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Category Archives: Words

And now for somewhere completely different

Friday, February 29, 2008

 The Financial Times has great story about that profoundly strange and beautiful country, Japan:
In Japan, the trees are blue. So are the traffic lights, even though they look decidedly green to uninitiated outsiders. The Japanese do have a word for green, but when it comes to foliage and traffic signals, blue is the preferred term.
Blue [...]

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Refugee Bag

Monday, June 12, 2006

refugee bag: refugee bag n. a cheaply made sack of woven nylon fibers, usually with a squarish shape, handles, and a striped, plaid, or checked appearance.

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Deus ex Machine

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Only today did I learned the correct meaning of Deus Ex Machine.
My entire life I have confused it with the phrase “Ghost in the Machine”, the title of Arthur Koestler’s famous book about evolution.
According to Wikipedia, Koestler borrowed the phrase from “British philosopher Gilbert Ryle’s negative description of Rene Descartes‘ mind-body dualism.” 
“Ghost in [...]

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Saturday 17th of December means one thing only: Saturnalia!

Saturday, December 17, 2005

From the World Wide Words newsletter:

“The original Saturnalia was a Roman mid-winter festival held in the middle of December, starting on the 17th in the modern calendar (or the 25th in the Roman one). It lasted for seven days and was a period when excess was encouraged: the shops were closed, gambling was permitted, presents [...]

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Phrase: Dark tourism

Sunday, November 13, 2005

From World Wide Words: Dark tourism

This term has been around at least since 1996, when it appeared in a special issue of the International Journal of Heritage Studies; it gained wider public notice in 2000 through the publication of a book with the title Dark Tourism by Professors Malcolm Foley and John Lennon of Glasgow [...]

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Turkey City Lexicon

Monday, October 31, 2005

The Turkey City Lexicon is a dictionary of Sci-Fi literary terms. Superb.

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Autodidacticism

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

I was reminded of this word today and discovered a superb Wikipedia article on it -
Autodidacticism
Not merely self-taught.

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Muffin Top

Friday, August 5, 2005

  Muffin Top
Muffin top: that unsightly roll of flesh that spills over the waist of a pair of too-tight pants, like a muffin bursting out of the pan.
Also see:
Cankles: The area in affected female legs where the calf meets the foot in an abrupt, nontapering terminus.
Bunt: belly cunt; also known as “twat [...]

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Word of the Week: Chode

Saturday, July 2, 2005

Chode: An old imp.

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Word: Aporetic

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

aporetic
Main Entry: aporetic
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: tending to doubt
Example: The aporetic voice is that which expresses wonder and perplexity.
Etymology: from a Greek word meaning `to be at a loss’
Via Robotwisdom

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