Word Of The Day

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I had this urge Saturday night !!

Tarantism
[tar-uh n-tiz-uh m]
Spell Syllables
Word Origin
noun
1.
a mania characterized by an uncontrollable impulse to dance, especially as prevalent in southern Italy from the 15th to the 17th century, popularly attributed to the bite of the tarantula.
Expand
Compare tarantula (def 3).
Origin of tarantism Expand
1630-1640 From the New Latin word tarantismus, dating back to 1630-40. See Taranto, -ism
Related forms Expand
tarantist, noun

Oh heck! Brings back awful memories of my Uncle Ian's wedding dance. OMG that was embarrassing!

[The Bedlington Terrier]

ULULATE verb (uhl-yuh-leyt)

verb

1. to lament loudly and shrilly.
2. to howl, as a dog or a wolf; hoot, as an owl.
3. to utter howling sounds, as in shrill, wordless lamentation; wail.


Quotes


And above these words spoken all about me as I climbed towards the white cone of the volcano, among the mourners indifferent to my task, ululated one high, shrill lament, a flame of words that lay like a protective mantle over the funereal ceremony of that night ...
--*Carlos Fuentes,*Terra Nostra, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden, 1976

On the stage, we get a man and woman, brother and sister, leaping and staggering around a primitive wooden effigy as they moan, chant, ululate, "Mut-ter," "mud-der," and "mut-yer," over and over again.
--*John Simon,*"Strictly from Hunger," New York, March 28, 1988



Origin

Ululate is a straightforward borrowing from Latin ululātus, past participle of the verb ululāre “to howl, shriek.” The verb derives from the noun ulala and a variant uluca “owl” from a Proto-Indo-European root of imitative origin: u- with variants ul-, ulul-, and uwal- “to howl.” (Imitative roots must be handled carefully because it is easy to make unjustified derivations.) The variant u- is the source of German Uhu “owl.” Latin uluca is related to Sanskrit úlūka- “owl.” The root variant uwal- is the source of German Eule “owl” and English owl. Ululate entered English in the 17th century.

I used to knock about with a young lady who ululated rather loudly when things got dirty. A caravan lid in Bowness nearly got blown off and there was no wind blowing about whatsoever!

[Altobelli]

PALUDAL adjective (puh-lood-)

adjective

1. of or relating to marshes.
2. produced by marshes, as miasma or disease.


Quotes

We durst not ... make a sudden leap, princum-prancum!, from the pleasant land of Hesse, the German garden, to marshy Dublin, its paludal heavens, its big winds and rains and sorrows and puddles of sky-flowers ...
--*Samuel Beckett (1906–1989),*Dream of Fair to Middling Women, 1992

Beneath this Port Hudson clay stratum lie formations materially different, and of such a character, both physical and biological, as clearly proves them to be not river alluvium, but of marine, brackish and paludal origin.
--*E. W. Hilgard,*"A New Development in the Mississippi Delta," The Popular Science Monthly, March 1912



Origin

The English adjective paludal is formed from Latin palūd- (stem of palūs) “swamp, marsh, fen.” The noun palude “swamp, fen” existed in English from the time of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400), who first used it, to Richard Hakluyt (1552?–1616), the English geographer and editor whose works greatly influenced Shakespeare (1564–1616). Hakluyt used Palude as a part of a place name, as in “the Palude or marshes of Venice.” Italian also uses palude as a common noun and as a place name, in the form Paludo, e.g., San Giacomo in Paludo (a small island in the Venetian lagoon). Italian also has the family name Padula, a metathesized form of palude, for someone who lived in or near a fen or swamp. Paludal entered English in the 19th century.

[SERVERNOTRESPONDING]

The most scary word i have found !!

Oenophobia

Wine
Oenophobia (from oenos, Greek for wine) is the fear of wine. The most common reason why people fear wine is because they contain alcohol, which is a toxin that could cause unpleasant effects. People suffering methyphobia (fear of alcohol) would fear the wine and beer (zythophobia). Sufferers would not drink wine while avoiding people who are drinking wine as they worry that drinking wine may make them act unpleasantly to them.

[Altobelli]

KIBITZER noun (kib-it-ser)

noun

1. a giver of uninvited or unwanted advice.
2. Informal. a spectator at a card game who looks at the players' cards over their shoulders, especially one who gives unsolicited advice.
3. a person who jokes, chitchats, or makes wisecracks, especially while others are trying to work or to discuss something seriously.


Quotes

Setting up his easel near the Seine, he completed the picture in a few hours, abetted by comments from American tourists, Swiss cyclists and a full-time Parisian kibitzer.
--*"Amateur Big League: Lawyer on the Left Bank," Life, April 16, 1951

"The winning strategy is to--" "Don't be a kibitzer!" Grampa snapped. "When I need help, I'll ask for it. No dad-blamed machine is gonna outthink Grampa!" He snorted indignantly.
--*James E. Gunn,*"The Gravity Business," Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1956



Origin

Kibitzer is an informal word borrowed originally into American English from Yiddish kibitzer (also kibbitzer), a derivative of the Yiddish kibetsn and German kiebitzen “to look over the shoulders of card players and offer unsolicited advice and comments.” The Yiddish and German verbs derive from the noun German Kiebitz “lapwing, plover, busybody.” Kibitzer entered English in the 20th century.

[Altobelli]

CONFABULATE verb (kun-n-fab-yuh-leyt)

verb

1. to converse informally; chat.
2. Psychiatry. to engage in confabulation.


Quotes

In the large room, where several different groups had been formed, and the hum of voices and of laughter was loud, these two young persons might confabulate ... without attracting attention.
--*Henry James,*Washington Square, 1880

If a person asks a machine “How tall are you?” and the machine wants to win the Turing test, it has no choice but to confabulate.
--*Gary Marcus,*"Why Can't My Computer Understand Me?" The New Yorker, August 14, 2013



Origin

Confabulate has a straightforward origin in the Latin verb confābulārī “to converse, discuss,” which in turn is a compound of fābulārī “to talk, chat” (the source of Spanish hablar and Portuguese falar “to speak”). Fābulārī is formed from the noun fābula “story, narration,” which in turn derives from the simple verb fārī “to speak.” The Latin root fā- derives from the Proto-Indo-European root bhā-, which is very well represented in the classical languages: Latin, e.g., fāma “fame,” fātum “fate” and Greek, e.g., phḗmē (dialect phā́mā) “utterance, report, fame” (as in Polýphēmos “much spoken of, famous,” and the name of the Cyclops in the Odyssey) and phṓnē “sound, voice” (as in telephone, microphone). Confabulate entered English in the early 17th century.

[Altobelli]

DAYMARE noun (dey-mair)

noun

1. a distressing experience, similar to a bad dream, occurring while one is awake.
2. an acute anxiety attack.


Quotes

... a monstrous load that I was obliged to bear, a daymare that there was no possibility of breaking in, a weight that brooded on my wits and blunted them!
--*Charles Dickens,*David Copperfield, 1850

A breeze that smells of car fumes washes over my face, and it's over, my daymare, my vision, my whatever-it-was, is over.
--*David Mitchell,*The Bone Clocks, 2014



Origin

Daymare is formed on the analogy of the much earlier noun nightmare (which dates from the 14th century). The element -mare in both words has nothing to do with mares, stallions, or horses: it comes from the Germanic noun marō “elf, goblin, incubus, succubus, nightmare,” appearing as mare, mære in Old English and Mahr and Nachtmahr “nightmare” in German. Daymare entered English in the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

THEINE noun (thee-een)

noun

1. caffeine, especially in tea.


Quotes

What we were drinking, so dark and aromatic, was a mixture of his: leaves of the Li-Cungo, those tiny ones that give an intense color and contain a high percentage of theine, mixed with some quality Niassa, very light and fragrant.
--*Antonio Tabucchi,*"Theatre," Letter from Casablanca, translated by Janice M. Thresher, 1986

... learn how to steep correctly; never boil tea; use a china or earthenware teapot; throw away the leaves after steeping, and never steep over eight minutes; after that time the theine or stimulating quality disappears and tannin predominates.
--*Letter to the Editor: "Green Teas and Black Teas," New York Times, August 13, 1908



Origin

Theine comes from New Latin the(a) “tea” and -ine, a noun suffix used particularly in chemical terms (bromine; chlorine), and especially in names of basic substances (amine; caffeine). It entered English in the 1830s.

[Altobelli]

BANAUSIC adjective (buh-naw-sik)

adjective
1. serving utilitarian purposes only; mechanical; practical: architecture that was more banausic than inspired.


Quotes

He was too worldly-wise--what we used to call 'banausic'--too bent on getting on.
--*John Buchan,*"'Tendebant Manus': Sir Arthur Warcliff's Story,"The Runagates Club, 1928

Athenians called work of this sort 'banausic' or 'mechanical,' a word suggestive of servility and stultification. "We call those arts mechanical which tend to deform the body," wrote Aristotle, "and likewise all paid employments, for they absorb and degrade the mind."
--*Edward Skidelsky,*"Are people frightened of leisure time?" The Guardian, September 10, 2013



Origin

Less than 40 percent of ancient Greek vocabulary has a recognizable Indo-European etymology; 8 percent of ancient Greek vocabulary is definitely of non-Greek origin; and the remaining 52 percent of ancient Greek vocabulary has no known etymology. Among the unknowns is the Greek noun baûnos “furnace” and its derivative noun bánausos a kind of craftsman or artisan or mechanic and the adjective banausikós “pertaining to artisans.” Banausic entered English in the 19th century.

[Altobelli]

COMSTOCKERY noun (kuhm-stok-uh-ree)


noun

1. overzealous moral censorship of the fine arts and literature, often mistaking outspokenly honest works for salacious ones.


Quotes

... to boycott an author because of a brutality of expression is an act of retaliation so out of proportion with the gravity of the offense that it can be viewed only with indignation by the hot-headed and with a smile by those who have heard of what George Bernard Shaw was pleased to call, I believe, "American Comstockery."
--*Eugene P. Metour,*Letter to the Editor: "More 'American Comstockery,'" New York Times, February 11, 1906

Indeed, l'affaire Doubleday would become, through the 1920s, a rallying point for opponents of puritanism and comstockery in American letters.
--*James L. W. West III,*"The Composition and Publication of Jennie Gerhardt," in Jennie Gerhardt (1911) by Theodore Dreiser, 1992



Origin

Anthony Comstock (1844-1915) was a reformer of American public morals and a U.S. postal inspector who was stoutly defended by church-based groups and loudly denounced by civil liberties organizations. In 1873 he founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. That same year Comstock was also responsible for passage of the federal “Comstock Law,” which criminalized the use of the U.S. Postal Service to send erotica, contraceptives, and *** toys. Comstock’s many victims included George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), the Russian-born American anarchist Emma Goldman (1869-1940), and the nurse and *** educator Margaret Sanger (1879-1966). Comstockery appeared in an editorial in The New York Times in December 1895.