Word Of The Day

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HOBBYHORSE noun (hob-ee-hawrs)


noun
1. a pet idea or project.
2. a stick with a horse's head, or a rocking horse, ridden by children.
3. a figure of a horse, attached at the waist of a performer in a morris dance, pantomime, etc.


Quotes

His face kindled as it only did when the subject of electricity came up. His hobbyhorse, Claire would have said. My dad would have called it his obsession.
--*Stephen King,*Revival, 2014

If he had a hobbyhorse, it was that. He loved a garden.
--*Jane Austen,*Northanger Abbey, 1817



Origin

In Middle English one of the meanings of hobby was “small horse, pony” (obsolete except in dialect). By the early 19th century hobby acquired the sense “favorite occupation or amusement,” the current meaning of the word. This last sense of hobby was borrowed from the earlier hobbyhorse, which in the 16th century meant several things, e.g., a figure of a horse made of wicker worn in morris dances, pantomimes, and burlesques; a child’s toy consisting of horse’s head on the end of a stick or a rocking horse; a horse on a merry-go-round or a carousel. By the 17th century hobbyhorse developed the meaning “pet project, favorite pastime.” Hobbyhorse entered English in the 16th century.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I'm going with...

socio|path
[ˈsəʊʃɪə(ʊ)paθ, ˈsəʊsɪə(ʊ)paθ]

NOUN
a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behaviour.
synonyms: madman/madwoman · mad person · deranged person · maniac · lunatic · psychotic · sociopath · loony · fruitcake · nutcase · nut · nutter · nutjob · cuckoo · psycho · schizo · [

[Altobelli]

Seems a good job your wife called you away or you would have probably still been writing

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CONSUETUDE noun (kon-swi-tood)

noun

1. custom, especially as having legal force.


Quotes

They must stand idly by, and in silence watch their ancient consuetude be tossed summarily into the limbo of forgotten things.
--*Richard C. Baker,*"The Supreme Court and the Freedom of Religion Mélange," American Bar Association Journal, May 1963

"Yet bethink thee, reverend father," said Mont-Fitchet, "the stain hath become engrained by time and consuetude; let thy reformation be cautious, as it is just and wise."
--*Sir Walter Scott,*Ivanhoe: A Romance, 1819



Origin

Consuetude comes from Old French consuetude, in Old French a learned borrowing or Latinism from Latin consuētūdō “custom, usage, habit; idiom or usage (in language); customary right or usage in law (its usual modern sense); companionship, familiarity, social intercourse, ***ual intercourse, illicit love affair.” Consuetude entered English in the 14th century.

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PALSY-WALSY adjective (pal-zee-wal-zee)

adjective

1. Slang. friendly or appearing to be friendly in a very intimate or hearty way: The police kept their eye on him because he was trying to get palsy-walsy with the security guard.


Quotes

For musical history I give you this duo-portrait of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby who became very palsy-walsy recently in Los Angeles.
--*Harold Trudeau,*"Pictures to the Editors," Life, February 21, 1944

Well, don't expect me to be palsy-walsy. I'll shoot the breeze, okay. But I'm not about to be your pal just because you're Bijou's cousin from Hollywood and radio land.
--*Ron Hansen,*"Playland," She Loves Me Not: New and Selected Stories, 2012



Origin

Palsy-walsy came to English in the 1930s. It’s a rhyming compound based on the slang term palsy, which was first recorded in the 1920s.

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FRUCTIFY verb (fruhk-tuh-fahy)

verb

1. to bear fruit; become fruitful: With careful tending the plant will fructify.
2. to make fruitful or productive; fertilize: warm spring rains fructifying the earth.


Quotes

... his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts: And such barren plants are set before us that we thankful should be (Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify in us more than he.
--*William Shakespeare,*Love's Labour's Lost, 1598

To plant the good seed in the waiting ground one must not only know all about the seed itself, but must be acquainted with the properties of the ground in which it is destined to fructify.
--*Guy Thorne,*The Angel, 1908



Origin

Fructify comes from Middle English fructifien from Old French fructifier. It ultimately derives from Latin frūctificāre. It entered English in the late 13th century or early 14th century.

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MUSSITATION noun (muhs-i-tey-shuh n)

noun

1. muttering; mumbling; murmuring.
2. silent movement of the lips in simulation of the movements made in audible speech.


Quotes

Not conversation by any civilized standard, but a kind of mussitation, the prisoner's half-mime half-whisper, under the nodding eye of an orderly.
--*Jamie O'Neill,*At Swim, Two Boys, 2001

Then they said, "Let us take it by stratagem; let us send one who is skilled in mussitation*, who can make black white and white black, and can give to any object whatever colour he pleases." ... *It may be proper to inform the unlearned reader, that mussitation means the same as muttering, or whispering, and is therefore a term suited to denote an art which consist in speaking obscurely and perplexedly on all subjects, and thereby darkening the clearness and plainness of genuine truth.
--*Emanuel Swedenborg,*The Apocalypse Revealed, Wherein Are Disclosed the Arcana There Foretold, Which Have Hitherto Remained Concealed, Volume II, translated from the Latin, 1791



Origin

Mussitation, a very rare noun, derives from Late Latin mussitātiō (stem mussitātiōn-) “suppression of the voice, silence.” The sense of “moving the lips in silence but as if speaking” is a modern medical sense dating from the late 19th century. Late Latin mussitātiō derives from the Latin verb mussitāre “to speak in a low tone, grumble, take no notice of, bear silently.” Mussitation entered English in the mid-17th century.

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VENTIFACT noun (ven-tuh-fakt)

noun

1. Geology. a pebble or cobble that has been faceted, grooved, and polished by the erosive action of wind-driven sand.


Quotes

The surface was a fine trash of ventifacts--stones that had been polished into smooth facets by blowing grit ...
--*Sarah Andrews,*In Cold Pursuit, 2007

A little world, and completely filled with small black boulders, like fossil balls from various sports, only all black, and all faceted to one extent or another. They were ventifacts.
--*Kim Stanley Robinson,*Green Mars, 1994



Origin

Ventifact, “stone shaped by the wind or sandstorms,” is a rare word, used in geology and physical geography, and is modeled on the much earlier noun artifact (artefact), which dates from the mid-17th century. Ventifact derives straightforwardly from Latin ventum “wind” (venti- is the Latin combining form) and factum, the past participle, also used as a noun, of the verb facere “to make, do” (with as many senses as the English verbs). Latin ventum is related to English wind, winnow, and weather. Latin facere and the adjective facilis “easy, easy to do” derive from a very common Proto-Indo-European root dhē- “to put, place, set,” from which Germanic (English) derives do and deed, Greek tithénai “to set, put,” and Slavic (Polish) dzieje “history” (i.e., things done, deeds). Ventifact entered English in the early 20th century.

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parsimonious
ˌpɑːsɪˈməʊnɪəs/Submit
adjective
adjective: parsimonious
very unwilling to spend money or use resources.
"even the parsimonious Joe paid for drinks all round"
synonyms: mean, miserly, niggardly, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheese-paring, ungenerous, penurious, illiberal, close, grasping, Scrooge-like, stinting, sparing, frugal; More
antonyms: generous, extravagant, lavish

[Altobelli]

parsimonious
ˌpɑːsɪˈməʊnɪəs/Submit
adjective
adjective: parsimonious
very unwilling to spend money or use resources.
"even the parsimonious Joe paid for drinks all round"
synonyms: mean, miserly, niggardly, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheese-paring, ungenerous, penurious, illiberal, close, grasping, Scrooge-like, stinting, sparing, frugal; More
antonyms: generous, extravagant, lavish

That's very apt at the present moment in time Server