Word Of The Day

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Theresa Phooking May had a proper KEYSMASH last night! OMG she is phooking useless!

Her sense of entitlement is nauseating!

[Altobelli]

We have to live with it (her) BT, the trouble is there is no one out there who is more decent or has the bollox to drastically change our Country which is sinking in the mire for all to see.

[Altobelli]

PUFFERY noun (puhf-uh-ree)

noun

1. undue or exaggerated praise.
2. publicity, acclaim, etc., that is full of undue or exaggerated praise.

Quotes

The one TV critic whom no one is paranoid about is the Times's otherworldly right-winger, John Corry, who wrote a piece praising the universally excoriated debut of 48 Hours one week and then, having been lambasted for this puffery by his fellow Timesmen, wrote a piece the following week, before an episode of the show had aired, recanting his praise.
--*Charles Pooter,*"Calling All Critics," Spy, April 1988

He was all concern and sympathy and told me how much he admired me standing up for my home and family, and somehow all that puffery ended up with me being told that there's no way the party could support me this election cycle.
--*John Scalzi,*Lock In, 2014



Origin

The word puffery has always meant “excessive, fulsome praise.” In the US puffery has legal or quasi-legal status. In 1957 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that puffery was “frequently used to denote the exaggerations reasonably to be expected of a seller as to the degree of quality of his product, the truth or falsity of which cannot be precisely determined." And in 1984 the FTC stated that puffery, e.g, all that French on a restaurant menu, does not authorize enforcement by the FTC: "The Commission generally will not pursue cases involving obviously exaggerated or puffing representations, i.e., those that the ordinary consumers do not take seriously." Puffery entered English in the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

CENTENARIAN noun (sen-tn-air-ee-uh n)

noun

1. a person who has reached the age of 100.

adjective

1. pertaining to or having lived 100 years.

Quotes

Allan cut across the churchyard to the south, until a stone wall appeared in his path. It wasn't more than three feet high, but Allan was a centenarian, not a high jumper.
--*Jonas Jonasson,*The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, translated by Rod Bradbury, 2012

A spry centenarian, he still drives and is known for his sharp sense of humor.
--*"Milestones: Rotarians in Action," Rotarian, June 2002



Origin

Centenarian comes from the Latin adjective centēnārius “consisting of a hundred” but in classical Latin refers to measurements or solid things (e.g., 100-pound boulders for hurling in a ballista, an ancient artillery piece) but not to persons. The senses of “lasting a hundred years, a hundred years old" is a development in Late Latin. Centēnārius is a derivative of the adjective centēnī “a hundred each, a hundred,” and may be used for persons. It is all too easy (and reasonable) to think that centenarian should be spelled centennarian (i.e., with two n’s) on the analogy of centennial, bicentennial, etc., in which the -enn is a combining form from the noun annus “year.” Centenarian entered English in the mid-18th century.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

You are almost there Alto!

[Altobelli]

You are almost there Alto!

I'm way off yet BT, but I do feel like I have been around for a ton

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Beneboy said you look it too!

[Altobelli]

I've had a hard life, been fleeced by 2 wives and when I got rid of them the 4 Daughters started, not to mention being mugged by passed and present Governments periodically.

[Altobelli]

SINKER noun (sing-ker)

noun
1. Slang. a doughnut or, sometimes, a biscuit or muffin.
2. a person or thing that sinks.
3. a person employed in sinking, as one who sinks shafts.
4. a weight, as of lead, for sinking a fishing line or net below the surface of the water.
5. Also called sinkerball. Baseball. a pitched ball that curves downward sharply as it reaches the plate.

Quotes

"Coffee, a sinker, and some information," I said, sitting down at the counter.
--*Stuart M. Kaminsky,*Think Fast, Mr. Peters, 1987

Phil harvey chewed slowly on a sinker, dipping it into his coffee, and watched the block through the window while the crazy Captain waited for service at the counter.
--*Lee Lamothe,*Free Form Jazz, 2010



Origin

Sinker is an obsolete Americanism for doughnut. Its facetious etymology was that if a sinker were thrown overboard, it wouldn’t float, it would sink. The word entered English in the 19th century.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

If SD leaves I feel a SINKER coming on...