the people who like to collect and use big words, [drums] are membranophones.
--*"Drums make both sound and music," Boys' Life, September 1975

Many of the membranophones used in a standard rock/pop drum kit can be tuned by adjusting the tension of the membrane.
--*Derry FitzGerald and Jouni Paulus,*"Unpitched Percussion Transcription," Signal Processing Methods for Music Transcription, 2006



    Origin

    Membranophone was first recorded in the 1930s. It’s a blend of membrane, a late Middle English term from Middle English membraan “parchment,” which ultimately derives from Latin membrāna, and -phone, a combining form used in words for musical instruments.
    Last edited by Altobelli; 29-07-2017 at 11:02 PM.

  7. #477
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    13,001
    Quote Originally Posted by sinkov View Post
    Is it possible to have merrymaking that's not jolly ?

    I only ask.
    You mean without Angelina?

  8. #478
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    Apr 2009
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    VARIEGATED adjective (vair-ee-i-gey-tid)


    adjective

    1. varied in appearance or color; marked with patches or spots of different colors.
    2. varied; diversified; diverse.


    Quotes

    "If you put this in potting soil and keep it watered, you'll have your own spider plant." Her eyes widened. "Does it grow spiders?" "No, just nice variegated leaves," I assured her. "Green with white stripes."
--*James Patterson,*"Tell Me Your Best Story," Two from the Heart, 2017

One single bulb of this glorious variegated tulip would have cost more than Buckingham Palace!
--*Naomi A. Alderman,*Doctor Who: Borrowed Time, 2011



    Origin

    The first element of the Latin verb variegāre “to diversify, make different colors” is the adjective varius “mottled, spotted, speckled; different, changing.” The second element of the Latin verb, -egāre, is a combining form of the verb agere, originally “to drive, lead” but with as many developed senses in Latin as do, make, or run in English. Variegated entered English in the mid-17th century.

  9. #479
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    Apr 2009
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    ERGATE noun (ur-geyt)


    noun

    1. a worker ant.


    Quotes

    The worker (ergates) is characterized by the complete absence of wings and a very small ... thorax, much simplified in the structure of its sclerites ...
--*William Morton Wheeler,*Ants: Their Structure, Development and Behavior, 1910

I knew her favourite theory that all the types of transitional between the three chief castes, the male, female, and the ergate or worker, were pathological ...
--*Frederick Philip Grove,*Consider Her Ways, 1947



    Origin

    Ergate comes from Greek ergátēs “worker,” a derivative of the noun érgon (also wérgon in some dialects) “work,” a straightforward development from the Proto-Indo-European root werg- “to work,” the same source as English work. Ergate entered English in the early 20th century.

  10. #480
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    Apr 2009
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    34,432
    Two short one's today, for the benefit of a poster.

    DISDAIN

    (verb)

    1.to look upon or treat with contempt; despise, scorn.
    2.to think unworthy or notice, response, etc. consider beneath oneself: to disdain replying to an insult

    Origin: 1300-50; (v) Middle English disdainen <


    DISTAIN


    (verb)



    1.to discolour; stain; sully


    Origin: 1350-1400; Middle English desteignen<

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